Who Do You Think You Are?

 Do you have any idea how insulting this question is?  "Who do you think you are?"  

It assumes that you were presuming to be someone you have no right to be.  

Maybe you wrote something and were just expressing your opinion?  Maybe you were trying to help?  

"Just who do you think you are?"

This is a good example of "Who do you think you are?"  Kneeling is Father Ernesto Cardenal. Pope John Paul II is scolding Cardenal for his political actions.  Cardenal was a cabinet minister.  JPII took away Cardenal's faculties as a priest.  He also took away the faculties of other priests, who were in the government.  These priests felt they were acting as Jesus would by caring for the people.  The pope disagreed.  

      Before Ernesto Cardenal died, his priestly faculties were reinstated and   Cardenal was able to celebrate Mass, once again.

This picture is taken from America magazine, 1983.

Sister Letizia or Sister Rita

 Watch this video and see if you understand who grabbed the arm of the man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II. Sister Letizia Giudici was standing next to the gun man, but she said it wasn't her.  

Then why even mention her?  The credit goes to Sister Cristina Rita Montella, who had supernatural gifts and could bilocate.  Watch and discern.

People Need to Be Close to their Pastor

WYD 2016: Source of Hope: When Bishop Barron arrived in Kraków for the 2016 World Youth Day, he was pretty exhausted, having left Los Angeles some fifteen hours earlier and having had to change planes in Munich. But he was excited to meet the very same group of people, (in the photo) that Pope John Paul II had ministered to--as a parish priest--as a pastor--as a bishop--as an archbishop--as a cardinal-- and YES, even as a pope.  He still kept in touch with them and met with them consistently, yearly, until he died.  Read the article, click on the link.

Personally, I don't know a single parish priest that comes close.  Although, I do know some religious order priests that keep in touch with their friends, like JPII.  Why?

Once, when I was in the abbey, alone in prayer, I was asking God for inspiration.  I needed a speaker for a women's club.  I listened for an answer.  I heard the door open.  I looked up and saw my favorite parish priest walk in.  THANK YOU JESUS!

We smiled at each other and I approached him and told him that I was praying for a speaker and he walked in--the answer to my prayers.  He was in my parish last year and was transferred, so I knew everyone would enjoy seeing him again.  He sadly told me it was against the rules to associate with former parishioners.

??????  I'm not sure that's exactly true, but have you ever heard anything so wrongheaded?  Thank God for priests like Karol Wojtyla.  

Laetamur Magnopere

Don't ask me why, but in helping the catechumens make up a Catholic trivia game, I happened to be using the glossary in the back of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  I flipped to the front of the book and read the Apostolic Letter in which the edition of the catechism I was using was approved.
It is called Laetamur Magnopere, written by Pope John Paul II.

I read it.  That's what I meant by my opening statement: "Don't ask me why?"

I just love our Catholic Church.  It is so rich in teaching, history, spiritual  and spiritual exegisis.  There's no end to what you can learn.  I am just amazed how everything relates to each other.

In Laetamur Magnopere I learned that in 1993, Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to preside over an Interdicasterial Commission to prepare a revised version of the first catechism.  Do you know who this Cardinal is?  He became pope--Pope Benedict XVI.

I was also surprised that in 1997, the year Laetamur Magnopere was written, Pope John Paul II wrote, "...an extraordinary commitment to evangelization is urgently needed so that everyone can know and receive the Gospel message and thus grow...".  Evangelization, evangelization, evangelization, and evangelization!  That's today's rallying cry.  And this was three popes ago!

There's another document after Laetamur Magnopere in this edition of the catechism.  What will I learn from this one?  Stay tuned.

Last Wishes

 Everyone seems upset that Pope John Paul II's last wishes weren't kept.  I'm not.  I think the Pope's secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz  did what he felt best.  He is not making money; he's giving the proceeds from the sale of the book away.  He is saving the Pope's papers for the world to read.

Look at it this way.  Last wishes and just that--wishes.  If Pope John Paul II wanted his papers destroyed, he would have done it himself, before he died.  I did.  I've burned my personal journals and diaries.

It was easy.

Arc of St. Dominic

One can never know what will happen when you die.  St. Dominic was a very humble man.  His explicit directions when he was dying was to bury him on the path where his brothers would walk over him.  Did you ever see the marker that indicates his grave?  He who wanted no marker except to be trampled upon, has a monument.  It took centuries to finish.  Renowned artists, including
Michael Angelo, added to it.  It is so huge, it is called the Arc of St. Dominic.

Bl. Pere Marie Jean-Joseph Lataste, O.P.'s grave was moved three times!

Tomb of Father Lataste

Last wishes are just "hopes."  My poor brother wanted his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.  Well, the Department of Environmental Protection had something to say about that.  We upgraded his "wishes" and had his ashes buried with our parents in consecrated ground.

I think people try to honor the loved one's wishes.  But you can't always get what you want when you're living, so don't expect it when you die.