Look what I got Today

Okay, Okay...
That may be a stinky title for this posting.

What I hope to do here is simply share some of the things from today's Mass.

We were running late today. So late that we wouldn't have made it to our church until 10 minutes into the last Mass. Knowing that, we went to the noon Mass at Mount St. Mary's Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg.

At Mass, Fr. Jack spoke of our need to discern when and what we do in life.

We need to have a holy fear of God. Ours should be a reverential love for our God. "Give Him your heart and let Him flow through you. Give God your essence, He will give you His presence."

It is never acceptable to do bad to accomplish good.
In Jesus' parable about the weeds in the wheat, the bad weeds were left to grow amidst the wheat for fear of destroying the wheat if the weeds were destroyed.

The way to the Kingdom is here. The planter, God, plants good on Earth. God has given us personal freedom. As the planter in the parable goes to sleep, God allows for bad; God allows for free choice. Unfortunately, within that field of free choice, the devil plants evil, the weeds of this world.

This is where the discernment comes into play.

We can't be impetuous and start yanking at things that seem disordered. Apostles of Christ may want to pull the weeds the devil has planted amid the field of good grain, but must realize that the Good Grower will sort things out in the end.

Yes, there are darknesses we can't remove.

Of course, on whatever level, we know aren't to participate in the darknesses. There are things with which only God can and should deal. Somethings must simply left in the hands of God. We must realize that we must never do bad to bring about good.

Father Jack ended his homily with the Serenity Prayer. Before he did so, he noted that he was giving us the whole prayer - generally, it is only the first part which people know.

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.
Amen.

After Mass, Fr. Jack and Fr. Reed gave Miraculous Medals to the children. The priests blessed the medals as the children held them.
If you look, you can see the medal the mother of this little one holds for him.

Once the medals were distributed, the Eucharist was placed on exposition.

Father Jack processed around the chapel with the Blessed Sacrament.
In particular, I love that this exposes children to adoration who might not otherwise have such interaction with our Lord. As our Eucharist Lord moved about the chapel, some heads were bowed, some eyes transfixed. Today, many of the pilgrims rushed forward to touch or kiss the monstrance.It may sound odd to hear that people "rushed forward" but it was done out of a reverent desire - and it wasn't a thundering herd sort of thing. Our Lord was passing by and they wanted to draw near.

After the procession, individuals in the congregation were able to come forward for a priestly blessing. Fr. Jack and Fr. Reed blessed the pilgrims with relics of St. John Neumann and St. Bernadette.