New Blog

If you wish to follow me I will be on my new blog "The Journey of a Gay Catholic" at www.gaycatholicjourney.blogspot.com

My Boyfriend Adam

Just though all my readers should know why I havent been posting.....this is my boyfriend Adam. I love him.
I dont want to hear anything rude. Not that I'm going to check the comments on this anyways.



To learn more about LGBT religious issues or other facts visit:
http://www.matthewshepard.org/
http://www.bigeasymcc.com/
http://www.mccchurch.org/

A Life of Prayer

I often speak of the vocation to Carmel as a vocation to prayer and love. But what is prayer? Many of us view prayer as asking God for what we want. We think that by asking God for something, we can change his mind. But this is not the case with prayer. God our Father dispenseses many graces to us daily, some of which we do not even notice. But, our good Lord often withholds certain graces from us until we ask for them. By doing this, our Lord is his own infinate wisdom, is teaching us to rely on him as children rely on their parents. By making us ask for our needs and wants, God humbles us and makes us more aware of our weak and sinful nature as humans. Only an infinatly merciful and loving God would do this for us and he does each and every day. Of course no prayer, no matter how beautiful or eloquent, or even humble and simple can match that prayer that isssued forth from the mouth of God himself incarnated in the flesh:

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our tresspasses,

as we forgive those who tresspass against us,

and lead us not into tempation,

but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

God in his all-knowing way, taught us this prayer because in it is contained everything that we can possibly ask or need of God. It shows our reliance on our good God. Should one fall into the temptation that he has found a prayer more beautiful or powerful than the Lord's Prayer, he will never become humble or truely be able to love with his whole heart.

Pax Christi!

Jude Graham

The Call of Carmel

I now know St. Therese's agony as she waited for her entrance into our glorious Carmel! I am 15, just at St. Therese was, and have already tried for a special dispensation, but the laws of the United States hold me back. Until that glorious day when I enter, I must content myself with prayer and spiritual reading of the Carmelites. I faithfully wear the habit of the carmelites ( The Brown Scapular ) in hopes that one day, I may be fully clothed as a carmelite!

Satan is much at work in my life right now. I see how terrified he is of losing a soul to the Blessed Mother and her Holy Order! The Carmelite Monastery that I wish to enter is of ancient observance, and very strict in their rule. As I read on their website and talked with Fr. Prior over the phone, I have learned that these monks abstain from meat. Being a good cajun that I am, my mind and heart shrank from the prospect of never being able to eat meat again, I was quickly snatched back by the Blessed Mother through the Holy Rosary, and I saw the great spiritual graces that I will recieve in Carmel compared to the small sacrifice I would be called to make.

I continue to ask for your prayers, as I pray for all the readers of this blog!

Pax Christi!

Jude Graham

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

I would like to express my EXTREME displeasure and anger with the BP and DeepWater Horizon Companies for their failure in cleanup and prevention of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While BP fails to make ANY headway in the cleanup of THEIR mistake, every church on the Gulf Coast is praying for a miracle. This spill will affect THOUSANDS of livelihoods, as well as destorying one of God's greatest gifts to our country. BP claims to be cleaning up the oil as we speak, but as soon as the camras are turned off, they are gone allowing the oil to seep into Louisiana's delicate and precious marshes and swamps.
I do congradulate my state government, and Governer Bobby Jindal for taking action immediatly, without the approval of the federal government. As locals, we realize the HUGE impact this would have on our enviroment and economy, unlike the federal government. Stick it to the man Louisiana!


God Bless!
Jude Graham

Divine Mercy Sunday

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday! The message of the Divine Mercy in it's current form was given to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in Poland at the begining of the 20th century. Our Lord appeared to St. Faustina many times during her short life to show her his mercy and compassion and ask her to spread devotion to his mercy at a time in the Church when God's wrath and justice was proclaimed from the pulpits. He asked her to spread this devotion in six distinct ways.

The first is the image of the Divine Mercy or the image of the Merciful savior that is posted above this blog. Jesus appeared to St. Faustina and told her, "Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory." (Diary, 47, 48)

He also gave St. Faustina an explination of the image of the Merciful Saviour, "The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross. Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him (299). By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works." (742).

The next form of devotion is the Feast of the Divine Mercy, which we celebrate on this second Sunday of Easter. Jesus told St. Faustina to tell her confessors to establish a feast of His mercy in the Church. After many prayers and sacrifices, this was accomplished in the Jubliee year of 2000, when Pope John Paul II declared the second Sunday of Easter "Divine Mercy Sunday" at the cannonization mass of St. Faustina.

The next form of devotion is the Hour of Great Mercy. Our Lord revealed to St. Faustina, "At three o’clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy. In this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion." (Diary, 1320).
As often as you hear the clock strike the third hour, immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it; invoke its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners; for at that moment mercy was opened wide for every soul. In this hour you can obtain everything for yourself and for others for the asking; it was the hour of grace for the whole world — mercy triumphed over justice." (1572)
.My daughter, try your best to make the Stations of the Cross in this hour, provided that your duties permit it; and if you are not able to make the Stations of the Cross, then at least step into the chapel for a moment and adore, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, My Heart, which is full of mercy; and should you be unable to step into the chapel, immerse yourself in prayer there where you happen to be, if only for a very brief instant." (1572)

Jesus also instructed St. Faustina how to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. You can find out how to pray the Chaplet here.

Lastly, Our Lord commanded St. Faustina to pray a novena of these Chaplets for various intentions starting on Good Friday and going until the Feast of Mercy. The Chaplet and the novena however may be said at any time during the year or day. It is encouraged however to pray the Chaplet at 3 o'clock as mentioned above.

To find out more about Devotion to the Divine Mercy, reading materials, and to find out how you can help spread the Devotion, please visit www.thedivinemercy.com

Pax Christi!

Jude Graham

ALLELUIA!!!!!

THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED!!! ALLELUIA!!! CHRIST THE KING IS RISEN!!! ALLELUIA!!!

Holy Thursday

"With the word “today”, the Church’s Liturgy wants us to give great inner attention to the mystery of this day, to the words in which it is expressed. We therefore seek to listen in a new way to the institution narrative, in the form in which the Church has formulated it, on the basis of Scripture and in contemplation of the Lord himself." -Pope Benedict XVI's Holy Thursday Homily 2009.

Today, we enter into the sacred mysteries of the Holy Triddium. This begins the most sacred and holy three days of the Church year, that commemorate the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood, as well as Christ's passion, death, and ressurection. But today, we focus on the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. At the Last Supper Christ instituted the Eucharist when:

On the night he was betrayed, he took bread and gave you thanks and praise. He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:

Take this, all of you, and eat it:
this is my body which will be given up for you.

When supper was ended, he took the cup. Again he gave you thanks and praise, gave the cup to his disciples, and said:

Take this, all of you, and drink from it:
this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me.

These are the words of institution from the third Eucharistic Prayer. By these words, under the apperence of bread and wine, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ become physically and tanigibly present on the altar.

Now I will let you reflect on the words of Pope Benedict XVI from last year's Holy Thursday Homily:

Having given thanks and praise, the Lord then breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples. Breaking the bread is the act of the father of the family who looks after his children and gives them what they need for life. But it is also the act of hospitality with which the stranger, the guest, is received within the family and is given a share in its life. Dividing (dividere), sharing (condividere) brings about unity. Through sharing, communion is created. In the broken bread, the Lord distributes himself. The gesture of breaking also alludes mysteriously to his death, to the love that extends even to death. He distributes himself, the true “bread for the life of the world” (cf. Jn 6:51). The nourishment that man needs in his deepest self is communion with God himself. Giving thanks and praise, Jesus transforms the bread, he no longer gives earthly bread, but communion with himself. This transformation, though, seeks to be the start of the transformation of the world – into a world of resurrection, a world of God. Yes, it is about transformation – of the new man and the new world that find their origin in the bread that is consecrated, transformed, transubstantiated.

We said that breaking the bread is an act of communion, an act of uniting through sharing. Thus, in the act itself, the intimate nature of the Eucharist is already indicated: it is agape, it is love made corporeal. In the word “agape”, the meanings of Eucharist and love intertwine. In Jesus’ act of breaking the bread, the love that is shared has attained its most radical form: Jesus allows himself to be broken as living bread. In the bread that is distributed, we recognize the mystery of the grain of wheat that dies, and so bears fruit. We recognize the new multiplication of the loaves, which derives from the dying of the grain of wheat and will continue until the end of the world. At the same time, we see that the Eucharist can never be just a liturgical action. It is complete only if the liturgical agape then becomes love in daily life. In Christian worship, the two things become one – experiencing the Lord’s love in the act of worship and fostering love for one’s neighbour. At this hour, we ask the Lord for the grace to learn to live the mystery of the Eucharist ever more deeply, in such a way that the transformation of the world can begin to take place.

After the bread, Jesus takes the chalice of wine. The Roman Canon describes the chalice which the Lord gives to his disciples as “praeclarus calix” (the glorious cup), thereby alluding to Psalm 23 [22], the Psalm which speaks of God as the Good Shepherd, the strong Shepherd. There we read these words: “You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes … My cup is overflowing” – calix praeclarus. The Roman Canon interprets this passage from the Psalm as a prophecy that is fulfilled in the Eucharist: yes, the Lord does indeed prepare a banquet for us in the midst of the threats of this world, and he gives us the glorious chalice – the chalice of great joy, of the true feast, for which we all long – the chalice filled with the wine of his love. The chalice signifies the wedding-feast: now the “hour” has come to which the wedding-feast of Cana had mysteriously alluded. Yes indeed, the Eucharist is more than a meal, it is a wedding-feast. And this wedding is rooted in God’s gift of himself even to death. In the words of Jesus at the Last Supper and in the Church’s Canon, the solemn mystery of the wedding is concealed under the expression “novum Testamentum”. This chalice is the new Testament – “the new Covenant in my blood”, as Saint Paul presents the words of Jesus over the chalice in today’s second reading (1 Cor 11:25). The Roman Canon adds: “of the new and everlasting covenant”, in order to express the indissolubility of God’s nuptial bond with humanity. The reason why older translations of the Bible do not say Covenant, but Testament, lies in the fact that this is no mere contract between two parties on the same level, but it brings into play the infinite distance between God and man. What we call the new and the ancient Covenant is not an agreement between two equal parties, but simply the gift of God who bequeaths to us his love – himself. Certainly, through this gift of his love, he transcends all distance and makes us truly his “partners” – the nuptial mystery of love is accomplished.

Pax Christi!

Jude Graham