Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus

From the Office of Readings:

Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to the epistles of St. Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By chance the 12th and 13th chapters of the 1st epistle to the Corinthians caught my attention, and in the first section I read that not everyone can be an apostle, prophet or teacher, that the Church is composed of a variety of members, and that the eye cannot be the hand. Even with such an answer revealed before me, I was not satisfied and did not find peace.

I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found this encouraging theme: Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others. For the Apostle insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found peace of mind.

When I had looked upon the mystical body of the Church, I recognised myself in none of the members which St. Paul described, and what is more, I desired to distinguish myself more favourably within the whole body. Love appeared to me to be the hinge for my vocation. Indeed I knew that the Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body the necessary and more noble member was not lacking; I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I saw and realised that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.

Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.

Pope Visits Children's Hospital

From ABC News: Pope scares child who mistook him for doctor:

The Pope's white robes scared a young boy who mistook him for a doctor when he
visited a children's hospital on Friday.

The child began crying when
78-year-old Pope Benedict approached his bed in the cardiology ward of the
Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) hospital near the Vatican.

'It's the white,' a
nurse explained to the Pope. 'He can't take anymore of these white coats.'

Feast of St. Michael

And Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels (I'm partial to Michael though).

From The Office of Readings:

Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent, so that
his action and his name may make it clear that no one can do what God does by
his superior power. So also our ancient foe desired in his pride to be like God,
saying: I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of
heaven; I will be like the Most High. He will be allowed to remain in power
until the end of the world when he will be destroyed in the final punishment.
Then, he will fight with the archangel Michael, as we are told by John: A battle
was fought with Michael the archangel.

John Paul Gliding toward Beatification

Pope John Paul I that is...

From Ansa.IT:

Pope John Paul I, who died in 1978 after a reign of only 34 days, could be the next addition to the growing list of possible papal saints .

The beatification process for the Italian pontiff has moved swiftly ahead since its 2003 launch, the official in charge of the cause said in an interview marking the 27th anniversary of the pope's death .

RIP ''Road Less Traveled'' Author Dies at 69.

From Newsday.com: ''Road Less Traveled'' author dies at 69.:

Author M. Scott Peck, who wrote the best-seller 'The Road Less Traveled' and other novels, has died. He was 69.

Peck died Sunday at his home in Connecticut, longtime friend and Los Angeles publicist Michael Levine said. He had suffered from pancreatic and liver duct cancer.

More Catholic than the Pope?

The Pardoner's Tale: More Catholic than the Pope

Persecution?

I would like to turn this conversation once more to how one identifies themselves. If I ask a celibate his or her sexual orientation I expect them to say celibate not gay or heterosexual. St. Paul takes this a step further, saying that all of us should remember that we are Christ's and what we were before Christ was not who we really are...

The passage is well known and it deals with all of us not just one group:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts,
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

People who still identify themselves in one way perhaps haven't converted to Christianity (a problem that exists among Catholics who don't always see the connection between their faith and Jesus), no persectution---just truth in advertising as Amy said in her NY Times piece.

From Gay Men Ponder Impact of Proposal by Vatican - New York Times:

Gay priests say they are being scapegoated for crimes committed by pedophiles
and covered up by bishops who never faced any discipline. The interviews made
clear that they now had the strong sense of being persecuted by their own
church.

'I feel like a Jew in Berlin in the 1930's,' said a 48-year-old
gay priest who has spent 18 years in a religious order. He said he was
considering donning a pink triangle - the symbol used by the Nazis - and getting
heterosexual priests and members of the laity to wear the triangles as a
protest.