What do you want to do with your life? A meeting with my spiritual director last week brought about a series of internal conversations which lead me to ask myself the simple question, "What do you want to do with your life?"
This is, of course, in the family of questions that people have pondered over for thousands of years, and I was surprised when there was a ready, semi-articulate answer which came popping right out of my head. We are all born holy, given this by the sacrifice of the Christ going to the cross and the redemption that His death brings to all of us. We sometimes spend our lives looking for the purpose or for a meaning, and those things can take many shapes. The answer which came to me this afternoon was to fulfill that legacy of holiness at all times and to the best of our ability, regardless of the shape our life has taken. Once we begin to operate with this intention as a motivating force we will be driven closer to Christ and closer to the holy state that He desires for us all.
Copyright©2005 jdwarrick

Year 2: White book. Black book. Blue book.

	Every year at this time I have a little ritual surrounding the conclusion of my reading the last entry in my little white book when I offer a short prayer of thanks and place the book in a special place for safekeeping (yes, I actually have gone back to them to look up information or a quote!).
With a blue book for Advent and Christmas, a black book for Lent and a white book for the Easter season, it seems like my ending of one year and starting of the next are reflected through the writings in these little gems. It also seems hard to believe that it has been almost a year since I put the last white book away (see 2004's White book. Black book. Blue book). Which means that it has been nearly a year since the author of the books, Bishop Ken Untener, entered the house of our heavenly Father. Catherine Haven and the folks at the Diocese of Saginaw did a great job keeping the tone of these books for this year, and my hat is off to them all! If you have not had the opportunity to enjoy these books containing little six minute reflections and a short Gospel reading, then you should definitely make the effort to contact these folks and line up copies for your Parish. They can be reached on the web at www.dioceseofsaginaw.com. At the end of the 2005 white book, Bishop Untener (and/or the staff at the Saginaw Diocese) remind us that these books are not meant to teach us scripture, but are intended to help us "be with God and let God speak to us", and that "we listen, and we speak to God". Six minutes every day. Not a lot to ask for an easy way to get closer to our Father. My question to the folks in Saginaw is: when will we see little green books for the rest of the year?
Copyright©2005 jdwarrick

Dialogue With Buddhists Must Continue, Says Vatican

Zenit News Services today distributed a news release from the Vatican:

VATICAN CITY, MAY 16, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The dramatic consequences of the tsunami, which hit Southeast Asia last December, are a further reason for cooperation between Buddhists and Christians, said a Vatican representative.

On the occasion of Vesakh, the most important Buddhist feast, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, sent a message to Buddhist faithful to assure them that Catholics pray for the victims of the disaster.

"Nowhere has the need for collaboration been felt more keenly than in the countries of South and Southeast Asia, which were affected by the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004," said the British prelate.

"This disaster elicited an outpouring of prayers, expressions of compassion and acts of generosity on a scale the world has rarely witnessed," he added.

"Buddhists and Christians have worked together hand in hand to help the victims; religious organizations have cooperated by bringing immediate relief and assessing future needs," he continued.

"The long-term requirements of reconstruction call, however, for a continuation of the interreligious expressions of solidarity," he stressed.

Archbishop Fitzgerald said that some families observe the feast of Vesakh, celebrated May 22, "missing some of their members."

"I wish to assure them that their loved ones will not be forgotten but will be remembered in our prayers," he said.

The dialogue launched 40 years ago in the Second Vatican Council's declaration "Nostra Aetate," "encourages us to share with one another in time of joy and sorrow," said the archbishop.