ADVENT PROPHETS NOT PROFITS

My wife, my daughter and I were out Christmas shopping yesterday afternoon. All the Malls have beautiful Christmas decorations. There is a hive of activity in the shops. The cash registers are ringing and everyone is buzzing.

As we looked around, we were flabbergasted at the cost of the products on offer. Toys are ridiculously expensive. Retailers are reaping the profits on material goods that will probably be lost, broken or abandoned in a few short months.

The very first Christmas had prophets! Nowadays Christmas is all about profits! I’m not saying “don’t go shopping” or “don’t spend your own money” What I am saying is that beside all the gifts under your tree this year, leave a space for the gift that God gives to us all.

Be a prophet for our time and prepare in your heart and your home a space for the Lord. That’s the only profit worth benefiting from.

TGIM- Thank God its Monday!

Thank God its Monday!

I don’t know about you but my weekends are pretty full on. Its starts off with Mass at 8am on Saturday then we clean the Church afterwards. On Saturday afternoons/evenings there’s always a function happening at Church or with family and friends. On Sunday we have two Masses one at 9am and the other at 11am. My wife and I are often doing something at either Mass so we usually are both present at both Masses. Then two Sunday afternoons out of four we have our Senior Youth Group gatherings. The other two Sunday’s my wife and I are on committees that meet on those days. And so, come Monday we’re pretty exhausted!

I arrive at my office on Monday mornings and just sit a bit and answer emails. I’m luckier than most people in the world because my office is right next to our Church and so I can just scoot over there and spend a few minutes with the Lord and offer up my thoughts, my goals for the week, my struggles and my joys. Whenever the photocopier breaks down or an issue just keeps bugging me. Guess what I do!

Now you may not be able to get to a chapel or church quite so easily but that doesn’t mean you can’t stop and spend just a minute catching up with an old friend. Your week will be more enjoyable if you do.

So don’t just thank God for Monday’s and Friday’s – TGFT “Thank God for Today” – it’s a gift; that is why it’s called ‘the present’ hehe….

Fr Stan...the rapper

Blog 6 12 07:
Hey!!! The Christchurch Diocese had a great youth mass on Sunday evening, and afterwards the fifteen minutes of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament provided us all with an opportunity to stop and just adore Jesus. Hopefully we can all realise the importance of adoration and the enormous benefits and graces that God can give us when we stop our lives to spend time with him.

Click here to check out this video of Fr Stan Fortuna CFR, who is a priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in America and recently did a tour through Australia to generate enthusiasm for WYD. He will be at WYD08, and I know a few people who are already looking forward to seeing him perform!! I count myself among them.

Check out his website by clicking here.

Here are the lyrics of the chorus, and click here to go to see the rest of them:

School of the Eucharist
Refrain
At this school when I sit
even just a little bit
I get hit with the power
that made the veil in the temple split
when I submit
fall on the floor and adore
can’t get enough
got to come back for sa-more
every prostitute and sinner
every fool and hypocrite
can benefit in this school
repent and commit
as the incense rises up
in adoration of the throne
somethin happens
to my wounded heart
from all the love revealed and shown
bright light Shekina
comes to my aid to assist
to change and sustain
the way I think and exist
to feel the bliss because my name
is in the book of life’s list
that’s what happens when you sit
in the school of the Eucharist

I challenge you to make time to attend the School of the Eucharist!