SecretAgentMan's Dossier

Prayers Are Answered

Al Kimel of the excellent Pontifications blog announces his intention to become a Catholic priest. I'm sure others (including, most assuredly, Rev. Kimel) prayed more and harder than I, a most slothful and niggardly creature, did. Still and all, prayers are answered.

It is now time for me to withdraw from the lists of controversy, enter into a spiritual posture of learning and docility, and submit my mind, heart, and soul to the teaching of our Lord through the Magisterium of his Church. It is time for me to abandon the private judgment of my Anglicanism and be reformed by the Catholic Faith in all of its fullness. As Newman wrote to Henry Maskell: "You must come to the Catholic Church to learn, to take on faith, her mode and peculiarities of worship, her ideas of devotion, etc. as well as her doctrine." This is now the task before me.

I've said before that Catholics spend far more time and energy explaining what Protestants lost in the Reformation than we do about what Roman Catholicism lost. Al Kimel's blog -- Al Kimel's writing, perspectives, and thoughts -- is/was a perfect example of that loss. I'm very happy to see one gem returned to the treasury; I hope the Church will be properly grateful for it.

As part of that gratitude, I suggest that we offer a spiritual bouquet. My parish Church does this with seminarians, deacons approaching ordination, novices, etc. A little congratulatory card is handed out before Mass. Parishioners fill out the blanks and leave the cards at the back of the Church to be collected and sent to the recipient. The blanks explain the parishioner's intention to offer spiritual sacrifices and good works, such as:

_____ Rosaries
_____ Hours before the Blessed Sacrament
_____ Litanies
_____ Sacrifices
_____ Novenas to _______________

So I'll fill out my card on line, right now, as follows:

__7__ Rosaries
__3___ Hours before the Blessed Sacrament
__3___ Litanies (of the saints)
_____ Sacrifices
_____ Novenas to _______________

Why not make out your own card and blog it? Or go to St. Blog's Parish Hall and post it there?