A View For Morning Prayer

I had the opportunity to say Morning Prayer outdoors. I had a wonderful view of the NYC skyline with the sun breaking through. This picture was taken from the veteran's memorial park in West New York, NJ. It overlooks the Hudson and as you can see the NYC skyline. It is quiet in this area in the morning, mostly people walking their dogs before they go to work and joggers. I've been working in Manhattan for the last five months and it comes to an end January 1st. I will be working back in my old territory of Hudson and Bergen counties; I hope. I had a great time in prayer and wanted to share the view with the D6 Crew.

Our New Year's Resolutions

It is that time again when we take some time to reflect and take stock on our accomplishments and failures over the past year. Also to again make resolutions for the coming year. We think of things like: weight loss, exercising, do more work, do less work, and so on. Well the Church puts a beautiful Feast day right at the end of the calendar year; The Feast of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph). I believe we should use this wonderful feast day to take stock of how we strengthened the christian family unit and our church family unit over the past year. Secondly we should use it as the core of our resolutions for the new year.



Lets make a resolution to strive to be Christ like in this hardened world. To form and strengthen the family unit and to strengthen and expand our church family unit. We look at the world and see no world peace, hunger in every country, and the abuse and lack of dignity of the human person. We see these things and say I'll never make a difference and the world will never change. We maybe right looking at the world on such a large scale. One thing I know we can change is ourselves. Our relationship with God and his boundless love for us enables us to better our lives and the lives of our family. Striving to be Christ like in every thing we do will change us for the better. It will have a positive effect on those around us and eventually God's love working through us can change the world. It starts with the family unit. In Luke's Gospel (2.39-40) When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him.



Though God's favor was upon him, it was his parents that had the responsibility to teach him the things of this world. As it is our responsibility to teach our children and those around us of God's love for us in this world. We do this with love. Like the song states "They will know we are Christians by our love by our love yes they will know we are Christians by our love".

By using the example of the Holy Family we can form a resolution of being more Christ like. How can we do it? I will give you five areas that you can use to form concrete resolutions for the upcoming years: 1. Be in the presence of God. Keep God in the forefront of whatever you do. 2. An absence of criticism. With the lack of criticism you can provide love to your fellow man no matter what the faults. 3. Absence of complaint. With a lack of complaining you can focus more on the positives and the beauty that is this world. Being of service. Coming straight from the Beatitudes, what you have done for the least of my brothers you have done for me. 5. Be a peacemaker. Always strive to being people and societies together.

May God bless us in this new year, keep our families safe from harm and may his endless love bring us closer to Him.

ITunes Prayer Book

Vatican says 'amen' to iTunes prayer book
iBreviary, created by a priest, has been downloaded 10,000 times in Italy

Pier Paolo Cito / AP
Father Paolo Padrini holds up his iBreviary, a digital version of the breviary. Father Padrini, a 35-year-old techno-priest made a digital version of the Breviary, the book of daily prayers that is now available as a download in the iTunes store.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is endorsing new technology that brings the book of daily prayers used by priests straight onto iPhones. The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications is embracing the iBreviary, an iTunes application created by a technologically savvy Italian priest, the Rev. Paolo Padrini, and an Italian Web designer. The application includes the Breviary prayer book — in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Latin and, in the near future, Portuguese and German. Another section includes the prayers of the daily Mass, and a third contains various other prayers. After a free trial period in which the iBreviary was downloaded approximately 10,000 times in Italy, an official version was released earlier this month, Padrini said.

The application costs euro0.79 ($1.10), while upgrades will be free. Padrini's proceeds are going to charity. Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications, praised the new application Monday, saying the Church "is learning to use the new technologies primarily as a tool or as a means of evangelizing, as a way of being able to share its own message with the world."

Pope Benedict XVI, a classical music lover who was reportedly given an iPod in 2006, has sought to reach out to young people through new media. During last summer's World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, he sent out mobile phone text messages citing scripture to thousands of registered pilgrims — signed with the tagline "BXVI."

The Catholic Deacon

By Deacon Keith Fournier2/13/2008
Catholic Online (http://www.catholic.org/)
A Deacon is ordained to the first rank of sacred orders, not to the priesthood or the episcopacy. He is no longer a layman, but a member of the clergy.


LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The role of what is called the "permanent” diaconate is all too often misunderstood. The Catholic Church restored this sacred order as a permanent way of serving the Church (and not just a transitional order for men on the way to priesthood) in the Latin Rite well over 40 years ago. This was accomplished by an act of Pope Paul VI who decided in 1967 to restore the diaconate as a permanent rank of clergy for the Church in the West.The Diaconate as an order of Clergy has been a part of the Eastern Church from apostolic times without interruprion. In October 1968, the Holy See approved the organization of the Diaconate in America for the Roman catholic Church. In 1998, the Vatican released two important documents to dispel some of the persistent misunderstandings and confusion and to open up an understanding of deacons as both “sacred ministers” and “members of the hierarchy.” These documents were issued on 22 February, 1998; the Feast of the Chair of Peter. This feast has long been an occasion to honor all the Church's clergy since the first century. It was an appropriate occasion to issue statements regarding the formation and work of permanent deacons, since they are such an important part of the clergy; participating in its missionary and pastoral service. The extensive documents, "The Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons" and "The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons," were ordered and approved by Pope John Paul II. They are a part of the Church's magisterial teaching. They were generally well received by deacons, priests, bishops and the lay faithful and have helped to promote a better understanding of the role of permanent deacons in the Church in this Third Millennium of Christianity. To read this full article please follow the link below.

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=26824

D6Crew Brew

The crew journeys each week out to the Diocesan Pastoral Center for our Aspirant Year classes. It quickly became a routine to stop at a WAWA store for coffee during our trip. Lou started experimenting with the different coffee flavors and the rest followed until we came up with our own blend. It starts out with a 1/4 cup of your favorite regular or decaf coffee. Now we all drink out of different size cups, so we obviously had to label them. The 12 oz cups are for lightweights, 16 oz cups you had a good day, and the 20 oz and above is what a day I will need this to make it through class. Once you have filled your cup 1/4 of the way you then go to the flovored coffee dispensing machine and get a shot of each flavor. Stir glently and drink. By the time we are at class we are wide eyed and ready to go.