Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 2

France 9: Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral, Free Time, Farewell Dinner

Notre-Dame Cathedral! What we’ve all been waiting for, the crescendo of our pilgrimage.

Guided explanation outside the Cathedral, setting the spiritual and historical context for the pilgrimage visit inside with time to pray and admire the beauty of the restored cathedral of Paris.

At 12:00 we had a glorious Mass at the main altar with Fr. James Conlon concelebrating.

Free afternoon, then our exclusive Farewell Dinner. Fr.James blessed all of the religious items and everyone got to bed early for a departure for the USA tomorrow.

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8 France: Seine River Cruise, St Chappelle Bible Study in Glass

Walked to Mass at Notre Dame de Passy before boarding a boat for the famous Parisian “bateaux-mouches”, a scenic river cruise where we saw all of the most beautiful sites of Paris from the River Seine.

Our last morning stop was the exquisite Sainte Chapelle, a treasure in the center of Paris, built as a reliquary for the holy relics of the Crown of Thorns, acquired by King Louis IX (now located in Notre-Dame). Over 1000 biblical scenes in 1113 panels of stained glass.

Afternoon and evening was at leisure. Our folks scattered to explore, shop, eat in the City of Light. Some went to the famous Louvre Museum or the Eiffel Tower.

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Saving African Children from Trafficking

At the airport heading to France leading our “Saints & Shrines of France Pilgrimage “.

Saw a couple with two young boys from Africa. Their T-shirts quoted 1 Peter 4:10, “Serve one another with your gifts.“

I HAD to stop and compliment them. We should ALL be stopping fellow Catholics and other Christians to compliment them for standing out from the crowd to serve Our Lord.

They are working with trafficked children in Africa, helping free them and bring healing. One 13 year old already has 2 babies, having been sold around. So sad—but nice to encourage good folks in their good work.

Their website is www.685initiative.org if you want to support them.

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St. Luke’s Feast Day: Meet Luke, the Friend of Mary

Her face shone as she related the stories—the words were vibrant, and although she was older now, her memory was excellent.

He sat enraptured as she brought the past into living color. He had traveled a long way to see her, and he sat motionless, with furled brow, taking careful notes on his parchment. He spent hours asking questions and listening.

Mary’s stories seemed incredible, but Luke had been a Christian long enough to know the stories were true. He was compiling an orderly account for his Excellency Theophilus.

Luke’s Gospel stands third among the Gospels and is the only one written by a non-Jew; in fact, Luke is the only Gentile author in the New Testament.

He wrote a sequel to his gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, which is the first history of the fledgling Church, also addressed to Theophilus, who was probably a governmental dignitary.

Luke and Acts together span the initial sixty years of the first century. Luke was a physician by trade from Antioch in Syria, and he often accompanied Paul on his apostolic journeys (Col 4:14; Philem 24) and was loyal to him until the end (2 Tim 4:11).

The gentle physician interviewed Mary and other eyewitnesses because he “did not see the Lord in His flesh” himself and was therefore compiling an account; some of the most unique stories could have come only from Mary.

Luke’s purpose was to collect the many stories and historical events from various sources and compile them into a convincing and orderly account, so that everyone would believe in Jesus as the Savior of the world.

Mark’s gospel was a primary source for Luke. Of Luke’s 1149 verses, about 320 are from Mark’s gospel. Luke’s Gospel is the longest book in the New Testament. The date of his writing was around AD 62, probably while caring for Paul under house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:16, 30). …

For the rest of the account, all you need to know about St. Luke, click HERE.

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My Free St. Paul Timeline and Info on our St. Paul Cruise

Since many people are unfamiliar with the life and timeline of St. Paul and his epistles, I am posting my St. Paul Timeline so everyone can get the big picture.  Feel free to print and use for personal use.

When I was teaching my series on the Acts of the Apostles (see the audio CDs here), I decided to create this Timeline for my own use, to help me keep track of his life, his journeys, and writings all in order.

Additionally, if you’d like to learn more about Paul, you can purchase my detailed documentary, filmed on location in six countries, entitled “Paul, Contending for the Faith.” It comes with a comprehensive study guide. I also have several talks on St. Paul, which you can see here.

 

 

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“The Longest Day” in Prep for our own landing on Beaches of Normandy!

This week Janet and I are leaving for Paris France. Our group will follow us a few days later where we will be touring the Saints and Shrines of France. We will also be visiting Normandy where D-Day took place 81 years ago on June 6, 1944.

I will be posting daily YouTube videos so you can join us virtually

Today we are watching that spectacular movie entitled “The Longest Day” which chronicles this spectacular  battle of the Allied Forces against the Nazis.

Amazing that we will be there in person again on the very beaches where our men fought and died before we go to the cemetery to honor them. Makes me proud to be an American!

One scene that was especially moving was when the priest lost his Mass Kit in the river after he parachuted in. He kept diving into the river and would not leave until he found his kit it under the water.

If you haven’t seen this movie and appreciated what our country did in those dark days, I highly recommend you watch the movie. You can rent it at Amazon movies or iTunes for $3.99. I think every big star in Hollywood at the time is in this movie.

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Two Fun Things from this Sunday’s OT Mass Reading

Two fun things in Sunday’s Old Testament readings, 1) Naaman’s skin is restored like that of a little child; and 2) he takes a load of dirt back to Syria.

A reading from 2 Kings 5:14-17:
“Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of Elisha, the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean of his leprosy.
Naaman returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before Elisha and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant.”
Elisha replied, “As the Lord lives whom I serve, I will not take it”; and despite Naaman’s urging, he still refused.
Naaman said: “If you will not accept, please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth, for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the Lord.”
The word of the Lord.

This dipping in the Jordan River is a prefiguring of water baptism—dipping in the Jordan for cleansing. And what do we hear about water baptism from Jesus? After he had gone into the Jordan River—into the water when the Spirit came down, he talked to Nicodemus about being born again.

It is the way we become born again—water and Spirit—and when we’re born again, we’re like a newborn child. That’s why Naaman’s dipping in the Jordan River is a prefiguring of water baptism. That’s why it’s interesting. Naaman’s flesh became like that of a newborn baby, as it symbolizes the new birth we receive through water baptism, which will come with the New Covenant.

John 3:3–5: “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.“

And the dirt? Here we see the biblical view of holy ground. Naaman will take two mule’s load of land; rather dirt, from Israel back home to Syria. He asked for permission to take two mule loads of dirt home with him.

From this point on, Naaman will spread that dirt out on teh ground where he worships, and he will stand on the holy ground of the Lord to worship. YHWH is the only God of all the earth and on his earth Naaman will worship.

One of the interesting first mentions of “holy ground”. Also it can be seen as a precursor to holy relics.

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Cracked me up! Opposum

Since we have a lot of opossums around our house, I particularly enjoyed this one.

This cracked me up.

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Why Bird Watching? Lovely Article and a Hobby of ours from Childhood

When I was six years old, my dad moved us out of Detroit to live in the country. He turned three acres of fields into a paradise. Simple house, animals in the back, baseball diamond in the front. He wanted to raise us in nature and to enjoy the simple things.

One passion my dad passed on to me was a love for birds. Bird feeders of every sort surrounded our house. Hummingbirds came for the sugar water, cardinals and bluejays for the sunflower seeds, and lots of bugs flying around for the bluebirds. It seemed all the birds came to our yard.

Here are a few page from my bird book when I was about 13 years old. I kept track of the birds we saw. The love of bird watching never left me, and I married a girl who shared the joy with me. It is a hobby you can enjoy anywhere with little to no expense, except for a book and a pair of binoculars.

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It has been a fun hobby for our family and now even some of our grandkids. I have always thought that God gets great delight watching his hummingbirds hover over a flower with wings beating at 70 beats a second. Or the eagle soaring above the earth with seemingly no effort at all.

Recently there was a delightful article about bird watching entitled “Praying with the Birds” written by the clever author Miss Rachel Shrader. Click on the image below to read this fun and instructive article. Then go buy a pair of binoculars and a good bird book and get started yourself.

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“I am a pro-choice Catholic”

So says Senator Durbin who is being honored by Cardinal Cupich.

The Catholic Thing this morning has a good article on this, whether you are new to the situation or well versed in this abomination. It begins,

So, Cardinal Cupich has decided to honor pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin. The chancery office says that they are honoring him for things other than his support for abortion, but that’s like honoring Bill Cosby for the wonderful things he did other than his mistreatment of women. No one would accept that. The obvious conclusion would be that you just don’t care about the mistreatment of women – or at least not as much as you should.

But there should be no real mystery about what the Cardinal has done. He is like the unfaithful steward in Luke 16 who, realizing that he is soon to be out of a job, does some favors for his master’s debtors to gain their favor after his dismissal.

You still want to be invited to the good parties and hang with the people with money and influence. And it’s another good example of “synodality.” You don’t really need to talk to anyone else; you don’t consult or even listen to anyone else, even your fellow bishops; you just command what you, the imperious cleric, desire.”

To read the whole article, click HERE.

It is said, “Follow the money.” I think here we can say, “Follow Cupich following the money.”

Read more from Christine Niles on X

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