For the past several weeks, I have been working on a personal goal, which is to trim down some of my weight. While I do not consider myself excessively overweight, I realized that I have a need to live a healthier lifestyle and to do some things that would improve my overall quality of life. By the same token, it would also enable me to be a more effective servant.

Last month’s article told the story of how the Order of Deacon was restored as a permanent order in the Latin Church hierarchy. This article explores the changes that have taken place during the 50 years and all that had to be done once the Vatican Council voted to restore the Permanent Diaconate in Lumen Gentium.

The year 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the diaconate as a full and permanent order in the Universal Church. In 2018, the diaconate will observe 50 years in the United States. It is interesting to look at these two dates in conjunction with this restoration of the diaconate as a permanent Order in the Church.

I lost my mother unexpectedly last November, after having lost my father after a long illness eight years earlier. My siblings and I suddenly found ourselves “orphans” as we marked our first Thanksgiving and Christmas without either of our parents. Now we are anticipating our first Mother’s Day without mom. 

Prior to the invention of the printing press, the process of copying a Bible was time consuming and labor intensive. Bibles were expensive. Usually only a parish church had one. Critics claim that the Church chained the Bible in the church so that the faithful could not read it. The opposite was true, the Bible was chained inside the church so that people could come in and read it, and to keep people from taking it.

Many of our non-Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ ask why Catholics teach and practice certain things that are not in the Bible. They wonder why Catholics place so much emphasis on Tradition. It is important that they consider what the early Church—the Catholic Church—practiced before it organized the works of the apostles into the New Testament and the Bible.

Many years ago when I was a student in college, I was meeting with my spiritual director, who was a wise and learned Benedictine monk. I expressed to him that I was getting so excited about my faith and because of this I had been getting involved in all kinds of study groups, church groups, charity organizations and community activities. I told him how from the time I got home until late into the night, I could not stop reading Scripture, works of theology, the saints and Church history and that these just filled my heart and soul with love for the faith.

By our baptism, we are all called to evangelize. Our faith is not something we keep to ourselves. It is to be shared and spread. We do not have to go far away to evangelize. The “periphery” that Pope Francis refers to is nearby. There is much to be done in our own communities. The people we evangelize can be believers and non-believers alike. We can find them close to home.

It has been said that St. Thomas Aquinas taught that God sought in the Eucharist, “not the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into Jesus’ body and blood, but the transformation of ourselves into Jesus’ presence.”

Pastoral care in prisons is a difficult ministry. My initial response to the invitation to work with prisoners was negative. A year ago, I reluctantly started to celebrate Mass for prisoners in four prisons in Beeville. I thought it would be temporary. These maximum-security state prisons hold more than 7,000 inmates. When I started to interact with them, I realized the importance of this ministry.

"Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you.” Sad to say, far too many people work as if everything does depend on them. You may even know a few of them—those who cannot delegate responsibility or whose dependability is compulsive.

Jesus said, “Knock and the door will be opened to you.” During this Jubilee Year of Mercy, Catholics the world over have been given the graced opportunity to do just that. One of the ways we can take advantage of this year is to take part in a pilgrimage. Some people may be able to travel to various sacred sites such as the Holy Land or to Rome. However, others may not be able to. Below are some suggestions for making a local pilgrimage.

The Pax Christi Sisters were founded by Mother Teresa Santoyo in 1969 in the Diocese of Corpus Christi. Our apostolate, as that of all religious, consists primarily in the witness of our consecrated lives. The charism entrusted to Mother Teresa Santoyo is to serve as an enabling instrument of peace which leads each member in the pursuit of the attainment of perfect love, oneness with God.

Holy Mother Church never tires of inviting us, never ceases to urge us to receive holy Communion frequently, yes, even daily. And she encourages us, whenever we assist at the holy sacrifice of the Mass, to receive the body and blood of Christ with the priest, not only spiritually, by way of desire, but actually, by the sacramental participation of the sacred species. The divine heart of Jesus burns with desire to communicate himself to those who assist to the holy sacrifice of the Mass. “Take and eat,” he says, “this is my body (Mt. 26:26).”

The final event of the Mass is the Communion Rite. The Eucharist celebration is the paschal meal and the faithful who are properly disposed are invited to receive the Lord’s body and blood as he commanded. We begin with the Lord’s Prayer.

Paul addresses his “Letter to Titus” to a co-worker. In the New Testament, there is only one letter to Titus who is charged with developing the Church on the island of Crete, an island where Paul had never ministered. Titus’ ministry, then, is to a large extent, independent of that of Paul, although, of course, both are based on Scripture and Church teaching.

The eucharistic prayer is the very heart of the Mass, the center and summit of the entire celebration.

In the many New Testament Pauline letters, some are shorter than others. In the liturgical readings at Mass, we hear sections of the longer letters read frequently. Less frequently do we come in contact with the shorter letters; however, they too contain wise teachings.

We now arrive at the part of the Mass called the Liturgy of the Word. We will listen attentively as a reader proclaims the Scripture to us from the ambo.