The Holy Father’s prayer intentions for August are:
General intention: “That parents and teachers may help the new generation to grow in upright conscience and life.”
Mission intention: “That the local Church in Africa, faithfully proclaiming the Gospel, may promote peace and justice.”
Thank you, Lord, for the many ways You teach us and encourage us through Holy Scripture.
“I love praying the Rosary. It always has given me peace whenever I have recited it, and my family prays the Sorrowful Mysteries together each Lent. However, the person who had the greatest devotion to the Rosary in my family was my Protestant Uncle Ralph.
“When I was growing up my family lived next door to Uncle Ralph and his family. Uncle Ralph was my favorite uncle. He always had a sense of fun, loved to shoot the breeze with kids and did a hilarious Donald Duck imitation. My Dad’s family were all Protestant; my brother and I were Catholic because my Dad had married my Catholic Mom, so I was surprised one day during my teen years when Uncle Ralph pulled out his rosary and told me how he came to always carry it.”
In a recent post, Donald R. McClarey reflected on the the introduction of his uncle to the Rosary as he was preparing for deployment with the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
To access his complete post, please visit:
The American Catholic: Uncle Ralph, the Rosary and the Korean War (28 JUL 13)
“Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but doesn’t get you anywhere.” – Source Unknown
In 1986, Pope John Paul II made a papal visit to Australia. This video captures one moment from that visit:
Thank you, Deacon Greg Kandra, for the tip
Providence Business News recently held its 9th annual 40 Under Forty awards celebration at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI. One of the recipients, I am pleased to announce, was son Tom, proprietor of LOPCO Contracting.
The 40 Under Forty program is designed to identify young business executives or entrepreneurs who have exhibited great career success and who also give back to the community in significant ways.
Congratulations, Tom!!!
To access a Providence Business News report on this event, please visit:
Providence Business News: 40 Under Forty celebrate Rhode Island, each other in Newport (30 JUL 13)
Background information:
Thank you, Lord, for refreshing beverages You offer to us and for all who work to produce and distribute them.
“Rather, renouncing secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:2).
In a recent commentary, Monsignor Charles Pope (pastor of Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Parish, Washington, DC) reflected on the Church’s role in the public square.
To access Msgr. Pope’s complete post, please visit:
“Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” – Gordon B. Hinckley
Thank you, Lord, for the diaconate and for the many ways You work through those ordained to this ministry.
From Tony Rossi, of The Christophers:
My last column introduced you to Award-winning NBC News correspondent Bob Dotson, who has spent 40 years profiling ordinary people who have overcome the odds to accomplish extraordinary things. His “American Story” segments on the “Today Show” have been so popular that he collected many of them in a new book, also called “American Story.”
In an industry that tends to focus on bad news, why is Dotson different? Well, his “can do” attitude was born during his childhood battle with polio, which shrunk the tendon in his left leg, inhibiting his ability to walk. For almost 10 years, his mother would take him to their local hospital in St. Louis three days a week for therapy.
When he was five or six, Dotson remembers his doctor giving him the book “The Little Engine That Could,” which was grounded in the message, “I think I can, I know I can.” Dotson took that message to heart, determined that he would live a normal life. At age 10, doctors performed surgery on him to implant six inches of fake tendon. Now age 66, Dotson told me on “Christopher Closeup” that “it’s still working pretty good.”
The lesson he learned from his own experiences and those of the people he’s met is simple, yet profound: “Success and thriving in this country is not a question of just being dealt a good hand; it’s playing a bad hand well over and over again.” That wisdom has given him an appreciation for people who connect with regular folks—and even those who can connect regular folks with God.
“One of the most interesting stories in the book,” says Dotson, “is about a group called The Flying Fathers, ex-hockey players who ended up in the priesthood. They formed a hockey team that was a lot like the Harlem Globetrotters. The head of this was Father Vaughan Quinn in Detroit. He decided that in order to help people, you have to make them laugh…After their performance, people would come up and share a cup of coffee, and they would start to talk to the Fathers about their lives. And that’s when they got through with their faith. The people realized that the Fathers are as regular as they are.”
Though Dotson has accumulated a lot of stories over his career, he’s also interested in sharing his knowledge with the next generation. When talking to students at his old high school recently, he told them, “When I started, you couldn’t run a story over a minute on the ‘Today Show’…so I spent a year doing fifty-nine-second stories. Whether it was a hurricane or a revolution, I came in at fifty-nine seconds, when everybody else was asking for another 10 seconds every morning. While I did that, I found a story I thought would be fascinating. So I went to my boss at the end of the year and said, ‘Could I have a couple of minutes to do a special story?’ And he said, ‘You can have four minutes.’”
In essence, the young reporter had earned a reputation for doing his job well without complaining, so his boss rewarded that. Dotson said, “You’ve got to do the job somebody’s hired you to do, but that doesn’t mean that on your own time…you can’t polish your skills and get to the point where they see the best that you can do.”
Dotson notes that the most fundamental aspect of journalism remains the same: namely, storytelling. “If you learn how to tell stories so that people will actually listen to you,” he said, “you’ll be in demand.”
This essay is a recent “Light One Candle” column, written by Tony Rossi, of The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.)
Background information:
The Christophers: Christopher Radio & Video
Background information:
“That mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection is the heart center of everything. . . . Each day and every day we are to live caught up in that great mystery.” – Esther de Waal
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