Catholic and Enjoying It!
I will be speaking at the Christ Our Life Conference in Des Moines, Iowa on the weekend of September 22-23. I am excited, and a bit nervous about the talk, because it is to a larger audience than I have ever addressed — 8000 are expected. The potential to reach hearts is huge, but whether I do so is entirely dependent on grace, so I humbly beg your prayers that I live up to the opportunity.
If you are going to be in the area, you might check out the conference on its website www.christourlifeiowa.com. Among other great speakers, Immaculee Illibagiza, whom I have wanted to hear for a long time, will be there.
Then on Saturday December 15 I will be speaking at a Marian conference at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida.
This is also the time of year when I begin to schedule “Passover Seders in the Light of Christ” (a Seder is the ritual Passover meal) for upcoming Lenten/Easter season. Last year I gave quite a few to parishes and religious communities. Each year I become more excited about them– it is such a powerful way to show how Judaism continues into the Catholic Church, with the ultimate fulcrum point, the point at which Judaism “turned into” Catholicism, being the Last Supper, which was simultaneously the “last” sacramental Passover Seder and the first Catholic Mass. I conduct the Seders according the the normal rubrics of a Jewish Passover Seder, but while doing so point out the many Christological foreshadowings in the Seder, and how the prophecies and promises of the Passover were fulfilled in Christ. So it is simultaneously a Passover Seder, a reenactment of the Last Supper, and a powerful explanation of the transformation of Judaism into the Catholic Church. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you or your Pastor would like to find out more about arranging for such a “Passover Seder in the Light of Christ”.
Finally, let me thank you once again for your prayers and moral support, and especially for your prayers for the Jewish people, that they who brought the infinite gift of Jesus to the rest of the world, may finally share in the full bounty of that gift. If I may close with a prayer for the conversion of the Jews from the Catholic Breviary (from the 7th day of the week for Christian Unity):
O God, Who manifests Thy mercy and compassion towards all peoples, have mercy upon the Jewish race, once Thy Chosen People. Thou didst select them alone out of all the nations of the world to be the custodians of Thy sacred teachings. From them Thou didst raise up Prophets and Patriarchs to announce the coming of the Redeemer. Thou didst will that Thine only Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, should be a Jew according to the flesh, born of a Jewish maiden in the Land of Promise. Listen to the prayers we offer Thee today for the conversion of the Jewish people. Grant that they may come safely to a knowledge and love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah foretold by their Prophets and that they may walk with us in the way of salvation. AMEN !
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