The Divine Office: Season 1, Episode 3

Fr. Erickson counsels a couple who thinks they're ready for marriage. They're not.

Midnight Vigils

Last night, an email arrived from the Br. Michael Mary and the Coffee-Roasting Carmelites of Mystic Monk Coffee.

Very exciting news! They've come up with 4 new blends of coffee - two permanent and two limited. One of them - oh so cleverly named - is ready for sale.

Midnight Vigils Blend - is available now and is our first dark roasted Fair Trade Organic blend. It is very complex for a dark roast with spicy notes and a balanced flavor. It is really good. This one is permanent and we expect it to be very popular.

It sounds fantastic!

Even better: the email also mentioned four new monks have entered this summer!

One new coffee blend for each monk?

Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it's wonderful to see both the house and coffee line grow.

You can buy that new coffee blend right here.

Black Dog on the V-Logs

Click on image to see it closer.

If only the V-Logs actually worked that way!

Vocations on St. Valentine's Day

I just finished reading St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises for one of my classes. I found some particularly fitting vocational advice to keep in mind, especially on this holiday:

In every good election, in so far as it depends on us, the eye of our intention must be simple, looking only at what I have been created for, viz. the praise of God Our Lord and the salvation of my soul, and therefore whatever I must choose must help me towards the end for which I have been created, and I must not make the end fit the means, but subordinate the means to the end.

But what happens in fact is that many first choose marriage, which is a means, and secondly the service of God in married life, although this service of God is the end; and similarly there are others who first of all want church benefices, and afterwards to serve God in them. The result is that such people do not go straight to God, but they want God to disordered attachments. They make a means of the end, and an end of the means, and so they put last what they ought to put first.

Our objective should be in the first place the desire to serve God, which is the end, and in the second place, to accept a benefice* or to marry, should one of those be better for me, since those are means to an end.

Perfect. If only I had read that a year ago or so instead of just a half hour ago! Even early today would have been great.


Now...off to speed dating at Legends to watch an undergraduate seminarian friend represent Holy Mother Church to see if the poor souls there have ever considered whether or not they may be called to the religious life!

*be ordained a priest

Dominican Retreat in D.C.

Br. Peter reports on the vocations weekend the Dominicans hosted down in D.C. this past weekend. The 26 retreatants included a couple Domers - good friends of mine. (Don't they look so cute in the picture! :-D I won't embarrass them further by pointing them out ) Keep them all in your prayers!

SISTERS!

Last month, right before I visited, the Dominican Sisters in Nashville were visited by a crew from PBS who filmed and interviewed Sisters for their Religion and Ethics series.
I love them!

Last I checked, the link and embedding function weren't working, but you can try to go here to GloriaTV

You can also go straight to the source, PBS.

In a few shots you can see novice Sr. Michaela, a ND grad and one of the sweetest and coolest young ladies you'll ever meet :-)