Catholic Fire

As I mentioned in an earlier post , Fr. Stan Fortuna , was here for a mini - parish retreat beginning with a homily for at all of the weekend Masses, a talk, and Eucharistic Adoration on both Monday and Tuesday nights. If there is one thing that I will remember about this Lent it will be the impact that Fr. Stan Fortuna’s words and his music had in my ongoing conversion. Without going into any great detail, I will say that particularly at this time in my life I have had great difficulty in accepting God’s will for me and have been fearful about His future plans for me, which seem to be changing constantly and weighing very heavily upon me. However, I know that I am not alone in this struggle – Many of the great saints have dealt with the same inner turmoil. We have recently become aware of Blessed Mother Teresa's spiritual aridity and her "dark night of the soul" through the publication of Come Be My Light. Even Pope John Paul II who boldly proclaimed, “Be not afraid” ...

This weekend Fr. Stan Fortuna is here for a mini parish mission for two evenings (with the entire parish) and he also enjoyed some special time with the youth on Saturday night. Although I have seen him on EWTN a few times, this is the first time I have seen him in person. Tonight he gave an inspiring talk followed by Eucharistic Adoration, accompanied by some very reverent and beautiful meditation music, which brought some of us to tears. He is a gifted, humble, holy, and humorous man of God. He does a wonderful John Paul II imitation and an amazing Billy Crystal imitation. Bill accompanied me tonight, although he was very tired and continues to recuperate from his hospital stay. I took notes and hopefully will be able to share more with you tomorrow night -- I'm soaking it all in right now. More to come...