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I thought it was going to be easy to put into words the celebration of the beatification of Blessed Pope John Paul II. It wasn’t going to be many because I found two videos — and moving pictures, as in rolling video as well as emotional scenes — speak much louder than 10,000 words. But the general sketch in my mind wasn’t translating. After all, a weekend of powerful and intense prayer, celebration and Mass defies mere human expression. Frustrated, I was about to step away for a few hours to let my mind regenerate the idea. Then, it hit me. Why is it that I am overwhelmed when I talk about him, when I see documentaries about him, when I see millions assembled in his honor? Could it be six years since he went to the Father?

It may be selfish, but it’s because I miss him. Still. I miss John Paul II as if I knew him or as if he was a relative. The power of his faith, his passionate exhortations — it’s easy to forget the earlier years of his pontificate, when he animated his homilies by waving his script or puncturing the air, accented by a warm smile, humility and a gentle sense of humor — transcended the ocean and miles. He was as present as our own pastors. He moves millions of us today: Be not afraid. Open up your hearts to Christ. That challenge to lift up your life amid earthly pursuits for the cause of Christ, his pontificate, his ministry all still resonate — not to mention the force of his will which in large part ended the enslavement of communism — make him the greatest man of the 20th century, a historic figure with whom we were privileged to share earthly time.

If anyone doubts the Holy Spirit, one need only undertake a cursory examination of John Paul’s life. If one doubts the power a Christ-like life, one need only witness the immense affect he had on the world and love for him, unlike that showered upon anyone else in human history. We loved him then. We love him now. How appropriate that his beatification Mass took place on the Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, which he instituted, and the feast on the eve of which he died six years ago. Six years? I miss him. Still. But now we know he remains with us. Blessed is he, John Paul The Great.

No news report needed. Only the awe of Pope Benedict’s pronouncement and the unveiling of the Blessed John Paul’s portrait.

For more detail, here’s a narrated report courtesy of RomeReports.com.

It’s been an eventful year and we feel blessed to have taken part in it with you. Thank you for joining with us as we’ve explored various aspects of the Faith and the culture. We very much look forward to 2011 and a more active, more involved, much improved RealCatholicBlog.com. We hope you join us. 

This year has been an important one for the Church. For example, Pope Benedict XVI was extraordinarily active over the last 12 months (Kevin Clarke/Zenit.org/Catholic.net): Five foreign trips, including a ground breaking one to England to beatify Cardinal Newman (Fr. Richard J. Shiefen/CatholicInsight.com), the Year of the Priest and the canonization of several saints (NewsAhead.com) were only a few of the visible accomplishments. He continues to right the direction of the Church, speak out against evil, and rejuvenate the flock. 

Year-ends allow us to reflect and ponder, and look forward with renewed vigor. It’s good for all of us to take some time off and recharge and renew. Whether you are one to make resolutions or not, it is important to refocus and approach our lives with a new vigor. That includes our spiritual lives, which requires consistent introspection.

From Brother John, myself and the team at RealCatholicBlog and RealCatholic.com, our online Catholic book an merchandise store, have a blessed, safe, healthy, prosperous and joyful New Year. Until we return shortly after the New Year, we leave you with this commentary on the meaning of the Christmas season and how to act upon it: The Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God Among Us. It is important that not only do we renew ourselves through Mass and the sacraments this New Year, but to bring others with us. We are called to God’s Grace but also, as Jesus tells us, to be a reflection of Him and win souls to him for their salvation.

Please view this video from Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com (no connection), who is at his most eloquent:

Cooperate with His Grace To be restored to the heights of Heavenly Communion with our infant savior  . . . is the quintessential gift. …

Merry Christmas from myself, Brother John and the team at RealCatholicBlog.com and RealCatholic.com, our online Catholic book and merchandise store. We offer our prayers for a joyous, blessed and merry Christmas season and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. We look forward 2011 for continued renewal and a further growth in the Faith as individuals and for the Church Universal, and for a rebirth of a culture of life throughout society. We ask for your prayers in these causes.

Why do we look forward to Christmas? Why should we? Please watch this short video from Pope Benedict XVI’s last general audience before Christmas.

Pope Benedict: The coming of Jesus is intended to “teach us to see and love events, the world and everything around us, with the same eyes of God. … The Word became a baby to help us understand how God acts, so we can let ourselves be ever more transformed by His goodness and His infinite mercy. …”

I recently came across this article by David Olson of the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise (click here to read or hear audio report). It mirrors a trend I’ve seen over the last three-four years. Here’s how it starts:

David Calvillo used to think praying the rosary was for “old ladies and funerals.”

Then he went to a Catholic men’s retreat in 2008, where for the first time he felt the rosary’s spiritual power as he prayed it with 79 other men.

Calvillo, 49, is now on a crusade to convince Catholics that “real men pray the rosary,” the name he gave a nonprofit he founded last year.

The rosary, a cycle of prayers said while worshippers finger a string of beads, is not gender-specific. Yet many men say they have always associated the rosary with women, especially older females.

There’s no way to know whether the number of men praying the rosary is increasing, but nearly 9,000 people have indicated they like “Real Men Pray the Rosary” on the group’s Facebook page. (Note: The article was published in June. Its Facebook “likes” now number more than 15,000. “Real Men Pray the Rosary” also has a Web site and blog.)

The increase in men praying the Rosary is great news, although it is odd that men should ever think the Rosary is a woman’s prayer. In school, it was taught as an important aspect of Catholic prayer life and priests and religious never, in my experience, emphasize it to girls over boys, women over men.

There are several ways in which praying the Rosary is encouraged: At an adoration hour, with your family, and after daily Mass to name a few. If your parish does not have an active group praying the Rosary and promulgating it, perhaps that is a project to take on in consultation with your pastor.

Unlike other prayers, the Rosary, with its devotion to different mysteries of the Gospel, has a certain draw and power. As the article states, the prayers are the same, but they can take on a different meaning each day as you meditate on the meaning of each mystery. It’s one reason the Rosary has a special place in the hearts of many — and many more, particularly men, are discovering that now.

Groups such as Real Men Pray The Rosary are sprouting up to encourage men to pray the Rosary.

Pope Benedict XVI elevated two Americans to Cardinal this week, including Archbishop Raymond Burke. This is good news. Archbishop Burke has been at the forefront of defending the faith from those within the Church who would water it down to the point of meaninglessness. In 2004, as Archbishop of St. Louis, he warned Catholic politicians, such as Senator John Kerry, who defend abortion, to refrain from receiving Holy Eucharist. While angering many, including a host of his brother bishops, he spoke the truth and defended Church teaching. In recent years, he has headed the Apostolic Signatura in Rome, which is the Vatican equivilant of the Supreme Court (see Greg Burke’s LiveShots blog at FoxNews.com). Upon his elevation, he said in part:

I am deeply humbled and honored by the announcement that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI intends to name me to the College of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church at the Consistory which he has convoked for this coming November 20th. Having received the news of the Holy Father’s intention, I express my deepest gratitude to His Holiness for the great confidence which he has placed in me, and I renew my commitment to serve Him, as Shepherd of the universal Church, in total fidelity and with all my being.

Pope Benedict appointed 24 cardinals in all, 20 of whom are under 80 years of age. Only those under 80 can participate in a papal conclave. The other American is Archbishop Donald Wuerl, of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Extensive comments by both Americans can be found at the Catholic News Agency.

Thus read the headline of an excellent commentary from Michael Burleigh in The Telegraph. An exerpt from the must read, which encapsulates the entire sad British (and Western European) attitude toward faith:

Secularism is at the heart of Benedict’s concerns. By this the Pope does not mean the delimitation of Church and State, the sacred and profane — which is intrinsic to Christian culture as well as political society since the Reformation — but the amnesiac eradication of one of the principal roots of Western civilisation and the deliberate marginalisation of all religion to the private sphere. In its stead has come a society that thinks its existential despairs can be ameliorated by limitless consumer goods, or worse, by a state that racks up fathomless amounts of debt so as to throw money at problems that may have no material resolution.

Clink the link above and read the entir piece. Then let us know what you think.

Pope Benedict XVI’s recently concluded visit to Great Britain not only was historic, but a tremendous success. This long awaited trip was about as much as any Catholic could have dreamed. There were many aspects to it, and I will comment on them this week and beyond. Just knowing that the Bishop of Rome, after nearly 30 years, was planning an official visit to the land of villain Henry VIII was gripping.

Not only is Great Britain the country where so much damage was done to Christianity in centuries long past, its unfortunate cultural and moral decay has influenced Western and, specifically, English speaking countries. It bares it share of responsibility for the this era’s moral and cultural decline. Pope Benedict’s visit was a bucket of cold water across the faces of the purveyors of coarse culture and moral relativisim — the thousands of ignorant as well as purposeful protestors who fruitlessly demonstrated during his time there.

If he made them uncomfortable, good. Their anger, then, was less about the Pope than  against their self-installed dictatorship of relativism, an intangible tyrant that tortures their souls. It’s a pain the unfaithful find sufferable in order to experience a false sense of freedom and pleasure, despite the harm to their spiritual health.

Pope Benedict addressed this. He spoke politely, but emphatically — or, as Michael Voris puts it, he was cheeky, giving the Brits more than enough to reflect on.

Oh, Henry! The cheeky pope had a historic and successful mission in the land of Henry VIII .

Despite the best efforts of atheists, the U.S. Postal Service in May approved the issuance of a commerative Mother Teresa stamp. Finally, last Sunday, at a ceremony at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., exactly 13 years after she died on September 5, 1997, the USPS released the stamp. More than 145,000 people signed a nationwide online petition organized by CatholicVote.org to stiffen the spine of the USPS — and it worked. 

Now, let’s go out and buy as many as we can (see American Papist)! What better way to prove we were right, to show America how dear this woman was to all the world and to honor this saintly nun (CatholicVoteAction.org Blog). What better way to show our country the strength and grace of The Catholic Church and to spread the good message of The Church as exemplified by the life of Mother Teresa? As far as a simple, conventional method that’s every bit as powerful as anything in this Internet driven, social media crazed culture . . . nothing!

Worth every cent . . . and then some! The Mother Teresa stamp now is available from the U.S. Postal Service. Time to buy them up!

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, formerly the Archbishop of Montreal and now Pope Benedict’s newly appointed Prefect for the Congregation for Bishops said this recently, directed to his fellow bishops:

(Bishops) need spiritual discernment and not just political calculation of the risk of the possibility of the message being received. … We have to dare to speak to the deep heart, where the Spirit of the Lord is touching people beyond what we can calculate.

It makes perfect sense: How can anyone think they can gain more souls for the Lord by circumventing His Word? There is no way to comprehend His plan and how He touches peoples’ hearts. Our bishops are to ensure their flocks are getting and comprehending His Word and not worry about what people think of it. God will take care of the rest.

Come to think of it, this is applicable to priests at the parish level as well. Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV has the rest:

Cardinal Marc Ouellet tells the bishops to end calculation and return to The Truth. Stop telling the people what you think they want to hear and tell The Truth, for it is The Truth and The Truth alone that saves.

Here’s a report from the Vatican on Pope Benedict’s Angelus message on the Feast of the Assumption (Catholic Encylopedia). I like to tell people who doubt the Assumption something I heard during a homily a few years ago. It seems that Chamber of Commerce types, local governments and tourism boosters during the era of the Church’s early years (yes, they had them then, too) always were eager to proclaim sights related to saints in their cities and villages. This attracted pilgrims who spent money there. It was good for the local economy.

They would, at the slightest bit of evidence, or at the best guess of evidence (or legend), market sites related to significant figures of the Church: this saint ate here, this saint preached here, that saint died over there. So, there is ample reason to suspect that if the Blessed Mother was not assumed body and soul into Heaven, there would be some landmark, somewhere, marking the spot of her death or burial. There is none. Hmmm.

Also, it is important to know that, as Catholics, we believe Mary, in her complete human body, was assumed into Heaven, because as the Mother of Christ, just as she brought Him into the earthly world with a soul uncorrupted by original sin, so, too, her body left this world uncorrupted.

Pope Benedict XVI calls believers to entrust themselves to Mary, who “assumed into heaven, has not abandoned her mission of intercession and salvation.”