Category Archives: Culture

Tell the Story!

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I’m beginning today with a question: How did the first Christians do it?

In a world of propaganda and hype, of relativism and materialism, I ask myself what do I have that can change darkness into Light?  In truth, I have what Christians have had from the beginning.  I have the Savior of the world. Jesus words after His Resurrection from the dead were:

“Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” Mark16: 15

In effect, go tell My story!

It is more than a story.  It is power.  It is the single most important act in all of human history with eternal consequences.  The world has run after other gods.  I have run after other gods.  That’s not the end of the story though.

Tomorrow begins Lent.  For myself, I’m resolved to tell the story everyday of Lent.  Lent will change me and then the world.  Like the first Christians,  we must begin by telling the story of  Jesus’ death on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead.  Proclaim it!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of  God.” John3:16–18

Paul told us we don’t need to be polished and eloquent.  To the Corinthian Greeks, Paul writes, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2

That is my story.  I’m resolved to tell it today.

More – O Happy Day – Ordination Video

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Update: O HappyDay:


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Procession of the Cross


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The Candidate for the Sacred Priesthood –  Jeffrey Neil Steenson


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Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan

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Calling and Presentation of the Candidate for the Priesthood  Jeffrey Neill Steenson


prostration

Prostration and Litany of the Saints

ordination1

Ordained and Invested


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Kiss of Peace


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Greeting by Rev. Fr. Scott Mansield

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Presentation of the Gifts by the Steenson Family


eucharist

Eucharist


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A Few Words

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Recessional  – Rev. Fr. Jeffrey Neill Steenson


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Recessional and Blessing by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan

Thanks Be To God!


Cool and Charitable!

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The Anchoress is right on.  This is cool indeed!  A priest with a heart for the poor brings doodling celebs into the picture to do good with their pictures.   The big bucks their art brings are really great when they’re turned into loaves and fish.

Oh Happy Day!

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THE ORDINATION OF JEFFREY NEILL STEENSON TO THE SACRED PRIESTHOOD

SATURDAY,THE TWENTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY,TWO THOUSAND AND NINE

At SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC CHURCH, RIO RANCHO, NEW MEXICO


entrance-processional

Procession of the Cross


procession-steenson-follow-book

The Candidate for the Sacred Priesthood –  Jeffrey Neill Steenson


entrance

Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan

approach1

Calling and Presentation of the Candidate for the Priesthood  Jeffrey Neill Steenson


prostration

Prostration and Litany of the Saints

ordination1

Ordained and Invested


greeting-brother-priests

Kiss of Peace


brotherly-greeting-fr-scott

Greeting by Rev. Fr. Scott Mansield

family-presenting-gifts

Presentation of the Gifts by the Steenson Family


eucharist

Eucharist


a-few-words

A Few Words

recessional-frjeff

Recessional  – Rev. Fr. Jeffrey Neill Steenson


bishop-sheehan1

Recessional and Blessing by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan

Thanks Be To God!


This is the Day The Lord Has Made!

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Update:  Old Bishop, New Priest

I’ll be off in a bit to attend the ordination of Jeffrey Steenson.  I can only imagine what is going on in his heart and head at this moment.  Please say a prayer for Jeff, his family, and his church family, both  Anglican and Catholic.

New directions bring mixed blessings for partings are hard.  For Jeff, the need to explain his conscientious decision is an integral part of moving forward.  “Forward” in God’s grace and plan means continuing to put your hands to the plow and looking back only with gratitude for the gift of the past.  Friends, mentors, and teachers, all helped to prepare Jeff for this day.  Now  is a time of celebration.  Now, with the Laying on of Hands, Jeffrey becomes a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.  He  enters on a new path on the road home.  God bless you, soon-to-be, Rev. Fr. Jeffrey Neil Steenson!

LENT for the Soul

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Message From Pope Benedict XVI for LENT 2009

“He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry” (Mt 4,1-2)

“The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian community. The Church Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin, especially the lusts of the “old Adam,” and open in the heart of the believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age. Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself.”

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Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (Encyclical Veritatis splendor.)  May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae (Cause of our joy,) accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.”