Bishop’s Annual Appeal 2011
GROWING IN FAITH... LIVING IN HOPE....GIVING IN LOVE
Your support for the Diocese of Saskatoon's Bishop's Annual Appeal helps many people whose lives are enriched each and every day by services, programs and ministries throughout the diocese. When you make a pledge, you can pay in monthly installments (up to 12 months). It also serves as an ongoing reminder that we share in the mission and ministry of the Appeal on a year-round basis.
Incredible new miniseries: “Catholicism”
Fr. Robert Barron and his Word on Fire ministry have been working on a new miniseries entitled "Catholicism." Below you can see a 9 minute extended preview. It looks incredible!!Top Ten Happiest Jobs
A recent Forbes article had survey results about the top ten happiest jobs in the United States. While I know very well that it's a vocation - not just a job - clergy topped the list. Woohoo! Now, being a member of the clergy can certainly be stressful at times, especially when things get busy. Every vocation in life involves a share in the cross if we are truly following the path of Christ. But the positives far outweigh the negatives (it could be said that the rewards are out of this world)!1. Clergy: The least worldly are reported to be the happiest of all 2. Firefighters: Eighty percent of firefighters are “very satisfied” with their jobs, which involve helping people. 3. Physical therapists: Social interaction and helping people apparently make this job one of the happiest. 4. Authors: For most authors, the pay is ridiculously low or non-existent, but the autonomy of writing down the contents of your own mind apparently leads to happiness. 5. Special education teachers: If you don’t care about money, a job as special education teacher might be a happy profession. The annual salary averages just under $50,000. 6. Teachers: Teachers in general report being happy with their jobs, despite the current issues with education funding and classroom conditions. The profession continues to attract young idealists, although fifty percent of new teachers are gone within five years. 7. Artists: Sculptors and painters report high job satisfaction, despite the great difficulty in making a living from it. 8. Psychologists: Psychologists may or may not be able to solve other people’s problems, but it seems that they have managed to solve their own. 9. Financial services sales agents: Sixty-five percent of financial services sales agents are reported to be happy with their jobs. That could be because some of them are clearing more than $90,000 dollars a year on average for a 40-hour work week in a comfortable office environment. 10. Operating engineers: Playing with giant toys like bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, scrapers, motor graders, shovels, derricks, large pumps, and air compressors can be fun. With more jobs for operating engineers than qualified applicants, operating engineers report being happy.
Running back to Saskatoon
Well, I actually went back to Saskatoon a couple of days ago. I'm in the process of (attempting to) finish my talk on introduction to the sacraments for the Diocese of Saskatoon Lay Formation program. This is a program where people from across the diocese, from the Ukrainian Eparchy of Saskatoon, and from dioceses in northern Saskatchewan get together for one weekend per month for two years. They attend classes on different topics in faith, learn to pray the breviary, and meet fellow Catholics from all over. I was a part of the program during my internship year and one of the great things that came out of it for me is that I now know at least one person in most of the parishes in the diocese. I've been honoured to have been asked to teach for the past couple of years, and now I'm doing the introduction to the sacraments session for the first time. Anybody wanna write a talk for me? ;-)Sinner
So, I was initially planning to blog - even just a small post - several times a week. However, between the podcast that I co-host, two upcoming funerals, and the preparations for a talk that I'm giving for the Saskatoon Lay Formation program, it's been rather difficult to write anything for this blog.
I did have the chance to read a great new book, however! I bought Sinner by Lino Rulli on Amazon.com's Kindle store. (Sadly, the paperback version is not shipping in Canada for a while.)
Lino is the winner of multiple Emmy awards for a television show named Generation Cross that ran in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Since 2006 he has been the host of The Catholic Guy Show on the Sirius/XM Catholic Channel. The show runs Monday-Friday from 2-5pm Saskatchewan time. Lino and the other cast members (Ryan Grant and Fr. Rob "Timmy" Keighron) talk about life, love, and healt... err... I mean, about living their faith in ways that are both informative and, as Lino would say, "wildly entertaining." Truth is, this show is one of the funniest, laugh-out-loud shows anywhere on radio, and it also inspires people to search deeper in their faith.
Well, Lino has written a book. He writes about how his life as an ordinary, typical sinner (I can relate!) has found grace to grow and to learn at different times in his life. It is quite a funny read. However, note that some of his stories are definitely of a more mature subject matter (he's writing about his sins and temptations after all), so it's not necessarily something for the young kidlets. But for the rest of us, it's a funny and inspiring book that is easily relatable. Check it out!
Homily Podcast
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