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A Good Day
Our pastor, Fr. John-Mary S.W. Bowlin, KCHS, held the annual Lenten retreat for the men of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church Saturday. He invited his brother priest and friend, Fr. Joshua Neu, vocations and RCIA director of the Diocese of Tyler, TX to give the retreat and celebrate mass.
The day started with mass. Celebrated ad orientem. That made the day for me. Lex orandi, lex credendi. The law of prayer is the law of belief — or, the way we pray and celebrate the sacraments reinforces what we believe. There were only six of us and two priests but we were all turned toward the Lord, offering praise, blessing, adoration, thanks, and sacrifice to God.
After mass, the day of recollection focused on Mark 1:14-15:
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.”
We spent an hour before lunch talking about repentance and contrition and then an hour after lunch talking about belief and the gospel. It was good to spend this time with a group of men talking about God and faith.
After this the priests exposed the Blessed Sacrament and led us in recitation of the Rosary. We then had the opportunity to confess our sins in the sacrament of Reconciliation and then come back and spend time with Jesus in Adoration.
These two young men, Fr. Bowlin and Fr. Neu, are men in love with Jesus Christ and committed to the salvation of our souls. I was so blessed to be with them today.
Our little parish in Buffalo, TX and our diocese of Tyler, TX is in good hands with men of God such as these.
May the Lord continue to bless them abundantly. Please pray for them.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
You are very blessed to have good, solid priests!
We have a church just two blocks away from our home in our little town, but it is Catholic Lite, and solid teaching and reverence are in short supply. But just 15 miles away – 15 miles that is one of the most beautiful drives in Minnesota — is an even smaller town, yet where we are blessed to have two young, solid, and very reverent priests.
I just have to say that I love your church’s saint name. St. Kateri was only recently sainted. American Catholics should remember her and keep her in their prayers.