Today, Ash Wednesday is one of the busiest days of the year.  Today, everyone is Catholic.  As many of us know many Catholics who normally do not attend Mass will be present.  Although Mass times have been published on our website, bulletin and online newslettter, people will still call and ask "when are they giving out the ashes?"  On a human level it can be annoying but this is our chance to go fishing!  No I  don't mean literally fishing, I mean fishing for souls.  This is one of those moments throughout the year in which with our kindness and charity we can bring people back to the Church!   Their are many ways in which this can be accomplished.  First and foremost I think simply being kind to the people and not demonstrating how physically and mentally tired we are might work.  People will see a happy priest.  If the priest is happy their must be a reason.  As we know Jesus is the reason.

Another method of evangelizaiton is to hand out free Catholic cds, books and pamphlets from the Mary Foundation.  They are given away at incredibly low prices or for free at: http://www.catholicity.com/    These cds have worked well in my parish.  Hopefully, they will change someones life tomorrow.

A third method of evangelization is to distribute the materials from CatholicsComeHome.org  This organization has placed commercials on TV and the are dedicated to bringing people back to the Catholic Church.  At the end of the day we might not see most of these people until Christmas.  However, if just one person returns to Mass every Sunday then all of the money, time and effort placed into bringing them back is worthwhile.  May we all, bishops, priests, deacons, nuns, religious brothers and all of God's Faithful be his evangelizers today.

Tune into to my Internet Radio Show FatherRosadoDotCom Talk Radio tonight (3/5/14)  at 11 PM Eastern Time to learn more about the Holy Season of Lent and Ash Wednesday.  You will be able to ask me questions on the air as well.  More information about the show is available at the FatherRosado Internet Radio page.

World Youth Day (WYD) is a gathering of youth from around the world with the Pope.  Pope Francis announced that the next World Youth Day will be in Krakow, Poland from July 24 - August 1, 2016.  I have never been to a World Youth Day but God willing I will be able to go to Poland.  I'm writing this article to encourage people to begin saving for this wonderful experience.  At World Youth Day we will see the Catholic Church.  Catholic means universal.  Church with a big C means all the Catholics of the world.  At World Youth Day we will see people from all over the world worshiping our God in many languages.  We will experience that the Church is not dead but alive!  While pilgrimage companies have not yet published how much it will cost to go to World Youth Day the time to start saving is now.  Even if you can only put $5 to $10 away that is good.  In addition, if your parish is going to World Youth Day begin fundraising now.  I will be putting $100 away from now until Jan of 2016 in order to help me finance my own trip to WYD.  It's not to early, begin now.  In addition, please, please, please resist the temptation to take cash out of your WYD savings money.  Let's pray for each other that we will be able to see Jesus at WYD 2016.  God Bless You

The official website of World Youth Day 2016 is: http://worldyouthday.com/krakow-2016

Update: I called various tour companies and currently packages are ranging from $2,500 to $4,000 depending on the accommodations selected.  Start saving now!  I"m putting away my first $100 on March 1.

Have you ever heard, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth?  This can be applied to Bibles.  Lately, I've noticed too many Catholics do not own a bible.  Sometimes bibles (especially Spanish Language bibles) can be expensive.  to solve the problem I bought the digital NABRE bible and put it on my phone and gave away most of my bibles.    The problem is that I only had so many bibles I could give away and people still would like free bibles.  For my jail ministry I need bibles but its difficult to get donors to donate for jail ministry.  (If you want to donate towards jail ministry you can do so here: http://www.stjohnsgoshen.com/donations just inform me that they are for prison ministry.) Now I found a cheap way to get them their bibles.  The answer is buying used bibles on Half.com and Ebay.  I also found this is possible to do with the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Unfortunately, I can't do this with Spanish Language bibles and Catechisms.   Those are still expensive.   I've been buying the used bibles and catechisms for about $4.80 shipped. I've made some bibles available at FatherRosado.org   If some one has a lead for Catholic Spanish Language bibles and Catechisms please let me know at FatherRosado (at) FatherRosado.com

Update

In Spanish I found these for $3.99: http://www.bibles.com/spanish/spanishchurchesbibles/dhh-outreach-catholic-bible-spanish.html

Today I launched the FatherRosado.org webstore.  On it I'm giving away cds, dvds, clothing and rosaries.  Other things are available at a small mark up or at cost.  You can also access the webstore by clicking the store link on this site.

One reader has contacted  me with some harsh words about this video.  The sales from the coffee if any go to help Saint John's Life, the pro-life group of my parish.  None of the money goes through me.  It goes from Life-Boat Coffee directly to Saint John's Life. In addition, I'm wearing my clerical shirt in the video.  I forgot that my collar was off.  My sweater was also mistaken for a bathrobe.  I don't wear those.  It's a sweater my friend Eugene gave me for Christmas.  Thank you Eugene, if you're reading this.  In the future if any readers have comments that are negative I'm happy to receive them.  Remember to have Christian charity.  Priests have feelings too.  God Bless You.

I heard about the opportunity to serve God onboard cruise ships through a retired priest who visited our parish here in Goshen, NY.  “The Apostolate of the Sea was founded in 1921 in Glasgow, Scotland and it was recognized as the official Catholic ministry to the people of the sea by Pope Pius XI in 1922.” (http://www.aos-usa.org/Cruise_Manual_2008_Final.pdf)  Here in the United States the Apostolate of the Seas United States of America (AOS-USA) handles the task of placing an American Catholic Priest in good standing with the Catholic Church on cruise ships around the world.  Other branches of AOS exist such as AOS-Canada.  After sending a few e-mails to AOS-USA I decided I was interested in ministering to the People of the Sea.  In order to do so a priest must ask his bishop for permission and a letter of good standing must be sent to AOS-USA.  Once my letter of Good Standing was accepted I paid the $100 fee to become an AOS-USA cruise ship priest member.  This fee helps to pay all the costs associated with the operation of the ministry such as the light bills.  Once I became a member I began to get lists of cruise ships that needed priests onboard.  As of the writing of this blog post only Holland America puts a Catholic Priest on every cruise ship.  Some others put a priest onboard only for Easter and Christmas.  Unfortunately some cruise ships attempt to place priests onboard outside of AOS-USA and these priests are not always in Good Standing with the Catholic Church.

            I applied for and was accepted as a cruise ship chaplain onboard Holland America’s MS Eurodam for the Eastern Caribbean cruise that took place November 17^th -24^th of this year.  Cruise ship chaplains are usually responsible for their own transportation to and from the ship.   On the 17^th I flew down to Fort Lauderdale with much anxiety about this new ministry.  When I arrived at the ships’ terminal I was told that I had to use the staff entrance behind the building.  When I got there the staff was very friendly and helpful.  I explained that I had never been on a cruise ship before.  They assured me everything would be ok and they had me wait until the ship was cleared.  Once this was done I was allowed onto the ship and I showed them the slip of paper that identified me as the official cruise ship priest.  The instructions I had from AOS-USA said that the first thing I had to do was to speak with the Cruise Director, Chris. Luckily for me he was one of the first persons I saw when I boarded the ship.  He was very nice and friendly.  He introduced me to Margo who was in charge of entertainment onboard and informed me that I would be working directly with her.  Margo has a very friendly personality and she quickly reassured me that everything would be ok.  At this point with the size of the ship I was wondering what I had gotten myself into since cruise ship priests are the chaplains for all onboard.  I thought the ministry would be very difficult since here at Saint John’s in Goshen, NY we have three priests for a parish that has about 2,500 registered families. Onboard, however, I was the chaplain for all approximately 2,000 people.  Margo informed me that my first Mass with the guests onboard would be at 5pm.  The Mass for the staff took place at 11:15pm.  She also gave me the room number for two of my parishioners, Al and Loretta, who booked their rooms on this cruise after they were informed that I was assigned to it.  With my parishioners onboard the Masses felt similar to the Masses I celebrate at my home parish. 

            Before every Mass a Holland America employee, in this case Bill, set up for the Mass.  Unfortunately on this cruise some liturgical items were missing.  Fortunately however, I brought some of my own and every Mass was validly celebrated.  If you are a priest who is reading this and considering this wonderful ministry to the People at Sea I suggest you bring everything you need to celebrate Mass just in case something is missing.  One of the responsibilities of the cruise ship priest is to take note of what liturgical items are onboard.  I made a list of what the ship had and what they needed and gave it to Margo who informed me they would order the missing liturgical items.

            The Liturgy onboard was new and delightful.  I asked and received volunteers to serve as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, Lectors and Cantors.   The Masses were very enjoyable.  For the Mass intentions I adopted the Caribbean and South American custom of having Masses for multiple intentions.  I took intentions from my friends online and many of the guests wrote their intentions in a Mass Intention book I brought with me.  The guests and I had a small parish community on the ship.  Every day about 40 people would attend the Mass and we had 80 for the Saturday Evening Vigil Mass.  Celebrating Mass is the most important thing a cruise ship priest does.  However, I discovered that there are some interesting challenges at sea.  At some points of the cruise the ships movement was felt considerably more than at other times.  At Mass I would invite people who did not wish to stand up to remain seated and raise their hands so that communion could be brought to them at their seats.  I also would make sure that I myself had my feet placed on the floor in such a manner that I would not fall while celebrating Mass.  Another interesting challenge is that there is no tabernacle onboard.  I discovered the most convenient method of deciding how many hosts to consecrate was to make an announcement about who could receive communion (not all who come to Mass are Catholic), count and place enough hosts in the ciborium for that Mass.

            In addition, to celebrating Mass the cruise ship priest has other duties and so he should make himself available to the people.  I printed an extra 1,000 business cards for people to take and connected my computer to the internet.   Unfortunately I received zero e-mails from people onboard and I was told that many people did not sign up for onboard internet because of the cost.   I also informed people that they could call the Front Office and ask for me.  Here, I learned an important lesson.  It is much more difficult to be contacted at Sea than at your parish.  Here at my parish my cell phone works and when someone stops at the office looking for me our wonderful employees call me.  Unfortunately, onboard cell phones do not work in open waters or foreign ports and if they do the roaming charges are amazing.  Employees make every effort to contact the priest but I did get one message onboard a day late. I found the oldest form of communication, word of mouth, was best on board.   For example, while Mass was celebrated every day and Mass times with locations were printed in the daily program some people did not realize I was onboard until later in the cruise.  I gave mass times and locations to people verbally.

While onboard I found that the ministry was not too demanding and I had plenty of down time.  During this trip we had one medical emergency, a blessing of a 70 year old on her 70th birthday, a walk to support victims of the Typhoon in the Philippines, led an ecumenical service and had a renewal of vows  of a couple on the occasion of their 25^th anniversary.  The phone in my room only rang a few times and all but one call were from my parishioner Al. Most of the time during this ministry I was involved in the ministry of hanging out.  This means I was available to the people, speaking to them about God and the Church.  Some people had questions about the Church and I answered them.  I had many enjoyable conversations with the people both staff and guests.  Unless I was off the ship or in the pool I was always in uniform.  While I found this ministry was not too difficult and very enjoyable it is very important.  For many of the staff the cruise ship priest is the only priest they see onboard as they spend anywhere from six weeks to ten months on the ship.  That late night staff Mass on Sundays is very important as it gives the staff an opportunity to go to Mass.  Many People thanked me many times for celebrating Mass for them.  At the end of the cruise Margo asked me if I would go on another cruise ship and I let her know that I definitely would.  I got to see parts of the world I had never seen before for at a low cost (the cruise itself is free for the priest.)  The only place on the itinerary that I had been to before was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  For the first time ever I got to see Grand Turk, Saint Thomas and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.  I would recommend this wonderful ministry to any priest.  It is an enjoyable and necessary ministry.  In addition you do not need to be a priest to be a member of AOS-USA.  You can visit their website and join by clicking here. To see more pictures you can visit my Cruise Ship Chaplain page by clicking here.

The names of some Holland America employees were changed in order to protect their privacy. 

The thumbnail is this video is owned by belongs to Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing and is used with permission.

Saint Paul writes "Do you not know that your body is a temple  of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Chorinthians 6:19)  Since our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit we should take care of them by taking our medicine, eating correctly and working out.  I used to say "My exercise consists of walking to the chapel and back."  I also would be known to say "my exercise consists of walking up the stairs and then down the stairs."  I have never been overweight so I incorrectly thought I did not need to exercise.  While my doctors laughed at my jokes they told me I did need to exercise because I have Asthma.  Yesterday, for the first time in my adult life I exercised for the 6th day in a row.  I was surprised at how good I generally feel after doing exercise.  Now I enjoy it.

Today, Nov. 1 is a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States.  We are required to attend Mass as if it were a Sunday.  Today, we commemorate and remember all the Saints.  Most of us think about canonized saints when we think about the saints.  However, any person in heaven is a saint.  The canonized saints such as Saint Joseph of Cupertino and Saint Joan of Arc are recognized by the Church as being in heaven.  However, not all saints are canonized.  Surely we hope their are lot of people in heaven.  Everyone in heaven is a saint.  The Church simply has not declared everyone in heaven a saint and probably never will.  Think of our deceased family members and friends, some of them might be saints already.   While we do not publicly venerate any saints that are not canonized (or sometimes at least beatified) we can still ask them to pray for us privately.  The good news is that God is calling you, yes you who are reading this to be a saint.  Since God gave you a body which is a temple of the Holy Spirit then why not work out your saintly body?

Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.