More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a venerable Catholic tradition: "spiritual Communion" or the "Communion of desire." After a wild storm August 20 at World Youth Day in Madrid left six people injured -- including two with broken legs -- Spanish police collapsed the tents where most of the unconsecrated hosts for the next morning's Mass were being kept. Without the hosts in the tents, organizers had 5,000 ciboriums holding 200 hosts each; they were consecrated by the pope at Mass Aug. 21 and distributed to pilgrims in the section closest to the altar. Distributing Communion to just 100,000 people wasn't a decision anyone took lightly, and apparently there were long discussions with World Youth Day organizers and Vatican officials trying to find a solution. In the end, it just wasn't possible logistically to locate another 1.5 million hosts. A couple of hours before the Mass, organizers announced that most of the people present would not be able to receive; they asked the pilgrims to offer up that sacrifice for the pope's intentions and told them they could receive Communion later in the day at any church in Madrid. The decision to cancel Communion for most Mass participants was reached "with the greatest pain," Yago de la Cierva, director of World Youth Day Madrid, told reporters. Whenever there is a huge crowd for a Mass, whether in St. Peter's Square or at a World Youth Day, there always are some people unable to get to the Communion distribution point in time to receive. But in Madrid, de la Cierva said, "almost everyone" was among those not receiving. Obviously, receiving Communion is the way to participate most fully in the Mass, but it's not always possible for everyone to receive at every Mass, nor do many Catholics in the world even have regular access to Mass. The idea of "spiritual Communion" -- inviting Jesus into one's heart and soul when receiving the actual sacrament isn't possible -- is part of Catholic tradition. In the 1700s, St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote a special prayer for spiritual communion: "My Jesus, I believe you are really here in the Blessed Sacrament. I love you more than anything in the world, and I hunger to receive you. But since I cannot receive Communion at this moment, feed my soul at least spiritually. I unite myself to you now as I do when I actually receive you." Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said it would be a huge mistake to believe the Mass had no value for those who were unable to receive Communion. "Communion is always an extraordinary gift, and one must be in awe of being able to receive it," he said. "It is not something one can presume to have an absolute right to as if he'd bought a ticket for it by going to Mass. Someone who thinks that hasn't understood who is in the consecrated host and what the Mass is," the spokesman said. The eucharistic adoration and benediction at the vigil in Madrid underlined that point, he said. Jesus is present in the Eucharist, which is why it is adored and why Catholics spend time in its presence, even outside of Mass. The "eucharistic fasting" many of the young pilgrims in Madrid were forced to endure could also help them be in spiritual solidarity with other people who find themselves desiring the Eucharist, but unable to receive it, he said. "I'm thinking of Catholics deprived of priests in many parts of the world for many reasons," he said, but there also are those "who would like to celebrate the Lord's Supper with other Christians, but don't have intercommunion out of respect for the norms of the church. Isn't it meaningful in these situations to know we can unite ourselves with Christ through love and desire?" In an era when people are encouraged to receive the sacrament frequently, they don't hear the term "spiritual Communion" very often, but it is still mentioned in church documents. The Vatican's preparatory document for the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin said those who cannot receive the Eucharist can have spiritual Communion, declaring their desire to receiving the Eucharist and uniting "their suffering of that moment with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ." The working document for the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in 2005 addressed the idea of offering up the sacrifice of being unable to receive Communion. It said: "Spiritual Communion, for example, is always possible for elderly persons and the sick who cannot go to church. In manifesting their love for the Eucharist, they participate in the communion of saints with great spiritual benefit for themselves and the church. By offering their sufferings to God, the church is enriched." In "Sacramentum Caritatis," the document he issued in 2007 reflecting on the synod, Pope Benedict cautioned people against thinking they had "a right or even an obligation" to receive the Eucharist every time they went to Mass. "Even in cases where it is not possible to receive sacramental Communion, participation at Mass remains necessary, important, meaningful and fruitful. In such circumstances it is beneficial to cultivate a desire for full union with Christ through the practice of spiritual communion," Pope Benedict wrote.

I must say I feel like the Israelites wandering the desert. I am dry and hot. Perhaps it is the ongoing drought. Perhaps it is the heat. Perhaps it is the economy and lack of leadership in the White House. I was heartened that Rick Perry did participate in a day of prayer in Texas. It is about time that Christians stand up for themselves and deal with the radicals who want us to deny our Lord and Savior. I saw that Jerry Buell, a veteran American history teacher at Mount Dora High School, was removed from his teaching duties this week as school officials in Lake County investigate allegations that what he posted was biased towards homosexuals. What is going on in Florida? Can people not have personal opinions anymore? I don't know Jerry Buell but I'll bet his convictions are based on his religious beliefs. That sounds like harassment based on his beliefs as a Christian. I for one am praying that the Lake County Florida officials will come to their senses and leave this former teacher of the year alone. He deserves to be a believer and a teacher. Back to the dryness, which is certainly why my posts have gotten slim. I am praying for spiritual intervention. I know my God has not turned His back on me. I need to get re-engaged with Him. It is a good lesson for us all. We simply become too busy with earthly concerns and before you know it, God is taking a back seat. He gives power to the weak. Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. We will walk and not grow weary. So let's pray for rain, for Jerry Buell, and for an end to this desert experience.

Despite the current focus on the issue of fatherlessness (or the lack of fathers in many homes) is really is an age old problem. The scope of the problem has just grown to enormous proportions and is very alarming. But the Old Testament addresses this issue in the Book of Malachi 4:56 which says, God will send a prophet to “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers,” lest the land be struck “with a curse.” Few can deny that there seems to be a social curse on America when it comes to the plight of fatherhood, or lack thereof. Not only are many families lacking a father but very often we fathers are struggling under the pressures of the day. We struggle to become the leaders that our God demands. The structure of the world today creates inherent problems for fathers. So how do we overcome these issues and grow into the father that our children require? How do we support the mothers of our children? How do we model the behavior that our sons and daughters need to see so that they can seek out partners and form healthy relationships? Depending on God is always the best start. Of course, God is so good that he always gives us perfect examples to follow. St. Joseph, who was Jesus’ father on earth, provides a stellar example of good fathering. St. Joseph was a descendant of King David. This fulfilled the scripture prophecy that the Messiah would come from the house of David. Of all the men in the world throughout history, a simple village carpenter named Joseph was the one chosen to help raise the Child Jesus to adulthood. In his faithful, loving care was entrusted the childhood and youth of the Redeemer of the world. A model for fathers, Saint Joseph is invoked as a protector of the family. True fatherhood challenges men to fulfill their greatest obligations, to love unconditionally, to will the good of the other, without expecting anything in return, sacrificing the self for the family and for others. A father’s love is like that of Christ: “We are to love, then, because He loved us first” (1 John 4:19). This means following the pattern of Christ’s love, dying willingly on the Cross to give us eternal life, and to give life to His new life: “Whoever remains in me… bears fruit in plenty” (John 15:5). Pope John Paul II preached that , “fatherhood is responsibility for life: for the child first conceived in the woman’s womb and then born, in order that a new man, who is blood of your blood and flesh of your flesh, may be revealed.” So if you are a father, recommit yourself to the ideals St. Joseph. If your husband is struggling with fatherhood, pray for him and ask St. Joseph to pray with you. Modern society needs an army of fathers who will serve God as prayer warriors. Who will respond?

Hidden among the paving stones of St. Peter's Square there is a simple clock and calendar. All you need is a sunny day. The 83-foot stone obelisk in the middle of the square acts as a sundial that can accurately indicate midday and the two solstices thanks to a granite meridian and marble markers embedded in the square. Pope Benedict XVI proudly pointed out the hidden timepiece during an Angelus address he gave on the winter solstice a few years ago. "The great obelisk casts its shadow in a line that runs along the paving stones toward the fountain beneath this window and in these days, the shadow is at its longest of the year," he told pilgrims from the window of his library. In fact, at noon on Dec. 21, the obelisk's shadow falls on the marble disk furthest from the obelisk's base, while at noon on June 21 -- the summer solstice -- the tip of the shadow will fall just a few yards from the obelisk. In between are five other disks marking when the sun enters into which sign of the zodiac. A long, thin granite strip running from the obelisk toward the pope's window and through one of the fountains acts as the meridian: a line that indicates when the sun has reached true or solar noon and is at its highest point in the sky. The pope, in his solstice soliloquy, reminded people that the church has always been keenly interested in astronomy to help guide and establish fundamental liturgical days and the times of prayer such as the Angelus, which is recited in the morning, at noon and in the evening. While sunrise and sunset are easy to figure out, sundials could accurately tell midday, he said. Even when early mechanical clocks were introduced, they were a luxury item for a few and not always accurate, so using the sun to mark true noon was an important backup. In the 18th-century, Pope Clement XI decided to create an official reference point for telling time in Rome. He commissioned astronomer Francesco Bianchini to build a meridian inside Michelangelo's Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs. The basilica's elaborate meridian was meant to do much more than mark midday; it was built to make highly accurate celestial observations and solve complex astronomical problems, said a U.S. historian of science. John Heilbron, emeritus professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, told Catholic News Service that St. Mary of the Angels "could do things you couldn't do with telescopes at the time" like find out precise information about the inclination of the Earth's axis. Heilbron, who wrote "The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories," said the basilica's meridian was also used "to establish a very good value for the length of the year." Pope Clement wanted to verify the accuracy of the Gregorian reform of the calendar and its calculation of Easter, which had still not been widely accepted among the Protestant churches at the time. The real problem for the church was "how to compute the moons which are essential for the determination of Easter," said Jesuit Father Juan Casanovas, a solar astronomer and historian of astronomy. The Council of Nicea tackled the problem in 325 and interpreted the Mosaic rule by defining Easter to be observed on the Sunday that followed the first full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21. However, there were still complicated tables involved in calculating Easter because the Julian calendar used at the time was no longer in sync with the seasons. The Gregorian reform got rid of 10 days to bring the vernal equinox back to the traditional date of March 21, according to Father Casanovas. However, the Orthodox Church did not accept the pope's authority nor his calendar. Still today the Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar for religious functions, resulting in the Eastern date for Easter usually falling later than the Western date though occasionally the dates coincide. While Pope Gregory XIII's reform of the calendar in 1582 was not perfect, it is still easy, practical and almost universally accepted in civil society today, Father Casanovas said. Calendars will never be perfect because "a calendar deals with whole days, not fragments of hours, seconds and thousandths of a second so you have to be ready to add one day or remove a day from the calendar now and then," he said. Having a leap year has been successful but "it's not enough. There is still a little error and after centuries it accumulates," he said. The calendar is expected to gain a day by the year 4500. There have been many proposals to get the world synced to one perpetual calendar, but perfection and accuracy would come at a price. For example, a seven-day week doesn't work well mathematically, the astronomer said, because "if you divide the number of days in a year by seven, there is one day left and with a leap year there are two days left." But no one wants to meddle with the seven-day week, he said. The Hebrew, Muslim and Gregorian calendars -- even though they are radically different -- are all based on a seven-day week as reflected in Genesis' account of the number of days of creation. "It's a sacred number," he said. Heilbron said attempts to further reform the calendar by making it more rational are not only unsuccessful, some proposals have been downright "nuts." The most extreme being the French revolutionary calendar, which had three 10-day weeks in a month, 100 minutes in an hour and 10 hours in a day, he said. "In calendrics, precision and perfection should not trump practicality," he said. The imperfect marking of time "is just too deeply engrained in our social life," he said.

Mike D'Avria recently did some research on the message that most TV programs are pushing. As you can guess, sex is the most popular and he notes that there is always at least one character on each show that brags about their numerous sexual conquests. What he uncovered is that the show with the highest number of sexual liaisons was Friends. It seems the cast of friends had at least 85 different partners. Remember, this is only six people. By the way, these are the partners we saw on the show. It doesn't even touch the ones they had prior to the show's beginning. Now that is really alarming in itself. Worse still, they never talked about what can happen as a result of all of this sex, in this case outside of marriage. A 2008 study published in the American Journal of Pediatrics highlighted this fact and said that Friends is noted for “glamorizing sex while hardly mentioning its downsides, such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.” If you remember, Friends did not come on at 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. No, it was in the prime time, early enough to catch even the youngest of children before they had to go to bed. Another interesting point to remember about this show; the cast was notorious for negotiating salary increases as a unit and typically were some of the highest earners on TV at the time. So not only did they glorify pre-marital sex but they made a fortune doing it. This quest for wealth at all costs is really nauseating. It reveals a terrible fact about our current society. People forget about their principles as soon as the money is flashed before them. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil in 1 Timothy 6:10. People are enticed by all of money's promises to bring them the desires of their heart. They forget, as the Israelites did many times on their journeys, that God is all you need to be happy. God will provide our daily bread. In this version of the world, most of us have food and clothing, a house and car, a job and many things yet we are still seeking more. Look to the Light for everything you need. Jesus died so that we could have eternal life. That promise to come should be your comfort. Isn't that enough to satisfy even the most greedy person?