Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • January 19, 2024 3 Gulf Pine Catholic (ISSN No. 0746-3804) January 19, 2024 Volume 41, Issue 11 The GULF PINE CATHOLIC , published every other week, is an official publication of the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi. Editorial offices are located at 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532. Periodical postage paid at Gulfport, MS. —POSTMASTER— Send address changes to: The GULF PINE CATHOLIC 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532 —PUBLISHER— Most Rev. Louis F. Kihneman —EDITOR— Terry Dickson —PRODUCTION/ADVERTISING — Shirley M c Cusker —BILLING — Aimee M c Lendon —CIRCULATION— Robin Peeler —PHOTOGRAPHY— Juliana Skelton —OFFICEHOURS— 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday - Friday —PHONE NUMBERS— Editor: 228-702-2126 Production/Advertising: 228-702-2109 Billing: 228-702-2127 Circulation: 228-702-2100 Photography: 228-201-2132 —EMAIL— News: tdickson@biloxidiocese.org Production / Advertising: smccusker@biloxidiocese.org Billing: amclendon@biloxidiocese.org Circulation: rpeeler@biloxidiocese.org Photography: jskelton@biloxidiocese.org —OFFICEAND MAILINGADDRESS — 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532 —WEBSITE— www.gulfpinecatholic.com —SUBSCRIPTIONS — Subscription rate is $18 per year. When changing address, renewing or inquiring about a subscription, customer should include a recent address label with old address and new address. Allow three weeks for changes of address. —DEADLINES for FEB. 2— News copy and photos: Due JAN. 25, 4 p.m. Advertising: Completed Ad and/or copy due JAN. 25, 10 a.m. Bishop Kihneman’s Schedule Jan. 26 School Visit & Mass, St. James Elementary, Gulfport, 8:30 a.m. Jan. 28 Confirmation, Annunciation Parish, Kiln, 10:30 a.m. Jan. 31 School Visit & Mass, Resurrection High School, Pascagoula, 9 a.m. Feb. 1 Presbyteral Council, Pastoral Center, Biloxi, 10: 30 a.m. Feb. 3 Installation Mass for Fr. Daniel Martinez Patiño, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos Parish, Biloxi, 4 p.m. BY BISHOP LOUIS F. KIHNEMAN III Bishop of the Diocese of Biloxi Vocation and Discipleship Prayer Loving Father, Your Son, Jesus Christ the High Priest, has told us that the har- vest is great but the laborers are few. We ask you now to send more laborers into your vineyard. Please touch with your Holy Spirit the hearts of all those you are called to live a life of service in your church as Priests, Deacons, Consecrated men and women, dedicated married cou- ples and committed singles persons. Help us all to follow Christ faithfully and to answer the call to holiness and dis- cipleship. We ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. > Bishop Louis F. Kihneman III I have been a priest for 46 years and a bishop for seven. The Lord has moved in my life many different times. It has been a joy to both be a priest and a bishop. The Diocesan Prayer for Vocations speaks of the priesthood, diaconate, religious life, consecrated life, married life and single life. We all have a vocation and fit within God’s plan. Our vocation is a call from God to live a life of goodness and holiness. We live a life of holiness by living His two great commandments: (1) Love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength and (2) Love our neighbor as our- selves. Living these two commandments is essential for all of us, singles, religious, mar- ried couples, and clergy. It is one of the cen- Bishop Kihneman Reflections on discerning a vocation: faith, listening and trust stronger and stronger. You might ask, “How did I know?” and I think that is a real question for all of us. How do we know when God is calling us to a voca- tion? We begin in our faith in God; believing that God has a plan for all of history, and that God specifically has a plan for each of us, a plan for you and a plan for me, within the gift of His son Jesus Christ that He has given us. God speaks to each of us, and we need to listen! Listening means that we are a people of prayer. Daily prayer is critical and encour- age you to be a person of prayer every day. There is a prayer exercise that I use very regularly. It involves the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Every time we bless our- selves with the Sign of the Cross, that blessing is a reminder of our own baptism. With that prayer, I take a minute – usually at night – with God, the Father, going over my day and giving thanks for the blessings of the day. These blessings are often sim- ple things. They can be major things. They can be moments of great joy. They are gratitude moments. For the small and big moments of your day, give thanks! I spend the second minute with the Son of God, Jesus, and I ask Jesus for forgiveness for anything that comes to mind that hap- pened during the day when I was not Christ to another, when I was not as good as I was supposed to be, or as good as I thought I should be. It could even be a sinful moment, and I ask for forgiveness in that minute. In the third minute, I pray with the Holy Spirit and I ask the Spirit to guide me and give me the grace I need to continue to be a witness of Jesus the next day, especially if I know there will be things going on the next day which may be challenging. I begin with this simple form of prayer which calls us into a spirit of listening, and then I turn to the Word of God. Being people of the Bible is important. If you have not started the habit of reading Scripture daily and need a place to start, I encourage you to begin with the Gospels and the New Testament. (This does not mean that the Old Testament is not important; it is, but when beginning, I especially encourage you to start with the New Testament.) The end of St. Matthew’s Gospel the heart and center of all of our diocesan work as a Church in Southern Mississippi: SEE BISHOP’S COLUMN, PAGE 9 tral aspects of our being called by God. Perhaps you are beginning to feel a tug on your shoulder or a whisper in your ear from God speaking to you specifically. That is how it began for me. I entered the semi- nary when I was 14 years old. I had no idea at the time that I would one day become a priest, but I felt a pretty good tug on my sleeve from God nudging me to, “Give it a shot. Think about it. Pray about it.” Over the years, through high school and college, earning my college degree and then through graduate school, the pull became