Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • January 6, 2023 3 Gulf Pine Catholic (ISSN No. 0746-3804) January 6, 2023 Volume 40, Issue 10 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 —CIRCULATION— Aimee McLendon —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 Circulation: 228-702-2127 Photography: 228-201-2132 —EMAIL— News: tdickson@biloxidiocese.org Production / Advertising: smccusker@biloxidiocese.org Circulation: amclendon@biloxidiocese.org Photography: jskelton@biloxidiocese.org —OFFICEAND MAILINGADDRESS — 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532 —WEBSITE— www.biloxidiocese.org —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 JAN. 20 EDITION— News copy and photos: Due JAN. 12, 4 p.m. Advertising: Completed Ad and/or copy due JAN. 12, 10 a.m. Bishop Kihneman’s Schedule Jan. 8-12 Region V Bishops’ Retreat, Archdiocese of New Orleans Retreat Center Jan. 15 Mass, St. Rose de Lima Catholic Church, Bay St. Louis, 9 a.m. Jan. 15 Mass for Hispanic Community, St. Rose de Lima Catholic Church, Bay St. Louis, 12 p.m. Jan. 17 ACTS XXIX Rescue Project for Diocesan Staff, 12 p.m. Jan. 19 Mass & Visit, Sacred Heart Middle High School, 8:30 a.m. Jan. 21 Meet with Parish Eucharistic Revival Coordinators, 9:00 am Jan. 21 Blessing of new Chapel & Dedication of the Altar, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Laurel, 1 p.m. Jan. 22 Diocesan March for Life Event at Nativity BVM Cathedral: Rosary, Sunday Mass, Walk to Biloxi Lighthouse Park (weather permitting) or Sacred Heart Center (inclement weather) for Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction. 2:00-4:30 pm. BY BISHOP LOUIS F. KIHNEMAN III Bishop of Biloxi [Jesus said to them,] “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Mt 22:37-40). I am often asked by the faithful, “Where do I start, or how do I begin to build a per- sonal relationship with God?” The short answer is, “Prayer!” As we enter into a new year, instead of our typical resolutions, I highly recommend beginning a new habit of making a daily examination of conscience. If you are not in the habit of doing a daily examination of conscience, the NewYear is a wonderful time to start! A daily examination of conscience is an exercise where in prayer at the end of the day, we invite the Holy Spirit to help us reflect on our thoughts, words, and actions of the day in order to identify any sin we may have com- mitted. We also ask the Holy Spirit to show us the areas where we need to particularly be on guard against Satan’s work as he continu- ally tries to manipulate us into breaking the Bishop Kihneman Prayer -- the shortcut to a personal relationship with God seek its own interests, it is not quick-tem- pered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Cor 13:4-8). As we pray, we ask ourselves, “Have we loved God with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind?” and “Have we loved others as we love ourselves? Have we loved ourselves?” Love is defined as willing the good of the other. Mindful of this, how does it factor into our relationships with our spouses, our chil- dren, our friends, our co-workers -- and for the young, our families, our teachers, and our classmates? Have we willed the good of those God placed in our lives this day? Once we have considered these questions and listened to the Holy Spirit, we place before God our failures with a firm purpose to live out these two commandments with the help of the Holy Spirit as the next day begins. A friend of mine shared how he once tore into someone on social media because of that person’s political views. My friend admitted to writing some terrible things about the per- son that he posted publicly for anyone to see. At the end of the day when he was saying his prayers and contemplating his day, he thought back to how he had wounded that person and immediately came to regret his actions. The next day he wrote a public apol- ogy and asked for that person’s forgiveness. Not even a minute later, the person respond- ed with three words -- All Is Forgiven. The response came from a place of love and served as a powerful reminder to my friend that love is patient and kind, not rude and quick tempered. Pope Francis called an examination of conscience “an invitation to learn from experiences, from what happens to us, so as not to continue to repeat the same errors. The more we know ourselves, the more we can sense where the evil spirit enters from, his ‘passwords’, the entrance to our heart, which are the points to which we are most sensitive, so as to pay attention to them in the future. Each one of us has their more sensi- tive spots, the weakest spots in their person- ality: and the evil spirit enters from there, and leads us down the wrong path, or takes us away from the true, right path. I go and pray but he leads me away from my prayer.” SEE BISHOP’S MESSAGE, PAGE 7 commandments, and the areas where the enemy accuses us and tries to make us feel unlovable. St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, writes, “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not