The School Addition Has Begun

This past week, they should have begun to move dirt for the Phase II addition. I know that this has been a long time coming, at least two years and three iterations of plans, but we are beginning. I know that this is an odd time of the year to begin construction, but if we do not begin now, we will not have enough room in the school for all of the classes. We still have the flexible meeting room in the building, and it does have its own entrance and is isolated from the rest of the school, so that we can have meetings in the room while school or religious education is going on and have the security for the students. This is a wonderful thing to get started, because we are a growing parish.

The good news is that we have a significant amount of cash for the project in hand, and we have a good amount of pledges to cover most of the cost, but we are still short about $300,000 and we do need to raise that so that we will not incur any more long-term debt. I wanted to give a large thank you to the building committee and the finance committee for helping to get this going, and while we have a lot to work on still, I feel confident that we are on the right track. While I personally tend to be someone who worries, I also keep reminding myself to trust in God and stay close to Him and everything will work out in the end. We have a number of challenges, mostly financial, in the parish here, but we have a young and vibrant parish that helps to raise my hope that we can do this.

Over the last few months, whenever something is odd that happens, I keep hearing well, it is 2020! Yes, this year has had more than its share of challenges, there are also some really good things that have happened and will continue to happen before it is over. This is one of them. God in the past has shown us the path that we need to be on and he will always guide us if we are willing to keep our eyes open and have that courage to follow him. This addition has been a long time coming and it will serve us well in the future. I continue to pray for the success of this project and I ask all of you to pray for the success as well as where each of us can help in other ways.

Again, I wanted to thank everyone who has supported the parish of St. Luke in the past and all who continue to do so. Trust in God, and everything will work out.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Things

A few years ago, I was in the thrift store that the parish ran in Creston and was amazed at the mountain of stuff that was donated just over the weekend. I began to think that at some point someone looked at whatever the item was at a store or on a commercial and told themselves “I have to have that thing” or they would not have purchased it. So many of the things that come in were never used or worn, they were purchased or received as a gift and then got put away in a closet or basement and then donated. I can only imagine the price of these things when they were purchased new and are now sold for anywhere from a quarter to a couple of dollars. We as Americans are constantly bombarded by the many messages that give us an opportunity to be parted with our money. Turn on the TV and just look at some of the ads, your car makes your kids embarrassed, so if you want to be a cool parent, buy this one, we will even help you to go into debt to buy it, or if you want to pick up a member of the opposite sex, just drink this beer, or if you want to jump like Michael Jordan, buy these shoes… the list goes on and on. I can fool myself by saying that the ads do not affect me, but I find myself seeing something in the store that I saw on an ad and wanted to buy it just to see what it is like. The more ads we see, the more we are affected. The best way to circumvent it is to practice self-control, the same goes with sin, sin like in advertising seems really attractive, but in the end, like all of the things that get donated, they leave us unfulfilled. The devil always promises us something that is good, otherwise we would not choose it, just look at the temptation of Jesus. However, the good that sin portrays, always comes with a cost. Jesus knew that he had access to whatever the devil promised anyway and had something better. The cost of sin always affects our soul. The point of the devil is to offer us something that we think that we need, even if he does not have the power to give it to us, the point of advertising is to make something good, so that the next time we are in a store, we will purchase it, even if we do not need it. This is where we need to have that self-control in purchasing, but more importantly in our spiritual life. It is easy to say, don’t fall into the temptation to sin, but it is not that easy to follow. The best way to not fall into the temptation to purchase something is to make a list of things that you need to purchase and only get those. The best way to not fall into sin is to draw close to God who will give us the power to overcome sin.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Who was St. Luke the Evangelist

This Sunday, October 18th we celebrate the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, and since it falls on Sunday we use the Mass in his honor. One of the common symbols of St. Luke is the Ox, and this is why we have switched our parish festival to Oxtoberfest. Since we are celebrating the feast of our namesake, I thought that it would be good to write about him. The ox comes from the prophet Ezekiel who has a vision about a creature with four faces that of an ox, that of a man, that of an eagle, and that of a lion. The ox is a symbol because this was an animal that was used for sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and St. Luke begins his Gospel with the sacrifice of Zacharias. First and foremost, we know that he was the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, we say writer and not author because the author of all of scripture is God, humans only write them with the inspiration of God. Another reason for the ox is that St. Luke’s Gospel has a heavy focus on the mercy and forgiveness of God. We have St. Luke to thank for the story of the Prodigal Son and the woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears.

We also know that he was highly educated, because he was a physician, and we know this from a couple of different sources, first from St. Paul who calls him the “the beloved physician” and second from Church historians like Eusebius, St. Jerome, St. Irenaeus who all refer to St. Luke as a physician. There is also a discussion about where St. Luke came from, most would claim the he was Greek and was a Gentile who became a disciple of Christ. There is evidence because he is not listed when Paul mentions in the Letter to the Colossians those who were “of the circumcision” which would mean the Jewish people, but he is mentioned later along with someone called Demas. There is also a theory that St. Luke was a slave. We also know that St. Luke joined St. Paul in many of his journeys but not always. St. Luke first met up with St. Paul in Troas and traveled with him for quite a while then were apart for about seven years when they traveled again through Caesarea and Jerusalem. He was most likely with St. Paul when he was arrested and thrown in prison in Rome, even though it does not seem that he was in prison with him.

St. Luke also is one that has a special connection with the Blessed Mother, because he was the only one who has the account of the Annunciation as well as the Magnificat prayer. He was also one who put the account of the Presentation in the temple, as well as the finding in the temple. He is also the one that we have to thank for the first part of the Hail Mary prayer which comes from the Annunciation and from the Visitation.

There are some conflicting stories of St. Luke’s death, but most say that he was martyred around the year 84, and his relics are in the Basilica di Santa Guistina in Padua, Italy.

God can work all things for good

During one year in seminary, I found myself living off of less than five dollars a day for food during a pilgrimage (Don’t worry: it was not because the Annual Diocesan Appeal support or all of the generosity shown towards seminarians gets lost in the mail somewhere; it was because I’m cheap and was working on traveling light). During that same year, I found myself at a dinner with three forks on the left, three knifes on the right, three glasses in front, and at least three courses on their way; the whole works. Granted, both of these examples are fairly exceptional to the seminary education experience, but that variety does speak to Paul’s words from his Letter to the Philippians which we have this weekend as the Second Reading: “I know how to live in humble circumstances; I know how also to live with abundance […] I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry.” Paul sees neither times of abundance nor times of poverty as inherently good or bad, to be sought or avoided. He sees them more like the seasons: spring and fall, summer and winter, they can each serve and have a beneficial role to play in the agricultural world.

It is Scriptural passages like this that lay the foundation for St. Ignatius’s Principle of Indifference, also called Ignatian Indifference:

For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things […] ; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.

And that “end for which we are created,” as expressed in the first paragraph of the Catechism, is “to seek [God], to know Him, to love Him with all [our] strength,” and to “share in His own blessed life.” That “blessed life” is what we usually call Heaven: that eternal union with the God who loves us. In both the First Reading and the Gospel, heaven is referred to as a banquet, specifically a wedding banquet. It is a place of joy and rejoicing, a place where long-separated family comes together in celebration. It is a place of abundance, a place of infinite goodness and, therefore, far more than enough to last us forever.

That Heaven is what we’re always aiming for, our final end. In that aiming, Paul and Ignatius consider all things (rich or poor, sickness or health, better or worse) as but means to that end: means by which we can pursue and offer ourselves more fully to God and means by which God can draw us ever closer to Himself. So, in those things we so often have no choice about, whether it’s a good day or not, a good month or not, don’t forget: God can work all things for good, not just the things we think He can.

God Bless,
Fr. Ken

Praying with the Saints

One of the topics that I often like to talk about is the Saints. Usually when someone asks me about ways to pray, I recommend starting with wrote prayer (our memorized prayers), meditational prayer and having that conversation with God, praying with Sacred Scripture, and often times praying with the saints.

Some of the reasons that I like to recommend praying with the saints, is that first of all, they were just regular people like us, they were born, they lived, they made mistakes, sinned, but in the end, they ended up living out the life that God was calling them to.

When praying with the saints, i usually recommend to find a topic that you can relate to and then look up a patron saint that is related to that. For example, if you are someone who loves music, then St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music and musicians, because she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married. If you have a passion for sports, St. Sabastian is the patron saint of athletes because he was a strong soldier who was shot so full of arrows that he looked like a pin-cushion. There are some things that there are many patron saints that will help and guide; the Blessed Virgin Mary is the first one that will come to mind, as well as St. Anne, her own mother who taught her, St. Martha who was a friend of Jesus who famously complained that her sister was sitting at the feet of Jesus instead of helping her with the work of the house, St. Monica the mother of St. Augustine, she prayed for years that her son would have a conversion of heart and become a Christian, as well as many others for mothers. For fathers, there are also a number of them that can help us; St. Joseph the husband of Mary who is also the patron saint of the Church, St. Joachim, the grandfather of Jesus, St. Thomas More, who thought that he was to be a monk, but was called to be a husband and father, St. Maximilian Kolbe, who gave his life for a father with young children, as well as many others. If you like to cook, St. Lawrence, he is the patron saint of cooks, ironically, because he was grilled to death.

Sometimes you can be drawn to a saint for other reasons, for example, I am drawn to St. Anthony because I was born on his feast day, and I forget a lot of things and he is the patron saint of lost items. I am also fond of Therese of Lisieux, because of the holy life that she led, and of Mother Theresa because of her missionary zeal.

There are so many wonderful examples for us out there and they are an incredible help, we simply need to utilize them. You quite literally can find a patron saint of just about any activity or hobby, so look one up and then find out why they happen to have the patronage that they have. With the obvious exception of Mary, the saints weren’t perfect, but they did end up in the glory that God is offering each and every one of us.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

One more week!

Next weekend, June 27-28th we will be able to come together again for Sunday Masses! I am so excited about this and hoping that you are also. If you have been to any of the daily Masses, you will have noticed some of the changes that we will be following. I would highly recommend coming a bit early, so that there will not be a large group of people in the gathering space. There will also be copious amounts of hand sanitizer available to sanitize hands. We also will have less than half of the space available in the church nave itself, half of our pews are blocked off and then families will need to be sitting 6 feet apart, so I am not going to set a number, because it is possible for 3 couples to occupy a single pew, as well as 2 families of 4-6 people can occupy one. So, I am asking for your cooperation and patience with this process.

We will also have video in the gym so that we can have extra seating available. This should allow us to be able to accept everyone who wants to come to Mass the ability to do so, yes, it is not ideal for many reasons, but it is the only way that we will be able to accommodate everyone. So, please out of Christian charity, do not get upset at an usher or greeter if they ask you to proceed to the gym or ask you to slide over a bit. I am asking for everyone to walk single file down the middle of the aisle between the taped lines. If someone needs to go to the back of church after sitting but before Mass starts, they should walk back out via the side aisles until after the start of Mass.

As for the Mass itself, the priest and all ministers are required to wear a mask and it will be highly recommended for everyone else to wear a mask. I know that there are many different opinions both within the scientific and medical communities. However, the committee that the bishop has been getting his advice from recommends it.

For the reception of Holy Communion, I am asking for a single line down the middle of the center aisle and to remain 6 feet apart as a family group. Also, it is recommended that if you normally receive Holy Communion on the tongue to receive on the hand if you feel comfortable, if you would still prefer to receive on the tongue to come to my line and I will distribute it to you.

At the end of Mass, I am also asking that people be conscious when leaving, to not leave in one mass group, but to leave by rows and to not congregate in the gathering space or around the doors outside the entrances to the church. After Mass, I will be asking for a couple of volunteers to help sanitize the church by spraying down the pews and wipe them off and wiping off all door handles. I would strongly recommend to put on a pair of gloves that we have available to both protect your hands from the chemicals as well as to help with the sanitizing of the church.

I am looking forward to having everyone here to celebrate Mass with us.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

A Wonderful and Challenging Thing Happened

Friday night we had a wonderful and challenging thing happen, we had three men ordained to be deacons for the diocese, with the expectation that they would be ordained priests next year! It was wonderful, because it has been a while since that happened and with God’s grace, we will have two more ordained in December so that next summer we will have FIVE men ordained priests! It will be a very special event. The challenging part of that, is that traditionally the majority of the priest and deacon community comes together to celebrate with those who were ordained and celebrate as a diocese this incredible event, but with the current situation, only a few priests and a small number of family members were able to be present to be with them. I personally participated with Alex, our seminarian, and Fr. James Downey our soon to be associate pastor.

We commented on the fact of how empty the cathedral looked for such a wondrous occasion. It was a reminder of how the Mass has been celebrated over the last couple of months, and how challenging it can be. But the pure fact is, that now, Reed Flood, Bradley Robey, and Jake Epstein are now ordained deacons of the Church, whether we or anyone else was there in person. Also, it will be an ordination that no one will ever forget!

Just like the Masses we have celebrated in these last couple of months. I was filled with joy on Thursday evening when over 70 people showed up for the first public Mass we celebrated here at St. Lukes and I am anxiously looking forward to the next couple of weeks in which we can celebrate the Sunday Masses together in person. Just as whether or not we were physically present in the ordination of these three men, they are now deacons of the Church, and just as whether or not others are present in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus is still present among us, in body and spirit.

I hope that you all share in my excitement at our coming together again to receive Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. But… even in these challenging times, we can relish in the fact that Jesus came to be with us and continually invites us to be a part of his life, whether or not we can be in his presence physically. Just being a part of the celebration via video is a poor substitution for being there, we will be together again soon. Just as seeing a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven in the creation of God is a poor substitution for the true kingdom, we do know that there is something better and we long to be a part of it. Keep praying for these three men, the two who, with discernment and the grace of God will be ordained as well, all of our other seminarians, and also for those who need to answer the call to serve God in the priesthood. Congratulations Deacon Reed Flood, Deacon Bradley Robey, and Deacon Jake Epstein.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Retreats

In a normal year… I would be planning on going on retreat next week, but as we all know, that this is not anywhere close to a normal year. In the first week of June the priests of the Diocese of Des Moines usually meet at Conception Abbey in Northwest Missouri and spend a few days together to kind of regroup spiritually. We have the opportunity to pray together, listen to a spiritual director with a topic, celebrate the Mass together, and even spend some down time talking and maybe even spend some time just relaxing.

Retreats can be a wonderful time if you ever get the opportunity to do one, which I know that working parents would have a difficult time to do. As a priest, Canon Law (Church Law) requires that priests take a spiritual retreat at least once a year, because in a busy parish, we may not always get the opportunity to spiritually recharge in the daily life. Some of the retreats that I have been on have been mediocre, but I have also had some incredible retreat experiences in my life that have really strengthened my faith. I remember when I was in seminary that I was really considering leaving, but then we had an eight-day silent retreat. This means that we were not allowed to talk, read newspapers, surf the internet, text, watch TV, or anything like that for eight days! The silent retreats can be difficult to get into, but in many ways, they really help to get in touch with God’s guidance in the Holy Spirit. During this retreat, I had a great strengthening of my vocation because of the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

This weekend we also celebrate the feast of Pentecost in which the Disciples had an incredible experience that changed their faith and gave them the courage to go out into the world to preach the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus promised that he would send the Paraclete or the Holy Spirit to guide them and on Pentecost the Holy Spirit came upon the Disciples to give them the courage and the abilities to be able to fulfill their mission to spread the faith to the world, and they did.

The Holy Spirit is still working in our world even today, but we need to calm ourselves to be able to listen to him, and retreats can help us to do that, but they are not the only way. We sometimes need to work for some silence in our lives. A book that I really enjoyed was from Cardinal Sarah called “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise” Cardinal Sarah reminds us that to truly hear that whisper of God we need to get into the silence and a retreat is a wonderful way to do that.

Even if we do not have an opportunity to do a spiritual retreat, maybe take some “micro” retreats in which we find a nice quiet place, turn off our phone, break out the Sacred Scriptures or find a good spiritual book and spend some time with God each and every day, and with God’s grace we will all be on fire with the Holy Spirit just like the Apostles were.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Summer is here!

This weekend we have the official kickoff to summer… Memorial Day weekend, even though the weather leading up to it does not feel like it. As we celebrate this day, we should be reminded that it is more than just another day off of work, or that it is often a day of picnics and grilling, the end of the school year, or even the beginning of summer. Memorial Day is a day that we set aside to remember those who have gone before us, especially those who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Memorial Day was proclaimed by General John Logan the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic on May 5th, 1868 and celebrated on May 30th of that year as a remembrance of both the confederate and union soldiers that were at Arlington National Cemetery. It was made a national holiday by the National Holiday Act of 1971. It has been expanded to not only remember those who have died serving our country, but to remember all of our beloved dead. It is difficult sometimes to remember those who have died because it can bring back the emotions of missing them, but we also know as Christians that there is a hope that we will see them again. During the funeral liturgy there is a beautiful prayer that is said as we are leaving the Church and getting ready to go to the cemetery that says “May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come to welcome you and take you to the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem.” This is the hope that we have the hope in eternal life with the Father.

Within our celebration of Memorial Day, like all days, should include prayer, but on this day prayers in a special way remembering those who have gone before us. Our memorial should include prayers for those who have died, but also those who are currently serving our nation in its military. We should pray that one day we can change the role of our military from that of combat to that of service for the good of all the peoples. One of my prayers for Memorial Day is that we one-day set aside all of our differences and never again have to live with the fear of violence, but that day will only happen when we see the goodness that God has really given all people and we can live out the message that Jesus himself gives us to love God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves. As we continue to work through these strange times, we can add a prayer for those who are serving to help protect us each day.

Take some time on Monday to pray for those who have died, those who have sacrificed themselves for freedom and to remember to thank God for His many gifts He has given us.

Special note to all: We want to thank those who continue to tithe, remember us with gifts and donations. April was a good month for the Parish and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. May God continue to bless your families and our Parish.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

A Tough Subject This Week

During this time in which we are home a lot more, and maybe have a bit more free time, we can often fall into some old habits or addictions. There is a subtle difference between the two, but basically a habit is something that we automatically do, whether good or bad, because we are used to doing it. An addiction on the other hand, is something that we do because we must do it and we often have little power on our own to stop it. We all know that addictions can cause major issues, we know that smoking can cause health issues, addictive use of alcohol and drugs can seriously affect our lives. Those are the addictions that most people think of when we mention addictions, but out there that are not often talked about; addictive hoarding, shopping and one that I am going to focus on in this article, pornography. It is one of the most addictive things out there and while some people don’t see it as a problem, but it is something that can ruin lives. It can drive a wedge in a marriage, change the way we see others, and can lead to other destructive behaviors. There are some scary statistics about it, the average age for the first viewing of hard-core pornography is now under 10 and 65% of the people between the ages of 13-24 actively seek it out at least weekly! It is commonly thought to be just a problem with males, but more and more, females are becoming addicts, with teens being the highest bracket affected. These statistics are kind of scary, and should be for parents of young children. We normally do not think that we should discuss this with young children, but we should do it in an appropriate way. For teens it should be at a higher level, and with the younger ones, we should do it in a way that is appropriate for them, a good resource is a book called “good pictures, bad pictures” they also make a jr version of it. For electronic devices, there are a number of decent filters out there that can help to block access, most are not perfect, but they can help.

For those who may be currently struggling with an addiction, there is support available as well. There are a number of good websites available fightthenewdrug.org is a pretty decent one, as well as some good filtering programs Covenanteyes is a pretty good one. In a recent priest study day, we had a priest from another diocese talk about his own struggle and overcoming his addiction. assessingpornaddiction.com is a good self-check for ourselves but we need to be honest with ourselves. He recommended a good process to get us through an addiction. Having a good and open Confession is a great start to it, second is to close off our access to porn, third is having accountability to someone, whether it be a spouse or close friend, fourth is counseling, Catholic Charities counseling services is a good starting place, and fifth is to stay vigilant! I know that this is not a fun topic, but it is one that is important and with God’s help, we can overcome anything.

God's blessing,
Fr. Ken

Happy Mother’s Day!

This weekend we will be celebrating Mother’s Day!

It is a holiday that we have only been celebrating for about a hundred years. This year we are again going to be celebrating it in a much different way than we have in the past as we have been doing for everything in the last month and a half. Most of us have a very fond memory of our mothers. We love them and care about them. A mother’s love is a very special one, even in Sacred Scriptures it is mentioned.

In the Gospel of John, it talks about when a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

Even Jesus himself listened to his mother at the wedding feast of Cana that I talked about last week, after the finding in the temple Jesus went down with Mary and Joseph and was obedient to them. While on the Cross, Jesus still wanted to know that his mother was going to be taken care of, so he entrusted her to the disciple whom he loved. God himself knows about the special love of a mother, and wants us to know that as well. Even though we may not be able to be with our mothers in this time we can still pray for them. If our mother has passed away, pray for her that she will be in the loving arms of God, if we are estranged from her, pray that God will bring healing in her and your hearts, if we are physically far away from her call her, or even if we are just away from her because of the pandemic, call her as well or maybe drive by the house and honk.

The respect for parents is so strong that God even gave us a commandment to honor them. I know that everyone does not always have a good relationship with our parents, but we can continue to pray for healing and to remember that we have the perfect mother in the kingdom of heaven that is always interceding for us in the Blessed Virgin Mother. For most, though we do have a good relationship and we can remember those wonderful times (and still remember our perfect mother in heaven.)

During Mother’s Day we often think of what we should get our mothers, but sometimes the greatest gift is to be with them. I think that it is fun to hear stories about different traditions within families about different holidays, or events. A friend of mine who has a couple of her kids that do not go to Mass every Sunday and others that go to different parishes, asks her kids for the gift of coming to Mass with her on Mother’s Day and then do something together. As we celebrate this Mother’s Day in the best way that we can, let us always remember to ask our heavenly mother to pray for our mothers. Happy Mother’s Day!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

May is for Mary

We have moved into the month of May and during this month we as a Church honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. The practice of dedicating May to Mary has been around for over 700 years. As Catholics we have a great respect and devotion to Mary that is sometimes questioned by non-Catholics, we are often accused of Mariolatry which means that we are accused of worshiping Mary, but you all know that we do not worship Mary, worship is only for God. What we do as Catholics is to honor Mary and the other saints. So, the question is why do we have this devotion and what does it mean for us. Well, the simplest answer to the question is that she was the one in whom our Lord and Savior Jesus chose to be born from with the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself honored his mother and so should we.

There are a number of passages in Scripture that support the fact that Jesus honored his mother. In the passage from John’s Gospel about the wedding feast in Cana, Mary came to Jesus when they ran out of wine and he responds, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” To which she responds to tell the waiters to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. This passage is one that shows us that Mary’s intercession does hold some weight with Jesus, remember he does what his mother asks! Another passage that shows the concern and love that he has for Mary is at the Crucifixion itself when on the cross he gives her to the care of the disciple who he loves. Throughout history Mary has interceded for us and also has appeared many times to give us hope in times of trial. Mary has a special role in our history, and that role is to bring Jesus to us and us to Jesus.

May is the month in which we are reminded to pray the rosary and other devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary asking for her intercession. I think that in this time of trial and struggle we can rely on her strength and witness to her son even in his death. Take some time this month to see where we can continually draw closer to our heavenly mother, who in turn will fulfill her role to bring us to her son and our Savior.

God bless,
Father Ken

Happy Easter season!

We have gotten through the most bizarre Holy Week and Octave of Easter that I have ever been a part of. Even though there are many challenges that we are still facing, the one thing that we can always take out of the resurrection of Jesus is hope. Hope that we will get through this challenging time and hope that we will continue to see the many blessings that God has bestowed on us. I think that the Scripture readings in this past week or so have been so fitting for us in what we are going through at this time.

The Apostles and disciples were confused about what was happening to them as well as what was happening in the world around them. Mary Magdala went to the tomb and saw Jesus but did not recognize him until he called her by name, because she wasn’t expecting him to be alive, but he called her back to him and sent her to the others.

The Apostles for a while were still hiding out in the Upper Room until Jesus came to them and breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and sent them out. We too are hiding in our rooms and a blessing that we can remember is that we have that room to spend the time in. Peter and the other Apostles were kind of going back to their previous lives, for example Peter mentions that he is going fishing and the others join him, even though they catch nothing that night, Jesus appears to them on the shore in the morning and guides them to a huge catch.

This reminds us that when we are lacking something, if we listen to Jesus, he will lead us to a super-abundance. In our time of confusion and uncertainty we need to use the example of those who were with Jesus and going through the Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus with him. Even though they were confused and worried, they still trusted in him.

I know that I have used this quote that I have in my office in the past, but it is one that is very fitting for us in this time “The deeds and miracles of Jesus are not actions of the past. Jesus is waiting for those who are still prepared to take risks at his word because they trust in his power utterly.” Do we still trust that our Lord will help us to get through this time? I know that there are many people who are worried about many things, like health, finances, freedoms, supplies, etc., but keep praying, keep trusting in his word and we will cease to be confused because we trust in him utterly.

God bless,
Father Ken

How is the fasting going?

This week we break out the rose or pink vestments again as a celebration that we really do rejoice in the Lenten season, even though we are fasting.

This Sunday is called Laetare Sunday from the entrance antiphon which states Laetare Jerusalem or rejoice O Jerusalem, it comes from the Psalm “Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord…”. Our celebration of Laetare Sunday is to give us hope through our fasting, and is celebrated here, because we are over the half-way point of the Lenten season.

So, how is the fasting going? Is it getting easier because we are in the habit of it, or is it harder because we have not had it for a while? The purpose of fasting is to use the temptation that we feel to increase our self-control so we can be better at moving away from the temptation to sin. We rejoice in our self-control because it really does lead us to freedom, the freedom from sin. When we are slaves to an addiction, no matter what it is, whether it be gossip, alcohol, drugs, pornography, or anything else, the addiction does not give us the freedom to live our lives as we should, or want to, so we are slaves.

Currently the number one addiction in our nation is pornography and it is affecting kids younger and younger. The average age of first exposure is now less than 10, and as most other addictions, it leads to other problems in our lives. The practice of fasting helps us in the building of our self-control leads us to the true freedom that God wants us to have, so we can rejoice, even in our suffering. We also know that in our temptation, we are not in this alone.

A couple of weeks ago, we heard the Gospel passage in which Christ himself was tempted and he overcame the temptation as an example for us. He himself suffered and he accepted that suffering also for us. We can overcome temptation, suffering, and death with His help. Lent is really a beautiful time of the year and really is a season in which we can rejoice in the practices that we are doing during this season. We can also rejoice because of all of the opportunities during this wonderful season we have to grow in our faith as we prepare our hearts and minds for the upcoming Easter season.

Fr. Ken Halbur

A Letter RE: COVID-19 Cancellations

My dear people of St. Luke the Evangelist. On March 17th Bishop Joensen released new guidelines in regard to the COVID-19 outbreak going on.

1. Sunday weekend Masses and daily Masses are NOT to be celebrated in parish churches until further notice. An exception may be made if the parish has the capacity to broadcast the Mass to an electronic audience, and that ONLY the priest and any assisting minister(s) may be present for the Mass. Parish priests will continue to celebrate daily Mass as they are ordinarily enjoined to do, but without a congregation unless performed under the conditions specified in the previous statement.

2. Parish churches may remain open at the discretion of the pastor for visits and individual devotional prayer during the week and on weekends (with the presumption that heightened housekeeping and hygienic practices are observed). A set of recommended means for persons to draw close to God and his Church in prayer and spiritual presence is will be available in a separate document; further spiritual opportunities and resources may be provided by local parish staffs.

3. Funeral Masses may be celebrated with less than 10 persons present. Nuptial Masses already scheduled may be celebrated with the 10 person limit; ideally, these Masses should be rescheduled after government leaders give the “all clear” notice. Any and all other public ceremonies should be rescheduled.

4. Distribution of communion in parishes or health care institutions is strictly subject to the directives and policies of authorities charged with oversight of those institutions, and may well be prohibited. In danger of death, Viaticum may be distributed by a health care professional as well as a member of the clergy or recognized Eucharistic minister—again, if in accord with institutional policies.

5. Other sacraments (Baptism in cases of serious illness or other pastoral need, Confession and Anointing of the Sick) may not be celebrated in common, but only individually at the priest’s discretion with serious pastoral necessity. Standard health norms should be respected (e.g., use of a screen or confessional space where appropriate physical distance of six feet will be observed and with hygienic cleaning after each penitent; other protective clothing measures for anointing of persons who are obviously sick).

6. Parish meetings or events where parishioners physically gather (e.g., fish fry dinners, Feast-day gatherings, confirmation and other religious faith formation) are to be CANCELLED unless an electronic means of engagement is available.

7. The Chrism Mass, originally scheduled for 7 PM on Friday, April 3, 2020, will instead be celebrated in simpler form (e.g., absent a Diocesan Chorale with only ministers and select regional representatives present) on a day and location to be determined. No general public participation will be allowed; the Holy Oils will be distributed to individual parishes sometime following this liturgy.

8. Please stay tuned for guidelines pertaining to Holy Week liturgies, including the Sacred Triduum, and Easter Sunday, as well as celebration of First Communions and Confirmations during the Easter Season. It is highly likely that Triduum liturgies will be restricted only to assisting ministers with the option of broadcasting; Initiation Sacraments for catechumens and candidates will occur, but likely in a different manner. All parish First Communion and Confirmation Masses should be considered postponed until further notice; more information will be forthcoming from Pastoral Center offices in the days and weeks ahead.

I know that it seems drastic to cancel our celebration of the Eucharist, but we are in a similar situation as the flu epidemics in the early 1900’s in which many thousands of people died. As we continue to see this unfold, know that you are all in my prayers each and every day, and I ask each and every one of you to pray for me as well as the leaders of our nation and world. At this point, we will still have the church open from 7-7 every day and the parish office will be open during the day, but I ask for people to call unless it is urgent or something that cannot be handled over the phone or via email. As for the finances of the parish, we are ok for a little while, but I ask for your continued support in these challenging times donations can be made online, mailed, or in the drop boxes just inside the doors of the building. Continue to check in on each other, take this opportunity to spend time with your families, and to spend some time with God and learning about God. There are resources being put together for the students in the school, as well as for the students in our Religious Education program. Keep an eye on the website, Facebook, and parish emails for updates and opportunities for prayer and our new and temporary way of being the people of God together.

God Bless,
Fr Ken Halbur

Almsgiving; Time, Talent, and Treasure

To continue on the three pillars of the Lenten season, this week I focus on the last one, Almsgiving!

Fasting and prayer are two things that are tied together because they can give strength to each other. Prayer helps us with the desire and ability to fast and the self-denial of fasting can help us and lead us to a better prayer life.

The third focus of Lent being almsgiving, which is something that can easily come out of a good prayer life and a time of fasting. I know many different people who take the money that they would have spent doing whatever they gave up and give it to a charity as another sacrifice. Almsgiving is not just something that we should do during Lent, it is something that we should be doing all year long. Often times the focus of almsgiving is just the monetary aspect of it, and it is an important part of it, because the parish still does need to pay the light bills and the mortgage payment of the facility. So, the treasure part of it is something that we need, but there are two other parts of it in time and talent.

Time is the offering of ourselves to the needs of something. We have many different volunteers that offer their time to help around here, from serving breakfasts, to helping in the school kitchen, to being a greeter or other things around here. Talent is giving of a specific thing that we are good at to the parish, in the past and still currently we have many people who give of their talents, from serving on committees and giving good insight to being a lector at Mass, to gardening, to many other things that help out around here. As one person, I am limited in my own talents and still have a need for others to continue to help out with their talents.

Each of us has something that we are passionate about and one of the great things in the Church, is that we have many opportunities to share our time, talent, and treasure in those things that we are passionate about. As a new and young parish, we are in need of all three parts of stewardship, volunteers of time and talent helping out with the many projects that we have going on, and treasure to be able to fund them. The word that we use in the Church is tithing, which comes from the word for a tenth. The Idea of giving a tenth of what we get comes from the Old Testament with the priest Melchizedek who is given a tenth of what Abraham has.

Within our parish, financially we are focusing on a couple of things, the first is finishing our capital campaign, the second is reducing our debt, and the third is to bring up our tithing or general donations to the working of the parish.

I pray that you will all have a continued blessed Lenten season that will lead us to the joys of the Easter Resurrection.

Fr. Ken Halbur

Lenten Prayer

Within the Lenten season, we have three pillars that we follow to help and guide us.

The first, I touched on a bit last week and that is fasting or giving up of something. The second one that we focus on during this season is prayer. Yes, we should be praying each and every day of the year and not just during the Lenten season, but this is also a time of renewal of our lives. Lent is a time of cleansing and renewal.

This is not a new idea, our Jewish ancestors did something similar with their households, before the feast of Passover, it was and still is custom to do a full and thorough cleaning of the house, as they say, from top to bottom of any room in which there was a chance that there was a trace of food, specifically “chametz” which is leavening. This process sometimes begins as far out as a month before Passover, and this is a cleansing to make sure that they are ready for the coming Passover of God.

We also have a cleansing of our souls and that comes from this Season of Lent in which we clean with Fasting, Prayer, and Almsgiving. Prayer is the thing that we can do constantly in our lives to help us grow closer to God and then help us grow closer to each other.

Within the Church, we have many different prayers styles and the highest form of prayer is of course the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is a form of prayer called corporate prayer, or prayer in which we come together in a group to do. This type of prayer could also include the praying of the Rosary with others, common recitation of a prayer in which priests, deacons, and religious are promised called the Liturgy of the Hours, or other prayers in which we pray together.

The other kind of prayer is private prayer, this is just as it sounds, we pray in private, just like Jesus reminds us that we can go into our inner room and pray to our Heavenly Father in private. Our rich tradition of prayer includes many different kinds of prayer, wrote prayer which is the praying of memorized prayers like the Lord’s Prayer or the Hail Mary, Scripture study prayer, devotional prayer which is that simple conversation with God, and so many others that I could spend hundreds of pages explaining.

The key is to find a prayer style that you find will draw you into that relationship with God, because in the end, that is the whole reason for prayer, to build our relationship with the Lord and to be able to then share that relationship with others. God loves us so much that he wants us to be with him. While having a good, quiet, and set amount of time to sit and pray is the best, it does not always work out that we can do that, but even in the busyness of the day we can find little times to pray. It can be while we are driving, or waiting in line for something or some other creative time, the key is to make that time to pray, especially during this wonderful season of Lent.

Fr. Ken Halbur

Can you believe that Lent has started?

One of the things that I really like about Lent is that it gives us an opportunity to look at our lives and see what we need to work on. During Lent, one of the most common questions we hear, is what are you giving up? This is often the main focus of what we do during this season in which we prepare ourselves for the coming passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The giving up of something is the fasting aspect of our Lenten celebrations, and when we give something up for Lent, we are sometimes the tempted to “cheat” in what we are giving up. Remember it is not a sin to eat or do what we have promised to give up, it is an act of self-denial and self-sacrifice. I remind people every year, that the thing we give up is a penance and sacrifice for us and not for those other people around us!

We should not sacrifice something if we are going to be cranky and complain about it all of the time. Our sacrifice should not be a sacrifice for others, but for ourselves. We live in a self-indulgent and disposable society that wants things right now and not later. We are being conditioned by advertisers to consume, to buy more even if you cannot afford it, just go into debt for it, that is what credit is for, right!?! But, when it does not make you happy any more, or it gets old, throw it away and get the newest and the best available.

We are often told through advertising that we NEED the newest and greatest thing out there, but the newest and greatest thing changes right after you purchase it. Just look at the cell phone industry, here is the greatest phone ever made, you need it and if you don’t have it, you are not cool anymore.

The whole idea behind fasting from something for Lent is so that whenever we reach for, or are tempted by the thing that we have given up, we should be reminded that we do have some self-control and that we should use it, not only in the fasting, but also to have the self-control to not sin.

During this Lenten season, take some time to not only fast from something, but also to try and do something good to replace it, for example, if you decide to give up going out to fast food restaurants, take the money that you would have spent on it and give it to a charity. Take the time during this Lenten season to really focus on giving up something that can help us draw closer to God each and every day. I pray that you will have a good Lenten season to prepare for the rising of Jesus.

Father Ken Halbur

“Watch out for the slick spots”

“Watch out for the slick spots.”

This is a phrase that you hear many times during this time of the year. We sometimes have the freezing rain, sleet, and snow, then we have the melting during the day and the re-freezing at night. This makes the sidewalks and streets kind of slippery and we have those many opportunities to fall and harm ourselves. I have to admit, that last year I was walking out to my car and hit one of those spots and went down.

This is also the time of year when the auto body shops are busy from all of the little fender benders that we have. These slick spots and fender benders do not only happen on the streets and sidewalks; they happen throughout our own lives. Most car collisions are avoidable if all of us are paying attention, we would be able to see the car coming, if we would be going slower, if we were not playing with our phone, or with the radio, we really could avoid most collisions.

But also, in life we are not always perfect and hit some of those slick spots, we are sometimes not paying attention to others around us and we cause damage to them, or we get into a hurry and overlook the people in our lives who really need us at that time. I am sometimes guilty of this myself, a part of my personality is one that can get focused too heavily on something and then I can get so caught up in noise of the world, the current project I am working on, or my homily, that I can slip and fail to take care of someone in need, which is what a sin of omission is. When we crash and harm another, the best thing we can do is to figure out what is needed to do to repair the problem and the relationship that we have with the person, even though it may not be easy. In many ways, fixing a physical injury is much more straight forward and easier than trying to fix broken trust, or another part of our relationship.

We can remember things that we have done to others, or that others have done to us or those we care about for a very long time. Even though we apologize, or have others apologize for the something they have done to us, the memory and the trust has been broken and we will often times have that in the back of our mind many times when we are with the person. This takes sometimes a great deal of time to get past, but Jesus reminds us to forgive so that we also may be forgiven. So, the best way to not get into these situations is to be careful in the first place. We often run into many different temptations in our lives, but, like driving, if we are careful we can do our best to avoid the crashes, and when we have failed in this, get up, shake off the dirt, fix the damage, forgive the hurt, and thank God.

Fr. Ken Halbur

Learning From Children Playing

One of the great blessings being at a parish with a School is that I get to witness some incredible amounts of energy in just watching the children play either outside on the playground or in the gym.

Sometimes it is funny just to stand by and watch them run around and play to see what they will come up with. They will chase each other, climb on the equipment, lay down in the grass, throw a ball, sit on the bench, spin in circles, or whatever else. Sometimes they even have what I call a crash, they fall down or they run into each other, but the thing that is great about kids, is that they are pretty durable, when they fall down, they get right back up. Usually they will just get right back up, brush off their clothes, and be on their way, but other times they need some help they will go and get a Band-aid or an ice pack.

The great thing is that in making those mistakes they learn from them. When they get hurt on something, they often times are more careful around it… at least for a little while. Then most of the time they are right back into doing the same things again or learn a better way of doing it. We can sometimes learn from our children, that when we fall down, we should get right back up, even though physically, this gets harder and harder as we gain in life experience.

This same thing goes for our spiritual life as well. We kind of go on our way running around and living our life until we trip over something or we are not paying attention and just fall down and sin by either committing one or omitting something. The key is that we need to get back up again and start over, but also, we need to remind ourselves that somethings that we run into cause us to fall and we need to try and avoid them, just like kids do.

Sometimes when we fall in that spiritual life, we need that ice pack or Band-aid and that is the sacrament of confession that thing that helps us to get rid of the injury. Also, just like kids we cannot let the failures that we have keep us on the sidelines, we need to get back up, put on the Band-aid and get back to doing what we need to be doing. The running around and playing for kids is a way to get some exercise and also entertainment for them, our prayer life is a way for us to recharge ourselves in our daily life.

When we take that time to spend with God, he will lead us to where we need to go and even help us to see the dangers that we can trip over so that we can learn from them.

Fr. Ken Halbur