Rejoice, Christ is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia

We have again made it to the most wondrous season of Easter. I always marvel at the fact, that on Ash Wednesday I think how far Easter is away, and when I get to Easter, I think how fast the Lenten season goes. It is a busy time around the parish and school. We have lots of extra Confession times during Lent, and usually we have other events going on as well. So, how did the Lenten fasting go? Hopefully, it went well and helped us to refocus ourselves.

For the last six weeks during the Lenten season, we have also fasted from using the word Alleluia. It is a word of rejoicing and praise and it is one of the few words that we do not translate. If it were translated, it would roughly mean, “All hail to him who is.” Easter is the season of rejoicing; we have come from a season of fasting and penance to the season of joy. It is joyful because Jesus Christ, who once was dead, is now alive. He has Risen. In fact, that was one of the greetings that ancient Christians gave to each other. They would say, “The Lord is risen” and the reply would be “He has risen indeed.”

It is no accident that Easter is in the Spring, a season of new life. The grass is starting to get green; the livestock is being born; the songbirds are returning; the flowers are starting to come up. You get the picture! It is a season of new life and the symbols that we use in Church are symbols of new life. Just look at the symbols that we use. Lilies resemble a trumpet that is blaring out the news “Christ is risen.” They also are reported to have bloomed on the tomb. Rabbits are a very prolific animal and have been symbols of life for many different cultures, which is why rabbits are often associated with Easter and the new life of it. The symbol of eggs and chicks is an obvious one, since the chickens hatch out of the eggs and are the beginning of their life.

We, in this Easter season, celebrate not just the beginning of life but also the beginning of a new and eternal life. Jesus really did die on the cross, but he also raised himself from the tomb, and that is that incredible event that we celebrate today. Easter, like Christmas, is not just a single day that we celebrate, we celebrate for an entire week, called the octave. We celebrate the wonderful gift that God has given us, and that is the path that he shows us to eternal life with him.

In this Easter week, take some time to reread the passion, death, and resurrection story of our Lord and savior and then say a prayer in thanksgiving for the wonderful gift that God has given us. He sent His own Son into the world to live our life and to die our death so that we can be shown the path back to the Father.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Hosanna to the Son of David…

This weekend we celebrate the memory of Christ triumphal entering into the holy city of Jerusalem. The people were praising him and rejoicing that he was coming. They were laying down their cloaks and putting palms over the road for him to ride in on. Just imagine what it was like, the joy and the revelry, the pure excitement at the new King, the Son of David coming into the city…but then it changes. Everything changes within the span of just a few days. Change is nothing new and even having major shifts in our lives like what is happening right now, has happened in the past and is a part of change, some of it we can control, most of it we can’t.

Palm Sunday begins this very holy week, which is the most sacred week of the entire year. It is a week of wildly swinging emotion; it goes from the joy and excitement of Jesus entering into the city of Jerusalem like a king, mounted on a donkey, to an extreme low of the betrayal by a friend, his arrest, imprisonment, condemnation, Way of the Cross, to his death, then back to the joy of the Resurrection. It is such a beautiful and solemn week it is a week that we witness how far Jesus was willing to go for the redemption of our sins. I was thinking that two years ago, it was just a few of us in the church celebrating this Holy Week and last year we were opening up the other half of the pews to use. This year we have everything open and even room to flow over into the gym.

So…how are we planning on celebrating this greatest week of the year? In the early Church, we did not celebrate Christmas, we only celebrated Easter, because it was the day that Christ rose from the dead. This week, we will again celebrate that incredible sacrifice that Christ gave to us, his own life among us, his death, and resurrection. Are we planning on it being just another week of the year, or are we planning on doing something special? I would recommend being a part of the extra liturgies that we have this week with Holy Thursday and Good Friday being wonderful reminders of the sacrifice that Christ did for us.

Next Saturday evening at the Easter Vigil, we will be welcoming in our new members into the Church. As we prepare for our celebration of the passion, death, and resurrection of our Savior, let us be mindful of that great gift He has given us and celebrate it with the wonder, awe, and joy that it is. Our Lenten journey is quickly coming to a close, and next week we will rejoice that the Son of God has returned from death to overcome the power of death to lead us into the eternal joys of heaven. So have a blessed Triduum and Easter, and know that all of you are in my prayers, as we pray and hope for our own resurrection into the kingdom of heaven as we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Our Lenten Journey

One of my pet peeves is using the imagery or language of a desert for Lent. When I think of a desert, I think of emptiness, dryness, and nothingness. The season of Lent is nothing like that! It is NOT a time of dryness or emptiness, it is a season of renewal and preparation. It is a season of remembrance of what our God and Savior was willing to endure for the love of us! When we pray the Stations of the Cross, we are strikingly reminded of that journey that Jesus was willing to do. We walk the path that Jesus himself walked. We honor the time in which Pilot condemned Jesus to death, when he picked up His Cross and began his journey to His death. I find this a moving experience, how we solemnly pray as we meditate on these stations. It is quiet, peaceful, painful, prayerful, and moving.

I have had the blessing to be able to have celebrated the Via Dolorosa (way of pain) in Jerusalem, roughly where they happened the first time a number of different times. I remember the first time we prayed it, we started at about 4:00 am and it was quiet, peaceful, and prayerful. It was what I expected. I also remember another time that myself and a couple of my seminarian friends decided to do the Stations at 3:00 in the afternoon. As we moved along the Via Dolorosa, we went through the old city itself. The shops were open, and the shopkeepers were doing their best to part you from your money, to buy souvenirs. It was crowded and noisy, it was not very prayerful as you pushed your way through the crowds of people on the streets. I was beginning to get upset because I was trying to pray and I was getting interrupted. Then it hit me… this is exactly what it would have been like the first time it happened. Jesus being pushed through the crowd, people selling things, people yelling and screaming, it would not have been quiet. This is a stark reminder of what Jesus really went through.

I remember a number of years ago at another parish, we had a kindergartner named Jack who went to the Stations a few times, but I will never forget his first experience with them. He was crying and after we were done with them, I was talking to him about it and Jack said that he was crying because the people were so mean to Jesus. Jack understood the basics of what the Stations of the Cross were about, he understood the pain and suffering that Jesus was willing to go through, he did not yet have the why. The why is love, the love that he had for us and even the people who were mean to him, and when I explained that to Jack, it made him smile.

We often pray the Stations of the Cross in the Lenten season not because they are empty, but because they are full of love. The only emptiness of the Lenten season is the self-emptying of sacrifice that we do, because it is only when we empty ourselves of the sin that we do, that it can be refilled with the goodness and the love that God has that helped him to endure the sacrifice for us. So let us empty ourselves of sin this Lenten season so that we can be filled with God’s goodness in the Easter season.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Laetare Sunday

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 unhealthy actions that lead us to 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 a significant number of high-school and college students would be considered addicts, this goes for both boys and girls. As with most other addictions, the addiction to pornography leads to other problems in our lives, including inappropriate and risky actions.

The practice of fasting helps us in the building of our self-control which 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.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Worrying about the weather

Right now, we are in the middle of the weather roller coaster that is March in Iowa. A couple of weeks ago, we had summer, spring, and winter within just a few days. The old saying holds true again, if you don’t like the weather in the mid-west, just wait 20 minutes and it will change.

Just like the weather, in life things change constantly, sometimes for the good, and sometimes for the bad. Just think of the time in which someone gave you some very good news that surprised you, or the shock of having a sudden challenge in life. Even turning on the news can cause us to see the changes going on in the world and that can lead us to worrying about things.

How often do you get caught up in the things that are going on, things that you have no control over? We live in a time in which you can pull out of your pocket or purse a device that can instantly give you information from just about anywhere in the world with the click of a thumb. I have a friend who has banned his mother from watching the Weather Channel because she used to sit and watch it most of the day and worry about the weather in other countries and regions. The weather is something that she could not control but she worried about it anyway. While there are times that we really wish that we could control the weather, we cannot. We spend so much time stressing and worrying about things that we shouldn’t; they are things that are not in our hands, but in God’s.

This is something that I need to listen to myself, I constantly worry about the things that are going on in this parish, even though I know that God will provide! I by my own nature tend to worry. I need to keep reminding myself that worry steals from hope and peace and peace of tomorrow, and that hope and trust in God overcomes worry. When we allow ourselves to get caught up in those things that may never happen, we forget to concentrate on the people and things that are going on right now. When we get stressed about things, we often take it out on people that are around us, most especially those that are closest to us. This is something that we can work on and that will help us with the worry. Even in our busy lives, we can take some time to pray- pray for calmness and peace in our hearts, pray for peace in our world. When I begin to worry about things myself, I remember that if we trust in God everything will work out.

Padre Pio was a saint who had some incredible struggles in his life, but he was also one who had a great saying “Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.” And also “My past, O Lord, to Your mercy; my present, to Your love; my future to Your providence.” My advice is to Pray, hope, work to change those things you can, and trust that God will take care of the rest.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Lighten Your Heart

During the Lenten season, we focus on our lives and then it should encourage us to celebrate the sacrament of confession. So here is a little guide on how to make a great confession. Pray and ask God to guide you. A daily examination of conscience is a wonderful tool to help us bring those things that we are really sorry for to God.

One of the things that I often recommend during Confession is to, at the end of the day, ask God how the day went. Think of the good things that we have done and give thanks to God for those wonderful little times. Also, think of the times in the day in which we could have done better, or even did something that we really should not have done and ask for the strength to change how we do that the next time we are in that situation. He is a merciful God and wants us to be forgiven.

As a priest over 12 years and after hearing thousands of confessions, I know that there are no new sins under the sun. While we should be embarrassed that we have sinned, you should not feel embarrassed to tell the priest the sin.  It does not make me think any less of people because they have a specific sin that may be bad.  In fact, I am more often humbled by someone who comes in and says that while they are struggling with a sin, they are doing better.

Another thing that we need to remember, is to leave the “buts” out of it!- as it was said when I was young, “number and kind” of sins. When we confess our sins, they should be specific but not qualified “I hit my sister twice” not “I hit my sister twice because she was mean to me, or she hit me first.” When we are sorry and are asking for forgiveness, we do not need to create a defense or make excuses, just ask for forgiveness and it will be given. Remember Adam blamed Eve, whom God put there, for his sin and Eve blamed the serpent.  It is very easy to blame others for our sins, but we need to take responsibility for them.  In the confessional I sometimes hear the sins that other people do around the one in the confessional.  While in some circumstances it can give a background or a struggle that is going on in someone’s life, this is usually a justification for the sin.

Sometimes we feel that because we are confessing the same things pretty much every time we go to confession, then we are failing. The point is, if we have a habit of a particular or multiple particular sins, then it/they are something that we need to keep being focused on and use confession as the reset. Confession is not complicated and the more we practice it, the easier it gets.  A friend of mine calls the confessional a “sin bin” so drop them off and leave them …forever. Remember the most important thing, a good confession lightens our heart so we can receive God.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

We are a very young parish

Something very interesting that I have been telling our committee members is the age breakout of our parish.

I know that it might be a shock around here, but we are a very young parish, in fact, 26% of the people registered here at St. Luke’s are under the age of 10! The second largest age group is by no surprise, their parents so 18% is aged 30-39 years old. We also have another 15% that is under 20, so almost 42% of the parish is under the age of 20. (I was kind of surprised that at 51, I am in the top 15% of age here.) That means that our average age of the people registered here is under the age of 28.

While these numbers might be a bit surprising, they should not be too shocking, especially if you come to the 8:30 or 10:30 Masses. They paint a pretty amazing picture of where we are at as a parish, insofar as how we are growing. This uniqueness of our parish also presents its own challenges, especially with the respect to fundraising.  I have said that in most parishes, the parents fill the school buildings, while grandparents pay for them. This is something that we are going to need to keep an eye on here and change, as we continue to grow.

Whenever I have someone introduce themselves and tell me that this is the first time that they have come to Mass here, I warn them that we have very “active” Masses here with the number of kids here and that it is a wonderful thing. I often say, I would rather have the kids making a bit of noise and have them here, than to not have them come.  We sometimes hear that children are the future of the Church, but I argue that for them to be the future, they need to first be the present with their parents, even if they make some noise.

We do and will continue to have some growing pains here because we are growing faster than we can afford to construct buildings, so we have to be creative in the way we do things. We will soon be installing a larger screen, and upgrading audio and video for the gym to accommodate the overflow for Masses. This will get rid of the delay for the video on the screen, which I know is a bit distracting, it will also allow us to get rid of the cable that runs through the narthex and along the wall in the gym. I have to admit, even though there are many challenges here, and the celebration of Mass is not the peaceful, quiet, and contemplative way that would be ideal, it is such a blessing to be here in the midst of the vibrant life and excitement that is here.

So… Parents, keep up the good work of bringing the kids to Mass every Sunday, it can only help to strengthen the faith that you have and that you can continue to give your children.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Lenten Sacrifice

I know that it is hard to believe, but Lent starts this week! 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 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 of this 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. I think that this has been one of the shocks of these last few months, as we hear of the supply chain issues. We are being conditioned by advertisers to consume, to buy more and more, whether you can afford it or not, just go into debt for it, after all, 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 problem is that 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!”

One of the counters to this idea of envy is fasting. 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 learn 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.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Wonderful Faith Of A Child

How many have been shocked at the utter simplicity and embarrassing honesty of children about what they see? “That guy has a funny nose” or “that girl has a…” you fill in the blank. Children will often repeat things they have heard.

While in the seminary I would sometimes receive letters from a school class asking me questions or telling me that they were praying for me. One day, I received some letters from a first-grade class in the diocese. It always made my day to get these letters.

The children liked to ask lots of questions, and there was one in particular that really struck me. It was one of the toughest questions that I got from someone. In between the questions of; “what is your favorite color in the whole world” and “do you know how to finger weave?” It was, “what is your favorite gift from Jesus?” I had to stop and really think about that for a while. What is the favorite gift that you have received from God? Now I am not going to tell you what I said, because I want you to think of that for yourself. The answer will be different for each one of us.

Children have a wonderful simplicity and a way of thinking about things that can make us wonder where we lost that same way of thinking. Jesus tells us that “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”

The faith that a child has is incredible, you can tell a child that there is a mystery to the Trinity and the Eucharist and they will accept it because that is the way that it is. This simplicity can come out in different ways. For example, I was talking to a child on one of those dark cloudy days and you could see rays of sunlight coming through the clouds. This little boy asked if the rays of light were places where God was shining His light on someone who needs it. This faith of that child was to see something that commonly happens on a dark and cloudy day, could also be seen as a wonderful gift of God’s light shining down on a dark day. When I see those rays of light, I can see that it really is God shining His light on each one of us who need it. I often think of this comment on those dark days to see the faith that we are all called to have.

Now when I say this, I do not mean that we are simply called to have a faith that is without reason, as many of our saints tell us that our faith, while mysterious, still has a reason to it. We are called to see that great balance between having a child-like faith and one that is reasonable. This is why Jesus takes the time to explain some of the parables. So remember, have that wonderful faith of a child.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

"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, a couple of years ago 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.

In life, we are not always perfect and hit some of those slick spots as well. 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 that I 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

Anointing of the Sick

Within the Church, we have a wonderful sacrament called the Anointing of the Sick. There is often a confusion with the Sacrament of the Sick. This can be confusing because some people still call it the “Last Rites.” The Last Rites, which is technically called Viaticum (which is anciently translated to “provisions for a journey”) in the Church, is for those who are close to death.

The Sacrament of the Sick or Anointing of the Sick is something that can be received by anyone who is ill, having a surgery, or someone who is advanced in age. It can be received multiple times as needed. One does not need to be at the point of death to receive the Anointing, nor does a baptized child before what is called the age of reason (before going to First Reconciliation.) Anointing of the Sick is for the healing of the body as well as the soul and it holds the same power as the Sacrament of Confession- it removes sin, most especially for those who are not able to celebrate the Sacrament of Confession. This is why it was often seen as needing to wait until someone was close to death to receive it.

Now Viaticum or Last Rites is a service in which someone receives the “provisions for the journey” to heaven. It includes the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, and reception of the Holy Eucharist. To receive the fullness of Viaticum, the person receiving it does need be conscious and able to confess their sins and also be able to receive Holy Communion. This begs the question, if someone who has received Last Rites gets better, can they receive it again, and the answer is yes, they can, I have personally celebrated Viaticum at least three times with the same person (I jokingly called her a drama queen at the last one and she thought that it was very funny.)

I have had some incredible experiences with this wonderful sacrament. A very interesting one was with someone who had been very agitated and restless for quite a while, and one of the Protestant hospital chaplains had been trying to calm him down for a little while. The family then called for the priest and they got ahold of me and I went to see him, within a few minutes of having received the Sacraments of Confession and Anointing of the Sick, he was calm and relaxed. It is a wonderful sacrament to be able to give, because of the mercy and peace it offers.

The Church has a wealth of prayers and blessings and this is a fantastic one to be able to give and receive. If you would like to receive the Anointing of the Sick, don’t hesitate to call me or Fr. James at the office, or stop one of us after Mass. The Anointing only takes a few minutes to do and is a great blessing and comfort for those who receive it as well as their families.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Catholic Education

This week is Catholic Schools Week. Within the Catholic Church we have had a long tradition of educating children as well as adults. The title often used for Jesus was Rabbi, which means teacher and one of the things that He did was to teach us about the Father. This has been a mission of the Catholic Church for two thousand years with formal Catholic schools for many hundreds of years. Currently there are over 1.9 million students in a Catholic Elementary School in the United States and over 32 million worldwide. To put that number in perspective, that means 17% of all students in the world go to a Catholic school, and in less developed countries, the percentage of Catholic educated children is much higher.

The Catholic Church has had a long history of promoting education, so when I hear the false phrase that the Church is against science I just have to laugh because we have been teaching and encouraging science for many years. Copernicus was a cleric of the Church, which means he received minor orders. Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian Friar, was a pioneer of modern genetics; Msgr. Georges Lemaitre was the one who proposed the basics for the Hubble law (the big bang theory) and a few years ago was renamed to the Hubble-Lemaitre law.

The Catholic Church has been doing formal education of students from the second century, so a very long tradition of education of students. Even in our own nation, The Catholic Church has been in the teaching business for a long time. The first Catholic school in the United States was opened in 1606 by Franciscan missionaries. Education has been the mission of the Church ever since Jesus walked the earth. Remember he commands us to go out to all the nations and preach the Gospel. While a school is not the primary mission of the Catholic Church, it helps us with our primary goal and that is to bring all people to Christ and thus to heaven.

I often hear that it is too expensive for families to send their children to Catholic school, but there are many resources available for help. One of the great programs is Catholic Tuition Organization which gives scholarships based on need, we here also have an angel fund that assists parents as well. Parents sacrifice financially to send their children to the school with their tuition payments, and other help of time, talent, and treasure. Teachers, faculty, and administration give because their salary could be higher by working for the public schools. Parishioners and other family and friends help by donating funds, supporting fundraisers, and the many other events that go on in the school.

Here at St. Luke’s, we have been growing at a pretty rapid pace, which facilitated the need for phase II and will likely need to begin Phase III in a few years. We have grown from 156 students 3 years ago to 274 this year and we expect to break the 300-mark next year. Catholic schools have been a wonderful part of our tradition and it has been such a blessing to be a part of all of the schools that I have been blessed to serve.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

"Pro-Life"

On Friday of this past week, Washington DC was flooded with hundreds of thousands of people in the annual March for Life. If you have watched the main news outlets you probably didn’t hear much about it, even though it is one of the largest attended annual marches, or you were shown a small group of counter protesters. The annual March for Life is expected to have well over half-a-million people come to march peacefully, and it is a wide spectrum of people, including many thousand young people going to support the life of those who do not have a voice.

It is pretty common knowledge that the Catholic Church is a strong leader in the Pro-Life movement, which goes well beyond the work to end abortions. It is one of the primary missions of the Pro-Life group, but not the only one. Each year, over 900,000 children are aborted in the U.S. alone, that is a staggering number and sadly in Washington DC, 38% of pregnancies end in abortion.

It is estimated that one out of four women have had an abortion and we need to respond to them with mercy, forgiveness, and love. Jesus calls us to respond not with anger and bitterness, but with care and love. I have had a number of women who have had an abortion come to me to talk or to confess it, as well as a number of men come to me to talk about their role in the support of an abortion. These are always challenging conversations because if they are coming to me, they feel regret and sorrow, and my role is not to judge, but to show the mercy of God to them.

When we talk about being pro-life in our Church, it is more than just being anti-abortion, it is about supporting life from conception to natural death. This means that we should strive for the dignity of life from the time that the child is conceived in the womb to the time that we naturally die. We sometimes separate social justice and pro-life as two different groups, but they must be intertwined. If we profess to a people who support life, then we also need to support those who are living, no matter what state of life they are in. If we support social justice of any kind, then we need to have the first rule which is life.

Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves and then explained who are our neighbors. He states that all people are our neighbors, even those we do not agree with, from the child conceived with a disability, to the child conceived on a hook-up, to the immigrant, to the prisoner on death row, to the elderly person in a nursing home, to someone who is very sick, or someone who is on their death bed. This is what it means to be Pro-Life. Pray for those who have been affected by abortion as well as for an end to it.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

When We Think Of Ordinary

We have entered into “Ordinary Time” in the Church. Ordinary Time is broken into two parts with the seasons of Lent and Easter in the middle of it.

When we think of ordinary, we think of something that is just plain or regular, but what it means in the Church is that it is not one of the “Special” seasons like Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. It is a season of growth and of work.

The readings of Ordinary Time focus on the mission and work of Jesus in the world - what his actions were and why they are important to us. We have prepared for his coming in Advent, received him in the Christmas season, we prepare for his Passion and burial in the season of Lent and we celebrate his Resurrection in the Easter season.

So, in Ordinary Time we focus on the three years of his ministry and his works. We are reminded of how the Apostles and the disciples of Jesus witnessed the incredible things that he did and they grew in faith - this is the reason that the color for the season is green. It is to remind us of how we are to continue to grow in our faith so that we can grow towards Christ. Each season of the Church has a purpose, preparation, celebration, or growth, and in Ordinary time we get down to the work of living our lives as Christians and so grow in our own faith.

So, what are some of the ways that we can grow in our faith? The first way is to practice our faith by the coming together in the community at the Mass even in these challenging times. In the Mass, we receive the Eucharist, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ and that is the food that will allow us to grow. Another way that we can be fed and grow in faith is prayer and Scripture. What better way to get to know Christ than to get to know the works that he did in the lifetime that he spent walking on this earth with us. He truly wants to show us the path so that we can follow it to the same end he did and that is in the Resurrection!

Something else that we can do to grow is to get to know the Saints and how they lived in their growth of the faith. A vast majority of the saints did not live their lives in a perfect way. They made mistakes and some were not very good people at some points in their lives. Remember, even one of the great Scripture writers, St. Paul, was someone who persecuted the disciples of Jesus and even agreed to the execution of St. Steven.

There are so many ways that we can get to know God better each and every day. If we allow ourselves to keep being fed in our faith, we will continue to grow as followers of Christ, and with God’s grace, to enter into that Kingdom of Heaven that he prepares for us.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Saying Goodbye To The Christmas Season

Merry Christmas one last time! We are in 2022 now so I am guessing many of you have already had to correct the date a few times at this point.

This weekend we say goodbye to the Christmas season with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. As we hear the account of Jesus’ baptism we should be reminded of our own baptism, even though most of us do not remember it. Jesus himself was baptized, even though he did not need it. While our baptism is for the mitigation of our sins, including original sin, Jesus’ baptism was to purify the redeeming waters for our own baptism. When we were baptized, our parents made some promises for us and we affirmed them in our confirmation. The promises that we make are made so that we can live out the practice of the faith that Christ gave us.

I have always marveled at the fact that we use the term “practicing Catholics”: this is because we are not perfect ones - we are still practicing. It is only when we are one with the Lord in the kingdom of heaven that we will become perfect ones. Athletes practice their sports constantly because they want to be the best that they can be. (Can you imagine how a quarterback would play if they didn’t practice?) Just like athletes, we need to continue to practice and do those things to help us live out the faith that has been given to us by God.

Here are the promises that we (or our parents) make to God in our baptism: to reject Satan, his works, and his empty promises, that we believe in God, who is Father and creator, who is Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died and buried, rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, who is also the Holy Spirit, to also believe in the holy Catholic church, communion of saints, forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body and life everlasting. These are the promises that we make to God and we should keep looking at our own lives so that we can live them out. We repeat these promises each and every time that we say the Creed at Mass or during the rosary.

These statements of belief are some that we should not just say without meaning, because they do mean something. God has given us a wonderful gift of free choice and we can choose to follow the faith that He gave us, or not, it really is our choice. God knows that we may make mistakes in this, but He does offer us grace and mercy each and every time we turn back to Him. God knows that it is not always an easy path, which is why Jesus reminds us that we need to pick up our cross and follow Him each and every day. Remember in all the practicing of being a Catholic, we are continually working (with God’s help) toward that goal of being that perfect Catholic in the kingdom of heaven.

Merry Christmas,
Fr. Ken

The Epiphany

Merry Christmas! This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. This is the day in which we honor the Magi who took a chance and followed a star in order to find something new and special. They knew that they were looking for a king, a new king who would reign forever. They found this new king, Christ Jesus himself. They came to honor him and to bring him the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh because they knew that there was something special about his kingship.

The gifts that they brought are ones that we all know by heart, but we may not know that there is a good reason behind each of them. Gold is the gift for the king, frankincense is the gift for a priest, and myrrh is the gift for the prophet but it was also used for burial, in essence preparing Jesus for his death as well.

One of the interesting things is that we have a tradition that it was three Magi or wise men, but Holy Scripture says nothing about the number of Magi who came, it simply states “behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews.’” The number of them is inferred by the three gifts that were given.

These men took a chance to travel a great distance to find something that they knew was going to be incredible, they were looking for the newborn King of the Jews and they found him. To find the Christ child, they would have needed to travel through the desert and the infamous road to Jericho- the same one in which Jesus tells the story of the man who was robbed and left for dead. Traveling was dangerous and difficult in those days and most people never went more than a few miles from their homes in their lifetimes. These men took a chance in order to see Jesus, sometimes it is not easy but when we do have that experience with Christ it is a wonderful thing.

They wanted to see him and they wanted to praise him, but not all who heard about this new king were happy. Herod was afraid that this new king would someday grow up and take his power away from him, so he wanted to destroy him and to do this he was willing to kill many others, which he did.

Even though they received the message not to go back to Herod in a dream, there is a great message that we can get out of the account that they went home a different direction. The Magi came not out of fear, but out of a wish to be a witness, but once they had the experience with Christ, they were changed and went a different direction. Jesus calls us to witness the miracles that he is trying to do in each of our lives and then wants us to go a different direction, which is always toward him. I pray as this Christmas Season continues, that you will all have a great blessed year!

Merry Christmas,
Fr. Ken

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We began the Christmas season in the Church this week and we will celebrate it until January 9th which is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We also celebrate this Saturday, the Feast of Mary the Mother of God on January 1st or New Year’s Day. It is a day in which we remember Mary’s role in the life of her Son, Jesus Christ. We often celebrate secular New Year’s Day with promises or resolutions like, “New Year, New Me.” But often the new year’s resolutions only last a few weeks, the gyms are full for the first few weeks of the year, but then attendance drops off pretty quickly.

Instead of a “new year, new me,” how about “new year, and I will do my best to be the person God wants me to be.” The struggle with this is that we need to find out what that is, and the best way for that is to ask Him. The best way to do this is to draw close to him in prayer. The challenge with this is that when you ask God where he wants you to be he will answer and we may not always like the answer. This is because we sometimes have one idea of what we should be doing, but God has another idea. If we actually follow where God is leading us, it will always lead us to joy, even if it can be a lot of work or go through some suffering. The Apostles and many saints did not have an easy life, but they did enjoy eternal life with God.

The whole idea of “new year, new me” is that there is something in our life that we need to change or work on. The struggle is that most of us focus on the physical or material, like losing weight or working on being financially better, or reading more, but if we start off with our spiritual life, the rest of it will be better. This is primarily because if we draw closer to God who is love and the source of love, it will change our attitudes.

Studies show that it takes about six weeks to build or break a habit, good or bad. If we make the effort for six weeks straight to do something good in our lives or stop doing something bad, we have a better hope of making it stick. In this upcoming new year, we should take some extra time to pray and ask God where He wants us to be so that we can become the person that Jesus Christ wants us to be. We continue to celebrate the Christmas season in which God himself came to live the life that we lead and to preach, teach, and give us an example of how we are to live our lives in the way of Christ. Find some good Christian resources, especially during these cold months, so that we can build the life of prayer in our lives.

Merry Christmas,
Fr. Ken

Christmas is coming

It is hard to believe, but Christmas is this week. In just a few days, we will officially begin the Christmas season, even though most of the country has been celebrating it for quite a while. Just a reminder, the two 4:00 Masses on Christmas Eve are always the busiest and we are limited in the church and parking. We will have the kids’ choir in the gym with Fr Larry because there is more space in there. We also have a 6:00 and a 10:00pm Mass scheduled for this year; we will have a significant amount of space available for overflow in the gym!

Remember also… Christmas does not end on this Friday the 25th, but it begins! The season of Christmas goes on for a while; the exact date is dependent on a few things. Some would say that the Christmas season goes on until the feast of the Epiphany (January 6th or we celebrate it on the 2nd this year), but most would say that it goes to the feast of the Baptism of the Lord (January 9th), which is the date we will use here. Still others would argue that it goes until the Feast of the Presentation (February 2nd). No matter how long it is celebrated, it is a wonderful season, a season of joy and peace, and while the time with family and friends, the food and drinks, and the gift giving and receiving is wonderful remember why we are celebrating in this time. During this Christmas season let us be mindful of the greatest gift that we have been and ever will be given: Christ Jesus.

Take some time to reflect on the story. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled… And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Gaudete Sunday

This weekend we will be lighting the pink candle as well as using the rose or pink vestments. One of the things that this means is that Advent is over half way over and the coming of Christ in Christmas is getting closer! We only will wear the rose vestments for two weekends a year; Gaudete Sunday for the third Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in the fourth Sunday during Lent. It is only an option to wear the rose color vestments and not required to wear it, but it is nice to have something visual to see the difference.

The words Laetare and Gaudete mean the same thing; they mean rejoice! This is because we are rejoicing that Christ is near. The word Laetare comes from an option introit or introduction to the Mass that is either said or sung which goes “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. (Psalm) I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord…”

You have heard me say this many times, but we are called to be joy-filled or joyful Christians in the world, no matter what is happening in our lives. As we continue to prepare ourselves for that wonderful coming of Christ again in the Christmas season, let us always remember to rejoice for the Lord’s coming, because that is the whole reason that we are celebrating this season of preparation. Even though we often get caught up in the material preparation, we still need to take some time to prepare for the coming of our Savior in a spiritual way.

In this final two weeks before Christmas day, the day in which the Church Christmas season begins, take some time to read the Christmas story. It is only in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels, but I would recommend reading the first two chapters of Luke slowly, taking some time in between the sections to reflect on what they mean. They go through the conception and birth of John the Baptist, to the great canticles or songs of Mary and Zechariah, to the birth of Jesus, the visit of the shepherds, (the visit from the Magi is in Matthew’s Gospel), and the two scenes that Holy Scripture gives us about Jesus’ childhood.

Take an hour to spend some time with the Lord as we prepare for His coming again! Let us leap for joy in this season of Advent leading into the Christmas season. When we can take some time to make straight the path of the Lord in our hearts, we can be ready to receive him again and again. So, when the Lord comes, we can echo the voices of the angels who said “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to the people of good will.”

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Bear Aware

While I was on vacation, we saw a number of signs about different animal crossing, from dear, to elk, to cows, to a few others. This reminded me about another time, while my friend and I were on vacation in some other national parks we kept seeing some signs that stated to be “Bear Aware.” In other words, to be aware of the dangers of the bear population, to make sure that food was sealed and secured so that the bears would not be able to get into it or to be attracted to it. To make sure that there was no food left in cars so that the bears would not tear into them to get to the food. Bears are magnificent and beautiful creatures, but they are also very powerful and therefore, can also be dangerous.

Most of the time when we hear of a danger that is around us, we have the ability to minimize the chance that we will be harmed, like being “bear aware,” but we do need to be aware that there is a danger around us in the first place. It is when we are lax, complacent, or in a hurry around a potentially dangerous situation that something bad can really happen. When we prepare ourselves for potential problems it minimizes the dangers that are there. When we are aware that there are dangers around us, we can be prepared for them, like bringing a flashlight or bear spray.

The same thing happens in our spiritual life. There are dangers around us all the time and they can lead us to sin, sometimes they are small and other times they are pretty big. In our world, we constantly have different occasions of sin around us. Sometimes they are very simple things that can lead us to something greater. A danger for someone who has a habit or an addiction to pornography (which is a very high addiction rate, especially among young people) could be an ad on Facebook or another website that leads them to wanting to search out the pornographic images or movies. It can be someone that we find attractive that we can let our minds wander to the occasion of sin. For someone who has a habit of gossip, being around certain people who also are in the habit of talking about others could easily lead us to sin.

Our world allows for many of these different occasions, some we actively walk into, others we kind of stumble into, and we need to be aware that we are doing it. The thing is to be aware of those situations and find a good way to get out of them when it comes to bears, have a defense and back away. When it comes to porn, back away from the computer or turn off the television. When it comes to gossip, we can limit the amount of time that we spend with the people who encourage that behavior. There are many ways in which we can try and avoid the occasions of sin in our lives, but when we make sure that we are aware of those times, then we can do better to stop them… So be Sin Aware

God bless,
Fr. Ken