Community

Community is a blessing. The Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is a Community of divine Persons united in one divine Nature. All community, in heaven and on earth ultimately derives from the awesome eternal Communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Aug. 6th is a wonderful opportunity to experience and encounter each other in our community here at St. Luke’s at the parish 2nd Annual Parish Luau!

I know that Fr. Ken is particularly devoted to the Saints. I think many of us have our “go to” to saints for which we have a special love and devotion. The saints are beautiful gifts to us here on earth as models and examples of living out our faith, even during challenging and difficult times. Even the Saints though needed others to help them grow in their union with God. Parents, Religious Orders, Priests, Siblings, these relationships and communities helped Saints develop their own personalities, faith life and relationship with God. There is even the Communion of Saints in heaven that pray for us, Wayfarers journeying toward our heavenly homeland, and we ourselves who pray for those souls await full communion with God and all the saints in heaven.

Praise God for the gift of community in Jesus Christ! Praise God for the gift of freedom to gather together as a local Church body to worship our Lord!

As we take the “deep breath before the plunge” of the upcoming school year, perhaps we could ask the intercession of some of our own beloved saints and the whole Communion of Saints to pray for a blessed upcoming school year. Perhaps we can also thank our Triune God for establishing His Church so that we could be in loving communion with each other in and through Communion with His divine Son, Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist.

God bless,
Fr. Ryan

Vacation

As I write this, I am preparing to go on vacation. I sometimes feel guilty about taking vacations because there is always so much to do around here, but was told by a wise old priest that you have to take care of yourself so that you can take care of the people of God.

Vacations are nice to have because it is a time to get away and do something different and recharge. If you are like me though, I think that most of us feel that we need a vacation after we get back from vacation, because we are so tired from everything that we did while we are gone, and then dreading the piles of mail and emails that you have to go through when you get back, just to catch up.

 This trip is one that I am going on with a priest friend from Illinois and for a change we have a few things planned. We are planning on going to a few different Holy Sites including some churches, the tomb of St Patrick, the city of Armah where St. Malachy was bishop, Knock where there was an apparition of Mary and a few other places. It should be a wonderful trip. The funny thing is that when I usually travel, we have no real plan of where we will end up each day, we go toward a destination and then decide where we are going to stop the morning we are leaving.

The trip of our spiritual life is kind of the same. We know where our final destination is – Home or Heaven, but we do not always know the path that we are going to take to get there. Sometimes in our faith journey we have the straight and easy roads, sometimes we have a few twists and bumps, and sometimes we run into roadblocks and we have to turn around, but the good thing is that we are not alone, we have help. The journey can be confusing, it can be difficult, it can be exciting, and we sometimes even get a little lost because our GPS loses its signal, but we need to keep going towards that destination. One of the great blessings is that we have roadmaps (the Church, prayer, Holy Scripture, spiritual books, etc.) but most importantly we have been given a guide. God the Father did not want us to get lost. He sent His Son to be that guide for us, we simply need to follow. The journey of our physical life and that of spiritual life go together, one feeds off of the other. When we feed ourselves spiritually, it helps us physically and it gives us the energy we need to continue down the path of our lives, and when we feed ourselves physically it gives us the strength to keep moving. So… as I prepare myself to take some time to spend with a friend traveling, keep me in your prayers and know that I will keep you in mine.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Introducing Fr. Ryan Andrew

Dear Parishioners of St. Luke’s:

Greetings! I am Fr. Ryan Andrew your new Associate Pastor.

I am very blessed and excited to be a part of the St. Luke’s community to learn from and minister to you. A little bit about myself:

I was born in Des Moines at Mercy hospital in 1986. I grew up on the Southside of Des Moines and went to St. Anthony’s Catholic school in kindergarten and then went to Christ the King Catholic school from 2nd grade through 8th grade.

Like many other kids, I was involved in and loved sports growing up. I played football, basketball, soccer and baseball. Baseball was my favorite sport though. I started playing when I was 6. When I was 8 years old, I began playing on an AAU team called the South Des Moines Reds which would be a big part of my life for the next 7 years.

Through the next 7 years, I attended Christ the King and played baseball, football, and basketball enjoying my time on the respective sports fields and courts. I didn’t practice my Catholic faith though outside of saying prayers at night before I went to bed during my time growing up as a kid at St. Anthony’s and Christ the King.

When I began high school at Dowling Catholic, I played on the freshmen football team and played a combination of positions that are a bit unusual. I started a few games at nose-guard, was a second string middle-linebacker, and was the “5th quarter” quarterback! I also wrestled my freshmen year and, of course, played baseball.

My freshmen year of baseball was a great success. One of my coaches told me if I worked at it over the next few years, I may be able to play at a Nebraska or Wichita State level of baseball program. So, I was even more immersed and excited about my baseball career than ever.

Over the next couple years at Dowling Catholic, I didn’t practice my faith outside of all-school Mass at Dowling Catholic and focused just on baseball.

I started at 3rd base my junior year but a couple of rough games found me on the bench in the first 3rd of the season and continued through the season. This was a difficult reality for me as I put all my eggs in the “basket” of baseball.

My senior year, I was invited to a retreat called Youth 2000 at the Dowling Catholic gym in January of 2004, my senior year. At this point, I still wasn’t thinking about my faith or practicing it. I was told by a Franciscan Sister, Sr. Clare Matthias, to go read for the first Mass of the retreat upon my first few minutes of joining the retreat. This changed my whole life. Literally.

After reading for Mass, I was now inserted into the retreat and remained for the duration. My whole life changed. I never considered that Jesus is real, that there is a whole supernatural world that exists that we can’t see, and that Jesus is truly present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist. This Youth 2000 retreat was the turning point of my life, my Catholic faith, and my relationship with Jesus.

After the Youth 2000 retreat, I made Christ-centered friends, I chose Christ-centered choices and chose a Christ-centered college to attend, Benedictine College.

After one year at DMACC, I began attending Benedictine College in the fall of 2005. It was here at Benedictine College that my Catholic faith grew exponentially and my vocation to the priesthood began to bud and bloom very quickly. Having 3 Masses available daily, Benedictine Monks and priests on campus, a College community of faith-filled young Catholics living out their faith authentically and boldly, all of this helped form and foster my call to first consider and then actually pursue seminary studies.

After I graduated from Benedictine College I entered the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota. After a couple years in the seminary it was on a 5 day silent retreat in front of the Blessed Sacrament that Jesus gave me the undeniable, powerful, and divine peace of knowing I was called to be a priest. Over the next few years I looked toward the day of my ordination to the priesthood which was Dec. 14th, 2018 at St. Ambrose Cathedral.

Over the past 4 years, I was the chaplain at Dowling Catholic High School, teaching and ministering to the students, staff and faculty as well as providing weekend sacramental assistance during that time first at St. Pius X in Urbandale and later at St. Boniface in Waukee.

I am blessed to be here at St. Luke’s and I look forward to getting to know everyone and draw closer to Jesus with you. St. Luke the Evangelist, pray for us!

In Christ,
Fr. Ryan Andrew

Change, Patience, and St. Michael the Archangel

Change is inevitable. As Fr Ryan begins his time here at St. Luke the Evangelist parish and school, I want to ask for your patience. He is going to need to get used to the schedule and how we do things here. While I know that it is difficult to adapt to a new priest, it is also difficult as a priest to adapt to different practices in a different parish. Change is something that, while we may not like it, it is something that we all need to do and as we continually change, we have two choices in direction, the first is toward God and the second is away from Him. I pray that all of us strive to move toward God and see the blessings that God wants to give us.

One of the things that can help us, is the Angels and saints. Often times I talk about the named Saints, because the saints are ones who may not have been perfect and most of them had a conversion in some way that brought them back on the path to God. However, there are a few interesting saints that we call saints, even though they really are not in the traditional sense, because they were not even human, and those are the Archangels. The basic definition of a saint is someone who is in heaven. We know of three Archangels from Scripture, Raphael in the book of Tobit, Gabriel was the messenger of God who delivers the greatest message of all time, announcing to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she was going to conceive through the Holy Spirit, the Savior of the World, and finally, Michael, who is mentioned in the book of Revelation.

Michael is the one who will lead the army of Heaven against the devil in the end, he is one that we often are reminded to pray to for strength. The Archangel Michael is also one who is a defender of the Church. He is most often portrayed with a flaming sword standing on top of the devil and pushing him back into hell. In the speech that Pope Francis gave while dedicating Vatican City to both St. Joseph and St. Michael the Archangel a few years ago, he says “Michael struggles to restore divine justice and defends the People of God from his enemies, above all by the enemy par excellence, the devil. And St. Michael wins because in him, there is He, God, who acts. This sculpture reminds us then that evil is overcome, the accuser is unmasked, his head crushed, because salvation was accomplished once and for all in the blood of Christ.” And “We are not alone on the journey or in the trials of life, we are accompanied and supported by the Angels of God, who offer, so to speak, their wings to help us overcome so many dangers, in order to fly high compared to those realities that can weigh down our lives or drag us down. In consecrating Vatican City State to St. Michael, the Archangel, I ask him to defend us from the evil one and banish him.”

We are constantly reminded that there is constant change as well as, there is evil in this world and we need God’s help even through His angels and saints.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Fr. Downey's Goodbye

In today’s Gospel, Christ commands the disciples that if you enter a town and the people ‘do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’” I assure you that I have no need to be shaking my sandals at St. Luke’s as I complete my assignment and depart for another. During my two years here, I have been received with great patience and hospitality. St. Luke’s Church and School have been an unrivaled opportunity to grow and be formed as a priest and I have said many times in the past two years how I wish that all of the other new priests of the diocese could be blessed with an assignment like this one (like this one, but not this one, because I was fully intent on holding on to this one as long as I could).

Christ also says in today’s Gospel, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” As I am assigned to go work in a different field, please continue to pray for me and my ministry as a teacher at Dowling Catholic High School, but also give thanks to God for the gift given to St. Luke’s: a second full-time priest, Fr. Ryan Andrew. Having been able to only justly give half of myself to the St. Luke’s community, I do have some envy of his opportunity to invest himself whole-heartedly, alongside Fr. Halbur, with you. My prayer for you is that the people and the priests of St. Luke’s continue to call each other higher in Christian generosity and living out their vocations so that both harvest and laborers can increase.

Pax et Bonum,
Fr. James Downey

Don't Take The Bait!

Have you ever looked at a story or a link on the internet and was completely shocked and outraged, only to find out that the story is completely false, or find something that is out there simply to attack someone or something? Sometimes the headlines are just there to get your attention and make you click through things. The companies really want people to click on their stories because they get advertising revenues for each click.

We see these stories all the time, when someone posts something that a person in the Church did or every so often someone posts something to the line of “If the Catholic Church really cared about the poor, it would sell the Church property and give it to the poor.” A few years ago, there was a movement out there called “sell the Vatican and feed the world.” Just think about the value of the Vatican and its museum, thousands of priceless pieces of art. There are two of the greatest works that Michelangelo ever did, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (it could be cut up into its sections and sold off in pieces) and the Pieta. Just think how many billions of dollars these pieces could be sold for, even though it is not practical and then the pieces would end up in private collections away from the ability for the masses of people to be able to view them. Also, the buildings and the art have more value than the actual cost of them, they are symbols of the one Church and a place to gather as a one people of God.

But… I think that one of the more interesting things about this is that it comes not from the desire to help the poor, but from the mentality of let someone else do it. You sell what you have and give it away not me. That is NOT what Jesus told his disciples, he told them to go and do it themselves (see the feeding of the 5,000). The fact is that an estimated 7 million people in the United States alone are fed by the Catholic Church and almost 5 million children in Africa are educated by the Catholic Church. There is a counter movement which states “sell the porn industry (which has $12 billion+ in revenues) and feed the world.”

When we see a story or a link online that seems shocking, especially if it is about “Catholics” it is because it is shocking, and when you click on that link or share it, it ticks the advertising counter so that the website will receive more advertising revenues. It is something called click-bait, which baits you to click the link which shows that someone has gone to the website and the ad companies then pay the website and, they get even more, if you click the link for an ad! If you see something online that seems odd, or elicits an emotional reaction, it is because it does and they want you to follow the story so that they can get paid. So, resist the temptation and don’t take the bait!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

This weekend we celebrate Father’s Day

This weekend we celebrate the fathers of our world. We will go to see them and we give them a gift of some kind; a card, some kind of tool, a fishing pole, necktie, or whatever. Today, we celebrate what they mean to us in our lives.

Fathers are special, even Jesus thought that they were, and he honored the man, Joseph, even though he knew that Joseph was not his biological father. As we honor the men who raised us let’s look at the examples of the fathers in Jesus’ life.

First, you have the real father of Jesus, Our Father in Heaven. He is one that loves all of His children, Jesus yes, but each and every one of us, just look at the many gifts that He has given us. The Father wants us to be with Him so much that He sent His only true Son, Jesus, to show us that way to Him in the kingdom of Heaven.

The second father Jesus had in his life was a humble and quiet man, Joseph. He is a wonderful model of a Christian father and one of the very first disciples of Jesus himself. He was a humble man and we don’t know a lot about him because our Holy Scriptures does not record a single word that Joseph spoke. He was a man who did not need to be in the limelight, but just did what he needed to do. When he was going to divorce Mary quietly because she was pregnant with a child that was not his, he listened to the angel and married her anyway. When the angel told him that he needed to protect his family he simply got up and took them to Egypt. When his son was lost, he went looking for him and did not give up until he and Mary found him, three days later. He is that incredible example of what a loving father is.

Our popular TV culture loves to make fun of the father in the family, they are usually stupid, or inept, but we really know how much they really mean to us. In fact, studies show that when the father goes to Mass and is an example of prayer, children are far more likely to do the same in their lives. Do our fathers have faults, of course, all of us do, but as God loves each and every one of us with our faults, we love all of those men who are our fathers, those in heaven and those still on earth.

One of the greatest things that we can give our fathers, is to pray for them. Pray that they will be the best example of the faith for us, their children, pray that they will have the courage and strength to be the best man that they can be. We can also pray and ask the saints for help, ask for the intercession of St. Joseph for our fathers as well. Happy Father’s Day.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Summer Reading

In school, many teachers recommend a summer reading list. With the vacations we take, less school activities, and longer days, some of us have more free time to be able to read. Bookstores have sections devoted to summer reading as well. I would recommend that we take some of this reading time to enhance our relationship with God with some spiritual reading.

The Bible is always a good place to start. One study states that only 10% of all Christians have read the entire Bible, even though most people have more than one copy in their house. An average reader could read it in 80 hours which is 15 minutes a day for a year, or an hour a day for the summer. There is a wonderful podcast called the “Bible in a Year” which many people have already listened to and can help with the reading of Sacred Scriptures.

Besides the Bible, there are some other great spiritual reading books depending on your tastes. Over the last few years, a number of great and entertaining writers have emerged, including Peter Kreeft, Matthew Kelly, Curtis Martin, Michael White, Scott Hahn, Bishop Robert Barron and so many others. The Holy Fathers are also a wonderful resource as well as the many different saints who have written about a number of different topics; each of our last few popes have different styles of writing and a wide variety of topics. There are some of the writings of the early Church Fathers that we can turn to for example Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, or Polycarp.

Some of the great Doctors of the Church have some wonderful books that can help us to grow in our faith as well. We have 2,000 years of tradition and writings to delve into and the selections are endless, but here are a couple of my favorites. Scott Hahn’s “The Lamb’s Supper” is a great reflection on the Mass. Fr James did a book study on the Brant Pitre’s book “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist” which can help us to understand the history of the Mass and why we do certain things during our Celebration. St Therese of Lisieux’s “Story of a Soul” shows us the incredible life of a simple and holy woman. Cardinal Robert Sarah did a wonderful book called “The Power of Silence” it is one that can help us with getting into silence in our prayer life. “YouCat” is a youth Catechism which is wonderfully written and is done for teens, but is also entertaining for adults. St. Augustine “Confessions” is one you could read over and over and get something new out of each and every time. The “Lives of the Saints” gives us a short synopsis of many different saints. I would also recommend to look up a saint that has a patronage of something that we are passionate about and read about them. I could continue on with a very long list, but these are some readings that are very accessible for us and a good start along with Sacred Scripture to help us to grow closer to God.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Trust in God

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. We spend so much time stressing and worrying about things that we shouldn’t because 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 and I need to keep reminding myself that worry steals from hope and the peace of tomorrow. I also need to remind myself that hope and trust in God overcomes worry. When we allow ourselves to get caught up in those things that may never happen, we can get caught up in the worst things that can happen and 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.

Prayer and asking God for his guidance is one of the best ways we can overcome worry. This is something that we can continue to work on. Even in our busy lives, we can take some time to pray, pray for calmness and peace in our hearts. We can often look to the lives of the saints and wonder how they were so calm in their lives, even though they often had good reason to worry. Many of the saints were persecuted for their faith, and some even by leaders of the Church. Mother Teresa was a woman of great faith and trust in God, she is quoted as saying “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today. Let us begin.” When I begin to worry about things myself, I remember that if we trust in God everything will work out. Padre Pio was another 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. If I were to add to Mother Teresa’s quote, I would say something like we remember the beauty and good things of the past, we plan for the things in the future, but we live for today.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Ascension and Pentecost

These next couple of weekends are important ones within our Church! This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension and next weekend we celebrate Pentecost. These two celebrations mark the fact that we are being strengthened and then being sent. Jesus ascends into heaven and he allows the Apostles to witness this great scene so that they know that He has gone away, but he tells them that they will not be left alone. We will see that particular scene next week.

Both of these two celebrations are important for us because they give us both the path that we are to follow as well as our mission to spread the Gospel in the world. After Jesus ascends, the angels ask the Apostles “why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” In other words, move along, there is nothing else to see here, go and do what He told you to. Go out into the world and spread the good news. But even though we are being lead and told to do something, we do not always follow, because we need some help.

Next week we hear that the disciples receive the gift of the Holy Spirit enabling them and giving them the courage to go and preach the Gospel to all people. Sometimes this is called the birthday of the Church, where the Apostles, and now we, are being sent to fulfill Jesus’ mission. Jesus came into the world to found a Church and to use that Church to bring all people back to the Father in the kingdom of Heaven. Often times we hear the phrase “sola scriptura” or Scripture alone, but the problem with this is that Jesus did not come to give us a book, he came to give us a Church and a mission. In fact, there are only a few words that we know Jesus himself actually wrote, and the words themselves are not recorded, remember the woman caught in adultery, and Jesus knelt down and wrote in the dirt. Jesus could have easily come down from Heaven and said, “here is the book you need to read and follow it” but he didn’t, he came down to the earth to live our lives and he showed us the path we are to lead by walking it with us, and then sent us to follow that path with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

He tells us that he will never leave us alone and the descent of the Holy Spirit is proof of that. Jesus gave us an example as well as a mission to follow, and that mission is to follow him and then go out into the world to lead others to that same path. That is the message and mission of the Ascension and Pentecost, to take up where Jesus left off and continue to spread the Good News to the world!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Wrapping Up Our Sacrament Season

This weekend we are wrapping up our Sacrament season with the Confirmation. We have had three Masses in which we got to see our second graders receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ for the first time in the last few weeks, and that is a wonderful thing to see, but we get to celebrate another great sacrament on Sunday afternoon as we welcome Bishop Joensen to celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation for our 10th graders.

Confirmation is beautiful because these young adults confirm their faith in Jesus Christ and His Church. Sometimes Confirmation is referred to as becoming an adult in the Church, and in some ways that is true, but in other ways it is not. It is being an adult because they will be taking the responsibility of their faith upon themselves, but it is not because Confirmation is simply the confirming of their Baptismal promises.

One of the wonderful things is that we see the next step in the faith journey for these young people. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states “By the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence, they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.” This weekend we pray that these young people will accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are being called upon them.

It is interesting the timing of the Sacrament, because it was not the way that we celebrated them in the early Church. We would receive the Sacrament of Baptism first, like always, but then we would celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation shortly before we would receive First Holy Communion. There are many theories to why we changed the order, but that is the way we are celebrating them now, and it does give the students a bit more maturity to be able to take on the responsibility to accept the faith in a more adult way.

One of the great things that we can do is to pray for these students as they prepare their hearts and minds to receive this gift of the Holy Spirit. We pray that God will continue to guide them and that we ourselves will continue to allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, so we can spread and defend the faith by our words and deeds. The prayer that will be said to them kind of sums up what they are to receive. “All-powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence.”

God bless,
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. 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 and 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. 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 their 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.)

The Knights of Columbus as some of their missions are to help families with intellectual differences and also to help the unborn, this mission also helps mothers in their challenges. As a Knight, men are called to come together in their vocation of life to help others and helping children and mothers is a good one.

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 they do something.

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

What is a pilgrimage?

This weekend I am very grateful that Fr Larry is filling in for myself and Fr James due to a scheduling conflict. Fr James is at a conference and I am with our pilgrimage group in Italy.

So… what is a pilgrimage? Pilgrimages are different from vacations, while they both can be entertaining and see some wonderful sites, they differ in the intention. Vacations are things we do to get away from our normal routine of life in order to refresh ourselves, while pilgrimages allow us to get away from the normal routine of life so that we can grow in our faith and prayer life. This is why we focus on going to holy sites, praying, and celebrating Mass every day at these special places.

What follows are a few of the wonderful places that we will see and celebrate Mass. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be in Padua, which is famous because of the great Saint Anthony. We will be blessed to celebrate Mass at the altar of his tomb on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we will have the great blessing of celebrating Mass at the tomb of our parish namesake of Saint Luke! He is entombed in the Basilica of Santa Giustina and has been publicly venerated there since the 1300’s. During this trip we will be able to celebrate at the location of a second of the Evangelists, St. Mark who is in the island city of Venice, and we will celebrate Mass at one of the chapels in the massive church on Thursday. On Friday, we will celebrate Mass at the church that marks the spot where St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata on Mount La Verna. Some of the other places we will celebrate Mass are at the tomb of St. Francis, the chapel in Orvieto where a Eucharistic miracle happened. In Rome we will celebrate at St. Paul outside the walls, and St. Mary Major.

These are great opportunities to celebrate the Eucharist in these wonderful places, but while the places are special, it is more special that we get to receive our Lord and Savior each time we are part of the Mass all over the world. As a seminarian and priest, I have had the opportunity to be a part of the celebration of the Eucharist at some incredible places, including the spot of the birth and death of Jesus, but no matter where it is celebrated, it is always a wonderful thing that we can do.

I am sure that every one who is a part of this pilgrimage will have a wonderful time and I hope that everyone will grow in their faith. Rome is a very important place in the history of the Church as it is the place in which both St. Paul and our first Pope, St. Peter were martyred. While I am excited to be there, it is always good to get back home and be with the people here!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Divine Mercy Sunday

This weekend we finish what is called the Octave of Easter, the first week of the Easter Season. Our celebration of Easter, along with Christmas, is so important that the Church continues to celebrate it not just one day, but for an entire week. This whole week is a continual celebration of the greatest events of human history. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God has risen from the grave and conquered even death itself for our sake. This wonderful week concludes with another celebration, that of Divine Mercy Sunday. This is a relatively new feast day that was instituted by St John Paul II and focuses on the incredible mercy that God offers us. In Holy Scripture, Jesus is the one that talks about the judgement of God more than anyone, but he is also the one who talks about the mercy of God more than anyone, and they are tied together.

This feast day is based on the writing of St Faustina Kowalska and her vision of Jesus who came to her. This is what she wrote in her diary: "In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord; my soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while Jesus said to me, 'paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.'" This image that came to St Faustina is one that she painted and is now known all over the world with the red and the white representing the blood and the water that came from His side.

This Sunday at St. Luke the Evangelist Church we are celebrating the Divine Mercy of God with Adoration. Fr. James and Fr. Ken will also both be available for Confessions starting at 2:00 PM and lasting until just before 3:00 in which we will pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy followed by Benediction and Reposition of the Blessed Sacrament. This is a wonderful time to just sit and reflect in front of the Blessed Sacrament and give the greatest sacrifice that we can offer to God, and that is our time with Him. His mercy is far greater than anything that we can imagine and Jesus wants us to leave our sins with Him. He reminds us the same things that he tells the woman caught in adultery; I don’t condemn you of your sins, but go and sin no more. I would invite everyone to spend some time this Sunday, in person or remotely, with our Lord and Savior reflecting on His Divine Mercy.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

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