What are you lacking, really?

During this time of year, we are inundated with advertisements trying to get us to spend our money with a particular company, or in a particular way. ‘Do you want to surprise your husband or wife, buy them this new car and they will love it.’ ‘Do you want your kids to love you- how about this new really expensive toy.’ Now, I really would not recommend purchasing something as large as a car without discussing it with your spouse for your own sake!

The secular world has no problem recommending that we go into huge debt to buy the things that we really do not need. There is a psychology behind advertising, and that is to try and convince you that you or someone you care about is lacking if they do not have a particular item. The true value in something is only as valuable as it is to the person who has it or the person who wants it. One of the most wanted gifts for many would be the newest and greatest gaming console, and it would be of great value here. However, I had a conversation with someone from a remote region of Africa one time and he asked me how often the power goes out here in the United States. I responded with very rarely, and he told me that in his village the power is shut off every night to save fuel and many times during the day if the power plant is running short. They also have very limited access to the Internet so a brand new fastest gaming console would be of very little value, nor would they even want it.

In the end, advertising relies on pride and envy. Pride in that I have to have the best thing to be seen as the best, and envy in that I need the things that others might have in order to keep up with others. We as Christians know that the things that we own can end up owning us. We are called to really desire one thing, and that is the kingdom of heaven. The things of the world can help us toward that, or they can hold us back from it. As we wrap up this season of Advent, we need to remind ourselves that while the material gifts are wonderful and exciting, one of the greatest gifts that we can give to others is our faith. This is something that will not break, it is something that can never be taken away from us, it is something that we will have forever. The gift of prayer and worship of God, is a gift that will strengthen those around us and can make them to be a better person in the world. Keep praying and, as we approach Christmas, keep in mind why and for who we celebrate this wonderful time.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Reset

We have arrived at the third week of Advent, our season of preparation for the coming of Christ a humble child. Again, I wanted to remind everyone to not get tired of Christmas before Christmas actually gets here. The Christmas season runs from Christmas Eve until the feast of the Epiphany and it is a wonderful time to remember Christ coming into our lives.

With that, as we continue the Advent season it is a time to prepare. I am sure that many of you are preparing for the coming of Christmas, children tend to try and act a little bit better hoping for a better gift, we are running around getting gifts, or ordering them online (please remember local businesses as well,) we are cleaning the house preparing for the friends and family coming, and so many other things. I wanted to remind all of us that while it is great to prepare for all of these material things of Christmas, it is also important to prepare our hearts for the celebration of the coming of our savior. This is why we offer more confession times in the seasons of Advent and Lent. Confession is a wonderful way to, as John the Baptist says, make straight the way of the Lord in our hearts.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind us all what confession is for and what it is not for. First of all, it is not the time to vent or tell the sins that our spouse, kids, in-laws, or anyone else have done, but those things that WE have done. Also, leave the buts out of it, we are good at making excuses about why we do things, or justifying our actions, but this is not the time, just say those things that we are sorry for. The sacrament of Reconciliation is a great one in which we get to push that reset button in our spiritual lives. We get to reset our lives back to that of Baptism. During this time, we are also continuing to celebrate this sacrament with our second graders for the first time. The sacrament of confession is a great way to unload that sin and guilt that we are carrying around. I sometimes hear that people do not want to confess because it is embarrassing, but it is better to let out that sin rather than to hold it in. I sometimes tell people who talk about Confession being embarrassing, that it should be more embarrassing to do the sin, than to confess it. Our sin is an extra burden that we do not need to carry around, we simply need to let them go and to continue to work on our lives so that we can continually draw ourselves closer to God. Remember, the Father sent his Son, our Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of sins. So, just as we are preparing our homes for Christmas, remember to prepare our hearts as well.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The time of the Lord is coming!

The time of the Lord is coming! We are getting ready to celebrate Christmas while the secular world is already celebrating it. I pray that you will not get tired of the “holiday season” before it even begins! We as a Church will begin to celebrate Christmas at the vigil Mass on Christmas Eve (we are also going to have a Midnight Mass as well this year,) and we continue to celebrate it until the Baptism of the Lord.

We are often drawn into the “regular” or secular way of saying and doing things, for example- Santa Claus. Tradition holds that the name came from a mishearing or mispronunciation of Sint Klaes, which is the Dutch way of saying Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas, whose feast day was Friday, December 6th was well known for a couple of things: the first, giving three bags of gold to a poor man for a dowry for his three daughters to save them from a life of prostitution. The account goes that there was a man who had three daughters and he was too poor to put together a dowry, which would mean that the young women would not be married, and in those days it was not easy for a woman to get a job, especially someone who was poor to begin with. There are different accounts of how it happens but it goes that St. Nicholas threw a bag of money into the house on three consecutive nights/weeks/months, and was caught by the man on the third time. It is also a tradition that one or all of the bags were put in the shoes of the girls, which is where we get the tradition of putting chocolate coins in shoes. The second thing that St. Nicholas was famous for is slapping the heretic Arius in the face during an argument about whether or not Jesus was really God.

As we continue to prepare in the Advent season for the upcoming Christmas season, we want to keep reminding our children that there is a real reason for the Christmas season and that is that God loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to be with us. We hear the phrase that we should keep Christ in Christmas and the best way to do that is to be a good and joyful Christian. The example of how we act is one of the great things we can give to our children, whether it be the joyful celebration of the Holy Mass, or the way that we treat our neighbors, even those we do not like. I will sometimes say that the best way to keep Christ in Christmas is to keep Mass in Christmas. Since the greatest prayer we have in the Church is the reminder of the depth of the love that Christ has for us in his sacrifice that we celebrate in the Mass. In this busy time as we prepare for the coming of the Lord, keep reminding ourselves who we are going to be receiving in the real Christmas season, Christ the Lord.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It is once again time for Advent, this is the new year for the Church. We get to start off another liturgical year within the Church with this Advent season. Advent is another preparatory season, one that we are preparing for the coming of our Lord and Savior. He came as a humble child, one that was reliant on Mary and Joseph to take care of Him. He is also relying on us to help Him to carry out His mission in this world, and that mission is to show the love that God has for us.

This is the time of year that many people call the season of joy. It is a time in which we are getting ready to celebrate Christmas. But it is still a time in which we prepare for Christmas and it is not the Christmas season within the Church. The stores are trying to push us to celebrate Christmas earlier and earlier because, if we do, it makes more of a profit for them. You will notice that the churches are decorated in purple for the Advent season and then will be decorated for Christmas on Christmas Eve (the beginning of the Christmas season), and it will not end until January 6th (the feast of the Epiphany.) The song the “12 days of Christmas” is based on the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany. In many cultures, most gifts were not given on Christmas day, most of them were given on the feast of the Epiphany, which is the day we celebrate the child Jesus being given the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So please take some time to ready your hearts for the coming of our Lord and Savior during this Advent season and don’t get tired of Christmas, before we celebrate that great season of joy, and have a blessed Advent!

With the new liturgical year, I would also like to mention the fact that we still need volunteers. Often times I get asked why we are not doing some event, outreach, program, or other thing here at the parish and my usual response is that is a great idea, how can we accomplish that? It is sometimes a challenge to get people to sign up for things, both to attend, and to help out with them. One of the things that comes up quite often in meetings here at St. Luke’s is the need for volunteers. Just like in most places, the same few people are doing most of the events or ministries. Almost every week we have multiple open spots on our ministry schedule for Extra Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, or lectors, or hospitality ministers, etc. It takes 11-12 people helping at each of the Masses that we have, and sometimes we only have 5-6 available and we have to find the others. I know that we all have very busy lives and we are not always sure which Mass we are going to attend, or other event we are going to be at, but as a parish, we really need the help in these things. Please consider helping out with a ministry here!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Thanksgiving is almost here

On Thursday, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. It officially was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 during the Civil War, even though it had been celebrated earlier than that. It is a day in which we give thanks for the many things that we have been given. Sometimes we want to ask ourselves “What is there to give thanks for?” Especially with everything that is going on in our world today. It is a trying time right now, so why do we want to give thanks?

Thanksgiving is also the unofficial kickoff of the holiday season. It is a time that will get busy with family and friends. As we are giving thanks for all of the gifts God has given us also ask Him for strength for the challenges we have in our lives. We spend a day with our families and have a feast, a feast to remember the many gifts God has given us. This is a day we usually over-indulge in food and drink, watch some football, or many other things. After all, we are celebrating.

We can turn any event into a time to celebrate and over-indulge, which leads us to the evening and the next day… BLACK FRIDAY. I find it interesting, that the day we give thanks we begin to line up at the malls trying to get ready to beat out our neighbor for the best deal of the season. I myself have only been out in the morning of “Black Friday” a few times and that was enough. The stores call it Black Friday because they are making a profit, going from red to black. I really think that it is called black because of the darkness. We hear of the many different places that people are being pepper sprayed, hurt, and killed over saving a few dollars. It is a sad way to remind ourselves of our thankfulness by trampling over our neighbor so we can get a television for half price.

The word that we use for the Blessed Sacrament is Eucharist, this word is transliterated from the Greek word Eucharistia and the word translated means thanksgiving, so in essence we are celebrating a feast of thanksgiving every Sunday and every day when we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is a celebration of giving thanks to God for the gifts that He has given us, as well as a remembrance of the sacrifice that He suffered. We are called to play a part in both of these elements of the Holy Mass, the sacrifice and the thanksgiving. As we celebrate our Mass for the Thanksgiving holiday, remember to thank God for all of those things that we have been given. Just like in our celebration of Thanksgiving Day, we have choices on how we will participate. We can choose to not participate at all, we can eat and go on to the next thing, we can eat and sleep, or we can eat and participate with our Church, our earthly family, and our heavenly family. Remember also that as we begin our Advent preparations looking forward to the celebration of Christmas, that we should be mindful of those people around us, those who are in need as well as our own families.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

What gives you the greatest joy in life?

What gives you the greatest joy in life? A while back, I was reading something and it talked about a person who was talking about their greatest joy was to escape from their family with video games. That is the only thing that they wanted to do, because the game made them feel like a different person, and not like themselves where they felt inadequate. It reminded me of the movie “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” in which one of the characters was kind of a nerd and became a strong and powerful character when he entered into a video game. He wanted to stay like that the entire time because it made him feel like a “someone”.

Sometimes we feel that we are inadequate in life. Social media and other media does not help with that because people can tend to exaggerate the good things that are going on in their lives, and the whole point of advertising is to make you feel like you are lacking until you have their product. If you look at being a Christian by comparing yourself to others, you are looking at the wrong person, because every one of us are sinners in some way.

The point of Christ’s coming in the flesh was to redeem us and give us that perfect example to follow. Now do we always do it? No, that is what sin is. If we look at the people who encountered Christ, we can see a pattern in who they were and how they acted. Those who saw themselves as better than others or righteous people were really not, but most of the time were the ones who were in judgment of others. Those who saw themselves as sinners and came to Jesus or were brought to Jesus are the ones that Jesus praises.

Now I am not saying here that we should all mope around and beat our chest covered in sackcloth and ashes. What I am saying is that we should always remember that God created us to be in his likeness and image. He created us with talents and gifts for us to share with others. He wants us to not just be content to be people of the world and strive for those things, but he also wants us to be those people who live out our lives for the Kingdom of Heaven. He wants us to put aside trying to be what the culture, our friends, our family, the world wants us to be, but to be a true and beautiful disciple of the living and true God who loves us so much that he came to live our life and die our death.

Just remember the phrase that Jesus tells the woman caught in the very act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more.” Jesus does not say that what she did was OK, but calls her to acknowledge her forgiveness and receive it with joy and to turn away from the sin. That is the message we should all hear.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

All Saints Day and All Souls Day

During the month of November, we focus on remembering those who have died and gone before us. In many ways, while this can be a healing time it can also be difficult, especially if someone we care about has died in the last year. We have that “year of firsts” since they have gone, the first birthday, anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. without that person that we love, and that can be a challenge all in itself. This is especially difficult if we have some special traditions that we do for certain celebrations.

Within the United States, it is generally considered that we have six weeks to “get over” the death of someone, but we all know that we can never “get over” the death of someone that we really loved. We can get through it, but we will never get over it. One of the great things we can do is to keep the person in our prayers every day, and then one day, we will switch from praying for the person to praying with the person. God will often give us a sign that can guide us and show us when that time is. It is wonderful practice for us as Christians to join our prayers with others to help them, and then they can help us in our lives.

One of the things that I always remind people is that, as Christians, the goodbyes we say in the funeral rite are not the forever kind, but the ones that really mean until we meet again in the kingdom of Heaven. As a part of the funeral rite, there is a wonderful prayer in which we take comfort in the hope that one day we shall joyfully greet them again when the love of Christ conquers all things including death itself. During the funeral, one of the things that we need to be reminded of is that we emphasize God’s mercy for us and the one who has died, that is because mercy, which includes love, is the reason that Jesus Christ came down to be with us. It is something that we need to be continually reminded of each and every day. Mercy is something that God gives us to receive, but also is something that He is calling us to use and share as well.

When we experience the loss of someone we love, the best thing we can do is to fall back on our faith, which is rooted in the love that God has for us and for the person who has died. Jesus tells us that He will not lose anything that has been given to Him and who is following Him, so we can trust in Him. Let us give those who have died over to the loving hands of God and trust in that continual mercy that he shows us so often.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

All Saints Day and All Souls Day

This Tuesday is the feast of All Saints Day, and Wednesday is the feast of All Souls Day. On All Souls Day, we remember those who have died this past year, and we are reminded to pray for all of our family members who have died. The feasts of All Saints and All Souls are important feast days for us as Catholics. We celebrate these days in order to remember those who have gone before us to eternal life. While they are similar in the fact that we are celebrating those who have died, they are different in what we are praying for.

For those that are in heaven (All Saints) we pray a prayer of thanksgiving, one that is also asking those saints to pray for our needs. Within the Funeral Rite for Catholics, there is a line that states “Into your hands Father of mercies, we commend our brother or sister in the sure and certain hope that, together with all who have died with Christ he or she will rise with him on the last day” This is a reminder that it is good to hope that our loved one will be in heaven, but it is also a reminder that we need to continue to pray for them. So, then also for those who are not in heaven yet, those who are in purgatory (All Souls) we are praying for their needs, that God will speed the time of their purgation of sin and bring them lovingly into the kingdom of heaven. At a funeral, I will always tell people that the person who has died is in the loving and merciful hands of God now. I will not say that they are in heaven, because I am praying that they will be there and I want them to receive the benefits of our prayers. We pray for them, not in the body that is on earth which is dead and buried, but for the soul which is eternal and is entrusted to God’s hands now. One of the things that I recommend to people is to continue our prayers on behalf or those that we care for, but then one day, our prayer should change from praying for the person, to asking them for our prayers.

So, on All Saints Day, we celebrate all those who have fought the good fight of their lives and have been examples of holiness. Most of the people we celebrate are the countless examples of how to live holy lives. Only one of the saints in our history has been a perfect example, which is Mary the mother of Jesus. Even though the saints did not live perfect lives like Mary did, they are still examples that can lead us to holiness. In the month of November, we remember our loved ones who have died. Here at St. Luke’s, there is a book in the gathering space of church to write down the names of our loved ones, and you are welcome to write down the names of any of your loved ones who have passed away.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Who was St. Luke, our parish's namesake

This past Tuesday, October 18th we celebrated the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. One of the common symbols of St. Luke is the Ox, and this is why a few years ago we switched our parish festival to Oxtoberfest. Since we are celebrating the feast of our namesake, I thought that it would be good to write about him again, as I do every year. The ox comes from the prophet Ezekiel who has a vision about a creature with four faces: that of an ox, that of a man, that of an eagle, and that of a lion. The ox is a symbol because this was an animal that was used for sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and St. Luke begins his Gospel with the sacrifice of Zachariah, while he served as a priest in the Temple.

First and foremost, we know St. Luke was the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, we say writer and not author because the author of all of scripture is God, humans only write them with the inspiration of God. Another reason for the ox is that St. Luke’s Gospel has a heavy focus on the mercy and forgiveness of God. We have St. Luke to thank for the story of the Prodigal Son and the woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears.

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

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

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

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Gospel of Mercy

In 2016, 2 million Catholic youth from around the world descended upon Krakow, Poland to celebrate World Youth Day. World Youth Day, started by Saint Pope John Paul II in the early 1980’s, is a week-long gathering of Catholic youth from around the world to grow closer to Christ and celebrate the bonds of Catholic unity that unite peoples of “all tongues and nations.” The Pope is always present as a visible and living sign of our Catholic unity. The center and culmination of the World Youth Day is Eucharistic Adoration and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered by the Pope.

Every World Youth Day has a theme. In Poland in 2016, the theme was: “Blessed are the merciful, for it is mercy that will be shown to those who show mercy.” The same Saint John Paul II who started World Youth Day and who was honored in his homeland of Poland in 2016 at the same international Catholic gathering he started called St. Luke’s Gospel, “The Gospel of Mercy.”

Last weekend we had the ministry fair in which we as St. Luke’s Catholic Church and community have an opportunity to extend in our own time the “Gospel of Mercy” by praying and discerning if Jesus is inviting or drawing us to be His presence in these “ministries of Christ’s Mercy” to others. Jesus also extended His blessing and Mercy on expectant mothers this past weekend as He blessed those women of our parish and those present at the weekend Masses who are currently pregnant.

Our Lord said in Luke 4:16-21: “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

As we approach our parish’s Patron Feast Day on Oct. 18th and Oxtoberfest on the 22nd, may WE OURSELVES be Christ who, in our parish, in our parish’s ministries, in our families and in our community “proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind and set prisoners free”

St. Luke the Evangelist Pray for us!

God bless,
Fr. Ryan

The Rosary

October is the month of the rosary within the Catholic Church. The rosary is one of the many different devotional prayers that we have and is a beautiful one to pray. It is primarily a prayer of meditation and a guide to other prayers. The traditional mantra prayer, in which we pray something over and over again, has been around a long time and the purpose of the prayer is to focus ourselves to something else. We sometimes get into the idea that it is just getting in the prayers, but the rosary is much more than just praying the Our Fathers and Hail Mary’s over and over again, it is spending time with God and bringing your thanksgiving and needs to Him. One of the things we should remember as we pray the rosary is that we should also be asking for something within the prayer. There are many ways of praying the rosary, most commonly the rosary is prayed on its own, but it can also be prayed as a part of a larger prayer like a novena which is a series of prayers that are based on the number nine or three times three. This means that we pray for nine days, weeks, or months in a row for a specific purpose.

Tradition holds that St Dominic was the one to devise the rosary, but other sources hint that it was prayed before St Dominic’s time and given to him by Blessed Alan de la Roche. It is clear, however, that St Dominic did use the prayer for the brothers in the Dominican order. All priests and religious, even to this day, make a promise to pray a prayer called the Liturgy of the Hours. In the time of St Dominic, the priest or religious would pray through all 150 Psalms each week through this prayer set, it has been shortened in more recent times to pray them over 4 weeks with other meditations added to the Psalms. In the time of St Dominic, books were large, heavy, and expensive and Dominic wanted the men of his order to basically be traveling preachers so they needed a better way fulfill their promise. One theory is that Dominic recommended praying the rosary while the priests were traveling because they could do so while walking. No matter who or how it started, we know that the rosary is a powerful prayer and has been a comfort to many people throughout the ages. In 1566 Pope Pius V asked that everyone pray the rosary because Europe was open to attack and a Christian fleet met a much larger Turkish fleet off of Lepanto and destroyed most of it. This victory was attributed to the daily prayer of the rosary. In Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary told the three children, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, to pray the rosary for peace since World War I was going on.

This prayer is a powerful one, and it is a prayer that reminds us that we are not alone. Jesus has people, including His mother, interceding for us.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Problem of Evil (2/3)

In last week’s bulletin article, I talked about the theories of evil in the world and I would like to follow up with a few different theories of why there is evil in the world.

The one that is sometimes used is that if there is evil in the world there must not be a God or he does not care about us. This is obviously not the case because if God did not care for us then why did he send his only Son for our redemption? Suffering can lead us to question God’s existence and that is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on where it takes us. If it takes us to despair then it is bad, but if it forces us to look at our faith then it could be a good thing because it will lead us to explore a deeper understanding of God and how he works in our lives. Sometimes bad things happen to us and we do not know why and sometimes something we think is bad is actually better for us, to quote Garth Brooks “sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers”

The first theodicy, or theory of the problem of evil, is that it is a byproduct of our human free-will. There are two parts to this; the first is that by not choosing God and choosing sin we introduced evil into the world or it is a punishment for sin; the second part is that for a real choice to exist we must have options, so if there is a choice for good then there must be a choice for evil. The second theory is called “the best of all possible worlds.” This one is difficult because it claims that the world we live in was the best one of all of the possibilities for God to have created. Since God is all knowing, then he would have known what the outcome of all the possibilities of the creation of the world and with all of the factors, this world was the best one. This still relies on our own free will. The third theory is from St. Irenaeus who states that the purpose of evil is for our soul-making. God created the world imperfectly so that every imperfect being could develop through a soul-making process into a child of God in his perfect likeness. God could not create us perfectly in his image because it requires cooperation with God. This is something that cannot be given, we need to accept it and work with God to become perfect images of God.

The simple truth is that all of these arguments and theories are just that, theories. As much as we want to understand things, we do not know why tragic things happen. We have a desire to find out why and how things happen. We do not know why bad things happen to good people. My advice is to pray about it and ask God for the answers. God will provide the answers when we really need them. Trust that the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us more than we could possibly know.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Problem of Evil (1/3)

A while back someone asked me “why is there evil in the world?” This is a large question, so I will be discussing it over the next three articles. The problem of evil in the world stems from the very idea of who God is; in Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, “God is Love,” the Holy Father describes the love of God for us in an extended way. We hear in Jn3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is the extent of the love God has for us.

So then, if God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving; then how can there be evil in the world. David Hume argued that either evil does not really exist, or God is not all-knowing, powerful, or loving. Because if God knows everything then he also knows that evil exists, if God is all loving then he loves us, He would want to remove evil, and if God is all powerful then he can remove evil; then can there actually be evil in the world? You can argue whether or not evil exists. It cannot be scientifically proven.

There is a story claiming that a young Albert Einstein tells an atheistic professor that evil really does not exist in the same way that cold and darkness really do not exist. Cold is simply a lack of heat, and darkness is simply a lack of light, so evil is simply a lack of goodness. This idea comes from St Augustine, who says that blindness is just a privation of sight, so evil is a privation of goodness. Whether or not something is evil depends on the perspective that you are looking from. Some things that one person would consider an evil, another might consider a blessing. So, think about a couple of questions: why do bad things happen to good people? Why are some people very rich and others very poor, and is money the root of all evil? Remember the passage from the book of Job when he questioned why he was suffering; God answered Job by saying “where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.” There are some mysteries that we need to pray for understanding, and one of those is to find meaning in our suffering.

Evil is a topic that is vast and still hotly debated in what it means. There are many different theories of why there is evil in the world, the one that is sometimes used is that if there is evil in the world there must not be a God or he does not care about us. This is obviously not the case because if God did not care for us then why did he send his only Son for our redemption?

Keep praying for the peace and love of Christ to settle on the earth.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Best Time

Have you ever been going through some pictures, either on you phone, a folder on your computer, or even the old-fashioned photo albums and found one that brings back a special memory? This could be a person that is/was very special to you, or a wonderful experience that you had. I will sometimes just go through some of my photos just to bring up a memory of an experience.

As many of you know, I really enjoy to travel. I love to see new places and experience different, or even re-experience places that I have really enjoyed. I have traveled with a few different friends to different places. Yes, I have a few favorites; Rome and the Holy Land are two of the places that I would go again and again, primarily because of the history of the faith. To be at the places where Jesus walked and taught, and did some of his miracles is a wonderful thing to do, or to get close to the place in which Paul was executed, or to be able to be next to the tomb of St. Luke or other saints can be very moving.

Some of the other things that we get to experience when we travel is to see the wonderful gift of God’s creation. Another one of my favorite places is Glacier National Park in Montana. To see the beauty that is in the world can be quite moving as well. The question is, do we need to travel to a National Park to the Holy Land or Rome to grow our faith? The answer is of course not; prayer is the primary thing that we need to do to grow our faith.

Mass of course is the highest form of prayer that we have, it attaches us to the altar, and in turn to the one altar in heaven. In Eucharistic Prayer I, there is a part which states “In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God: command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty. So that all of us, who through this participation at the altar receive the most holy Body and Blood of your Son, may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing.” So, in the Mass, we are not only in the building of the Church, we are also in the presence of the altar in the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Mass, we in a sense visit not only the beautiful and holy places on earth, but we also get a glimpse of Heaven! During the Mass, we not only get to see the wonderful things, but we also get to participate in them and also, we get to receive them as we receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, and this is the single most beautiful thing that we can participate in. So, as we think about that time we get to spend with Christ, let it be the best time that we can spend.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Best Offense Is A Good Defense

Football season has begun. This weekend we had the “big game” for the state of Iowa with the University of Iowa playing Iowa State University. It is always fun to see the events leading up to the game, as well as the game itself. Before anyone asks, I am apolitical when it comes to this game. I usually say that I want the team that is going to be the best at the end of the year to win, and I hope for no injuries during it.

Sports have become a huge deal in our country, in many ways it is a great way to relax and watch, and playing sports is also a good and enjoyable way to get some exercise. With football season started, I am reminded of the old adage “the best offense is a good defense.” In football this is definitely the case, the shorter time that the opponent’s offense is on the field, the less chance they have to score, and the more your offense is on the field, the more chances you have to score. How about using this in our spiritual life, the best offense in our lives is some good defensive prayer.

I know many different people who are in fantasy football leagues, I was even in a few myself in the past, and it is interesting how much time some people can spend researching the players and teams to put together a team of players. Some people spend weeks doing the research and preparing for the big draft. How about picking out a spiritual team of prayers? Find some saints that you can relate to and ask them each and every day to help you.

I once heard a priest state “I wish we would be as prepared for Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as we will prepare for the big game.” We so often spend hours a week practicing for a sport, on the internet, or watching television and then we turn around and say that we have a hard time finding 15 minutes to pray. I know in my own life, I sometimes find it hard to pray, or difficult to “find the time” when in reality, I have just chosen to do something different. As I went through some social media, as well as some news stories, I saw that people will spend hours getting ready for a game of their favorite team. I have friends that used to leave their houses at 4:00 am so that they could get to the stadium for a tailgate for a game that begins at 3:00 pm. What if we spent just a fraction of that time preparing for something greater than just a game? What if instead of 11 hours before the game, we would spend 30 minutes going over the readings for the Mass each Sunday? How would that excitement and love of the Eucharist encourage our children or others around us? In the end, no matter how big the game is, it is still a game, the Mass is a matter of life and death, life with Christ, or death without, and that is the reason that we attach ourselves to the author of life itself in his Body and Blood.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

What Is Hell Like?

What is hell like? I sometimes get asked questions about what heaven and hell are like. For some, heaven is a beautiful golf course in which every shot we hit goes exactly where we want it to, and hell is a golf course in which every shot does not. While this example may be simplistic, we all have some image in our mind in which we can think of heaven or hell.

There are many different images of what hell can be like from Dante’s epic work the Divine Comedy – Inferno, in which Dante takes his journey through hell. Hell is depicted as having seven levels in which the upper levels are where the punishment of the less serious sins happens to the lower ones for the more serious ones. At the upper regions, the damned are constantly chasing the things they chased on earth, for example those who commit the sin of lust are desperately trying to hold on to another person in a great wind storm. In the lower regions, people are encased in ice either right side up or upside down and the three worst sinners are spending eternity being chewed up by Satan.

I was watching a movie and it had an interesting take on what hell was like; it was a place in which you spent eternity watching all of the bad things that were happening to those you loved. I can only imagine what that would feel like, seeing the pain and suffering of those that you cared about forever. In the New Testament, Jesus himself gives us a couple of images of hell and it is equated to the Valley of Gahanna, which is the place where they threw the trash and burned it. He says that hell is a place “where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Jesus is hinting that the people who end up there are thrown out like refuse and burned.

In one of my favorite passages Mt 25, Jesus discusses the way to get to heaven or hell and that is up to us, but it was not originally created for us, it is “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” In essence, hell was not created specifically for us, but he does let us make the choice. Most of us would not consciously choose to go to hell, but Jesus does state that we will be judged for our actions. He is telling us that in the end, it is our own choices in life that determine where we will end up for eternity, hopefully it will not be there, but in the kingdom of heaven with him. As the Act of Contrition states, we should really fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. Let us all take that time to look at ways we can change our actions so that we will change them so that we will turn back to God.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Distractions

Have you ever sat down to your computer planning on doing some work and said “I need to look this up on the internet” and then end up spending two hours looking up crazy cat videos or other videos? It is amazing that some of the things in our lives that are meant to help us, end up distracting us. I know that I can find myself turning on the television for just a few minutes and two hours later I am still watching it and I have eaten half a bag of Fritos.

Sometimes we have good intentions to do something productive and allow ourselves to get distracted with things that are not as important. This happens so often in our lives, we have the best intentions, but we sometimes fall short of what we want to do. This not only happens in the work that we do, but also, we can allow it in our prayer life. We have the best intentions here and maybe plan to spend 20 minutes praying every morning, or we plan to pray the rosary every day, or we are going to really focus on the Mass, but then something distracts us. We begin to pray the rosary and realize that we forgot to change the laundry, so we go and take care of that real quick so we can get back to praying, then the phone rings, then the kids wake up from their naps, and then we end up back on the internet looking at cats riding Roombas.

God understands that we can get distracted in prayer, but we need to do our best to fight through the distractions and refocus, whether it be at Mass or in our private prayer life. When we catch ourselves distracted, just take a breath, refocus and try again, don’t end up going farther into the distraction by focusing on it. Within our parish, there are many different distractions to draw us away from focusing on the Mass or other prayers. With the number of children here, and their activity, or just the people we know and recognize in Mass, there are things that can draw us away from really praying in private or praying with the Mass.

There is no such thing as bad time praying or wasted time with God, it always helps us out in some way. Remember some of the greatest saints of the Church sometimes struggled with prayer or had distractions within their prayer life. St Teresa of Avila once said “If I stopped praying every time I got distracted, I would never finish the Lord’s Prayer!” Distractions will happen in prayer, but the key is to keep spending time with God and see the fruits of that time grow slowly in our hearts.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Back To School

It is back to school time if you can believe that! This week the kids will start coming back to school; it is wonderful to see the excitement on their faces as they begin the school year. This year we will have over 300 kids here at St. Luke’s school with over 350 in the RE programs.

The first day is always challenging, trying to get the kids where they need to be, get them calmed down and ready to learn again, and all of the other things that go along with the start of school. There is a nervousness that happens with kids at the beginning of school, most especially the younger ones. Sometimes we run into those children who just do not want to go back to school and would rather stay home, they have what I sometimes call the “I want mommy meltdown”, but parents tell them that school is good for them and that they have to go.

Sometimes I also hear that parents do not bring their children to Mass because they don’t want to go either, they would rather stay at home and sleep or play games, so they let them. What is the difference, while school gives them an education to get through this life, the Mass gives them an education to get to eternal life. We bring our kids to school even if they do not want to go because we know that it is good for them, we should also do the same with Mass and their faith. We ourselves should be a joyous example for our children in the practice of the faith, even in these challenging times. When our children ask us questions about the faith or why we go to Mass, we should help them to find the answer even if we do not know it. This is something that will help us with our own faith life. We want our children to be the best that they can be and with the help of God, they can be, but we need to help them to see that gift that God is for them, by showing them our own love for God.

Yes, these are challenging times and there is a fear for many around the coming together, whether it be for school or church, but we can also be reminded of the joys that are around being together, most especially to pray together the highest form of prayer that we have in the Church and that is the Holy Celebration of the Sacred Eucharist, in which we receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ into our bodies. As we are entering into the new school year, take the time to pray with the kids and also to bring them to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist so that we can all be drawn close to God. Also, on Thursday at 8:30, we will have Mass for the kids and then every Wednesday at 8:30 as well as our usual 7:00 Mass.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Internet Is Down!

The Internet is down! Have you ever heard this statement? It can bring a wave of panic to flow over a teenager or even a web addicted adult. What am I going to do, no web surfing, no Hulu, no online gaming, Twitter, etc. These are some things that we do all the time, many people do not want to even go to the bathroom without bringing their phone with them.

A while back I watched an online ad for a product that I am not sure is even real, the pepper grinder that will turn off the internet and cable to all devices in the house. This is a way to make sure that everyone puts down the devices and shuts off the TV so that everyone can eat together without their phones or other devices in their hands.

We are a society that has constant communication ability, but we are losing the ability to communicate face to face. I see my nieces often texting each other when they are in the same room as each other and that is an issue sometimes with classrooms, it is the equivalent of passing the note to a friend. I read a study a while back in which they took cell phones away from teenagers for two weeks, and in the study, they realized that a good percentage of young people actually had withdrawal symptoms the same way an alcohol or drug addict would. We even do not seem to want to put the phone down when it is dangerous to look at it, just look around when you are driving and see how many people cannot seem to not be texting while they are driving.

A few years ago, during the “Back to the Future” day at St. Malachy school, the students created a time capsule and one of the things they put in it was a sample of writing and in cursive even, because they feel that in the next 30 years people will not be writing and cursive will be stopped first. In restaurants, I often see both the adults and children with a tablet or a phone and headphones in their ears with no one talking to each other.

We are an Internet and device addicted society, but we can help to change that. While I do like having the convenience of being able to pick up my phone and look something up, or use a prayer app on my phone because it is something that I almost always carry with me, I also need to keep reminding myself that I need to unplug for a while and spend some time with God, as well as with other people, because we are social people and we do need to have contact with others, and not just through a phone. Take some time away from the constant but impersonal contact that we have and spend some peaceful and prayerful time with our Heavenly Father in prayer so that we can use that peace to give to others.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Supporting One Another

When I think of most challenging physical work that I have done in my life, my mind goes back to my freshmen year of high school in the winter when I wrestled. Oh, those sandbags! Oh those Wheel Barrow exercises up the 2 flights of stairs!

Perhaps you have had a physical exertion event that you can remember during childhood that you remember well and thought might never end.

I also remember playing tackle football when I was in eighth grade and our team practiced at Columbus Park in Des Moines. It was a hot summer evening and we had already had a practice full of running and hard drills. Then, our coach tells us all to line up in the 3 point stance across one of the yard lines and watch the ball. When the ball goes, you start to sprint. If the ball does not “get hiked” then you have to stay in position. We were all dogged-tired and at a point one of our teammates didn’t watch the ball and started to run when the ball didn’t move. So, we had to move back and run an extra 10 yards. All of the team ended up making it through the difficult time, especially because we were in solidarity with one another.

In retrospect, these stories can have a sense of camaraderie and struggle infused into them. Our Christian lives are sometimes similar. There are periods of life where we are tested and hopefully can have a “team” of friends and faith-filled people to pray for us, help us, and assist us as we can do the same for others. This can be a Gospel call to help those who are particularly and acutely undergoing some suffering or evil. It is the Gospel call to show Mercy.

This past week, St. Luke’s had Bill Hammer’s funeral as the St. Luke’s community mourned the loss of Bill and comforted the Hammer family in their mourning and loss.

It was a time of sorrow being at Bill Hammer’s funeral with his son, Fr. Daniel presiding over His Father’s funeral. But it was also an event of great beauty, family, support, prayers, Catholic Community and the presence of Christ with His love, grace, and mercy.

May we continue supporting one another as a “team” of disciples in all aspects of our lives, but especially in those challenging times of life where we can lean on each other as members of the Body of Christ and be Christ to one another.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” 2Tim 4:7

Fr. Ryan