Lenten Fasting

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

The giving up of something is the fasting aspect of our Lenten celebrations, and when we give something up for Lent, we are sometimes tempted to “cheat” in what we are giving up. Remember it is not a sin to eat or do what we have promised to give up, it is an act of self-denial and self-sacrifice. I remind people this every year, that the thing we give up is a penance and sacrifice for us and not for those other people around us! We should not sacrifice something if we are going to be cranky and complain about it all of the time. Our sacrifice should not be a sacrifice for others, but for ourselves.

We live in a self-indulgent and disposable society that wants things right now and not later. We are being conditioned by advertisers to consume, to buy more and more, whether you can afford it or not, just go into debt for it, after all, that is what credit is for, right!?! But, when it does not make you happy any more, or it gets old, throw it away and get the newest and the best available. The advertising industry thrives on pride and envy, by telling us that we will be better off if we purchase the product that they are selling. We are often told through advertising that we NEED the newest and greatest thing out there, but a problem is, that the newest and greatest thing changes right after you purchase it. Just look at the cell phone industry, here is the greatest phone ever made, you need it and if you don’t have it, you are not cool anymore.

One of the counters to this idea of envy is fasting. The whole idea behind fasting from something for Lent is so that whenever we reach for, or are tempted by the thing that we have given up, we should be reminded that we do have some self-control and that we should use it, not only in the fasting, but also to learn the self-control to not sin. During this Lenten season, take some time to not only fast from something, but also to try and do something good to replace it, for example, if you decide to give up going out to fast food restaurants, take the money that you would have spent on it and give it to a charity. Take the time during this Lenten season to really focus on giving up something that can help us draw closer to God each and every day. I pray that you will have a good Lenten season to prepare for the rising of Jesus.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

New Year, New Me

So, have you broken your New Year’s resolution yet? I know it has only been a few weeks, but most resolutions are broken in the first few days because they are difficult. The average date it takes to break a New Year’s Resolution is January 11th. Studies say that it takes six weeks to break an old habit or build a new one, it is interesting because the season of Lent is just over six weeks long and Lent is only a little more than a week away! We have the slogan of “a new year, a new me.” It is a good saying, but we need to have the desire or a reason to change. We must have a better reason to do something different instead of what we are currently doing. An Alcoholic has what they call a moment of clarity, or they say they have to hit “rock bottom” to really desire a change -it could be a loved one leaving them, or some other event that really gets them to want to change. In our spiritual lives, we often think that everything is going just fine, until we run into a challenge to the way things are going. It could be a death that we are facing, a sickness, or other major life-changing event that we are dealing with.

One of the biggest things that can negatively affect our lives is holding on to grudges. We hold onto them like an addict holds onto the substance they are addicted to. We say that we are going to get even with that person or we relish when something bad happens to that person. One of the things that I would recommend in this “new me” is to make a conscious decision to let go of anger or a grudge we are holding on to. It could be someone that we are still close to, it could be someone that we are not, or it could be someone we have not talked to in years.

One of the phrases that we hear so often is to “forgive and forget.” We are all called to forgive, but it is very difficult to forget. Forgiveness is something that Jesus doesn’t just recommend; He requires it! Remember “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” And “if you fail to forgive your brother or sister, neither will you be forgiven.” Jesus asks us to forgive, not because the other person asks for it, wants it, or even deserves it, but because he knows that it will help us to see the mercy of God acting in our lives. It is there to give us peace in our hearts, because as we hold on to those grudges, as St Augustine states, holding on to grudges is like drinking poison expecting your enemy to die. Forgiveness is really about our freedom from anger. Take the time in this new year to leave a heavy burden behind you and forgive. New Year, New Me. So, let that new me be that one who is consistently working toward our Lord and Savior.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Education is important to the Catholic Church

This week is Catholic Schools Week. Within the Catholic Church we have had a long tradition of educating children as well as adults. The title often used for Jesus was Rabbi, which means teacher and one of the things that He did was to teach us about the Father. This has been a mission of the Catholic Church for two thousand years with formal Catholic schools for many hundreds of years. Currently, there are over 2 million students in a Catholic Elementary School in the United States and over 32 million worldwide. To put that number in perspective, that means 17% of all students in the world go to a Catholic school, and in less developed countries, the percentage of Catholic educated children is much higher.

The Catholic Church has had a long history of promoting education, so when I hear the false phrase that the Church is against science I just have to laugh because we have been teaching and encouraging science for many years. Copernicus was a cleric of the Church, which means he received minor orders. Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian Friar, was a pioneer of modern genetics; Msgr. Georges Lemaitre was the one who proposed the basics for the Lemaitre/Hubble Constant (the big bang theory) and a few years ago was renamed to the Hubble-Lemaitre law. The Catholic Church has been doing formal education of students from the second century, so a very long tradition of education of students. Even in our own nation, The Catholic Church has been in the teaching business for a long time. The first Catholic school in the United States was opened in 1606 by Franciscan missionaries.

Education has been the mission of the Church ever since Jesus walked the earth. Remember he commands us to go out to all the nations and preach the Gospel. While a school is not the primary mission of the Catholic Church, it helps us with our primary goal and that is to bring all people to Christ and thus to heaven. I often hear that it is too expensive for families to send their children to Catholic school, but there are many resources available for help. Along with the Education Savings Account that the State of Iowa has instituted to help families choose where they want to send their children, another of the programs is Catholic Tuition Organization, which gives scholarships based on need. We here also have an angel fund that assists parents as well. Parents sacrifice financially to send their children to the school with their tuition payments, and other help of time, talent, and treasure. Teachers, faculty, and administration give because their salary could be higher by working for the public schools. Parishioners and other family and friends help by donating funds, supporting fundraisers, and the many other events that go on in the school.

Here at St. Luke’s, we have been growing at a pretty rapid pace, which facilitated the need for phase II and will likely need to begin Phase III in a couple of years. We have grown from 156 students 5 years ago and 308 last year to 346 this year and we already have 367 signed up for next year. Catholic schools have been a wonderful part of our tradition and it has been such a blessing to be a part of all of the schools that I have been blessed to serve.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Snow days

As I write this, the parish office and school is closed due to the blizzard last Friday. The children today do not go through the same thing that my sisters and I had to endure. I remember when I was a kid, sitting in front of the television watching that scroll at the bottom of the screen as the “C” cities and schools were coming to an end, with the hope that “Des Moines Public Schools” would be on the list of schools that were closed. If it passed by, there was great disappointment, but still hope, it might pop up the next time around, and if it did, there was much rejoicing from us kids!

For kids, it is something that will make them happy, even if it does not have the same feeling for mom and/or dad. I remember, most of the time, we would sit and watch some TV for a while, maybe play the Atari, and then later in the morning, we would bundle up and play in the snow until our teeth were chattering and we finally went back inside to warm up again. Many people now also have the opportunity to be able to work from home during times of inclement weather. Being that I have access to my email and to the office phone from home, Fr Ryan and myself went up to the church for the 7:00 Mass to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice with about 10 people and then we went back to the rectory. That is what I ended up doing during the Friday blizzard- responding to emails and writing this letter.

For most of the kids (and some of the teachers), especially early in the winter, the thought of a snow day is a wonderful thing, they get to stay home and play. Being able to stay at home and play is one thing, but something else we can do is to also spend some of this extra time with God. Since it was quiet here at the house, I also got some extra time to pray. I often time recommend during these times of bad weather to say a special prayer for those who have to be out in it, not just the police and fire personnel, but also those others. Pray for safety for those who help to keep the power on, for those who work in emergency rooms, hospitals, care centers, and clinics as well. Pray for those who work at grocery stores and the many, many other people who have to be out in the weather. We can also take that extra time to pray for our families and friends. The example of prayer that we show our children is a wonderful thing. The other thing that I would remind us to pray for, is for those who do not have the ability to get out of the cold, those who are homeless. Our prayers as well as the other help that we give, whether it is financial, or physical help, can make a big difference in their lives. Know that I was and am praying for everyone here as well!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

"What are you looking for?"

In this weekend’s Gospel, there happens to be one of those things that many people state that you should not do, and that is to answer a question with a question. Jesus is walking by John the Baptist who has a number of disciples, or people that are following him. He happens to be with two of them when Jesus walks by. Remember, the role of John was to decrease while Jesus was to increase, and this is one of the ways that this happens. He tells his disciples that he is not the one to follow, but Jesus is really the one that they should be following. Then Jesus asks John’s disciples who are not following him “what are you looking for?” or “what do you want?” They answer his question with the question “where are you staying?”

So, what does this interchange mean for us? First of all, we know that John realized who Jesus was and so he wanted his disciples and others to follow not him but Jesus, whom he has been proclaiming since his youth. Second, the disciples were hungry for the faith and so when someone that they trusted and followed told them to follow someone else, they listened and followed the one who was proclaimed. Next, Jesus was confronting them, even though he already knew their hearts, wanting them to see what they are doing. Finally, when they ask, where Jesus is staying, they are in a way saying that they would like to be with him where he is staying. In other words, they were saying, Jesus, we will be your disciples and stay where you are staying and be with you there. When Jesus invites them, they follow, and then go back out and bring those that they love back to Jesus. This is something that was not just for them, it is for all of us.

Could you imagine what you would do if Jesus the Son of the Living God turns to you and asks you “what are you looking for?” How would you respond? What answer would you give him? Would you want to follow or not? This is the continual question that we are asked each and every day when we are followers of Jesus. I know that in my own case, I see Jesus in front of me and I have that desire to follow, but then something distracts me from the path. But, I also know that when I do stray away from the path, Jesus will come back to me and bring me back to the path that I am called to follow, and that is his path. As we begin these short few weeks of Ordinary time and get ready for the Lenten season that will begin in about a month, we need to continually remind ourselves, how do we best answer that question that Jesus asks us each and every day, “What are you looking for?” Hopefully we will have that courage and strength every day to ask him back, where are you staying so that I can be with you all the time. Keep praying for the gift to follow the path that Jesus has for all of us.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Learning from the Magi

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

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

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

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

The Magi wanted to see him and they wanted to praise him, but not all who heard about this new king were happy. Harrod was afraid that this new king would someday grow up and take his power away from him, so he wanted to destroy him and to do this he was willing to kill many others, which he did. Even though they received the message not to go back to Harrod in a dream, there is a great message that we can get out of the account that they returned home a different direction. The Magi came not out of fear, but out of a wish to be a witness, but once they had the experience with Christ, they were changed and went a different direction. Jesus calls us to witness the miracles that he is trying to do in each of our lives and then wants us to go a different direction, which is always toward him. I pray as this Christmas Season continues, that you will all have a great and blessed year.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Christmas and the beginning of a new year

Merry Christmas! Last week, we began the Christmas season in the Church and we will celebrate it until January 8th which is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

We also celebrated a number of wonderful feast days this past week in case you missed them. We have the Feast of the first Martyr, St Stephen. He was a Disciple of Christ and was killed because he refused to deny Jesus as our Savior. Then on Wednesday, we celebrated the Feast of St. John the Apostle who wrote one of the Gospels. Then on Thursday, we honored the Holy Innocents. When we look at the readings that we have during that day, we realize just how far some people are willing to go to hold on to control and power in their lives. Herod was so afraid of a new king, that he might take his place and usurp his power at a later date, that he was willing to do something horrific to make sure that did not happen. He had all of the boys under two years old murdered so that the newborn King of the Jews, who we celebrated with the birth of Jesus last week, would be destroyed before he could grow up and come to power. The problem with that is that Jesus was not coming to be a temporal leader and posed no threat to Herod’s control and rule. Jesus came to call us to more than that, he came to show us his true kingdom, that of Heaven.

We can do the same thing sometimes, although not to that extent. We can sometimes think that the person we work with is trying to get us, or that maybe if they do their job too well, it might look bad on us, so we spread a rumor about them. We can do these kinds of things in many different ways. We have choices; do we act like Herod, or do we act like St. Stephen? Herod did things that were good only for him, while St. Stephen did things that were for the good of God and his Kingdom!

So, as we begin this New Year on Monday, how are we going to change those things that we need to change, and continue to do those things that make us better? I would recommend adding some more prayer time each and every day so that we can have that same strength that God gave St. Stephen; the ability to stand up to those who were persecuting him. While we may never have to make that choice, we still need that strength and wisdom of God to get us through all of the other things we will face in this new year. So, Monday, as we begin the 2024 year, let us take the opportunity of the new start to restart with God. To pray for ourselves to have the courage of St. Stephen and the many blessings that God will give us. Also, take the time to pray for our family and friends as well, that they will do the same.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Merry Christmas! Jesus has come again!

This Monday we celebrate Christmas and it is not the end, but the beginning of the true Christmas season which goes until (depending on the calendar you follow) the feast of the Baptism of the Lord on January 8th.

This is a wonderful season, a season of joy and peace, and while the time with family and friends, the food and drinks, and the gift giving and receiving is wonderful, remember why we are celebrating in this time. It is so easy to get caught up in the commercial Christmas season, but we also need to be reminded that it is a joyous and wonderful and faith filled season. During this Christmas season let us be mindful of the greatest gifts that we have been and ever will be given, Christ Jesus our Savior who wanted to live our life with us.

Take some time to reflect on the Gospel accounts of how the coming of our Lord and Savior came about. There are a couple of them in the Gospels. Matthew’s begins with the genealogy through Joseph and the kingly side, and Luke’s goes through Mary and the priestly side a little later in the Gospel, but here is the story that we hear: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

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

This is a story we have all heard many different times, and I would recommend talking to our children about it during Christmas. The line that I like to reflect on is the one that the angels say about the good news of great joy. This really is a season of joy and peace, even though we are running around to see family and friends, it is a season of peace that only Christ can offer us. So don’t get tired of this beautiful season of Christmas.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Christmas approaches and we celebrate our parish's anniversary

This Sunday we celebrate a special anniversary on December 17th 2010, then Bishop Pates announced the creation of a new parish for the diocese located in Ankeny, our Parish of St. Luke the Evangelist. The parish began with a few families meeting in the basement of the Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart rectory to discuss the plans for the new parish. Wow have we grown in these last 13 years. We now have over 800 families here and we continue to grow by eight or nine new families each month, as I outlined in last weeks article, it does have some challenges with the level of growth that we continue to have.

Anniversaries are a wonderful time in which we can look back on the things that have happened in the years past. Just like wedding anniversaries, when couples look back at the wedding and the years that have happened in between. In my over four years here, the parish has grown and continues to be a wonderful place with many young families, and I feel so blessed to be here.

This weekend we will also be lighting the pink candle as well as we will be using the rose or pink vestments. One of the things that this means is that Advent is over half way over and the coming of Christ in Christmas is getting closer! We only will wear the rose vestments for two weekends a year; Gaudete Sunday for the third Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in the fourth Sunday during Lent. It is only an option to wear the rose color vestments and not required to wear it, but it is nice to have something visual to see the difference. The words Laetare and Gaudete mean the same thing; they mean rejoice! This is because we are rejoicing that Christ is near. The word Laetare comes from an option introit or introduction to the Mass that is either said or sung which goes “Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. (Psalm) I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord…”

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

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Parish's Long-Term Vision Update

This article is an update on the long-term vision of the parish as it is related to our continued growth. First of all, we are doing pretty good in the aspect of the day-to-day finances, we are being blessed with continued increase in tithing and with the growth in student population, that helps the finances of the school. We have grown to just around 820 families and are averaging eight new families a month registering in the parish with a couple leaving as well. In the school, we have continued to grow significantly, in the current school year we have gained 42 students to bring us to a total of 346 students. The Education Saving Account (ESA) has only helped a little, as we are close to capacity in a few grades. Along with the number of students in the school, we also have around 375 students in our Religious Education programs and it keeps growing as well. That means we are over 700 children and that does not include the many children that are too young for school as well as those who are home schooled. As we continue to grow the number of people that we serve here, that means that we will continue to grow in building size. We are blessed to have 34 acres of land, so that is a wonderful thing, but even after  finishing phase II, we still need to continue to look forward to our needs, so we do not fall behind.

In our current plan, we have SIX phases of major construction projects planned at this point, Phase I and II are complete at a total cost of $11.5 million, Phase III, estimated at between $4M and $5M, will be very similar to Phase II which means more office space and six more classrooms and the intention would be to make this a middle-school wing going off to the west of the Phase II addition. Phase IV will be the big one; this will be the new worship space! The vision would be to go to the east side of the current church with another gathering space, storage, two medium size meeting rooms, more office space, and a 1,000+ seat church with an adoration chapel, and more parking as well. Phase V is seen as moving to a three-section school and would need around 12 more classrooms along with a cafeteria/flexible space and possibly a second gym. Phase VI would possibly be the senior living and other meeting space and classroom space. Along with these major projects, there will be a number of smaller ones that we will need to consider, an on-property rectory, ball fields, more parking, and maintenance buildings. I know that this is a lot, but we are looking at the continuing needs of the parish over the next 25+ years.

We are in a unique situation as a parish and kind of exciting as well. As we do grow, keep me, Fr. Ryan, the deacons, and all of the staff and parish leadership in your prayers, believe me, we all need them. Also, know that I pray for everyone in this parish every day as well, and may God bless you all.

P.S. if you are looking at an end of the year tax write-off consider a donation to the Future Phase Fund!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Preparing for Christmas

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 and 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 is Wednesday, 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 happened 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 begin the Advent season this year and we prepare 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, 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

Christ The King

This weekend we celebrate the last weekend of the liturgical year. This is called Christ the King Sunday. So, what do we think of when we hear those words Christ the King? Not too long ago, the United Kingdom welcomed the first new monarch in many decades, King Charles. Do we think of Jesus Christ as that kind of king? Hopefully not.

Some people state that we in the United States actually fought a war to get rid of a king. Kings can be tyrants, they can be cruel, they can be benevolent, they can be kind, they can be so many things, so is this the imagery that we use for Jesus? Kings are ones that will rule a single nation or region, but not everything in creation like Jesus our King does. One of the interesting things that we could see for the Kingship of Jesus is what he truly is, not just a king, but a servant king, and a king that will lead us to our eternal reward. In history very few monarchs have sacrificed themselves for their people, but we have the king who gave his very body and blood for us. He was willing to be crucified so that we can be saved. That is the kind of king we have, one that is all love.

So, if we do see Christ as our true king, that begs the other question of what do we need to do as his subjects? The answer to that question, is that we need to follow him, we need to use his example of self-sacrifice for us to also do for our families and friends. When I think of this idea of Jesus’ kingship, I am reminded of the interchange between Jesus and Pontius Pilate, Pilate asks Jesus the question of “Are you the king of the Jews?” At first, Jesus does not answer the question, but then states that his kingdom is not of this earth and that, if he wanted to, he could stop the persecution by having his attendants fight for him. This is usually what a king does, he sends his people to fight the battle for him, but Christ is a different kind of king, one that loves us even more than we can possibly love him or even ourselves. So, as we honor our one true king that is beyond our world, yet at the same time incredibly close to us, let us be those best followers of him, so that we can be led into his kingdom of heaven.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Celebrating Thanksgiving

On Thursday, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. It officially was proclaimed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln 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, with wars, hunger, inflation, strife, etc. 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 in which we usually over-indulge in food and drink, watch some football, play games, 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 for the gifts we have we then begin to line up at the malls trying to get ready to beat out our neighbor for the best deal of the season. I know that, especially this year, it is great to save a bit on the things that we are going to purchase anyway. I pray that we will all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving this year and be grateful for the gifts we have. The virtue for this month is gratitude and it is something that I do not think we do enough.

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, 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

Band-Aids and Ice Packs

One of the great blessings being at a parish with a School is that I get to witness some incredible amounts of energy in just watching the children play either outside on the playground or in the gym. Sometimes it is funny just to stand by and watch them run around and play to see what they will come up with. They will chase each other, climb on the equipment, lay down in the grass, throw a ball, sit on the bench, spin in circles, or whatever else. Sometimes they even have an accident, they fall down or they run into each other, but the thing that is great about kids is that they are pretty durable; when they fall down they get right back up. Usually, they will just get back up, brush off their clothes, and be on their way, but other times they need some help they will go and get a Band-Aid or an ice pack, for some reason we seem to use many ice packs. The great thing is that in making those mistakes they usually learn from them. When they get hurt on something, they often times are more careful around it… at least for a little while. Then most of the time they are right back into doing the same things again or learn a better way of doing it.

We can sometimes learn from our children, that when we fall down, we should get right back up, even though physically, this gets harder and harder as we get older. This same thing goes for our spiritual life as well. We kind of go on our way running around and living our life until we trip over something or we are not paying attention and just fall down and sin by either committing one or omitting something. The key is that we need to get back up again and start over, but also, we need to remind ourselves that there are some things in our lives that can cause us to fall and we need to try to avoid them, just as kids do. I remember one time when my niece ran into a table outside and the next few times that she was at my parents’ house she would point to the table and say “owie.”

Sometimes when we fall in that spiritual life, we need that ice pack or Band-Aid and that is the sacrament of confession that thing that helps us to get rid of the injury. Also, just like kids, we cannot let the failures that we have keep us on the sidelines, we need to get back up, put on the Band-Aid and get back to doing what we need to be doing. We can take the idea of brushing ourselves off by saying a prayer or saying we are sorry right then and there or we may need to go in for that Confession. The running around and playing for kids is a way to get some exercise and also entertainment for them, our prayer life is a way for us to recharge ourselves in our daily life. When we take that time to spend with God, he will lead us to where we need to go and even help us to see the dangers that we can trip over so that we can learn from them.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Time

Have you ever thought about time? Time is one of those interesting things to think about, we all know what it is, but how would you explain it without using itself to describe it. Time is the one thing that we can never get more of or get back what we have used. Objectively, time is fixed, but as quantum mechanics states, the passage of time is affected by gravity. This theory is used in a book called “Genesis and the Big Bang” which shows how that can work in the creation of the universe. Time can also be perceived as relative, as the joke goes how long is a minute, well that depends on which side of the bathroom door you are on. A priest friend of mine said “life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer to the end it is, the faster it goes.” We can also see that, a year in the life of a three-year-old, is one-third of their life, while someone who is 50, it is only two-percent. In our perspective, it can be relative as well. We can see that we are now less than one month from Thanksgiving, and only two months to Christmas and that can cause some anxiety with all of the stuff that still needs to be done. To a child who is anxiously awaiting Christmas, it is so far away. One of my favorite questions about time is attributed to St. Augustine after he wrote his work “On Time”. Someone asked him what was God doing before he created time, and his answer was creating hell for those who ask stupid questions.

So, why am I bringing up the concept of time? With the war in Israel, and other many conflicts in the world, I hear again different theories about the end of world and the end of time. Yes, there will be some point in our future that time will end, for our lives on earth, as well as for the entire universe. Time is not infinite, only God is infinite. A number of different times, I have talked about the end of the world and the predictions of it. The key is to not get too worked up about those predictions, the dozens or hundreds of them have never happened yet! Jesus tells us that we will never know the day or the hour that He will come again. He does tell us that no matter when it is, we need to be ready for it. And how do we make sure that we are ready for it? The same way that we always do, love God above everything else and then love our neighbor as ourselves, and when we fail in one of those aspects, we have the sacrament of Reconciliation to bring us back. Take the time to spend with God throughout each and every day, primarily in the Sunday Eucharist, but also every other day in our struggles and blessings.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Technology can be a blessing and a curse

My earlier life, as most of you know, was working in the Information Technology field. These skills have been helpful around all of the parishes that I have served at, and it is no different here at St. Luke’s. From helping to get some network stuff put together, to helping with the computer problems around here. Technology is still a hobby of mine, although not nearly as much as it was. I still like tech gadgets from one of the great inventions the robot vacuum cleaner, to smart watches, and network connected light switches.

I often hear that smartphones are a curse and a blessing sometimes. Just like most things, it is in the use of the device that can be good or evil depending on the action and not the device itself. I use my cell phone to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, as well as to look up the readings for the Mass. When I travel, I have an app on my iPad that has all of the options for the Mass on it so I do not have to bring the Missal with me. It is a great option to save packing space. One of the great things is the translator app, I used this quite a few times on my trip to have a conversation and to order food from a menu in another language. But we also have the more challenging side of these devices. They often make it easy to foster an addiction to pornography, they can be used to bully people online, they can be used in a way to make it easier to scam people as well, they can be used to manipulate people and blackmail them. They can be used for many more bad things as well.

We are a society of the greatest access to information of any in history. But, how many of us are slaves to our device? When you hear that familiar “ding” when you get a message, do you immediately grab it to see who it is? I know that I have that desire many times. How many of us have to be in the know all the time? One of the things that I often make myself do is to step away from the computer, not pick up the phone, or any other device, and spend that time with God. Even if we use a device for prayer, we need to also spend that quiet time away from the distractions to just be with God. We also need to sometimes be reminded to get everyone to put them down and spend that great quality time with our family and friends. Texts, while they are good, still cannot replace that face time with our loved ones. Remember, Jesus often reminds us that our first and foremost love should be for God and that love that we receive back will help us to love our neighbors as well.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Cheap Socks

Did I get your attention? Have you ever had a package of cheap socks and they just fall apart and have holes in them after only wearing them a few times? It is something that is frustrating, you spend money on something and it just does not last. One of the things that I have found out in life is that the cheapest thing is not the least expensive, especially if you must replace it shortly after you purchase it, or it does not work like it really should, or you get so frustrated with it that you get mad and throw it away.

I remember one time that I bought a cheap drill because I did not think that I would need it often. After using it two times, I got so mad at it that I gave it away and bought a better one. I have always found that there are a few things that you need to spend the extra money on to make sure that you get something of quality. A few of those things are tools, tires, shoes, and Oreos (generic Oreos just do not taste right.)

Many times, we also do not take care of those things that are cheap or free. I know someone who has stopped outright buying things for his children that are not necessary after they failed to take care of some things and told him, “Why should I take care of it, we can just get another one.” What he does now is, if one of his children wants something, they must do something to earn it. They have to do chores, help out a sibling, or something else good to get what they want. This makes them realize that things that they want in life are earned, and things that are earned are things we want to take care of.

I sometimes think that we forget that our grace was earned for us and given to us for free, and I have to admit that I forget this at times. We have the opportunity to accept the free gift of grace that Jesus Christ has earned for us. He did the work and gives it to us for free or cheaply, only requiring us to follow the example that He set. I know that it is not always easy to follow the Christian life, but it is something that we are called to do. We sometimes do not take care of our faith because it is free to us and it is something that we can do freely. In other regions of the world, following the faith is not so easy and, in some cases, it is dangerous to practice the faith. In China a few years ago, there were a group of Catholics in a church for Mass and they were thrown out of the church and the building was destroyed because it was not part of the government sanctioned Church. The interesting thing about our “cheap” grace is that it is a very precious thing; it was paid for with an expensive price, with the blood of Christ. It was bought and paid for and then given to us for free, and the only thing we need to do to get it is to accept it and follow our Lord and Savior who wants to give us this gift that no amount of money can pay for.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The feast of our namesake

This Wednesday, October 18th we will celebrate 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 that he was Greek and was a Gentile who became a disciple of Christ. There is evidence of this because he is not listed when Paul mentions in the Letter to the Colossians those who were “of the circumcision” which would mean the Jewish people, but he is mentioned later along with someone called Demas. There is also a theory that St. Luke was a slave. We also know that St. Luke joined St. Paul in many of his journeys but not always. St. Luke first met up with St. Paul in Troas and traveled with him for quite a while, then were apart for about seven years when they traveled again through Caesarea and Jerusalem. He was most likely with St. Paul when he was arrested and thrown in prison in Rome, even though it does not seem that he was in prison with him.

St. Luke also is one that has a special connection with the Blessed Mother, because he was the only one who has the account of the Annunciation as well as the Magnificat prayer. He was also one who wrote 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

Understanding "Pro-Life"

October is respect life month in the Church. When we as a Church talk about being pro-life, that phrase has many different aspects to it. It is pretty common knowledge that the Catholic Church is a strong leader in the Pro-Life movement, which goes well beyond the work to end abortions. Protection for the unborn is one of the primary missions of the Pro-Life group because it is the first stage of life, but not the only one. Each year, over 900,000 children are aborted in the U.S. alone, that is a staggering number and sadly in Washington DC, 38% of pregnancies end in abortion. It is estimated that one out of four women have had an abortion and we need to respond to them with forgiveness and love. When we talk about being pro-life in our Church it is more than just being anti-abortion, it is about supporting life from conception to natural death. This means that we should strive for the dignity of life from the time that the child is conceived to the time that we naturally die. This means that we should also not support euthanasia, no matter what light it is cast in, it is sometimes called “dignity in death” because some would argue that it is better to die than to suffer and that the taking of a life over allowing them to suffer is better for the person or even the family. This also applies to the death penalty, within the United States. We have an ability to keep those who have committed a major crime in prison. Capital punishment is not supported by the Church for multiple reasons, first and foremost, there is a chance, however small that might be, that the person convicted is not guilty, but it also does not allow for a conversion of heart by the person who is guilty, and most of the time, capital punishment is retaliation and not justice.

We sometimes separate social justice and pro-life as two different and separate groups, but they are intertwined. If we profess to support life, we also need to help and provide support to those who are living. If we support social justice, then we need to have the first rule, which is life. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves and then explained that all people are our neighbors, no matter what color, or where they are from; from the child conceived with a disability, to the child conceived on a hook-up, to the immigrant, to the prisoner on death row, to the elderly person in a nursing home, or those on their death beds. Being pro-life in the Catholic Church also means providing for the needs of the other in many varied ways, which is why the Church provides food and water, and other support to those in need. We as a parish are supporting this effort in many ways, including our sister parish, St. Martin de Porres. The Catholic Church feeds and clothes millions of people throughout the world as a part of our supporting life efforts. It also provides health care for millions. This is what it means to be Pro-Life. Pray for all of the pro-life ministries that we support throughout the world.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Many Opportunities

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 is not often seen because we usually are grabbing people as they walk in and asking them last minute. 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. Something that would be pretty easy to do as a family is to do hospitality ministry, which involves greeting people, handing out music books, and passing the collection baskets, the kids usually love to help with this. 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. Here at St. Luke’s we have around 1,500 registered adults and if even half of us volunteer an hour a month, we would be fine.

While Mass ministries are great, we also have many other things that we need volunteers for. We have Oxtoberfest coming up in a couple of weeks and we still need people to help in many of the different things going on. This is our major fundraiser for the parish and has provided for the livestream cameras, the new matching vestments that the priests and deacons wear, the new cassocks that the servers wear, as well as the statue of St Luke that we now have in the narthex. The major school fundraiser is the Green Gala in February raises funds to help things for the school like playground equipment, the gazebo, teacher gifts, and many more things. All of these events also require many people to help and for those who have helped, I wanted to thank you.

There are so many opportunities to help with things no matter what skill level you are, from the projects that come up throughout the year, to helping with child care during other events. We also are in need for crossing guards and help in the school kitchen.

Please consider helping out in some way. We would always be willing to train and help you out in whatever you would like and feel comfortable with.

God bless,
Fr. Ken