Diocesan Strategic Vision

Blessed 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time!,

On June 26th, Bishop Joensen launched the Diocesan Strategic Vision that he desires be implemented in every parish in the diocese. Bishop Joensen requests that all parishes participate in listening to the Holy Spirit in discerning what priorities each parish should focus on starting this fall, 2024.

The Priorities that the Diocese has identified, by listening to each parish in the Diocese and doing its own discernment in the Spirit, include the following:

1. Creating a Culture of Welcome and Care in our Parish Communities
   A welcoming parish is a reflection of Christian hospitality. Once we are welcomed, it is important to know we are cared for, that we matter to the life of the parish.

2. Inviting People Into an Encounter with Jesus Christ
   Jesus invites all of us to have a personal relationship with Him. The work of  evangelization is an invitation into an encounter with Jesus which transforms us, our families, our parish, and our communities.

3. Accompanying our Youth into Discipleship with Jesus Christ
   Walking with Youth means meeting them where they are. Our youth are interested in making connections with their peers and forming lasting relationships.

4. Engaging our Young Adults into Full Participation
   We seek to connect young adults with Jesus Christ, the Church as a welcoming Christian Community, the mission of the Church in the world, and a peer community where faith is nurtured and strengthened.

5. Preparing Disciples for the Domestic Church
   The family is placed at the heart of discipleship and mission. It is the privileged place for evangelization, catechesis, and spiritual growth.

6. Communicating our Message Boldly and Clearly
   Good communication is at the core of helping people know and love God. It is the lynchpin in a thriving, active parish.

Fr. Ken and I invite you to pray with us, asking the Holy Spirit’s guidance, on where the Holy Spirit is guiding our parish.

May God continue to bless you this Summer!

In Christ,
Fr. Ryan

Self-Control

A while back, I was in the thrift store that the parish ran in Creston and was amazed at the mountain of stuff that was donated just over the weekend. I began to think that at some point someone looked at whatever the item was at a store or on a commercial and told themselves “I have to have that thing” or he or she would not have purchased it. So many of the things that come in were never used or worn, they were purchased or received as a gift and then got put away in a closet or basement and then donated. I can only imagine at the price of these things when they were purchased new and are now sold for anywhere from a quarter to a couple of dollars.

We as Americans are constantly bombarded by the many messages that give us an opportunity to be parted with our money. Turn on the TV or websites, and just look at some of the ads, “your car makes your kids embarrassed, so if you want to be a cool parent, buy this one, we will even help you to go into debt to buy it, it will only be this much a month over many years”, or if you want to pick up a member of the opposite sex, just drink this beer, or if you want to jump like Michael Jordan, buy these shoes… the list goes on and on. I can fool myself by saying that the ads do not affect me, but I find myself seeing something in the store that I saw on an ad and wanted to buy it just to see what it is like. The more ads we see, the more we are affected.

The best way to circumvent it is to practice self-control, the same goes with sin, sin like in advertising seems really attractive, but in the end, like all of the items that get donated, they leave us unfulfilled. The devil always promises us something that is good, otherwise we would not choose it, just look at the temptation of Jesus. However, the good that sin is portrayed, it always comes with a cost. Jesus knew that he had access to whatever the devil promised anyway and had something better. The cost of sin always affects our soul, and sometimes the souls of others. The devil is to offer us something that we think that we need even if he does not have the power to give it to us. The point of advertising is to make something look enticing so that the next time we are in a store or shopping online we will purchase it even if we do not need it. This is where we need to have that self-control in purchasing, but more importantly self-control in our spiritual life. It is easy to say, don’t fall into the temptation to sin, but it is not that easy to follow. The best way to not fall into the temptation to purchase something is to make a list of things that you need to purchase and only get those. The best way to not fall into sin is to draw close to God who will give us the power to overcome sin.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Habit or Addiction?

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

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

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Parish Statistics Update

It is time for our updated parish statistics. Since we are such a growing parish, twice a year I go through our registration database and update the statistics for the parish. As of a few weeks ago, we are currently around 870 families with a total number of parishioners of 2775. We gain about 8 families a month as we continue to grow. One of the interesting things is how young the median age is here, and that is 24. If you go to the 8:30 or 10:30 Masses, it will not surprise you that our two largest age groups are kids, with 23% of the members here under the age of 10, 21% 10–20-year-olds, and only 17% over the age of 50. With that, the next larger groups are the parents of the children with 15% in the 30-40 and 17% in the 40-50 age range. These numbers paint an amazing picture of what our parish looks like, and what our needs are.

Most of you have seen the plans for our construction phases and what we hope to look like in the next 20+ years. Whenever I have someone introduce themselves and tell me that this is the first time that they have come to Mass here, I warn them that we have very “active” Masses here with the number of kids here, and that is a wonderful thing. I often say, I would rather have the kids making a bit of noise and have them here, than to not have them come. We sometimes hear that children are the future of the Church, but I argue that for them to be the future, they need to first be the present with their parents, even if they make some noise.

We do and will continue to have some growing pains here because we are growing faster than we can afford to construct buildings, so we have to be creative in the way we do things. I will take this opportunity for a shameless plug to say if you would like to help, we have our “Future Phase Fund” available to donate to! We are hoping to begin fundraising for Phase III classroom and office space project around the end of this year and the active pledge phase in the early part of next year, with a completion expected for summer of 2027. We have accomplished a lot since we started as a parish, but we still have a long way to go. In the 2016 school year, we had 246 kids in our Religious Education classes and 93 in the school.  In the past school year, we had 373 in the Religious Education classes and 346 in the school and are estimating over 380 for the upcoming year.

I know the Mass overflow to the gym is not ideal, but, currently, it is necessary. I would love to start the worship space next, but we are living on limited time with our portable classrooms. I must admit, even though there are many challenges here, and the celebration of Mass is not the peaceful, quiet, and contemplative way that would be ideal, it is such a blessing to be here amid the vibrant life and excitement that is here. So… Parents, keep up the good work of bringing the kids to Mass every Sunday, it can only help to strengthen the faith that you have, and that you can continue to give your children.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Saint Michael the Archangel

Often times I talk about the named Saints, because the saints are ones who may not have been perfect and even if they did not live the earlier parts of their lives in a good and holy way, they had a conversion in some way that brought them back on the path to God. However, there are a few interesting saints that we call saints, even though they really are not in the traditional sense, because they were not even human, and those are the Archangels. There is not even a question, because the basic definition of a saint is someone who is in heaven.

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

We are constantly reminded in news stories that there is evil in this world and we need God’s help even through His angels and saints. We should be reminded of St. Michael’s strength in the prayer of Saint Michael “Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the Divine Power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.”

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Celebrate and work for unity

This week we celebrate the Independence of this great nation. The Fourth of July holiday is one, like many other ones, that has lots of traditions. From parades, fireworks, cookouts, swimming, family time, and many others, we even here have started a tradition to come out on the east lawn of the church to watch the fireworks. One of the traditions that I think that we need to continue to do and to build on is to pray, pray for our families, for our friends, our Church, and especially for our nation.
Currently, I personally have been avoiding watching the news on television because I get so disappointed with the level of division that we have in our nation, right or left, conservative or progressive. I see politicians on both side of the aisle name calling and blaming the other side for the problems that we have. I also see this within our Church, God is calling us to follow him and the devil is using his tools to fight against that. The reality is that it is up to all of us to begin to work together for the greater good of all of us.
One of the things I think that the pandemic brought out is a greater division in us. We are social beings by nature, and one of the things that all of us desire is a sense of belonging, whether we are introverted or extroverted, we want to belong to something. God wants us to belong to him and him to us, but God also wants that to be a free choice that we make. God will not force us to be with him, even though it might be easier for us, he has given us that freedom to follow or not, it really is our choice. We choose him by the two great commandments to love God above everything and then love our neighbor as ourselves. We cannot love those who we despise, but we can still love those that we disagree with. One of the greatest tools of the devil is division because pitting us against each other does not allow for peace, but strife and struggle.

When we are focused on the differences that we have, we fail to look at the ways that we are alike and then we fail to look toward the only true one who can truly help us and that is God. He made us in his likeness and image, so in this way we are all alike, we are all children of the living God who loves us so much that he sent his Son into the world to free us from sin and death, if we are willing to let them go. Keep praying for healing in our Church, our Nation, and our own lives and remember that this holiday is a remembrance that we can freely come together to be a people of unity.

 God bless,
Fr. Ken

The life of the priest is not for wimps

This Friday, God willing, we will have Deacon Luis Cabrera and Deacon Mike Mahoney ordained to the priesthood for our diocese. This is a wonderful thing, as we have been pretty blessed to have ten men in the last four years. The calling to the priesthood is not for every man, it is something that must be discerned by both the man, as well as the seminary, bishop, and Church as a whole. In seminary, I remember quite a few guys who dropped out of seminary, that I felt would make wonderful priests, but they, or their formation team and diocese felt otherwise. Some of these guys I keep in touch with and they are making wonderful husbands and fathers because of their time that they spent really praying and discerning their true vocation in life. Through that discernment, they decided that their calling was not the priesthood. There were also a few of the guys that went through, and some that got ordained, that I personally wondered about, but in the end, it is not my call, but God’s.

To be honest, the life of a priest is not always easy, one must be someone who can first and foremost be a man of prayer, while also being someone who can talk in front of a group, run a multi-million-dollar corporation, be a counselor, a spiritual guide, a maintenance guy, critter patrol, and so many other “duties as needed.” A professor in seminary once said, “The life of the priest is not for wimps.” In this he was very true. The priesthood is so much more than a job, it is a vocation and a life. As a priest, you will be with people in times of great sorrow, maybe even be with someone during the worst day of their lives, but you will also be able to be with people in their greatest joys and even in some cases, the happiest days of their lives.

So, I would like to remind each and every one of us to pray for vocations and I would like to ask everyone to encourage someone to consider the religious life. To those young men considering the priesthood I would give this advice. If you want an easy job, do not become a priest. If you want a job with a lot of free time or a lot of material wealth, do not become a priest. If you want something that is more than a job, something that is challenging, something to help people in their life’s struggles and their great joys, consider the priesthood. If you want something that the blessings outweigh the difficulties, consider the priesthood. The priesthood is a wonderful calling. We priests and bishops are far from perfect people, we have many and similar faults just like everyone else, but that is why we rely on God for strength. I ask for a favor from you and that is to keep us in your prayers and help to encourage those young men to consider the calling.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Growing Pains

As you have probably heard, we are in the process of hiring someone to fill the position of Faith Formation Director. It would be a good time to provide for some updates about the future of our programs as well. We continue to have a large number of children in the parish and that is not slowing down. The religious education program is continuing to hold steady with the number of students in it staying around 375 kids, and we are still looking for some more volunteers to help out as catechists for next year as well as other helpers. This coming year we are going to be bringing back the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program as well. I wanted to thank the volunteers that are making this happen again. Since we only have one staff member for all of our programs, we rely heavily on the large number of volunteers to keep these programs running. We are also looking at hiring a part time assistant, but we are currently limited by budget and also physical space for another person. Currently in the offices, Fr Ryan and I share an office, Principal Hade and Vice-Principal Hazel share an office (along with other programs), and Nick and Jeremy share an office. There is an office space expansion that will be included with the Phase III construction, and will be expanded further in Phase IV, but these are a few years out. One of the challenges with the limited staff is that a good number of our other programs are led by volunteers and ideally, in the future, we will have more staff to continue to grow those programs. We are always open to people volunteering their time to help us to grow our programs and opportunities for the people of the parish. I am very grateful for the many people who step up and do this for our families. This fall we will take a look at where we are with the budget and then look at adding more Faith Formation staff if we can. I know that it is a priority and I hope that we will be in the position to hire an additional person soon.

The day school continues to grow and we are getting close to being completely full; we will be in the area of 385 plus kids for the 24-25 school year. It is incredible to see where we are now. My first school year here we had grown to 176 from 153, and we are over double that number now. It is incredible to see the continued growth that we have had over the years, but that will slow down until we get to the later phases of construction to make us a three-section school in the next couple of decades.

Our adult faith programs continue to grow as well, with the women’s bible study, the other bible study, faith with Deacon Fred, book groups, OCIA (formerly RCIA) and others. We are such a good and vibrant parish, and I hope that continues. Yes, we still plan on continuing to grow our staff, but in the meantime, thank you for all of the people who help and volunteer their time to help.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Where are the cup holders?

Whenever you have a group of non-Catholics come to Mass, and it is often when we have a baptism, wedding, funeral, or other special event during the Mass, you sometime have questions like, “why does the church not have cup-holders?” or “how do you know when and why to stand, kneel, and sit?” or, “why do you stand, sit, and kneel?”. We sometimes don’t really know why we do these different things.  We do it because that is the way we were taught, but there is a reason for our postures during Mass.

As for the cup holders, we should be reminded that the Mass is not a form of entertainment, or a show, but it is a time of worship to God and not just another place to have our dessert, coffee, or soda, and yes, we still have the hour fast of anything other than water before we receive Communion.

As for the posture, each part of the Mass has a different posture and a reason for that posture. Standing is a posture that tells us we are ready to do something, to come or go. It is also a posture of honor and respect. We stand at the beginning and end of Mass because we are coming or going. We stand during the Gospel as a sign of respect for the words of Christ; the Gospels hold a higher place among the rest of the word of God because they are directly related to Christ’s bodily time on this earth. During the time of Christ, the teacher or master was the one that sat down and the students would stand around them. Sitting is a posture of relaxing as well as listening and meditation; we sit during the readings and the preparation of the gifts because we are being attentive to what is going on. This is the way that students now listen, sitting so that they can be focused. Pews were a later addition in the Catholic Church; we have only had them for about 500 years. Kneeling is a sign of humility and penitence. Within the United States, we kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer and at Communion time as a reminder of our humility and reverence for Christ in the Eucharistic species. To go along with this is the genuflection. This also is a reminder of our humility to Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, which is why we genuflect to the tabernacle as we enter and leave the church. We genuflect not to the box of the tabernacle, but to Jesus who is in the tabernacle, which is why we should not genuflect to the tabernacle while the Blessed Sacrament is on the Altar.

Sometimes the different postures we do at Mass are jokingly called Catholic Calisthenics but they actually do mean something and not just to get us moving so we do not fall asleep at the long sermons. So, as you stand, sit, and kneel at Mass, remember that each action helps us to give witness that we give witness to Christ in these actions. These actions should help us to be witnesses to Christ.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Sorry, I am not here. Please leave a message.

This week I will be on a retreat in Missouri. Retreats are wonderful ways of refocusing yourself back to God. It is a requirement that all priests should take a retreat at least once a year to force ourselves to slow down and spend some extra time away from the office in more focused prayer. In the past few years, I have done some different retreats, but I have not done the retreat with the priests of the Des Moines Diocese for a number of years and I thought that it would be time to do it again. This retreat tends to be part retreat and prayer, and part getting the priests together to socialize.

While this retreat will be quiet in some ways, it will not be a silent one. I do enjoy the silent retreats sometimes. What this means, is that during the time that retreat is going on, it will be completely silent with the exception of Mass and communal prayer times. I have done a couple of them, and they can be a challenge, especially at the beginning as you take that time to calm yourself. When I mean that the retreat is silent, it also means severely limiting other outside distractions as well. This means to refrain from not only talking, but also not checking emails, social media, and text messages, no surfing the web, checking out news sites, online shopping, etc. In a silent retreat, we want to try and cut ourselves off from the outside world as much as possible and focus on prayer times and spiritual reading. Like I said, it can be a challenge, especially in a world that is so noisy.

A book that I read in the past that has really helped me at times with the quiet is one from Cardinal Sarah, called “The power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise.” I love the subtitle of it! It is a reminder to me that sometimes we need to take that time to enter into silence to really be able to listen to God. Remember when the prophet Elijah was looking for God, he was not in the earthquake, or the wind, or in the fire, but was in the tiny whisper. For us to be able to hear that whisper, we need to eliminate some of the extra noise, and while that can be a challenge, it can also be a blessing. During this retreat though, there will be some quiet time, but it will not be silent. The good thing is that I know the area so I can get to some good walking trails while down there.

Since Fr Ryan will also be gone, I will have my phone on, but I will not be answering it. If there is an emergency, call the office and get to my extension, leave a message, and I will get back to you as soon as I am able. I also ask that you will keep me in your prayers, especially that I will receive what God wants me to get out of this retreat. I will keep you all in my prayers as well.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

A Eucharistic Procession

May is such a crazy month! This weekend is Memorial Day, the official kickoff to the summer, while it is often considered a day of grilling and parties, we also need to remember that it is first and foremost a day to remember all of those who have given their lives in service of their country. It is a day in which we pray for those who have gone before us as well. Friday was also the last day of school, so it will be a bit quieter in the office area. We have had some very busy weekends with Confirmations, and First Communions this month as well. It is a very busy time, but even with that, there are so many blessings that go along with it. As we think about the other sacraments that are attached to the celebration of the Eucharist, we are reminded of how important the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is to us.

In a couple of weeks, on June 2nd we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi, which is the celebration of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In many parishes this feast is marked by a special Mass and a procession. Since this year is the year of the Parish in the years of the Eucharistic Revival, here at St. Luke’s we will be doing a Eucharistic Procession around the building, outside if weather permits, but if needed we will have it inside. How it will work is that, at the end of the 10:30 Mass, we will bring out the Monstrance, and then walk (process) with the Blessed Sacrament out the doors of the church, then outside where we will have a small altar set up. We will say some prayers, then we will continue to process to the West side of the building, where there will be another small altar set up. During the time of walking, we will be praying a couple of different litanies. We will process to the North side of the building and by the entrance doors of the meeting room, we will have a third altar set up and again stop there. We will then continue around to the East side of the church where we will have another altar set up and a stop. We will then continue back around to the South doors and back into the church where we will have Benediction and put the Blessed Sacrament back into the tabernacle. We will then have some light snacks and drinks available.

We are hoping that this will turn into an annual event, and possibly in the future extend the route. As we do the procession, we hope that all who attend will be blessed in the celebration of our Eucharistic heritage, and then later this summer, there will be the national Eucharistic processions that will be going on through the United States, one of them will be passing though the Southwest corner of Iowa between June 23rd and 25th. I am praying that some will also be a part of the larger procession. I pray that we will continue to feel the blessings of God in our celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Pentecost and Confirmation

This weekend we are wrapping up our Sacrament season with the Confirmation. We have had three Masses in which we have gotten to see our second graders receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ for the first time in the last few weeks, and that is a wonderful thing to see.

We also get to celebrate another great sacrament on Sunday afternoon, as we welcome Bishop Joensen to celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation. Confirmation is beautiful because these young adults confirm their faith in Jesus Christ and His Church. Sometimes Confirmation is referred to as becoming an adult in the Church, and in some ways that is true, but in other ways it is not. It is being an adult because they will be taking the responsibility of their faith upon themselves but it is not because Confirmation is simply the confirming of their Baptismal promises. One of the wonderful things is that we see the next step in the faith journey for these young people. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states “By the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence, they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.” This weekend we pray that these young people will accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are being called upon them.

One of the great things is that we get to celebrate this Sacrament on a wonderful feast day, Pentecost. This is the day in which we remember the Holy Spirit descending upon the Apostles to give them the strength and courage to go out into the world to preach the Gospel and to Baptize. After Jesus ascends, the angels ask the Apostles “why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” In other words, move along, there is nothing else to see here, go and do what He told you to. Go out into the world and spread the good news.

But even though we are being lead and told to do something, we do not always follow, because we need some help. Before Pentecost, the Apostles were hiding in the upper room, worried that they would be arrested and thrown into prison or worse executed. But after Pentecost, they had the courage to go and preach, converting 5,000 people on that day. What a wonderful reminder of that gift of the Holy Spirit that will descend upon these young people receiving this gift of Confirmation. We pray that God will continue to guide them and that we ourselves will continue to allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, so we can spread and defend the faith by our words and deeds.

The prayer that will be said to them kind of sums up what they are to receive. “All-powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence.”

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Happy Mother’s Day!

This weekend we will be celebrating Mother’s Day! It is a holiday that we have only been celebrating for about a hundred years. Most of us have a very fond memory of our mothers. We love them and care about them. A mother’s love is a very special one, even in Sacred Scriptures it is mentioned. In the Gospel of John, it talks about when a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. Even Jesus himself listened to his mother at the wedding feast of Cana and after the finding in the temple Jesus went down with Mary and Joseph and was obedient to them. While on the Cross, Jesus still wanted to know that his mother was going to be taken care of, so he entrusted her to the disciple whom he loved.

God himself knows about the special love of a mother, and wants us to know that as well. Even though we may not be able to be with our mothers in this time we can still pray for them. If our mother has passed away, pray for her that she will be in the loving arms of God.  If we are estranged from her, pray that God will bring healing in her and your hearts.  If we are physically far away from her, call her. The respect for parents is so strong that God even gave us a commandment to honor them. I know that everyone does not always have a good relationship with their parents, but we can continue to pray for healing and to remember that we have the perfect mother in the kingdom of heaven that is always interceding for us in the Blessed Virgin Mother. For most, though we do have a good relationship and we can remember those wonderful times (and still remember our perfect mother in heaven.)

The Knights of Columbus are doing a breakfast Sunday morning and are giving out flowers to all women of the parish because, along with helping those with intellectual differences they also have a mission to help the unborn, this mission not only helps the children, but their mothers in their calling to raise their child. As a Knight, men are called to come together in their vocation of life to help others, and the mission of helping children and mothers is a good one.

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

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Keep your halo charged

Have you ever had the experience of looking down at your cell phone and seeing the low battery warning light on? You kind of get that sinking feeling. Most of the time it is not a big deal, you just put it on the charger and leave it there for a while so that the battery will get charged up. But there are other times in which you really need to use the phone and are not around a plug, or do not have your charger with you. Most of us now have multiple places that we can charge our electronic devices. I find it funny watching people hovering around the plugins at the airport charging their phones.

When you are not able to get to a charger and you are in the middle of something, you can feel panicked or worried that you will not be able to do that phone call or zoom meeting. This happens not only with our phone, but it can happen with our lives. We can feel that we are not charged up and are running on empty. This last couple of years more than most, we can feel more and more stressed, from pandemics, wars, strife, politics, and so many other things. All of this takes a toll on us and it can lead us to a sense of dread or depression.

We know that keeping the phone charged is important, especially when there is bad weather or we are traveling, but what about our prayer life. Do we keep our prayer life charged? One of my priest friends reminds us to “keep that halo charged.” Our prayer life is just like a phone, if we do not take the time to charge it up, it may not be there when we really need it. There are many ways in which we can get it charged up, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is the primary one, but reading scripture, spending a few minutes each day just in conversation with God is another, praying the rosary, or another devotion is good as well. I often remind people to attach ourselves to a particular (or multiple) saint(s), they can be an incredible source of strength and comfort.

There are so many times in our lives in which we don’t feel like we need prayer or even want to pray, but we always need to attach ourselves to Christ. Most people now days, would never think of walking out of their room without their cell phone, let alone leaving home without it, but how about leaving home without spending some time with God. There are so many different ways that we can pray, I often recommend turning off the radio in the car and praying during the time we are driving, it could be something as simple as praying the rosary, or taking some time in conversation with God. Just as we make sure that we keep those electronic devices charged, remember to take some time to charge up your prayer life and to always make sure that you are taking God with you wherever you go.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Is it still special for you?

Happy Easter!

We are continuing to celebrate the Easter Season! This weekend is a big one for some of the second graders of our parish. This is the first group of kids that are receiving Holy Communion for the first time! This year we again are breaking them up into smaller groups, so we are having three First Communion Masses since we have over 70 kids that will be receiving this great Sacrament for the first time. For a while, they have been preparing themselves to receive Jesus into their bodies in a very special way, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This is what we receive each and every time that we receive Holy Communion.

As we are reminded of how special this day is, we can also remind ourselves to ask the question, how do we think of it when we are receiving it? Are we reminded how special of a thing it is to be able to receive Christ and let His body and His blood feed us, both bodily and spiritually? Yes, this is an important day in the children’s lives as well as their families. We sometimes get caught up in the children dressing in a special way, the boys with their nice clothes and ties, the girls in their pretty white dresses. It is a special day. It is a very special and holy event. It should be an incredible experience for them because of who they are receiving. But, as important as the first reception of the Eucharist is, the 2nd, the 10th, the 323rd, etc. is not less special or important for any of us.

We sometimes forget how much of a gift it is to be able to receive the Blessed Sacrament on a regular basis, as the old saying goes, what we do daily, sometimes we do dully or another phrase that I like better, practice makes permanent. I invite each and every one of you to remember your own First Communion (I received mine from Fr. Pat Bacon). Remember how special that day was and what it meant to you. Is receiving Jesus today, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity less special today since it is not the first time? The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the source and the summit of our faith. It is an incredible gift that Jesus gave to us to continue to draw us closer and closer to Him!

A few years ago was a stark reminder to me when we were not able to celebrate Holy Week and Easter together and should have reminded us of what we were really missing. Still even now, there are many people that still cannot come together to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and thus are not able to receive Him in the Eucharist. We should take time again and again to remind ourselves how special it is and to receive Him each and every time we come to Mass. The first time is special, but so are all the rest!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

How special is it to you?

Happy Easter!

We are continuing to celebrate the Easter Season! This weekend is a big one for some of the second graders of our parish. This is the first group of kids that are receiving Holy Communion for the first time! This year we again are breaking them up into smaller groups, so we are having three First Communion Masses since we have over 70 kids that will be receiving this great Sacrament for the first time. For a while, they have been preparing themselves to receive Jesus into their bodies in a very special way, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This is what we receive each and every time that we receive Holy Communion.

As we are reminded of how special this day is, we can also remind ourselves to ask the question, how do we think of it when we are receiving it? Are we reminded how special of a thing it is to be able to receive Christ and let His body and His blood feed us, both bodily and spiritually? Yes, this is an important day in the children’s lives as well as their families. We sometimes get caught up in the children dressing in a special way, the boys with their nice clothes and ties, the girls in their pretty white dresses. It is a special day. It is a very special and holy event. It should be an incredible experience for them because of who they are receiving. But, as important as the first reception of the Eucharist is, the 2nd, the 10th, the 323rd, etc. is not less special or important for any of us.

We sometimes forget how much of a gift it is to be able to receive the Blessed Sacrament on a regular basis, as the old saying goes, what we do daily, sometimes we do dully or another phrase that I like better, practice makes permanent. I invite each and every one of you to remember your own First Communion (I received mine from Fr. Pat Bacon). Remember how special that day was and what it meant to you. Is receiving Jesus today, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity less special today since it is not the first time? The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the source and the summit of our faith. It is an incredible gift that Jesus gave to us to continue to draw us closer and closer to Him!

A few years ago was a stark reminder to me when we were not able to celebrate Holy Week and Easter together and should have reminded us of what we were really missing. Still even now, there are many people that still cannot come together to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and thus are not able to receive Him in the Eucharist. We should take time again and again to remind ourselves how special it is and to receive Him each and every time we come to Mass. The first time is special, but so are all the rest!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Easter Season Readings

I have a question, have you noticed what is different about the readings for the Sunday Masses during the Easter season? If you want to look at the missalette and see if you can figure it out, you can stop reading this for a few minutes and see if you can, I’ll wait… There is something a bit different in those readings, and that is where the first reading comes from. During all of the other seasons of the liturgical year, the first reading comes from the Old Testament somewhere then we have the Psalm reading, and the second reading always comes from the New Testament, and then finally, the reading from one of the four Gospels.

But during the Easter season, we have the first reading coming from the Acts of the Apostles instead of the Old Testament. This is because the Church wants us to be more specifically focused on what happened to the Apostles and other Disciples after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus. It was their mission to go out into the world and preach the Gospel (Good News) to the world and to share what happened. They started their ministry in Jerusalem and the surrounding region at first, but then moved out into the rest of the known world pretty quickly.

Reading the Acts of the Apostles is a wonderful thing to do, because it showed what the Apostles had to go through to get the message out. They were arrested by the leaders of the Jewish people, they were put in prison, they were beaten, threatened and persecuted so that they would stop talking about Jesus. It is one of the things that is often quoted about why we believe our faith was real, as some people talk about the life and death of Jesus, we have to ask the question about whether or not the Resurrection actually happened. The guards were given a large sum of money and were instructed to tell people that the Disciples came at night and stole the body of Jesus. So, some people believed that story.

But, if you think about what the Disciples did and had to go through this begs another question, how far would you go for a lie? Me, I know if it was something that I really did not believe, or I knew was not true, I would not be willing to be beaten, jailed, or even executed for the lie. However, I would be willing to go through those persecutions if I knew that the Resurrection was the truth and that it would lead to eternal life. That is what the Apostles and Disciples did, and the Acts of the Apostles is an account of some of the things that they went through for their faith. While it is hard to say what the most important books of the Bible are, I would argue that the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles are right up there, because they are the words and actions of our Lord and Savior, and then the mission that he, himself gave to his followers to do. So, as we continue this Easter Season, let us use the example of the Apostles to lead us in our mission.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Many Thanks!

Rejoice, Christ is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia.

We have made it through Lent, Holy Week, as well as the wonderful Octave of Easter, concluding with Divine Mercy Sunday. We now are continuing our Easter journey with this entire 50 days of the Easter season. The weeks leading up to and including Easter are very busy around the parish, and they take a lot of work to get things ready and looking right. I wanted to take the time to thank the many volunteers who helped to do the different color changes in the church going from violet, to red, back to violet, to white, back to red, and finally to white for our Easter season. There was also a significant amount of time moving plants and placing flowers. We had to set up chairs and the altar area for the second Mass in the gym as well. These are only the visible things that we see as we have celebrated Holy Week and Easter. There were numerous choir practices, practicing for servers and clergy, as well as for the RCIA people, as well as other planning for the liturgies. This all takes people to step up and do it. I wanted to thank everyone who helped, I know if I start naming names, I will forget some and I do not want to do that, but I wanted everyone to know just how much work goes into this season and I wanted to wholeheartedly thank all of the people who helped. It is easy to thank myself or Fr Ryan for the beautiful liturgies, but without the many, many hours that were put in by a significant number of other people, it would not happen. With that being said, we can always use people to help out.

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.

Again, I wanted to thank the staff and volunteers that help to serve in the liturgies, as well as all of the other things that happen around here. Thank you all so much!

God bless,
Fr. Ken

Jesus, I trust in You.

This weekend we finish the Octave of Easter, or the eight days, the first week of the Easter Season. Our celebration of Easter, along with Christmas, is so important that the Church continues to celebrate it not just one day, but for an entire week. This whole week is a continual celebration of the greatest events of human history. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God has risen from the grave and conquered even death itself for our sake.

This wonderful week concludes with another celebration, that of Divine Mercy Sunday. This is a relatively new feast day. It was instituted by Pope St John Paul II and focuses on the incredible mercy that God offers us. In Holy Scripture, Jesus is the one that talks about the judgement of God more than anyone, but he is also the one who talks about the mercy of God more than anyone, and they are always tied together. This feast day is based on the writing of St Faustina Kowalska and her vision of Jesus who came to her. This is what she wrote in her diary: "In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord; my soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while Jesus said to me, 'paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.'" This image that came to St Faustina is one that she painted and is now known all over the world with the red and the white representing the blood and the water that came from His side.

Last year, we started to do one celebration with OLIH here and this year we will be celebrating the Divine Mercy of God with Adoration and Confessions starting at 1:00 PM at Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart Church, and lasting until just before 3:00 in which we will pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy followed by Benediction and Reposition of the Blessed Sacrament. So, we will not be celebrating it here this year, but at OLIH and there will be a number of priests available for the sacrament of Reconciliation, including myself.

This is a wonderful time to just sit and reflect in front of the Blessed Sacrament and give the greatest sacrifice that we can offer to God: our time with Him. His mercy is far greater than anything that we can imagine and Jesus wants us to leave our sins with Him. He reminds us the same things that he tells the woman caught in adultery: ‘I do not condemn you of your sins, but go and sin no more.’ I would invite everyone to spend some time this Sunday, with our Lord and Savior reflecting on His Divine Mercy.

God bless,
Fr. Ken

The Lord is Risen!

Rejoice, Christ is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia.

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

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

It is no accident that Easter is in the spring, a season of new life, the grass is starting to get green, the livestock is being born, the songbirds are returning, the flowers are starting to come up, you get the picture. It is a season of new life and the symbols that we use in Church are symbols of new life. Just look at the symbols that we use. We use Lilies because they resemble trumpets that are blaring out the news Christ is risen and they also are reported to have bloomed on the tomb. Rabbits are a very prolific animal and they have been symbols of life for many different cultures, which is why rabbits are often associated with Easter and the new life of it. The symbol of eggs and chicks is an obvious one, since the chickens hatch out of the eggs and are the beginning of their life. We, in this Easter season, celebrate not just the beginning of life; we celebrate the beginning of a new and eternal life. Jesus really did die on the cross, but he also raised himself from the tomb, and that is that incredible event that we celebrate today. Easter, like Christmas, is not just a single day that we celebrate; we celebrate for an entire week, called the octave. It is a week of great praise and rejoicing, enjoy it. We celebrate the wonderful gift that God has given us and that is the path that he shows us to eternal life with him.

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

God bless,
Fr. Ken