To Jesus through Mary

source

On the Feast of St. Luke I was blessed to attend a most reverent daily Mass with Fr. Cliff Ermatinger of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee as the presider. Fr. Cliff had not ever presided at daily Mass at my parish as far as I know, and this was the first time that I had ever been present at his Mass.  I was deeply moved by how reverent he is!  Fr. Cliff spent a great deal of time elevating both the host and the chalice which made for a significant amount of adoration of both.  I had never seen that done at such length before and felt that it really helped to keep me focused on the real purpose of the Mass and prevented me from becoming distracted as, sadly, I too often seem to be.  

His homily for the feast day was enlightening!  He said that not only was St. Luke a physician and an artist, but he was also an historian who personally  sought out the sources before writing his Gospel. Although he never met Jesus in person, he had met His mother Mary, and it was through Mary that he learned everything about Jesus. He learned about the Incarnation, the Visitation, the Nativity, and all aspects of the  life of Jesus, through the eyes and stories of the Blessed Mother, with whom he personally spoke. How did he know that she pondered these things in her heart?  He knew because she told him.  And that's why Luke's Gospel is the only one that shares the personal details about Mary's experience.

St. Luke went to Jesus through Mary, just as we do today!  What a great and beautiful example!

Cardinal Dolan: Who Do You Say That I Am?

my favorite photo of Cardinal Dolan-credit:  Sam Lucero-visit Inspired Images website

This past Wednesday, at daily Mass, Bishop Sklba shared a charming story about Cardinal Dolan.  It seems that Bishop Sklba spent some time in New York visiting the Cardinal and they decided to go for a walk to a museum that was about a mile away.  It was probably the longest mile they ever walked because Cardinal Dolan couldn't take more than two steps before people would recognize him and ask him to pray for them or would share their concerns with the good Cardinal.  Bishop Sklba said that he imagined that Cardinal Dolan has a good idea of what Jesus felt like in  the passage from Luke 4:38-44 where the people were all bringing their sick to Jesus and tried to preventing him from leaving their town because they were so pleased with all of the good he was doing.  Everybody just wants him to stay nearby.

It's clear that the people of Milwaukee are certainly pleased with Cardinal Dolan for all of the good that he does and we want him to stay nearby as well, as was evident by the crowd of 4000 people who showed up at the Milwaukee Theater to hear him speak at the tenth annual Pallium Lecture, the lecture series that Cardinal Dolan himself started when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee.

The evening's emcee was Fr. Paul Hartman, the president of Waukesha's Catholic Memorial High School.  On surveying the size of the crowd, Fr. Paul cracked that it was a normal size for Cardinal Dolan's typical Sunday Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the size of a symposium given in San Francisco by Bishop Sklba, and the size of Bishop Hying's fan club!  Cardinal Dolan commented that the crowd of 4000 was bigger than a normal Met's game!

Cardinal Dolan's topic was "Who Do You Say That I Am?  Encountering Christ and Responding to Christ through His Living Body, the Church."

Cardinal Dolan began his talk with these loving words:  "My seven years in Milwaukee were extraordinarily happy ones and I miss you."  Then he joked that four cardinals have come from Milwaukee, and one day Milwaukee will have it's own version of Mount Rushmore with the four cardinal's faces all engraved upon the Allen-Bradley clock tower!

He shared the story of how, when he was still an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis, he was called to the apostolic nuncio's office.  He was offered a cigarette and he declined because he doesn't smoke.  Then he was offered a drink, and he said no thanks, he'd wait until they went out to dinner.  Then the nuncio told him that Pope John Paul II wanted him to be the Archbishop of Milwaukee and to that the Cardinal said, "I'll take that cigarette and drink now!"

After the laughter subsided, Cardinal Dolan became dead serious about his topic for the evening.  He began by sharing the story of St. Paul falling from his horse and the Lord's question of him, "Saul, why are you persecuting me?"  He didn't ask, why are you persecuting my Church, but why are you persecuting me.  That's because Jesus and His Church are one, synonymous, a package deal.   St. Paul loved the Church and Jesus passionately because they are one.  He then quoted Henri de Lubac regarding the Catholic Church:  "For what would I ever have known of Him without Her?"  He said we can't call God our Father if we don't call the Church our Mother.

Cardinal Dolan spoke about the post-ecclesiastical world in which we live where we want the King without the Kingdom, to believe without belonging, spirituality without religion and Christ without the Church.  Impossible!  He quoted Archbishop Listecki who said, "There is no freelance Christianity.  Without the Church, there is no Christ."

In speaking of the many Catholics who refer to themselves as "former Catholics," those who have fallen away from the practice of the church, he suggested three possible roads as a model to bring those lapsed Catholics back to the fold.

1.  Family

The Church is my spiritual family.  Ninety-nine percent of Catholics are born into the faith.  It's in our DNA, our bones, our genes.  We might drift and get mad and be scandalized or confused by it.  So what?  Our spiritual family is just like our human family.  We get angry, scandalized and confused by our human family too.  "Have you ever met my brother Bob?" he joked.  But we never leave our family.  We are there at all of the pivotal moments-Christmas, Easter, births and deaths.  We're at the table every Sunday.  We're stuck with our last names whether we like them or not.  Catholics are marinated, seasoned in the Church.  The Church is my spiritual family.  It's my  home.

He shared an example from the book, "The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene.  In it, a whiskey priest from Mexico was hiding in a barn, and a young girl who was helping him suggested that he renounce his Catholic faith for his safety.  The priest replied that it would be impossible, he could never do it.  And then the girl understood that the Catholic faith is like a birthmark, it is always a part of who you are.  You are born with it and it will remain with you forever.

2.  Apologetics

Apologetics is the art of credibly, convincingly presenting our faith.  It's not  in-your-face and brash,  but rather a humble, cheerful, rational, confident grounding in faith.  The Cardinal used an example familiar to every parish priest at this time of year.  A young man leaves home for college after a strong Catholic upbringing with regular Sunday Mass attendance and an education at Catholic schools.  At his first visit home he tells his parents that he doesn't go to Mass anymore.  Instead he is attending the church of his roommate.  The parents are filled with sorrow and question how this could have happened.  The answer is because the roommate was well-off in apologetics and swayed their son away from the Catholic faith.

The Church is necessary for salvation.  We have survived dungeon, fire and sword. Apologetics prepares us to defend our faith against those who would take it from us.  Those liberators might be late-night talk show hosts or writers of newspaper editorials.  We have to be strong in knowledge of our faith so that when they accuse us of worshiping the Pope, or of being cannibals, or of treating Mary as if she were God, we can remain strong.  We need to let them know that we cherish our Church and are prepared to care for it.  That is apologetics and we need it more than ever.

3.  Repentance

We need to fess up to the sinful side of the Church.  We need it.  People are shocked, saddened and sickened by acts of the clergy and hierarchy.  It's been said that the Catholic Church is clearly from God because no human organization that is run with such imbecility could have survived two weeks let alone 2000 years!

It was Flannery O'Connor who said, "Suffering for  the church doesn't bother me.  It's suffering from her that's hard to take!"  Blessed Pope John Paul II apologized fifty-five times during the Jubilee Year for the past sins of the Church and Ronald Rolheiser describes the Church as Christ hanging between two thieves.  But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.  After the resurrection, Jesus showed us that His wounds remained.  We are also wounded.

The Cardinal shared a story from Bishop Skbla about a parish in the northern regions of the Archdiocese that was being closed.  The parishioners came to accept the closing and after all of the sacramentals had been removed and only an empty building remained, it was decided to burn the building down as a sacred offering.  Everyone came to watch as the volunteer fire department set the blaze which burned so intensely that everyone had to back away.  The next morning, Bishop Sklba returned to find people with gloves on gathering up the thick nails that were stacked up along the foundation.  They were collecting them as souvenirs.  It was the nails that had held the church together.  It's the nails of Christ that hold the Church together.  We are a wounded Church and we love Her all the more for Her wounds.

When people say that they left the Church because She's so sinful, we say we cling to Her because we are too. St. Francis de Sales had a simple motto written on his tombstone:  "He loved the Church."  That needs to be our motto, too.  We believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and She gives us the answer to Christ's question, "Who do you say that I am?"

To learn more about the Pallium Lecture Series visit this link.  Photos below courtesy of Mary Anne Urlakis.  Thanks, Mary Anne!

Secret Sorrows/Prayers for Priests

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."  ~Ian MacLaren

Each day on my lunch break, I walk a few short blocks from the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Clinic where I work, to the Marquette University Campus, while praying the rosary.  The campus setting is so park-like and beautiful, and as I pass all of the college students cheerfully talking to each other, or texting on their cell phones, or slumped under the weight of their backpacks, it occurs to me that despite their carefree outward appearance, each and every person I pass is carrying a hidden sorrow in their heart.  I pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary and I think about how each of these students re-live our Lord's sorrows in their own mysterious ways of which others may never know.  We all have our secret sorrow.

Today I was carrying my own sorrow, deep within my heart.  It was announced at Sunday Mass that a local priest, Fr. Quintin Heck, had taken his own life.  My heart broke right open upon hearing this tragic news, and I could not keep from crying during the remainder of the Mass no matter how much I tried to remain stoic.  I didn't know Fr. Quintin, but my heart grieves for him as if he were my closest friend.

"In strengthening the priest, you strengthen the whole Church...Strengthen the priest and you strengthen the whole foundation, you strengthen everything in the Church."  
~Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, sP, Founder of the Handmaids of the Precious Blood

It's unfathomable to me how a priest, beloved by God and by the Church, his family, a man who promotes the Catholic value of dignity and sanctity for all life, a man who transforms an ordinary piece of bread into the very Body of our Lord within his very hands, a man whose life is committed to saving souls, could take his very own life, that indescribably precious gift from God. Depression is a dark, tormenting and deadly disease, to be sure, and it does not care whose life it takes.  But it seems that beyond the disease of depression, there is an evil that is lurking within the Church, wreaking havoc and causing distress beyond measure.  Considering that Fr. Quintin is the second priest in Milwaukee who has taken his own life in the past month, it appears that our Church, and especially our priests, are under attack and we are all suffering victims in this battle.

"This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting."  Mark 9:29

For me, as an Oblate of the Precious Blood and the organizer of the Monthly Prayer Request for Priests calendar for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, I take this tragic news very personally and easily become discouraged, as if the many hours I spend in prayer for priests has been for naught.  But deep down I know that all prayer is fruitful, that my words uttered to the Lord within the silence of my heart on behalf of the priests of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee do somehow help them to cope and to thrive, as they tremulously balance upon the straight and narrow path, duty-bound to God despite the tremendous difficulties that they may encounter in the spiritual battle for heaven.  God always wins, after all, and the demons of depression and suicide are not the end of the story.  It's vital that we remain strong, especially on behalf of our priests whose shoulders are burdened with not only their own crosses, but also those of all the Catholics who depend upon them to be a witness of strong faith, as well as the source of the Sacraments in which we meet Christ.

Handmaid of the Precious Blood

Today I implore you to please visit the Monthly Prayer Request for Priests website and bookmark the page or print out the calendars, keeping our Milwaukee priests in your daily prayers.  If you do not have a Monthly Prayer Request for Priests within your own diocese, please consider starting one.  I will gladly help you get started-it's not terribly difficult or time-consuming.  If you feel called to do even more, visit the Handmaids of the Precious Blood and spiritually adopt a priest, or prayerfully consider whether or not God might be calling you to look into becoming an Oblate of the Precious Blood, or to a religious vocation as a Handmaid of the Precious Blood.

"Be close to your priests with your affection and with your prayers that they may always be shepherds according to God's heart."  ~Pope Francis

Our priests deserve our attention, encouragement, gratitude, support, love and prayers.  Let's give them our heartfelt and faithful daily prayers which, through the grace of God, will hold them up when they grow weak and weary.  And please, remember the souls of our deceased priests within your prayers as well.

Eternal rest grant unto Fr. Quintin Heck, and all of our deceased priests, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.  Amen.

A PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

By the late John J Cardinal Carberry

Keep them; I pray Thee, dearest Lord.

Keep them, for they are Thine 

The priests whose lives burn out before

Thy consecrated shrine.

Keep them, for they are in the world,

Though from the world apart.

When earthly pleasures tempt, allure --

Shelter them in Thy heart.

Keep them and comfort them in hours

Of loneliness and pain,

When all their life of sacrifice

For souls seems but in vain.

Keep them and  remember, Lord,

they have no one but Thee.

Yet, they have only human hearts,

With human frailty.

Keep them as spotless as the Host,

That daily they caress;

Their every thought and word and deed,

Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.

Daily Prayer For Priests (St. Therese of Lisieux)

O Jesus,
I pray for your faithful and fervent priests;
for your unfaithful and tepid priests;
for your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields.
for your tempted priests;
for your lonely and desolate priests;
For your young priests;
for your dying priests;
for the souls of your priests in Purgatory.
But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me:
the priest who baptized me;
the priests who absolved me from my sins;
the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
the priests who taught and instructed me;
all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way
(especially …).
O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart,
and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity.
Amen

Holy Name of Jesus Parish, Sheboygan/Fr. Matthew Widder

my family with Fr. Matthew Widder after Mass

There's nothing quite so special as a Sunday drive, but what makes a Sunday road trip even more meaningful is when it's made to visit and pray with a wonderful friend.  My family and I made the one hour trip up north to Sheboygan, Wisconsin to attend Mass at Holy Name of Jesus Parish, the new home of our dear friend, Fr. Matthew Widder.  Holy Name and St. Clement Parish's newest pastor is beginning his first pastor assignment just three years out of seminary, and it looks like he's off to a fantastic start.  Both Holy Name of Jesus and St. Clement Parishes are absolutely beautiful churches and Fr. Matthew was all smiles during the Mass we attended in a fully packed church.  It's clear to see that he loves being a priest.  He offered a fabulous homily regarding what a privilege it is to pray and the importance of keeping our connection with God through persistence in prayer.  Ever deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother, Fr. Matthew concluded Mass with the Hail Mary. 

Holy Name and St. Clement Parishes have made prayer cards for Fr. Matthew with the following prayer:

Lord God, in your loving kindness you sent your Son to be our shepherd and guide  Continue to send workers into your vineyard to sustain and direct your people.  Bless Father Matthew.  Let your Spirit uphold him always as he takes up his new responsibility among the people of this parish.  Amen.

If you live in Sheboygan, you are blessed!  And if you don't live in Sheboygan but have a chance to visit, be sure to stop in and pray with Fr. Matthew and spend some time on your knees connecting with God in one of Sheboygan's gorgeous churches.   You'll be glad you did!

St. Joseph in the Courtyard

My friend and namesake, St Anne, and the Blessed Mother greet parishioners in the narthex

Isn't He sweet?

St. Michael the Archangel in the narthex

and St. Michael the Archangel above the entrance to the church

my blurry pictures don't do justice to the beauty...

The Twelfth Station-Jesus Dies on the Cross

the adoration chapel

a collection of chalices in the narthex

Fr. Jan Kieliszewski-Rest in Peace

Last week, on a day with particularly beautiful weather, I decided to hang the wash on the line in the backyard.  For some reason, as I was pinning the clothes to the line, I was overcome with melancholy, a deep sadness that was very familiar to me from my past experience with depression.  The sorrow seared deep within me and I had no idea where it came from or what it was about.  There was absolutely no reason on earth why I should be feeling so down at that particular moment.  I went inside and wrote an email to a friend asking for prayers.

As I hit the "send" button, my daughter Mary came downstairs, and with her 12 years of sweetness, she threw her arms around my neck and embraced me for the longest time.  I asked her how she knew that I needed a hug at that particular moment and she simply said, "I could just feel it."  I knew that my daughter and her loving, impulsive action was an immediate answer to that prayer request I sent out.  My daughter is a joyful Godsend in my life.  But not everyone is blessed with a daughter who intuitively knows when they are needing a little extra love.

Last year in my candidacy for the Oblates of the Precious Blood, I corresponded monthly with Mother Marietta from the Handmaids of the Precious Blood.  In one particular letter she told me that if I ever feel tempted to something that was very unusual for me, I could know that at that particular moment, a priest somewhere in the world was being tempted with the same thing, and I should pray for him.  My struggling to overcome the things that tempt me can help priests in their temptations.  That's a powerful thought; that I could help a priest that I may never know to grow in holiness by offering up my sacrifices for him.

Last weekend, just before Sunday Mass was to begin, Fr. Jan Kieliszewski, a priest whom I did not know here in Milwaukee, committed suicide in his church.  No one in the Archdiocese can offer any explanation as to why this man, in his mid-sixties, who gave his life over to the service of the Lord and His Church, would have taken his life.  It was shocking and deeply sad news that has rocked our already distressed Archdiocese.

I can't help but wonder if I had offered up my melancholy on that recent laundry day if it would it have helped this priest in some way?  What if, in that moment when sorrow hit me hard, I would have remembered to tell God, "I give you this pain for the priest who most needs your help at this moment, for a priest who is feeling the pangs of despair" if that might have prompted Fr. Jan to reach out for help and thereby find a way to stay alive until God naturally called him home?

Of course, I'll never know the answer to that question.  But as an Oblate of the Precious Blood, I am committed to praying for priests, to offering all that I am for their sanctity, and if I didn't pray enough for priests before Fr. Jan's suicide, I am committed to praying for them more than ever now.  And I am committed to lightening their load by offering them loving encouragement and gratitude, and helping them in their valuable and necessary work in any small or large way that I can.

Fr. Jan's name was on the Monthly Prayer Request for Priests calendar on June 18th, and all of Milwaukee was asked to pray for him on that day.  My family and I did our part and we prayed for him, as we pray daily for every priest on the calendar when we gather as a family for dinner.  And now, I will be praying for Fr. Jan's soul every day for the rest of my life, as well as for the souls of all priests, those living, as well as those deceased.  Will you join me, and pray for priests as well?  May Fr. Jan, through the mercy of God, rest in peace, eternally embraced in the ever-loving arms of his Father.

C4-Ignite Your Faith

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is offering a great new evangelization tool for the Year of Faith.  C4-Ignite Your Faith, a series of two-minute videos featuring Bishop Donald Hying, will be available on the Archdiocese of Milwaukee webpage every Friday for the entire year.  C-4 stands for Christ and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  You can subscribe to the RSS feed so you won't miss a single one.  The  first one is The Desire for God.  It's upbeat and  fantastic!  I love the images of the smiling bishop on the stool and the smiling girl behind the weeds.  There's nothing like a smile to draw others to Christ!  Share this video and your own smile with a friend!

Catholic Pride

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is offering many special Fortnight for Freedom events where the faithful can gather to pray for our religious freedom during these times that try the soul.  Last weekend Archbishop Listecki offered a special Mass where he courageously proclaimed that we will not obey the government in following the health care mandate that refuses to allow us as Catholics the freedom to follow our consciences. He told us to "proudly puff out our chests and live our Catholic faith, not only inside of our church buildings, but freely in the public sector as well.  We are always Catholic, everywhere, not only when we are inside of a church, and we should always live our faith in all that we do.  We will not let the government try to redefine what it means to be a Catholic!"  His words had a profound effect on me and I everyong at Mass and we left the church with our heads held high.

On the Vigil of the Feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul, Bishop Hying presided at a special rosary and Mass for a full church of faithful Catholics at Holy Angels Parish in West Bend, Wisconsin.  (Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by Eve Anna Urlackis.)  His words resonated deep within this Catholic heart.  He began his homily with a question: "What is it about the Church that is so threatening?  The answer comes in examining the life of Christ.  Jesus raises the most fear in others when he speaks of himself as the Messiah, because if Jesus is Lord, then no one else can be.   We proclaim that Jesus is Lord and if this is true then no civil leader can claim that title for himself."

He went on:  "There is a hidden grace in this current struggle to fight for our religious freedom.  Sometimes we have to make a choice and if we are faithful, the choice has to be for Him and for Her.  We are called to witness to our faith, not in a strident way, but rather, in a way that is serene but bold, convicted and courageous, loving and truthful."

Holding up St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More as examples of fidelity to the faith under tyrannical persecution by the government, he encouraged us to to follow their example in always putting God first in every situation.  He said, "St. Thomas More's daughter begged him to just sign the paper that would save his life even though it meant that he would have to deny his beliefs to do so.  She told him that he wouldn't have to mean it when he signed, that he could cross his fingers behind his back.  But his conscience would not allow him to do it.  And as he was led to his execution he said, "I die the King's good servant and God's first."

In light of the gospel passage  for the vigil of St. Peter and St. Paul (John 21:15-19) he explained:  "The crux of what it means to be a follower of Christ is found in reflecting upon the Greek definitions for love: Philia is the love of one friend for another, Eros is the love between husband and wife, and Agape is the love that Christ shows on the cross.

When Jesus asked "Simon, do you love me?"  it was the Agape love that He was asking for.  Yet Simon responded with Philia love, as in "Jesus, You know we're good friends."  But when Simon was crucified he recalled this moment with Christ, and it was then that he finally got it.  When he was hanging upside down it was the first time that he saw everything right side up.  He was finally willing to lay down anything and everything for Christ.

Do we want to live the Agape of love or do we just want to say, "Jesus, we're good friends?"

As he concluded his homily the hearts of everyone in the church were stirred and convicted by his words.  While the altar was prepared for the consecration, the church swelled with voices filled with love for Church and love for country as we sang "Faith of Our Fathers, holy faith, we will be true to thee til death."

For more information about upcoming events within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for the Fortnight for Freedom, visit the Archdiocese of Milwaukee website here.  You may also be inspired by this powerful editorial written by Bishop Hying which was published in the June 27th Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Catholic Church does not conform to society

 

In his column "Catholic reformers may be out of luck," Bill Keller lamented the resistance of the Catholic Church toward the changing of her teachings (Crossroads, June 24). Such a stance reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the church's nature and identity.

The Catholic Church understands herself to be both a mystery and a sacrament, born from the wounded side of the crucified Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit. We do not generate the truths that we teach; they come to us as a revelation from God, mediated through the Scriptures and tradition. Keller seems to view the church as a political party that simply needs to rework its platform in order to stay current with contemporary culture.

When Catholics speak of reform, we start with Jesus and ask how we can change ourselves to conform to the ideals of the Gospel mediated through the teachings of the church. When Keller speaks of reform, he begins with the concerns of liberal United States culture and asks how the church can change herself to conform to those concerns.

Such vastly different starting points will never easily converge. The beauty, truth and goodness of Catholicism speak for themselves. One could only leave the church through ceasing to believe her teachings or not understanding them. May all of us be genuinely guided by the Holy Spirit.

Most Reverend Donald J. Hying
Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Milwaukee

The Visitation

“How can this be, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Luke 1:43

The Feast of the Visitation (May 31^st) is a perfect example of friendship. Here two great and holy women have incredible and amazing news to share. Mary and Elizabeth rush to be together and their human love for one another escapes from their hearts and becomes a united prayer of love and gratitude to God. They recognize that the holiness, the goodness, and the joy of their friendship comes from God alone and together they celebrate the miracle of the beginnings of new life welling up within their bodies.  Life seems inexplicably beautiful.

Continue reading this post on the Archdiocese of Milwaukee home page...

My Beloved Child

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17

Sitting at Mass today, looking around at those who were sitting in the pews surrounding me, I was swept over by a warm feeling, a peaceful feeling like I hadn't known for a long time.

I realized that all of the other people present at Mass are beloved by God, just as much as His own Son is beloved by Him, and I offered a prayer of Thanksgiving for these beautiful people whose only desire is to draw closer to His loving heart and to carry a bit of that love in their own hearts throughout the coming week.

I thank you, God, for:

~the man who was sitting in front of me with his three children, the man who has given so much of himself to teach Christian formation to the children of our parish for so many years, as he bowed his head into his hands and wept while we listened to a recording from Archbishop Listecki explaining how the recent announcement that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy can be a sign of hope for us all.

~for our Deaf community, and our deaf Deacon, gathered week after week in the front rows of church where they can easily see the interpreter, joyfully signing the Mass responses.

~for the little girl with down's syndrome who smiles and hugs everyone around her, easily drawing us all into her joy.

~for the girls on my daughter's basketball team, many of whom were present at Mass today with their families.

~for my long-time friend who was the lector at Mass.

~for the young boy prodigy, not more than ten years old, who is learning to become an organist at Mass, and who plays with so much talent!

~for the entire community present at this Mass, who filled the church as if it were Christmas Day, many of them friends, more of them strangers to me, but all of them beautiful.

~for Fr. Dave, who took this occasion of the Baptism of Our Lord, to remind those who are seeking the Sacrament for their children, of the lifelong responsibility that Baptism requires of parents.

~for my son, John, who had attended Mass on his own the evening before because he is working on weekends, and for my son, Jack, who stayed home from Mass because he is sick with the flu. Both of my sons suffered in missing this Mass, Jack, simply because he was ill, and would much rather have been at Mass, and John, because he so enjoys lectoring, cantoring and singing with the choir at Mass and now, because of his job, those opportunities of service are much more limited.

~for my loving and wonderful husband, who is always by my side at Mass, worshiping the Lord with my children and I, setting the example of how a beloved child of God is to return to our Father all of our gifts at the weekly hour of worship.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us all with peace. Amen.