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Pastor's Pen

4/30/2017

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The disciples on the road to Emmaus recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.  There’s a big difference between stopping for fast food when you’re on the run and sharing a meal with people you love.  Can you think of a wonderful meal you shared with another person?  Maybe it was your birthday dinner when you were a little child.  It may have been a romantic dinner with the love of your life.  It may have been a wonderful Thanksgiving or Christmas family dinner when everyone could make it home for the holiday.  It may have been a simple meal with a good friend.  There are components of a good meal that have to be there or it is just eating food.  It’s nice when the food actually tastes good and delicious but it’s a lot more than the food.  It’s the atmosphere and the company.  You can overlook the burned chicken or the lumpy potatoes or the mushy vegetables if you’re with those you love because the meeting is so much more than consuming food.  It’s about communion and realizing who and what’s most important.

Each week we come together to break bread at Eucharist.  It’s not stopping for fast food so that we can get to our next appointment.  No, it’s a meal.  We come together to share a meal and feast on the richness of our faith.  We hear of a love that not only came among us but sat on the side of the most vulnerable.  It was that Love that cause so much trouble and shook those in power.  It was that Love that we put to death because it was too generous, too wild, too self-sacrificing, too passionate, too much for our hardened hearts.  And it was that Love that reminded us that Love never dies!  Death cannot destroy it.  It lives forever!  Christ is the incarnation of that Love and reminds us at each Eucharist as we share the broken bread and share the cup of suffering among us that He is there is our midst.  He is there in our joys to celebrate and he is there in our struggles and tears to give us comfort.  What a tremendous gift to be fed with that love each week!  But we can easily miss it if we don’t savor the meal.  If we don’t allow the richness of this event to change our hearts, Eucharist becomes a fast food event among the many events of our week.
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One way we will know if we are savoring the Love at this feast is how we imitate that which we receive.  Do we allow ourselves to humbled and sometimes broken as we share our lives with one another?  Do we allow ourselves to be poured out with compassion for one another? Do we allow ourselves to be as vulnerable as the bread we receive in the hands of one another?  We, as Catholics, say that Eucharist is the summit of our worship.  It is the most important part of our week.  It is that which feeds all that is most important within us.  What a privilege to be invited to so grand a feast!

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Pastor's Pen

4/23/2017

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Today we hear the Gospel story of “doubting Thomas.”  We look at Thomas and wonder why he couldn’t believe the testimony of the other disciples.  Poo Thomas just needed some proof to get him to believe.  He had been through so much in the last week, He had watched one that he hoped was the Messiah get arrest, beaten and killed.  He had watched this Jesus who he had put his hope in crucified right in front of him.  He knew that he and the other disciples could also be facing the same fate as followers of this rebel.  So here he was on that Sunday with all kinds of confusion, fear and grief and he’s asked to believe this amazing story.  He knew Jesus had been put to death, was buried in the tomb with a huge rock rolled in front.  He had seen it with his own eyes.  That should have been the end of the story of Jesus.  That would make sense but now they’re asking him to believe that the Jesus who died right in front of him was visiting as if all was well.
We are all like Thomas in some way. We want proof.  We want assurance that what we believe is right.  We are called to believe in life when death is staring us in the face.  We are called to live with hope in humanity when all we see is violence.  We are called to believe that new life can come even when the problems of our lives bring us to our knees.  It’s hard to believe some days.   It would be nice to have proof that Christ is right there in our midst but then we wouldn’t need faith.  Paul reminds us that “Faith is hope in things unseen.”  We know there’s more to this picture than our human eyes have seen.  We have experienced the awesome moments when Christ breaks into our lives to bring healing, comfort or new joy.  Faith reminds us there is Holy Mystery in our lives.  We can’t control it or prove it but we have experienced it.  Christ is Risen and appears to us in mysterious ways:  in the laughter of our children, in a beautiful sunset, in the compassion of a friend, at a meal with those we love, in the reconciliation of broken relationships, in the simple joy of being alive.  Yes, it’s in those moments when we know that Christ is truly risen our faith is confirmed.
As I get older, I feel less a need to understand it all.  I don’t have to explain it and often can’t even make sense as to why things happen in life as they do.  I’m OK to live in the mystery and allow God to be God.  Faith never said that we would have all the answers, it only gives us the strength to believe in a God who has created us and redeemed us out of the most extravagant love.
The one thing I know deep in my soul is that my Redeemer lives and he makes all things new!  That’s enough for me.

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Pastor's Pen

4/16/2017

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​Christ is Risen Alleluia

I am writing this on Monday of Holy Week and the temperature is in the 70s.  The crocuses are blooming and I can already smell barbeques fired up.  Life seems to be waking up from the winter.  It was only a month ago when snow blanketed the earth and it was hard to even imagine that Spring would bloom again.

Today, we celebrate the fact that although Good Friday and Holy Saturday looked like all had been lost and all of life was thrown into confusion and despair, it wasn’t the end.  It was only the beginning of a brand new chapter.  Just like the force that pushes those crocuses through the hard earth to bloom again so, too, the power of the Spirit of the Living God raised Jesus from the dead.  It’s that same Spirit that brings new life out of situations that seem as hard as the ground in the middle of winter.

Many of you know by now that one of our parishioners, Mary Mercer, passed away this week.  We just saw her at Mass on Sunday and she went home to be with the Lord on Monday.  Mary was a quiet, kind presence here at Nativity as she helped out in many capacities.  I suspect Mary would now should out from her place in Heaven, “Friends, it’s about LIFE and Not Death.”  Our faith reminds us that we are people who go through our crosses and our grief but we can never give up our hope or our joy.  We will have tears and broken hearts throughout our lives but we can never get stuck there.  We must remember that there is new life waiting for us.

As a community, Nativity has seen its share of struggles and grief but our faith reminds us that we can’t stay at the tomb looking for Christ.  He isn’t there.  He is in the places of Life!  He is in the laughter of our children, the love of our spouse, the song of the birds each morning, the awe of nature, the kindness of friends, our moments of forgiveness with each other, etc.  Yes, it’s time to celebrate life and one way is at our Easter Vigil as we Celebrate our wonderful brother, Anthony Sieregowski, as he is confirmed.  We will call upon the Spirit to bring him the gifts that will help him excel as a disciple of Christ.  Christ is always in the midst of life and even in death is bringing new life to us.  Yes, this is a day to celebrate because we know the end of the story.  Good will triumph over evil, love will replace hate, peace will come and blanket our world and all God’s children will have what they need.  Christ is Risen, Alleluia!
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Joni's Reflection

4/9/2017

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Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord Matthew 26:14-27:66
On Palm Sunday, we patiently await to receive our palms that we will take home, and symbolically place in a vase as reminder of our Lenten journey.

After the procession, we will prepare ourselves to listen with open hearts and mind to the Gospel account of the Passion (from the Latin passio, which means “suffering”) of Jesus, from this last meal with his disciples to this death and burial.  The effect of the long reading is that we are with Jesus through it all.  Of course, each of the gospels tells us the story of Jesus’ suffering and death, and as we would expect, there are many similarities among the four accounts.  This consistency tells us that these stories were well-preserved in the early Christian community.  They were considered central, core truth.  They were told and retold, preserved and passed on.

But of course, there are differences among the four Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Passion,as well.  Most scholars think that Mark wrote his gospel first and both Matthew and Luke used Mark as a reliable guide, working with Mark’s structure and stories and adding their own traditions and sources.  Matthew’s account of Jesus’s suffering and death closely follows Mark’s.  This account give use a clear picture of the humanity of Jesus – his vulnerability, his dread at the death he saw coming, his agony on the cross.  A wonderful book to use to see the similarities of the Gospels is a book titled “Synopsis of the Four Gospels.”

The final words of Jesus on the cross are a powerful example of how Mark and Matthew help us understand the reality of Jesus’ humanity.  In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ final words are “It is finished” (John 19:30), a clear declaration that Jesus has done what he intended to do, and fully in control of himself, he is surrendering his life.  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ final words are “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46), another controlled and purposeful given over of himself.
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But in Mark and Matthew, Jesus’ last words are the excruciating words of pain and abandonment: “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34: Matthew 27:46).  Although it has rightly been pointed out by scholars that these are the first words of Psalm 22, a psalm that ends in hopeful triumph, this does not diminish the fact that Jesus chose these words to express what he was feeling in those moments.  Although Jesus never stopped having faith in his Father, he felt abandoned in the enormous suffering of that moment.  Mark and Matthew have preserved this experience and it’s very natural human emotions.  There is a powerful Gospel song titled “I Give Myself Away.”  As we prepare to enter into the Triduum, this would be a good time to reflect back over your Lenten journey, to see where you have given yourself away to serve others, and to be still with God.  At the Easter Vigil Mr. Anthony Sierengowski, an active member here at Nativity will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Anthony has a wonderful spirit of joy and compassion.  It has been a humbling experience to journey with him at this point and time in his life.  His sponsor is Mr. Thomas Davis; please continue to pray for Tom’s speedy recovery.
Amazing Peace, Joni S., Director of Religious Education
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Pastor's Pen

4/2/2017

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I am writing this after two very stressful weeks.  I know all of us are filled with emotions of sadness, anger, frustration and all the other emotions associated with grief.  I have been with you 2 ½ years and it has not been an easy time for any of us.  We have been watching the people who have been our teachers, mentors, wisdom figures and friends taken from us.  My question through all of this is trying to figure out what God is asking of us.  What are we supposed to learn from all of this?  Why have I been pastor at this time of transition for Nativity?  I don’t have the answers, but only a few rambling thoughts.

First of all, I apologize to anyone I may have hurt during the time I’ve been here.  I know Sr. Jolene and I did not always agree on how to move Nativity forward and I wish the transition could have been smoother for both of us.  Before she left for Racine, I spoke to Sr. Jolene about the difficulties we struggled with over these past years and she nodded in agreement.  I also promised her that I would do my best for Nativity and reminded her that it may not be the way she would have done it, but it would be my best.  And that’s what I will offer you…my best as we move forward.

For those who may be wondering about the Parish House and the dogs, two of the dogs have found wonderful homes.  Dakota, the black lab, has a temporary home, but is in need of a permanent home.  Sister’s family and her Racine Dominican family have taken most of her things and items that were left behind will be offered to parishioners.  Sr. Mary Watson has also left and will be living at the mother house in Racine.  With an empty Parish House, I have asked Horace, one of the alumni from the ROPE program, to move into the House.  Horace is a wonderful man and will be an asset to Nativity.  My hope is that I will be able to split my time between Nativity and St. Charles and stay for a few nights each week in Nativity’s Parish House.

My friends, we may think our “roots’ in Nativity are about our past glories as a flourishing parish with a grade school and a high school, but our roots are so much deeper.  Our roots are in Christ.  He is our foundation and our source of life.  Maybe that’s why we’re here together, shaken up by all the events of these last years and being asked what we hold on to when much is taken away from us.  If we don’t hold on to Christ as our foundation, we will certainly fall.  My prayer is that we will go to our “roots.’  We will go to our beloved Christ who brings life out of death and hope out of the most desperate situations.  He will bring life to us if we allow it!

In Colossians 3, Paul says, “Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  Bear with one another; forgive any grievances you have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.  Over all these virtues, put on love, which binds the rest together and keeps them perfect.”
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Paul’s words are my prayer for us at Nativity.  In these months ahead, may we allow these words to sink deep into our hearts.  May we be quick to forgive and slow to anger one another.  May we laugh more and criticize less.  May we just find joy in being in one another’s company.  May we hold each other with deep reverence.
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