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Father Barry's April 2010 Pastor Pages
Bill Moyers, columnist and television newscaster observed that one of the best kept secrets of our society is the spiritual hunger of
people today. This observation has also been made by theologians, spiritual writers and church leaders. This spiritual hunger is experienced
as a thirst for meaning, direction and purpose. It is a hunger for hope and joy in life. Often times this spiritual hunger is well disguised
as people attempt to fill their spiritual hungers with actions, choices and things that ultimately do not feed or nurture the human spirit
or soul. Some people attempt to feed their thirst for hope and meaning with material things, others seek power or status, still others attempt
to appease their hunger through abuse of people, food, drink, drugs, sex, or other things.
People adopt a particular spirituality based on how they attempt to address their spiritual hungers; in an attempt to find some meaning and
direction in our lives, each of us develops a particular spirituality. In other words, everyone has a spirituality whether they are
consciously aware of it or not. If a person believes that money and titles are the most important value in the world, then money is that
person's spirituality, that is how they order their world. If work and career is the center of a person's life, then work is his or her
spirituality and becomes the basis from which they arrange all their other values and choices. If a person's family is at the center of their
lives then that will define their spirituality and determine what beliefs and values they hold dear. If sports is one's spirituality, then it
will take central priority over all else, even family and church. A good question for people to ask ourselves from time to time is this: What
is my spirituality? How do I spend my time? To what do I give my attention and energy? What are my daily priorities? However a person spends
his or her time and energy, that is their spirituality.
Easter reminds us that as complicated as our Christian religion may seem, the Good News of Jesus Christ can be summarized in a few words: Christ
has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Christ invites us to make his spirituality our own; Christ invites us to experience the
same intimacy he shares with God. We share in this imtimate communion with God when we follow the way of Christ. Christ reveals that when we die
to false gods and idols, surrender our own will to God's will, and turn away from sin, then His life rises in us. In short, our life with Christ begins
now and when Christ comes again we will share fully in His glory and joy. This is the Good News of Easter. Our rising with Christ out of deadness into
real living begins now.
The Prayer and Action program of the Salina Diocese is a mission program that provides meaningful opportunities
to serve those in need. This program is for college-aged and high school students of our diocese. Because many of our young
people cannot travel to foreign countries for a mission experience, Prayer and Action was created to provide an opportunity
for them to serve the poor in our local area and at the same time grow in their Catholic faith.
This year the parishes in Norton and Concordia are serving as host parishes for Prayer and Action. Each week there will be
60 young people and their sponsors descending on Concordia for one week intervals. They work on various projects for those in need
during the day and in the evening they participate in various spiritual formation activities that help them to grow in their Catholic,
Christian faith. This means ever week in June we will be having a new group of 60 young people and their adult sponsors from across
the diocese living and working in our community. They will be residing in the old Catholic grade school, spending the nights there
and working during the day. Students pay to participate in this local mission experience and there is a waiting list since the weeks
fill up quickly. The first week in Concordia will be for college students and the other weeks are for h.s. students.
How can you help? Tehre are three things you can do. (1) Because the students do not bring their own equipment or tools,
they will need to borrow ladders, clippers, hammers, plyers, hoes, etc. for the various projects they undertake. A pick-up truck or two would be
useful as well for hauling trash, tree limbs, etc. (2) They need projects. There is NO charge for the work that is done. Ideally
they want to assist those most in need. In the past, students have stripped and painted houses (inside and out), winterized homes,
general yard work, minor house repairs, etc. We will need a list of projects for them since 60 eager workers and adults can accomplish
a lot. An application form will be included in next week's bulletin. (3) Pray for the success of this program. For the past two
summers this has been a powerful experience for our young people about what it means to be Catholic and to serve others in the name of Christ.
More information will be forthcoming in future bulletins.
It is Spring and with that comes to appearance of rainbows. Rainbows appear sometimes against the darkest clouds; the
sun pears through the storm and ever color of light is painted in graceful arcs or bows. The Bible says that God made the
rainbow as a reminder that no darkness or evil can resist the mercy of God. God has vowed to set aside anger for the sake of
compassion, and the rainbow is a sign of God's divine mercy.
Pope John Paul II placed on the Church calendar Divine Mercy Sunday which takes place on the Second Sunday of the Easter
season. The image of Divine Mercy is Jesus with a rainbow emanating from his chest. That rainbow is given as a reminder that
in Christ our lives are eternal and our sins are forgiven. God's compassionate mercy and love is a central biblical theme. The
modern devotion to Christ as Divine Mercy is based on the private revelations of a Polish nun, St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938).
She began to receive mystical revelations centered on the theme of God's mercy for those lost in sin or broken by anxiety and
suffering. St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine of Siena also spoke, wrote, and taught about Divine Mercy. Their
teachings are echoed in the writings of Pope John Paul II.
St. Faustina said in her mystical vision of divine mercy: "Here they misery of the soul meets the God of mercy." The devotion to
the Divine Mercy does not consist primarily in the adoption of a set of specific pious practices but in a centering of faith and hope
in the merciful love of God, and the desire to let His mercy flow through one's heart toward those in need. The mission given to the
apostles on the Second Sunday of Easter is the forgiveness of sins. In today's Gospel Jesus says to apostles "Whose sins you forgive
are forgiven them." God's mercy is made real to sinners in the ministry of forgiveness. We are commanded by Jesus to keep on
forgiving as we have been forgiven, and we will bring many to salvation in Jesus Christ.
Every Spring we witness how death and winter is conquered by Life. We see it all around us as dead seeds come to life and
other plants reawaken. We may take the mystery and miracle of this change of season for granted. At Easter we recognize a
similar mystery and miracle that happens in our life with Christ. Easter is a remembering of how the dead Jesus rises to new
life in the resurrection. But Easter is more than a remembrance of some historical event. Jesus invites us to enter into
our own Easter with him; Jesus invites us to participate in this miracle and mystery of his death and life. He invites
us out of a dark winter into an eternal Spring where we will find with Him a life with God that gives us meaning, hope,
joy and most of all, love.
Our Catholic tradition has a term for this: Paschal Mystery. Paschal Mystery refers to the life, death, resurrection of
Christ. Paschal comes from teh word "passover." The term reflects the Hebrew Passover which was God's act of delivering and
saving the Israelite people from their captivity and slavery in Egypt. When God saved the Israelite people in the Old Testament,
this event anticipated or foreshadowed what God would do for us through Christ. Just as God saved and raised up His people in the
Old Testament, so God raised up Jesus to be a source of salvation. Just as God delivered His people in the Old Testament, so God
through Christ wishes to deliver us from our slavery to sin and death.
In practical terms, to participate in the Paschal Mystery of Christ means dying to sin and all that which is not of God so that
Christ might rise in us. In other words, we experience our own kind of Passion just like Jesus did. Our Christian baptism is the
starting point of this dying and rising with Christ. Jesus warned us that to experience new life in him would involve embracing
our own cross, which means dying. But he also promised that through our dying to pride, selfishness, greed, and other sin that
a new life would arise in us. This new life would be His very own presence, wisdom, power and love. If we participate in the
Paschal Mystery we begin to live eternally with Christ now, small risings with Christ which prepare us for the eternal
Easter of heaven.
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Pastor Pages Archives/h4>
Our Own Easter 4/4/10
Divine Mercy Sunday 4/11/10
Parish to Host "Prayer and Action" 4/18/10
Everyone Has a Spirituality 4/25/10
December 2009 Pastor Pages
January 2010 Pastor Pages
February 2010 Pastor Pages
March 2010 Pastor Pages
April 2010 Pastor Pages
Current Pastor Pages
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