May 2015 Bulletin: Catholic Prayer and Devotions

Lead article from the May 2015 bulletin, online now. Reprinted from the KC Supreme website.

The human heart is drawn to the divine.  Many people have a sincere longing for holiness and that is why they spend time in contemplation.

We are encouraged to cultivate a profound inner life, contact with Jesus Christ that is both personal and constant.  The Fathers of the Church have consistently said that without true friendship with Jesus, it is impossible for a Christian to fulfill the mission of the Lord.

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church may help focus our attention on the nature of prayer.  Here is a sampling of what you will find:

What is Prayer?
Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God, or the petition of good things from him in accord with his will.

It is always the gift of God who comes to encounter man.  Christian prayer is the personal and living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is infinitely good, with his Son Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit who dwells in their hearts.

How Does Jesus Teach Us to Pray?
Jesus teaches us to pray not only with the Our Father but also when he prays.  In this way he teaches us, in addition to the content, the dispositions necessary for every true prayer: purity of heart that seeks the Kingdom and forgives one’s enemies, bold and filial faith that goes beyond what we feel and understand, and watchfulness that protects the disciple from temptation.

Why is Our Prayer Efficacious?
Our prayer is efficacious because it is united in faith with the prayer of Jesus.  In him Christian prayer becomes a communion of love with the Father.  In this way we can present our petitions to God and be heard: “Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full” (Jn 16:24).

God Bless,
Jim 

For I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that causes me shame, but that I always be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and that my life will always honor Christ. 

-- Philippians 1:20

April 2015 Bulletin: Get Active, Stay Active!

Lead article from the April bulletin, online now.

Well, it’s that time of year again.  Time to get ready for the State Convention by preparing all those forms.

As I complete the forms and look back at the past year, I have noticed how many activities we do in our council.  We have a very active council and many different programs which we couldn’t do without you!  I would like to thank you all for your involvement; being active in parades and Albertville City Days in the summer, to the tree lot & toy drive in the winter.  You probably do not realize that in just about every month we have some sort of event going on.  We could not do all of these without your time and effort.  It is greatly appreciated and I look forward to your continued support of all our different activities.  April is our Senior Citizen Dinner.  Contact Cory Sommer  at sommerhome66@gmail.com to help out.

A great resource for you to find out about our activities is at our business meetings which we have the first Thursday of every month, 7:00 PM at the St Albert’s Parish Center in Albertville.  If you can’t make it to that, we have a monthly newsletter, web site (http://kc4174.org) and Facebook also.  I would really like to encourage you to come to a business meeting, that’s where you are going to hear the most about how the council is doing and keep you updated on upcoming events.  Our April lecture program is a Micro-Beer Tasting. This is an Open Meeting and spouses are welcome.

The past few months our meeting attendance has been down and I would really like to see some fresh faces show up to these important meetings.  If I need to change how the meetings are run or if I am the reason that the attendance is down, I need your feedback.  Don’t worry about hurting my feelings, I have big shoulders.  So please let me know if I should be doing something differently.

I know everyone is busy and it is hard to make every meeting but it would be great if you could make a few during the year.  You could even heckle me and let me know everything that I did wrong or right in the meeting!!  We do a pretty good job of keeping the meetings to an hour and then you are free to go or stay.  We have some food and drink and a lecture program after every meeting that you can listen to.  In past lectures, we have learned about new tax laws, what’s going on with housing in our area, and updates on the Catholic school.  Again I hope to see you at an upcoming meeting.

Have a great Easter and Lenten season

God Bless,
Jim Wiegers

March 2015 Bulletin: A Silent Sermon

Lead article from the March 2015 bulletin, online now.

This month I couldn’t find the right words and had an extreme case of writers block. Every time I started to write I just stumbled and couldn’t finish a thought, so I went searching for some inspiration. I found this light hearted story and immediately thought of our very own Father Richards.

A Silent Sermon 

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him.  It was a chilly evening.  The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. 

Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited.  The pastor made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. 

After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone.  Then he sat back in his chair, still silent.  The host watched all this in quiet contemplation.  As the one lone ember’s flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more.
Soon it was cold and dead.  Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. 

The pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave, he slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire.  Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. 

As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, “Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon.  I shall be back in church next Sunday.”

Author Unknown

We are very fortunate in the quality of priests and deacons that we have at our two parishes. They inspire us to continue to grow in our faith and challenge us to invite and be warming to others.

I hope you found some humor in this article and have a great start to the Lenten season!

God Bless,

Jim Wiegers

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 
-- Romans 12:13