Dear Followers of Jesus,

Every time we gather for Mass, we celebrate our true identity in God. Now today, we reflect on the gift of the Eucharist itself. At Sacred Heart, these past Sundays of Pentecost, Holy Trinity and now the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, show us why we restored our church building. The building only helps us to internalize our true identity in Christ, revealing to us that we become on earth the Real Presence of Christ.

On Wednesday May 23, 2018, we celebrated the Eucharist in the newly restored Sacred Heart Church. I want to reflect on some of the aspects of that celebration. I will be offering much reflection and many tours as the summer progresses, but here are a couple of the details that formed our first Eucharist back in the church.

The relic of Saint André Bessette: I had the privilege of carrying the relic of Saint André in procession as we began the Mass. With two parishioners carrying candles along side, I carried the second -class relic to the altar. The relic is a piece of clothing of Saint André who died in 1937 at the age of 92 in Montreal, Canada. Brother André Bessette was a Holy Cross Brother who became a healer after being assigned to be the porter, a doorkeeper, at our college in Montreal. He had an enduring devotion to Saint Joseph and began what is now Saint Joseph’s Oratory, the largest shrine to Saint Joseph in the world.

Brother André was a healer. Many people with physical, emotional and spiritual pain came to the college to seek him out, to have him listen to them or to have him touch their wounds. He would see up to 600 people a day and then stay up most of the night praying for the people he encountered during the day. He slept only one or two hours a day. Holy Cross considered him a nuisance because of all the poor people that landed on the doorstep. The priests and brothers really did not know what to do with him because he did not fit easily into the mission of education. God had other plans for him.

I am deeply humbled to have Saint André’s relic in our altar. I pray every day that God will raise up healing in our community, so that we too may more fully understand that healing, hospitality and hope may reside not only from our altar but more deeply in our hearts. André died on January 6, 1937. Over one million people attended his funeral in the bitter cold of Montreal. That was a miracle itself. André’s legacy rests securely within our community now.

The relic is housed in a holy water bottle from 1897. This bottle was part of a home Mass kit for the sick that belonged to my grandmother’s family. I am honored to pass along this bottle to house the relic of André within the altar on which we celebrate the Eucharist.

The chalice donated from Father Nicholas Ayo, CSC: Bishop Sheridan used a chalice for the first time at Sacred Heart that belonged to our first novice master here in Cascade. Father Ayo was my novice master and he began the Novitiate here in 1978. I am so grateful to make this connection with Holy Cross here in the parish. Fr. Ayo is in active retirement at the University of Notre Dame. This chalice also means a great deal to me since he taught me many aspects of the spiritual life. The chalice will remain the property of Sacred Heart Church.

Blessings,
Fr. Ron

Photos by: Fred Nelson and Rusty Kern

Read full parish bulletin here

Images by Professional Photographer, Rusty Kern, May 23, 2018

By: Rusty Kern 2018

Photo: Rusty Kern 2018

Images by Rusty Kern: May 23, 2018

Here is a link to my latest article in The Priest Magazine from June 2018.

Nourishment in the Intimacy of the Mass

Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

 Today, the gospel takes us into the land of fearlessness. Jesus appears behind locked doors and offers the disciples peace. Calm and tenderness fall upon them. The doors open and their hearts have hope. The Church is born.

Today, fear meets the Holy Spirit. Our hearts carry the same, fear and Spirit. Today, let us recognize that within us is born something new where hope and love create a home. 

Faith is an art form. The complete, sin-free, structured, organized Church did not fall from the sky. The Church is human and divine. We all must grapple with how we pass on faith, how we live hope in our world, how we design service to the poor and how art reflects our worship and praise. We put one step forward in each generation because we are co-creators with God. The Church is based on our ability to be creative, prayerful people.

 I received a letter from a California prisoner this week. He read my article in Give Us This Day about creativity and art. He explained to me that he has found new skills and talents behind bars. His life is full of art and he is now teaching art to other prisoners and invites other artists to help him. He is the Church behind bars. His fear has met the Holy Spirit. 

 Pope Francis in an interview last week said, “An artist is an apostle of beauty.” Our creative lives, our self-expressions, our true voices in the world, all come from the Holy Spirit. We are caretakers of hope, we are instruments of the beauty of faith, we are doers of peace, making us all artists of the Divine.

 Holy Spirit, free us from fear. Unlock our jaws so we may give you praise. Free our creativity so we may all bring forth hope and love in our world. Holy Spirit, bring fire to our souls, energy to our faith and strength to our voices of worship.

 Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC

Dear Followers of Christ Jesus,

The Solemnity of Pentecost concludes the Easter Season. During Lent and Easter we have been exploring and celebrating the foundations of our faith, Jesus’ Paschal Mystery, that is his passion, death and resurrection. Within Easter we renewed our commitments of baptism, to follow the path of Jesus leading to eternal life.

Pentecost pushes us out of this reflective nest. This is the birthday of the Church. We are to live what we have been celebrating all during these seasons. We are to live the mission of the Church that includes being people of fearlessness, hope and compassion. We are to live with beauty, integrity and imagination. Trust must outweigh fear in all areas of our lives.

In John 20:19-23, Jesus speaks a word of peace. We become such authentic believers where the peace of Christ is our true identity. We celebrate this peace in Pentecost and work diligently to implement this gospel value.

This is the same gospel we proclaimed on the Second Sunday of Easter, the first week after Easter. Thomas was not present when Jesus first appeared behind locked doors. Now it is our role to probe the mystery of the wounded Christ and to proclaim such a belief to others. The Spirit was given to the disciples in John’s gospel in this moment of fear. We too have inherited such a gift of the Holy Spirit in our baptism. The Holy Spirit does not fade or dull.

The Holy Spirit does not decrease in time or purpose. The Holy Spirit does not seek out favorites or give extra to the privileged. There is no golden age of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was not more present to the disciples than to us. The Holy Spirit invites us into mercy and forgiveness, into truth and integrity. The Holy Spirit is alive! The Church is alive!

In the celebration of Pentecost I invite you to ask for what you need. I am not kidding. Pentecost is the real thing. We must ask the Holy Spirit for what we need with complete vulnerability and purpose. We should look around our world, our nation and our families and ask for the big stuff such as peace, lasting respect among all people, food for all the hungry and hope for every soul. Today in this solemn celebration we ask for the Holy Spirit that enlivens our souls, restores our integrity, and gives us energy to live with mutual respect and harmony.

We celebrate our last Masses in the Parish Center this weekend at Sacred Heart. It has been a rich experience celebrating all of our seasons and sacraments in this way. I want to thank you all for your patience and your ability to adjust our prayer. I know it has not been easy for some. However, we have waited patiently for something incredible! Please know of my prayer for all of you as we celebrate the dedication of our renovated church and move lovingly into our future!

Blessings in the Holy Spirit,

Fr. Ron

Dear Believers in Christ Jesus,

Mark 16:15-20 sets the stage for a very intense and interesting feast day. We celebrate the Ascension of Jesus to make ready for the great feast of Pentecost next weekend. Before Jesus leaves the earth he tells his disciples to go forth with vigor to baptize and heal. This passage is overwhelming to us in our day since we do not drink deadly poison or pick up serpents with our hands. Even healing the sick seems unimaginable.

However, Jesus is inviting his disciples to live fearlessly in the world. We are not only called to baptize and bring people to God, but we are also called to work for the common good. How do we interpret driving out demons and carrying serpents and drinking poison today? How might Jesus be calling us into such a mystery of fearlessness today? Here are some ideas:

Jesus, help us acknowledge the serpent of division and separateness. Help us live in the middle where healing can happen in the center and chaos of political divides, hatred and hopelessness.

Jesus, help us live in the tenderness of your healing when we are faced with false power and greed. Help us on earth to understand that you are the real gift of healing and hope in our world. False power, our own power, is a mighty serpent that always comes back to bite us.

Jesus, help us calm the world of racism. Only you can heal our divisions when we build up walls of violence and feel superior to others, when we separate ourselves from the issues of war, hunger and race. Help us to pick up these deadly things to find healing for us all.

Jesus, help us go deeper into your command to spread good news. Help our divisions and labels today of conservative and liberal, of rich and poor, of young and old, of clergy and lay, of men and women, and help us realize that we are baptized into your name and you are our true identity.

Jesus, help us look for signs and wonders of your love. We are devastated by issues that take life away such as divorce, abortion, violence, mass shootings, lack of health care and homelessness. Help us lift up people who need us and help us not to be afraid of the issues of the world. Only in our world do we find your grace, your mercy and your call to reach beyond our own lives. Jesus, help us learn from our past mistakes such as clergy crimes of abuse and power. Help us lift up such serpents of violence and help us find a way toward forgiveness.

Jesus, help us find you at our dinner tables to break down the family fears of sharing our lives and faith. The serpents in our households of jealousy, selfishness and misunderstanding keep us from receiving your intimacy toward us. Help us preach with our silence and our words, with our gestures and our compassion. Help us preach with our integrity and our work toward justice. Our greatest work in the Church is to recognize faith is for people’s lives, all people.

Blessings,

Fr. Ron