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In the summer of 1986, I was part of a team that invited Fr. Ron Lewinski to lead an RCIA retreat at the Julie Penrose Center in Colorado Springs. The Diocese of Colorado Springs was only two years old at that time. I had started school at the University of Notre Dame that summer and flew back to Colorado to help with the retreat. It was difficult to leave summer school for a week and yet I had know idea how the RCIA retreat would change my life.

In June of 1987, I was leaving Colorado for a parish in California. I had all my possessions packed and ready to go to California. On the day before I left, Fr. Ron called me at Sacred Heart Church in Colorado and asked me to interview for a position in the Office for Divine Worship as Director of RCIA for the Archdiocese of Chicago. I told him that I was already assigned to California. He would not take “no” for an answer. I went to my summer session at Notre Dame and interviewed in Chicago with the approval of our Holy Cross provincial. In August of 1987, I moved to Chicago to begin my new position with Fr. Ron and an incredibly talented staff.

Fr. Ron always supported younger people in ministry. I watched him over and over again invite talented musicians, artists, liturgists into the circle of leadership. He wanted to hear the voice of a younger generation and to offer us opportunities to own the Church’s mission. I am so grateful that he offered me the opportunity to be part of the largest office of worship in the world at that time.

Fr. Ron was an instrument and true priest of the Second Vatican Council. He wanted the best for the Church and desired to implement the transformative and significant Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults. He wanted us to find Jesus and to live that mystery with a new heart and vigor. He longed for the Church to be an agent of justice and integrity in our world through our conversion and change.

I was ordained only four years when I joined the Office for Divine Worship. I stood in awe of Ron’s commitment and understanding of the Liturgy. He led with courage and passion even in difficult times. He led us and educated us in faith and with purpose to live the gospel with joy.

I admired Fr. Ron throughout the years and I pray he knew how grateful I was to be part of his staff. Fr. Ron loved to laugh even in the complexities of his role. He supported me and gave me a voice that I still am grateful for today. Now, I publish articles about prayer and service because of Fr. Ron Lewinski.  Ron challenged me to be a professional within the Church in the United States.

Fr. Ron, rest in the eternal liturgy, with saints and angels, the grateful voices of praise and love. Jesus, receive our brother, Ron.

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My Dear Believers,

Casting seeds of hope is never easy. I cannot image what it feels like when a parent scatters seeds of tradition, good choices and even how to tie a shoe, just to have everything disregarded as old-fashioned and ill-fitting for a child today. I cannot image what it is like for a wife to desire a husband to hush his criticism for their teenager and the spouse ignores such a request. I cannot image when a teacher strives to cast pearls before swine, to pass on to a new generation how to work for peace and find satisfaction in it, but hears boos in the last row and gun shots out the school window. Casting love beyond your own experience may become an experience of restlessness, frustration and aggravation.

Today’s gospel is such an experience of casting love as far as we can throw it. Matthew 13:1-23 shows us that faith is cast by love. I think that we all have the hope that we can produce fruit thirty or sixty fold. Today, let us pray that the good planted within our lives may find its way to the light, to produce fruit and hope, love and peace, goodness and mercy well beyond the size of our own hearts. The good that is planted within our lives by the gospel needs a place to land, to let go and to bud forth in our generosity and passion.

We are recipients of various words being flung our way every day. Facebook, Twitter, text messages, twenty-four hour radio and television strive to get our attention and can easily be tuned out. We have choices to make, tune in or tune out.

We have many excuses not to listen to God’s Word. We don’t understand it. We have heard it before. We don’t really care. We don’t have time. We have to do our laundry. Whatever the excuse, we are missing an important tool for our conversion and inner life. God’s Word longs to make a home within our hearts. God’s Word is planted within our hearts, lives and imaginations when we finally get the point in our lives that we need God. This need or desire or openness becomes an ache within us that is only satisfied by God’s message of peace and hope. Planting, listening and receiving all take time and patience.

Here are some questions for you to consider this summer while you take some quiet time to listen to God’s Word:

What are the words that really grab your attention in any given day? How do they really affect you? How can you listen to God’s Word? How can you receive God’s consolation planted in the gospels? How can you receive God’s challenging words? How can you share God’s word with others?

Cast love as far as you can throw it.

Blessings,

Fr. Ron

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, Oregon

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Gospel MT 13:1-23

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
“A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

The disciples approached him and said,
“Why do you speak to them in parables?”
He said to them in reply,
“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. 
Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted,
and I heal them.

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

“Hear then the parable of the sower.
The seed sown on the path is the one
who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it,
and the evil one comes and steals away
what was sown in his heart.
The seed sown on rocky ground
is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.
But he has no root and lasts only for a time.
When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
he immediately falls away.
The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word,
but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word
and it bears no fruit.
But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

Give Us This Day Magazine has published this article on today’s liturgical readings.

Scars, Tenderness, and the Heart of Faith

Kateri Tekakwitha, an Algonquin-Mohawk woman, was baptized in 1674 at age nineteen. Her face scarred by smallpox as a young girl, she carried in her heart a faith-filled relationship with Jesus. She died at age twenty-four, bearing the tension of scars and tenderness within her body.

We all carry ugliness and beauty, despair and hope, insecurity and faith. We are deeply, profoundly human and yet long for the freedom and love only Jesus can offer us. We are sent into the world to bring joy to the dark places of people’s lives. We are to witness the Kingdom of God no matter the threats we face each day.

When we believe in the love of Jesus, we will be in conflict with the world. The heart of faith rouses mistrust, fear, and anger in a world that is threatened by love and gentleness. We carry the scars in our vocations, within our commitments to serve. Yet we possess within our hearts the voice of Jesus that provides food and hope for our journey.

St. Kateri roused conflict among her people when she converted to Christianity. The fire of her heart sent her fearlessly into faith, relying only on the love of Jesus. She endured until the end. Witnesses reported that within minutes after Kateri’s death, the scars on her faced were healed. The love of her heart prevailed.

Take delight in the Lord, and he will grant you your heart’s request.

Fr. Ronald Raab

Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC, is pastor of the Tri-Community Catholic Parish in Colorado Springs. He formerly served as associate pastor at Saint Andre Bessette Church in Old Town, Portland, Oregon. Learn more at http://www.ronaldraab.com.

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Dear Believers in the Compassionate One,

Today’s gospel has to be on your summer reading list. In fact, if this is the only gospel you read all year, it will probably bubble up enough grace to last you for the rest of the year. Don’t just listen to my recommendation; read it for yourself.

Here it is: Matthew 11:25-30. I cannot imagine how you will feel when you read this. It is deeply challenging, but it goes even deeper into consolation and satisfaction. Jesus acknowledges how gosh darn stubborn we are!

We so often think we have the bull by the horns. We think we have a plan for our lives if we are just left alone to accomplish it. We think we carry wisdom easier than a sack of potatoes home from the grocery. We think wisdom is bottled up in technology, ego and our education. Sometimes we think if we plan well enough, outline specifically enough and make more lists, we can find a protective layer of “self” and that should be sufficient wisdom. Wrong again.

Jesus says that kids have more sense than we do. He says once again that wisdom is often innocent and raw. Wisdom is seeing, really seeing. I mean really, really seeing as Jesus does. This takes lots of prayer time and more unwinding than an old clock. To be wise is to undo so much of what we have been told. Wisdom bears its beauty in our humility, kindness and gratitude. Gosh, I pray for wisdom every day.

So Jesus invites us to himself. He shoulders all the weight of our mistakes. He bears the brunt of our broken hearts. Jesus carries our trash out to the dumpster. He desperately wants our burdens. Holy cow, imagine that! He wants you. He desires you. He wants our community and the Church to rest in his heart. If you read this gospel and are not changed, I am not sure what is wrong!

Did you really read this? “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for yourselves…” I’m not sure about you, but I know that I accumulate a lot of burden in my heart. Where should I go with it all? My heart tells me it is in these words.

Resting in Jesus’ treasure house of love is so often seen by most people as soft. Well, in this hardened world, I am not sure where else to go. If you are facing depression and anxiety, try Jesus’ medicinal heart. If you are missing love in your marriage, turn to Him before you end the entire relationship. If you cannot find peace, then sip tea with Jesus in your prayer time. If you are facing surgery or illness, rest your burden at Jesus’ feet. If you cannot sleep at night, discover the remedy of his humble heart.

If there is one gospel to read this summer, find rest for yourselves in these words of Jesus today.

Blessings,

Fr. Ron

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On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel MT 11:25-30

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

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Dear Followers of Jesus Christ,

Jesus is far from the center of most people’s lives. So many of us tend to believe that if we keep the ritual action of Mass once a week, we will be fine. Others believe that if we can memorize the Catechism, Jesus will open the eternal gates to us. Still others hope that if we can protect the Church from sinful people such as immigrants, homosexuals or women who have made a decision for abortion, things will go well and our self-righteousness will take us first class to heaven.

Jesus challenges all these approaches. He wants our hearts and every aspect of our lives to become a fountain of love. Jesus wants us, just as we are in the real world, in every action and thought.

Our gospel today, Matthew 10:37-42, challenges our relationships with Jesus. He says to us that our human relationships are nothing compared to our intimate friendship with God. He heals, forgives, loves and provides hope. This is a great promise for us in our daily lives. Jesus invites us to take up our human suffering in his cross.

Many people are not interested in learning more about Jesus, about coming to terms with our human hearts and our priorities. Somehow, we need to break through our reluctance to find Jesus. Many people are bored with the Church and deaf to it’s teaching and weekly preaching. Jesus aches to be in touch with our human suffering, our heartaches and our hopes for a better life. He wants to rip open our short attention spans and capture our imaginations.

Here is where the rubber meets the road. Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This is radical and provocative. What does he mean? No wonder why most people do not care about Jesus! He wants us to lose ourselves into a deep, intimate relationship with him. Love really changes us; it really does. It is a lot easier to cling to our possessions, our past hurts and our own path, the one that we think is really, “it.”

Instead, let’s fall into Jesus’ care and protection by offering a cup of cold water to someone in need. Let’s fall head over heals into a new relationship with God and offer what little we have: our self-reliance, our security systems, our power and greed, our malfunctioning hearts and puffed-up egos. Let’s allow Jesus to enter our pride and transform us into generous, self-giving people we call the Church.

Heck, all this in exchange for a cold cup of water! Not a bad trade off. Go for it. See what happens. Love releases love releases love releases love. Love pours out hope.

How can you enter more deeply into meditation, prayer and gratitude during these summer months? How can you rely even deeper on God’s sustaining love for you? How does offering a cold cup of water change you?

Blessings,

Fr. Ron

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

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Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Matthew 10:37-42

Gospel MT 10:37-42

Jesus said to his apostles:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

We are beginning the restoration of Sacred Heart Church this week. Yesterday, was the last Sunday Mass in our building until February, 2018. I gathered folks after Mass at the doors of the church and prayed this litany in gratitude for these last 95 years and the hope for our future. (Photos: Fred Nelson)

Litany for Locking of the Doors for Restoration

Sunday June 25, 2017

Noon at Sacred Heart Church

Text: Ronald Raab, CSC

Response: Restore our hearts, O God

In gratitude for our 95 years of prayer in this building…

In gratitude for silent prayers and tears shed…

In gratitude for the generations of families who prayed…

In gratitude for the priests who stood at this altar…

In gratitude for baptisms, confirmations and weddings…

In gratitude for funerals and memories of our deceased…

In gratitude for mercy received in moments of confession…

In gratitude for the squeaky pews and the duck tape on the carpet…

In gratitude for the architect, engineers and construction workers…

In gratitude for our benefactors and believers…

In gratitude for patience and determination of our councils and committees…

In gratitude for all of our gifts and talents and songs of praise…

We close this door in love and memory…

We lock this door so something new may be revealed…

We lock this door in trust that you will restore our hearts in prayer…

We lock this door in preparation for a new generation of believers…

We lock this door trusting that the Heart of Jesus will thrive within us…

For tomorrow…

For tomorrow…

For tomorrow…

“You are worth more than many sparrows” Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC

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Dear Believers in Christ Jesus,

I recently sat at the bedside of an elderly couple married for 66 years. They were almost paralyzed by fear, the deep fear of one spouse losing the other. They were confused about their conversations with doctors and feared what the nursing home attendants were telling them. I reached into the oil of the Sacrament of the Sick and touched their foreheads and their fear with love and understanding.

Presence in darkness is a balm of hope. Jesus says that all will be revealed. This couple’s fear covered their day in darkness. Our conversation brought light. I wanted to shout from the rooftops that for a moment their fear dwindled on that summer afternoon.

Today’s gospel, Matthew 10:26-33, calls us into a deep trust. Jesus says that we are worth more than sparrows. During my conversation with the couple, I wanted them to see their value the way Jesus does, as much more than the tiny birds in the cage in the lobby. People get lost in old age and illness. People lose their way from divorce, mental impairment and a lack of insurance. Sometimes it is up to us to bring light and a simple presence to people.

We are all worth more than the sparrows. Sometimes we lose sight of our value when we can no longer fly free like the birds and feel the fresh air of the morning. Sometimes when our children betray us, when our bodies are stiff with arthritis, we no longer feel cared for or valued. We may feel Jesus forgets us when our money runs out and our ability to walk is gone.

Jesus says to all of us again, “Do not be afraid.” We find our freedom when we sing like birds in the Mass, when we pray through our fear, even in times of great darkness. Our prayer does not stop in our church. Our prayer is taken deep into the darkness of a nursing home with the drapes closed. Our prayer is taken into jail cells, to the starving people of the Sudan and into the centers where people recover from meth and heroine in our city. Our prayer, offered as light and hope, is seen well beyond our churchyard and the confines of our supper tables.

Our faith is lived deeply in our world. No matter our education, no matter how much money we have earned, no matter what neighborhood of our upbringing, we are called to extend our prayer deeply into the human condition. We do so because so many people need to know once again that they are cared for more than sparrows. Jesus shows his care through our efforts to help others.

How can you enter more deeply into Jesus’ care and tenderness for you? What do you need to admit to or let go of to discover whispers of hope from Jesus? What is concealed in your life that needs to be revealed? How are you being called to show others that God cares for them?

Blessings,

Fr. Ron