CLICK here to read my article on Page 2 of The Springs Echo, February 2021.

CLICK here to read complete bulletin

Here is a review of The Stations of the Cross in Atonement for Abuse and the Healing of All by our staff member, Grace Donnelly.

Lent starts this week on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17th. Every year, Sacred Heart Parish offers the Stations of the Cross on the Fridays of Lent. This year, in addition to the traditional stations that we have always offered, we are offering a new Liturgical Press version, “The Stations of the Cross in Atonement for Abuse and for the Healing of All” with text by Fr. Paul Turner and illustrated by Fr. Ron Raab, CSC. 

This unique version of the Stations of the Cross offers a voice to victims of abuse who previously have been voiceless within the Church. Although we have previously discussed Fr. Ron’s artwork for this project in the bulletin, seeing the work alongside the text, as a whole, is quite moving. This project is one of the most genuine attempts to offer atonement and healing that I have ever seen from the Church. 

“The Stations of the Cross in Atonement for Abuse and for the Healing of All invites a wounded church to contemplate the passion and death of Jesus through the experience of clerical abuse survivors. This one-of-a-kind resource is written and illustrated by priests to foster healing amidst the destruction committed by their brothers. Award-winning author and acclaimed liturgist Paul Turner pairs each of the fourteen Scripture-based stations with powerful quotes from survivors of clerical sexual abuse and responds to each with profound confessional prayer. Thought-provoking paintings by author and liturgist Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC accompany each station. 

This resource will be cherished by parishes, faith-based organizations, retreat centers, prayer groups, youth groups, school and campus ministry programs, families, and individuals who yearn to honor survivors suffering with Christ and who yearn to bring this too often ignored reality to lived prayer experiences.” 

However, if you find yourself saying, “I’m tired of talking about sexual abuse in the Church. Can’t we just move on?” The answer is no. The revelation of such horrific abuse in the Church is not something that we should sweep under the rug. Doing so only hurts the victims and survivors more. By “moving on” or pretending that it did not happen only perpetuates the problem of abuse of power and clericalism in the Church. Although it may be uncomfortable and painful to talk about sexual abuse, talking about it brings it out of the shadows and into the light. Environments that operate in the darkness are the same environments where abuse thrives. When you bring something into the light, you are trying to make it whole by sharing it with others. In this case, talking about sexual abuse during the Stations of the Cross is a way to try to atone for the horrific things that have happened to our children by the hands of priests and Church officials and possibly provide a way for healing. 

As the parish’s Safe Environment Coordinator, it saddens me when parishioners get angry when we talk about the abuse in the Church or when volunteers roll their eyes when I ask them to complete another Safe Environment training. By continuously talking and educating on the warning signs of abuse, we keep the dialogue open to prevent sexual abuse at our parish. We also make it clear that our parish will not tolerate or perpetuate this type of behavior towards anyone, especially our children. Although talking about abuse is hard, it ensures that our parish doesn’t operate in darkness where abusive environments thrive. 

Although talking about abuse and participating in The Stations of the Cross in Atonement for Abuse and for the Healing of All does not undo the horrible things that have happened, it hopefully creates a pathway to healing. The Stations of the Cross remind us that Jesus is the ultimate redeemer and healer. 

Join us at 3 pm on the Fridays during Lent for the Stations of the Cross at Sacred Heart Church. No reservations are required. 

Friday February 19: Traditional version 

Friday February 26: The Stations of the Cross in Atonement for Abuse and the Healing of All

Friday March 5: Traditional version

Friday March 12: The Stations of the Cross in Atonement for Abuse and the Healing of All

Friday March 19: Traditional version

Friday March 26: The Stations of the Cross in Atonement for Abuse and the Healing of All

CLICK here to order your copy of the Stations of the Cross

I will post a daily reflection/homily for Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday

CLICK here to read complete bulletin

CLICK here for complete bulletin

CLICK HERE to read our complet bulletin for this weekend.

When Brokenness Speaks

I am here, Lord. I desire you, yet our communion is incomplete. My heart-storms keep us apart. Pride stifles my loving you. Self-doubt haunts me. I sift through negative thoughts, unspoken lusts, past hurts, and I wonder why you still love me. Chaos seems to be our shared tea. My life drama preoccupies my prayer. I am here, at least the parts of me that are ready to find you on my rough sea.

     When you withdraw, I want to find you and hold you. I want to rest my face on your chest to comfort us both. I have heard the haters speak ill of you. I have seen the rage the demons have for you. I know them because so often the perceived demons are within me. I am blind to my own life.

     I was part of the crowd that pressed in on you, longing to see your eyes and feel your body. I am sorry you felt crushed. My eyes could not comprehend the healing of the paralytic. His crutches were sold for bread. I still weep recalling the child you healed in his mother’s arms. I desperately want to feel what that child felt, to lay my soul again upon the kindness in your eyes, to smell your presence. I will continue to press into your tenderness.

     People with great need speak from their brokenness. They don’t hide from you. The demonic, the blind, the pained, all reveal your authority. I hear them speak for me. I want to be among those who know you.

     Fr. Ronald Raab

Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC, is pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Colorado Springs. Learn more at http://www.ronaldraab.com.

In John’s gospel, John the Baptist points his finger toward Jesus. His vocation was to seek the Kingdom of God here on earth and to wake us up to forgiveness and love.

 Jesus asks John’s followers, “What are you looking for?” This question echoes across the centuries and into our lives. This is a divine question, meaning it comes from Jesus.  We take his questions to heart. Our vocations arise from his voice.

Questions always challenge us. They get us involved in our relationships. Without questions, we never change for the good, we never learn how to love more deeply or to believe with greater strength. Questions help us get over the poison of entitlement or selfishness or believing we are better than other people. “What are you looking for?” is a key question in our time.

We are facing horrific divides in our nation and Church. These may be the most provocative and challenging months in our lifetimes. The pandemic has greater strength than many wars. The labels we have stamped upon other people are more like a hot branding because they seem permanent. We brand people to divide the rich and the poor, the Republican and the Democrat, the conservative and the liberal, the person who is with me verses and the person who is against me, the ones who have and the ones who don’t have. These labels do not express our vocations as Christians.

These labels are absorbing our attention more than our faith. We have somehow believed that politics can hold our entire emotional and spiritual lives as human beings. We have given our hearts away to pollical parties. No political structure can absorb our full identities as human beings. In other words, politics has overshadowed our faith. Politics does not offer us vocations of love. Our faith is in Christ Jesus. He alone questions our motives and our actions. God gives us direction and that direction is always toward love, forgiveness and hope.

So, what are you looking for? We are all looking for a home in this world where we can educate our children and feel like we belong and experience acceptance. We are looking for a true desire to serve other people. We are looking for love.

We all have the ability to answer the question for our own lives. However, what Jesus asks of us is to follow Him, even to the Cross.  And to follow him means we die to self and selfishness and learn to live for the common good, for the beauty of life on earth, with responsibility, with justice, with integrity, and with hope for the dignity of all people.

This week as our nation celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. and inaugurates a new president, I want you to sit and ponder the question Jesus poses in the beginning of his ministry. He changed the life and even the name of Peter. Jesus desires to change us as well. Jesus questions us because he loves the world and so desperately desires to find his home within us, within you and within me. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

God give you peace.

Click here to read full bulletin for January 17, 2021

Dear Followers of Jesus,

In today’s gospel, John 1:35-42, John pointed into the direction of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Two disciples heard John and began to follow Jesus. Jesus turned to the men and asked them, “What are you looking for?” Jesus asks this rather provocative question to these strangers. However, this question also jumps off the page to capture our attention. I wonder if we really know what we want from Jesus. I wonder if we can be honest enough to explore this Divine question. These words came from the mouth of Jesus. Here is my reflection on Jesus’ question to each of us. I would love to hear from you as to how you would answer this question if Jesus was standing in front of you.

“What are you looking for?”

For my heart to know your presence.

For my soul to sing of your love.

For reassurance that you listen.

For trust that you hope in me.

For inner freedom to live your life in me.

For remedy to my stubbornness.

For your warmth to strengthen this cold heart.

For a long rest upon your shoulder.

For my heart to become fire.

For my mind to embrace honesty.

For my anxiety to melt in your presence.

For my life to understand your call for me.

For life to unfold in truth and fidelity.

For life to reflect my belief in you alone.

For life to affirm my voice and gifts.

For life to find you as its source.

For kindness to unite relationships.

For gossip to ebb.

For tenderness to flow.

For justice to makes its home in us all.

For healing to flood my soul.

For a shroud of forgiveness around me.

For mercy to make a home within me.

For home to reflect love.

For people to find your truth.

For the ill to know your healing.

For the stubborn to find serenity.

For the addicted to let go of compulsion.  

For an end of violence and misunderstanding.

For empty stomachs to remain full.

For wars to ebb.

For rainforests and oceans to thrive.

For the earth to be healed.

For the children to know your encouragement.

For the elderly to die in peace.

For the world to treasure your enduring word.

God give you peace,

Fr. Ron

CLICK here to listen to my 60 Second Sermon for January 17, 2021

Lent provides the perfect setting to pray about one of the most important issues in the Church today, the healing of sexual abuse. CLICK here to learn more and order for your parish or faith community.

Below is my art response to the these Stations of the Cross. This response is published in the book. i am so grateful to Liturgical Press for asking me to be part of this important project.

The Artist’s Response

Finger Painting

I pray that my fingers covered in paint may help redeem the abuse our children faced at the hands of my brothers.

Backdrop of Chaos

With my fingers, brushes, and rags, I splashed paint on the canvas. From that chaos, Jesus emerged. The sex crimes of clergy will never fade or go away. Healing must allow the chaos to speak. The disorder cannot be blended away or ignored or painted over. The disarray becomes the consistent motif for all fourteen stations. I cannot control the chaos of abuse. I also could not control how the face of Jesus revealed itself from the canvas of such discontinuity, disorder, and madness.

Outside the Lines

I pray that my paintings with blurred lines may help heal the ways my brother priests blurred lines of appropriate boundaries. They destroyed children’s innocence and that destruction continues within adulthood. I want people to see themselves here in the mess, the mix of colors, and the unfinished nature of the characters. I want people to see Jesus’ emotion for them.

Primary Colors

Our children use primary colors to create art. I want to experience the innocence of raw color and their instincts of applying paint on canvas. These images are not adorned with clean lines, nuance, or historical style. Viewing the colors and styles of children enable us all to heal.

Face of Christ

The face of Christ holds every emotion of abuse and of our untold stories. He receives all we offer him. Jesus, in turn, reveals to us both suffering and mercy. In his eyes, we find home.

The Disembodiment of Abuse

We often fear and feel shame within our abused bodies. Jesus is revealed without a body in the majority of these paintings. Our bodies need to tell their own stories. These stations reveal disembodied suffering of many who cannot face the truth of their abuse.

The Handprints of Children

The handprints reveal the longing of our children to touch mystery, to touch love and hope again. The prints suggest that innocence can only be restored by the mystery of Jesus. We all wait to touch such mystery. This touch may heal the forbidden touch of the past.