I am Fascinated and Encouraged....

by Sheriff Joe of Maricopa County (Phoenix), the most famous sheriff in the country.

What is he doing for Super Bowl Sunday? See here.

Reminder about Cultivation of Fields

My sister sent me this very short but powerful discussion by Saint Caesarius of Arles (470-543), monk and Bishop. [Sermons, no. 6; CCL 103,32 (SC 175)

Brethren, there are two kinds of field: the first is God’s field, the second is man’s. You have your property; God has his, too. Your own property is your land; God’s property is your soul. Is it right that you should cultivate your property and leave God’s lying fallow?

If you cultivate your land but fail to cultivate your soul, is this because you want to set your own property in order but leave God’s fallow? Is that right? Does God deserve that we should neglect the soul he holds so dear?

You are delighted when you see your property well cultivated; why don’t you weep when you see your soul lying fallow? We cause the fields on our property to come alive for a few days in this world; caring for our souls will enable us to live forever in heaven…

God has deigned to entrust our souls to us as his property; so let us set to work with all our might, by his help, so that when he comes to visit his property he will find it well cultivated and in perfect order.

May he find a harvest and not thorns; may he find wine and not vinegar, corn rather than chaff. If he finds everything in it that can be pleasing in his eyes, he will give us an eternal reward in exchange, but thorns will be committed to the fire.

Handy Little Warming Bag

As I get older and the weather seems to feel colder, my favorite companion is this sock bag. It's filled with cheap dry beans and is heated in my 20+ year old microwave for about a minute to become toasty warm!

In the daytime, the bean bag warms my hands and the cold chair bottom before I start typing this blog. At night, I love to feel the bag's warmth on my feet under the covers at the end of the bed. [Even though my husband's feet are usually warmer than mine, I am reluctant to place my cold feet on his!]

The warmth of a heated bean bag endures for at least 30 min. And I've been using the same beans for at least a month.

Another way I try to get warm is a cup of hot tea! Especially Constant Comment Green Tea flavored with orange and spices. Splenda works great to sweeten the tea.

New Bishop for Springfield, MO

My friends in south Missouri are elated over the overdue appointment of a new Bishop. Fr. James Vann Johnston Jr., J.C.L. has been named bishop for the Roman Catholic diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, MO and will be ordained and installed the weekend after Easter on March 31.

Fr. Vann Johnston is currently Chancellor of the Knoxville, TN diocese and pastor of the large new Our Lady of Fatima Church in Alcoa, TN, a suburb to the south of Knoxville. Fr. Johnston's parish sponsors perpetual adoration of the Eucharistic Sacrament, and prays the rosary before daily Mass. The active parish with almost 1,200 Mass attendees every weekend also sponsors a twin parish in Thomonde, Haiti.

Bishop-elect Johnston is the oldest of four children and holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee. Before entering the seminary, he worked from 1982-85 for an engineering consulting firm in Houston. He was ordained a priest in 1990.

One of the most interesting facts about 48-year old Fr. Van Johnston is that three years ago, he and two other priests were nationally recognized for saving a father and his two children during a hiking vacation in Montana. He has recognized the benefits of fasting in the public media:

“Christians have to practice some form of self-denial; otherwise, it begins to affect the soul. We become prone to what’s often referred to as sloth and/or gluttony. We begin to live our lives to fulfill whatever urge or hunger that we have rather than loving God and loving our neighbor and serving them in love. Christ often teaches his disciples about the importance of detachment to the things of this world.”

The interview of Fr. Johnston at KnoxNews on the subject of the old Latin Mass is even more interesting.

The Rev. Vann Johnston, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, says the Latin-only controversy has not affected this area. He explains that Bishop Joseph Edward Kurtz has granted permission to two churches in the diocese to offer the Mass in Latin: "This came about after a petition was passed asking that Latin be offered, but the people who signed it indicated they did not believe it was the only true Mass. They respect and legitimize Mass done in English and Spanish, or whatever the language of the people; but they loved the poetry, the music, the tradition of the Latin, and they wanted it offered for those reasons."

The first church in the Knoxville Diocese to offer the Latin Mass was St. Therese in Cleveland, which began offering the traditional Mass in 2004 on the first and third Sundays of each month. Now, beginning Sunday, it will also be offered on the second and fourth Sundays at St. John Neumann in Farragut.

"I'm comfortable with that," says Johnston. "The people asking for it are faithful Catholics, and their motivations are not related to schismatic groups. The Latin Mass is very beautiful."

He agrees people today are longing for a sense of the holy, but that, if done reverently and in accordance with the mind of the church, the English and the Spanish Mass have the same spiritual components and value as the Latin.

"They, too, can and do feed people's hunger for the sacred," he says.

The current Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau has finally given in to many requests for the old Latin Mass and will now allow it to be offered in several churches, but my friends have reported that start dates have been amorphous. It is now known that the first old Latin Mass in the diocese will be celebrated at 4 p.m. Feb. 10 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Springfield, MO.

The Necessity of Baptism

I am greatly uneasy, even horrified, by Avery Cardinal Dulles' article on Who Can Be Saved? published in the February 2008 issue of FIRST THINGS. Dulles' words appear very different from those of Jesus, His apostles, the evangelists, and the early Church Fathers who spoke of the necessity of Baptism to be saved.

Who, then, can be saved? Catholics can be saved if they believe the Word of God as taught by the Church and if they obey the commandments. Other Christians can be saved if they submit their lives to Christ and join the community where they think he wills to be found. Jews can be saved if they look forward in hope to the Messiah and try to ascertain whether God’s promise has been fulfilled. Adherents of other religions can be saved if, with the help of grace, they sincerely seek God and strive to do his will. Even atheists can be saved if they worship God under some other name and place their lives at the service of truth and justice. God’s saving grace, channeled through Christ the one Mediator, leaves no one unassisted. But that same grace brings obligations to all who receive it. They must not receive the grace of God in vain. Much will be demanded of those to whom much is given.

Does anyone else see how the word "saved" is cheapened by Dulles, especially when it is disassociated from Christian Baptism that gives the soul sanctifying grace to make it pleasing to God? For comparison, read the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Baptism which holds Baptism to have definite matter and form, requirements for a valid sacrament.

The beliefs of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas are described earlier in Dulles' article. If you really want to answer the question of who will be saved to receive God's reward in heaven, learn from these two saints--not from Dulles. Most importantly consider well the clear words of the Gospel of John: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."

Heaven, Space, and Time

The three most important questions to ask and answer are: Where did I come from? What am I? Where am I going? The answer to the last question is “Heaven,” to be united with our Creator. But what is heaven like?

Personally, I’ve wondered if heaven is like a science fiction novel of a perfect world—an earth-like Paradise, but outside of time. St. Augustine notes that the past does not exist, for it has passed; nor does the future exist, for it has yet to come; and the present is simply the moment which joins the past with the future. This great philosopher showed that ideas and formal principles are by nature universal and necessary, and consequently outside the confines of time and space. Heaven must also have such a nature.

In a world where we could control time, space would also be controlled. The past, present, and future would all exist at the same time. Moving from physical point A to a distant point B would take only an instant if you could control time. Even more importantly the effect of a cause would be instantly seen, even into the far future.

The Catholic Encyclopedia defines Heaven as the dwelling of God and his angels—God’s reward for those who die in a state of justice and His friendship. [Catholic teaching usually emphasizes the complete intimacy with our Creator in Heaven, while this post will focus more attention on the physical attributes of heaven.] Catholic theologians speculate on the location of heaven but the Church has decided nothing. Most likely, this is because St. Paul said that heaven is beyond our imagination.

A Protestant author and pro-life activist, Randy Alcorn, describes Heaven in colorful terms as a bright, vibrant, and physical New Earth, free from sin, suffering, and death, and brimming with Christ's presence, wondrous natural beauty, and the richness of human culture as God intended it. Alcorn says that God preceded Heaven, and that Heaven, His home, is one of God's creations. [I won't vouch for Alcorn's adherence to Catholic teaching in his 2004 book, Heaven, but his "intermediate Heaven" sort of sounds like Purgatory.]

Peter Kreeft, Catholic author of three books on Heaven, claims “Heaven does not contain God. God contains heaven. Heaven is relative to God, God is not relative to heaven. Heaven is heaven only because it is the full presence of God.” The principle appears to be, “Wherever God is, Heaven is.”

Why is this present earth not heaven? Because our fallen nature prevents us from being completely united with God. Adam and Eve’s Paradise remained only when they did not disobey God. Yet Paradise continues to partially envelop those people who love God, and they get a taste of Heaven while on earth.

Jesus, after his crucifixion and death, gives us a sample of a glorified body that has been resurrected and reunited with its soul to reside in heaven. First, a glorified body is not always recognized, such as Jesus on the road to Emmaus. [Perhaps because Jesus appeared as a handsome young boy, rather than as a 33-year old man.] Second, a glorified body can move through walls, such as when Jesus came to the apostles in the locked upper room. Third, a glorified body continues to eat and converse—as illustrated in recounts of Jesus’ appearance after his Resurrection. Fourth, a glorified body will not marry, as also discussed by Jesus. [In heaven, we will necessarily be children, with God as our Father, Christ as our brother, and Mary as our Mother.]

In a spiritual joyride over the past several days, I’ve speculated on the physical attributes of Heaven. Our resurrected bodies will have spatial dimensions, so those bodies need to occupy a physical place. Our souls are immortal and our risen glorified bodies will not die a second death; consequently heaven must be everlasting. Heaven must be an active physical place with dynamic love, contemplation, study, joyful work, and conversation; i.e., a perfect earth or Paradise.

I can’t imagine a static heaven without movement, and any movement implies the existence of time. Time must exist in heaven but time does not necessarily need to follow a one-way, single-speed direction. Rather, all of time and space could be God's adventurous playground--from the Big Bang to the possible Big Crunch. [Or has God balanced the expansion of the universe so that a crunch will never occur?]

Let’s assume that you received an undeserved but highly desired reward at the end of your life—HEAVEN! After you die your soul is united with God in a spiritual Paradise, but your body remains in the grave. When the final judgment occurs, your body is raised from the dead and you are a glorified person in a home that you can control perfectly. Nothing is out of whack, including the weather. Because of intimate and detailed foreknowledge of cause and effect, IF…AND…OR…THEN… is always in the present, because we know and can control the past, present, and future.

This hypothesized Heaven will allow all of time and space to be traversed and even used to develop a perfect world. What? Is not Heaven already perfect? Yes, it is, but once we are there, we still will have work to do. God’s angels received work to do after they remained faithful to God. I suspect that we also will work in the most delightful and challenging environments you can imagine. Think of heaven’s work as the perfect job with the perfect Boss!

In this earthly world, we already control space as we design, build, destroy, and change physical things. In heaven our faith and infused knowledge will be immense and so we will be able to “move mountains.” Yesterday, today, and tomorrow we can’t control in our present world, but the control of time would be a true gift of God. All of time and space would be opened up to heaven’s citizens to live and explore.

My theorized heaven is like a great Utopia where people live their lives perfectly. No mistakes will be made or sins committed—because of intimate union with God and foreknowledge of the results of all our actions.

Even nature will be controlled because nature always bows to the control of space and time, and will be subservient to those in Heaven. Entropy, the arrow of time, will be reversible, and God will provide limitless new energy over infinity.

Perhaps some worlds will be fix-it-up worlds designed by God to provide opportunities for highly rewarding co-creative work, such as terraforming inhospitable planets. An even more interesting adventure would be to assist God's newly created creatures in another star system to learn to love God, avoid sin, live well, and attain heaven.

Can you imagine the new challenges to explore and build a world as earth should have been if Adam and Eve had not sinned? To live a constantly new and never-ending life—always in perfect union with God. To experience old and new times and places? To create an infinitely expanded version of your life? If time and space are controllable in heaven, you would be able to open up all of God’s creation over all of time.

It would take you an infinity to explore all the creations and adventures in God’s playground. [Physically, this would mean that even if time has an end (Big Crunch, although this is debatable), the different paths that could be taken by an individual through the space-time continuum are essentially infinite in number.]

Could God give us the ability to control time? Yes, because He is the creator of time. Is that to be one of his rewards in heaven?

1/16/2008: I wrote the above after reading the introductory 15 pages of Anthony DeStefano's book, "A Travel Guide to Heaven," and then jumping to my own conclusions. I was not able to finish the written work until this evening. BTW, DeStefano is the Executive Director of Priests for Life which distributes this highly recommended book.

Learning a Lot from Chickens

I joined the 4-H Club when I was about 11 years old and learned to cook, sew, and raise chickens. I learned more from chickens than from the other projects.

• First, my chicken project taught me bookkeeping. Much more important than feeding and watering chickens was finding out how much they cost to raise and the profit that could be expected. The 4-H project demanded that I keep a notebook that accounted for every cent spent and earned. Even 60 years ago, my bookkeeping showed that raising chickens is not a moneymaker unless you raise tens of thousands of chickens (or the price of eggs is very high!). [In contrast, chicken raising was quite popular in 1922 and could make lots of money for boys and girls.

• Second, chickens gave me a wonderful appreciation of young nature. We kids looked forward to the day that the postman would bring a cardboard box with holes in the sides. The box contained baby chicks that had not eaten since being hatched. Mother had prepared a light-bulb heated brooder with a wire screen floor for the chicks when they arrived. We kids enjoyed feeding the cuddly chicks small flakes of oatmeal after taking them out of the box to play with them.

• Third, I learned that sometimes difficult remedies were needed to prevent worse things from happening. When the chicks grew a little and started pecking at each others' tails, the tails were painted with tar.

• Fourth, I found out where the best garden space is--in a former chicken yard where lots of high-nitrogen fertilizer has been deposited. After our land was developed into a housing edition, my mother planted a garden where the chicken house and yard had formerly been located. The rich soil produced wonderful berries, flowers, and vegetables for quite a few years.

• Fifth, chickens taught me responsibility because I had to water and feed the fowls. Cleaning out the chicken house is an odorous job that had to be done routinely. Years later, when a high school chemistry project created the pungent smell of ammonia, I knew exactly where I had smelled it before--in the chicken house!

• Sixth, I learned chickens are not very smart and have to be encouraged to get out of the rain, to get to food they can see on the other side of a fence, and to stop sitting on an unfertilized egg. [Some people are like that too.]
  

• Seventh, I learned that chickens can be easily caught using a hook at the end of a long stiff wire. [Advertisers also use long wire hooks.]
  

• Eighth, I learned hens won't lay eggs in the winter when the sun shines for less than 11 hours a day. Hens can be fooled laying eggs by turning the light on in the chicken coop at 4:30 am every winter morning.

• Ninth, hens like to talk and make lots of racket While it's possible to stop many dogs from barking or horses from neighing, it's impossible to stop a hen from cackling.

• Tenth, roosters can be dangerous--keep a stick with you if you have a bad rooster. Then plan when to eat him.
  

You too can learn more about raising chickens in your backyard. It will cost you money, but it will make your kids learn to carry eggs carefully--probably the most important lesson!

Medical Tourism and the Coming Election

"Medical Tourism" occurs when people travel all over the world for medical procedures that either cost a lot or have a long wait time in their own country. In Canada with universal health care, the number of medical procedures in 2005 for which people were waiting was 782,936.^[1] That means doctors and hospital beds to treat even seriously ill patients are not available on anything near a timely basis. Everyone has to wait. See this video "A Short Course in Brain Surgery for an example.

A friend in San Antonio tells me that her father was a medical tourist who came to the U.S. several years ago for a heart bypass operation. His wait time in Canada was going to be at least three to four months and the family didn't believe he could survive that long. So he flew to San Antonio where the surgery was performed almost immediately, then flew home after recovery from the successful surgery.

If the U.S. votes for a new president who is able to install Universal Health Care, then our country also will have significant wait times for medical treatment. For those able to afford it, they'll travel to other countries--not a good situation for our country's already unfavorable balance of payments.

A sister returned from Costa Rica recently and said that she and her husband saw large signboards that greet tourists with claims of much reduced costs for dental treatment. Will older people with limited savings and poor teeth be attracted? Of course! Why not take a vacation to Costa Rica during the winter to get dental implants? Or why not go to India, Argentina, a Scandanavian country, or Thailand for other medical procedures--most of which will cost much less than what it will cost in the U.S. Moreover, the treatments will be performed by well-trained physicians in good hospitals (if good homework is done to research the selected physicians and medical facilities).

There are good reasons for not traveling to another country for medical treatment: (1) unknown risks; (2) no applied insurance; and (3) inability to sue for damages if the procedure is badly performed. Still, as pointed out in a 60 Minutes news program, people will follow the demands of their pocketbook with respect to getting the most cost effective medical treatments. Will you be a medical tourist if Universal Health Care comes to the U.S.?

Womenpriests

Over a year ago, this blog published a post on ordination of priestesses. I haven't kept up with this deformed religious escapade until today, when I reviewed a article lavishing attention and praise on "Roman Catholic Womenpriests." The group recently attempted ordinations of two women, ages 67 and 69, in the St. Louis area.

They weren't able to afford a boat ("the cost of renting boats has proven high"), nor were they able to easily arrange for a Christian church, so they conducted their illegitimate ceremonies in a Jewish Synagogue with a woman rabbi as the hostess. The article was originally published last month (Dec 7, 2007), but it was revised the day after tomorrow, on January 11, 2008???

I was flabbergasted by a number of quotes in the article and have several questions:

"These are women “of a certain age” -- often in their 60s...."
"...it has often been noted that many young Catholics are of a conservative bent -- and not a few have raged against ordaining women on blogs." [Q: Are mostly old liberal females being ordained? What is the future when the new young priests are more like Benedict XVI?

"A harbinger of the sorts of communities the Womenpriests’ movement would create, Spiritus Christi supported priestly roles for women, celebrated gay unions and offered Communion to non-Catholics in violation of church law." [Q: Is Disobedience a virtue with these women? Should God and husbands beware?]

...the Womenpriests movement discourages titles for priests and bishops and requires no vow of obedience. [my emphasis] [Q: Did Satan suggest this?]

...continuing the work we have espoused for the last 30 years.... forced to resign her position as head of health care ministry for the Boston archdiocese.... fired from a prestigious teaching post.... a former editor at Liguori, a Catholic publishing house... [Q: Why did the Church ignore these saboteurs for so long?]

...promote a “discipleship of equals,” a church without clerics. [Q: Does this mean women's ordination is directed to destroying the male priesthood?]

“We are using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house” [Q: Did you forget to capitalize the word Master?]

BTW, The latest news on the St. Louis attempted "ordinations" is found on the TinMan's blog.

BTW, The latest news on the attempted "ordinations" of priestesses in St. Louis is found on Timman's blog.

"The Devil's Advocate" and "Defender of the Bond"

The Church must exercise 'greater caution and more accuracy' in the process for beatification and canonization of new saints, according to the head of the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes. Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins stated in Osservatore Romano (January 8, 2008) that more precision is needed in diocesan procedures that open and advance sainthood for particular individuals. The Cardinal's desk, stated one news article in October 2007, "has turned into a frequent-flyer assignment", as he represents the the Pope at many different canonization ceremonies around the world.

I'm happy to see the tightening up of canonization procedures that good Cardinal Silvio Oddi once called a "saint factory." Since the time of Pope Sixtus V in the 16th century, well over half the new saints were canonized under the direction of Pope John Paul II. Sometimes it seemed that ideological, political, and other interests were able to push through beatifications and canonizations in record time.

Here are the statistics from Catholic Online that show the unprecedented explosion of saints under Pope John Paul II. Compare these numbers to the 296 total saints who were canonized in the 400+ years before his pontificate.

Beatifications and Canonizations in the Pontificate of John Paul II
	Ceremonies		Martyrs	Confessors	Total
Beatification Ceremonies	147		1.032	306	1.338
Canonization Ceremonies	51		402	80	482
Statistics: Ceremonies in Rome - Ceremonies in Italia outside of Rome - Ceremonies outside of Italy during Apostolic Voyages [Italian]

The position and duties of the Devil's Advocate (Advocatus Diaboli), whose job it is to attack the integrity of the proposed saint, may be restored if I read the Vatican report correctly. This person is described by the Catholic Encyclopedia as:

...one of the most important officers of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, established in 1587, by Sixtus V, to deal juridically with processes of beatification and canonization. His official title is Promoter of the Faith (Promotor Fidei). His duty requires him to prepare in writing all possible arguments, even at times seemingly slight, against the raising of any one to the honours of the altar. The interest and honour of the Church are concerned in preventing any one from receiving those honours whose death is not juridically proved to have been "precious in the sight of God"...

We next need to see the position of Defensor matrimonii (defender of the bond) restored. This would allow a more precise and consistent analysis to determine whether the bond of marriage exists in a case before the diocesan marriage tribunal.

Back in the 70's, I remember one priest who loudly asked at a public meeting, "WHERE is the defender of the bond?!" His rage was expressed after a discussion of the many annulments being granted. At the time we knew that virtually all applications for annulments were being approved, and it seemed there was always some new reason identified as a serious defect in the marriage under consideration that prevented it from being recognized as valid. I even remember one woman (RIP) who told me that her husband received an annulment, but she was not aware of it until several years later when she confronted the priest who was giving Holy Communion to her husband who had remarried.

Do I want to see a return to the days when only two canonizations took place under a papacy? NO! Clearly these and recent times indicate there are likely more than a few great saints who should be canonized each year. Yet the procedures must be strict and carefully followed, including carrying out those necessary duties performed by the "Devil's Advocate."

The same as for hearing and granting annulment petitions. Diocesan procedures need to be tightened so that the Church can begin to restore credibility to the annulment process. In other words, let the "defender of the bond" do his necessary job. Yet there appears to be good reasons why more annulments should be granted than during the 1940s and 1950s.

Curt Jester's View of the Forthcoming Instruction on the Motu Proprio

The Curt Jester is always imaginative and funny. He thinks the Pope's new document for the Bishops who are ignoring his Motu Proprio might be issued in a familiar format.

More than One Child...$$$$$$

AsiaNews reports that the heftiest fine ever levied in China for a banned second child is $100,000 US. See the complete story.

Latest about Msgr. Heliodore Mejak

A recent post discussed the world-wide interest in Msgr. Mejak, who died late on Christmas Eve. Since then, I've been watching Google to see that the web is full of information on Msgr. Mejak's life and death, including these news sites:

• Fresno Bee
• Chicago Tribune
• Monterey Herald
• Transunion (Albany, NY)
  
• ABC News
• Lawrence Journal World
• News Tribune (Tacoma)
• Wichita Eagle
  
• Kansas City Star
• Kansas City Kansan and here
  
• CBN News
  
• KXNet
• TownHall.com
• Trawlr.com
• Topix.com
• Religion News in Brief
  
• Myspace.com
• Various Kansas newspapers (e.g., Downs, Elk City, McAllster, Hutchinson, and Thomas County)
• An Associated Press article picked up by newspapers around the world
  

Local blogs keep track of their traffic using SiteMeter that shows 'hits' because of Google searches that identify the websites and blogs with information on Msgr. Mejak. My fellow blogger at Kansas City Catholic reports that his site had a significant amount of traffic from visitors who were searching for "Mejak" using Google. "I sent my post to Spiritdaily.com which linked to it and brought almost 3,000 visitors yesterday. He was well-loved, as you already know."

Here are other blogs that have featured stories on Msgr. Mejak.

• The World...IMHO
• Byzantine Forum
• The Cafeteria is Closed
• Whispers in the Loggia
• Curmudgeon's Cave
• Blogging Religiously
• More on Vocations
• FishEaters
• Hermeneutic of Continuity
• Sancte Pater
• Free Republic
  
• Loved Sinner
• Forums.Catholic.com
• Angelqueen.org
  
• Syriacus at Il Blog di Andrea Tornielli
• Katoliko Forum

KC Cyclone on the Angelqueen Forum added his own interesting comment:

Fr. Mejak baptized me. I went to the parish school. We always received communion at the communion rail on our tongues, had benediction after Sunday Mass and on First Fridays. I remember in 7th grade we learned the Latin Kyrie, Gloria, etc for the Midnight Christmas Mass. I also remember serving his Mass, and seeing the XXXX marked through the Sign of Peace in the Altar Missal.

One emailed comment to my previous posts said this blog failed to note all the information available on the life of Msgr. Mejak. Please read the entire 2003 Leaven article by Bethanne Scholl entitled:

Faith of our Fathers: He's ancient of days. He can't see very well. And he has been known to be slow to change. But at age 93 Msgr. Heliodore Mejak has no intention of calling it quits.

Wrapping Presents is Fun!

One of my Dad's temporary jobs in the Great Depression of the 1930s was to wrap Christmas presents for Montgomery Ward. Dad was never especially artistic or neat, so I've often wondered how his job performance was rated.

I was reminded of my Dad at Christmas time when one of our daughters brought out the Christmas presents to open at our family gathering. She has figured out how to efficiently wrap a lot of presents for Christmas, have a lot of fun doing it, and teach her children a skill.

Each child took turns wrapping presents for some of the other children. Even the littlest kids helped put paper around the gifts and tape them up. No one got tired, no one got exasperated, and every child excitedly asked for more and more presents to wrap. Our daughter said her children actually had more fun wrapping presents than unwrapping them!

Take a look at the "character" and the "personal touch" associated with the special style of a small child who has been asked to wrap a sibling's present. Do you think they'll eventually get good enough to wrap presents for Macy's, Kohl's, J.C. Penney's, or Target?

Worldwide Interest in Local Priest

I am amazed at the places from which people have googled the name of "Msgr. Heliodore Mejak" of Holy Family Church in Kansas City, KS to reach a short biography of his life. Msgr. Mejak died just before midnight on Christmas Eve after becoming ill the previous Thursday. The 98-year old priest was the oldest active pastor in the U.S. and likely in the entire world. Here are some of the locations of computers that searched for news about Msgr. Mejak in the past 22 hours:

1. Tokamaru, New Zealand
2. Englewood, Colorado
3. Edinburgh, United Kingdom
   
4. Wallingford, Connecticut
5. Lexington, Kentucky
6. Silver Spring, Maryland
7. Hermosa Beach, California
8. Pueblo Nuevo, Chiriqui, Panama
9. Mansfield, Ohio
10. Minneapolis, Minnesota
11. Flower Mound, Texas
12. Pompano Beach, Florida
    

These "search from" computer locations are in addition to many local searches for Msgr. Mejak from Olathe, Shawnee, Lenexa, Prairie Village, Overland Park, Topeka, Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri.

The body of Msgr. Mejak will be able to be viewed and he can be prayed for in his parish, Holy Family Church, on Sunday afternoon, December 30, from 2 pm to 6 pm, with the rosary to be said at 5:00 pm. The funeral Mass is scheduled for 11 am on Monday, December 31, at the same church. Msgr. Mejak's body will be buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Kansas City, KS.

Kiddie, Kiddie, Bang, Bang!

One of our daughters contributed the idea for this post. She told me that families with more than four children evoke a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reaction when people stare at their families. Some people look at the children with wide-open surprise, but other individuals continue to question large families with slightly raised eyebrows.

In the 1968 move, Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang , there is a scene where the townspeople of Vulgaria stare wide eyed at Jeremy and Jemima Potts, who with their father are trying to find their kidnapped Grandpa. The people stare at the children because their town has no children, not one! Children are banned in Vulgaria because Baroness Bomburst finds children disgusting. The plot includes an evil Child-Catcher (China? Planned Parenthood?) and is relevant today.

Our children's large families have encountered similar stares. When one daughter takes all her well-disciplined (mostly!) young children with her to the grocery store, she is asked whether they are all hers. While visiting his wife in the maternity ward of a hospital, my son-in-law is questioned on whether the new baby is the last one. [He quickly answered that he might need more substitutes for his sports team!]

The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stare should be called the Kiddie, Kiddie, Bang, Bang! stare, and it's even been encountered in Catholic churches. One of our children's family stopped for Sunday Mass while on vacation in another state. When they entered the large church, many of the congregation stared openly at them. As they looked around, they saw only one other person in church was less than five years old. So it was not surprising that the old people looked in wonder at all the little kids entering the church with their two parents.

The same situation happened to another daughter. The church was quite large and in a wealthy neighborhood, but there were extremely few children. My daughter actually felt somewhat uncomfortable because her large and young family stood out as so different from the rest of the older Mass-goers.

One local Catholic parish approaches death because the parishioners are mostly elderly. One large family visited this parish and easily stood out from the rest of the many much older Mass attendees. The family was eagerly approached after Mass with a specific invitation to become parishioners. The inviting parishioner was somewhat disappointed to hear that the visiting family was a member of a Kansas City community with the old Latin Mass.

The National Center for Health Statistics says the fertility rate in the U.S. has jumped to its highest level since 1962, when the " baby boom" ended. Many of the births are due to new young immigrants, but some appear to be the result of individual citizen concerns that our country and families will die without more children being born. I was surprised and elated that USA Today's article on the increasing birthrate correctly emphasizes:

A high fertility rate is important to industrialized nations. When birthrates are low, there are fewer people to fill jobs and support the elderly.

May these valid concerns increase and result in larger families.

Concert to Benefit Benedictines of Mary

The 14 nuns of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, will receive all the proceeds from two Kansas City/St. Joseph concerts by Carlos Ibay. The talented musical artist is described as:

Sings like Pavarotti.
Plays like Chopin.
Totally Blind.

The concert schedule is:

7:00 PM FRIDAY, JANUARY 4
DOORS WILL OPEN AT 6:15 PM
TWIN SPIRES
501 S 10TH ST.
ST. JOSEPH, MO 64501
WWW.TWINSPIRESCATHEDRAL.COM

2:30 PM SUNDAY, JANUARY 6
DOORS WILL OPEN AT 1:45 PM ROSE THEATRE, ROCKHURST HIGH
9301 STATE LINE RD.
KANSAS CITY, MO 64114

Cost is $25 per person and checks should be made payable to the Benedictines of Mary to help them build their permanent Priory in Gower, MO. Read more about their activities and the two scheduled concerts in the sister's most recent newsletter. I'm impressed with their initiative; they also write a blog that has pictures of their new tractor, "Brother Phil."

Msgr. Heliodore Mejak

dustiam received an email this evening and is glad to comply.

Dear Wolftracker and dustiam,

Msgr. Mejak died on Christmas morning and I thought one of you might print a little of the history that is shown at the bottom of this page. He and his Holy Family school "kept the faith" during difficult times in the 1970's, and provided a refuge for many traditional Catholics in Kansas City. Funeral arrangements are not known at this time.

Mary Ann Grelinger

Fr. Heliodore N. Mejak

The longest serving pastor of an active parish in the world was Msgr. Heliodore Mejak (May’-yock), who died December 25, 2007. At age 98, he continued to say Mass seven days a week in the Slovenian parish of Kansas City, KS that he has served since 1944, six bishops ago[1]. Msgr. Mejak was a do-it-all pastor, and was very proud that his parish had no paid employees and was staffed entirely by volunteers.

Until shortly before his death, he prepared the weekly bulletin, managed the finances of the parish, and until injured several years ago while maintaining the church boilers, was the parish handyman and lawnkeeper. His mind seemed as sharp as it was when he graduated first in his Catholic High School class and subsequently first in his class at St. Benedict’s College. With advancing age, his poor eyesight required daily memorization of the changeable parts of the Mass.

Fr. Mejak (he disdained any title except Father) welcomed many families who sought an oasis during the rampages of Modernism, and wanted to avoid sex education in the Catholic schools, irregular and irreverent liturgies, and flawed Catholic education. These faithful families fled their old parishes to insure their children received an excellent Catholic education, including daily Mass, weekly Benediction, and at least four opportunities for monthly Confession.

Holy Family Church boasts a centered tabernacle, communion rail, statues, Stations of the Cross, and altar boys. A beautiful stained glass window of the Nativity of Jesus Christ was photographed to become a Hallmark^® Christmas card. Fr. Mejak made no apologies for his traditional Catholicism. He was the last priest in the archdiocese to continue offering the old Latin Mass after Vatican II had installed the Novus Ordo. In the 1980s, he continued to hope that he would again be allowed to offer the old Latin Mass again at Holy Family church.

Our children attended Holy Family School (that he built during his time as pastor) and said Fr. Mejak carefully reviewed each report card before giving it to a student. Poor grades would make his deep voice even more impressively somber, and good grades would receive favorable comments that students knew were deserved. Fr. Mejak’s commitment and donations kept the elementary school tuition one of the lowest in the diocese.

Holy Family Elementary School was one of the last Catholic grade schools in the Archdiocese to be staffed with Catholic nuns in full habits (School Sisters of St. Francis of Christ the King, Lemont, IL). The school was integrated with St. John the Baptist School in the 1990s and Fr. Mejak worked diligently to keep the small school open until Fall 2007 when St. John/Holy Family School was integrated with and moved to St. Peter Cathedral School.

This deep voiced and gruff speaking priest with a slight stutter was a super Grand Father whose special delight was small children—searching for them, talking to them, playing with them, and laughing with them. At the communion rail, babies and small children always appeared for Father’s blessing and wide smile.

When we joined Holy Family parish, Fr. Mejak took us to his basement to show our five children his replicas of old trains and all his tools. He explained that he constructed his trains by hand using old photographs and drawings. Once, a thief broke into the rectory and stole the trains; needless to say, the police quickly recovered them, much to Fr. Mejak’s relief—as he had spent years constructing the individual gears, wheels, and engines.

Born in Rijeka along the Adriatic coast in 1909, Fr. Mejak immigrated to the U.S. as a 3-year old. Bad luck began in New York when all their belongings were either lost or stolen. His tailor father died when Fr. Mejak was 9, and his mother worked as a seamstress in their home to support the four children. The backyard had chickens and a vegetable garden, but the Mejak home had no electricity. So 15-year old Fr. Mejak installed electrical wire and fixtures throughout the house, and helped his Mother to paper and paint the walls and enlarge the basement.

The young priest-to-be attracted the attention of Father Koch, who arranged for Fr. Mejak to attend Catholic High tuition-free with used, donated books. One of the jobs of the young student was to work after school until 9 p.m. in a dental laboratory. Then he attended late classes at a public high school to study architectural drawing, after which he walked a couple of miles hom--after eleven at night. In one of his last sermons, Fr. Mejak remembered one of his summer jobs when he took a cheese sandwich to work. His employer saw the cheese sandwich and asked the young boy if he was a Catholic. When the reply was yes, the young student was fired. In spite of a rigorous schedule of learning and working, Fr. Mejak garnered yearly gold medals for academic performance and graduated from Catholic high in Kansas City, KS as Valedictorian in 1927. A scholarship is now presented in Msgr. Heliodore Mejak’s name at the renamed Bishop Ward High School.

His four years at St. Benedict’s College again showed his intelligence and zeal. His roommate was a Croatian student from Kansas City, KS, who also became a priest, Rev. Msgr. Stanley J. Loncaric (1909-2006). Fr. Loncaric would be sent to the rural parishes of Miami County, KS, while Rev. Msgr. Mejak would serve Kansas City, KS.

Ordinarily, the first ranked graduating student to enter the seminary would be sent to Rome for study, but because Fr. Mejak was not yet an American citizen, Bishop Johannes feared he would be drafted into the Italian Army (Rijeka was now occupied by Italy). So he was sent to study at the Sulpician seminary at the Catholic University of America where Fr. Mejak was ordained a priest on June 8, 1935. When Holy Family Church needed a new pastor, Bishop Schulte asked him to quickly learn Slovenian (Fr. Mejak’s native language was German) and Fr. Mejak was appointed pastor on August 1, 1944. He has remained the active pastor of Holy Family Church for a total of 63 + years of continuous service in a single parish.

The people of Holy Family parish learned to love their priest, and Fr. Mejak unabashedly admitted to loving his parishioners in an interview with the Archdiocesan newspaper, The Leaven. One example of that love was shown by Victor Macek of Shawnee who cut short a trip several years ago in order to be an altar boy for Fr. Macek’s Mass as he celebrated 60 years at Holy Family Church in Kansas City, KS. Victor and Michael Macek are twins who as 12-year old boys had served Fr. Mejak's first Mass at Holy Family in 1944.

The parishioners of Holy Family parish knew they had a special priest in Msgr. Mejak. Anita Montez graduated from Holy Family School in 1979 and had moved away but knew her old pastor was very aged and decided to return for his last few Sunday Masses. She said she knew Fr. Mejak’s time on earth was limited and she would always regret it if she did not come to his last offerings of the Eucharist at Holy Family.

Another graduate of Holy Family School, Ann Sanders of Asbury, MO, was informed on December 24 that Fr. Mejak was in the hospital and would not be able to offer Christmas Mass. This Mass that begins with candles in the dark church was clearly Fr. Mejak’s favorite feast of the year. Mrs. Sanders mused to her sisters that perhaps this year he would be blessed with enjoying Christmas in heaven with the baby Jesus. Fr. Heliodore Mejak died Christmas morning. May God eternally bless Fr. Mejak with His choicest blessings.

---

[1] † Francis Johannes (20 Apr 1929 - 13 Mar 1937)

† Paul Clarence Schulte (29 May 1937 - 20 Jul 1946)

† George Joseph Donnelly (9 Nov 1946 - 13 Dec 1950)

† Edward Joseph Hunkeler (31 Mar 1951 - 10 Sep 1969)

† Ignatius Jerome Strecker (10 Sep 1969 - 28 Jun 1993)

† James Patrick Keleher (28 Jun 1993 - 15 Jan 2005)

† Joseph Fred Naumann (15 Jan 2005 - Current)

Christmas Eve

One more pie is still in the oven for tomorrow's Christmas dinner, the counter top is full of dirty pots and pans, and I'm beat! Yet being tired doesn't make Christmas Eve less special. Even an old Granny knows when to sit back and enjoy remembering what God did for us when He sent His only begotten Son to save us from our sins.

There's many, many things for which to be thankful in this past year, too. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's celebration when our family gets together to share gifts and eat a wonderful banquet. On Thanksgiving, we had 26 different dishes and I suspect our Christmas meal will be similarly blessed with everyone contributing a little.

I'm especially pleased that some of our grandchildren have been prodded by their parents to fix and bring some dinner items. Some of the littlest ones are delighted to be helping with the meal and it is excellent training. Young grandsons are bringing jello (they like the green and purple kinds). One granddaughter is making the potato casserole, and another is baking two pumpkin pies. One of the four-year-olds says she will help her mother make a chocolate dessert! Last Thanksgiving, one of the two-year olds separated bakery rolls and placed them on the cookie sheet, but tomorrow morning I am making homemade rolls. It should take about three batches in the oven before all 70 are done!

Then we'll take the rolls, five pies, a cake, and presents now stacked by the dining room wall to one of our children's houses. We'll first go to an early Mass where the stable will be lit and statues of Mary, Joseph, and the Child Jesus will remind us of when He lay in a manger 2,000 years ago. It's time to be a child again, with complete trust in God as we approach the new year.

Merry Christmas! May God give each of you His choicest blessings.

The Devil, Gravity, "Homeless Minds", and New Religions

Is there a force the devil loves best? Personally, I think it is gravity.

• He pulls people down when they want to go up.
  
• When the Church tries to escape an error, the devil drags the pendulum down so that it swings rapidly beyond the center point and a new and opposite extreme (error) is reached.
  

Following the example of many Protestant churches, the Catholic Church became a barren place during the past 40 years. Beautiful Latin liturgies, prayers, statues, artwork, and sacramental elements were replaced with a sparse and more human-centered worship. New architecture and music forgot their roles to lift people to God and pulled them to Earth. Consequently, new religions continue to appear in reaction to the loss of spiritual and physical elements in the Church that reminded us of death, judgment, and heaven and hell.

Several people I know (and am praying for) have adopted new religions that emphasize self and the physical world. Adherents to new paganism develop a strong social feeling of connectedness to others who also have rejected the Christian faith of their fathers and adopted unrestricted self-expression. In reaction to the abandonment of Christian liturgy, these new religions color their ceremonies with strong physical and pseudo-spiritual elements because they believe occultic symbols haness powerful energies. For example, see one Christian's description of Burning Man that he describes as Satan's birthday celebration, with lots of rituals and symbolic ceremonies. [And please, please remember to tell our Saviour how sorry we are for the terrible sins of blasphemy that have been committed at these pagan ceremonies.]

Nature-based spiritualities, such as Neo-Paganism and Wicca, are what happens to "homeless minds" who lose confidence in the Christian faith--usually because they haven't been taught it, embrace self-gratification, and because they see a weak and decaying Church.

A previous post on super-environmentalism dealt with a form of new paganism that worships nature rather than the God of Abraham--the Father of Jesus Christ. New paganism also features drugs, nudism, mystic stories, seances, and eastern spiritualities that fill the voids left by the modern Church. The new paganism turns people inward to rely on their subjective selves without any controlling institutions, and to experiment according to their own personal desires.

While there are new laws that replace the ten commandments, new pagans most often rely on the empty promises of the devil to give pleasure. "If it feels good, do it" is the new commandment. The joy of the soul is forgotten when the pleasure of the senses is practiced.

How can the Church counter paganism's new spiritual outlet in what appears to be a post-Christendom world? One Protestant writer says that "cults are the unpaid bills of the church." I believe it is more realistic to say that new religions are the maggots that were hatched from eggs laid by the Lord of the Flies in the wounded flesh of the bride of Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI and many new and faithful Bishops are paying past due bills. They are also removing dead tissue so that the remaining living tissue can adequately heal and grow. It may take almost 20-25 years before the Church can be sufficiently strengthened with (1) charity, (2) truth, and (3) beauty to attract and serve the next generation--the children of the New Pagans.