a healthy reminder

plowing!

Dear Family and Friends,

I’m on my way back to Cincinnati from Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. It was wonderful spending the last week there in my old stomping grounds. On Sunday, the feast of the 3 Kings, we were inundated with snow, so I had a chance to help with the plowing. Great fun!

 

baby priest sign

Then today, I thought I’d try to make it back to Cincinnati. The roads were pretty bad, and there were several jams waiting for vehicles to be cleared. I got a little impatient at one, but then was helped by the friendly-reminder-scripture-verse on the back of the truck I sat behind for half an hour: “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the news about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:24) That’s my life in a nutshell! It inspired me to go and talk to the people waiting in the other cars – turns out that truck in front of me was full of stuntmen and their portable stunt ramp!

 

a healthy reminder

The Holy Spirit worked things out so I stopped in Indianapolis for the night, and a kind friend is putting me up. Hopefully the roads will be better tomorrow so I’ll make it for the big first mass Friday at the school!

God bless you,

Father Kevin

www.cblstones.com

at the Apostolic School

snowy and cold day at Sacred Heart Apostolic School today

Dear Family and Friends,

The last few days I’ve been here at Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. I gave my priestly memoirs (vocation story) to the boys on the 31^st, and right now I’m helping out at the annual Christmas Games, when boys from around the Midwest come here to play and compete against each other along with the students here at the school.

telling the boys the story of my calling

Tomorrow I’m celebrating one of my first masses. It’s a big feastday – the anniversary of the foundation of my congregation – so it should be a beautiful mass.

posada procession

This evening we had a “posada”, a special meal that starts with a candlelight procession through the house. The idea is to accompany Mary and Joseph as they searched for a place for the first Christmas. The procession gets rejected at several stops, but is finally welcomed into the dining room where we have a huge meal. They put on the posada in honor of all of the new priests (though I was the only one present!). It was a lot of fun, and I even got to run the Bingo game!

I would like to reimburse the school for the costs of the posada, so if anyone would like to help, I think it probably cost them $400 or so for the food (cheeseburgers and French fries and ice cream) for the 60 of us. If you’d like to help, you could make a donation online through paypal, or send one, my address is 7196 Willowood Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45241.

It sure is tiring keeping up with 60 boys, but I love it! We played capture the flag today, and though we almost all froze solid, there’s nothing like it.

May God bless you all,

Father Kevin

www.cblstones.com

baby priest

laying on of hands

Dear Family and Friends,

 

It’s been about two weeks since ordination. Here is a 3 minute video with highlights from the ceremony.

 

 

I want to thank you for your prayers. I really mean that! During the retreat before ordination and during the ordination itself, I felt a tremendous peace, a peace that I knew couldn’t come from my own efforts or merits. So many people had told me that they would be praying for me, and I know that’s where the peace really came from.

 

I’m still just a baby priest now, but I must say it’s totally incredible holding Jesus in your hands and forgiving sins in his name. I wake up every morning, still sometimes on the wrong side of the bed, but then I think, “Hey, I’m a priest! What a gift!”

 

Right now I’m in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, at Sacred Heart Apostolic School, a school for boys open to the priesthood. I’ve always loved it here, and it’s great to be back as a priest!

 

Have a happy new year, and may God bless you!

Father Kevin

www.cblstones.com

a priest for ever

with Mom and Dad after the ordination

Dear Family and Friends,

I just made it back to the US and will be spending Christmas in Wisconsin.

Words are just words, and the gift God has given me this Christmas is beyond them. I can only thank Him, thank my family, and thank all of you for your prayers and support.

Know that you will be in my prayers in a special way during midnight mass this evening, and have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

God bless you,

Father Kevin

www.cblstones.com

this is it

Dear Family and Friends,

Tonight we go on retreat. Please blanket all of us 31 deacons with your prayers, especially on the 14^th! I will be praying for you.

God bless you,

Deacon Kevin

back in Rome and all is well

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s great to be back in Rome and in the old stomping grounds. Almost all of my fellow deacons have arrived.

Today the brothers here made pumpkin pie from scratch for all of us – yum! As well – surprise, surprise – we had turkey!

after the football tournament

In the afternoon there was a football tournament. My team was made up of two Mexicans, three Americans, one guy from Vietnam, and one New Zealander. After some pretty tough games, we went undefeated and took away the trophy.

view of some cobblestones and the Pantheon from a religious goods store

I’ve been spending these days zipping around Rome, meeting up with old friends, reserving Churches for masses, looking for a chalice and vestments, and trying out new gelato shops. And praying!

sunset in Saint Peter's Square

Tomorrow begins our “How to be a priest” course. I guess we’ve been learning about that for a long time, but this course is kind of like a very practical review of everything.

Saint Peter's Square today

Then a week from today our 8-day-long silent retreat before ordination starts. Can’t wait!

You are all in my prayers, please keep me in yours.

God bless,
Deacon Kevin

www.cblstones.com

a month away...

Dear Family and Friends,

Ordination is one month away. Wow!

At my seminary the whole month before an ordination, we all pray a special prayer together. It’s called the “Litany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim”. Pope John Paul II used to pray it at his seminary too.

Praying this prayer over the years has been a good reality check for me. It’s helped me see that becoming a priest isn’t some kind of promotion, rather it’s signing your life over to the service of God and his people, 24/7. It’s a giving up of your life, a becoming Jesus for those you meet each day. That’s a tall order, certainly, but I trust that God is the One who called me and he knows what he’s doing. He gives the grace that makes you a priest.

The prayer is below, and also attached in leaflet format for printing. I invite you to pray along with me for the 31 of us who will be ordained December 14^th!

God bless you!

Deacon Kevin
www.cblstones.com

 
Litany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim
 Lord, have mercy
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy
Lord, have mercy.
 
God our Father in heaven Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world
God the Holy Spirit
Holy Trinity, one God
 
Lord Jesus, both priest and victim Have mercy on us.
Lord Jesus, you are a priest forever in the order of
Melchizedek
Lord Jesus, the priest sent by God to proclaim the good
news to the poor
Lord Jesus, the priest who, at the Last Supper, instituted the
liturgy of the eternal sacrifice
Lord Jesus, the priest who lives forever to plead on our behalf
Lord Jesus, the high priest anointed by the Father with the
Holy Spirit and power
Lord Jesus, the high priest chosen from among men
Lord Jesus, the high priest made the representative of
humanity before God
Lord Jesus, the high priest of the faith we profess
Lord Jesus, the high priest worthy of greater glory than
Moses
Lord Jesus, the high priest of the true tabernacle
Lord Jesus, the high priest of the blessings that were to come
Lord Jesus, the holy, innocent, and undefiled high priest
Lord Jesus, the faithful and merciful high priest
Lord Jesus, the high priest burning with zeal for God and
for souls
Lord Jesus, the high priest made perfect forever
Lord Jesus, the high priest who entered heaven through
your own blood
Lord Jesus, the high priest who opened a new way for us
Lord Jesus, the high priest who loved us and washed away
our sins with your blood
Lord Jesus, the high priest who gave yourself up to God as
offering and victim
 
Lord Jesus, victim of God and man Have mercy on us.
Lord Jesus, holy and unblemished victim
Lord Jesus, appeasing victim
Lord Jesus, gentle victim
Lord Jesus, victim offered in atonement and praise
Lord Jesus, victim bringing reconciliation
and peace
Lord Jesus, victim giving us confident access to God
Lord Jesus, victim living for ever and ever
 
From rashly going on to ordination Keep us, Lord.
From the sin of sacrilege
From infidelity to the spirit of priestly celibacy
From using the ministry for sordid personal gain
From the slightest taint of simony
From administering the Church’s goods unworthily
From loving the world and its vanities
From celebrating your mysteries unworthily
 
Through your eternal priesthood Purify us, Lord.
Through the holy anointing by which God the Father made
you a priest
Through your priestly spirit
Through the ministry by which you glorified your Father
on earth
Through your self-immolation in blood, made once and for
all on the cross
Through that same sacrifice, renewed every day on the altar
Through the divine power that you exercise sacramentally
in your priests

Keep all priests holy and faithful Lord, hear our prayer.

Give your people shepherds after your own heart
Fill them with the spirit of your priesthood
May the lips of your priests preserve the knowledge of
your teaching
Send faithful laborers to your harvest
Increase the number of the trustworthy stewards of your
mysteries
Help the m to persevere in their service in accordance with
your will
Make the m gentle in ministry, capable in action, and
constant in prayer
Through your priests promote devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament everywhere
Welcome into your joy the priests who have served you well

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world

Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world
Have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us
Christ, hear us.
Lord Jesus, hear our prayer
Lord Jesus, hear our prayer.

V/ Let us pray:

Father, you guard your Church and make her holy.
Through your Spirit, raise up suitable and trustworthy stewards
of your sacred mysteries. Help them, by their example
and ministry, to guide Christ’s people under your protection
on the path to salvation.
Father, while the disciples were offering worship to
the Lord and keeping a fast, you told them to set Barnabas
and Saul apart for the work to which you had called them.
Listen once again to your Church gathered here in prayer,
and since you can read everyone’s heart, show us whom you
have chosen to receive the office of ministry. We ask this
through Christ our Lord.
R/ Amen.