5 reasons I love being a priest - in pictures

Dear Family and Friends,

I sure love being a priest. Here are five reasons why in pictures:

1. Little Prayer Partners - Whenever I'm praying in the chapel and the students come into pray on their own, I get little prayer partners!

2. Altar Servers' Rules - Numbers 10 and 11 are my favorites!

3. Preschoolers - Nothing is quite as much fun as visiting the preschool - here we just compared their plush toy mass kit to the things I use at mass!

4. Catfish! - The other day at a family picnic about 8 little boys and girls helped me land this 3 pound catfish!

5. The Mass - Catching catfish may be plenty fun, but nothing beats getting to celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass every day. Nothing.

God bless you all,

Father Kevin

smashing mailboxes

Dear Family and Friends,

If you were to make a list of ways to become friends with people, smashing into their mailbox would probably not be on it.

But that’s exactly what I did the other day, as I was pulling out of the driveway. It was rainy and I had just put a bike rack on the car I use, when from behind I heard a sickening crunch. The bike rack had slammed into one of our neighbors mailboxes, leaving it in pretty bad shape. Gulp!

No one answered when I knocked on the neighbors door, so I left a note. “Yes, a priest has just vandalized our mailbox” – Imagine them trying to figure out that one!

It was only a week later that we were finally able to talk and I could apologize. We struck up a conversation, and it turns out we know all kinds of people in common. The wife had gone to the prom with my dentist back in High School. They are heading to Italy soon, so I was able to give them some advice on how to spend their time. One of the other priests I live with joined in, he told them about his home country of Spain, and we had a grand old time. We ended up chatting for about an hour and a half.

And became friends! And it all started with that horrible, terrible, no-good rotten rainy day when I slammed into their mailbox!

Sometimes it’s hard to understand why God lets bad things happen. It’s because we’re free (He’s not the one who crashed the car into the mailbox, I am) and because He loves to bring good out of what we think can only be bad.

Maybe it’s also part of his sense of humor!

You are in my prayers,

Father Kevin 

Almost-Miracles

In Adoration during the Boys' Retreat, Red Candle in the Back

Dear Family and Friends,

There’s something about the Eucharist. It’s kind of hard for me to explain what I mean, but here goes.

Perhaps you remember my story about finding a 5-year old fragment of the Eucharist in a service panel underneath the altar at a parish church. I wrote about that here.

That was just the beginning. A few months ago I was visiting a small adoration chapel and was asked to put the Eucharist back in the tabernacle. As I took the host out of the monstrance (a special holder for adoration) I noticed another small fragment sitting inside the monstrance. This was the only time I have ever touched that monstrance. Jesus has a way of being found!

Fast forward a few months. Recently I was celebrating mass in another parish and when I went to put the Eucharist away, I noticed something sitting in the corner of the tabernacle. It was a whole host and another half of a host. I wonder how long they had been there!

Then there was the boys’ weekend ski retreat. We keep the Eucharist in the tabernacle of our small chapel in the countryside during the retreat. During the last mass before we went skiing, I consumed the last host since we wouldn’t be using the chapel for a while. Most chapels have a red candle that is lit to show when the Eucharist is there. When you take the Eucharist away, you blow the candle out. I remember glancing at the candle at the beginning of mass that morning, and sure enough, it was lit. Then as I went to take the Blessed Sacrament out of the tabernacle before communion time, I noticed again that the candle was lit. After giving out communion and consuming the last host, I was about to tell one of the servers to blow out the candle, when I noticed that the candle was not lit. It had burned out by itself just as the last host was consumed.

What moves me to write about these experiences is what happened just the other day. I was on my way to give the Anointing of the Sick to a grandmother after school. I brought one host with me so she could receive communion. As I pulled out of the school I got a green light where usually it was red. Then I got a green left arrow where I always have to wait. Then another green light, then another, then another. Each time I would approach a light, it would be red, but just before I started slowing down, it would turn green. I went through 9 green lights in all. I had traveled that road many a time before, and this had never happened. I almost felt like Batman.

It was as if the lights were turning green out of respect for the Eucharist! And before, it was as if the candle had held out, just as long as it needed to. And finding the fragments of the Eucharist – it was like God put me in the right place at the right time.

In all of this, it seems that God doesn’t go so far as to use miracles to show us His presence, but He does use everything short of miracles to confirm it for us.

Sure, perhaps you could say these things are all coincidences. The Eucharist looks just like a piece of ordinary bread, and tastes and smells like one. Oftentimes it is hard to believe that Jesus really meant what he said when he took bread, and said “this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me”. To believe that requires a lot of faith! But for me at least, these glimpses over the last few months have helped me see a little bit of what I usually can only believe.

Hope they help you see too!

And hope you had a Happy Easter!

Father Kevin

Happy Feast of Saint Joseph!

Pope Francis' sleeping Saint Joseph Statue

Dear Family and Friends,

Today is the feast of Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary.

Did you know that Pope Francis has a statue of Saint Joseph on his desk? It’s a pretty unique one too, since it’s Saint Joseph asleep!

Take a look at this video from romereports which shows the statue. Pope Francis explains that when you need to ask saint Joseph for help, you should put a little note under his statue.

Francis has quite a special relationship with Joseph. Referring to him, he says elsewhere, “You know, you have to be patient with these carpenters: they tell you they’ll have a piece of furniture finished in a couple of weeks and it ends up taking a month even. But they get the job done and they do it well! You just need to be patient…” Reminds me of some carpenters I know!

At one point in the video, Pope Francis even speaks a little English! Pretty neat!

May Joseph watch over all of you,

Father Kevin

Sorry Saint Anthony!

Dear Family and Friends,

I lost my wallet a few months ago. It was hard remembering where, but I assumed it was at a park where I was playing disc golf with some of my fellow priests. I waited a week hoping someone would find it and return it, but nothing happened. So I drove an hour to the park, hunted for it, and came back empty handed. Then I called the park service and asked them to keep an eye out for it.

All through this time, I had been setting Saint Anthony on the back burner. Let me explain.

Saint Anthony of Padua was one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. He was a miracle worker like Saint Francis – for instance, one day he preached to thousands of fish who came up to the surface of the sea together to listen to him when the stubborn citizens of a town wouldn’t.

It’s an old tradition that when you lose something, you should pray to Saint Anthony, because he’ll help you find it. He keeps working miracles – especially the lost-and-found kind. Over the years, he has found many a lost thing for me and others I know. One time he found the wedding ring of my mom’s friend. Another time he found my stolen bike.

But as far as my wallet goes, I had been giving Anthony the cold shoulder. To be honest, I did say a quick prayer to him. But I didn’t plead with him. I searched everywhere. I guess I was trusting in my own strength. I remember mentioning the lost wallet to a friend, who emphatically asked me if I had prayed to Saint Anthony. And for a moment I resolved to do so. I thought, “I should go to my room and pray and Saint Anthony will find it for me.” But I didn’t. I didn’t let Anthony and his amazing honing ability guide me.

Anyway, the other day I finally went to get a new driver’s license. I had given up all hope.

As I walked in the door of our house with my new license that day, I was met by one of the priests I live with. It turns out that he was looking for something in my room, when he found my wallet under a stack of papers. It was in the little shelf on the kneeler – precisely where I would have gone to say my prayer to Saint Anthony!

Sorry Saint Anthony! Sometimes we can be such knuckleheads!

May this special saint intercede for you!

Father Kevin

the frisbee Saint Anthony found!

Turns out we were playing disc golf again the other day and lost a disc in a large field. After ten minutes of searching in vain, I remembered the whole story of the wallet and said a quick prayer to Anthony. Sure enough, moments later I stumbled across the missing disc! I’m sure Anthony was laughing!

when our children love Jesus more than we do

Dear family and friends,

As a priest you are welcomed into the homes of so many families, and each has incredible stories, the kind that never make it to the nightly news.

One dad told me of how his family had just moved from the city to the country. Instead of small city blocks, there were huge mile by-mile country blocks. Shortly after they had settled in, one of his daughters, a fourteen-year-old, asked her father if she could go for a bike ride “around the block”. He said that after she had been gone 30 minutes he got a bit worried, but figured it was a long distance to travel. After 45 minutes, he was really worried. When she appeared at the end of their gravel drive after over an hour had passed, he was fuming. “Where have you been?” he demanded, ready to explode. “Oh, I saw the eucharistic adoration chapel at the parish, and so I stopped in to spend some time with our Lord,” she replied. The dad told me he felt like a hot air balloon deflating in just seconds. “What could I say?” he told me.

Yes, what could he say? He’s really blessed to have such a wonderful daughter!

Another dad told of coming home one evening from work and finding his favorite painting of Jesus – made by a friend just for him – covered in smudges and smears. He lined his three daughters up, “This painting is mine. Who did this to it?”  he demanded. His youngest daughter took a step backwards and slowly raised her hand. “I did it dad,” she said sheepishly. “Why?” he asked, pleading. “I was just kissing Jesus because I love him.” The dad said he almost melted on the spot. “I realized that my daughter loves Jesus more than I do!”

Wow!

Reminds me of the Gospel of Matthew: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” All of us complicated adults had better start that turning and becoming!

I go on retreat tonight with 25 other priests, and will be praying for you, please say a prayer for all of us!

May God bless you

Father Kevin

   

PS – the rest of the story is: the first daughter now takes bike rides without her father worrying, and the painting was quickly restored by the original artist – to better-than-before condition!

Merry Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends,

As a little boy, one of my favorite moments of the year was getting up early on Christmas morning, trying to get mom and dad out of bed so we could open presents.

As a priest, one of my favorite moments of the year is getting up early on Christmas morning, not to try to get mom and dad up, nor to open presents, but to celebrate one of the three masses of Christmas, the “Mass at Dawn”. I got up early this morning and went by myself to the chapel. It was a candlelight service until the rising sun lit the little altar with its glow. There weren’t any presents wrapped with bows, but there was one present, the present, baby Jesus himself coming down to earth in my hands. Just Him and me – life doesn’t get any better than that!

The Mass at Dawn is also known as the Mass of the shepherds since the Gospel you read is the story of the shepherds from Luke 2. I’ll leave you with a little Christmas present - a poem I wrote about one of the shepherds:

The Shepherd's Christmas

I cursed that eve the night watch fell to me,

For cold it was and dark the fields around.

On such a night fell wolves were bound to be,

And so I watched, until I heard the sound

Of harps and flutes and myriad voices telling

A tale that rocked me to my very bone.

A King was born, a story plainly spelling

That life was new, that we do not watch alone.

So to the cave I brought myself and flock,

And blessed those simple walls of barren rock,

And kissed his tiny, holy baby feet,

And he blessed me, and then he went to sleep.

I prayed for all of you during mass this morning, have a Blessed Christmas!

Father Kevin