October 4, 2022

JMJ CHS.

We have a number of unusual things associated with our Catholic Christian faith. Tops on the list is the crucifix itself. Catholics, for the most part, insist on having the corpus, or the body of Christ, on the crucifix. Some places have removed it and some have replaced it with the resurrected Jesus. One thing we can say for sure is that whenever we see a crucifix, it is quite ‘antiseptic.’ It doesn’t show what Jesus truly looked like on the cross.

What else? How about The Incorruptibles? “Remember that you are dust and the dust you shall return.” We will all die and return to ashes. But many of the Saints did not waste away in their graves. They remain intact. Incorrupt. This is not a special form embalming but a special grace from God possibly related to Psalm 16/10 which says : “For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to undergo corruption.”

One Saint whose incorrupt body is on display over at San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy, is Padre Pio. And he had some other unusual qualities as well. He bore the stigmata, namely the wounds of Christ on his body. Again, not auto-suggestion or self-inflicted wounds, but a “gift” from God. He was also able to read minds and to bi-locate, namely to be in two places at the same time. He was a very unusual guy.

And many of the other Saints were unusual in their own respect. We called them mystics, and they would seem to have a closer relationship with God than the rest of us. Some of them received messages from heaven or were intermediaries of those messages. Saint Bernadette of Lourdes was one. The three shepherd children of Fatima were another. Saint Margaret Mary and Saint Faustina received messages about God‘s love for us, and his mercy for us.

What they gave us are called private revelations, as opposed to the public revelations of the gospels and other biblical writings. Many people throughout the ages claim to have spoken on behalf of God. Many of them were genuine, but some of them or not.

The Church tries to study them to determine their veracity but there have been so many in recent times that they can’t possibly examine all of them. But, as the Catholic Catechism suggests, these are messages that can be very helpful and encouraging during particular times in history.

On Monday, October 24th, we will have a visit here at Holy Spirit Catholic Church and school from a lady named Carolyn. She was once a school mom here at Holy Spirit but eventually had to move with her family to the Grand Rapids diocese. But she’s been coming here now for many years on this particular date to share a message from heaven. On this day she’s going to do it not in the evening, as she usually has done, but during the day. This opens up the opportunity for our school children to hear this special message. And so in the late afternoon on that day, our kids, and hopefully many moms and dad’s, will come in to enjoy this special gift from heaven. This will lead up to dismissal at 3 o’clock.

If you wanted to listen to some of Carolyn‘s messages, go to heavenlygrace.org

I should also mention that many of our school families were deeply influenced by Carolyn‘s early messages. They would refer to them as ‘life-changing’.

READ: Fr. John Communique 10-4-22

November 6, 2023

JMJ CHS

Dear Holy Spirit school families.

Greetings. Looking forward to The Chili Cookoff. I will be manning the Alka-Seltzer booth. It’s been my tradition to make something in my rectory woodshop to put in the raffle, and I’m working hard this week to finish up a project. it will be different.

Maybe you heard about the new St. Philomena book that has arrived in our bookstore gift shop. It was written and illustrated by Father Peregrine Fletcher (O Praem) from his Norbertine Monastery in California. It’s quite nice. May I suggest that you give one (or more) as a Christmas gift, first to your children, and then to others. And be prepared to share with those others our story here at Holy Spirit. It’s available online on our website.

The International St. Philomena Shrine of our patron saint is in the little town of Mugnano, Italy near Naples. I recently had occasion to contact the rector there and ask him for special prayers for our school in front of the relics of our dear Saint. For many years, we have hoped to grow our school and even make a gymnasium for the activities of our young people, particularly during the winter months. While fresh air is good, there is a lot of time wasted dressing up, heading up the hill to the playground, and then coming down and undressing and getting back into the groove of classroom work. And then there are of course, growing security concerns. So, most certainly, the gymnasium would be a welcome addition. But the Covid thing certainly slowed down our plans and at least in my mind, forced me to think a little bit outside the box. The world is now a different place and I have concerns that things are not going to get better. (At least until The Second Coming.) I look at the situation in the Middle East and wonder if it might expand. If that’s the case, should we even be thinking about a gymnasium, or should we be thinking about it even more, but, with some changes? I’m of the opinion that it would also have to be a refuge, of sorts, to assist not only ourselves, but also our neighbors. A food bank, a shelter, a warming station, a place to take a hot shower? We’ve had a few substantial power outages recently and we’ve seen that something as simple and as localized as that can certainly produce a great deal of inconvenience. So, maybe we should prepare to be of help to those who live nearby.

In any case, please join me in praying to St. Joseph for his guidance and wisdom, as we continue to ponder our future as a church and school community

This is National Week of Prayer for Vocations and I will be talking to the children about that subject at this week’s Masses. Maybe you’ve heard about The Vocation Chalice. It had disappeared but it’s back! Some years ago, it was purchased as a sacramental that individuals and families could take into their homes for a week to pray for vocations to the priesthood. I would encourage you to visit our Book & Gift Shop and sign it out for a week of prayer in your family.

As you know, I’ve been a big promoter of watching that Jesus TV show called The Chosen. Season four will be coming out in February and at least the first two episodes will again be in the theaters. I’m looking forward to it. But we’re going to do something a little bit different here in the parish this Christmas. We plan to show a Jesus movie from an earlier generation. It came out when I was about 30 years old and was very helpful to me in my spiritual growth. It was very well done with a cast that included many of the great actors of that time. I consider it a classic and I would like to invite all of you to come. It begins quite early in the Life of Christ, with the Annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Mary, announcing the birth of her son. It will be on December 9 after Mass and pizza, popcorn and Christmas cookies will be served. I sure hope you can make it. I’m sure it will do much to enhance your Christmas spirit!

~Fr. John

READ: Fr. John Communique 11-6-23

Dear School families, 

You know, we are so blessed to have a bookstore here at Holy Spirit, along with Shawnie and a very able and dedicated staff which always goes the extra mile to provide this service to our community and beyond. I like to peruse what’s on the shelves and very often I find books that end up being part of my homilies. I’d like to tell you about two of them. The first one is by a Frenchman named Alexandre Harvard. He claims to have had a vision of St. Joan of Arc which inspired him to leave his profession as a lawyer and start a new organization called The Virtuous Leadership Institute. The book it’s called Coached by Joan of Arc and is based on quotes from Joan that came from her two trials. The one that condemned her to death, and the one that exonerated her 20 years later and paved the way for her sainthood.

For those of us who are leaders or who anticipate being leaders someday, I think this small book provides some very interesting encouragement. Joan heard spiritual voices that began in her childhood which guided her toward her mission of liberating France from the English. In her experiences, she got much resistance from just about everybody, including those who should have been her biggest supporters. Nobody believed her competence. How could a young illiterate farm girl with no military training or experience be trusted to make big decisions on the battlefield? She prevailed over them and in the end she was victorious, France was liberated, and she was rewarded by being burned at the stake. (As they say, No good deed goes unpunished. If you want to be a leader, be prepared for martyrdom.)

There were some interesting chapters that caught my eye. Among them being chapter 1 which was titled: Finding victory in defeat.

Or 7: Put your intelligence into everything you do.

Or 14: Do not fear public opinion.

Or 15: Reject perfectionism.

I personally think this is a good book to give away as a gift to young people as they begin a life which might someday call them to center stage and the role of leadership.

I told you there would be two books but I’m going to hold off on the next one until next week. I will, however, tell you what it’s about. It’s about humility. Humility Rules. Saint Benedict’s 12- Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem. It’s written by a Benedictine monk from St. Louis. But, I’ll give you a teaser here. Its about step 4, which is titled, interestingly, “Suffer Fools Gladly”. PERSEVERANCE, with a quote from Saint Matthew: “Be patient in suffering, even when you encounter difficulties and injustice, for as the scripture says; he who endures to the end will be saved. (Mt. 10:22)

~Fr. John

READ: Fr. John Communique 9-2022

10-16-2022

A monk was being interviewed by a reporter who was writing an article on what life was like in the monastery. The reporter asked the monk, “What’s the hardest thing about being a monk?” Without hesitation the monk said, “Other monks”

I recently referred to a book called Humility Rules, Saint Benedict’s 12-Step Guide to Genuine Self Esteem. based on The Rule of Saint Benedict for his monks in the monastery. This small book is written by Father J. Augustine Wetta ,OSB, who is a monk in St. Louis. (And a funny guy. The picture on the cover of his book shows St. Benedict carrying a skateboard) But these are considered universal rules that have been used by monastics of many different religious orders down through the years. Now, even though we are not monks and do not live in monasteries, these rules are wise and it would behoove us to consider them for our own lives to the degree that we are able.

Again it’s under the heading of PERSEVERANCE and it began with this quote from “Benedict’s Rules”: “Above all, there should be no grumbling, not in word, not by gesture, not for any reason whatsoever. If anyone is caught grumbling, he should be severely disciplined.”

Well, that sounds like kind of a tough one. What does he expect of us? Does he want to take away all our fun?

Fr. Wetta, reflecting the thought of the saint, says that “nothing will take the wind out of your sails like grumbling…..This is Benedict’s pet peeve, and he mentions it eight times in The Rule.”

He goes on, relying on scripture, “If you think about it, an outright fight is easier on a community than that ceaseless, cowardly, whining gossip that comes from a grumbler who spreads strife and separates close friends”. (Proverbs 16/28). “Unlike direct disobedience, grumbling makes everyone restless and angry – including the grumbler himself. They learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.” (1 Timothy5-13).

A little addenda from myself. Another word for grumbling is murmuring. This term was used in The Book of Exodus when God was very angry at His Chosen People for murmuring in light of the many blessings they enjoyed as He brought them out of Egypt into the Promised Land. If you ever saw the movie The 10 Commandments from the early 50s, you might remember a character named Dathan. (He was a real person and had an unfortunate ending.) But he was the ultimate ‘murmurur’. Maybe a better term would be ‘gadfly’, or even ‘naysayer’.

Every chapter in Fr. Wetta’s book has some little homework assignment attached. My favorite is the one at the end of the first chapter which says, “Spare the life of a bug today. Bonus points if its a mosquito.”

The assignment for this chapter on PERSEVERANCE is, “Keep your next opinion to yourself”.

I just finished the book. His last homework assignment was ….Give this book away.

We’ll, I’ve just given a part of it to you.

But, again, this is all about living virtuously, and I think that this book, like that  Joan of Arc book I mentioned earlier, would be a good gift to our young people, particularly our middle schoolers, here at Holy Spirit who, throughout the year, are all being trained in virtues which should give them a better sense of what self-esteem is really all about, and thus help them to better prepare a firm foundation for a happy and peaceful adulthood.

Frj +

READ: Fr. John Communique 10-16-2022