Fr. Kevin’s Column 9/12/2021
Dear friends of God,
Father Bede Griffiths, OSB Cam. had this profound insight after decades of monastic life in both England (for the first half of his life) and in India (for the second half of his earthly life).
“I suddenly saw that all the time it was not I who had been seeking God, but God who had been seeking me. I had made myself the centre of my own existence and had my back turned to God.”
Imagine that-God is continually seeking each of us. We simply need to pay closer attention to the movements of the Spirit to recognize God’s Presence in our midst. The good news is that whether we realize it or not, and whether we call on him or not, God is always tight with us, loving us into existence. As Dr. Karl Jung, a Swiss psychologist put it: “Bidden or not bidden, God is present.” Dr. Jung had that quote above the door of his home. That might be a good quote to have around our own homes and certainly in our own hearts. Bidden or not bidden, God is present. We simply need to turn around and see God right there. There is something consoling for me struggling to understand that there is nothing that I can do to earn God’s presence and there is nothing that I can do that would push God away from me. God is our relentless Divine lover who simply wants to be with us. May each of us turn toward others and to God and leave ourselves aside as we follow the Lord.
This week I will be away for an interfaith experience of mediation. I will keep all of you in prayer and ask that you do the same for me. I will be learning more and more about how prayer and meditation can be transformative as we grow into the true selves that God created us to be, and leave behind the false self, our persona, that so often we think of as our real identity. Over the last number of years, I have been working on my own growing understanding of God’s presence and action in our world and in my life. Taking time for silence and stillness is one of the ways that I open the eye of my own heart to God’s faithfulness.
Trappist monk Fr. Thomas Merton decades ago had an epiphany that reflects our true selves that we seem to miss. He experienced this mystical moment as he was in Louisville for an appointment away from his monastery. He described his experience in his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander in this way:
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self- isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
We are shining like the sun, but we don’t seem to notice the Divine life that radiates from each of us. Imagine if we noticed this about each other. How would we respond to each other, how would we share love for each other, for all of creation and our very universe?
Fr. Kevin’s Column 9/5/2021
Dear friends of God,
Happy Labor Day!
This weekend is more than just about enjoying the waning days of summer. It is more than about gathering with friends and family to BBQ. It is a day when we remember the importance of labor as an aspect of human dignity. In our Catholic Christian Tradition, there is a long history of honoring human labor as well as fighting for the rights of workers. That Tradition continues today, and is as necessary today, or maybe even more so, then it was 100 years ago.
Saint John Paul II was a great philosopher. In his younger days, he was a laborer. In 1981, he wrote an encyclical titled Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) that called for a more just economic system for those who labor in our world. He knew that the market economy was broken. Pope John Paul II was highly critical of Soviet style communism, but he was equally critical of the market economy that we have created. I can only imagine what he is thinking in heaven as we have billionaires fly to the stars while our neighbors are starving. In the encyclical from 1981 he wrote this:
“We consider it our duty to reaffirm that the remuneration of work is not something that can be left to the laws of the marketplace; nor should it be a decision left to the will of the more powerful. It must be determined in accordance with justice and equity; which means that workers must be paid a wage which allows them to live a truly human life and to fulfill their family obligations in a worthy manner.” (#15)
We are still fighting for fair pay. A good example would be the atrocious minimum wage that we provide to so many workers in our nation. This might seem far afield to some regarding our Catholic Faith. But we need to remember that how we relate to the world is a reflection of the faith that we embrace. It is about loving our neighbor. Human dignity is at the center of our faith as Catholics. If we don’t protect the dignity of those who labor, it seems challenging for us to say that we follow Jesus who knew the experience of working with his own hands and shedding sweat from his brow, just as he knew what it felt like to shed water and blood from his side during his crucifixion.
Our second reading this weekend comes from the Letter of James. James is a short letter (only 5 chapters) but quite direct in its teaching that to have faith means that one needs works as well. My grandmother would say that talk is cheap.
Our faith in Jesus Christ needs to flow in our relations to each other and especially to our poorer brothers and sisters. We will hear the following proclaimed from chapter 2 of this letter:
“If a man with gold rings on his fingers and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please,” while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs?”
Treating each other with our God-given dignity is essential to our faith and goes back to the earliest days of the church -and even to Jesus himself who had what the Church now calls a “preferential option for the poor.” Jesus was the incarnation of the God of Love, and in his earthly life was born to a poor family far away from the center of the known world. But that is where God decided to plant himself in our human family. God became poor to care for the poorest among us, and to work with his own two hands as a workman like so many who labor today in our world.
Fr. Kevin’s Column 8/15/2021
This Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God’s gift to Mary of her Assumption, body and soul, into heaven is what we all anticipate at the end of time. For us, we will die at some point, and for a moment, our souls and bodies will be separated. However, in God’s own time our bodies and souls will once again be reunited in the resurrection of the body. Then, all of creation will once again be united as God desires. God came to be one with us to save us in our entirety. Our bodies and souls are meant to be together. Our belief in the afterlife is much more about Life after life rather than an escape plan for another world. The deepest desire of God is to bring his healing love to all of creation. The gift of his son, and the yes of Jesus’ mother and our sister Mary, was the way that God has chosen to save all of us body and soul.
Today I was listening to a podcast about silence and the speaker mentioned that when she first went on a silent retreat, the nun who welcomed her to the retreat center as she led her to the room for the weekend, said to “enjoy God.” That struck me as an important notion to embrace. I don’t think most of his hold onto the idea that we are even able to “enjoy God.” Maybe we fear God, are intimidated by God, do our best to appease God or don’t want to disappoint God. But the truth is that those other notions don’t reflect the healthy relationship that we are created to have with God. We are to be in awe of the way that God loves us, to open ourselves to God’s permanent presence in our lives. We are to see God as a relentless lover and yes we are to even to “enjoy God” as much as he enjoys us. Imagine our time with God as quality time with a lover or a dear friend. We know that feeling when we are with someone who knows us for who we are in our imperfection and yet we are perfect for them. We are all imperfect people and at the same time we are perfect for God. So, please in these lovely days, “enjoy God.”
Fr. Kevin’s Column 8/8/2021
Dear friends of God,
August 8th is the day that we remember the great contemplative preacher St. Dominic. He was the founder of the Order of Preachers at about the same time that St. Francis of Assisi was founding the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans). Both of these religious orders have greatly influenced me in my life and in my ministry. As a young adult, I spent time discerning with the Capuchin Franciscans. I quickly realized that this was not the life that God was calling me to at that point in my life, but the Franciscan ideal of care for the poorest among us continues to influence me and my life. My heart was changed forever as I began to see those who struggle economically as those who were the first to be befriended by Jesus. His life was built on the love of our Father of Compassion that extended to everyone, but the poor had a special space in the Divine Heart. In my younger priestly years, I struggled with being a prayerful person. I knew that I wanted to pray, but I really did struggle with something that God wants to be so easy for us – friendship with God. That is where the Dominican Friars came into my life. I was at a particularly difficult point in my life. I went on retreat and the priest that was guiding me during those days asked if I had ever meditated. He taught me with the love of a teacher that truly cares for their student-with kindness and patience. The gift of meditation has changed my life forever. It grounds me every day in the present moment where God calls us to be in the life of God. One spiritual teacher, Ken Wilber describes the gift of mediation in this way: “Meditation has always been the royal road to the Kingdom of God.” Today I thank God for the gift of the Franciscans and the Dominicans and their continued impact on my life. The Franciscans taught me to love my neighbor that struggles with the basic necessities of life, such as food and shelter, and the Dominicans showed me a new, yet ancient, way of loving God and even myself in a beautiful way.
Recently Pope Francis shared the following wisdom to our human family and our frenetic activity: “Brothers and sisters… Let us learn how to take a break, to turn off the mobile phone to gaze into the eyes of others, to cultivate silence, to contemplate nature, to regenerate ourselves in dialogue with God.” That is very good advice in our time and especially during the summer when many of us have the privilege of traveling. We all need times to be re-created by God. This idea comes to my mind more and more. That is why we need to take time every day for prayer and for fun. God desires that we grow as people and take time to rest and recreate. Let us take time to look into the eyes of those whom we love, rest in the quiet of God’s presence, and to walk in the ways of the Lord during these waning summer days. This last week, I did just that with some short days of hiking. It was a time to stretch my legs and my soul. I certainly kept you in prayer as I walked in the nature that God has created as his first Cathedral.
Next weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since the feast falls on Sunday, the liturgy for the weekend will honor Mary, our Mother and our Sister. We will also host our annual mission speaker who comes this year from the Sisters of Charity. May God open our hearts and minds to the needs for the missions in the United States and around the world.
Fr. Kevin’s Column 8/1/2021
Dear friends of God,
Faith can be a challenging word for many of us. A traditional definition from theology by the great scholar St. Anselm is that theology is “faith seeking understanding.” That might seem far removed from our everyday experience. I don’t think many of us think about theology: the study of God. But we are always marinated in God’s presence. For me to think about God’s presence and action is both an occupational hazard and a gift as a priest and preacher. As a parish priest, I have the gift of meeting so many different people in our parish and our local community. I have found this benefit of ministry in each of my assignments. I am better for the people that I have met in my years as a priest for our diocese. I met some of them in their death. That might sound strange, but being present to families and having them share their grief with me has taught me so much about God and how God calls each of us to faith in our unique ways.
Recently, some thoughts about faith came to my mind as I was preparing a funeral homily. I want to share some of these thoughts as I continue to understand the impact of faith has on my own relationship with God and neighbor, and as I minister as a parish priest.
- Faith is active and It might be personal, but faith is never a private endeavor – just about God and me. It is so much more than that. As Catholics we see faith as a relationship: our relationship with our God and with our neighbor.
- A friend of mine suggested something that continues to challenge and inspire me every day: “Faith is a way of seeing, and consequently, it is about a way of ”
My wise friend didn’t mean in a “holier than thou” way. Have you met those folks who think that they are better than anyone else because of their church membership? They attend church but then become mean spirited people
- Faith as lived by Jesus means that we love with a love that breaks down walls and barriers.
- Faith as loving how Jesus loved means that we ought not be afraid to
- Faith is knowing that God is always for
He continually has our backs; we as disciples of Jesus are to care for those who have “their back against the wall.” People who have “their backs against the wall” are those who society seems to have forgotten, those who are left behind in the successes of the world. That might seem like a new idea, but I would suggest that is where Jesus’ placed his priorities. He lived what the church calls the “preferential option for the poor.” If we are to follow Jesus, we need to live the same way. Look around our world, our nation and our neighborhoods and find those who have the roughest time in our society. These are the people who have had their backs against the wall and we need to cover them with our active love.
These are simply thoughts crossing my mind in my own spiritual life and the growing relationship that I have with God and neighbor and my life as your priest.
May God bless us with a deeper understanding of faith as we stumble along the way of the Kingdom of God as followers of Jesus Christ!
Fr. Kevin’s Column 7/18/2021
July 11th is the traditional day that we as Catholics remember the great Saint Benedict. I came across this lovely homily from 2014 given by a Camaldolese Benedictine from Big Sur, California. The preachers name was Father Robert Hale, OSB Cam. He passed away a few years ago, but his words still ring true.
“St. Benedict is a towering and ecumenical saint, celebrated on the Catholic, and also the Episcopal/ Anglican, and also Lutheran Calendars. And he is reverenced in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Without him the Camaldolese wouldn’t be—we Benedictines who follow St. Benedict’s Rule. Nor would our Oblate family be, since our shared charism is also Benedictine.
One thinks of the thousands of abbeys, monasteries, convents down through the 1500 years following the Rule of St. Benedict, the hundreds of thousands of monks, nuns, sisters, Oblates and others influenced by his spirituality.
Many hundreds of books and articles have been written about Benedict’s spirituality as expressed in his Rule. Where does one begin in exploring that spirituality?
The highly reputed scholar of St. Benedict, Fr. Terrence Kardong, O.S.B., recommends that we begin with a foundational theme of the Rule, that is there all the way through, explicitly or at least implicitly. He terms this: ‘The Divine Approach, the Presence of God.’ He notes that St. Benedict stresses this Divine Presence in every aspect and element of the monastic day (and night), in every nook and cranny of the monastery. We would hold that this would also be true of every Christian home and life. So we are called, the Rule teaches, to open our eyes to the ‘deifying light’ and the ears of our hearts to ‘the voice from heaven which daily calls out to us: If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’ It doesn’t depend just on our efforts to remain open to this Presence, but primarily to God who is constantly reaching out to us, anticipating our yearning. And so St. Benedict quotes Isaiah quoting God: ‘And even before you ask me, I will say to you, ‘Here I am.’’ Not just there I was, or will be, but right now, right here, here I am. And this echoes the great I Am of God’s self-revelation to Moses in Exodus, and to Jesus’ several revealing of himself as ‘I am.’
And this Divine Presence isn’t a severe, judgmental Presence, God’s spiritual voice not terrifying for the committed monk (and Christian). St. Benedict insists: ‘What, dear brothers, is sweeter than the voice of the Lord calling to us? See how the Lord in His love shows us the way of life.’ Of course, Christ Himself is that ‘way, truth and life,’ and so St. Benedict’s injunction that ‘nothing is to be preferred to the love of Christ.’
All this is not always evident at first, but St. Benedict assures us that with our effort and God’s grace, this awareness and spirit becomes more ongoing in our lives: ‘As we progress in this way of life and faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delights of love.’ This resonates with Christ’s first great commandment, to ‘love God with all our heart…’ and with Christ’s invitation, ‘abide in me, abide in my love.’ And with the basic New Testament affirmation that ‘God is love.’”
Reaching Out
In the Name of Jesus Adam
Fr. Kevin’s Column 7/4/21
Dear friends of God,
I remember when I was much younger, and I would sit too close to the television. One day, a boyfriend of one of my sisters said, “Kev, if you sit that close to the TV, you are going to go blind.” I laughed it off. Well, I do need my glasses really badly now. I am blind as a bat without them. When I was growing up, television time was a real issue for many of us. At this point in our technological life, we need to pay attention to all of our “screen time.” With our “smart” phones, tablets, computers and televisions, we spend a lot of time watching something on a screen. Here is something instructive that I found online about our tv habits. Minimalist author Joshua Becker recently wrote the following on his website Becoming Minimalist:
“According to Nielsen, the average person watches 4 hours, 35 minutes of television each day. And the average American home now has more television sets than people. That threshold was crossed within the past two years. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people. In the average American home, a television set is turned on for more than a third of the day—8 hours, 14 minutes to be exact. We are literally sitting on the couch while life passes us by. Experiment with owning less televisions. As a result, you will watch less. And when you do, you will be more apt to do it together as a family.”
That is simply the amount of time that we spend in front of the television. Again, it doesn’t include our other “screen” time. We spend so much time in front of our screens that our ability to pay attention is being killed. I have to continually remind myself of the wisdom that we pay attention to that which we love. Philosopher Simone Weil speaks of attention in terms of generosity. She wrote, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” In the 1980s there was a book published that tells us something insightful in its title, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Without a doubt, this book was prophetic. We have amused ourselves to division and to death. We are murdering our capacity to pay attention to the others in our lives, especially the “others” in our world with whom we disagree. So much of our “screen” time is used by those who realize that hate sells as a way to market the diabolical division that we are experiencing in the present moment in our American culture. We need to open our hearts to each other with a generosity of compassion that connects us with each other through the heart of God.
We are failing to see with the eye of the heart. We are sitting way too close to our television, and we have been blinded. We have become blind to God’s love for us and our call to love each other. It is time for us to pray for healing and reach out to Jesus, our Divine physician, who can bring us our sight again. As a people we need to admit our transgressions against our neighbors whom we are to love as our very selves. It is only through the love of God that we can see the world as God sees it in the unity of our one god and one human family. It is in loving that we can bring ourselves to live the Kingdom of God that we have been created to live in this life and the next. Let us not waste the time that we have been given. It is time to love our screens less and God and neighbor more.
Much love,
Fr. Kevin
Fr. Kevin’s Column 6/27/21
Dear friends of God,
I neglected last weekend to thank you for the kindness that you shared with me as I celebrated my 20th anniversary as a priest forour Diocese of Saginaw. These years have been such a gift for me. I thank God from whom all blessings flow for the gift of ministry.
For my column this week, I would like to share below the homily that I preached last weekend. I know that I have had storms in my own life that I needed to remember to allow God to quiet my fears and call me to stillness. Maybe you can relate to this experience.
In Mark’s Gospel, we have Jesus rebuking the sea.
“Quiet, be still.”
The Sea of Galilee is really a lake. It isn’t even that large. It is much smaller than our Great Lakes. You can even see across thewater. It is known for storms to come out of nowhere.
It can be a perfectly sunny and lovely day and out of nowhere comes a storm that makes it impossible to safely navigate and to seewhat is right before your eyes.
On Monday I was driving to Midland and experienced a storm just like the one there we hear about in the Gospel.
I couldn’t even see the road ahead and feared that I was navigating myself right into a ditch.
At that moment, I wished that I had the ability to rebuke the storm and quiet the thunder.
I didn’t, I just muttered along and hoped for the best with my hands on the wheel.
It is reminiscent of Psalm 46:11 “Be still and know that I am God!”
Jesus is the Lord of creation. He can even calm storms and call them to stillness.
Remember that we are a part of creation as well and there are storms in our own lives.
…God created the Human in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
God has created everything through the evolutionary process and that everything includes us.
In the book of Genesis we are reminded that God has divine authority over the chaotic waters (Genesis 1:1).
And we know from the book of Exodus that “God divided the waters to allow the people to pass from slavery to freedom.” (Exodus 14-15)
God continues to liberate us from bondage to slavery.
God calls us forth from our own fears into his wonderful light.
So often we get stuck in our fears while God is calling us to the freedom of his love.
We are always living with God in whom we live, move, and have our being.
We can easily forget our life in God and get trapped in our own heads with its storms and the tribulations of our own lives.
As Caryll Houselander wrote decades ago: ”There is only one cure for fear — trust in God.”
Now so often that trust is easier said than done. To trust in God is to take a leap of faith. Faith at its root is the capacity for love.
The capacity to experience God’s bounteous love and to share that love freely in return.
Thinking again of our Gospel and let us visualize the story of the calming of the sea from another vantage point.
Maybe Jesus wasn’t simply calming the chaotic waters of the sea of Galilee.
Let us imagine that Jesus is calming the turbulent reaction of those disciples and calling them to a calm mind.
“Quiet, be still.”
Maybe we can sit with those words on days when our lives seem like they are going to capsize:
During those moments, simply close your eyes and hear Jesus say to you as your fears seem to drown you in the waters ofdaily life:
“Quiet, be still.”
May God bless each of us in these beautiful summer days!
Fr. Kevin’s Column 6/20/21
Happy Father’s Day!
May those men who have loved us as our fathers and father figures receive love in return for all the love that they have shared with us. And may our fathers who have passed from this life to the next share life forever with our Eternal Father in Heaven. Of course, we will prayer for our dads this weekend and bless them for all the good that they have done for us.
In our second reading this week from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we hear these words: “The love of Christ impels us…” St. Paul continues by telling us that because of what Christ has done for us by his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we no longer live for ourselves. This is such a challenge in our culture when we make the tragic mistake in thinking that we are the center of the universe. We have forgotten that God ought to be at the center of our lives just as God is at the center of each of our own hearts, whether we know it or not. Letting go of ourselves is only way to follow Christ. Jesus continually tells us to leave our selves behind as we take of our cross of discipleship. Jesus has shown us the path of leaving aside all those things that hinder us from experiencing Divine love as we journey into God.
This Sunday, June 20th, is the June solstice. This is the beginning of summer based on the solar calendar, although many of us think of Memorial Day weekend as the beginning of our Michigan summer festivities. During the year of Michigan’s particular weather woes, I suspect that all of us look forward to summer days of warmth and sun. As we enjoy our time this summer, I would encourage all of us to take time for silence and stillness in our prayer. Lawrence S. Cunningham is a retired Professor of Theology at Notre Dame University. In his book, The Catholic Faith: An Introduction, he reminds us about the importance of silence in our lives and in our prayer:
“Silence, both external (a silent place) and internal (the quieting of the heart and mind), is a prerequisite to genuine prayer.
It is not simply a question of removing exterior noise but a disciplined willingness to shut off the distractions of the environment, even ‘good’ distractions, in order to listen to the promptings of God in the heart.
Silence, in the tradition of prayer, means nothing more than alertness or readiness to receive God; it is another form of saying ‘yes’ to the promptings of God’s self-gift.”
In our world of distraction, taking time to let go of our thoughts and to enjoy the free gift of God’s love is just what we need in our lives. I find the morning is the best time for me to take time for silence and stillness. The Martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer shared this insight prior to execution by the Nazis: “We begin the day in silence because God should have the first word. We end the day in silence because God should have the last word.” For me, that is in the practice Christian Meditation. Not everyone is drawn to meditation, but we all do need time for silence in our days. When we begin and end our days in silence, it is the best way to give God both the first and last words. This is good for many of us who desire to have the last words in our relationships, even our Divine ones.
More than that, when we take time for silent prayer in our lives, we allow ourselves to be enveloped in God’s unconditional love. God basks us in his love, but we are so busy talking and running in every direction that we barely notice God’s loving Presence. God desires to be in relationship with us. God draws us closer to himself in the silence. Franciscan Father Richard Rohr put it this way: “Love lives and thrives in the heart space.” Our hearts, our bodies and our souls yearn for silence. Please give yourself the gift of silence. You won’t regret it.
Enjoy these summer days!
Much love,
Fr. Kevin
Fr. Kevin’s Column 6/13/21
Dear friends of God,
This weekend we celebrate the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time. We are back to the “ordinary” of Ordinary Time. We call this time “ordinary” time not because it is boring and unimportant. The name simply comes from the fact that the weeks are counted. Ordinary comes from the word ordinal which means number. After the fifty-day feast of Easter, we celebrated two Sundays that were solemnities or feast days of the Church. These were our feast day of Holy Trinity and this last week we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ or Corpus Christi. I was speaking to a woman from our community last weekend who said that as a parish when you were discerning names for our parish, she had suggested the name Corpus Christi. Even though I love our name Holy Trinity, I connect deeply with the understanding that as a parish and as baptized people we are invited into the life of the Holy Trinity to become a community of love. I also have a deep appreciation for Corpus Christi. We are fed by the Word of God and nourished by the Body and Blood of the Lord to become the Body of Christ for the life of the world. Just as we celebrate the body of Christ broken for us and his blood outpoured for us, we are called to share the unity of Christ even amidst our fragmented world. Either name would serve as a reminder that God is continually making us his own out of love for each one of us and the community that he has called us to be in this time and place.
It is difficult to believe that I just celebrated 20 years as a priest for our Church of Saginaw. June 10th was a particularly hot Sunday afternoon at St. Mary Cathedral. That was before the renovation of the Cathedral and the use of air conditioning in the church. Surrounded by my family and friends, as well as brother priests and people from around the diocese, Bishop Ken Untener ordained me for priestly service. I am an emotional person and I cried for much of the Mass. They were definitely tears of joy. That day continues to inspire me in my call to ministry.
In these years of ministry, I have served across the diocese but I have primarily been assigned to the west side of the diocese with three different assignments in Midland, once as an associate pastor and twice as pastor. My first assignment as a pastor was in Gratiot County in Alma and St. Louis. The parishes were the Church of St. Mary and Mt. St. Joseph. I also served as a pastor of the school in Alma. It is always a special gift to pastor a Catholic school. I am fortunate to serve here in Pinconning with our own marvelous school. In Gratiot County, I also had the opportunity to minister at Alma College as well as the state prisons in St. Louis. I learned so much in those six years from all the experiences that I was graced to have as a younger pastor. Bishop Ken told me before he died that there was sometime particularly important about a priest’s first assignment as pastor, and that those experiences would continue to affect the priest for all of his years of ministry. I have found this to be true in my own life.