Earlier this week, I came across a quote from Pope Francis which came during his most recent Sunday Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square. Commenting on the Sunday Gospel, he noted how easy it can be for us, when noticing the faults of others, to tell others about it. He then issued this very strong statement: “Please, brothers and sisters, let’s make an effort not to gossip. Gossiping is a plague worse than COVID.”

The Holy Father was not intending to downplay the significance of the current pandemic and the legitimate damage it has done, but he wants us to know how destructive gossip is to our relationships with one another and to the Church. When we speak poorly of others, the virus spreads to the person to whom we share our words, which often results in their forming a negative opinion of others. Left unchecked, a person’s reputation can easily be ruined because of gossip.

You may have heard the story that has been told about St. Philip Neri, of how he responded to a person who had confessed the sin of gossip. As a penance, he told the penitent to take a feather pillow to the top of a bell tower, rip it open, and let the feathers loose over the city of Rome. The saint then told the penitent to go and pick up all of the feathers. In exasperation, the penitent said that trying to find every feather was impossible! St. Philip used that example to demonstrate the serious nature of gossip, how once we let those uncharitable words leave our mouth, they can scatter about and it will be impossible for us to take back what has been said.

The theme we are focusing on this month is the role of parents in education. One of the documents of the Second Vatican Council points out one of the most important lessons to be imparted by parents to children: “In the family parents have the task of training their children from childhood on to recognize God’s love for all men.” (Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, 30). An important way of transmitting this lesson is to set the example of never gossiping about people but speaking of others in a way that respects their dignity. Even though we may be painfully aware of the weakness of somebody, we can use that as an opportunity to pray for them, that the Lord will touch their lives and bring them to a place of conversion.

While this lesson is particularly important for parents, it really applies to all of us. We all probably know people who are good about fighting back gossip. There is something attractive about those types of people and they really challenge us to try to imitate their charity when it comes to speaking of others. May we all pray for the grace to be the type of people whose words about others are always used to build up and never to tear down. When we do this, we make a substantial contribution in slowing the spread of the deadly virus that is gossip and building a culture in which all come to recognize God’s love for His people.

Father Alford is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in the diocesan curia as the Vicar for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations.

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.”

(Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NAB)

“Drill them into your children,” as it is rendered in the New American Bible, is quite the forceful phrase! This section of scripture, commonly called the “Shema” (meaning “hear” in Hebrew), is one of the keystones of the Hebrew Scriptures. This instruction to “drill” God’s words into one’s children speaks to the importance of passing on what God has spoken to us and previous generations.

The main message that children need to receive about God is the same one they receive from their parents – that they are loved! God’s story of how he loves us is found all through the Scriptures. This passage from Deuteronomy is in the context of reflecting on the Exodus from Egypt, and the receiving of the Law from God after this great event. We are called to return this great love from God by following the commandments he has given us.

There is a false understanding floating around our society that has caused a great deal of harm regarding religious education. This myth is that young children should not be given any guidance in religion so that they can make an unbiased choice when they are older. This logic does not hold up if we see religion as a living relationship with God and the Church. When a child is born, we give him or her both a first and last name, a home address, and before too long, enroll him or her in school. It would be absurd to wait until they were older to ask if they want to be a part of the family – that’s just who they are! In the same way, we do not need to hesitate to bring children into a living relationship with our loving Father in heaven and the family of the Church.

Father Dominic Vahling is a newly ordained priest. He serves as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and as co-chaplain of Sacred Heart-Griffin High School.

I keep choosing the hardest saints to tell stories about. Unlike St. Anne, we at least have St. Joseph’s name in scripture, and a couple scenes that show him in action, but we only get the outlines of his character from those passages, and no words that he spoke at all. Well, that’s not quite right, we do know one thing that he said:

“behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.”

(Matthew 1:20-25)

“Jesus”. We may know none of the other words that Joseph spoke, but we know that on one particular world- changing day 8 days after his birth, Joseph named the little baby that he held in his arms “Jesus”, meaning God- saves. All the fears in the face of Mary’s pregnancy, all the trials of bringing his pregnant wife to Bethlehem, all the frustration of not being able to provide a place to stay in his own ancestral home, all the wonders and glories of that night above all nights faded away as he spoke that name. The heavenly hosts marveled as a carpenter held the little, mighty, Son of God in his arms. Mary smiled as her husband held his new, eternal, baby boy. Joseph trembled as he embraced the life he was now entrusted to love, protect, and raise. And the registers of Caesar’s census added a new name to their list:

Jesus, son of Joseph, of Bethlehem.

Joseph’s word that day did not just pass on his genealogy to Our Lord: making him a son of David and member of the tribe of Judah. Nor did his action simply incorporate Jesus into the historical, Roman, empirical, world:

welcoming him into a particular place and a particular time. No, that name, announced by the angel, had to be vocalized by the carpenter of Nazareth. Joseph was entrusted to be the first human to announce to a fallen and messy universe that, ready or not, God was invading and He had a plan to save His world, and that divinely chosen plan entailed a little baby boy, a young maiden, and a carpenter.

St. Peter’s is a story for another day, but as we continue to reflect on the role of parents raising their children in the faith, St. Peter’s words after Pentecost only reiterate what Joseph has taught all of us by the only word we know he said: “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

All you fathers and dads out there. You have a hard vocation these days. It has never been easy to be an icon of God the Father! But let St. Joseph be a model, and an intercessor for you: like him, call upon the name of Jesus in your every battle in defense of your families, in every struggle for holiness, in every fight for God’s presence in your home and heart, in every struggle to love your wife and children like God the Father loves all of us.

Father Dominic Rankin has been a son of his biological father, and his Heavenly Father, for 27 years, 4 months, and 4 days. He has been a spiritual father for 2 years, 3 months, and 18 days. How about you?

I recently saw a meme that had great insight into the role that parents play in teaching their children. It said this: “To my children: Never make fun of me for having to help me with my phone. I taught you how to use a spoon.” The entirely of a child’s life is spent learning – how to eat, how to talk, how to be fair with siblings and friends. Parents help their kids learn by experience – the first few times using a spoon are always a disaster. But with humor and patience, everybody learns how to use a spoon. Parents are the first teachers of their children in every respect – especially when it comes to the faith. Parents are the first catechists of their children and the first ones to teach them what it means to

live in relationship with God. The unconditional love of a child’s father and mother is the first experience of God’s love in the family.

Unfortunately, many parents feel unequipped to be the first catechists of their children. Through no fault of their own, maybe they did not receive a good catechesis from their own parents or during their upbringing. However, even if there is still room to grow in knowledge of the faith, this is no excuse to abdicate this responsibility. It is never too late to learn about prayer and the teachings of the Church. Most important is the witness of faith that parents give to their children. This means prioritizing one’s relationship with God throughout the day by interspersing moments of prayer in the morning, and regularly talking about faith matters during meals and conversations. Attending Sunday Mass as a family may be the best witness that parents can give to their children. Prioritizing Sunday Mass above sporting events and other entertainment teaches children, without even using words, that keeping holy the Lord’s Day is a commandment from God meant for our own happiness and for the glory of God.

When parents help their children to grow in holiness, this is not a one-sided exchange. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains in paragraph 2227, “Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents. Each and everyone should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect.” Children can also teach parents what it means to be generous and loving, usually just by being themselves! A child’s love and trust teaches us how to become like children so that we can enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3).

Father Dominic Vahling is a newly ordained priest. He serves as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and as co-chaplain of Sacred Heart-Griffin High School.

Have you ever stopped to contemplate the statues around our Cathedral? One month into lockdown, as one more afternoon rolled by and the strangeness of the silent church sunk a bit deeper, I was taking the chance to slowly wander around. This time, like never before, I was struck by the statue of a mother and daughter back at the southeast corner of our church. The mother is depicted as serene, beautiful, even elegant, yet what strikes even more profoundly is her love. Her demeanor and posture radiate love and delight in her young daughter whom she gently holds close and earnestly points out some detail

written upon the scroll held in her daughter’s hands.
It is the perfect icon to begin our hearing here the stories of the saints.

Not because we know heaps about St. Anne – for the woman is St. Anne, and the young girl clasping the scroll in our statue is her child is Mary – and we know almost nothing about Anne. The Gospels do not even tell us her name, much less any historical details about her life or how she and Joachim raised Mary. We get a few anecdotes from the ancient “Gospel of James”, but otherwise we are left with the insights of a few mystics, and our own prayer, to imagine the characteristics, personality, and bearing of the woman carved into stone at the back of our Cathedral.

Nor also because I have some tremendous devotion to Anne. I spoke above of “our” hearing the stories of the saints, and I mean it! I am not an expert on the saints, nor an eloquent story-teller, nor even someone who feels their friendship keenly and constantly. Yet I want to be all of those things, and it is in learning their stories, walking in their shoes (or sandals), studying their words, and imagining them living out ordinary human lives with the extraordinary grace of God, that allows us to reach the same destiny and joy that they did.

Nor, lastly, is it because Anne is the most applicable or approachable of all the saints. She is the mother of Mary, how can any of us find camaraderie with someone of that significance?!

Yet still, this statue seems the perfect place to start because it depicts a real moment not only in Anne’s
life, but in all of ours. Anyone reading this who is a mother has told stories to their children. Probably anyone reading this has told stories to someone: a sibling, a niece, a grandchild, a friend… So did St. Anne. Yes, she was entrusted with the child who would be the mother of God. Yes, she was given a grace and dignity because of that role and call. And yet, she cared for that child the same way any mother would: she told Mary the stories of her relatives, her ancestors, her history … and so she told Mary about God.

You see, to evangelize is not nearly as hard as we make it out to be. It might just be clasping a friend on the shoulder and really showing that you care about them. It might just be telling a story to a wide-eyed little girl or boy that communicates to them the truths about who they are, about who have come before them, about who God is, and how God has been a part of those stories. It might just be staying serene when storms are on the horizon and you are caring for precious cargo. It might just be pointing out to someone a word of God that you needed one time in your life when things were crazy.

St. Anne, mother of Mary, tell us the stories of God’s grace written in human lives, just as you told those same stories to your little girl. Amen.

Father Dominic Rankin serves as the Master of Ceremonies and Priest Secretary to the Bishop and as an Associate Vocations Director for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Father Rankin resides at the Cathedral.

Late summer / early fall is always a time of new beginnings for young people engaged in any form of study. Without a doubt, this new school year is unlike any other! Some of our students are back in school in person (though with certain modifications), others are in class virtually, while still others are in some hybrid form of education. Whatever the case may be, the common sentiment is that “the show must go on”, meaning that the pandemic cannot be a reason not to continue with something as important as education.

The same is true with the practice of our faith. While we felt the need to suspend public masses for a time, we knew that continuing along that path was not tenable. While we can be sustained for a short period with making a Spiritual Communion, doing so long-term is virtually impossible except in rare circumstances. While we know the Eucharist to be the source and summit of our lives as Catholics, we also need other ways of practicing our faith and growing in our understanding and appreciation for our faith.

With that in mind, we are trying to be more intentional here at the Cathedral in presenting all of you with ways to stay engaged and to keep moving forward, even during these challenging times. One of the ways that we hope to do that is through our Cathedral Weekly. Beginning with this issue, we will be implementing a slightly new format. We will be returning to our larger 8-page issues in order to provide some more content for all of you in your efforts to continue to grow in your faith. Each month will be dedicated to a particular theme. Those themes have been chosen to coincide with the themes we will be using this year in our Family of Faith program here at the Cathedral. The overall theme for this year is the Sacraments. In each issue, you will find content on the monthly theme with articles written by clergy and laity in the parish. We will have a weekly focus on one of the saints of the Church whose story will hopefully inspire us as we continue on our path of discipleship. Overall, it is our hope that this will be a weekly resource that continues to sustain you throughout the week.

The theme that we will be focusing on this month is The Role of Parents in Education. Even if you do not have children, or if your children are grown up and out of the house, I think you will still find the content helpful. And if it does not apply to you personally, I can bet that you know somebody to whom it does apply and you can share the content with them.

While our young people are heading back to school, let us see the opportunity that lies ahead for all of us to recommit ourselves to this lifelong task of formation in our Catholic faith. Keep your eyes and ears open for other opportunities for growth that will be available soon, both virtual and in person. As I mentioned earlier, “the show must go on”, and it is our hope that this “opening act” of introducing a new bulletin format will entice you to stay tuned in for what lies ahead.

Father Alford is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in the diocesan curia as the Vicar for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations

This past week we had the privilege of celebrating the feast day of a mother and her son. On Thursday, August 27, the Church celebrated the feast of St. Monica. On the following day, the Church celebrated her son, St. Augustine. St. Augustine is recognized by many as one of the greatest and most prolific writers in the nearly 2000-year history of the Church. In fact, there is a saying that if someone claims to have read all of his writings, they would be lying.

But the Church would not have a St. Augustine without a St. Monica.
And that fact is true both on a natural level (which is obvious) and on a spiritual level. You see, St. Augustine was far from a saint in his early years. His mother saw that he was living an immoral life, but she supposedly had a vision that he would come back to the faith one day. With the hope given from that vision, she dedicated herself to prayer and fasting for her son. Finally, after 17 years of prayer, St. Augustine was finally baptized in Milan by another future saint, St. Ambrose.

There is a moving passage from the Confessions of St. Augustine, his spiritual autobiography, where he recounts a conversation he had with his mother as the end of her life drew near. He records the following words from his mother:

Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for wanting to live a little longer: to see you become a Catholic Christian before I died. God has lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have even renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?

One of the greatest struggles faced by parents is the sadness they experience when their children have left the practice of the faith. If you, or somebody you know, is in that situation, I encourage you to ask the intercession of St. Monica for their loved ones. Her powerful prayers on earth helped to bring about one of the most important conversions in the life of the Church. From her place in Heaven, her prayers to the Lord on our behalf are even more powerful!

St. Monica, pray for us!

Father Alford is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in the diocesan curia as the Vicar for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations.

A little over a year ago, our seminarian Grant Wilson and I had a conversation about the possibility of his taking a Pastoral Year in the diocese. As you may know, seminarians in formation for the priesthood for our diocese study at seminaries located outside of the diocese, limiting their ability to connect with this local Church. And while Christmas and summer breaks offer the opportunity for these men to reconnect with their home diocese, it can still be difficult to get a good idea of what it is like to serve locally for more than a month or two at a time. In Grant’s case, he had not only been outside of the diocese for the past two years, he had been outside of the country, a practice in place for seminarians studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Suffice it to say that Grant was eager to be back home for more than just a summer, and we were glad to welcome him home for a more extended time.

During the past year, Grant has invested himself in various ministries here at the Cathedral. He has been involved in the ALPHA program, GriefShare, Family of Faith, and visits to the homebound, just to mention a few. He filled in on several occasions as Master of Ceremonies for Bishop Paprocki and was a regular presence for the various Cathedral liturgies. Grant shared in the common life of the Rectory by being present for prayer, meals, and other times of recreation with the clergy of the house. Over the past few months, he and Ryan Kehoe kept busy finding things to do, even as opportunities were limited due to the pandemic restrictions.

A couple of weeks ago, as he was preparing to conclude his Pastoral Year, Grant approached me to inform me that he had prayerfully come to the decision that he planned to step away from priestly formation for the time being. On the one hand, this was sad news as he has demonstrated so many fine qualities that would serve him and the faithful well as a priest. At the same time, I know Grant is at peace with his decision, knowing that it comes after having fully invested himself over the past year. He leaves the Cathedral and seminary formation a better man, and in that sense, this is not a loss for the Church, for I have no doubt Grant will continue to put the gifts he has developed in seminary and here at the Cathedral at the service of the Church in some fashion. In the end, God’s will is being done, which is all any of us should ever hope to do, and I fully believe that Grant is being obedient to what he believes God’s will is for him at this time in his life.

As Rector and Vocation Director for the diocese, I take this opportunity to thank Grant for his time here at the Cathedral over the past year, and for the several years of seminary formation with our diocese. I know that Father House, my predecessor as Rector, echoes these sentiments. We assure Grant of our prayers in thanksgiving for what he has shared with this Cathedral Parish for the past year and we pray for many blessings upon him in whatever lies ahead.

Father Alford is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in the diocesan curia as the Vicar for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. 

“[F]or my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

(Is. 56:7)

These are the words we hear at the conclusion of our First Reading for this Sunday’s Mass. In the Old Testament, the Temple was the central place of worship, of it was there where God’s presence dwelled in a special way (cf. CCC 576). As Catholics, we also read this passage with the awareness that these words also apply to our churches, which serve as the central place of our prayer and worship of God. And God is present in a special way in our churches, even more than in the Temple of Jerusalem, for He is present in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist in our tabernacles.

With that in mind, it is sometimes surprising to me that our churches remain largely empty for the vast majority of time throughout the week. Sure, we have masses when people gather together to pray, but what about the rest of the hours? Jesus makes Himself a prisoner in the tabernacle, patiently waiting for us to come to pay Him a visit, spending some time in prayerful adoration in the place where He dwells in a special way. And while it is true that we can (and should) pray anywhere, there is nowhere more special to pray than in a Catholic church.

If you have never taken the opportunity to stop into our Cathedral church during the day to pray, I highly encourage you to do so. The peace that we experience when we step into the silence of this temple can be a profound experience. And since it is a house of prayer, spend some time in prayer in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord. You could spend some time in prayerful thanksgiving for the blessings you have received. You could offer prayers for the various intentions for which family and friends have asked you to pray. You could pray a decade (or more) of the Rosary. You could read a chapter from the Gospels. Or consider this beautiful little story shared by St. John Vianney:

Listen well to this, my children. When I first came to Ars, there was a man who never passed the church without going in. In the morning on his way to work, and in the evening on his way home, he left his spade and pick-axe in the porch, and he spent a long time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Oh! how I loved to see that! I asked him once what he said to Our Lord during the long visits he made Him. Do you know what he told me? ‘Eh, Monsieur le Curé I say nothing to Him, I look at Him and He looks at me!’ How beautiful, my children, how beautiful!

Please know that this church is the Lord’s house, and He has made it a house of prayer for all peoples, especially we who are His sons and daughters. That makes this church your home, so please feel free to stop to pay a visit to the master of the house – He’s here waiting for you!

Father Alford is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in the diocesan curia as the Vicar for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. 

While speaking to others about living at the Cathedral, one of the first things I comment on is the blessing of living in a full house. For just over a month, we have had one bishop, four priests, and two seminarians living at the Cathedral Rectory. It has been a source of great joy to have so many of us around, sharing in various ways in the ministry of the parish and enjoying some great fraternity with one another.

As they say, though, all good things come to an end. This weekend will be the last one for one of our seminarians, Ryan Kehoe, who has been with us here since the pandemic caused all of our seminaries to send their men home early. Wanting to make their abrupt transition away from the seminary more manageable, we attempted to put pairs of seminarians together at various parishes. With the room available, it made good sense to send one of our seminarians here, and Ryan was the lucky one to come to join Grant Wilson who has been with us the entire year.

The new priests in the house affectionately refer to our seminarians as “the kids” and we joke about sending them back to school at the end of the summer. But we all will miss them very much as they have been an absolute delight to have around the rectory and the parish. I hope that many of you have had the opportunity to meet and interact with these two fine men.

Since Grant will be with us a little longer, we can save our farewell for another time and I can write a few things about Ryan. He recently graduated from Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis. He is now moving on to theology at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis. For the next four years, Ryan will dedicate himself to being formed in four dimensions: intellectual, spiritual, pastoral, and human. This formation will lead, God-willing, to a man who is more closely configured to Christ, the Good Shepherd, whom He will seek to imitate in ministry to the people of God in our diocese.

Now that he has become a part of our Cathedral Parish family, I invite you to add Ryan to the list of your daily prayers, asking the Lord to give Ryan the graces to be totally open to the work He wants to do in his heart as he prepares for the priesthood. And please pray for all of our seminarians, for the chances are very good (almost guaranteed) that some of these men will serve here at the Cathedral as priests one day. Our prayers for them now will be for their benefit and ours.

Father Alford is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in the diocesan curia as the Vicar for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations.