When I was growing up, I somehow got it into my head that I really wanted to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I didn’t know what I wanted to study or why I wanted to go there—I was just excited by the idea of it. My 8th-grade class at St. Kevin Catholic School in East Alton was nine students; at Marquette Catholic High School in Alton, my graduating class was 76. There was something about going to a university of over 40,000 students that made the extrovert in me leap for excitement.

But at a university that size, a person needs a place of belonging —a place of encounter. For me, that was St. John’s Catholic Newman Center. It was there that I found a sense of community which I had never experienced, and if I’m honest, I’ve probably never experienced since. In the midst of a bustling, secular university, the chapel and common spaces of the Newman Center became my haven not just for prayer (the ultimate communion!), but for fraternity and mutual enrichment in the spiritual life. The friendships which were made and fostered in t hose walls were centered on Christ, and they bore fruit in my life in a way that I had never anticipated.

It was in the common bond of discipleship, much like the apostles’, amidst the challenges and rigors of university life that we were forged together as one.

And it was there that my vocation was born. In that experience of community, I felt the Lord calling me to share that experience with others—to give them an experience of authentic encounter with the Church which I had longed for but never knew, and which He blessed me with in a way that I never expected. For me, community—the common bond of friendship and fraternity, forged in discipleship and rooted in Christ’s call to communion with Him and with each other—community became my “why.”

By that I mean that community is why I witness to Christ; it’s what convinced me of the truth of God’s goodness contained in the Word and Sacraments. In my ministry, it’s what I hope people would come to experience in the Church: communion with each other and, ultimately, communion with God.

Community was the incontrovertible push that I needed to experience true and lasting conversion, and then to become convinced of Jesus’ call to become a disciple for others, tasked with the mission of sharing the Gospel with everyone I encounter.

I hope to spend my life sharing that gift that I received so many years ago, and which I continue to experience in all the places I go.

Ask yourself: what is your “why?” What in your past made you unswervingly convinced of God’s love, of His Church, of His call to discipleship?

It’s that which Christ calls you to share with others in a way that no one else can. If all of us tapped into our why —that moment of extreme conviction— there would be no doubt that the Church and the world around us would be on fire with the blessings of the Spirit. The apostles — I’m convinced—had their why, each and every one. What else would enable them to suffer so much for Christ and His Church?

If you can’t answer the question immediately, take it to prayer. You may be surprised by the answer, but it will no doubt resonate with your passions and desires. The Lord has a way of fulfilling us, even when we have no idea what we want or why we want it. That was certainly my experience.

Father Michael Friedel is a Parochial Vicar at the Cathedral.

The Cathedral Parish believes in the value of Catholic education and is committed to assisting parishioners who choose a Catholic education for their children by receiving a $500 tuition scholarship to each child enrolled in a Springfield Catholic school in grades K-12.

The scholarship is eligible to any parishioner household who is registered and active. An active parishioner is defined as someone who regularly attends Mass on Sundays, supports the parish financially, and is active in the life of the parish. While all three of these qualifications are important, Sunday Mass participation is of the greatest importance because faith formation begins with participation at Sunday Mass. To be eligible as a parishioner household, the family must be registered and active parishioners for a minimum of six months before the application is made for the scholarship.

The scholarship will be paid directly to the school that the student attends. The funds will be attributed toward the 2018-2019 school year. The application will be available at the Parish Offices and posted online (spicathedral.org/scholarship) starting this week. Applications are DUE by March 15th. Cathedral will notify you when the scholarship is being sent to the receiving school. If you have any questions, please contact the Cathedral offices.

---

Jennifer Smith and SPARC receives a donation of $660.27 from the Cathedral Fr. Augustine Tolton Knights of Columbus Council 16126 with donations received from the Annual Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities conducted in the fall at White Oaks Mall. The funds will go to those with special needs who benefit from the many SPARC programs.

For more information about the Cathedral Knights of Columbus Fr. Augustine Tolton Council please check out their website at http://www.kofc16126.org.

“More than 30 years ago, a storm swept away a beachfront in Dooagh, Achill Island, off the County Mayo coast of Ireland. The entire beach was washed away, leaving a scenic but also craggy coast, treadable only by the hardiest of souls, wearing the hardiest of soles.

Around Easter of 2017, the beachfront reappeared overnight. A member of the Achill Island tourism board suggested that a cold snap and a steady north wind probably deposited the sand on its shores. Tourists immediately visited the beach, walking shoeless.

It’s an enchanting story and as it is situated in Ireland, it almost begs for an accompanying bit of freewheeling blarney — something about “the little people” being miffed at the locals for some reason and taking away their beach only to restore it when their pique had run its course.

But as I read about the reappearing beach, what struck me was what a working metaphor it was for our lives—both the material and the spiritual, the worldly life and the life of faith. It brings us a lesson about how the world and everything in it is continually in flux. What is alive is constantly in motion, sometimes obviously—like the waves pounding upon every ocean’s coast, or the wind bending a tree or raising a beach—and sometimes imperceptibly.

Right now, for instance, if your body is operating as it should, your red blood cells are collecting oxygen through your lungs and then transporting it throughout your body tissue by way of your heart, enlivening every bit of your tissue, but you don’t notice it.

Similarly, if your religious practices are being kept up, prayers and sacraments and devotions are, in a manner of speaking, bringing oxygen to your spirit in a strengthening and sustaining way. They are keeping your spiritual life alive, even as you attend to material things.

Thus, what is living is always changing in big and small ways, always resisting stasis and stagnation by living within the thrust and tension of a moment. It is adaptive. “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it,” observed G.K. Chesterton. That’s very true, of course, and only a living thing can evolve as needed, too.

Still, as the beach of Achill Island demonstrates, heavy weather will change things, cut new lines, expose new ground that must still be traveled, but always with an eye to the gauge of one’s sole, and of course, one’s soul.

It’s like that, right now, in Catholic evangelism. We are many decades away from the days of fully-enrolled Catholic schools giving instruction in the faith to children who had those lessons reinforced at home. That culture, which even featured a Catholic bishop, Fulton Sheen, hosting a show during network prime time, has become fundamentally and forever changed; those beachheads have been washed away. We are on newly exposed ground, requiring a new way to step.

The heavy storms of late have created a new mood too; people are not very open just now. They’re closing in on themselves and their secular – sociocommunities, tolerating fewer differences of thought, opinion, or practice, and religious instruction—or outright evangelism— they want not at all.

Mother Angelica once told a story about an agnostic visitor to her Abbey who refused a gift of one of the nun’s books. When asked why she didn’t want the book, the woman said, “If I read that, I might have to change, and I don’t want to.”

This is the challenge facing Christians who feel called to give witness to the life in Christ: evangelistic outreach invites others to consider Jesus of Nazareth and his teachings, which are all about becoming free in deep and authentic ways that cannot easily be imagined by those who see religion as a swampland of “No” when all they really want to hear is “Yes.” Many people fear giving any opening to an evangelist because they intuit that the True Yes they may find there, like true north, might navigate them away from what feels familiar and socially safe.

Like Bartleby the Scrivener, they would prefer not to.

But the life in Christ, particularly one lived with promise of sacramental graces, enriched by devotions and traditions and the whole communion of saints, is a life that is lived completely in “Yes,” and therefore in never ending possibility and potential—so alive that it leaps forward against the stream to find the next chance to say “Yes.”

It is the job of the evangelist to convey the excitement and energy that comes from understanding one’s gifts, discerning one’s mission within the plans of Christ, and then cooperating with the Creator for the furtherance of his purposes, which are—along with the Incarnation —“for all the people.”

And we cannot waste time bemoaning the loss of our comfortable earlier holdings because Christ is coming and—as with the beachfront in Dooagh—he may show up just that suddenly, and that unexpectedly, and asking us why we have permitted souls to be lost as we dithered about whether flip-flops or thick soles are the best way to manage the new landscape.

The living world, constantly in flux, is deeply in need of a living Church to walk within it in the hopes of rescuing some who’ve wandered too near a cliff, pulling others back from fast current or a dangerous riptide, inviting still others to rest in a light that will bathe but never consume, unless one asks it to.

Things being as they are, the living Church needs all of us to step up. The more I realize just how much she needs us—how much Christ needs us—in this work, the more excited I am to watch the continued growth of the Word on Fire Institute, and the communities of new lay evangelists beginning to be formed and made ready for the walking. It is a challenging time to be a Catholic. And an exciting one, as well. Do not be afraid.

Elizabeth Scalia is a Benedictine Oblate and author of several books including the award-winning Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life (Ave Maria Press) and Little Sins Mean a Lot (OSV). Before joining the Word on Fire team as a Editor at Large, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the English edition of Aleteia, and as Managing Editor of the Catholic section of Patheos.com. Elizabeth also blogs as “The Anchoress” at www.theanchoress.com. She is married, and living on Long Island.

When I was a child, I often thought of the Church as something mystical and supernatural. I wasn’t wrong in my understanding of the Body of Christ, for surely the Church has these characteristics. However, even though we speak about the foundation of all we are as Church being the “mystery of Christ,” Jesus became a man so that supernatural element could break into the natural world in a profound way. What we once could not see, we now see. What we saw as a God in a distant place now dwelt among us. It is one of the aspects of Catholicism that I have grown to appreciate the most as I have matured: for a Catholic, the supernatural is natural. The communion of saints is heavenly and earthly at the same time.

The Beatitudes instruct us about this reality. Pope Francis reminds us that holiness is “not about swooning in mystic rapture.” Holiness is about living in the real world and doing extraordinary things with our ordinary lives. Our stewardship way of life consists of actions in the natural world that have extraordinary repercussions.

Do not ever take your simple actions of generosity and love for granted. As disciples called to a life of stewardship, we participate in something more profound than what we can see. We are blessed to be called to follow Jesus, and we bring blessing to all those with whom we choose to share ourselves.

Tracy Earl Welliver is a Catholic author, speaker, consultant, and Gallup-certified Strengths coach with over 25 years experience in parish ministry. He is currently the Director of Parish Community and Engagement for LPI.

If you have ever seen the 1964 Oscar winning movie Becket, you may recall a scene where Archbishop (Saint) Thomas Becket, played by Richard Burton, excommunicates an English nobleman as part of an epic clash between the Archbishop of Canterbury and Henry II, King of England, some 350 years before the English Reformation. The scene is masterful, showing the use of a ritual once nicknamed “Bell, Book, and Candle” for the elements used in the rite. However, the scene belongs more to Hollywood than to present use in the Church.

Recently, the governor of New York, a Catholic, has ignited a firestorm in the U.S. Church with his boisterous support of new sweeping pro-abortion legislation in New York State. The response of many among the faithful has been a call for his excommunication from the Church. For many, the notion of excommunication is a casting out, a spiritual condemnation as pronounced in the famous scene from Becket:

“We declare him excommunicate and anathema. We cast him into the outer darkness. We judge him damned with the devil, and his fallen angels, and all the reprobate to eternal fire and everlasting pain.”

That was our understanding several centuries ago, but not today.

Today, excommunication is a medicinal remedy in canon law and is used to bring about a hoped-for change in a person. Diocesan bishops do not have the authority to excommunicate members of their respective dioceses at will, but can only do so following a canonical investigation and procedure as to whether or not an act punishable by excommunication has been committed. Ultimately, neither a bishop nor the Church excommunicates anyone. Excommunication is a consequence of one’s own actions , whereby a person removes themselves from communion with the Church either by a grave act contrary to the life of the Church or by publicly holding a belief that is heretical. A bishop declares that an excommunication has taken place after, and only after, he has beseeched the person to repent of their actions and to return to the communion of the Church.

The effects of excommunication are threefold. First, a cleric (bishop, priest, or deacon) cannot celebrate or participate in any liturgical or sacramental celebrations. Second, a person who is excommunicated cannot receive any of the sacraments except Reconciliation as a part of the excommunication being lifted. Third, a person who is excommunicated cannot hold any office or exercise any function within the Church. What excommunication does not do is remove someone from being Catholic; belonging to the Church and being in communion with her are two distinct realities. An excommunicated Catholic remains a Catholic, but is formally forbidden from participating from any aspect of the Church’s life. This is only done in the hope that the one excommunicated will understand the gravity of their actions, repent, and return to the fullness of the faith.

Concerning the governor of New York and abortion, canon 1398 in the Code of Canon Law states that procuring an abortion is punishable with excommunication and some are calling for the invocation of canon 1329 that allows for accomplices to such an act to also be excommunicated. The challenge here with Catholic politicians is the debate over their involvement with abortion legislation, whether it is proximate to the act or remote, with many canonists arguing that it would be difficult to prove proximate cooperation in a canonical trial. Another area that some canonists are urging to be investigated is canon 1369, which calls for a just penalty for those who gravely harm public morals.

Whether or not either these arguments would hold up in a canonical trial is debatable, but what is already present is canon 916, which calls on all who are conscious of grave sin to refrain from receiving the Holy Communion, which itself is one of the consequences of excommunication. The average person, Catholic or not, knows the Church’s position on the evil that is abortion. The governor of New York, in an op-ed piece from the Wall Street Journal this past Wednesday, acknowledged his own understanding of the Church’s teaching on the matter as well as his own choice not to follow it.

So, what do we need to do? We need to pray that our country comes to a deeper understanding of the sacredness of human life. We need to pray that those in public office will have the courage to place what is right, good, and holy, over personal ambition. In our own lives, we need to be conscious of our own need for conversion and those acts or beliefs that may wound our own communion with the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ

Father Christopher House is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, namely Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.

Have you ever participated in various trust exercises, where you have to place your faith in others around you? Maybe it was falling backwards with your eyes closed while the person’s voice speaking to you seemed to drift further away. Maybe it was jumping from a height into people’s arms that didn’t seem strong enough to catch you. These activities were supposed to show you the meaning of trust and help grow that trust in you for your comrades. Sometimes it worked. Other times, some prankster would actually let you fall, and then you learned to trust no one. So much for building up our ability to trust.

Trust is important, especially in our relationship with Jesus. He calls us all the time and asks for us to trust. However, because of doubt or a desire to follow our own will, we choose to disregard his request. After objecting to Jesus’ request to lower his net into the water, Peter was humbled when he caught so much fish that the net began to tear. Peter was a fisherman by trade. Surely he knew what the catch was probably going to be that day. But Jesus asked him to follow his will. Peter wanted to follow his own. Peter realized that his trust from then on should be in the Lord.

Do you sometimes think your generosity will bear little fruit? Do you wonder if your surrender to God in stewardship living really amounts to much at all? Trust in Jesus, the one who calls you to this life. His word is truth, and he would never let you fall.

Tracy Earl Welliver is a Catholic author, speaker, consultant, and Gallup-certified Strengths coach with over 25 years experience in parish ministry. He is currently the Director of Parish Community and Engagement for LPI.

“Does this item spark joy?” I asked myself for the hundredth time, holding an old but well-loved T-shirt in my hands. Like many people around the country, I have been swept up by the “KonMari” method, Marie Kondo’s process of decluttering your home that started a worldwide trend first with her book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and now with her Netflix show, “Tidying Up.”

But as I dutifully followed her advice by getting rid of things that didn’t “spark joy” (which, according to Ms. Kondo is akin to the feeling you get when holding a puppy), I started to ask myself, “What am I getting out of this besides bare kitchen counters and neatly folded socks?” Joy has to be more than the contentment of a tidy house. How could I simplify my life and my habits to spark joy in my faith? Once I reconsidered the question, the process became more valuable, and I realized the ethos of this diminutive Japanese woman whose folding methods have made headlines nationwide, actually has a great deal of relevance to our Christian beliefs.

Letting go

One of the major problems that Ms. Kondo helps people tackle is letting go of all the stuff in their life. Whether due to perceived or sentimental value, we cling to belongings thinking they will add to our lives, only to be dragged down by their emotional weight. While the show focuses on physical items, the idea of letting go of the intangible is equally important. As I got rid of the stuff in front of me, I started thinking about the stuff within:

• Are there grudges or preconceived notions I am holding against someone that prevent me from being a good neighbor?
• Are there negative thoughts from the latest news cycle taking up room in my head?
• Are there sins I am holding onto because of pride or stubbornness that are getting in the way of my spiritual life?
• The idea of letting go made me realize not only the benefits of a daily Examen but our regular need for confession.

Gratitude

If you have watched even one episode of “Tidying Up,” you notice that every person is instructed to say “thank you” to each item with which they choose to part. While I admit I didn’t do this every time, this idea of gratitude resonates. Being grateful is the antidote to so many destructive feelings: jealousy, hatred, selfishness, egotism, greed. Yet it is easy to lose it in this age of lifestyle bloggers and Instagram. By showing gratitude for all my stuff, I was able to reexamine other ways I could practice gratitude.

• Am I waking up each morning with a grateful heart and prayer of thanks to God?

• Am I expressing my gratitude through words and deeds to my fellow humans?

• Am I modeling gratitude with my children by regularly expressing our thanks together?

Generosity

The culmination of each show ends not only with a tidier home but trash bags—dozens and dozens of trash bags filled with items that will be donated and hopefully find use in another home. In our quest to discover what sparks joy, we encounter things we no longer want or need. This reflection of wants vs. needs is not only beneficial to us but to our neighbors and allows us to examine if we are practicing generosity.

• Are there items in my life that could better be used by someone else?
• Am I being a good earthly steward by being a responsible, careful consumer?
• Am I researching and selecting charities that align with my beliefs?

Time

Many will realize that the true beauty of minimizing and simplifying your life, whether you wholeheartedly dive into the KonMari method or not, is not the result of a tidy home. Rather, it is the time and space you receive in return for getting rid of the tangible and emotional clutter in your life. By tackling this decluttering challenge, I was able to also reflect how I was spending my time.

• Am I making enough time for the important people in my life?
• Are there unnecessary obligations that take my time away?
• Am I spending my time wisely or wasting it on mindless entertainment?
• Am I taking time to rest and pause throughout the day?

While I love dressing up my children weekly for Mass, going through this assessment made me realize this practice did not spark joy in my children’s sweatshirt-loving hearts. Instead, the getting-ready routine caused us stress and anxiety on what should be a peaceful day. So, we got rid of the fancy clothes and mutually agreed upon one “church outfit,” which they now wear every week without argument. There are adorable kids’ clothes that my own children will never wear, and we won’t likely ever show up beaming on Instagram with #Sundaybest, but we have a bit of our peaceful Sunday back and that’s all that matters.

By letting go of what I wanted and looking at the bigger picture of what is important for my faith and family, I was able to find that joy everyone is talking about.

My house will never be completely tidy. It will be littered with fingerprints, lone socks, hardened Play-Doh, and errant Legos for years to come. But by minimizing and simplifying my home with a focus on what is important to our family’s spiritual life, I hope to create a space where our faith can flourish.

Katie Waite is a freelance writer and high school teacher who lives in the Washington, D.C., metro area with her husband, three kids, and dog. She tends to write humorous pieces focused on faith, family, or finances. She also writes occasionally on her blog comomedy.com.

As perhaps most of you have seen in our Weekly, we are reintroducing Adoration to our parish, beginning Tuesday, February 5. These “Holy Hours” will take place from 4 pm to 5 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, concluding with Benediction before the 5:15 pm daily Mass (the Sacrament of Confession will still be offered from 4:15 pm to 5 pm).

It’s an exciting opportunity to commit ourselves—and our parish —to spending intentional time away from the busyness and distractions of daily life to be with our Lord, who asked His disciples, “Could you not watch with me for one hour?”

But all of this begs the question: what is Adoration and what do I do for a whole hour before our Lord? (Don’t worry—we’ve all thought it!)

What we commonly call “Adoration” is actually properly termed “ Eucharistic Exposition,” which consists of exposing the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance (from the Latin monstrare, which just means “to show”). At the beginning of the hour, then, a priest or deacon will expose our Eucharistic Lord in the monstrance, sing a hymn, and proclaim a reading from Scripture. The faithful are then invited to pray in silence in the presence of Jesus, which— admittedly—can be a little intimidating if you’ve never done it before.

So what is “proper” in spending an hour with our Lord, exposed at the altar? Well, the short answer is: prayer! However that looks for you. Some might find it easy to recollect themselves, sitting quietly in the Lord’s presence. Meditation, most simply put, is just being with the Lord, relating your joys and your sorrows to Him, delighting in Him even as He delights in you.

But for some (and I would argue most, especially as our culture has devalued quiet and calm in favor of the fast-paced and attention-getting), this is not an easy practice. Conversing with our Lord should be our primary focus, no doubt. But here are a few tips for when the silence becomes challenging and you’re tempted to quit—a few spiritual practices which can be an aid to your prayer:

• Many find it helpful to bring a list of people or things they have promised to pray for.
• If you’re an extrovert and external processor like me, you might find it helpful to write your prayers in the form of a journal (for me, at least, this practice usually keeps my mind from wandering to my to-do list or the otherwise trivial things that pop into my mind and helps me focus on praying at length on one particular person, situation, passage of Scripture, or grace).
• Bringing a Bible and practicing the age-old art of lectio divina (“Ok Google: what is lectio divina?”) can be another way of getting in touch with God through His revealed Word. •Spiritual reading is also a great way to spend a part of your holy hour, engaged in the lives of the saints or reading a classic on prayer or the spiritual life.

Honestly, how you spend your time in Adoration is secondary. What is primary is that you spend time with our Lord, who desires us no matter how distracted we come and pursues us now matter how far we stray.

When I was in college (before I entered seminary), a priest once told me: if you want to be holy, spend an hour in Adoration every day and come to daily Mass; it will change your life. I can honestly say that the effects weren’t immediate or even perceptible. But the Lord did change my life. He has a way of doing that, if we let Him.

Father Michael Friedel is a Parochial Vicar at the Cathedral.

Hello. My name is Kevin Keen. I am a Lector at the 7:00am Sunday mass. I transferred to Cathedral as a parishioner many years ago from Sacred Heart Church in the St. Katherine Drexel parish. There, I served as a reader and thoroughly enjoyed my experience there.

After transferring to Cathedral, I wanted to continue this service, but was intimidated by its size and grandeur. I quickly discovered however that in a church large or small, Gods message remains the same. The delivery of that message was the same as well.

I summoned the courage and volunteered to read and have doing so ever since. Reading at mass makes me feel like part of the “team” that shares the good news each week. Realizing that I am sharing the stories of our Lord, I take pride in my delivery and am humbled to participate in this role.

I encourage anyone who might consider becoming a lector to give it a try. Don’t let the size of the church or the number of people you address influence your decision. As the ad says, “Just do it” You’ll be glad you did.

Kevin Keen is a Cathedral Parishioner involved in many ministries, including liturgical ministry and the Fr. Augustine Tolton Knights of Columbus Council.