First off, thank you to everyone who has sent in a suggestion for the Ask Father segment of my bulletin articles. Over the coming months I hope to answer many of the questions that you all are asking, or may have, throughout the liturgical year. I am greatly looking forward to this segment!
As summer comes to a close, we begin our new academic year; and with that we are also ending our National Preaching Series on the Eucharist as we have walked through John 6: the Bread of Life Discourse. Over the past month we have journeyed through elements of the Eucharist: Presence, Sacrifice, Communion, and Mission. In case you missed a weekend here or there, I figured that it would be good for us to recap each of these with our final weekend.
Happy Anniversary, Prince of Peace! This Sunday, August 18th, is the 28th anniversary of the dedication of our current parish church. It was on this day in 1996 that our current church was blessed and dedicated by Archbishop Keleher. Concelebrants were Fr. Charles Andalikiewicz, first pastor of POP; Fr. George Bertels, church-building pastor of POP; Fr. Frank Burger, the pastor at the time of the dedication; and Fr. Jerry Volz, who was an associate pastor at the time. Previous to this dedication, we had used what is now the gym as the temporary church.
This past week we celebrated St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was a Jewish convert to Catholicism and was a brilliant philosopher and theologian. She would teach in schools across Germany until anti-semitic laws did not allow her to continue. She joined the discalced carmelites in Cologne, but in 1939 she moved to Holland due to the Nazi persecution of the Jews. In 1942, with the Nazi invasion of Holland, she was arrested and sent to Auschwitz where she would be martyred for her faith on August 9th. Along with Sts.
August is traditionally dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, here are some things to know about the devotion:
Fr. Andrew, myself, Deacon Dan, Deacon Mike, plus 21 other Prince of Peace parishioners all attended the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana from Wednesday, July 17th through Sunday, July 21st. This was the 10th national Eucharist Congress. However, the last one was 83 years ago in 1941. More than 50,000 Catholics attended with many hundreds of priests and religious in attendance.
This past week, Fr. Greg and I will be in Indianapolis for the Eucharistic Congress as a part of the National Eucharistic Revival. We are very excited to take part in this historic event for our country. As you are reading this, things will be wrapping up in Indianapolis and we will be on our way back to the great state of Kansas. Please pray for us and the crew attending as we come back with Hearts on Fire to share what we experienced and to be on mission in a deeper way out of love for the Eucharist,
Over the past couple of weeks, we have had several major political events from the Presidential Debate to celebrating the 4th of July. Surrounding things, quite frankly, has been a lot of hot air. The one thing we need more of is prayer. Regardless of the political side you may find yourself, regardless of what you think a person should do, regardless of who you think people should vote for, the one thing we need is prayer. If you find yourself getting worked up or angry about it all, take it to prayer.
Welcome Kalee Jo, our new Middle and High School youth minister!
We have been blessed over the last couple of months to have Fr. Andrew head up the youth ministry program here. That said, we are very excited to have Kalee Jo Probasco join our family here at Prince of Peace as the new youth minister. I encourage you to get to know her. In addition to finding ways to continue to grow the high school ministry, we will be increasing our middle school ministry. Look for details to come! I’ll let Kalee Jo introduce herself:
This week, I am excited to share more about Deacon Joe Allen! Welcome (back) home to Prince of Peace, Deacon Joe!
In Christ,
Fr. Greg