Dear Friends in Christ,

Today the earthquake that shook the entire universe and turned humanity upside down is happening once again. The coming of the Holy Spirit. It's true that Easter Sunday will continue being the center of history; but if there had never been a Pentecost, Easter would only be an event of the past. The Holy Spirit makes Christ actual and contemporary in every age.

Dear Friends in Christ,

SEA Academy - There was a meeting of the Diocesan Building Renovation Advisory Committee (BRAC) on May 11th. They reviewed the design for our Science and Engineering Academy for our School in great detail. The good news is that they approved us at the 90% design stage. This means that we are on track with our plan to break ground for the Academy in late June. We extend a huge thank you to all who donated and pledged so very generously! It is truly amazing to come into a parish and see such a huge project being undertaken and to have the cash and pledges in hand. Thanks so much to our fund-raising committee, the Finance Council and all who have worked so hard and faithfully to get us to this stage. May all of us be faithful to keep praying for the success of this project. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

Dear Friends in Christ,

This is truly an exciting time in our parish school’s history. Soon we will begin to see construction on our new campus expansion, the Saint Mary Help of Christians Catholic School Science and Engineering Academy. With the increased physical space that the new addition will provide, we will also have the opportunity to increase our enrollment capacity! We rejoice for the ability to expand the work of one of the Church’s most important missions, educating our youth. News is spreading throughout the community of our growth, and we have seen an increased number of tours of our school and new family enrollments. Before we fill all our spots with students from the community, we want to give every opportunity to enroll our parish families first.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Just before being elected Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger warned that we live in a “dictatorship of relativism.” This philosophy basically says that everyone's personal ideas about what is true or false, right or wrong are equally valid, as if there were no objective truth or right at all. People of our modern world consider everything to be relative; they don’t believe that there could be a “truth, a way” to which they can commit their lives. In our Gospel today, Thomas doubted, but Christ gave him the clearest answer possible: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

We live in a culture filled with raucous noise. In the midst of so many voices and so much noise all around us, can we still pick out the voice of Christ saying, “I am the good shepherd?”

Jesus is the Shepherd, but also the gate of the sheepfold: the word “gate” implies an entrance. In a word full of urgent, existential questions, Jesus is the answer that gives meaning to our existence, the teacher that teaches us authentic truth. He is the only gate that leads to happiness and life. “He who enters through me will be saved,” he says so clearly. To enter by this door means much more than passively holding our baptismal certificate, the sacrament signifying our entrance in the church; it means hearing his voice and following him.

Dear Friends in Christ,

The source and summit of our Catholic faith is the Most Holy Eucharist. With that in mind, the USCCB is promoting three years of Eucharistic renewal within our parishes and missions. Here at St. Mary Help of Christians, we are fortunate to be one of six parishes to host a special event of the National Eucharistic Revival. A Eucharistic Revival Mission Night is coming to us on Friday! Specifically, Friday, April 28th from 6:00-7:30pm at Old St. Mary’s following the daily Mass.

Dear Friends in Christ,

The Lord Jesus, the Risen One is coming today to open our eyes, just like He did for Thomas, so that we can have a new perspective on our lives. His Spirit enlightens us and strengthens us with a new life that fills us with joy and peace. “If then you were raised with Christ,” says St. Paul, “seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” (Col 3:1-4) Christ rose from the dead, but He did not stop there: he promised that each of us would also one day rise again. St. Paul teaches us that our faith allows us to wait hopefully for our own resurrection, and this hope will give us the spiritual strength necessary to break the bonds of sin.

Dear Friends in Christ,

So, to finish, in extremely condensed form, my spiritual journey up to now…When I came into full communion with the Catholic Church I got heavily involved with my local parish, St. Joseph’s in Anderson. I started out singing as a tenor in the choir. Then over time I got more involved with other ministries. Soon I was also serving as a lector, CCD instructor, Finance Council member, money counter and later as President of the Men’s Club. I was a leader in our parish pro-life movement, organizing a trip for the parish to the pro-life march to the State Capitol in Columbia each year. It got so that, when I was away for a weekend, I had to find about three people to cover for me in the ministries in which I was involved. At that time, I was newly divorced and still felt that I wanted to be remarried. I tried eHarmony.com, Catholic Match and even hired a match maker from Greenville to help me find the right woman to marry. But…it was not to be.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last week I left my life story at the point when I was serving in the Army and worshipping at the Protestant Chapel or Protestant services of one type or other. At about the ten-year mark, I felt that God was calling me to leave the Army and be a Protestant minister. I got accepted at Gordon Conwell Seminary (the same seminary that Marcus Grodi and Scott Hahn attended.) Then I went to see Chaplain Troy Carter, an Assemblies of God Chaplain, and told him my desire to leave the service and become a Protestant minister. He listened intently to me and then leaned across the desk and said powerfully, “Forget about it!” That was quite a shock, but then he paused and said… “But it you can’t forget about it, maybe you should think about it.” I was about to make Major, so I prayed about it, talked to mentors and decided that I would stay in the Army and be the best lay witness that I could be.

Dear Friends in Christ,

As a young boy, growing up in northern Minnesota, I could not have imagined, even in my wildest dreams, that I would one day be Catholic, be able to speak two languages, and be Pastor of a large bilingual parish and Dean of a subdivision of a Catholic Diocese. There is no way that I could have ever conceived a future like that for me.

But our God is a loving and merciful God, one who provides for us, one who makes Romans 8:28 come alive: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Dear Friends in Christ,

This is my first letter to the parish, and I hope that it will be the first of many. As I have shared with many of you, my assignment to St. Mary’s came as a total surprise to me. I had told several people and some priests that I planned to stay at Our Lady of Peace for as long as I could still walk down the aisle…whether that be in six months or ten years. But it was not to be. On January 24th, I received a call from Msgr. Cellini advising me that the Bishop wanted me to move to be Pastor of St. Mary Help of Christians. It was certainly a shock to me. But, as I reflected on it, I realized that January 24th is the feast day of my patron saint, St. Francis de Sales. It was no coincidence that I received that call on his feast day. St. Francis de Sales was almost constantly on the go; he exercised a truly mobile ministry. May the Holy Spirit help me to be as faithful and committed to the people of God as he was.

When I became the pastor of a large parish, I soon found myself, for the first time in my life, riddled with anxiety, headaches, difficulty making decisions, and fatigue. I called a therapist friend and told her my symptoms and asked if she thought I needed a serious medical exam. She said, “How much water do you drink?” I told her, “I haven’t had time to drink water lately.” She responded, “You’re chronically dehydrated. Drink eighty-five ounces a day and call me in a week.” I started guzzling water and in a week all my symptoms went away. I felt great.

As a kid I remember looking at my sister and thinking, “No man is ever going to marry her. She is way too…my sister!” I couldn’t see her as anything except my goofy, emotional, cooties-laden sister. Years later, on her wedding day, I remember seeing how her husband looked at her, he was totally in love with her, his watery eyes full of overwhelmed joy, drinking in her beauty and grace. He was the one who actually saw her. Blinded by familiarity, I had not been able to see her until now. She was glorious. I finally saw how beautiful my sister really was.