Salina — Greg Darr had two lessons to share with students at Sacred Heart Junior-Senior High School.

One: Wealth won’t necessarily make you happy.

Two: You’ll receive far more than you’ll give as a missionary.

Darr, a lay missioner for the Maryknoll order of priests and brothers, spoke as part of a Lenten mission retreat through the Salina Diocese’s Office of Propagation of the Faith.

Darr now directs mission promotion efforts for Maryknoll in the upper Midwest and lives in Chicago. But his three years as a missionary in Kenya significantly altered his point of view, he explained.

“What I didn’t know, as a missionary and as an American, is how unique we have it here. What we take to be normal is really unique,” Darr told the students.

Americans have a difficult time comprehending poverty because most are rarely exposed to it.

To illustrate his point, he had five volunteers agree to represent the world’s population, and he had a bag of 100 M&Ms to represent all of the world’s wealth.

“If you were going to be fair, each kid would get 20 M&Ms,” he told the students.

Donations to the Catholic Relief Services collection taking place the weekend of March 13-14 in the Diocese of Salina support six Catholic programs that share in the Church’s mission of promoting the sacredness of human life and the dignity of the human person:

• Catholic Relief Services for international relief and development.

• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services for refugee resettlement.

• Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC) for immigration legal services.

• USCCB Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development for advocacy.

• Holy Father’s Relief Fund for emergency relief.

• USCCB Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church for evangelization and ministry.

Here are some of the projects funded by the annual collection:

By educating farmers and distributing disease-resistant cassava plants, CNS is helping prevent a food crisis in Africa’s Great Lakes region.

“Cassava is the crop that can fight poverty in this region,” said Hannington Obiero, head of the cassava program and research officer at the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute in Kakamega, western Kenya.

Just over a decade ago, a virulent form of cassava mosaic disease crossed into western Kenya and wiped out just about every cassava field.

A special collection by parishes and schools in the Diocese of Salina for Haiti relief has raised $208,901 to date.

The money, forwarded to the Chancery and then to Catholic Relief Services, came from parishes, schools and individuals. Those contributions totaled $201,306 as of Tuesday.

Another $7,595 was donated to Catholic Charities of Salina for CRS, the U.S. bishops’ international relief and development agency.

To donate directly to CRS by either check or credit card, go to www.crs.org.

Topeka — Although a bill abolishing the death penalty in Kansas didn’t make it out of the Senate, the fact that it was debated at length was good, said an advocate for the Kansas Catholic bishops.

“Obviously we were disappointed in the outcome but pleased with the seriousness of the debate,” said Michael Schuttloffel, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, the Kansas bishops’ public policy arm.

Kansas senators debated Senate Bill 375 for several hours on Feb. 19. The bill would have repealed the state’s death penalty, enacted in 1994, and created a new charge of aggravated murder that would carry a sentence of life in prison without parole.

The state’s four Catholic bishops, as well as the Kansas bishops from the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church, had urged lawmakers to repeal the death penalty.

Salina — Bishop Paul Coakley urged his listeners on Ash Wednesday to take a “long view” of Lent and consider what lasting changes they ought to make.

“Lent is a time not just for temporary inconveniences but the permanent improvements we need to make in our lives,” he said in his homily at St. Mary, Queen of the Universe Church.

Giving up something but returning to it after Lent may have some value, the bishop said, “but consider what permanent improvement we ought to make. Break a bad habit or cultivate good habits. Take the long view of Lent and consider what changes you should make or what relationships need improving or need to be ended.”

That isn’t easy, he acknowledged.

“All of us have the same struggle. We resist God — an effect of original sin. We build up resistance to God. We all have that. If we really strive to keep this season and our commitments, we will experience that resistance. So we draw strength from one another and the Lord,” he said.

God provides us help, through the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, he said.

“Each of us needs to experience the Sacrament of Reconciliation this Lent to draw strength for our own repentance and to turn away from sin, so that the Lord can enter our lives more deeply,” Bishop Coakley said.

Rick Binder says he always knew attending Mass on Sunday was important. His faith told him that.

However, it wasn’t until he took three youth to a “One Bread, One Cup” conference at St. Meinrad Seminary in the summer of 2004 did he fully understand what was taking place at Mass.

Now, the Catholic youth director at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Hays can’t keep the Good News to himself. He shares what he has learned with anyone who will listen.

This includes giving presentations to his larger Catholic Youth Organization group, youth retreats throughout the diocese, classes for catechumens and candidates in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults and teaching a four-week adult class on the Eucharist.

He returns each summer to St. Meinrad with a new group of teens.

This is the enthusiasm Bishop Paul Coakley said he is hoping for in implementing “Stewards of Hope: A Pastoral Plan for the Diocese of Salina.” This plan will be proclaimed with a diocesan assembly June 6 — the Feast of Corpus Christi — in Hays.

Bishop Coakley said he wants the faithful to be excited in keeping Sunday holy with the Eucharistic celebration of Mass as the center of their day.

In the fourth century, Christians died because of their desire to celebrate Sunday Eucharist, something that was considered a capital offense.

“When a group of Christians were arrested and brought before a judge for disregarding this unjust law, these heroic Christians replied, ‘Sine dominico non possumus,’ ” Bishop Coakley said. “This Latin expression has rich meaning: ‘Without the gift of the Lord, we cannot live! Without the Sunday Eucharist we are powerless!’ This is the realization that we need to rekindle in our time.”

Bishop Paul Coakley would like to renew the sacredness of Sunday. Not only would he like to see the faithful more fully embrace the joyous celebration of the Mass but also to take that joy and celebrate it with one another.

Charles and Lois Deyoe of St. Thomas More Parish in Manhattan remember Sundays in the past being special. Towns literally shut down with no stores open so all could celebrate. Traditions in their families usually included Mass followed by a home-cooked meal.

“Sunday dinners were special,” Charles said of growing up in Coldwater. “I especially enjoyed the fried chicken we had during the summer months.”

Lois said big dinners following Mass was also a tradition as she grew up in Wamego.

“I remember cooking all day Saturday for Sunday dinners. We often got together with family, and the older folks played cards while we children played. If we didn’t get together with extended family, we often got in the car and took a ride on Sundays. My father didn’t even harvest on Sundays because he felt so strongly that it was to be kept a holy day,” she said.

The couple, now in their 70s, agreed times have changed.

“The opening of stores on Sunday, Saturday night Masses and families eating out more changed all that,” Lois said. “For me, I like to keep Sundays special. It’s a time to get caught up with myself and my God. If I don’t take the time, my weeks are more difficult.”

Aaron and Julie Brockman, also members of St. Thomas More, are a modern-day family who strive to keep Sundays special, even though it is often difficult do in these economic times.

“We participate in Sunday Mass. That’s a must,” Aaron said. “We never miss even if we are visiting extended family who aren’t Catholic. Mass is the foundation of the day — always.”

During the next two Sundays, 145 people will continue their journey toward the Easter sacraments at the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion.

Two ceremonies will take place in the diocese: Feb. 21 at St. Nicholas of Myra Church in Hays and Feb. 28 at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Salina. Both begin at 3 p.m.

Among those who are seeking the Easter sacraments are 30 catechumens — those who will be baptized and confirmed and receive the Eucharist for the first time at the Easter Vigil. After the Rite of Election, they will be known as “the elect” or those who have been called by God.

Chapman — Several stained glass windows at St. Michael’s Church, along with those of other churches in town, were destroyed or severely damaged by the tornado that struck June 11, 2008.

The large south-facing front window of St. Michael’s was blown out by the high winds, and some of the smaller stained glass windows on the west side of the church also were damaged.

Members of the church who came the morning following the tornado to assess damage and clean up the debris boarded up the open window spaces with plywood, and that is how they have remained the past 15 months.

However, there was never any doubt that the windows would not be repaired or replaced.

In September, the Scott Hoefer Stained Glass Co. from South Hutchinson was in Chapman and installed a new plate glass exterior window. A new aluminum frame had been made to hold the window, replacing the wood frame mangled in the storm.

During the second week in January, Scott Hoefer and his workers returned with the upper two-thirds of the front window to be installed. The windows had been made in his shop and were brought to the site in panels to be fitted together in the window openings.

Mike Petering, Bobbie Glynn and Curry Wells, all of whom also do glass work at Hoefer, meticulously matched the cross bars in the panels, chipping out glass to make needed adjustments and expertly fitting the panels together to complete the design.

Working from photos, Hoefer said he was able to closely duplicate the pattern and design of the original, described as a rose window because of its circular shape.

He said that pieces of glass from the old front window had been brought to him in a box, and he was able to salvage most of the beautiful “jewels” in the window, as well as some sections of the beveled glass that appear in the cross. He also was able to match the glass colors as authentically as possible to the earlier stained glass.

Striving to be more prayerful and more charitable is the message Capuchin Father Earl Befort will be sharing with his parishioners and students as the Lenten season begins.

Lent starts with Ash Wednesday on Feb. 17.

Father Befort, chaplain at Thomas More Prep-Marian High School in Hays, said it’s particularly challenging translating the idea of penance to his young charges.

He hopes to steer them away from the traditional thought of giving up pop or candy.

“Giving up something is more concrete, easier to understand. But giving it up, then going right back to it Easter Sunday, defeats the purpose in some way,” he said.

Instead, he tries to encourage youth — and adults as well — to enter into a life-changing experience.

“I encourage my people to be more prayerful, more charitable, to try to reach out to someone who is alienated from you or to family and friends with whom you are having difficulty. That’s more valuable, more concrete than giving up something,” he said.