Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Several thoughts on today’s feast of the Visitation. Nothing seems to bring more joy to parents than to find out that their children are having a baby. The visit, or phone call, or text message, of their children to the parents, stating that they are having a baby, brings incredible joy to them and others. Our Blessed Mother visited Elizabeth sharing the good news of her womb which caused the baby in Elizabeth’s womb to leap for joy. God has entered our lives—our hopes and dreams, our pains and confusion, and our sufferings—to be a Presence greater than anything in the world that can happen to us.
Whenever I stay at St. Joseph Parish in Hays, I walk by the office of Fr. Rich Daise on the way to the sacristy. He has a note on his office door that I find somewhat amusing. It states, “Whoever enters this door brings joy. Some when they enter, and some when they leave!” This reminds me of reading the story of Saint Madeline Sophie Barat, who founded the Society of the Sacred Heart and was the one who sent Saint Philippine Duchesne to the United States. She would often say, “Be humble, be simple, and bring joy to others.”
What happened then is happening now. The Feast of the Visitation reminds us that when we visit the sick and the homebound, when we call someone who may be lonely, or just listen to another, we are allowing the Visitation to come alive in our world today. The best gift we can give is to visit someone and bring them Jesus.
I recently read the heart-warming story of Junior Colson, who was drafted by the San Diego Chargers a month or so ago. Junior grew up in Haiti. His parents died when he was young. A family from Tennessee was doing some ministry there and ended up adopting Junior. The family visited Junior and brought joy and life to him. What a sacrifice to the family, and yet it turned out to be a great blessing in so many ways. Adoption is such a great blessing!
This weekend we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi. Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphans. I will be with you always.” Pope Francis recently said, “The Eucharist is God’s response to the deepest hunger of the human heart, the true hunger.” We all hunger to know God’s love for us. We all hunger for the meaning of life. We all hunger to know that God knows our pain and suffering, our fears, and faults, and still cares for us. We all hunger to be in union with God. God not only speaks to us in the Word of God but Jesus the Bridegroom desires to share his Body with us.
I have enjoyed reading the news stories of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage taking place across our country that will culminate at the National Eucharistic Congress. May the Presence of Christ bring healing and peace to our country.
As you may know, our diocese is having a Eucharistic Conference presented by the Comeau Catholic Campus Center in Hays on August 9 – 10. I look forward to seeing you there. Please find more information on our Diocesan website HERE.
I am looking forward to seeing many of you at my 25th Anniversary Mass on June 9 at the Basilica of St. Fidelis in Victoria at 3 pm. All are welcome to attend, there will be a come and go reception following the Mass.
So many of our priests are celebrating their priesthood anniversaries this time of year. Please thank them for their priesthood. They often make the Visitation come alive by their ministry of bringing Jesus to others.
Speaking of anniversaries, I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the 51st Anniversary Mass of Fr. Don Zimmerman at St. Thomas More in Manhattan this weekend!
Speaking of our priests, one of our retired priests shared how he was covering for one of our younger priests who was on vacation. He noticed a young boy talking with his mother during Mass and the priest could tell that something the child said amused his mother. After Mass, the priest talked with the mom about their discussion. The little boy told his mom, referring to the priest, “God has gotten really old.”
We recently received this year’s ARK (Assessment of Religious Knowledge) testing results. This test is taken by both our Catholic school students and our students in our parish religious education programs. As a diocese, we improved nine percentile points on the national average from last year to this year. That is a credit to our amazing families, pastors, DREs, principals, and catechists. I can’t thank them enough for all they are doing to help our young people learn about God and grow in their faith.
I don’t know if you know this, but the Sisters of St. Joseph in Concordia will soon have around 18 Sisters from Vietnam staying with them as they learn English.
On June 27, we celebrate our patron saint, Our Lady of Perpetual Help. We have two parishes, one in Goodland and the other in Concordia, named after our patron saint. We turn to our Blessed Mother with all our needs.
It brings me great joy thinking of our three deacons—Jessie Ochs, Adam Urban, and Kade Megaffin—who God willing will be ordained as priests for the Diocese of Salina on this day next year. I am very much looking forward to the special occasion!
“The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: it signifies love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.” ~ St. Thomas Aquinas
“To speak of the Blessed Sacrament is to speak of what is most sacred. How often, when we are in a state of distress, those to whom we look for help leave us; or what is worse, add to our affliction by heaping fresh troubles upon us. He is ever there, waiting to help us.” ~ St. Euphrasia
“When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth’s sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food.” ~ St. Francis de Sales
“Since Christ Himself has said, ‘This is My Body,’ who shall dare to doubt that it is His Body?” ~ St. Cyril of Jerusalem
“If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion.” ~ St. Maximilian Kolbe
“A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.” ~ St. Pio of Pietrelcina
“If we paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ’s love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude.” ~ St. Angela of Foligno
“O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble himself like this and hide under the form of a little bread, for our salvation.” ~ St. Francis of Assisi
“What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the body of Christ, and the chalice is the blood of Christ. This has been said very briefly, which may perhaps be sufficient for faith; yet faith does not desire instruction.” ~ St. Augustine
“It is not the man who is responsible for the offerings as they become Christ’s Body and Blood; it is Christ Himself who was crucified for us. The standing figure belongs to the priest who speaks these words. The power and the grace belong to God. ‘This is My Body,’ he says. And these words transform the offerings.” ~ St. John Chrysostom
