12 09 22 Vol. 44 No. 17

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

How Juan Diego’s roses blossomed into a global devotion

STORY BY JOE BOLLIG

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Hill of Tepeyac, now in a sprawling suburb of modern Mexico City, was an unremarkable place on the periphery of the colonial capital 500 years ago.

It had been a ceremonial hill where various Aztec deities were honored, but that ceased after the Spanish conquest between 1517 and 1521.

The years following the conquest were disastrous for the Native peoples: the humiliation of conquest, the destruction of culture and society, slavery, disease and death. Native population

levels plummeted.

The Aztec peoples lived in despair. What could inspire them and give them hope?

On Dec. 9, 1531, something remarkable happened on that unremarkable Hill of Tepeyac.

A Native man, who had converted to Catholicism and taken the name Juan Diego, was passing by the hill on his way to a Franciscan mission when he suddenly encountered the vision of a beautiful woman.

She spoke to him in Nahuatl, Juan’s native language, and revealed herself to

The ‘mission impossible’ of the apostles is ours still today ARCHBISHOP NAUMANN’S CALENDAR

Ihave asked all of our priests and deacons to preach the “kerygma” during the four Sundays of Advent. “Kerygma” is a Greek word that means “to herald or to proclaim.” For Christians, “kerygma” is a code word that means preaching the fundamental message of the Gospel, the central truths of our Christian faith.

Jesus commissioned apostles to make disciples of all nations by proclaiming the Gospel. When you consider the mission that Our Lord gave to the original disciples, it certainly appeared to be a mission impossible. They had no buildings, no books, no magazines, no newspapers, no programs, no technology, no radio, no television and no internet with which to make disciples.

Yet, the apostles were remarkably successful in spreading the Gospel of Jesus through much of the known world to the east as far as India and to the west as far as Spain. All they had were their memories of their own personal encounters with Jesus, their recollections of his preaching and teaching and their witness of the amazing miracles Our Lord performed that healed so many physically and spiritually.

It was the testimony of the early disciples that captured the hearts and imaginations of both Jews and Gentiles. Of course, part of their success was that all of the apostles, except John, gave the ultimate witness of martyrdom. There was no doubt the apostles believed what they were proclaiming. They chose to die rather than deny what they knew to be true about Jesus.

This past June,

ARCHBISHOP JOSEPH F. NAUMANN

Father John Riccardo — a diocesan priest from Detroit, who is the founder and executive director of ACTS XXIX (an apostolate that equips clergy and laity to lead the church amid the challenges of the 21st century) — gave a retreat for our priests.

During the retreat, Father Riccardo observed that in his experience, many, many Catholics do not know the “kerygma.” He mentioned that the Archdiocese of Denver, during Advent 2021, devoted the Sunday homilies to the proclamation of the key themes of the “kerygma.”

Father Riccardo authored the book, “Rescued: The Unexpected and Extraordinary News of the Gospel,” in which he divides the “kerygma” into four major themes: creation, captured, rescued and response.

After receiving a positive recommendation from our Presbyteral Council, I decided to ask our priests and deacons to preach the “kerygma” during Advent 2022. I encouraged them to follow the four major themes developed by Father Riccardo.

After the first two weeks, the reports that I have received from our priests and parishioners have been extremely positive. It

is not that most parishioners were unfamiliar with the biblical themes, but for many, no one had connected all of the dots for the fullness of what we believe as Catholics.

We have a very different view of the cosmos and the meaning of life than the secular atheist or agnostic. It makes a big difference if you believe that the world and life are the result of pure chance or if they were created by a loving God.

Similarly, it makes a big difference if you believe that human beings were created in the divine image and have been empowered by a loving Creator to be stewards of the world, or if you believe that we are essentially just like any other animal inhabitant of the planet Earth, except for possessing a more highly developed intellectual aptitude.

It makes a big difference if you believe evil and suffering are just part of an irrational cosmos or evidence of a great spiritual battle that has been raging from the beginning of human life. It makes a big difference if you believe that the moral choices we make every day are meaningless or have real consequences during our life in this world as well as an impact upon our eternal destinies.

It makes a real difference if we believe in a God who desired for us

to share in his eternal life so much that he immersed himself into our humanity. It makes a real difference if we believe in a God who humbled himself to be conceived as an embryo in the womb of Mary, who chose to be born in the austere circumstances of an animal shelter in Bethlehem, who grew up in the obscure town of Nazareth, who spent the majority of his adult life as a laborer and who ultimately gave his life on Calvary so that we would know the depth of God’s merciful love for us.

It makes a difference if we believe everything ends with death or that the Second Person of the Triune God allowed himself to be crucified as a common criminal on Calvary and rose triumphant from the dead so that we could share in his abundant and eternal life.

It makes a difference if we believe that Our Lord sent the Holy Spirit to empower his apostles to lead his church and build up his kingdom on earth — a kingdom not built upon military strength and economic wealth, but rather a kingdom comprised of those who have given lordship of their hearts to Jesus and where peace, mercy, justice and joy are experienced despite the chaos of the world.

It makes a difference if we believe that suffering is to be avoided at all costs or that it has purpose, meaning and power for those who unite it with the sacrifice of the One crucified on Calvary.

It makes a difference if we believe Jesus empowered his church to make himself present throughout all time through the sacraments and particularly the Eucharist. It makes a difference if we believe

Dec. 10 Christmas with the homeless — Blessed Sacrament Church, Kansas City, Kansas

City Lights Mass and gala meal blessing — Oliver Building, Kansas City, Missouri Dec. 12

Our Lady of Guadalupe School Mass — Our Lady of Guadalupe, Topeka

Annual Ascension meeting — chancery

Confirmation — St. Vincent De Paul in Onaga, St. Patrick in Corning and St. Bede, Kelly, at St. Bede Dec. 13

Priests personnel board meeting — chancery

“Take 2 with Jerry & Debbie” with EWTN Radio Network

Ethics Council — residence Dec. 14

Serra Club presidents annual meeting — St. Joseph, Shawnee

CEF board meeting

Dec. 15 Confirmation — St. Teresa in Westphalia, St. Francis Xavier in Burlington and St. Joseph, Waverly, at St. Francis Xavier

Dec. 16

“Quo Vadis” retreat — Savior Pastoral Center, Kansas City, Kansas

Dec. 18

40th jubilee of Father Francis Bakyor — Immaculate Conception, Louisburg

Jesus empowered weak and sinful human beings to be the means in which Our Lord continues to make his ministry of mercy available through all time, liberating us from our enslavements to sin.

It makes a difference if we believe that the only appropriate response to a God — who loved us into existence, redeemed us from our sins by the blood of the cross, desires friendship and communion with us and has given us an eternal destiny to live with him and the saints forever — is thanksgiving and adoration.

If we believe in the God of love and mercy who ultimately revealed himself through Jesus — his Word made flesh — then how can we fail to share the truth, beauty, peace and joy of our Catholic faith? If we believe in the Christian “kerygma,” then we are called to be as passionate in our witness to its truth as were the first disciples.

We are called to transform our gloomy, glum, despairing secular culture with the joy of the Gospel of the child born in Bethlehem.

Announcement

Father John A. Riley, vicar general-chancellor, announces the following appointments by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, effective Dec. 5:

Father William Dun-Dery, from parochial administrator for St. Dominic in Holton and St. Francis Xavier, Mayetta, to parochial vicar for St. Patrick, Kansas City, Kansas.

Father Jonathan Dizon will resume as pastor of St. Dominic in Holton and St. Francis Xavier, Mayetta.

THE SPIRIT OF ST. ROSE

College president receives Duchesne Award

By Joe Bollig joe.bollig@theleaven.org

MOUND CITY — There have been several distinguished educators honored with the St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Award since 2006, and this year was no different.

Msgr. Stuart W. Swetland, seventh president of Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, received the award after a Mass on Nov. 22 at Sacred Heart Parish in Mound City, which is also a shrine to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne.

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann was the main celebrant, and pastor Father Barry Clayton and Msgr. Swetland concelebrated. Archbishop Naumann also confirmed 20 children from Sacred Heart, St. Philip Neri Parish in Osawatomie and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in La Cygne at the Mass.

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne was born in France and was a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart religious

THEY CHOSE ME PERSONALLY, BUT I THINK THEY’RE HONORING THE GREAT WORK GOING ON AT DONNELLY COLLEGE. I’VE GOT A WONDERFUL TEAM THERE THAT DOES GREAT THINGS IN PROVIDING FAITH-BASED HIGHER EDUCATION.

order. She had a long-held desire to be a missionary to the North American continent.

In 1841, at the age of 71, she finally got

her chance to work among the Potawatomi Indians at Sugar Creek Mission in Linn County, Kansas. She became known as “the woman who prays always.”

After only a year, it was clear the rigors of the frontier were too great for her, so she returned to St. Charles, Missouri. She died on Nov. 18, 1852. She was canonized on July 3, 1988.

Bishop Paul C. Schulte of the Diocese of Leavenworth dedicated Sacred Heart Parish and St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Shrine on Sept. 7, 1942, slightly more than 100 years from the arrival of the saint at the old mission.

The Duchesne Award is given annually to groups or individuals who promote Catholic education, vocations to the priesthood or religious life, or devotion to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne.

Msgr. Swetland was modest about being chosen for the award.

“They chose me personally, but I think they’re honoring the great work going on at Donnelly College,” said Msgr. Swetland before the Mass.

“I’ve got a wonderful team there that

does great things in providing faithbased higher education with a special focus on those who might not otherwise have access to a faith-based higher education,” he added.

Sacred Heart Church, which is also a shrine to St. Rose Philippine, has a stained-glass window that symbolizes this idea. It shows the saint giving a key to a poor child — the key symbolizes education as a way for the child to be lifted out of poverty.

“The monsignor, in the spirit of St. Rose Philippine, does the same thing through Donnelly College,” said Father Clayton.

“The college provides a Catholic higher education in an affordable, accessible way to help people be lifted out of challenging circumstances in their life to more possibilities,” he continued.

“Msgr. Swetland imitates that example of St. Rose Philippine quite well, and it’s very appropriate that we present him this honor.”

MSGR.

STUART W. SWETLAND PRESIDENT OF DONNELLY COLLEGE

LEAVEN PHOTO BY JAY SOLDNER

Msgr. Stuart W. Swetland, president of Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, expresses his appreciation after receiving the St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Award at Mass on Nov. 22 at Sacred Heart Parish in Mound City, which is also a shrine to the saint.

Foster care ministry offers practical ways to get involved

By Moira Cullings moira.cullings@theleaven.org

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — One morning, while Susie Boster and her husband Jay were looking after three children in respite care, the youngest said something that took Boster by surprise.

The couple was living in St. Louis at the time, and they eventually became overwhelmed by the number of children in need of a loving home.

“It broke our heart, we opened our home and we became foster parents,” said Chik.

What was missing for his family, he said, was support from the Catholic Church.

How to help

During the archdiocesan Thrive! event, Deacon Bill Scholl, archdiocesan consultant for social justice, provided next steps for those in attendance.

“This little boy said to me, ‘Susie, when I get old and go to heaven, I’m going to find you and give you a big hug,’” she said.

The archdiocese has made strides in recent years to fill the need, said Chik, and a major element of that is making individuals aware of the many ways they can help.

“We have a saying in ministry that if the Lord’s putting something on your heart and you don’t know where to begin, just start somewhere,” he said.

Deacon Scholl recommended the following tips:

Nationally, more than 430,000 youth are in foster care.

As of 2021, per the Kansas Department for Children and Families, nearly 7,000 youth in Kansas were in foster care, with the number increasing.

“Those little kids are out there to give us a big hug,” she added.

Boster, a parishioner at Church of the Nativity in Leawood, shared part of her foster care story at a Thrive! foster ministry luncheon and seminar at Savior Pastoral Center in Kansas City, Kansas, Nov. 16.

Men and women from more than a dozen parishes across the archdiocese attended the event.

They heard from members of the archdiocesan Foster Care Task Force about how their parishes can get involved with foster care ministry.

The event began with a Mass cele-

brated by Father Mark Ostrowski, associate pastor at St. Joseph Church in Shawnee.

Participants then shared lunch before hearing from multiple speakers.

Tim Chik, director of Savior Pastoral Center, talked about how critical foster care ministry is.

“Archbishop Naumann has said to be truly pro-life, we must make sure that every child has an environment where he or she can thrive,” he said.

“It’s sad to say that there are a number of people in our community . . . who are not able to be in an environment where they can thrive,” he continued, “because of something that has disrupted their original family.”

Chik and his wife Stacey have adopted children out of foster care. A prayer offered by Stacey started the couple’s journey.

“She said, ‘Lord, break my heart for that which breaks your heart,’” said Chik.

“There are a ton of really wonderful people in our Catholic parishes who really want to do something but don’t know what to do, don’t know how to do it or even know sometimes that there is anything to do,” he said.

Chik said two tangible ways are to share foster awareness videos at parishes and create small communities of support for foster families.

Boster said those efforts can make the difference for families who foster.

“Foster families generally stop fostering after a year,” she said. “But foster families that have a support system and feel part of a community often continue another year or another two years.

“It is really important that they feel Christ’s love in [their] battle.”

Boster launched a foster care ministry at Nativity in 2020, and her story is proof that one individual can make a big difference.

She said her personal experience providing short-term care for children, who often come through police protec-

1. Study and learn more about foster care and what churches are doing to help.

2. Recruit a fellow parishioner to join you in your journey to get your parish involved.

3. Approach your pastor about starting a foster care initiative. Ask who in the parish or on his staff might be able to help.

4. Gather a team of people and meet regularly to plan and promote a foster care awareness event. Set a date, time and place.

5. Host the event and meet with your team after to debrief and create next steps.

For resources and more information, visit the website at: archkcks. com/foster.

tive custody, has also been powerful.

“Nothing moves your heart quite so much as being that first contact [for a child],” she said. “It’s the hardest and the most rewarding, because you’re the one there to say, ‘Everything’s going to be OK.’”

The need is great

LEAVEN PHOTO BY MOIRA CULLINGS

Susie Boster, a parishioner at Church of the Nativity in Leawood, shared part of her foster care story at a Thrive! foster ministry luncheon and seminar at Savior Pastoral Center in Kansas City, Kansas, on Nov. 16.

THERE ARE A TON OF REALLY WONDERFUL PEOPLE IN OUR CATHOLIC PARISHES WHO REALLY WANT TO DO SOMETHING BUT DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO.

TIM CHIK DIRECTOR OF SAVIOR PASTORAL CENTER

New director takes on the ‘balancing act’ HR represents

By Moira Cullings moira.cullings@theleaven.org

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — After nearly three decades working in human resources, the opportunity for Bob Roper to work for the Catholic Church came knocking.

“On one particular Saturday morning,” he said, “three people came to me and said, ‘Did you hear that the diocese has an opening for an HR director?’

“I was an HR director at that time, but I was in corporate America. Three people came to me, including my wife. She was the third. You have to pay attention to that.”

Roper ultimately answered the call, accepting the director of human resources position at the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. He served the diocese for nine years.

Then, on Nov. 2, Roper became the director of human resources for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

Carla Mills, archdiocesan chief financial officer, said that “it’s a big job” but that Roper is up to the task.

“Bob’s depth of experience in human resources, and more specifically with a diocese, was a perfect match for our needs,” she said.

Roper and his wife Kelly have been

married for 41 years. They have eight children, ages 19 to 39, and four granddaughters.

The couple currently belongs to St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Gladstone, Missouri, where Roper serves as a lector and extraordinary minister of holy Communion.

One of his favorite hobbies is collecting and reading vintage Catholic books.

Roper said he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up, so he worked full time after high school in retail management and completed an associate’s degree at Metropolitan Community College-Maple Woods in Kansas City, Missouri.

He eventually earned his undergraduate degree in an accelerated program in HR management, taking 40 credit hours in 50 weeks while married with two young children.

Roper moved from retail management into retail HR before transferring to various industries, including financial services, commercial and property management, and finally the Catholic Church.

He brings with him 37 years of experience in HR, with the most recent 12 at the director level.

In his position, Roper will be charged with serving the employees of

the church offices and other archdiocesan entities.

His focus is on three areas, he said, “that of core legal compliance, building solid processes and procedures, and thinking strategically with archdiocesan leadership in the chancery and at our entities.”

Roper will support archdiocesan employees and active and retired clergy in the areas of benefits, immigration, medical leaves, onboarding, retirement plans and more.

“As director, my time is spent listening and understanding situations,” he said, “then providing guidance or making decisions as appropriate.

“It is also my pleasure to work with the four HR professionals on our team who answer questions, provide direction and solve problems each day for our entities.”

Mills said Roper brings “the right mixture of professionalism, compassion, listening skills and collaboration” to his work.

“There is a tremendous amount of work to be done each day,” she said, “and we must have processes in place to ensure that the work is accomplished while people are treated consistently, fairly and with compassion.

“This is a very hard balancing act.” Roper takes on the role after previous

director Tara McGranaghan retired.

Mills said McGranaghan stepped into her role at the beginning of COVID19, a formidable challenge she took on gracefully, and she ultimately made a big impact on the archdiocese.

She believes Roper will also be able to accomplish much in the role.

Mills said one of the most pertinent goals is for Roper to help implement new processes to lower medical claims costs, leading to lower insurance premiums for employees and employers.

“On the more detailed level,” she said, “I am confident that Bob will be able to tighten up our internal processes to make them easier to follow for all employees.

“Overall, Bob is a strategic thinker, and I expect we will benefit from this skill by being able to focus our scarce resources where they will have the most impact.”

Roper is most looking forward to “serving the people who serve the people of God in the archdiocese.”

“To enjoy HR, you must enjoy putting the jigsaw puzzle together just as much as seeing the finished product,” he said. “Ultimately, HR serves the organization, the employee and the church.

“What could be better than that?”

LEAVEN PHOTO BY MOIRA CULLINGS

Bob Roper is the new director of human resources for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. Roper will support archdiocesan employees and active and retired clergy in the areas of benefits, immigration, medical leaves, onboarding, retirement plans and more.

Offer God three gifts: Yourself, silence and time

By Effie Caldarola Catholic News Service

nce, an elderly archbishop was hosting a gathering at his home during the holidays. Someone presented him a gift that included a refrigerator magnet with that familiar cheery bromide: “Jesus is the reason for the season!”

The archbishop grinned sardonically.

“He gets blamed for everything,” he muttered.

If anything brings out the conflicting sides of our spiritual quest, it’s the Christmas season. If anything brings out the yearning for quiet reflection and simplicity, and throws that yearning kicking and screaming into the maelstrom of American busyness and consumerism, it’s the Christmas season.

If any time of the year finds our hearts sometimes torn between the season and the reason for its celebration, it’s Christmas in our cultural milieu.

To remedy this conflict between our spirituality and our social reality, we might begin the season with a quiet period of reflection. That sounds good, doesn’t it?

But when, actually, does the season begin? We know when Advent begins. But let’s face it, even though we decry the commercial tendency to jump right from Halloween to Christmas, many of us are formulating Christmas shopping lists in our minds even before this.

Christmas shopping can become a heavy burden, often laid upon women in particular, and it sometimes requires the planning and execution of a major military campaign.

The lists grow too long, the search for perfection too taxing, the need for fairness too constraining, the budgetary limits too narrow.

And then there are the cards, the cookies, the Christmas programs and parties.

This can be fun, but what happens when it all just seems like too much? What happens when you look at your kids and wonder if they really get the

meaning behind all this, or is Jesus’ humble birth being lost in holiday catalogs, “asks” for Santa and plastic wrappers that will pollute landfills long after the toy is discarded.

It’s OK to admit that during this holy season, you’re sometimes feeling pulled in two directions.

Where’s the simplicity of Christ’s life in the midst of this?

So back to that idea about beginning with reflection. Maybe the hectic Advent and pre-Advent season is a good time to acknowledge that every day, in every season, should begin with reflection.

It’s easy to say we have no “time” to pray. But do we have time for television, social media, endless scrolling through our various feeds? We all have “time.”

It’s a question of how we use it.

During Advent and the Christmas season, offer God three gifts: yourself, silence and time. God will do the rest and gift us bountifully.

We might ask ourselves two questions each day.

One: How can I simplify? Teach your children to want less and to give more. A little gift-giving mantra for what we buy our kids and grandkids: “Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read.”

Notice the emphasis on “something,” not “lots of things.” Cut back on junk. Focus on a quality gift, and perhaps gifts of time and experience as opposed to more plastic. This can apply to grown-up gifts as well.

Second question to reflect on daily: How can I give, today? Don’t make it one more stressful, costly duty. Instead, think of simple gifts of love. A phone call to a lonely relative. Reaching out to an estranged family member.

Baking cookies? Have your kids deliver some to an elderly neighbor. Read your kids a book about Jesus’ birth or watch a movie that brings out the beauty of Christmas. Share a dinner conversation about how today’s refugees are much like the child Jesus, and how we might help them.

Mark on your calendar what “gift” you gave each day, and in gratitude, one gift you received. Then, leave the stress behind. You’re doing your best. And have a Merry Christmas.

CNS PHOTO BY KAREN CALLAWAY, NORTHWEST INDIANA CATHOLIC

As part of an annual family tradition, (from left) Cynthia, Teresa, Ruth, Mike, Kathryn and Christopher Rose, members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Hammond, Indiana, make Christmas cookies at their home. If you’re making cookies this season, have your kids deliver some to an elderly neighbor.

New podcast will present catechism starting Jan. 1

By Julie Asher Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS)

— Beginning Jan. 1, Ascension Press will launch “The Catechism in a Year,” taking listeners through the four parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and “providing explanation, insight and encouragement along the way.”

Over the course of 365 daily podcast episodes, Father Mike Schmitz will read the entire catechism. Throughout 2022, the priest has hosted the popular “The Bible in a Year” podcast with Scripture scholar Jeff Cavins.

Father Schmitz read every verse of the Catholic Bible in 365 days, using a reading plan based on Cavins’ Great Adventure Bible Timeline. The reading plan organizes the 14 narrative books of the Bible into 12 periods to help readers understand how they relate to one another and to God’s plan for salvation.

A priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, Father Schmitz is a popular Catholic speaker and author. He and Cavins created the Bible podcast with the backing of Ascension.

“We don’t think it’s an accident that after ‘Bible in a Year,’ the No. 1 requested thing from our audience was a ‘Catechism of the Year,’” said Lauren Joyce, communications and public relations specialist at Ascension, a multimedia Catholic publisher based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Helping the faithful understand and read the Bible with Cavins’ timeline learning system and the podcast format “made such a big difference for accessibility,” she said at a Nov. 2 news conference via Zoom. “Our audience is saying do the same thing for the catechism: ‘We know we should like it, we know we should read it [but] struggle to do so, so help us out.’”

In the 30 days before the news conference, the Bible podcast had reached an audience of 1.5 million people via various electronic devices, such as a cellphone, a tablet with downloaded episodes or YouTube.

According to Chartable Global Reach, a podcast measurement company, “The Bible in a Year” was No. 1 in 2022 in the religious/spiritual category.

Ascension also has released a new print edition of the Catechism of the

Catholic Church. Its four sections have navigation features for the reader, including color-coded corner tabs, key words and citations from Scripture, church councils, popes and/or doctors of the church.

There is an extensive glossary and appendices, which include a timeline of ecclesiastical writers who contributed to the development of doctrine throughout the church’s history.

There also is an accompanying foldout chart, “The Catechism at a Glance,” which is “like a road map if you will,” John Harden, senior product manager at Ascension, explained at the news conference.

“The back side shows how all the sources of Scripture and tradition flow into the catechism,” he said, “and the front side shows how the four parts are arranged — what we believe, how we worship, how we live our lives as Christians and how we pray as Christians.”

He called it a joy to work on this edition of the catechism. “I really hope people learn to grow in love and appreciation for all we believe as Catholics.”

Harden also “gave a big shoutout and thanks” to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for working with Ascension on the issue of copyright and permissions that allowed the Ascension volume to go forward. He noted that there will be an ongoing theological review of the “Catechism in a Year” podcast content and the podcast itself.

The catechism recognizes “that what God is doing in this world didn’t end”

with Chapter 28 of the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, Father Schmitz said. The fifth book of the New Testament tells of the founding of the church. “God continues to reach out to his people. . . . [With the catechism,] we get to love him more,” he added.

“What we did with the Bible, we’re going to do with the catechism,” the priest said about the podcast. “For 365 days, we are going to take a little section of the catechism every single day.

“We’re going to read it, explain it, and expand upon it so that by the end of this year we’ll be able to say, ‘I know what the church believes, I know what God’s plan is for my life, I know how to talk to God, I know how to listen to his voice and I know how to worship him.’ It’s going to be incredible.”

“For us to grow as Catholics, we need to know what our faith is. We need to articulate our faith in order to share it,” said Cavins, who will host a new program titled “The Bible Timeline Show.”

In 60-minute episodes, he’ll unpack questions raised by listeners of the “The Bible in a Year” podcast with Father Schmitz and other guests.

“The Catechism in a Year” podcast will be available for free on all major podcast platforms as well as the Hallow app. Ascension also is providing Catholic schools and parishes free materials promoting the podcast, including flyers, posters, media graphics and bulletin announcements.

Our Lady brought forth the image of a loving

be the Blessed Virgin Mary. She became known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

There were more apparitions and miracles to come after that first encounter. And nothing would ever be the same for Juan Diego, the peoples of Mexico and the world.

Destruction and evangelization

Catholic missionaries came to the conquered land of Mexico with a certain idea of evangelization, said Father Ramiro Sanchez Chan, CS, archdiocesan director of Hispanic ministry. They called it “tabula rasa,” or “clean slate.”

“They had the idea that now we have the Catholic faith, there is no more of the gods or divine images of the Aztecs,” he said. “When they applied this model of evangelization, they removed everything that was important for the Aztecs.”

But then Our Lady of Guadalupe arrived. She didn’t appear to the Spanish authorities or the missionaries, but to Juan Diego — a low-status Native. She appeared to him speaking a native language

as a Native woman — a Morenita. She spoke to him with tenderness and love.

“She appears and says, ‘I am the Mother of God,’ in a very different way [from] the image [the Spanish had],” said Father Ramiro. “She looked like one of them. She said to Juan Diego, ‘My son, my little one.”’

Instead of the image of the Virgin Mary according to the conqueror, she brought the image of the Virgin Mary as the loving Native mother.

“[Her message was] ‘I just want to be among you.’ . . . She presented the Mother of God in a way they could understand,” said Father Ramiro.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the only Marian apparition tradition that has a centuries-long, ongoing and developed theological tradition, said professor Timothy Matovina, chairman of the theology department at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

“The first book about Guadalupe was written in 1648 by a Mexico City priest,” he said. “There was another written the following year in Nahuatl, the language of the Natives, like a pastoral manual about evangelizing Native peoples through Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

Interestingly, a lot of these theological texts are not about dogmatic matters, but about Our Lady of Guadalupe as an evangelizer.

But evangelization of the Native peoples didn’t happen quickly. The 16th century in Mexico was more an era of death than evangelization.

At first, Our Lady of Guadalupe was a local devotion. There were no parishes, monasteries or shrines dedicated to her name until more than a century after the apparitions.

“The first major church dedicated to her outside of the Valley of Mexico was

With greatest

Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe many Mexican families. This was Arano-Ponce while he was growing

“The tender love to the mother Guadalupe has always been present bringing,” said Father Arano-Ponce, pastor Bucyrus-Wea.

“My mother always Magnificat daily in front school,” he said. “It was His first visit to the tremendous impact on

“When I was six years Basilica of Our Lady of very special moment in Arano-Ponce.

Like many pilgrims, Our Lady that was imprinted rough, poncho-like garment

“I was glued to Our “and my heart was bigger silica — filled with faith,

Now, whenever he returns to Mexico to of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

“After visiting Our Lady of Guadalupe, said Father Arano-Ponce. “It’s just the natural that, and they love it. I cannot think of going of Guadalupe.”

Pilgrims carry an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe outside the basilica in her name in Mexico City on Dec. 11, 2021, the eve of her feast day. Millions of pilgrims descended on the basilica during the first of faith common throughout central Mexico.

SHE APPEARS AND SAYS, ‘I AM THE MOTHER OF GOD,’ IN A VERY DIFFERENT WAY [FROM] THE IMAGE [THE SPANISH HAD]. SHE LOOKED LIKE ONE OF THEM.

FATHER RAMIRO SANCHEZ CHAN, CS ARCHDIOCESAN DIRECTOR OF HISPANIC MINISTRY

Father Gerardo Arano-Ponce

loving mother

greatest devotion

Guadalupe has long been an integral part of life for was certainly true for Father Gerardo “Jerry” growing up in Veracruz, Mexico. mother of Jesus under her title Our Lady of present in my heart as part of my family uppastor of Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish in reminded my sister and me to pray the front of Our Lady’s icon before leaving for was just a habit to do that.” Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe had a him. years old, we made a family pilgrimage to the Guadalupe in Mexico City, and that was a in my young heart and vocation,” said Father he was drawn to the miraculous image of imprinted on the tilma of St. Juan Diego — a garment made of cactus fiber. Our Lady’s eyes [on the] tilma,” he recalled, bigger than my body when I entered the bafaith, unshakable trust in Mary and pure joy.” visit his family, he goes first to the Basilica then I can go visit my family and friends,” natural thing to do for me, and my family knows going back to Mexico without seeing Our Lady

CNS PHOTO/LUIS CORTES, REUTERS 12 days of December, renewing a tradition and act

CNS PHOTO/LUISA GONZALEZ, REUTERS

A woman wearing a shirt with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe prays with a rosary as she demonstrates in front of Colombia’s constitutional court in Bogota Feb. 3, against removing abortion from the penal code. The pro-life movement is fond of Our Lady of Guadalupe as she appears pregnant.

CNS PHOTO/JESUS VALENCIA, CATHOLIC SUN

A young “matachines” dancer joins her troupe in a preprocession performance at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Phoenix on Dec. 7, 2019. Thousands of Catholics convened in downtown Phoenix for the annual Honor Your Mother Procession and Mass that day celebrating diocesan patroness Our Lady of Guadalupe.

LEAVEN FILE PHOTO BY KATHYRYN WHITE

Jose Moreno places flowers at the base of the Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine set up at Our Lady of Unity Church in Kansas City, Kansas, on Dec. 12, 2020, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

LEAVEN FILE PHOTO BY KATHRYN WHITE

An Our Lady of Unity parishioner shows her reverence for Our Lady of Guadalupe by attending her feast day Mass adorned in a dress with an image of Our Lady.

‘The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a story of faith’

in 1654, so it spreads slowly,” said Matovina. “But over time, Our Lady of Guadalupe became the national symbol of Mexico.

“She spread to the United States with Mexicans, to places like Topeka. That devotion there springs up during the time of the Mexican Revolution when the workers came to work on the rail lines. And now, Guadalupe is thoroughly international.”

Understanding Guadalupe

How are we supposed to approach the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe? It’s simple, according to Hosffman Ospino, a professor of Hispanic ministry and chairman of the Department of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College.

We approach Our Lady as Juan Diego did — with faith.

“The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a story of faith,” said Ospino. “It’s the story of a community of Catholics, of people who see the possibility of God becoming present in history and happening in the experience of Guadalupe.”

So first, Our Lady of Guadalupe is to be understood by faith, he said. Second, she is to be understood in the context of the historical moment in which the apparition took place. There was fighting between the Spanish and the Indigenous community — and the Natives were being wiped out.

Nevertheless, there was a way to peace.

“Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared as an Indigenous woman, which is recognized as a sacred symbol both by the Spanish conquistadores and the Indigenous communities,” said Ospino. “It’s

powerful. In some ways she brings peace, a new beginning at a time people were struggling.”

A third way to understand Our Lady of Guadalupe is as a symbol of hope and accompaniment on the part of God with people who are suffering and struggling, said Ospino.

“Our Lady of Guadalupe is highly appreciated by people, largely by women, who struggle,” said Ospino. “Life is not easy on them. And yet, they have Our Lady of Guadalupe as an inspiration to move forward.

“She is a mother. She appears as a pregnant woman. She is a gift of life about to give life. She is a Morenita — a brown-skinned Indigenous woman. A lot of Latinos in the United States struggle with questions of race, discrimination and poverty. . . . She looks like us, so there is this special love the Latino community has about her.”

But Latinos are not the only ones who look at Our Lady of Guadalupe as a symbol of hope, said Ospino. The prolife movement is very fond of her. She appears as someone pregnant, open to life, who cares about the child in the womb.

It is not uncommon for the Blessed Virgin Mary to appear in ethnic or cultural ways to different people in different places at different times, according to Matovina.

“This is part of a long-standing Marian tradition in the church,” said Matovina. “Apparitions are a kind of a spiritual genre that tell us more about the beauty and evangelizing power of the Virgin Mary.

“For Guadalupe specifically, St. John Paul II said it best: ‘She is the model of a perfectly enculturated evangelization.’ Many of the missioners — not all — tried to impose Iberian, Spanish cultural and

linguistic ways as they were teaching the Catholic faith.

“Guadalupe came as one of the people. She was a Nahuatl woman in her appearance, mannerisms, speech and dress. She came as one of them. And at the same time, she is the Mother of God — the Mary of the Catholic faith.”

Matovina once went to a “serenade” (a sort of performance with music) in San Antonio in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The reactions of the people led him to some profound insights.

One moment was especially powerful: when the young man portraying Juan Diego, who had started out stooped and humble, stood tall and proud, arms outstretched, so he could display the miraculous image on his chest.

The bishop and his aides knelt before the image — and in doing so, knelt to Juan Diego, too.

“The young people presented the drama in a powerful way,” said Matovina, “and it occurred to me . . . the story of Juan Diego is the story of America. It’s the story of the marginal person, the put-down person, the Native person, the Black person, the immigrant person, the disabled person, the unborn child.

“It’s the story of the people who are forgotten and on the edge being vindicated because the Mother of God comes to them. She loves everyone, she’s the mother of all, but she has a preferential love for those most in need.”

The undeniable miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe is not just that she appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, according to Matovina. The miracle is that she continues to appear to millions on T-shirts, tattoos, magnets and statues in churches around the world.

Our Lady of Guadalupe never went away. She continues to comfort, inspire and evangelize today.

The first Franciscan missionaries to Mexico faced a formidable challenge of evangelization.

The Indigenous Aztecs viewed the Spanish with suspicion and resentment because the conquistadores achieved their dominance by violence. They also brought diseases that decimated the Native population.

And yet, despite this time of death, destruction and despair, some Aztecs believed in the Gospel and were baptized. Among them was a humble Native man named Cuauhtlatoatzin, who had changed his name upon baptism to Juan Diego, and his wife Maria Lucia.

It was at dawn on Dec. 9, 1531, when Juan Diego was walking from his home in Tulpetlac to the Franciscan mission in Tlatelolco.

As he passed the Hill of Tepeyac, he heard the singing of birds and a woman’s voice call him by name in Nahuatl, his native language. He looked and saw the incandescent figure of a woman.

She was like him, a Native, and she identified herself as “the Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God,” and asked him to go to the bishop and ask that a shrine to her be built at that site.

Juan Diego did so, but Bishop Juan de Zumarraga was skeptical and asked him to come back another time.

Discouraged, Juan Diego returned to the hill and asked the lady to send someone more important, but she insisted that he was to do this task.

There were five appearances of the Virgin in all.

The last occurred when Juan Diego returned to the hill with the request from the bishop for a sign. She had him cut Castilian roses growing there — unusual, because it was winter and such roses did not grow in Mexico. He gathered the roses in his cloak, called a tilma, and took them to the bishop.

When Juan Diego arrived at the bishop’s house, he let down the tilma and the miraculous roses fell to the floor.

But that was not all. Imprinted on his tilma was a sight that drove the bishop and everyone else in attendance to their knees: a stunning image of the lady, who came to be known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

A chapel was built on the Hill of Tepeyac. Over the years, succeeding churches were built. The latest was a basilica in 1976. Juan Diego died in 1548 and was declared a saint in 2000; his feast day is Dec. 9. The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is Dec. 12.

A mosaic depicts Our Lady of Guadalupe giving St. Juan Diego roses at a Guadalupe shrine at St. Juan Diego Church in Pasadena, Texas.

CNS PHOTO/JAMES RAMOS, TEXAS CATHOLIC HERALD

LEAVEN FILE PHOTO BY KATHRYN WHITE

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann poses for pictures with attendees in front of the Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine at Our Lady of Unity Church in Kansas City, Kansas, on Dec. 12, 2020. The archbishop wore special vestments honoring Our Lady.

‘HOLY WOMEN SERIES:

CARYLL HOUSELANDER’

Keeler Women’s Center 2220 Central Ave., Kansas City, Kansas

Dec. 6 from 2 - 3:30 p.m.

Come and get a more intimate look at the life of this leading voice of the interspiritual movement.

‘ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER

ADVENT RETREAT’

St. Agnes Parish 5250 Mission Rd., Roeland Park Dec. 10 from 8 a.m. - noon

Prepare your heart for Christmas. Join us for a half-day “St. Joseph the Worker Advent Retreat.” We will explore the theme with guided reflections, small group discussions and prayer. Come listen to religious people and colleagues speak about how we can prepare ourselves for the Christmas season.

TRADITIONAL HOLIDAY DINNER

Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish 134 N.E. Lake, Topeka Dec. 10 from 5 - 8-p.m.

Come enjoy a delicious traditional holiday dinner. The cost is: $15 for adults ages 18 and over; $8 for kids ages 3 - 17; and kids under 2 eat free. All proceeds will benefit Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. For more information, call the parish office at (785) 232-5088.

BINGO NIGHT

Sacred Heart Parish 2646 S. 34th St., Kansas City, Kansas Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.

The Sacred Heart Knights of Columbus will be hosting bingo for cash prizes. Refreshments will be sold. For more information, call Bob at (913) 850-3348.

BEREAVEMENT MEETING

Curé of Ars Parish

9405 Mission Rd., Leawood Dec. 10 at 8 a.m.

The bereavement ministry will have a grief

support meeting after Mass. Father Richard Storey will speak on “Spirituality and Grief.” For more information, call (913) 649-2026.

LIVING NATIVITY

Douglas County Fairgrounds 2120 Harper St., Lawrence Dec. 11 from 2 - 5 p.m.

Come experience the joy of the first Christmas. Join the Franciscan Servants of the Holy Family for a living Nativity experience. There will be live animals, music and more. Admission is free.

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

Sacred Heart Parish (hall) 2646 S. 34th St., Kansas City, Kansas Dec. 11 from 8 - 11 a.m.

The Sacred Heart Knights of Columbus will host an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast with Santa. The cost is: $6 for adults; $4 for kids ages 4 - 12; and free for kids under the age of 3.

ST. LUCY DAY CELEBRATION

Precious Blood Renewal Center 2120 St. Gaspar Way, Liberty, Missouri Dec. 13 from 10 a.m. - noon

Prepare for Christmas by sharing stories, songs and poems while planting wheat. Join us for a traditional celebration of St. Lucy Day. If you are not familiar with this ancient tradition as part of your Christmas rituals, join us and learn more about it. Go online to: pbrenewalcenter.org, scroll down to “St. Lucy Day Celebration” and then scroll down and click on the “Register” button.

HEARTACHE TO HEALING

Johnny’s Tavern 8719 W. 95th St., Overland Park Dec. 13 at 5 p.m.

Heartache to Healing is a support/social group for those widowed early in life.  Men and women around ages 35 to 65, please come join us on Dec. 13 for some holiday cheer. This month, we will meet at Johnny’s for some laughter, food and drinks. Feel free to wear an ugly or not-so-ugly Christmas sweater and come join the fun. For more information and to RSVP, send an email to Laura at: khaeus1@hotmail.com; Heather

at: hmbimpens@gmail.com; or Damon at: damon452@yahoo.com. Your RSVP is appreciated, but not necessary.  We look forward to spending some time with you!

ROSARY AND MEDITATION

St. Michael the Archangel Parish 14251 Nall Ave., Leawood Dec. 14 at noon

Are you or your family grieving the death of a loved one and experiencing the pain of loss? Approaching the Christmas season can often accentuate our feelings of grief and sadness. As we approach Christmas and the birth of Jesus, may we find comfort and peace in the manger. There will be lunch and fellowship after the rosary. RSVP (requested but not required) by Dec. 8 to: stmichaelcp.org/griefsupport-groups. For more information, call Mary Connor at: (913) 402-3920 or send an email to: mary.connor@stmichaelcp.org.

WOMEN EMBRACING AGING

Keeler Women’s Center 2220 Central Ave., Kansas City, Kansas

Dec. 20 from 2 - 3:30 p.m.

This is a support group for women who want to explore aging. Share your experiences, wisdom and unexplored changes aging is bringing into your life.

PANCAKE BREAKFAST

St. Patrick Parish 1086 N. 94th St., Kansas City, Kansas Dec. 20 from 8 - 11 a.m.

Knights of Columbus Bicentennial Council 6781 will be hosting a freewill pancake breakfast. There will be pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy. Bring your kids, bring your camera, since Santa Claus will be here for the breakfast.

WILL AND TRUST WORKSHOPS

St. Pius X Parish

(Father Glowacki Room) 5500 Woodson, Mission Jan. 19 from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. or Jan. 24 from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Jon Stanfield, estate planning attorney, will present information on the differences between wills, trusts, probate, charitable gift planning and more. Refreshments will be available and there will be take-home resources. Send an RSVP by email to: tlynn@archkck.org or call (913) 647-0365.

SOCIAL SECURITY WORKSHOP

Corpus Christi Parish

6001 Bob Billings Pkwy.

Jan. 21 from 10 - 11:30 a.m.

Do you need to decide when to start taking your benefit? All parishioners are invited to the workshop. There will be light refreshments, door prizes and a guide book. Send an RSVP by email to: planned giving@archkck.org or call (913) 634-4567. You can also just walk in.

RETROUVAILLE

Jan. 27 - 29

Kansas City

Retrouvaille offers a welcoming and loving space to couples who have been living with the misery of a failing marriage. Retrouvaille offers hope — hope that it is not too late, hope of a different and better marriage. Retrouvaille helps couples to show each other mercy through the opportunities it provides to listen, to forgive, to be reconciled and to move into their futures believing that God loves them and, with his help and their efforts, their marriages can be healed and restored. Retrouvaille provides help for marriage problems/ difficulties/crises. For more information, call (800) 470-2230 or visit the website at: helpourmarriage.com.

ICON DISPLAY

Savior Pastoral Center 12601 Parallel Pkwy., Kansas City, Kansas Dec. 9 - Feb. 19

Savior Pastoral Center is hosting an icon display on the art wall in the main hallway. The doors are open days and evenings. Just pick up the phone at the main entrance to be let into the center. The iconographer is Peggy Shopen, who has been studying with Hexameron and Seraphic Studios for the past seven years.

EMPLOYMENT

High school para - Seeking a full-time para educator for the 2022-23 school year. The candidate will work with students and student support plans. Candidates should have experience in special education or knowledge of learning differences. If interested, please send a letter of interest and resume to: mhurlbert@bishop miege.com.

Administrative assistant - The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has an immediate opening for an administrative assistant in the Office of Child and Youth Protection. The duties include supporting the office’s ministries: safe environment training and compliance; responding appropriately to allegations of sexual abuse; and providing care and support to those harmed by an agent of the church. This position is full time and benefits-eligible. For more information or to apply, visit: www.kcsjcatholic.org.

Senior-level development director - Bishop Sullivan Center in KCMO is seeking a senior-level development director. Inspired by Christian faith, Bishop Sullivan Center shows God’s love to people in financial hardship by providing food, help in finding jobs and other aid. Beyond material assistance, Bishop Sullivan Center strives to build relationships between those who live in poverty and those who do not, promoting mutual understanding and affirming the dignity of all. This full-time director will work primarily at our 3936 Troost Ave. location in KCMO. For additional information/to apply, go to: m.carlstedt@ bishopsullivan.org or call (816) 231-2971.

Director of music ministry - The director of music ministry is responsible for facilitating the worship life of the parish by coordinating and providing quality liturgical experiences that celebrate and strengthen the parish journey of faith with special emphasis on the musical leadership, coordination and formation of parish cantors, choirs and accompanists. The director should have a deep knowledge of Catholic liturgy and traditions and be able to integrate him/ herself into the current music culture of the parish and build on the program. The position includes planning and developing the full liturgical cycle, including Sunday and holy day liturgies and other major parish celebrations. The director is expected to assist liturgical teams and committees. Other responsibilities include: maintains the parish liturgical music collection; orders music as needed; manages the parish copyright and licensing programs; directs, coordinates and/or performs music that is liturgically appropriate for parish liturgies and other celebrations. Serves as a resource to clergy, religious education/formation staff and catechists in selecting music and planning liturgies and prayer services; invites, encourages and enhances assembly participation in the sung liturgy; assures ongoing expansion of the parish music repertoire. Schedule requires weekend hours, evening hours and holiday hours as needed. Contact Search Committee c/o: lawagner@archkckcs.org.

Advancement director for Manhattan Catholic Schools - The Diocese of Salina is seeking applicants for the leadership position of advancement director for Manhattan Catholic Schools. The director is responsible for leading the fundraising efforts of Manhattan Catholic Schools, Manhattan, Kansas. The director creates and executes a plan to meet and explore donor wishes. This leader also works diligently at maintaining a book of donors, ensuring the plan submitted is realistic and achievable. Summary of key areas of skill needed include experience with donor cultivation and enhancing alumni connections. The ability to develop and maintain positive parent relationships is vital for this leadership role. The director will work with key stakeholders as we develop, maintain and execute our strategic plans. If you have thought about making a successful career change and moving toward a role of significance, we would love to hear from you. Working daily at leveraging your experience, gifts and talents for the mission of the church will exceed your expectations. See if the time is right for you to make a change. Call Kim Hoelting, director of human resources for the diocese, for a confidential inquiry, to talk about this job or to request a full job description at: Kim.hoelting@ salinadiocese.org or by calling at (785) 342-0819. This is a full-time, exempt position, $55,000-68,000, with a competitive benefits package.

Director of liturgy and music - St. Ann Church in Prairie Village is seeking a director of liturgy and music to facilitate worship experiences that celebrate and strengthen our parishioners’ faith journey. This position serves as the principal musician and choir director for the parish and assists the pastor in liturgy planning. The director is responsible for playing the organ and/or piano at weekend, school and holy day Masses; recruiting and directing adult, children and hand-bell choirs; training cantors; and providing art and environment direction. Position will also assist the pastor and families in planning funerals and weddings. The director must be flexible and work well with staff and parishioners. Hours are negotiable. The qualified candidate should be a practicing Catholic, have a bachelor’s degree in music or equivalent program of study and have prior experience as a music director. Please email your resume with cover letter to: bschafer@stannpv.org.

Business manager opening - St. Francis de Sales Church in Lansing is seeking a business manager. The ideal candidate should have a college degree, and/or significant business experience. He or she must have a working knowledge of QuickBooks and Microsoft Office applications. You must be able to work independently and with other staff/volunteers. This is primarily a bookkeeping job, with a heavy emphasis in Human Resources and contracting. Applicant must be a practicing Catholic. This is a full-time position (32-40 hours per week), 401(k) included; health care benefits available. For more information, contact Father Balachandra Miriyala or Nancy Elmer at: balamiriyala@hotmail.com or nelmer@ stfrancislansing.org respectively.

Full-time maintenance technician - Curé of Ars Parish in Leawood is looking for a full-time maintenance technician with a strong work ethic. We prefer a candidate with general knowledge in electrical, plumbing, maintenance and groundskeeping. This position also includes setting up for events. A maintenance technician is a thorough professional with attention to detail. The ideal candidate will be able to work autonomously and responsibly. Candidate needs to be able to lift 50 lbs. and work off a ladder or lift. All employees are required to be Virtus trained and background-checked. This position may include some weekend and evenings as needed. Competitive pay including benefits: vacation/sick time and 401(k) with match. Interested candidates should send a resume to the facilities director at: matt.rocca@cureofars.com

Part-time chiropractic assistant needed - Busy chiropractic office in NW Olathe (K-10 and Ridgeview Rd.) is looking for a part-time assistant for six - ten hours as needed. $12 per hour, plus bonuses. Job duties include answering phones, scheduling and checking in patients, insurance, assisting with patient therapies, etc. If you are professional, friendly, hard-working and would like to help others, our office may be the place for you! Must be a people person and have a flexible schedule. Insurance experience is a plus, but not necessary. We will train on patient therapies. Ridgeview Chiropractic, 17775 W. 106th St., Suite 105, Olathe, KS 66061. Email resume to: Dr. Craig Koshlap at: drk@ridgeviewchiropractic. com or fax to (913) 890-7372.

Part-time fundraising and marketing assistantCatholic Charities is looking for a part-time fundraising and marketing assistant who is creative, charismatic and who has experience in graphic design and photography. This position plays an important role assisting the initiatives of both the marketing and development teams. Some nights and weekends are required and strong organizational and collaboration skills are essential. For more information and to apply, go to: catholiccharitiesks.org/careers/ and scroll down and click on “Job Openings.”

Second grade teacher - Sacred Heart of Jesus is a vibrant school in western Shawnee, Kansas, with about 400 students. We are currently seeking a second grade teacher for the second semester of the 2022-23 school year (beginning in January). Applicants must hold a current state of Kansas teaching or substitute teaching licensure. Interested applicants should complete the teaching (or substitute teaching) application process at: www.archkckcs.org and contact principal Kathy Rhodes at: kathy.rhodes@shoj. org for consideration.

In-home child care needed - I am a first-time Mom and nurse living in Prairie Village seeking in-home child care for my infant son when I go back to work March 1 for two - three days per week. Days vary but work schedule is set six - eight weeks out. Call Maureen at (913) 548-6660.

Early childhood educators – With multiple locations in Johnson County, Special Beginnings Early Learning Center provides high quality child care in a safe, loving Christian environment. Our classrooms are full, and we are looking to add to our amazing team. We are looking for both full-time and part-time teachers for all ages of children. If you have an excellent work ethic, a heart for children and a willingness to learn more about early childhood education, we would love to meet you. For more information or to apply, call Carolyn Andruss at (913) 894-0131, ext. 102.

Administrative assistant - The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas is seeking qualified candidates to fill the full-time position of administrative assistant for the office of marriage and family Life. Qualified applicants must have experience handling general office duties; assisting with event preparations; creating and maintaining databases; using software platforms to create fliers and promotional materials; must be proficient using Microsoft Suite of office products including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. A high school diploma or equivalent, plus a minimum of three years’ prior experience working in a professional office environment, are required. To see additional job duties or to apply for this position, visit: archkck.org/jobs.

Bilingual counselor needed - The Keeler women’s Center, located at 759 Vermont Ave., Suite 100-B, in Kansas City, Kansas, is seeking a Spanish-speaking counselor. Please contact sister Bridget Dickason, OSB, at (913) 689-9375 or email: kwc@mountosb.org.

Community engagement coordinator - The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth community engagement coordinator works as part of a three-person team in the office of justice, peace and integrity of creation (JPIC). The position’s primary responsibility is to implement the Laudato Si’ Action Platform (LSAP) and help the community live its mission of doing justice through the lens of integral ecology. This position will lead the congregation’s response to the LSAP through coordination and collaboration with Sisters, associates, staff, partners in ministry, and the local community. Job duties include: coordinate the congregation’s LSAP response by serving as a central resource for Sisters, staff, associates and partners in ministry on the development and implementation of responses to the seven platform goals; manage and monitor projects related to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform; develop educational materials and opportunities regarding LSAP and integral ecology; engage relevant internal stakeholders in the development and implementation of the platform; network with external organizations and individuals doing activities/projects to build partnerships; share outcomes of projects internally and externally, and seek, where beneficial to mission advancement, outside partnerships and funding to implement projects; in collaboration with the rest of the JPIC office, develop workshop materials and facilitate workshops on Laudato Si’ and best practices in integral ecology; participate in conferences, webinars and other informational opportunities; serve as the liaison for the congregation to the LSAP religious orders working group; manage LSAP reporting requirements through the platform website; work to ensure that the goals and journey to integral ecology extend beyond the platform’s life; and other duties as assigned. Qualifications: associate’s (bachelor’s preferred) degree in political science, sociology, theology or similar program; a team player and good communicator who is open to new ideas and eager to learn; demonstrates an understanding of integral ecology; strong commitment to and demonstrated passion for justice; strong project management skills; willingness to learn or understands the congregation’s charism; knowledge of Catholic social teaching; have the ability to: analyze and effectively articulate the justice agenda; motivate others on behalf of justice issues and concerns; engage others in active dialogue and reflective thinking; present effectively to diverse populations; strong organizational, written and verbal communication, and technology skills (Zoom, Microsoft); openness to varied points of view and cultures; sensitivity to language as it impacts race, gender and culture; limited travel to conferences and local meetings (10%); strong self-motivation and decision-making ability; ability to manage flexible hours. Physical requirements: carrying, bending, stooping, grasping, standing, twisting, sitting, lifting, walking, filing; communicating with Sisters, associates and co-workers via face-to-face, phone and other technological means; push, pull, lift or carry up to 20 pounds occasionally; generally sedentary. To apply, send resumes to: recruiting@scls.org.

Maintenance/custodian - Queen of the Holy Rosary/ John Paul ll School in Overland Park is seeking a fulltime maintenance/custodian person. The employee will perform general facility maintenance, including HVAC, plumbing and electrical on both church and school grounds. Minimal supervisory activities include scheduling/monitoring licensed work activities and developing facility improvement plans. Regular cleaning and assistance with occasional special projects will also be expected. Salary range is $22 - $25 per hour dependent on the skill set. Benefits include: medical, dental, vision and a 401(k). Must have mode of transportation. For more information on specific duties and responsibilities or to apply, contact Paul Coquillette at: qhradmin@qhr-opks.org or (913) 432-4616, ext. 212.

Custodian - The Church of Nativity Catholic Parish School has an immediate opening for a full-time hourly custodian. Qualified applicants should have prior custodial experience, specifically in a school environment, and must be able to work 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. shift with some holiday work expected. Applicants must have compatible work history, references, dependable transportation and be willing to participate in a background check. Compensation of $17 to $19 per hour will depend on experience, negotiable with the right qualifications. The Church of Nativity is located just west of 119th and State Line in Leawood. Nativity offers a comprehensive benefit program including medical, dental, vision, vacation and 401(k). Interested applicants should email resumes and work history to: jobapplication@kcnativity.org. Resumes welcome by fax or mail. No phone calls please. Fax: (913) 491-5065; mail to: Church of the Nativity, Attn: Custodial Position, 3800 W. 119th St., Leawood, KS 66209.

Business manager - St. John the Evangelist Parish and School in Lawrence seeks a full-time business manager. The manager will administer the finances of the parish and school, and maintain accuracy of all financial operations. Applicants need computer/ new technologies competencies. Candidates with a degree in business/accounting with 1-3 years of experience or its equivalency, and bilingual (English and Spanish) are preferred. Please see full job description and requirements at: www.sjevangelist. com. This position is eligible for the archdiocesan benefits package. The position will be open until filled. Please send cover letter and resume to Father John at: frjohn@sjevangelist.com or 1229 Vermont St., Lawrence, KS 66044.

Administrative assistant - Queen of the Holy Rosary, Bucyrus, is seeking an administrative assistant for the parish. General assistance in many areas such as managing the church calendar, creating the bulletin, registering new families and other dayto-day office duties. The applicant will be working 30-35 hours per week with archdiocesan benefits. Please email your resume to: mpetz@qhrwea.org or call (913) 879-7059 for additional information.

Stylists needed - Are you addicted to the TV show “Say Yes to the Dress”? Are you self-motivated, love fashion and enjoy helping people look their best? If so, we want to talk to you! Sincerely Susan, a unique destination shop boutique is a warehouse environment where clients come in by appointment only. You must have a sense of style and a great personality to be able to interact with our “moms.” Hours are flexible. Must be willing to work a minimum of one evening per week and weekends. Must be able to stand and walk on concrete for long periods of time and reach overhead to pull gowns. Previous retail experience preferred, but not necessary. Hourly rate is based on experience. If interested, call (913) 730-8840.

Drivers and aides - Assisted Transportation is now hiring safe drivers and aides to transport students with special needs in Johnson, Wyandotte and Clay County, Missouri, in company vans. Drivers earn $14 - $16 per hour. Aides earn $12 per hour. Part-time and full-time schedules available. CDL not required. Retirees encouraged to apply. Make a difference in your community by helping those in need. Call (913) 5214955 for more information. EEO

Assistant director - Prince of Peace Early Education Center is seeking a highly qualified, flexible, resourceful, self-starter for our assistant director. The ideal candidate has previous teaching/administrative experience and demonstrates excellent communication skills with staff and parents. Job requirements: All applicants must meet the following requirements in order to be considered for hire: a minimum of six months or more teaching in a licensed child care center with proof of work; have a BA/BS or higher in early childhood education or related field with 12 or more college credit hours in early childhood education. We offer competitive pay. Benefits include: paid vacation and sick time; paid holidays; 401(k) match, and health, vision, dental, life, as well as short- and long-term disability insurance. To apply or for more information, call Jamie at (913) 829-2718 or email: jwessel@popolathe.org.

Investigator/auditor - The office for protection and care (OPC) is seeking a full-time investigator/ auditor. The investigator/auditor is responsible for investigating allegations of abuse by persons of authority in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. This is a safety-sensitive position, exercising a high degree of discretion. The investigator/auditor will operate under the guidelines set forth in the policies of the archdiocese and will collaborate with the director of the OPC and the victim care advocate. For a complete job description and to apply for this position, please visit: https://archkck.org/jobs.

Staff job openings - Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, has the following staff job openings available: admissions counselor; advancement officer; business curriculum coordinator; financial aid counselor and vice-president of business affairs/CFO chief financial officer. Find job descriptions and details at: www.donnelly.edu/careers.

Caregivers - Daughters & Company is looking for several compassionate caregivers to provide assistance to seniors in their home, assisted living or in a skilled nursing facility. We provide light housekeeping/light meal preparation, organizational assistance, care management and occasional transportation services for our clients. We need caregivers with reliable transportation and a cellphone for communication. A CNA background is helpful, though not mandatory. We typically employ on a part-time basis, but will strive to match up hours desired. Contact Gary or Laurie at (913) 341-2500 if you want to become part of an excellent caregiving team.

Extended day care position - Holy Spirit Catholic School in Overland Park is seeking an enthusiastic person to be the group leader in our after-school care program. This well-established program runs from 3 - 5:45 p.m. each school day. We are looking for a faith-filled, responsible, organized and creative person. Applicants should have knowledge of child development and be able to implement age-appropriate activities. The ability to communicate clearly with children, colleagues and parents is most important in order to foster positive relationships. Applicants must attend Virtus training, ongoing childcare training and be at least 18 years old. Contact Tessa Piscitello at (913) 492-2582 or email: tpiscitello@hs catholic.org for more information.

Faculty and adjunct faculty job openings - Donnelly College, Kansas City, Kansas, a Catholic college offering higher education for those who may not otherwise be served. Adjunct faculty job openings include: biology; clinical nursing and math coordinator. Faculty job opening available for the nursing school. Find job descriptions and details at: www.donnelly. edu/careers.

Janitorial assistant - Queen of the Holy Rosary, Wea, is seeking a janitorial assistant. This is a parttime position requiring 15 - 20 hours per week. Work hours are flexible and can be negotiated with the employee’s supervisor. Basic duties include general cleaning of the church, school and adoration chapel. For a full job description or to apply for the position, visit: archkck.org/jobs.

Nurses and nurse aides - The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth are currently seeking full- and parttime registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nurse aides at our beautiful long-term care facility. Our private nursing facility offers a quiet and pleasant working environment plus low resident (Sisters only!) to staff ratios! We offer a generous paid time off and benefits package, which includes Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance for as low as $90/month! Work 36 hours a week and get paid for 40, plus you’ll receive shift differentials and bonuses! To apply, please email your resume to: recruiting@scls.org or visit our website at: scls.org.

HOME IMPROVEMENT

Local handyman - Painting int. and ext., wood rot, masonry (chimney repair), gutter cleaning (gutter covers), dryer vent cleaning, sump pump (replace, add new), windows, doors (interior and exterior) honey-do list, window cleaning and more! Member of Holy Angels Parish, Basehor. Call Billy at (913) 927-4118.

DRC Construction

We’ll get the job done right the first time.

Windows- Doors - Decks - Siding Repair of replace, we will work with you to solve your problems. Choose us for any window, door, siding or deck project and you’ll be glad you did.

Everything is guaranteed 100% www.windowservicesoverlandpark.com drcconstructionwindows@gmail.com (913) 461-4052

STA (Sure Thing Always) Home Repair - Basement finish, bathrooms and kitchens; interior & exterior repairs: painting, roofing, siding, wood replacement and window glazing. Free estimates. Call (913) 5791835. Email: smokeycabin@hotmail.com. Member of Holy Trinity, Lenexa.

Popcorn ceiling texture removal

Interior painting

Call Jerry at (913) 206-1144. 30 years’ experience. Member St. Joseph Parish, Shawnee.

Gearing up for spring! We now offer financing on all your home improvement projects with approved credit. Here is a list of the construction services I offer: flooring; tile; interior/exterior painting, as well as deck and fence staining; ceiling scraping/re-texturing; bathroom, kitchen and basement remodeling; siding; decks and covered porches. We also do cabinet refinishing! Look me up on Facebook at “Father & Son Home Exteriors & Remodeling.” I work on all jobs, no subcontractors. Thank you to all my clients! (913) 709-7230.

Handyman - Home repair; skilled labor; remodeling; handyman work done in a timely manner. References available on request. Call Jeff Mauk at (913) 915-4738.

Concrete construction - Tear out and replace stamped, stained or colored patios and drives. Retaining walls, footings, poured-in-place safe rooms, excavation and hauling. Asphalt drives and lots. Fully insured; references. Call Dan at (913) 207-4371 or send an email to: dandeeconst@aol.com.

FOR SALE

Residential lifts - New and recycled. Stair lifts, porch lifts, ceiling lifts and elevators. St. Michael’s parishioners. KC Lift & Elevator at (913) 327-5557. (Formerly Silver Cross - KC).

For sale - Two plots at Chapel Hill Cemetery. Located in the Garden of Valor, lot #1798, spaces three and four. Asking $2500 each. Call Nancy at (913) 3340050.

For sale - 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe with 239K km (148.5K miles) and a couple of little problems; needs new owner who can repair and appreciate it. Dents in one door, leaks oil, but a steal for $5500 or best offer. One owner, no wrecks. Photos, details available. Text (913) 948-3127 for more information.

For sale - Four plots at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, section B; spaces 1, 2, 3 and 4 at the end of the row. Easy to get to. Selling for $3500 - $4000 each, but will negotiate. Call (913) 721-1558 or (816) 215-0352.

CAREGIVING

Family member with dementia or need help at home? - We specialize in helping seniors live SAFELY at home, where they want to live! We also offer free dementia training and resources for families and caregivers. Benefits of Home - Senior Care, www. Benefitsofhome.com or call (913) 422-1591.

Caregiving - We provide personal assistance, companionship, care management, and transportation for seniors in their home, assisted living or nursing facilities. We also provide respite care for main caregivers needing some personal time. Call Daughters & Company at (913) 341-2500 and speak with Laurie, Pat or Gary.

REAL ESTATE

We buy houses and whole estates - We are local and family owned, and will make you a fair cash offer. We buy houses in any condition. No fees or commissions and can close on the date of your choice. Selling your house has never felt so good. Jon & Stacy Bichelmeyer (913) 599-5000.

WE WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE - There are so many new companies in town advertising to buy houses. But we’re the only ones that have been here and we’re local Holy Trinity parishioners. I will give you a fair price on any conditions you are up against. Call Mark Edmondson. (913) 980-4905.

WANTED TO BUY

Wanted to buy - Antique/vintage jewelry, paintings, pottery, sterling, etc. Single pieces or estate. Renee Maderak, (913) 475-7393. St. Joseph Parish, Shawnee.

Will buy firearms and related accessories - One or a whole collection. Honest evaluation and top prices paid. Contact Tom at (913) 238-2473. Member of Sacred Heart Parish, Shawnee.

Wanted to buy - Do you have a car or truck that you need to get rid of? If you do, CALL ME! I’m a cash buyer. We’re Holy Trinity parishioners. My name is Mark. (913) 980-4905.

SERVICES

Mike Hammer local moving - A full-service mover. Packing, pianos, rental truck load/unload, storage container load/unload, and in-home moving. No job too small. Serving JoCo since 1987. St. Joseph, Shawnee, parishioner. Call Mike at (913) 927-4347 or send an email to: mike@mikehammermoving.com.

*COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL

*LAWN RENOVATION *MOWING

*CLEANUP AND HAULING

*DIRT GRADING/INSTALLATION

*LANDSCAPE DESIGN* FREE ESTIMATES

HABLAMOS Y ESCRIBIMOS INGLES!! CALL LUPE AT (816) 252-1391

Custom countertops - Laminates installed within 5 days. Cambria, granite and solid surface. Competitive prices, dependable work. Call the Top Shop, Inc., at (913) 962-5058. Members of St. Joseph, Shawnee.

Painting - Diamond Painting, (913) 648-4933, Residential/Commercial, Exterior/interior, Free Estimate, Affordable, Decks, DiamondPaintKc.com. Kcmo/ Overland Park Metropolitan area.

Catholic counseling - For individuals, couples, families, adolescents and young adults. Sam Meier, MA, LPC. Call (913) 952-2267 or book an appointment at: StillwatersKC.com, in-person or Telehealth.

Memory quilts - Preserve your memories in a keepsake quality quilt, pillows, etc. Custom designed from your T-shirt collection, baby clothes, sports memorabilia, neckties . . . Quilted Memories. (913) 649-2704.

Garage Door Repair

New Garage Doors

A Total Door - KC family owned since ‘83. www.ATotalDoor.com or (913) 236-6440 A Total Door (913) 236-6440. (913)205-0926 cell

ACT Prep - Founded by a Bishop Miege graduate, Pathway Prep has helped over 250 students during the last four years improve their scores. In-person or virtual sessions available. For more information, visit: pathwayprepkc.com and contact Alex Pint at (913) 991-8217 or: alex@pathwayprepkc.com.

PILGRIMAGE

Pilgrimage to Medjugorje - March 14 - 22, 2023. The cost is $2500 per person, which includes airfare, bus transportation, accommodations, two meals per day and daily local guides. Hosted by visionary Mirjana Soldo. For details, call Grace Legaspi at (913) 449-1806.

Classified advertising

Cost is $20 for the first five lines, $1.50 per line thereafter.

To purchase a Leaven classified ad, email: beth. blankenship@theleaven.org.

THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

Dec. 11

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Is 35: 1-6a, 10

Ps 146: 6-10

Jas 5: 7-10

Mt 11: 2-11

Dec. 12

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

Zec 2: 14-17

(Ps) Jdt 13: 18bc, 19

Lk 1: 26-38

Dec. 13

Lucy, virgin, martyr

Zep 3: 1-2, 9-13

Ps 34: 2-3, 6-7, 17-18, 19, 23 Mt 21: 28-32

Dec. 14

John of the Cross, priest, doctor of the church

Is 45: 6c-8, 18, 21c-25

Ps 85: 9-14

Lk 7: 18b-23

Dec. 15

Thursday

Is 54: 1-10

Ps 30: 2, 4-6, 11-13

Lk 7: 24-30

Dec. 16 Friday

Is 56: 1-3a, 6-8

Ps 67: 2-3, 5, 7-8

Jn 5: 33-36

Dec. 17 Saturday

Gn 49: 2, 8-10

Ps 72: 1-4, 7-8, 17

Mt 1: 1-17

Is it time for some gifts to bite the dust?

Dust collectors. That’s how my mom affectionately referred to them.

I’m not sure exactly when it started. Even though most people called her “Angie,” Mom’s formal name was Angeline. Somewhere along the line, someone looked at the first five letters of her name and, given Mom’s gentle and helpful temperament, thought it appropriate to buy her the first “dust collector,” I mean, angel.

Over the years, that angel multiplied into an army, a true “heavenly host.” Mom graciously accepted each new one and dutifully bought more Swiffers to keep them looking spiffy. In truth, though, she would have been happier without them.

My mom wasn’t a collector. She lived a simple, practical life. That made it easy for me to buy her Christmas presents but embarrassed me at the same time. While others were getting their

moms nice jewelry or clothes, I was giving mine gift certificates to Price Chopper, Wendy’s and Sam’s Club; postage stamps; lottery ticket scratchers; Russell Stover’s dark chocolates; and a wad of $10 bills. (She’d use just one $10 bill at a time, maybe once a week, as she played the penny slots at the casino. And it was rare for her to “use up” the whole $10, so they lasted a long time.)

Let Advent

This third Sunday of Advent is a perfect time to take stock of our spiritual journey to the great feast of Christmas when we celebrate the incarnation of God in Jesus, the Word made flesh.

c. 1533 - 1617

Alphonsus had to leave school when his father, a wealthy wool merchant in Segovia, Spain, died. He was put in charge of the family business at age 23, but it declined. He married and had children, but within a few short years, lost his mother, wife, daughter and son. He was introduced to the practice of daily meditation by his sisters. And, when he tried to join the Jesuits, he initially was rejected as too old and uneducated. But, in 1571, he was accepted as a lay brother and served as doorkeeper at the Jesuit college in Majorca for 45 years.

Alphonsus mentored St. Peter Claver and others, and is the subject of a sonnet written by another Jesuit, the priest-poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.

With two weeks to Christmas, it’s tempting to feel that one’s spiritual focus is lost. Perhaps Advent began with the best of good intentions but the ever-growing list of holiday tasks distract your effort to grow spiritually. The hectic pace of the season may leave us overwhelmed and weary, with little time for prayer and

MARK MY WORDS

names out of a hat and buying for just one person to abandoning the whole gift-giving altogether in favor of a relaxed and delicious meal, followed by chatting and a Christmas movie on TV.

night off from cooking and could use a homemade meal.

Maybe they need help with gas for their car.

Maybe they need a night out with friends.

My mom could do without fancy, “hightone” presents; she loved these practical items.

I think about Mom a lot as we’ve endured another Black Friday — which has morphed now into a slew of preBlack Friday sales — and Cyber Monday. My inbox is filled with “last minute” gift ideas, complete with free shipping or other enticements. There’s a push to buy, buy, buy and hurry, hurry, hurry. And you can feel the stress in the air.

Happily, my family evolved years ago from buying gifts for everyone at our Christmas celebration to picking

It’s not that we didn’t like the idea of giving gifts, but we considered ourselves so blessed that we honestly didn’t need anything more.

These thoughts above were triggered by a meme I’ve seen posted on Facebook lately. I couldn’t find who to credit for it, but I’m grateful to the author as it provides valuable food for thought. It goes like this:

Before you buy a bunch of “stuff” for family and friends this holiday season, try asking them what they really need.

Maybe they need help with a utility bill or a car payment or the rent.

Maybe they need a kid-free night and could use a free babysitter.

Maybe they need a

Maybe they need a cup of coffee and someone just to listen.

Maybe they need help making the holidays bright for their children.

Maybe they need help in some other way, but they either don’t know how to ask for help or are embarrassed to do so.

Maybe YOU could be the one to give them what they really need this season, rather than just more “stuff.”

To these great ideas, I’d add giving someone a ride to church on the weekend or bringing shut-ins Communion and a church bulletin. What ideas would you propose?

If, however, you do insist on bestowing more “dust collectors” as gifts, might I suggest including some Swiffers as well?

awaken you to God’s signs and wonders

,

on the many superficial, unreasonable demands of the season.

God’s word opens our hearts with a sense of gratitude and wonder at the mystery of what God is doing in our lives this Advent.

regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.”

firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God . . . he comes to save you.”

spiritual reading.

We are strengthened by the prophet Isaiah’s words, “Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make

God’s word invites us to begin anew our spiritual journey to the unsurpassed gift of God in sending his son Jesus among us. Jesus desires to calm our fears, quiet our hearts and loosen our grasp

So we make our own prayer the words of the psalmist: “Lord, come and save us.” Advent is a graced time to ponder the mystery of God who comes in search of us.

In the Gospel, Jesus announces signs and wonders that accompany God’s search for fallen humanity when he says, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: The blind

Advent awakens us to recognize those signs and wonders, great and small, by which God continues to work in our lives today.

As we continue the spiritual journey of Advent, we turn our gaze to Jesus, just as John the Baptist did as he prepared the way of the Lord. With eyes of faith fixed on Jesus, our Advent longing will transform into joyful hope as we pray, “Speak to me, Lord.”

Pope: Spiritual consolation is deep joy that motivates one to ‘do good’

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The spiritual practice of discernment, of seeing where God is at work in one’s life and what God is calling one to do, includes examining what brings a sense of consolation and spurs one to do good, Pope Francis said.

Spiritual consolation “is a profound experience of interior joy, consisting in seeing God’s presence in everything. It strengthens faith and hope and also the ability to do good,” Pope Francis

said Nov. 23 at his weekly general audience.

Since late August, the pope has been using his general audience talks to explain discernment, especially as taught by St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Although focused on making decisions, as a spiritual practice it involves not only looking at what is good and bad, but also examining one’s life and feelings to notice where God is at work and where God may be urging one to go. Of course, everyone would like to experience

spiritual consolation, the pope said. But it is a gift of the Holy Spirit and brings a joy that is not superficial.

“Consolation is an interior movement that touches our depths,” the pope said. “It is not flashy but soft, delicate, like a drop of water on a sponge,” as St. Ignatius described it. Consolation is seen in the lives of “many saints who were able to do great things — not because they thought they were magnificent or capable, but because they had been conquered by the peaceful sweetness of God’s love,” he said.

JEM SULLIVAN

Sullivan is a professor at The Catholic University of America.

FATHER MARK GOLDASICH

Father Mark is the pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Tonganoxie. He has been editor of The Leaven since 1989.

ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ

Tailor holiday traditions to work for you

One year, when my oldest son was in preschool, I was adamant about observing Advent as a season of waiting. This attitude, coupled with a busy work schedule, made for a hectic Christmas Eve.

While the snow gently fell outside, I was frantically trying to clean the house, bake cookies for Santa, prepare our traditional Polish meal, put up the tree, wrap presents and bake a birthday cake for Jesus . . . all in time to show up at Mass in our beautiful, matching outfits.

It did not go well. My son spent the

FAMILY MATTERS

LIBBY DUPONT

day begging me to go sledding with him and I spent the day crabbily chasing him away, telling him we’d go tomorrow. By bedtime,

I was exhausted. Then, overnight, the snow turned into a disgusting slush, so we never got to go sledding.

Since then, I’ve realized that holiday traditions should be at the service of my relationships, not the other way around.

My husband and I

started by picking a few things every year that are important to us. We do a simple Jesse Tree and light Advent candles. We watch “Elf” and “A Christmas Story.”

We eat baconwrapped shrimp and homemade pierogies on Christmas Eve and take votes on two or three varieties of “can’t miss” cookies to bake. We give gifts. Then, we let ourselves off the hook if we can’t get to the rest. There aren’t any elves on our shelves, but that’s OK!

Next, I have tried to be content with imperfection. We often miss a day (or five!) on the Jesse Tree. The

kids make a mess with purple and pink candle wax. The cookies they help with won’t win any prizes. But every effort I’ve made to value relationship over perfection has paid huge dividends.

We also try to take advantage of the whole season. In the Catholic Church, Christmas lasts for eight days, and the liturgical season goes into January. The week between Christmas and New Year is a great time to do many of the things we used to stress about finishing before the 25th.

Likewise, though we try to keep the penitential purpose

of Advent, we found that our strict observation was killing some of the expectant joy. Our compromise has been making the Third Sunday of Advent a celebration where we decorate our tree and listen to more Christmas music.

Finally, when I’m tempted to think I’m failing to meet the expectations of the season, I try to remember how outwardly imperfect the first Christmas was. Our God chose to be born into poverty because he valued his relationship with me above all else. May he find welcome in my messy home and hectic life!

Look for this year’s box office hero in our story of salvation

This time of year offers an abundance of festive family activities — Christmas light displays to see, parish Advent celebrations to attend and the latest action-adventure movie to watch in the theater.

Although an interesting menu of movie choices is often available, the Hollywood production companies seem to save their very best for the holiday season. These companies recognize that there is something powerful about the holidays, even if they may be motivated toward capitalizing on it financially.

In recent years, this season has found

ALONG THE WAY

the lights dimming on the latest and greatest superhero film. The spotlight seems to pivot between Marvel and DC Comics in an ongoing effort to garner the

top box office position.

However, this year, there was a new hero in town . . . quite literally.

“The Chosen” season three was released to box offices on Nov. 18, opening in the No. 3 position.

The interest in a seemingly mundane story with no major celebrity actors has

raised curiosity among many. Stories covering the release describe it as an “unexpected success” with an “overwhelming response” that is being embraced by even the “most secular critics.”

And that is the power of Jesus.

To know the story of salvation is to recognize the power of God to overwhelm even the most jaded heart.

When we share our personal witness with others we are often met with an unexpected response. Allowing the Holy Spirit to move through us as a conduit of Christ’s love and mercy will always result in “surprise success.”

The preparation for Christmas looks different in our lives because we are a Christian people. We know that we were created for a personal relationship with God and others.

We recognize the value in creating moments of anticipation and thanksgiving through the season of Advent because we know the true gift.

There is nothing we have done nor can do to deserve the gift of Christ. He has come to save us from sin that we cannot overcome. An undeserved gift to redeem us from ourselves — from our prideful ambition to believe we could be more if we separated

ourselves from God.

Christ came into the world as a vulnerable human being to be tortured and killed as an innocent victim; and he continues to offer himself every time we celebrate Mass in the Eucharist.

Just as we continue to pridefully choose distance from God, Jesus continues to offer his unconditional love and mercy. As we prepare through this holiday season, let us make time to renew our hearts in his love.

Let us reflect on the value of our story, the purpose of our hero and the response of our lives to the greatest gift ever given.

Our students are encouraged to study the world around them

This is a continuation of my previous articles on the topic of truth.

As I have traveled around the archdiocese visiting schools this year, I have been meeting with students in second and eighth grades. These sacramental years are so important for them.

As I speak with the students, I ask them questions about the various things they are learning. At some point during the discussion, I ask them what they have learned in science and what they have learned about God.

Then, I ask the question that always leads

FROM THE SUPER

VINCE CASCONE

to a very interesting conversation: Do science and religion have anything to do with one another?

The question of how science and religion

relate has been asked for centuries. In our Catholic schools, we want our students to examine and question the world around them.

St. Augustine wrote: “Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending

and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky . . . question all these realities.

All respond: ‘See, we are beautiful.’ Their beauty is a profession. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One who is not subject to change?”

Wonder and awe are beautiful gifts from Holy Spirit. I love the Gospel passage in Luke that tells how the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting (1:41). The excitement the yet to be born John the Baptist felt from being in the presence of Our Lord is awesome.

This is the same

wonder and awe we want our students to experience when they are in the presence of Our Lord, whether that be through the beauty of the natural world he created or in his profound presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Although my knowledge of Latin is nearly nonexistent, I have become familiar with the phrase “Nemo dat quod non habet,” which means “No one can give what they do not have.”

We cannot, for example, pass on to our children knowledge that we, ourselves, do not have. This phrase comes to mind when I reflect on what our school principals,

teachers, faculty and staff members do to grow in the knowledge of our faith so they can share this with their students.

In addition to the wonderful faith formation they receive from the School of Faith, we will be having a speaker next year focusing specifically on faith and reason.

That being said, our goal is to help our students to examine the world around them so they can experience the gifts of wonder and awe that the Holy Spirit gives.

By doing this, they will see the beautiful connection between science and religion.

EMILY LOPEZ

Emily Lopez is the lead consultant for adult evangelization.

Libby DuPont is a consultant for the archdiocesan office of marriage and family life.

Vince Cascone is the superintendent of archdiocesan schools.

Charitable

Cheerful giving

giving

As we approach year end, we enter a time of gratitude. It is a time when we express our love for our family and friends through gifts. It is also a time of year when we consider a gift to our favorite charity.

Why do we give to charities? We give because we believe in the mission of the charity. By giving, we are participating in this mission. We give because it enriches our lives. St. Paul writes in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: “You will be enriched in every way for your generosity” (9:11). While this is the primary reason for giving, there are other things to consider in planning year-end gifts.

For a look at important considerations for charitable planning, The Leaven spoke with Bill Maloney, executive director of the archdiocesan office of stewardship and development and the Catholic Foundation of Northeast Kansas.

The Leaven: What are the first things people should consider when planning charitable giving?

Maloney: Make a list of the charities you would like to consider, review the mission of each organization and then determine the best way for you to participate in that mission. Charitable organizations are always in need of volunteers. Giving the gift of time or of a special talent of yours can go a long way toward helping a charity fulfill its mission. Volunteer opportunities range from helping at an event or in the office to being a board member.

The Leaven: What are the most needed charitable items currently? Food? Clothing? Cash?

Maloney: Charitable giving at this time of year can benefit the most vulnerable in our community. Charitable organizations supporting those in need welcome monetary donations as well as gifts of food and clothing. There is an urgent need for food donations at this time.

The Leaven: If readers have some new ones they’re looking into, how can they investigate a charity’s credibility, including whether they are a 501(c)(3) charity?

Maloney: Most charities issue an annual report. In that annual report, you will be able to determine how they are stewarding the funds that are gifted to them. The annual report will list the expenses of the organization, which will give you an idea on the percentage of funds that are being used for the charitable cause versus their overhead.

The Leaven: How can they find out whether their donation will go toward what they want it to go for?

Maloney: When a charity solicits a

takes many forms, but do your homework

End-of-year giving can take many forms, whether it be clothes, food, cash or other.

Bill Maloney, executive director of the archdiocesan office of stewardship and development and the Catholic Foundation of Northeast Kansas, gives his thoughts on things to look for when considering your end-of-year giving.

gift, it generally provides a brochure or a case statement that outlines specifically how the funds will be used. If you have a specific purpose in mind, you can designate your gift. In either case, the charity is bound to honor the intent of your gift.

The Leaven: What documentation does a donor need to receive and save to deduct it on their taxes? Do they need to request a receipt or some sort of donation form when they donate?

Maloney: If you donate $250 or more to a charity, the charitable organization is required to issue you a receipt for your gift. If you would like a receipt for a donation of less than $250, most charities will certainly provide documentation of your gift. Each person’s tax situation is unique, so it is important to consult with a tax adviser to determine the value of your gifts.

The Leaven: What is the best and safest way to give — cash, check or online?

Maloney: There are many ways to support your favorite charity. The most common way to give is by check or online. Both of these methods are secure. In addition to these methods of giving, there are other ways to give that may offer important tax advantages. You may have an appreciated stock. If you are over 70-and-a-half years old, a

Qualified Charitable Distribution from your Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is a great option. For more information, you can visit the website at: Catholicplannedgiving.com.

The Leaven: What if someone doesn’t have the time or skill to investigate a charity at this time but would like to make donations prior to yearend for tax purposes?

Maloney: A donor advised fund is a great option when you don’t have the time or experience to do year-end research or are unsure of what charity or charities to contribute to. A gift to your fund allows you to take a tax deduction with the flexibility of making gifts to your favorite charities over time. The Catholic Foundation of Northeast Kansas offers donor advised funds with investments that adhere to Catholic social teachings in accordance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. You can find additional information online at: cfnek.org.

The Leaven: Finally, what are your top recommendations for giving to Catholic organizations and agencies this year?

Maloney: The end of the year is a great time to consider a gift to your favorite Catholic ministry. You might consider gifts to your parish or parish school. Our Catholic high schools are all in need of funds, especially to help families with tuition assistance. In the same vein, the Catholic Education Foundation is also helping families throughout the archdiocese with tuition assistance. A gift to Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas is a great way to have an impact on the most vulnerable in our community. Walking with Moms in Need is a ministry that is being formed in many of our parishes. A gift to help with food and diapers will certainly make the holidays a little brighter for a mother in need. Finally, a gift to the archdiocese for the Archbishop’s Call to Share will support over 40 Catholic ministries.

Bill Maloney