Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday, Nov. 17
‘Recommitting ourselves to be laborers in love with the Lord’
“Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday”, Nov. 17, is designed to offer people a chance to recommit themselves to being laborers in love with the Lord; to renew as Christian disciples; to be grateful; to profoundly begin again to share God’s blessings with others.
It’s about looking at new ways that one might be of service to their Church and to each other, whether by being a welcoming beacon in the Church, by offering daily prayer, by assisting with spiritual formation programs (think teaching a PSR class, for example), or by offering their time serving their parish in some capacity.
In the weeks leading up to Commitment Sunday, Catholics in the diocese have heard messages from the pulpit, and have read a series of articles in the SKR highlighting different aspects of stewardship, all of which will cause us to joyfully receive and share in Christ.
By our baptism, we are called Christian: let us generously follow Jesus, and share His gifts with others.
Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday, Nov. 17 asks
How do we live out our baptism?
It wouldn’t be unusual if the heading, “Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday” caused one to assume they’re being asked to be especially generous financially.
If they did assume that, they’d be wrong. Well, not entirely. Stewardship does have to do with giving. But the financial side is just one of many ways that individuals, through their baptism, are asked to give of themselves to their Church and each other. As expressed in the theme of the Nov. 17 Commitment Sunday, the upcoming event is about “Joyfully Receiving and Sharing.”
Rudy Valenzuela was born in 1900; Mark Twain was still writing novels, World War I was still years away, and one in only 13 homes had a telephone. When he was interviewed in 2002, he told the SKR that he remembered vividly the site of Haley’s Comet sailing through the sky back in 1908, and when Poncho Villa came to his home in Chihuahua, Mexico and help crush the regime of President Porfirio Diaz.
Hospitality is part of our faith tradition
By Daniel Mulhall
Catholic News Service
Abraham was a rich man, but he had no son with his wife Sarah, and he and his wife had grown old. One day as he sat at his tent in the hot sun he noticed three men. Abraham immediately ran to them, bowed down in front of them, and invited them to dine with him.
Bringing them into the shade, he fixed a special dinner and treated them as royalty -- which they were, as angels of the Lord. Following this act of hospitality, Abraham and his wife Sarah were blessed by God in their old age with a son, Isaac.
Sister Mary Ann Klein -- local teacher, nurse -- dies at 88
Sister Mary Ann Klein (Sister Mary James), 88, died Friday, Oct. 4, 2013, in the Catholic Care Center in Wichita.
Born Dec. 4, 1924, in Fowler, Sister Mary Ann was the daughter of the late Jacob and Anna Hoffman Klein. She entered the Dominican Sisters in Great Bend on March 17, 1940, and pronounced her first vows August 13, 1943. She celebrated 70 years of religious profession earlier this year.
Sister Mary Ann began her ministerial life as a teacher in parochial elementary schools in Odin, Willowdale, La Crosse, and Clonmel, Kansas. In 1951 she began her studies in nursing and ministered in St. Rose Hospital, Great Bend, and St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City. She served as a missionary in health ministry in the Sokoto Prefecture in Nigeria in the 1960s.
The Four Pillars of Stewardship: Prayer
Catechists urged to focus on prayer
By CHARLENE SCOTT MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Editor’s Note: The following is Part I of a two-part series. Part I focuses on “Prayer”, one of the four pillars of stewardship. Part II will address the “Service” pillar, including how catechists can use strong proclamation to encourage children to pray. Stein noted that she utilized several sources in her talk that readers may wish to access. They will be included online, and in the next issue of the SKR.
The Coordinator of Catechist Formation in the Diocese of Dodge City, Coleen Stein, urges catechists to pray because “Prayer is the way we connect and stay connected to God.”
Stein joined Bishop Emeritus Ronald M. Gilmore as a speaker on the Interactive Television Network Sept. 4 and 7.
“We begin by looking at what is prayer, why is prayer important, how do we pray, and how can we help others, especially our students, pray,” she said.
“We think of prayer as something we do in order to get something else. We pray for things: rain, peace, health, success. And when we get what we ask for, we believe our prayer is responsible for it. If we don’t get it, we wonder whether we prayed wrong, or whether God knew better, or whether someone else deserved to win more than we did.”
A brief moment with Pope Francis
Newlyweds Deanna and Michael Johnston of Dodge City had a chance encounter with Pope Francis while honeymooning recently in Rome.
By DIANNA JOHNSTON
Special to the Register
Editor’s Note: Dianna Johnston is a pastoral minister at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A photo of her and her husband, Michael’s encounter with Pope Francis is on Page 1.
My husband and I were married on Oct. 5 in my hometown of Memphis, TN. It sounds cliché to say this, but it really was the happiest day of my life. After three years of working with engaged couples at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe and teaching the Theology of the Body, it was wonderful to enter into the Sacrament of Marriage with my best friend, surrounded by our family and friends. God is so good!
Before we were even engaged, Michael and I knew that we would be going to Rome in October for our last Graduate Theology course with Newman University. The trip doubled as our honeymoon and we were able to spend 12 days there, which included a trip to Assisi and Orvieto.
Jr. High Youth Rally
‘Be aware of what your gifts are’
(The photos should be up and running soon. Click here to check the youth page!)
Junior high school youth from across the diocese filled the auditorium at Dodge City Community College all in the name of getting to know Christ just a little better.
The theme for the annual Diocese of Dodge City Junior High Youth Rally, Oct. 6, was “Jesus is the Real Lifesaver.” One of the highlights of the rally came when artist Mike Debus of Overland Park painted a portrait of Jesus on a revolving canvas while Mikey Neddleman of Olathe sang and played a hauntingly beautiful song on the guitar.
As if to further illustrate the theme of the rally, Debus told the children that when he walked away from the work-a-day world to become an artist it was a leap of faith -- the same faith he would need to one day perform on stage for the first time. Even though he was “terrified”, he found the faith and courage to go on.
“It changed my life,” he said. “I learned a lesson from that. God is going to ask each and every one of us, at some point in our life, to go somewhere we don’t want to go -- to do something we may not feel comfortable doing. But, by taking those steps, by saying yes when maybe we’re afraid to, it’s going to change your life and it might change the lives of those around you.
“Be aware of what your gifts are. Be aware of how God wants to use them. He might want to use them in a different way than what you’re used to.”
Says Timken resident
‘I remember his sense of humor’
Father Emil Kapaun officiated at a double wedding at Holy Trinity Church in Timken on May 11, 1946. Pictured above: Father Norbert Staab, pastor of Sacred Heart, Larned; Marvin and Helen Finger, Agnes and Leonard Finger, and Father Kapaun.
By Tim Wenzl
Archvist
Father Kapaun was appointed pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Timken on April 9, 1948. A month and two days later he officiated at the double wedding of Leonard and Agnes (Vondracek) Finger and Marvin and Helen (Pechanec) Finger.
Helen Finger remembers visiting with Father Kapaun in the living room at the rectory. “We went to see Father Kapaun several weeks before the wedding. He met with us separately. I guess he visited with Marvin about being a good husband. He talked with me about being a good wife. He was so kind in explaining things. He explained what it meant being ‘subjective’ to my husband. A lot like it says in the Bible. I really appreciated the way he explained it.
Protecting God’s Children
First role of the Church is to ‘help the victim’
By DAVID MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Victims come first.
This admonition by Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta represents a change in thinking since the late 1990s.
It’s been more than two decades since Teresa Green (an alias) of Texas was sexually abused by a priest. Yet, even after fighting through the long journey to re-embrace the Church, there are still triggers that send her into a downward spiral. Sadly, these triggers can include some of the most sacred objects we see in our churches
Such is the depth of her pain -- as well as that of many other victims of clergy sexual abuse. On Sept. 26, members of the chancery staff and others in the diocese took part in a day-long session designed, in part, to review what the U.S. Catholic Church has done, and is doing, to protect children from clergy abuse.
Vatican official visits Wichita chancery regarding
Father Emil Kapaun’s cause for sainthood
By Tim Wenzl
Diocesan Archivist
Editor’s note: Parts of this article first appeared in the Oct. 4 edition of the Catholic Advance.
Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, Postulator with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, was in Wichita Sept. 28 and 29 to look over some work compiled on the documentation of two alleged miracles attributed to the intercession of Father Emil Kapaun.
Father John Hotze, Episcopal Delegate overseeing the gathering of information for the cause, met with Ambrosi at the Wichita chancery. “He was here to ensure that we’ve done everything properly,” Father Hotze said, “so that when we do get all of the interviews done, we can just ship it over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. We hope to have the interviews complete in the next couple of months.”
The Wichita diocese is investigating the alleged miraculous healings of Avery Gerleman, now a student at Hutchinson Community College, and Chase Kear of Colwich. In 2006, Gerleman, at age 12, was suffering from autoimmune disorder that left her near death; Kear recovered from a traumatic pole vaulting injury to his head in 2008.