Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

A friend recently told me that years ago I gave a homily that had helped him to change a habit of leaving Mass early! He said that I used the analogy of being a dinner guest in someone’s home, and that nobody would ever get up and leave while the host has gone to the kitchen to clear the table. We always wait and express gratitude and have an appropriate farewell expression. In the Mass the appropriate farewell is the final blessing and the recessional hymn. Jesus wants to bless us for our coming to His wedding feast, and bid us farewell!

I also get asked, “what is the latest I can arrive for Mass and fulfill my obligation?” I understand the human urge to cut the corner, to take a short cut, but should we be doing this in regards to our weekly worship of God? No Way! I know what family life is like, and that sometimes the family walking in late is not doing so because of sloth. Sometimes it is because the children decide to walk the dog, or visit the bathroom, or hide in the basement at the very time when parents are trying to shepherd them to the mini-van to go to Mass.

Tardiness is not always directly willed, and I will always try to be understanding of late arrivals. (Yes, and know that I am most guilty of this! Mass often is late because I am waiting for altar servers to vest, or trying to find a lector, or talking to a grieving widow, or sometimes I am just plain late). If I ask your understanding as a parish family, I can give it as well.

However, everyone knows that missing Mass without serious cause is a grave sin. To look at this issue in terms of ‘when is the latest I can arrive?’ or ‘when is the earliest I can leave?’ is the wrong way to look at this. It is a recipe for spiritual disaster to measure our love for God by what is the minimum permissible. I give you this quote from St. John Chrysostom:

When we perform an act of kindness we should rejoice and not be sad about it…. If you do away with miserliness and counting the cost, with hesitation and grumbling, what will be the result? Something great and wonderful! What a marvelous reward there will be: Your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will rise up quickly. Who would not aspire to light and healing.

What costs are you counting? Extra time in the parking lot? First in line at IHOP? Jesus gives you life at the cost of His own life. Is it really too much cost to stay for the entire Mass?

Pax et Bonum,

Father John Mosimann

A few folks were surprised last weekend when we announced a farewell for Father Koehr in the after Mass announcements! Ooops! I guess they missed it in the bulletin. This weekend and next are his last at St. Mary’s, and farewell parties are wrapping up tomorrow! We have been blessed by his ministry here at St. Mary, and I know that you will keep him in your prayers as he embarks in his military service as a Navy chaplain!

We will also be getting two priests this summer to replace Fr. Koehr and Fr. Sina. I am sure that you will welcome the new priests as you have welcomed all the priests who have come through St. Mary’s! Fr. Timothy Courtney is a brand newly ordained priest this month, and Fr. Kevin Dansereau was ordained in 2015.

Also, not connected to the above, I celebrated a funeral Mass for a gentleman last week. He had a phrase that he would often say that has stuck in my mind: “Jesus is not your pony. You can’t trot Him out and make Him do what you want!” Every time I have thought of that over the last week, I have smiled, and said a prayer for him.

It is truly one of the amazing graces of the priesthood to be able to intersect with the lives of the faithful in such a wide spectrum. Every time I celebrate a funeral, I think how the deceased have a full life of experiences and now I get to be there with and for them at the final rites. While I have not had the privilege of knowing personally every person, I remember at the altar that Jesus has known them and loved them and walked with them since before they were born. Now he asks me to stand in His place to minister His love to his children.

This is why St. John Vianney said that the priesthood is love of the heart of Jesus.

I thank God for the ways that Fr. Koehr, and Fr. Sina have also mediated that love to you. And I trust the Lord that He is sending us two more quality men to keep the graces flowing!

pax et bonum,

Father John Mosimann

A Blessed Feast of Corpus Christi to you!

Recently I was distributing Holy Communion to the faithful at Mass and someone knelt to receive Our Lord. Since I know this person, this thought flashed through my mind, “what a gift to be able to be on our knees before the love of our lives”. Immediately, that thought was followed by the image of a man on his knees with a ring in his hand before the love of his life!

Everybody knows what that picture means: man, kneeling, ring, woman clasping hands to face in joy! It is unmistakable! If you saw an engagement picture without the knee bent, you might/should look side-eyed to see why not!

If we can get on our knees to profess our undying love and give our lives to the beloved, then why not for Jesus? In Holy Communion, you are saying “yes” to Him who has given His life for you, and giving your life in return back to Him.

I know that most parishes don’t have kneelers available. I can’t change the world. I can’t even guarantee that the next pastor will keep the kneelers for you.

I also am glad that you, the people of St. Mary’s, don’t look sided-eyed at each other to measure who stands and who kneels. In the current discipline of the church, it is an option, one not often supported or encouraged, but an option to kneel nonetheless.

The ONLY measure that matters for each communicant is the measure of your loving response to Jesus. Because we are beings whose nature is to have a body and soul, yes, our postures matter but do not exclusively determine our receptivity.

The communicant who sparked this reflection is a ‘regular’ Catholic, and I have witnessed her devotion grow over the last few years. One of the elements that allowed that to grow, was giving her the option to receive kneeling if she wanted. As pastor, that put a smile in my soul and on my face.

Kneeling before the love of your life? You betcha!

Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar! Blessed be Jesus, the deepest desire of your soul!

pax et bonum,

Father John Mosimann