Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

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

One more message penned from Ireland. Thanks be to God for the amazing weather. We were blessed with 11 days of sunshine and temperatures from 65 to 72. I don’t think I have been in a spot with more consistently beautiful days. I guess that means this is my one and only trip to Ireland, b/c this is not the usual weather pattern!

And returning to a busy weekend! Holy Cross Academy graduation was Friday night, priest ordinations are Saturday (yes, we will be getting one of the newly ordained), and now this weekend I get to give you an update on the Capital Campaign!

An hour before beginning to type this, I got word that our Capital Campaign hit $5 Million pledged! Wooohhooo!!!! So much good work, and a little more to go to fully fund our identified needs. This is why we need everyone to participate.

Why have we built this campaign on visiting everyone who will let us? Let me share one tidbit from the survey. For folks who have received a visit, their understanding of HCA & St. Mary expansion & finances:
Greatly Improved 63%
Somewhat Improved 24%

Did not change 12%
Somewhat deteriorated <1%
That is a really high success rate and tells me we are on the right track with helping all to make an informed and prayerful decision.

Moving into the summer, we are now going to offer group meetings. Many parishioners expressed a desire to meet with others, and not in a one-on-one setting. So now we are offering these over the summer! We hope that this will allow us to reach each family to prayerfully consider joining our winning effort to “Grow Our Legacy of Faith”!

Yes, I will still be doing a number of individual meetings, because that allows me maximum time for social interaction with those who are willing to mix in a bit of feasting and conversation with the business side of the visit. I have truly treasured the time I have been able to spend with parish families during this campaign.

So that’s the big news! $5M success, and moving to the next phase where we offer group meetings in addition to the individual family visits!

See you back home by the time you are reading this!

pax et bonum,

Father John Mosimann