Greetings, Brother Knights. It seems like just yesterday that I was writing November’s article. The year is going fast. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas is only a month away. This is the time of year that food shelves, homeless shelters, and churches see an increase in request for assistance. I am sure this year will be no different and maybe worse because of the economic times. So please try to help out your local church, food shelf, or shelter if you can.
As this year has progressed I have become more comfortable as your Grand Knight. With that said I want to plant the seed for some more new leadership in the council. We have a few people doing double duty right now and I would like to eliminate this for next year. There is no rush, but think about helping us out in the next year. The process for selecting new officers will start after the first of the year.
I was pleased to see the last half of the year calendar make it into the last guidepost. There is one correction to it. The Concertina party to be held in January has the wrong day. The date of January 25th is correct but this date is on Saturday not Friday. I hope you all post this page on your refrigerator or bulletin board and help us out when you can.
Keep in your prayers the families of brother knights who have passed away in the last year. Also keep in your prayers the following people: Bob Murphy who is scheduled to have his other leg amputated, Ray Kempf, his mother recently passed away, and Dick Dols his fathers lung cancer is getting the better of him.
Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
Dale Carnegie
During the October meeting we distributed the 02-03 calendars of events and the membership list.
Thank you to the ladies for providing the hors d’oeuvres at the November Memorial Mass and meeting. As usual, everything is delicious.
Ken and I would like to remind everyone of the Seniors Christmas Party on 12/6/02. Lorraine needs the donated turkeys by 11/29/02. The ladies are encouraged to bring a salad and a hot dish to share. This is always a very fun time, and I look forward to seeing everyone there. Again this year, the entertainment will be provided by the 7th Avenue Singers from Anoka High School.
A reminder that the Ladies meeting is a week earlier than the men’s in December. We will be meeting on 12/11/02 at Jean Ackermans house to enjoy a potluck and wrap the presents for the families we adopted for Christmas. If you need directions, please contact Jean. I will also be collecting the final volunteer hours at this time.
The ladies do not meet in January, so I would like to wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday season.
Sandy Resler
sresler@msn.com
President
The 25th annual Concertina Bowl will be held January 25th at Brooke Hall in Blaine. Watch for a flyer and article in the January guidepost. This year being the 25th, the council will add a couple of new things to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Concertina Bowl.
Dick Dols
Frozen to Death
Wednesday, November 21, 2001
Two men waiting at the pearly gates strike up a conversation. "How'd you die?" the first man asks the second.
"I froze to death," says the second. "That's awful, how does it feel to freeze to death?" says the first.
"It's very uncomfortable at first, you get the shakes, and you get pains in all your fingers and toes. But eventually, it's a very calm way to go. You get numb and you kind of drift off, as if you're sleeping.
How did you die?" says the second. "I had a heart attack", says the first guy. "You see, I knew my wife was cheating on me, so one day I showed up at home unexpectedly.
I ran up to the bedroom, and found her alone, knitting.
I ran down to the basement, but no one was hiding there.
I ran up to the second floor, but no one was hiding there either.
I ran as fast as I could to the attic, and just as I got there, I had a massive heart attack and died."
The second man shakes his head. "That's so ironic" he says.
"What do you mean?" asks the first man.
"If you had only stopped to look in the freezer, we'd both still be alive."
Rev. Mr. Paul Jarvis, Knight
On November 23, I became a transitional deacon for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and I'll be ordained a priest, God willing, on May 29, 2004. I am now thoroughly steeped in church culture, but I come from the world of marketing and communications. So it is with a somewhat different set of eyes that I look at the current priest shortage and our collective response to it. Frankly, I've been surprised by what I have seen and heard.
Not by what the archdiocesan vocations has been doing, though. The two people in that office are doing what TWO PEOPLE can do. (See their informative website at http://www.10000vocatrions.org.) And what they do is extraordinary.
No, I refer to the rest of us in the Church ... people who should, given the great need for vocations, see themselves as unofficial associate vocations directors for this archdiocese and neighboring dioceses.
I have been asking priests and religious in the archdiocese what they have been doing lately to encourage religious and priestly vocations among the faithful. I am especially interested in what dynamic sisters, brothers, and priests have to say. And I have been surprised to find that the great majority of them consider their life's example to be the sole thing they need to communicate as far as encouraging vocations to the religious life and ordained ministry.
I say I have been surprised because, judging from the drop in seminarians and in novices over the past three decades, this strategy does not seem to have been very successful. Without a doubt, a positive witness to a fulfilling life as consecrated and ordained servants in the Church is crucial to encouraging vocations among men and women.
But it is not the only thing needed.
One only has to look at scripture for proof of this. I imagine most of the Twelve knew, or knew of, Jesus prior to becoming disciples. I can't imagine them not being impressed with his radical way of thinking, feeling, living and loving. But what was absolutely crucial to their becoming Disciples of Christ was an invitation to come join Him. Thankfully, long gone are the days when some parents cajoled children into a vocation ... but we now seem to have the opposite problem of many priests and religious and family members shying away from encouraging Christians of all ages to actively discern what they may sense is a Call.
A neutral attitude towards vocations just doesn't seem to be working. I'm an older vocation. I remember when I first went to the Vocations Office -- way back in the early 80s -- and took a vocations aptitude test and was found to be an "excellent match" for the priesthood. That was the last I ever heard from the Vocations Office. (Again, times are certainly different now with today's Vocations Office!) Yes, the office's staff was not ultimately responsible for my vocational discernment. But they had one nibbling on the line!
The business world agrees with Christ at least in this sense: You aren’t ever going to get the "sale", no matter how good your service and product, until you ask for the sale. In non-business terms, when you don't ask, you don't get.
A priest-friend once speculated that there were a number of older priests and religious who were content to retire and leave the ordained and religious ministerial shortage to later generations to deal with.
I refuse to believe that this "I did my time!" attitude is anywhere near prevalent among the clergy and religious. In fact I can't imagine a single priest or religious -- living by the gospel message of concern for the other -- could possibly hold this notion. I just haven't encountered any such Christian yet. Every priest and religious member I talk to is very interested in the continuation of their special ministry ... it just seems that in rejecting pressuring people into vocations, some may have mistaken inviting or encouraging for pressuring.
I think our Savior's example of invitation -- an invitation made by all Catholic Christians -- speaks for itself.
A Let's get rolling! Attitude is all the more important today. The recent scandal in the Church has been compared to the Church's 9/11. I suggest priests and seminarians and religious order members could find some inspiration from a first-responder who addressed a recent 9/11 memorial in Lino Lakes.
She said that while watching the 9/11 disaster on television, a family member asked her if she wanted to continue with her vocation. She emphatically said that she wanted, "now more than ever", to continue with her vocation. Why? Because her vocation was based on responding to need ... the bigger the need, the bigger her desire to fulfill that need.
Isn't that what love is, after all? Isn't that the vocation of a Knight? It's more than mere Hollywood sentiment. You see a need, like the "Good Samaritan", and you respond. And you respond as best you can, even when it is inconvenient.
I'm not suggesting that love of the Church is only expressed in an attitude of invitation to religious or priestly vocation. I am suggesting, however, that responding to need is the essence of every servant-vocation ... and the Church now very much needs more servant leaders. So, I say to all "associate vocations directors" in Minnesota -- priests and religious and knights -- that they should ...
Be caring.Be creative.
Be asking.
Paul Jarvis
The St. Paul Seminary
2260 Summit Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105