St. Libory Catholic Church

The new school year will soon be upon us. August will soon sweep by, and fall will be here. Fall is probably my favorite season, but I cannot help but always feel sad to see summer go. I think that was ingrained into me from my childhood. I hated school. Kindergarten was great. After that I was miserable. I didn’t know it then, but I have a form of dyslexia. It’s hard to describe. To put it simply, I don’t process written information the way most people do. Consequently, most learning methods did not work for me. High School was a little better, thanks to a couple of good, encouraging teachers. By the time I eventually went to college, I began to develop my own methods of learning, and all went fine. But I digress. Whenever I see the sad eyes in a child who is reminded, he or she will soon return to school, I empathize. I used to cry. Not when anyone could see, but I did. Watching our youngest child struggle with the same learning difficulty taught me a lot about my own learning. He too began to turn it around in High School thanks to a gifted teacher. If you have a child that is struggling with school, I have some advice. Help them find their giftedness, something they are good at. It’s there within them somewhere. The Lord put it there. In my case it was geometry, (go figure). It was the first time I ever got an A in a class. In the case of our son, he discovered he had a real knack for industrial arts, working with his hands, inspired by a great teacher. As he excelled in this subject, everything else rose with it, all other subjects. No more detentions or misbehaviors. Today he is a State Patrol officer and a very good one. Our children do not need unearned rewards, but they do need encouragement. Help them find their gift. And thank God for good teachers! The Lord only knows what I would have become without them. Pray for them and when you have the opportunity, thank them. Yours in Christ our Lord. Fr. Sid

What is your “mission”? The formal church term would be, apostolate. You probably recognize the name “apostle.” It means “missionary” and apostolate is the mission of the missionary. As Christians we tend to think of the missionary as the person who goes off to a distant place to proclaim the Gospel. That is certainly correct but it’s too narrow. Every Christian is a missionary in the proper sense. This calling came with your baptism and was strengthened by the Holy Spirit in your Confirmation. It might help to use an analogy used by St. Paul in the Bible. He says we are ambassadors for Christ. Our lives are intended to reflect Christ in all that we say and do. So, our mission or apostolate begins very close to home, in fact in our home. For example, if you are a husband or wife, you are obligated by your office of spouse to reflect Christ to your beloved. If you are a mother or father, you are obligated to be a Christlike parent. If you are a son or daughter, you are obligated to Christlike honor of you parents, regardless of age. We can go on to all other family designation and from there to teacher-student, boss-employee, neighbor, etc. etc. You get the picture. Every Christian’s mission field begin with the person closest to them at any given moment. But what about beyond that? For every Christian there is something a step beyond that they are called to do. Have you prayed about this? There is always something more the Lord is calling us to in our personal walk with Him. In terms of the Faith, what bothers you? What gets your attention and grabs your thoughts and causes you to ponder? Then ask the Lord if there is something he wants you to do? Prayer is the first step followed by action. Yours in Christ our Lord, Fr. Sid.

Summer is passing quickly, and the new school year will soon begin. I want to put out an early request for help with our CCD program, (religious education of our youth). I cannot understate how very important this is to our youth, our families, our parish, our community, and the world. We are rapidly seeing the disappearance of Christian culture in our nation and world. So much of what has been held as good and virtuous in society was based upon the general acceptance of Christian morals, even by unbelievers. Even many self-identifying Christians now embrace non-Christian values with little or no disturbance of conscience, dismissing marriage and applauding the execution of unborn children in the womb. Beyond this we see that whole concepts and ideas of a God, being washed from all media and entertainment venues. Our children are innocently immersed in the maddening swirl of non-faith information and intimidation. Many if not most of their peers have no allegiance to a life of faith or even a concept of the Divine as a reality. This is why our CCD is so very important, for our youth and their parents. Please consider helping, by teaching, aiding a teacher, being an extra set of hands, eyes, and ears in the classroom. Or, by visibly being present to pray for our youth and their teachers. Classes will begin in September. Please contact Cathy Wieck for more information on how you can help. Yours in Christ, Fr. Sid.

Today we celebrate the protective prayers of our parish patron, Saint Liborius. The hallmark of our day is the Eucharistic procession around the parish grounds, stopping at stations to pray and concluding with prayers of benediction in the church. Something that distinguishes us a Catholic is our manner of praying. We pray with our whole being, our heart, our soul, our mind, and our body. The body prayer is what sets us apart from other Christians in general. We genuflect, we kneel, we fold our hands, we bow our heads, and we physically participate in devotional movements such as our procession. Why? Because as humans we need frequent reminders of the “invisible” and the transcendent, that which is unseen and is greater and higher than ourselves. In the previous decades many of these practices have been abandoned and predictably so has our personal and corporate “memory” of God. But the Lord always has ways of bringing his people back around. Seeing the moral decay that is happening on a scale unimaginable just a few years ago, the bitter fruit is bringing with it a spiritual craving for that which is holy and pure, greater than ourselves. I hope this was your experience this Sunday. Yours in Christ our Lord, Fr. Sid.