June 26, 2022 – Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear Friends,
As we move to summer and not only to the increased heat of nature, but the simmering that can fill our hearts with so much going on in our crazy world, please know our Family of Four Parishes are committed to bringing the presence of Jesus to the center of how we are facing all the many issues that are filling our hearts. You and your family and all those dear to you are held closely in the heart of Jesus and in the prayers and good works and service our parish programs aim to provide.
If you are stressed (which is probably all of us!), please know of an open line to me, your pastor, to our new Associate, Fr. Carlos, and to the members of a truly wonderful, caring staff! We are here for you, and with Christ we can face anything. Upheavals in history have always been met by the love of God present in Christ Jesus. And we who love Him so will always help each other. Our parishes are called to be beacons of hope and support, and we will always try to be that. You have my word!
Blessings, and always prayers and love!
Fr. Tim Your Pastor
June 19, 2022 – The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Dear Friends in Christ,
On this august Solemnity of Our Lord’s Most Holy Body and Blood (Corpus Christi), as we beg for a greater love of the Holy Eucharist and lives that radiate that Eucharistic coherence, please allow me to offer these oft-quoted words from our fellow American Catholic, Flannery O’Connor.
“I then said, in a very shaky voice, “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.” That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest is expendable.”
(From Flannery’s Letter to Elizabeth Hester (“A”), December 16, 1955)
As I take leave of our Family of Four Parishes this Sunday, please know of my gratitude to the Lord for this past year of priestly ministry. It has been a privilege to offer the Sacraments in our historic churches, especially Holy Mass and Confession. For the faith and faithful witness of so many, I thank you. For those whom I have hurt, please forgive me. What a first year as a priest.
The Christian Women of Three Holy Women have my thanks for your kind farewell on Pentecost!
In packing my room to leave for Holy Family in Fond du Lac, the place of my new assignment, I came across these words of thanksgiving that I offered at the end of my first Mass of Thanksgiving as a priest last May 15, 2021. And if our Popes can quote themselves, why not us priests?!
Without knowing what else to say, I offer these words as my time in Milwaukee draws to a close.
“Keep the faith, even as … everything seems to be falling apart.
Cast out into the deep, get out of the shallows and live, it’s where Our Lord is, that’s where the Church is, that’s where life happens, and it’s from there that Our Lord calls us to be His disciples.
We are Roman Catholics, be proud of that, take hope in that, we stand on the shoulders of the martyrs and the saints, invite someone you know to this great adventure of conversion and pray that the Lord might enkindle in the hearts of us all a greater longing for Heaven, our true home.”
Let us pray for one another.
Very truly yours,
Fr. Michael J. Malucha
June 12, 2022 – Trinity Sunday
“Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
(The Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, ch. 5)
Dear Friends,
The second reading this Trinity Sunday was just the healing balm to soothe my heart! I was so honored and humbled by the outpouring of love and support given to me and my family at the passing of my beloved sister, Barbara. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Our cherished traditions surrounding dealing with death once more assured me that, as being part of life, facing grief can be a moment of growth and new life. It can unveil hidden strengths, create new bonds, further cement old friendships. It can even in affliction and sadness lead to deeper gratitude. Like a beautiful symphony, it unfolds in different ways and with different tones, and in the end the final reality is God’s everlasting and at times mysterious love.
As the theologian Karl Rahner notes, “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we finally learn that here in this life all symphonies remain unfinished.”
So dear friends, cherish the symphony. Live with the poignant incompleteness. And in the presence of love and the sharing of support, rejoice that the best is yet to come!
Sincerely with love,
Fr. Tim
June 5, 2022 – Pentecost Sunday
Dear Friends in Christ,
On this Pentecost Sunday, we rejoice to hear the words of the Sequence sung this day as we invite God the Holy Spirit to come anew and to enkindle within us a fire for divine love.
“Come, Holy Spirit, come! … Heal our wounds, our strength renew; on our dryness pour your dew; wash the stains of guilt away: bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill; guide the steps that go astray.”
Although Pentecost may mark the last day of the Church’s celebration of the Easter Season, we do not cease to beg for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to rediscover our most basic call, holiness.
In a recent commencement address, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., reflecting on the life of the Church in the United States, exhorted the graduates with these powerful words.
“To the degree we Catholics have longed to join the mainstream of American life, to become like everyone else rather than be “other than” and holy, we’ve abandoned who we really are. That’s what the word “holy” literally means: It means “other than” or “different from” the world around us. So I think this, then, is the lesson on this graduation day for all of us. We need a Church rooted in holiness. We need parishes on fire with faith. And we’ll get them only when we give ourselves fully and generously to God; when we center our lives in God; when we seek to become holy ourselves, as God is holy.”
What does holiness mean for us as we desire to live as ever more faithful disciples of the Lord?
Ninety minutes west, our fellow Catholics in the Diocese of Madison have embarked upon a way of renewal by committing themselves, in part, to the living out of these four holy habits:
1. Reclaiming Sunday as the Day of the Lord: Holy Mass, family life and actual rest;
2. Prayer: 15 minutes, every day;
3. Confession: Once a month; and
4. Sacrifice: Every Friday (abstinence from meat or some other, similar penitential practice).
For those habits to become ours, we invite God the Holy Spirit to strengthen our hearts today!
Very truly yours,
Fr. Michael J. Malucha
(The complete text of Archbishop Chaput’s commencement address can be found in the journal “First Things” and entitled “Toward a New Pentecost,” published online on May 18, 2022).
