Sunday, June 3rd 11:00 am Mass

at Sertoma Park. 

You can bring a chair or sit at one of the tables.

Picnic following  Mass.  We will  provide paper products,

drinks and  Bob’s Café Chicken 

Last Names A-N bring a salad!

Last Names O-Z bring a dessert!

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 AS CONSTRUCTION PROGRESSES!

Deacon’s Digest

Ritual and the Ascension

In 1990, when I was 33 years old, I went back to college to finish my degree. In 1977 I had graduated from Sioux Falls College with an Associates Degree in Business and I had long had the desire to go back to school and get a bachelor’s degree. The University of Sioux Falls (formerly Sioux Falls College) began offering a Degree Completion Program (DCP) that was designed for working people who had a couple of years of college and wanted to finish things up.

At the end of the program I found out that the college charged $75 to walk  in the graduation exercises so I was not going to participate - I could think of better ways to spend $75. Most of the people in the program were of the same mind as me.  When the woman who was in charge of the DCP saw that we were not going to involve ourselves in the graduation she was very disturbed. She came and spoke to each of us individually about the importance of this ritual. When I met with her she had a very compelling argument. My children were 12 and 14 years old at the time and she told me how significant it would be for them to see their father graduate from college. She also mentioned the need for my classmates and me to experience this rite of passage from student to graduate. Her arguments worked and I (as well as many of the others) did participate in the ceremony. I have to admit, it was worthwhile. There really was something about the event and the atmosphere that put an “exclamation point” on my years of education.

When you think about it, our culture is full of these types of rituals. We have special celebrations on certain birthdays, holiday traditions that we wouldn’t dream of changing, weddings, military rites and marches and changes of the guard that are very moving, the Boy Scouts have special gatherings for Eagle Scout honors and on and on. That is to say nothing of all of the Sacramental ritual and liturgy we do in the Catholic Church. There is true meaning and significance brought out in the rites of these ceremonies.

So, what does all of this talk have to do with Jesus’ Ascension? I think Jesus accomplished many of the significant events in his life in very public ways so that His followers would more completely understand what He was about.

Think of Jesus’ birth. Although it was primarily a private affair, the whole cosmos was involved. Angels, stars, kings, shepherds, innkeepers, and farm animals all played a role in the drama that has turned into an annual ritual for the rest of us. Think of Jesus’ death. If He came to die for our sins then why didn’t He just lay down in old age and pass away privately? St Athanasius explains in his book, “On the Incarnation”, that Jesus’ death had to be a public spectacle because He was dying for all people of all times. It had to be horrible to show us the terrible weight of our sins and the true horror of our participation in evil.

Back to the Ascension. Certainly, Jesus could have just quit appearing to His disciples after a few weeks and ascended to His Father from wherever he wished. But He knew that His disciples needed to SEE Him go. He knew that they would continue expecting further appearances from Him and therefore would not get about the work He had commissioned them to do. And, so 40 days after His Resurrection, Jesus appeared once more to the Twelve, and after reiterating their mission to go out to every land and preach the Gospel, “He was lifted up and a cloud took Him from their sight” (Acts 1:9).

Now there was no doubt about what the next step needed to be for the Apostles. They knew to wait for the Holy Spirit and then go do their job. They knew for sure that it was up to them now, because they had seen Jesus go back to His Father with their own eyes in the “ritual” of the Ascension.

Today, we continue to celebrate this action of Jesus not simply as an historical event but as a reminder to each of us that things are different now and we need to be about the job (the commission) that Jesus expects of His followers. Just as high school and college graduates get a deeper understanding of their new role in life from participation in graduation ceremonies, we gain a clearer insight of our apostolic role in the Church by participating in the life of Jesus Christ through His Church. As we are baptized, Confirmed and fed with His Body and Blood in the Eucharist we are strengthened by Actual Grace and are thereby able to do what needs to be done to spread the Word. As we participate in the events of Jesus’ life through the cycle of Liturgy in our Church, we come to know Jesus better and understand His abiding love for us.

Like the Apostles were told by the two strangers just after Jesus ascended, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking up at the sky”, (Acts 1:11) we need to get moving and get about the business of spreading the Gospel-TODAY.

Thank You!

Currently slightly more than 1.4 million dollars

has been pledged over a three year period for our

Inspired By Faith Capital Campaign.

More contributions continue to come in so it is not too late to return your pledge card.

As of October 31, 2011, we are debt free!!!

This is the first time we have been without a debt for eleven years.

Shortly after Thanksgiving a couple of Building Committees will be

established to start the process of expanding our sacristy,

office area and Commons kitchen. You can use the debt reduction

offering envelopes to make your campaign pledge payments.

In January the offering envelopes will be marked as

“Inspired By Faith” Capital Campaign. We certainly have over

a million reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving! God Bless You!

Inspired by Faith Capital Campaign Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the abundant blessings you have bestowed upon St. Michael Parish

since our inception. We pray that we may use our many blessing to do the work of Your Kingdom.

Help us respond to the challenge before us that our parish may move forward

in our mission to proclaim the Gospel, to celebrate the Eucharist,

to serve the people of God, and to defend the sanctity of life.

Give us hope, courage and wisdom that we do Your will, for our parish and for future generations.

Help us with the gift of Your Holy Spirit, to be always rooted in faith,

as together we move forward in hope, revealing Your presence in our lives and in the life of this parish church.

Help us to develop and share our gifts as good stewards,

that we may use them in love and service of Your Kingdom.

May the offerings of our time, talent and treasure be guided by this generous outpouring of Your Holy Spirit.

Bless us with a deepening devotion to prayer, a growing commitment for service,

and increasing levels of generosity as we work to advance the mission of our parish.

Help us to live the Gospel with dedication and loving sacrifice.

Through the intercession of St. Michael, our patron, St. Joseph the patron of our Diocese,

and Mary the Mother of God, assist us in our thoughts, prayers and actions,

that they may glorify the Blessed Trinity in all our daily tasks.

With confidence we ask these things through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Make it a great week. clc