“Why are you looking at the sky?” Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus to heaven. For forty days after his resurrection, he had been appearing to his disciples and speaking with them about the Kingdom of God. We are told in today’s Gospel that Jesus and the eleven disciples went to a mountain in Galilee where he told them, GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and to teach them to observe all that he commanded. This is why the disciples were asked as to why they were looking at the sky. It was time to get going!! Making disciples is our mission and vision here at Our Lady of Mercy. Since the shutdown of our church, offices and parish programs due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been a challenge in making disciples without the one-to-one or group in person contact. None-the-less, our staff has risen to the challenge!!

I want to applaud and recognize our staff who have been constant in their devotion to making disciples – this time electronically! First, I am so very grateful to Fr. Mark and Zara Tan for their outstanding work in providing for the livestreaming of Sunday and daily Mass, as well as programs to keep us spiritually nourish us during this time. Thanks to Mary Jo Trapani our DRE, Dave Miserendino our Youth Minister, and Candy Rice our EDGE Director, as well as their support staff Jean Rehmer and Jean Palasz who have kept parents, catechists, and children supplied with on-line faith formation content. Trust me, none of them have been sitting home twiddling their thumbs wondering what to do!

I also want to thank parishioner Nick Meriage owner of Creative Digital Masters and his team Ann Meriage, Fred Harris, Deanna Trampani and Maddy Rusen for the professional services of livestreaming our Sunday Mass. Nick donated our first livestream Mass and has discounted by half all our subsequent livestreamed Masses. Our weekday Masses are livestreamed at no charge.

Also, making disciples, congratulations to parishioners Jason and Carrie (Beelner) Nadziejko, 2003 graduates of the University of Iowa who were recipients of The University of Iowa’s 2020 Fr. Ed Fitzpatrick Discipleship Award. Newman Singer alumni, they married in 2004, moved to Chicago and started a family in 2005. They settled in Aurora in 2007 and are currently the parents of two teenage girls. The family is involved at OLM as cantors, religious education instructors and altar servers. Both Jason and Carrie credit the Newman Center as being “a rock and constant” when they were college students and as adults raising a family. They said: “We looked for a parish family that exemplified that same stead and sturdy constant the Newman Center provided to us. We are thankful when we can use our time, talent and treasure to serve our faith family at OLM.” As recipients of the Fr. Ed Fitzpatrick Discipleship Award, the Newman Catholic Student Center at the University of Iowa has made a $500 donation in Jason and Carrie’s honor to Our Lady of Mercy Parish.

Have a blessed week!

Father Don

The gospel from John today situates us at the Last Supper, not post resurrection appearances. After calling on the disciples to trust him beyond all else, Jesus proclaims: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate.” That might make us think someone is impersonating Jesus at the table. It is as if Jesus were saying, “If you behave yourselves I’ll ask God so send you help.” That is one way to interpret this Gospel passage – it focuses our attention on the relative merits of our behavior with the hope that we can demonstrate enough virtue to pass muster. But that interpretation flounders, when Jesus goes on to speak of a Spirit of truth that the world cannot perceive. The idea of putting in great effort, pulling your own weight and earning everything you get is exactly the system of the world. Instead, Jesus is speaking of something else. When we listen carefully, we hear that Jesus is not talking about obedience but about loving him. He is talking about the transformation that happens when we fall in love with him. Falling in love with another person changes our perspective, we see the world differently and understand everything in relation to the beloved. People who love one another often take on some of the characteristics of the other. Long-time married couples often even start to look like each other! Such love points toward what Jesus is describing with his words. The love Jesus is talking about is devotion to the one who loved us first, whose love for us is immeasurable. This love is a commitment to the one who offers us a future of life beyond our imagining. The love Jesus is talking about orients absolutely everything else in our life. So when he says “If you love me you will keep my commandments,” we could easily rephrase that to say, “If you love me you will share my perspective and desire.”

In promising to send another Advocate or the Spirit, Jesus is promising that we will have help in perceiving or knowing the mind of Jesus so that we can remain true to who Jesus calls us to be. The role of the Spirit is expressed quite beautifully in the fourth Eucharistic Prayer which says: “That we might live no longer for ourselves but for him…he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as the first fruits for those who believe, so that, bringing to perfection his work in the world, he might sanctify creation to the full.”

Loving Christ, open us to the Spirit who empowers us to bring Christ’s work to completion. Or as Jesus said so simply, “If you love me, you will keep my commands.”

Have a blessed Easter Season!

Fr Don

BLESSING PRAYER FOR MOTHER’S DAY

(Pray Before Your Meal on Mother’s Day)

God of Love, listen to this prayer.
God of Holy People, of Sarah, Ruth, and Rebekah;
God of holy Elizabeth, mother of John, of Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus, bend down Your ear to this request and bless the mother of our family.

Bless her with the strength of Your spirit, she who has taught her child/ children how to stand and how to walk.

Bless her with the melody of Your love, she who has shared how to speak, how to sing, and how to pray to You.

Bless her with a place at Your eternal dinner table, she who has fed and nurtured the life that was formed within her while still helpless but embraced in her love.

Bless her today, now, in this lifetime, with good things, with health.
Bless her with joy, love, laughter, and pride in her child/children and surround her with many good friends.

May she who carried life in her womb be carried one day to Your divine embrace: there, for all eternity, to rejoice with her family and friends.

This blessing and all graces, we pray, descend upon the mother of our family: In the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen+

(Reprinted with permission. “Prayers for the Domestic Church – A Handbook for Worship in the Home” by Edward Hays Forest of Peace Publishing, Inc. PO Box 269, Leavenworth, KS 66048)

We especially honor our mother’s during this time of the Coronavirus pandemic and over month-long “stay at home order” for their keeping families together, children learning and occupied, in addition to all the other things they have been doing to keep families safe and healthy.

Fr. Mark and I wish all the mothers in our parish a very happy and blessed Mother’s Day!

Fr Don

FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK…….

Also Known as Chardonnay W(h)ines!!

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is traditionally is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.”  Each gospel in the three-year cycle on the Fourth Sunday of Easter always speaks of Jesus in various aspects of Him being a good shepherd.  This Sunday has also been a good opportunity to preach on vocations to the priesthood.  My bulletin article today will focus on one aspect of the priestly vocation – being transferred!

Ever since it was announced on April 19 that Fr. Mark will be moving from Our Lady of Mercy at the end of June, I have been inundated with the question, “why does Fr. Mark have to move?”  We love him!  He has done so much for our parish!  We love his homilies and all the spiritual videos and information he has given us on the app and website during the stay-at-home order!  The children, teens, young adults all love his youthfulness and his way of speaking and teaching about Jesus and the Church.  His homilies are fantastic! They relate to him so well! He has only been here three years! Can’t he stay?  I concur with your observations about the tremendous gift Fr. Mark has been to our parish and to me personally.  However, moving on is a part, sometimes a painful part, of being a priest.  In my 39 years of being a priest, I have moved to a new assignment 7 times.  Each move was not easy because as a priest you love your parishioners and become close to them.  Each new assignment however brings new friends and opportunities.  I think it is good for the personal growth of the priest and the parish that priests do move on.

The current policy in the Diocese of Joliet is that a newly ordained priest stays in his first assignment for three years, then receives a new assignment. When I was ordained in 1981, a newly ordained priest stayed five years in his first assignment.   Over the years with the shortage of priests, associate pastors were becoming pastors sooner than in the past. I was ordained 12 years and in five different assignments as an associate pastor before I became a pastor.  Today, an associate pastor can expect to become a pastor after only four to six years ordained.  The bishop wants an associate pastor to have at least two different parish experiences before becoming a pastor.  That is why Fr. Mark is being transferred now.  While he has had a great experience at Our Lady of Mercy, it would serve him well to experience ministry at another parish before he becomes a pastor. I think he will make a GREAT pastor someday soon!  Fr. Mark is a holy, prayerful man who has a deep personal relationship with Jesus and a burning desire to share that with others – making others committed disciples of Jesus!  I have no doubt that he will do that wherever he is sent!

Have a Blessed Easter Season!  Fr Don

There is both hope and challenge for us in today’s gospel account of two disciples of Jesus journey to Emmaus. The hope being that we will see the risen Lord. The challenge being how we will see the risen Lord. We easily acknowledge Christ on the cross in church, but find it more difficult to recognize Christ when he comes into our everyday lives.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus in today’s Gospel did not recognize the risen Christ even though they had followed him, seen him perform miracles, and heard him preach. His appearance was not the same. Only the breaking of the bread opened their eyes. Mary Magdalene thought the risen Christ was the gardener on Easter morning until he spoke her name. The disciples on resurrection night in Jerusalem thought they were seeing a ghost until Jesus showed them the wounds of his crucifixion. The disciples did not recognize the risen Christ at the sea shore in Galilee until the marvelous catch of fish. So what prevents us from recognizing Jesus disguised in our everyday lives? As I mentioned, we easily recognize him in church, and in the Eucharist. Perhaps this time of church closures and “stay at home” order, Jesus is calling us to recognize him beyond what we already know and long for. Christ comes into our everyday lives, disguised as our family members, our co-workers, or drivers on the road. And we are called to serve the Christ disguised in our everyday lives. If we truly believed that every act of kindness we do for another we do for Christ, how would our actions change? How different our world would be! Recognizing Christ requires a response. Could you refuse a Christ needing a winter coat or a fan to cool himself in the summer? If Christ were mentally challenged or mentally ill, would you support a tax to provide services? Do you treat your employer as Christ? Your employees? What about our treatment of poor people or refugees? Who would we refuse at our borders? The solutions may not be simple, but our criteria for judging need to be Christ-centered. What about the neighbor whose dog barks incessantly, or the ones who don’t care for their lawn as we would? What about someone who cuts you off when changing lanes on the highway or takes 25 items into the fast lane at the grocery store? Hard to see Christ in them, huh? But we are more apt to see Christ in others if we try to be Christ to others! Dorothy Day once said, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” Something to think about!

Have a blessed Easter Season!

Fr Don