September 2020 Dispatch
Brother Knights,
This serves as my second monthly dispatch to the council as Grand Knight… praise God for continuity and inspiration! It’s hard to believe that September is already here (Tempus Fugit, Memento Mori), but I pray that God has been present in your lives and that you are able to converse with the LORD daily and attend Mass in person or virtually as often as possible (see Good of the Order below).
If you take a look at the summary of upcoming events below, you will see that we have another busy month. I would especially like to point your attention to the Silver Rose event. This has become a very important endeavor to me and I would really appreciate a good showing from brother Knights. Additionally, our monthly general meeting, which will be September 9 after 5:30 Mass, will be no ordinary meeting. There are two neat things happening, so perhaps you won’t want to miss it. I will be honest that I’m attempting to build up enough interest that we get to see a good number of new faces, which is always exciting.
Fun fact: St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose feast day is September 5, had an affinity for the Knights of Columbus. Although she was typically known to eschew worldly honors for her work, she did accept an award from the Knights of Columbus stating, “I accepted to come, and to accept out of sheer gratitude, for they (the Knights of Columbus) have done so much for our congregation and for our poor.”
If I don’t happen to see you at any point this month, know that I will be praying for you and your family, asking the LORD to bless each of you abundantly!
Happy birthday to Past Grand Knight Tim Mohatt and Terrence Rush today! Also, St. Giles, pray for us.
Upcoming Events Summary
1. The Silver Rose – on Saturday, September 5, our council will be hosting the Silver Rose. This is a Knights of Columbus program dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. We will provide a prayer service for the parish after 5:30 Mass where we will ask for Mary to assist us in ending the culture of death throughout the world. Our Silver Rose, along with seven others, is travelling from Canada, through the United States, and on through Mexico until it reaches the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The roses will be presented to Our Lady, which will carry the weight of all the prayers each council has contributed to them. Let’s make this a powerful contribution!
2. Pancake Breakfast – on September 6 (first Sunday of the month), we need volunteers for serving at our pancake breakfast in the Mainelli Center. These are a fun and easy way to help raise funds for our charitable council donations and hang out with brother Knights. See Sign Up Genius link. a. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0C44AFA92CAAFB6-september/
3. Special Donation Event and Juan Diego Anniversary Celebration – at our September general council meeting on Wednesday, September 9, following 5:30 Mass, the council will be hosting a special event to unveil a donated item for the Knights room and also enjoying a catered meal from the Juan Diego food bank. Juan Diego is gifting this meal to our council to commemorate the awesome service milestone of 15 years! Please join us for these events, but don’t forget to help us pray the Rosary before 5:30 Mass, if you are available!
4. Mater Filius Assistance – on Saturday, September 12, our council along with other councils in District 2 will combine efforts to complete tasks that Mater Filius needs assistance with. The scheduled activities include tearing out bushes, trimming bushes, cleaning out the daycare basement, and possibly digging out an egress window well. Please email me at [email protected] to let me know if interested and I will keep you informed of developments.
5. Soccer Challenge – on Sunday, September 20, we need volunteers to help with our annual Soccer Challenge, which will be held on the field west of St. Robert’s at approximately 1 PM. This is a fun and easy outdoor event. We will need volunteers who have gone through the Knights of Columbus safe environment training. If you are able to help, please let us know via the Sign Up Genius link below. a. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0C44AFA92CAAFB6-20202/
Monthly Calendar
September Upcoming Events Birthdays Holy Days / Feast Days
1 Tim Mohatt, Terrence Rush St. Giles
Blessed John Francis Burté 2 Andrew Foxhoven and Companions
3 St. Gregory the Great
4 St. Rose of Viterbo Alexander Koch, Vern 5 The Silver Rose St. Teresa of Calcutta Ohlinger 6 Pancake Breakfast Daniel Podjenski Blessed Claudio Granzotto
7 Labor Day Richard Hautzinger Blessed Frédéric Ozanam Mary, Theotokos (God- Nativity of the Blessed 8 Bearer) Virgin Mary General Council Meeting, 9 James Kurzak St. Peter Claver Special Events (See Above)
10 Ryne Bessmer, Brad Riffel St. Thomas of Villanova
11 Mario Vasquez, Kyle Uhing St. Cyprian
Matthew Boever, Richard The Most Holy Name of 12 Mater Filius Assistance Caruso the Blessed Virgin Mary 13 Grandparents Day Thomas McGuire, Jr. St. John Chrysostom
The Exaltation of the Holy 14 Cross
15 Ryan Thurber Our Lady of Sorrows
Dr. William Barnard, 16 St. Cornelius Michael Taylor
17 Maurice Maher St. Robert Bellarmine #
Paul Floersch, Stanley Kurtz, 18 St. Joseph of Cupertino^ Tony Suarez, Sr.
19 Dan Miller St. Januarius
St. Andrew Kim Taegon 20 Soccer Challenge Richard Jones, Steven Smith and Companions Michael Potthoff, Greg St. Matthew, Apostle and 21 Youell Evangelist Randall Lenhoff, Kevin St. Lorenzo Ruiz and 22 Autumn Begins McManus Companions
23 St. Pio of Pietralcina
Nicholas Hannagan, Ed 24 St. John Henry Newman McCarthy, Pat Williamson St. Louis Martin and St. 25 Daniel Stolinski Zélie Guerin St. Paul VI , St. Cosmas, St. 26 Damian
27 Fr. Paul Vasquez St. Vincent de Paul
28 St. Wenceslaus
St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. 29 Mike Foley Raphael, Archangels 30 Officer Meeting Timothy Halbur St. Jerome *Bold Underlined Numerical Dates Represent Sunday – Don’t Forget Mass and Rest! *Bold , Italicized, and Underlined Dates Represent Holy Days of Obligation #Patron Saint of our Parish, Catechists, and Catechumens! St. Robert Bellarmine, Pray for Us! ^Read up on this interesting saint. He was reported to have flying capabilities!
Good of the Order
Brother Knights,
I am dedicating the September 2020 Good of the Order to The Exaltation of the Cross, which is celebrated on September 14 th . The Cross is a sign of brutal torture, agony, and death, yet it is also the sign that Jesus chose to show us that He loves us unconditionally. It is the sign that life brings many challenges, but it also reminds us that we are able to face them with the LORD at our side and the LORD will get us through them, just as He conquered that terrible death upon it. It is the sign of new life in God’s infinite love that follows all death, spiritual and physical, and this is the primary reason we exalt it.
But why the Cross? It is brutal, it is ugly. How can it actually be a sign of all those good things I previously mentioned? Why has it been able to inspire small and great works of charity, major life conversions, and even martyrdom throughout the history of the Church? We know that Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan opened the gates of Heaven after they had been closed. His subsequent earthly travels and ministry taught us about divine love and mercy, that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the powerful Son of God (that the Kingdom of God was indeed at hand), and about the need and importance of repentance. His Resurrection broke the bonds of death, promised an afterlife with Him, the Father, and Holy Spirit, and produced a faith in God and eternal life so strong that we no longer have to be fearful of death as the end. But the Cross, the Crucifixion of Jesus, is just some horrible intermediate event in between all the good things, right? Jesus’ death was just a necessity in order to prove that He had the power to reverse death, right?
In a simple yet profound answer, the Cross is the holy altar upon which Jesus, the purest Lamb of God, the Spotless Victim, was sacrificed as an offering to the Father for our redemption from our sins, and then as a means for our salvation into eternal life. Recall that because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, sin entered the world. Sin against our infinitely good God separated humanity from Him by an infinite margin. The human race had turned away from God and the seeds of pride, lust, wrathful anger, greed, gluttony, jealousy/envy, and sloth were able to enter the human person and be passed on to following generations. Adam, Eve, and their descendants did not have the power to uproot these evils in themselves and could never repair/mend the infinite harm done as they were merely human themselves. Humanity needed a savior to repair that immense divide from God.
Graciously, God so loved the world that He sent His only Begotten Son, Jesus, to redeem us. Jesus was fully God and fully human. Jesus is the human that is infinitely good enough to sacrifice Himself in reparation/expiation of our sins to the Father. It is precisely in Jesus’ humanity while being God that His Most Precious Blood provided reconciliation. I was prepared to attempt to explain the significance behind Jesus shedding His Most Precious Blood on our behalf in July, the month dedicated to His Blood; however, I did not have access to the email portal in time to send out my thoughts on it. Let it suffice for the moment that we recognize that sin is very ugly and very destructive. Jesus did not have to die in order to redeem us , but it was indeed the most fitting way to do so while proving His unconditional love and providing a means to be like Him… but more on that at an appropriate time. We are now focused on the Cross itself as the holy altar upon which we were redeemed, despite the awfulness associated with it. The Cross is actually very important, and there is also other evidence in history and Scripture pointing to its saving power.
When the Cross of Jesus was discovered in the year 326 by the expedition of St. Helena near Jerusalem, they knew it to be the true Cross because it healed a woman near death at the moment she was laid upon it. Since this first affirming miracle, there have been countless miracles attributed to the Cross. In fact, it has been scattered all over the world in small pieces so that the faithful can have a chance to see a part of it and venerate it. The Cross has truly turned conventional wisdom on its head and conquered the world through the wisdom that only God possesses.
The book of Numbers details an exigency when the Israelites had been wandering in the desert for some time and they had started to complain against God for not taking care of them. The LORD, in His anger, allowed venomous seraph serpents to attack the Israelites because of their bitterness and unfaithfulness, and many died as a result of this. However, after Moses interceded for the Israelites, the LORD had mercy and provided a means for those who were bitten to be healed. Moses was told to create a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole. Any Israelite that had been bitten only needed to look to the pole-mounted serpent and they would be healed. The act of listening to this command was itself an act of faith on the part of the individual and it saved them.
Direct your contemplation to a parallel in John 12:31-33: “Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world (Satan) will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
It is the Church’s stance that Jesus was referencing the aforementioned mercy and remedy found in Numbers when talking about being lifted up from the earth. The parallel shows us that with the instigation of the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood, we in our sickness, suffering, and death have a new and much better remedy, proceeding out of the same eternal mercy of God. It is Jesus Christ Himself, our incarnate God, raised up from the earth on that terrible Cross that all who look to Him may be saved from their peril – and yes, literally everyone is offered this gift… Jesus died for each one of us.
Imagine Jesus on the Cross, arms wide open, calling all to His divine mercy. He has been horrendously treated, He is as vulnerable as He can be, completely exposed and abused because of the love He has for each of us, yet no one will be turned away. He hangs there in the most intense agony, just hoping that each of us will turn to Him and call upon His mercy, especially in our times of need. In fact, we can see His eternal mercy on the Cross in Luke 23:34: Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
We truly know not what we do; we still have the seed of the seven deadly sins within us, we still fall into sin, and that is why we still need our Savior. No matter what state our lives are in – sorrow, trial, joy, or success – we must always keep our eyes on the Cross. Good times will always give way to times that are not so good, sometimes even miserable. Likewise, bad times will always give way to brighter days and a strengthened will. Through it all, we must keep our eyes on the Cross, because that is the love that never changes amidst the good and bad in our lives. It is the constant love that will never forsake you. It is the only constant that you will find in this universe! It is a constant that is everywhere, overflowing, life-giving, and can be readily experienced by those seeking it. However, there is one source in particular, the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that provides more grace than can possibly be imagined or described.
During the sacrifice of the Mass, at every Mass, the altar becomes Calvary and the Cross. Those in attendance are actually present, from eternity, at the one, true Crucifixion of Jesus. We stand at the foot of the Cross with Mother Mary and St. John, the Apostle. We stand at the foot of the cross with the whole Communion of Saints as they worship the Lamb of God, slain for our sins, for the salvation of all. The merits and graces that Jesus won for our salvation that day are, in a special and supernatural way, bestowed upon the faithful in attendance. If you haven’t given this fact much thought already, I can promise that if you do think about it and reflect on the implications, your participation in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be radically transformed and your relationship with Jesus will deepen.
If you find this overwhelming and hard to believe, you’re not alone! No one will fully understand or appreciate the glorious and salvific sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, but we can develop a small enough understanding to aid us in making good and righteous praise to God, through Jesus, by our faithful participation at Mass. Salvation is possible with God. If you truly believe that God is God and that the Catholic faith is true, then you will be able to accept that the sacrifice of the Mass is possible from all eternity by the one, eternal, and Almighty God.
In the Catholic Church, the Cross is not merely an instrument of torture. God is wonderful at taking awful things and transforming them into something good, or at least bringing good out of them; the Cross is no exception. The Cross was transformed in God’s plan of salvation from what is by all appearances a horrible sign to be avoided, into the sign that God Himself chose to redeem all creation through His unconditional and loving sacrifice. The greatest gift given to us is the love of God, which is indeed Jesus Himself. Think of the astronomical weight this bears in our receiving the Eucharist. In God’s great plan, most of the good we are able to experience is only possible because of the Cross. May we always look to Jesus and the Cross in our times of plenitude and need – it is where redemption was won and from which salvation proceeds.
St. Helena, pray for us!
For the good of the Order, please continue your prayers for and visits to our sick or deceased brother Knights and their families, those in our parish, and especially those who have asked for our prayers (see also bulletin requests and Fr. McKercher’s prayer requests on Facebook). I would ask that you consider a window visit to Roscoe Corell. Roscoe was a long-time usher captain for the parish, a great supporter of pro-life causes, and a very dedicated nocturnal adorer. Roscoe is now 96 years old and has recently recovered from a bad fall that nearly took his life. He is now able to enjoy daily window visits at the Rose Blumpkin Home at 10 AM. If you can make this happen, please arrange with Rita Corell by calling (531) 203-7395. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you know of anyone who could use our prayers and would like to be added to the prayer intentions of our council and state.
Vivat Jesus,
Kyle K. Uhing Grand Knight St. Robert Bellarmine Council 10108 Call or Text: (402) 640-3604 Email: [email protected]
“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” – Matthew 25:40
Exaltation of the Holy Cross Prayer
LORD Almighty, Into Your hands I give my soul and my body. Oh LORD Jesus! Grant me strength to bear the cross as You did. Teach me to bear it with great humility that the Blessed Virgin Mary may fill me with the Holy Spirit. Preserve my soul and lead it to life everlasting.
Amen.