"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" 2025 #13

 

ALL JACKED UP AND TOO HEAVY TO LIFT

At the end of my summer, working in Crater Lake National Park and preaching in the campgrounds on the weekends for the United Church of Christ, I had to find a cheap way to get home. I was actually thinking of delivering the tractor section of a tractor-trailer rig from California to somewhere in the Midwest. That would probably not have been a good idea, but I did actually entertain the idea. A young man, who also worked at the Lodge,  had driven out west in a 1953 Buick from Connecticut, wanted to go back there on a motorcycle and wanted to get rid of his old car. He was willing to give it to anybody for free. 

The Buick’s right front tire had come off on a California highway on his trip out West and had to be welded back on which meant that it could never be changed. The compression in the engine was so bad that the only way to get it started was to get a push on a hill. He gave me the keys and signed the ownership papers over to me and dared me to drive it back to Kentucky. 

Another student, who was going my way, and I got a push in front of the Lodge to start our 2600-mile trip home. We always parked on a hill and never turned off the ignition. We did have one flat tire in Wyoming, but it was miraculously on the front left, not the front right. There was so little traffic for miles and miles that we barely pulled it off the road. All you could see in all directions was tumbleweed  We found a bumper jack in the trunk and started to jack up the car to change the tire. When we got to the top of the jack, we noticed that the car was still sitting on the blacktop. The car was so heavy and the bottom plate of the jack was so thin that the post, instead of lifting the car, had pierced the plate and had been driven down into the asphalt. 

Panic set in! We were in the middle of nowhere, twenty miles from the small town of Medicine Bow, Wyoming. We had two trunks full of clothes and the other things we owned. No one was driving by, especially people who would pick up two rough looking young men in a broken down 1953 Buick with two trunks! 

We tried our best to pull the jack post out of the asphalt and try it again, but it would not budge! Trying to pack our stuff into the trunk, if we were forced to hitchhike to the next town, I found a second jack. It was a miracle find for sure! This time it was a scissors-jack. We were able to jack-up the car, change the tire and continue our trip after having been saved by not one miracle, but two! 

To this day, I have always worried about going off and leaving that bumper jack pole sticking up out of the asphalt for someone to hit, but there was absolutely nothing we could do to dislodge it, even with the car's bumper. We were forced to go off and leave it! 

Somewhere in Missouri, we experienced our third miracle. We never turned off the motor unless we were on a hill where we could "pop the clutch" to get it started. We stopped at a restaurant and instead of leaving the motor running, I accidently turned it off! After we ate, we came out to the car and could not get it started. We were forced to call AAA for help that we could not afford. While we were waiting for them to show up, I tried starting it one more time. Miraculously, it started just as the AAA truck was pulling into the parking lot! We gunned it and peeled out of the parking lot without drawing attention and getting a hefty bill from the AAA truck driver!  

We finally made it to Kentucky, but the car never started again no matter how many attempts I made! My only regret was that I did not store it in some barn so that it could be restored in a few years. The body, the exterior paint job, the chrome, the upholstery and interior were in perfect condition. Over the years, it completely rusted in a field beside a farmer's barn. 

The Buick’s former owner, who gave me the car, showed up at the seminary on his motorcycle a few weeks after school started because he did not believe that we had made it. Obviously, he did not believe in miracles! 

PS

My brother Mark was telling his friend Aubrey about my flat tire experience in Wyoming. He thought it was so funny, he did a watercolor of the scene. Notice the "jack" in the middle of the road, near the center line! 

                                                                                                               by AUBREY

"BASICS OF PARISH REVITALIZATION" Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Staff

Last Saturday, from 8:30 am to 12:00 am, I presented a Staff Retreat for the Pastor, Associate Pastor and Staff of Our Lady Lourdes Parish at the AC Hotel downtown Louisville.  My job was the share what I have learned from my Doctor of Ministry program in "Parish Revitalization" and from my experience over the years revitalizing a mission parish, a country parish and a city parish.  

Rev. J. Ronald Knott

Doctor of Ministry in Parish Revitalization

McCormick (Presbyterian) Seminary

Chicago, Illinois

                                         

MY FOUR POINT PROGRAM FOR PARISH REVITALIZATION

1. Spend your time on preaching

2. Spend your money on music 

3. Focus attention on hospitality

4. They will then ask for education

TO WHOM ARE WE CALLED TO PREACH

1. Practicing Catholics

2. Non-Practicing Catholics

a. the mad

b. the sad

c. the ignored

d. the bored

3. Other Believers

4. The Unchurched

Much of what I presented can be found in this book written for priests and those who work with them. 

                   

available from 

AMAZON BOOKS

through this link

ronknottbooks.com 

PREACHING CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

 

GIVEN MONDAY 3-24-2025 AT THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR HOME

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.

They rose up, drove him out of the town and led him to the brow of the hill

on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.

Luke 4:16-30

Preaching can be hazardous to your health and this story should make every preacher shake in his boots. I tremble every time I read it. I learned a long time ago that, when you preach, the safest approach is to tell people what they want to hear. You can, like Jesus, be run out of town on a rail if you cross the line and tell people what they don’t want to hear.

What went wrong in the pulpit that day that turned the people of his hometown against Jesus? We learned today that Jesus had gone back home to Nazareth where he had been reared. On arriving at the local synagogue, he was asked to do the reading and give the homily. The first part of the homily went well. In fact, it says that “they were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.”

As he continued to preach, all of a sudden, things turned ugly. What ticked the congregation off so quickly? Well, you have to remember that Jews in those days taught that God’s love was exclusive to Jews alone.  Gentiles, or non-Jews, were merely fuel for the fires of hell. In his homily, Jesus challenged that long-held belief by citing two examples from their own history. Jesus pointed out that in the days of the great prophet, Elijah, there were many hungry Jewish widows during a great famine, but God sent Elijah, not to them, but to a Gentile widow of Zarephath.  Jesus also pointed out that in the days of the great prophet Elisha, there were many Jewish lepers, but God sent Elisha to cleanse none of them, but only a Gentile leper from Syria. In today's text, Jesus is telling them that God’s love is not restricted to Jews, but includes everyone. This was heresy and they didn't want to hear any more of it, so they dragged him out of the pulpit, to a cliff outside town, intending to throw him over. He escaped “by the skin of his teeth” so to speak. 

I have been there and done that! When I was first ordained, I was regularly pointed out, in print and on the radio, as an example of the “unsaved” by fundamentalist preachers in southern Kentucky during my ten-year stint down there. Here is Louisville, I was regularly attacked on multiple fronts by an anonymous group of fundamentalist Catholics when I was pastor of the Cathedral. As a result, I even had a knife pulled on me in the Cathedral over a homily during those years for reaching out to marginalized and fallen-away Catholics. The mistake I made, at least in their books, was to get up in the pulpit and tell those people that God loved them too.  One man walked up and down the side walk at the Cathedral with a big sign that said, called us “Welcome to the church of Satan.” They wanted these people excluded, condemned, shunned and banished from any hint of God’s love.

What is it about people who have a such a burning desire to dig holes for other people? This need to exclude others must be a cheap way of feeling superior and special, as if there was a shortage of love when it comes to God. This is not the view of Jesus. Jesus teaches us in the parables that God’s loves is universal and inclusive. The parables of the Prodigal Son, the Vineyard Workers, the Wedding Feast and the Lost Sheep have always given me personal encouragement and a clear vision for ministry. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the Father loves both his sons: the one who left home and got down with the pigs, as well as the one who stayed home and did all the right things. In the parable of the Vineyard Workers all got a full-day’s pay, not matter how much or how little they worked. In the parable of the Wedding Feast, the good and bad alike are invited to the feast. In the parable of the Lost Sheep, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine good sheep and goes off looking for the one who got lost. Inspired by that message, every week for 15 years, I wrote a column in The Record called An Encouraging Word where I looked for goodness to affirm, rather than sins to condemn. After I retired from my column in The Record, I have continued An Encouraging Word in my blog.  

I am not just a “catholic” by birth. I am a “catholic” by choice. “Catholic” means “universal” and “inclusive.” For that reason, I am “catholic” and proud of it. As a “catholic,” I do not hope to be among the “few in number who will be saved,” as one of the critics of Jesus put it! I pray that we all make it somehow: Catholics, Baptists, Jews, Methodists, Moslems, agnostics, atheists and everything in between!

By the way, I left my car running in the parking lot, just in case somebody here today wants to drag me out of this pulpit and throw me off a cliff somewhere!

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW CHURCH PAID FOR --- SOME FURNISHINGS STILL NEEDED!

 ONLY $6,600.0 to GO TO FINISH THIS PROJECT

As a result of the fact that I was leading a Staff Retreat for Our Lady of Lourdes Parish yesterday (Saturday) and preaching at a Our Lady of Lourdes Penance Service tonight (Sunday), I have no Sunday homily to post this weekend. Instead I thought I would offer an update on my latest project - building a new St. Veronica Church in Kenya, Africa.

The above photo shows you what the present St. Veronica Church looks like. My goal is to replace it with a larger church of cemented stones, a concrete floor and new metal roof - with doors, windows, walls and religious art and liturgical furnishings. The total budget for all that is US $20,000.00 for the church building and $10,000.00 for interior furnishings.  The new church construction is coming along nicely and we are almost there with our fund-raising. We are only US $6,600.00 short of our goal. 

WALLS OF THE CHURCH GOING UP LAST WEEK

The new St. Veronica Church is named for  Veronica Nthambi Kitili, an illiterate catechist and a model of the Christian faith from her small community. She walked great distances to church, instructed people in the faith in her own home at night and taught people Catholic prayers until she died.  She was the godmother to thousands of newly baptized members of the Catholic Church. 

In 2020, as she grew too old to make the long walk to church, she made an appointment to meet with the circuit-riding priest to request the establishment of a small church in her village even though they had no resident priest at the time. The circuit-riding priest liked her idea and Veronica set about securing the land on which to build it. Sadly, she died in October 2021 before the church could open officially.  

After her death, the priest asked the people what name they should give their new church. Many ideas were suggested. The priest proposed the name "St. Veronica Catholic Church"  and everyone clapped in approval. The priest told them: "We want to honor her great example of faith." 

I have agreed to do what I can to replace the present simple stick building with its sheet metal roof (see photo at top of this post) with something larger, more stable, longer lasting and more appropriate. It will be built mostly with stones cemented together, a concrete floor and a metal roof.  

I have a lot of experience in raising funds for mission projects in the Caribbean. I know that donations need to be protected and monitored so that they are not misused, misdirected or confiscated. As a result, I have made arrangements to funnel my donations through the Father John Judie Ministries, an official legal tax deductible 501-3c non-profit organization operated by Father John Judie, a local Louisville priest, who volunteers in Kenya and Tanzania. In appreciation for his help with this project, I have promised to pay for his next flight to his east African missions with my unused American Airlines Frequent Flyer miles. I have no desire to fly long-distance anymore for a vacation so I am happy to give them to him. Father Judie has agreed to oversee the distribution of my funds. He will require receipts and progress photos from Veronica's son, Julius Kitili in Kenya, who has agreed to oversee the purchase of materials, oversee the construction itself and help recruit local volunteer labor to hold down the costs.  

The total estimated cost of this new church is 20,000.00 US Dollars which I guaranteed in four equal payments to Father John Judie Ministries as proven progress is made on the construction. I  made the first two payments so they would have something on hand to buy materials to get started. I have already donated $10,000.00 of my own money to this project. Another eight generous people have donated another $10,000.00. This means the total cost of the church itself is now secured! 

What I really need now are some funds to help them with some church furnishing so as to finish the inside of the church. This expense is not included in the $20,000.00 building costs. At first, I thought about sending them a half-size shipping container with some free surplus medical supplies for the local village from our local SOS and some free used local church furnishings from our local parishes, but found out that it would cost $10,000.00 just to ship it.  Rather than spend that amount of money just for shipping used stuff from here, I have decided that it would be wiser to send them the $10,000 to source the church furnishings locally and not risk having the shipping container contents corruptly seized, stolen or held for ransom at the seaport. So far, I have collected $3,400.00 toward this $10,000 goal, leaving me with only a $6,600.00 short fall! 

JUST $6,600.00 NEEDED TO FINISH THIS PROJECT

Building a new church, fully furnished, for a grand total of $30,000 sounds like a "miracle" to me! Help me out, if you can, so I can finish funding this project before Easter. I can think of a no-better Lenten resolution! Help me out here, if you can, because..........

"Those who water others will themselves be watered!" 

Book of Proverbs 11:25

Make your tax deductible checks out to: 

                               Father John Judie Ministries - St. Veronica Project

Send your donation checks to me to be forwarded to Father John Judie Ministries for deposit so I can keep up with the totals as we go along and report them to you on this blog.

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

#106

Louisville, Kentucky 40217

502-303-4571

"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" 2025 # 12

THELMA AND LOUISE GET A TICKET AND A COLD

Back in the summer of 1968, when I was in the third year of Theology at St. Meinrad, my friend Pat Murphy and I decided to sign up for a United Church of Christ program for seminary students who were willing to offer interdenominational campground services in one of the National Parks. We attended an orientation program at an Episcopal Church in Chicago. He was assigned to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and I was assigned to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. 

As a cheap way to get out to our assignments, we heard about a company called Drive-Away-Cars. You could deliver a used car to Seattle from Chicago just by paying for the gas. We got a Lincoln Continental convertible to deliver. We considered ourselves two of the luckiest people in the world. We felt we had just won "the jackpot." 

When we arrived to pick it up, the top was down and in our haste we did not ask how to put it up! The weather was good so we didn't even think about asking. We surely looked like male versions of Thelma and Louise. 

All was going well until we got to Nebraska. I was driving that leg of the trip. We were speeding along as if we owned the highway with nothing in sight and no awareness of speed limits. All of a sudden a police car, with lights flashing, came up behind us and pulled us over. I knew we were speeding, so I asked the officer how he knew that we were going so fast since there was nothing in sight for miles and miles except wheat fields. He pointed to the sky and to a helicopter flying above. "We have been tailing you for several miles. Here's your ticket!" 

When we finally arrived in Washington State, it was still early June. There were snowbanks at least one story high on both sides of the road. We then realized that we needed to put the top up, but neither of us could figure out where the button was that would do that so we just put on a coat and kept driving with the top down. That is when we realized our second 'big mistake" - not asking the company before we left Chicago. I have no idea what we would have done if it had started raining somewhere between Chicago and Seattle! In our youth, we were oblivious! 

As it got colder and colder in our convertible, we decided to look for a Lincoln dealership or a garage so we could stop and ask somebody how to put the top up. As it turned out, the button was inside the glove compartment! Who would have thought of such a place to look. We certainly didn't! 

We dropped the car off in Seattle successfully, but I came down with a horrible cold! I took a bus to Klamath Falls, Oregon, and my friend took a bus to somewhere in Wyoming. We both had a good summer, but I cannot even look at a convertible without sneezing even to this day! 

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

 

We often look around for the reasons our lives are not going the way we would like - someone or something to blame. More often than not, we need only look within for a solution to our problems.

• Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Business

  603 Copy quote   

• Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

  Carl Jung

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

  383 Copy quote   

  Show source

• Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

  Carl Jung

  Inspirational, Wise, Dream

  125 Copy quote   

  Show source

• By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

  Confucius

  Wise, Wisdom, Attitude

  354 Copy quote   

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• Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Greatness, Law Of Attraction, Goal

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• Study yourself. Find your strong points and make them stronger as well as your weak ones and strengthen them. Study yourself carefully and you will see yourself as you really are.

  William Walker Atkinson

  Strong, Study, Weak

  63 Copy quote   

  Show source

• Take time to be quiet. This is something that we don't do enough in this busy world of ours. We rush, rush, rush, and we are constantly listening to noise all around us. The human heart was meant for times of quiet, to peer deep within. It is when we do this that our hearts are set free to soar and take flight on the wings of our own dreams! Schedule some quiet "dream time" this week. No other people. No cell phone. No computer. Just you, a pad, a pen, and your thoughts.

  Jim Rohn

  Dream, Heart, Phones

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• Wisdom can only come through honest introspection.

  Nirmala Srivastava

  Love, Wisdom, Yoga

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• Adversity always presents opportunities for introspection.

  Abdul Kalam

  Adversity, Opportunity

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• It is necessary ... for a man to go away by himself ... to sit on a rock ... and ask, 'Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?

  Carl Sandburg

  Inspirational, Reflection, Men

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• Every organization needs to be introspective, transparent, and honest with itself. This only works if everyone is unified on the goals and purposes of the organization and there is trust within the team. High-performing, successful organizations build cultures of introspection and trust and never lose sight of their purpose.

  Colin Powell

  Team, Successful, Sight

  283 Copy quote   

• The most mature human insight comes from one's introspection rather than from exterior research.

  Hugh Downs

  Research, Mature, Insight

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• There are times when those eyes inside your brain stare back at you.

  Charles Bukowski

  Eye, Brain, Realizing

  25 Copy quote   

• The unexamined life is not worth living.

  Socrates

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  179 Copy quote   

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• The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere.

  James Russell Lowell

  War, House, Mind

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• Many people suffer from the fear of finding oneself alone, and so they don't find themselves at all.

  Rollo May

  People, Suffering, Finding Oneself

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• The only journey is the one within.

  Rainer Maria Rilke

  Life, Beautiful, Journey

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• Give yourself the gift of time in coming to answers for your life...It takes time, and a lot of introspection and soul-searching, to get clear about what you really want to manifest in your life.

  David Emerald Womeldorff

  Giving, Soul, Answers

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• Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.

  T. S. Eliot

  Pride, People, Important

  295 Copy quote   

• Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.

  Lewis Carroll

  Life, Success, Art

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• The problem with introspection is that it has no end.

  Philip K. Dick

  Meditation, Problem, Ends

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• A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Years, Long, Quiet

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• Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Travel, Journey, Form

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• Introspection is a devouring monster. You have to feed it with much material, much experience, many people, many places, many loves, many creations, and then it ceases feeding on you.

  Anais Nin