AMAZING FACT: A NEW YOU EVERY FIVE YEARS OR SO!

I have been proud to say that I have tried to re-invent myself every few years as my work situation changes over time and I take on something new. I would say I have done it at least 10 times so far - and at least three times since I have retired in 2015. 

What I didn't know is the fact that every five years or so I get a new body to go with it! Here is a detail about my physical body that I heard a long time ago, but did not realize how often it happens! Here is an amazing fact I read about on a health and wellness website on the internet the other day. 

"Every five years or so, the human body basically does a Ship of Theseus. That is to say, within that time, every single cell in your body is replaced with new cells. So you are not the person you were seven years ago. You have all the same memories, scars, and you have the same DNA, but you are made up of completely different body parts."

The only problem with that fact is that I may have completely different body parts, one cell at a time, but my body keeps looking older and older, not to mention, fatter and fatter! 

HANGING IN AND HANGING ON

 

Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he 

saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he 

cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Matthew 14:22-33

Even though I have been a priest for fifty-six years now, I have never forgotten that I was ordained during one of the most tumultuous periods of modern church history. I have been reminded of it almost every day! As I was being ordained in 1970, many priests and Sisters were leaving. In days previous, their leaving was certainly looked down on and some who left were given a religious cold shoulder socially! Before my day, priests and Sisters were placed on pedestals. Staying was praised and rewarded. Then, about the time I was ordained, the tables flipped. Those who left were admired for their courage, while those of us who stayed were pitied for our cowardice! Personally, I do not want to go back to those so-called "good old days" of pedestals! I would much rather be in the ring where the real struggles are taking place. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, I would rather be "the man who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly...."

I was in the thick of all that leaving as I was preparing for my First Mass. I decided right then and there that I needed an image that would remind me to “hold on” no matter how much the winds howled and how deep the water rose! I was adamant that my tombstone would say in the end, “Ronald Knott, Priest!” The image of “solid rock” seemed to be one I could identify with! It so happened that there was a popular Quaker Hymn at guitar Masses back then that seemed to fit my needs. I had it sung at my First Mass and I have sung it, or listened to it sung, on every one of my 56 anniversaries. That hymn is called “How Can I Keep From Singing?” It talks about being “anchored to a rock” in spite of the "darkness and chaos" of the world around us, all the while hearing the faint, but steady far-off music, that sings of joy and hope.

My life flows on in endless song;

Above earth's lamentations,

I hear the real, tho' far-off hymn

That hails a new creation;

CHORUS

No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to that rock I'm clinging;

Since love is lord of heaven and earth,

How can I keep from singing?

Through all the tumult and the strife

I hear that music ringing;

It sounds an echo in my soul—

How can I keep from singing?

Although the tempest loudly roars,

I hear the truth, it liveth.

What though the darkness 'round me close,

Songs in the night it giveth.

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,

And hear their death-knell ringing,

When friends rejoice both far and near,

How can I keep from singing?

On my 25th Anniversary, I chose today's gospel reading about Peter’s walk on water and how he was able to accomplish that feat by keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus, rather than how deep the water was or high the winds blew! I had learned, by my 25th anniversary, that the secret to surviving constant change was having something solid to hang onto and that there was nothing more solid and dependable than clinging to Jesus the "rock!” That required "having your priorities straight," as we say today!

After my 25th anniversary, I started publishing my own books. To encourage myself even more, going forward, I chose the Greek word "sophronismos," from Paul's Second Letter to Timothy (1:7). Sophronismos means, "the ability to know what to do in the face of panic" or "knowing how to keep your cool under pressure." (Ah, yes, that's exactly what I need going into old age "the ability to control myself in the face of panic.") I want to be able to handle any storm without being upset and falling apart all the time! As a reminder, I named my little publishing company "Sophronismos Press."

Timothy, fellow missionary of Paul, was a young man who faced his own crisis at the beginning of his ministry and offers us a model of fidelity in spite of crushing disappointment. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul writes to a young man who wants to give up and come home. His ministry was bordering on being a total failure. Paul reminds Timothy that the Spirit gives pastoral ministers three things during difficult times to help them continue their work: dunymis, agape and sophronismos. Dunymis means "strength." Agape means "a practical support kind of love rather than a sentimental feeling."  Sophronismos means "the ability to control oneself in the face of panic."

Every priest, every religious, every married person, indeed every believer, if he or she is to survive and thrive in today’s church and in today's world, must find that peaceful center, that inmost calm that no storm can shake, that anxiety-free place where one waits in joyful hope, that place of grace under pressure, that solid foundation on which they can withstand any storm, that peace of mind and heart that only God can give. This is why our prayer life is so essential! Our relationship with Christ is that "sure foundation" where we can withstand any storm headed toward us!

These times of crisis are a normal part of life whether it's in ordained ministry, religious life, marriage or membership in a faith community. These crisis times are not signs that we have made a mistake, but signs that we are on the right path. If they are normal and to be expected, then we need to develop the inner strength to face them, deal with them and overcome them. I actually feel sorry for those who have nothing solid to hang onto these days! Eleanor Roosevelt put it this way, “You gain strength, courage and confidence every time you look fear in the face. We must do the thing we think we cannot do.” In other words, we must be able, like Peter, to "walk on water!" Why must we do it? In the end, we must not forget the gospel’s final words of Jesus to us, “I will be with you always.”

No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I'm clinging!

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #40

LOCAL HEROINES OF HISTORY

Pictured are Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Catharine Siena Speak, Emmanuel Dyer, Mary Leander Eiting, Mary Clarissa Reith, and Christiana Snyder with others in 1905-1906 who lived at St. Helena Convent and served as nurses at Camp Zachary Taylor during the Influenza Pandemic in the Fall of 1918.

The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth were some of the first to answer when the 1918 Influenza Pandemic hit. At its onset, a number of SCNs were already volunteering at various hospitals, orphanages, and military camps. When influenza struck these camps, there were far more ill than there were nurses to care for them, most notably at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, KY. At Camp Taylor, many women religious from around the area were called on for their aid, numbering eighty-five Sisters in total coming from five congregations. Thirty-four of these were Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Due to such a large influx of both patients and nurses, barracks were converted into makeshift hospitals for the soldiers and housing for the Sisters, as well as other lay nurses.

LUNCH WITH THE POPE

July 11, 2026

CASTEL GANDOLFO

Pope Leo XIV’s Summer Residence

a lunch with 200 “vulnerable people” from the Diocese of Rome

“I came without a prepared speech, but I did come with hunger — hunger for justice, hunger for genuine charity, hunger for a Church that truly knows how to open its doors, to welcome and receive everyone; where there is love for all and no one is an enemy, where all of us know how to live reconciliation, forgiveness and peace,” Pope Leo said, welcoming those present. Pope Leo recalled that one of the pope’s titles is the “Pontiff — a builder of bridges.” “And today we too want to build a bridge with all of you, with your families, and with the society in which we want to live — a society marked by justice, where the causes of poverty can be eliminated and where the causes of the injustices that still exist in our world can be overcome,” Pope Leo said. “This,” he said, “is the Church we want to be.”

WITH OUR HELP, BISHOP MHASI'S DREAM (AND OUR'S) COMES TRUE

CARDINAL POLYCARP PENGO CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL

FINALLY OPENED ON JULY 30

A SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO HELPED US THIS FAR

Bishop Filbert Felician Mhasi - Bishop of the Diocese of Tunduru-Masasi, Tanzania

CLASSROOMS ON THE RIGHT AND LEFT - ADMINISTRATION BUILDING IN THE CENTER

KITCHEN AND DINING ROOM BEING CONSTRUCTED ON THE LEFT OUT OF SIGHT

ONE OF THE NEW CLASSROOMS WITH BLACKBOARD, TEACHER'S DESK AND CHAIR

OFFICIAL ENTRY INTO THE NEW SCHOOL WHILE SINGING AND CLAPPING

"THUMBS UP" IN GRATITUDE AFTER SEEING ONE OF THEIR NEW CLASSROOMS

STUDENTS SINGING "WE ARE HAPPY TODAY" AND GIVING A "THUMBS UP" SIGN

click on arrow, expand the screen and turn up the volume for a treat

SETTELING INTO ONE OF THE NEW CLASSROOMS

A TEACHER AND A STUDENT TRYING OUT ONE OF THE NEW BLACKBOARDS

Bishop Filbert Mhasi told me on the day they opened, July 30, that they opened with their first 25 pupils. He expects others to be registered in October and even more in January. In January, he hopes to have more than 60 pupils in his new school - Cardinal Polycarp Pengo Primary School. Before he was chosen to be the Cardinal Archbishop of Dar-es Salaam, Tanzania, Bishop Pengo was the first bishop of Tunduru-Masasi Diocese where Bishop Filbert Mhasi is now the bishop. The school was named to honor Cardinal Pengo who died last year, right before Christmas. He had actually blessed the foundation of the school a year or two before. Construction had stopped because of a lack of funding. However, he died knowing that Father Knott and Father Judie had become involved in helping to complete it!   

This is a unique Catholic school in as much as the local Muslim community leaders asked if their children would be allowed to attend. Bishop Mhasi welcomed them because he believes that it is a wonderful opportunity to address the chronic problem of Muslim-Christian conflicts around the world. His diocese is also predominately Muslim. Without his welcome, these Muslim children would probably not have access to education. As they grow up, the hope is that these children will remember this welcome from Christians and have a completely different attitude toward Christians - and Christians toward Muslims. The girls in the photo above, with white head coverings, are Muslim children. 

Father John Judie, my brother priest from Louisville with whom I have partnered in this effort, took the first of three suitcases of  school supplies to Bishop Mhasi. We were able to help Bishop Mhasi finish constructing the school, build some desks, drill a water well and buy some cattle for meat and milk, along with the water, for the school kitchen and dining room. New outhouses for the school were also constructed. 

For more information about our work on completing this school, especially since last Christmas 2025, scroll down and read some of the past several month's blog posts about this project. To be able to welcome even more children, we still need help to complete the last two classrooms by Christmas of 2026. If you are moved to help with this effort to help Bishop Filbert Mhasi eliminate generational poverty, Muslim-Christian conflicts and alleviate any possible need for migration in the future, write your tax-deductible check to Father John Judie Ministries and send it to me. I will see to it that it is deposited locally in his charitable account.

One of the pressing needs right now is TEXTBOOKS to fit the primary school syllabus and other books for the LIBRARY (which Bishop Mhasi, surprisingly, has named in my honor). Sadly, we cannot accept donated children's books. Such paper would be extremely heavy! It would cost a fortune to send them over there - three or four times as much as they are worth! It would be much cheaper for them to buy the books over there with our donations! 

Father John Judie Ministries Inc.

for local deposit into that account send you check to:

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court #106

Louisville, KY 40217

REAL LOVE IS NOT A WARM FEELING, BUT A DECISION YOU MAKE

 

I am convinced that nothing, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor the present, nor the future, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:35, 37-39

This “unconditional love” that God has for each one of us, whether we are his friends or his enemies, in good times and in bad, sounds like our traditional wedding vows! It is the template for how we are to love each other, whether they are good or bad, our friends or our enemies!  Loving each other, like God loves us, is the very heart and essence of our Christian faith. This love is not based on the feelings we have for each other, but on the choices we make about how we want to respond to each other, day in and day out!

It might surprise you to know that the last fifty-six years of my life has been about trying my best to love other people, even unlovable people, “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, until death do us part” and thereby set an example for them about God’s unconditional love for all of us.  To free me up to do this, to be able to focus mainly on that, I made a Promise of Celibacy.

Celibates can live without sex, but they cannot live without loving others and being loved by them. Just as one can have sex without love, one can love without sex. A “close loving relationship” is called “intimacy.”  Intimacy requires sharing oneself deeply with others, sometimes with sex and more often without it. Love involves developing caring connections with people. A deeply caring connection is fundamental to truly “loving” anyone!

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that there are two Sacraments geared toward the salvation of others: Marriage and Holy Orders. That means marriage partners and those who are ordained are both called to be “love-givers.” Marriage partners are called to be “love-givers” mainly to their spouses and their children. Those who are ordained are called to be “love-givers” mainly to that part of the church entrusted to them by the bishop in whatever ministry they are assigned. We are both called to be “love-givers” - love-givers to both friends and enemies, no matter what, whether it feels good or not, on any particular day! Love is not a feeling you have, but a decision you make.

I am proud to say that I have a wide-range of intimate friends! I am friends with people I grew up with, with people I went to seminary with, with people I have met in ministry and with people I have met from various countries all over the world. I have women friends, long-time friends both male and female, whole-family friends, friends from other religions, friends without any religion, rich friends and poor friends, educated and uneducated friends, new friends, old friends and friends who used to be enemies.

Jesus talked a lot, and often, about the importance of the word “love.” In our American culture, we talk a lot, and often, about the word “love” as well. Even though we both throw the word “love” around a lot, we are not talking about the same reality.

When we talk about “love” in our culture, we mean “having strong feelings of attraction for someone or something.” We say, things like “I “love” my girlfriend ever since we “fell in love.” I “love” the way she looks and the way she talks. We “love” the same movies, books and music. What the person is actually saying there is that he is “attracted” to everything about her – from her looks to her tastes. “Love” in that context is basically a “feeling” one has – usually a “feeling of attraction for” this or that!

Because it is basically a “feeling of attraction for,” that kind of so-called “love” can shift, wane and even disappear. Because it is based on “feelings,” a person who easily “falls in love,” can also “fall out of love” just as easily. Because it is based on “feelings,” it is basically “self-centered.” At its core, it really expresses what that old 1990s Toyota commercial said about their cars: “I love what you do for me!” A more precise word for that experience is “cathexis,” meaning an intense investment of mental or emotional energy in a person or object. A person under the spell of “cathexis” has an almost blind fixation or an obsession with another person, object or idea for “what it can do for them.”

That’s not at all what Jesus meant when he talked about “love.” When Jesus talked about “love,” he was not talking about a “feeling,” he was talking about a “decision.” When Jesus talked about “love,” he talked about making a decision to take loving and constructive action toward a person that he or she may consciously dislike or even find repugnant in some way! To “love,” in the way Jesus talks about it, goes beyond any feelings. It rises to the level of a conscious “decision” and that decision is not “self-centered, but “other centered.”

The teaching about “love” in our second reading today is quite powerful! God's “love” is unconditional - God’s actions toward us in spite of our actions toward God. True “love” is not focused on what we receive, but on what we give! That is the relationship God wants to have with us – a mutual unconditional relationship of love with friends and enemies! Love is not a feeling you have, but a decision you make.

Let me give you two practical examples of true “other focused” love - one from the lives of some of the families I have known and the other example from my own life.

EXAMPLE ONE

I am reminded, first of all, by a quote from the Gospel of John that says, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  Yes, it certainly refers to the love God had for us when we see how Jesus laid down his life for us! However, what also comes to my mind is the love many parents have for their children. These parents are the most loving people I have ever encountered. They are willing to lay down their lives every day for their children. I am not referring to that common practice of crippling children by constantly giving into their whims and spoiling them, rather than training them in self-discipline. Spoiling them is not real love, that’s self-love and protecting themselves from not being liked by their children!

It takes a lot of other-focused love to raise a child well because raising a child into a thriving adult requires teaching them reliability, generosity, consistency, independence, responsibility, maturity, self-confidence and kindness by promoting positive behaviors, being clear about expectations, adopting positive language, modeling good behavior, offering them choices, helping them deal with the consequences of their own choices, showing them how to do active listening, reinforcing positive values and correcting them when they do wrong.  These actions and this teaching, year in and year out, is the essence of real love. Doing that, day in and day out, does not always feel good! It requires a great amount of attention and concentration! That kind of love does not always result in a positive response from their children, like feeling appreciated by the very children they are teaching and forming into thriving adults! Love is not a feeling you have, but a decision you make.

EXAMPLE TWO

The second example of “love,” from my own life, involves the decisions I made when I retired. I have been taught my whole life that retirement is a time to sit back, relax, enjoy oneself and be pampered. I did not know exactly what I wanted to do when I retired, but I definitely knew I did not want to do that!

For my 80th birthday, a wealthy friend of mine offered to plan a birthday party for me. As a priest, I have been called to be a “love-giver” more than a “love-getter” so I told her “no” because that year, in gratitude for making it to my 80th birthday with so much to be grateful for, I wanted to “give,” rather than “receive.” I told her that, in celebration, I wanted to personally underwrite the Diocese of Kingstown’s annual diocesan Christmas party down in the poor country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines where I used to volunteer until COVID hit and their volcano exploded. The bishop down there usually gives his 12 priests, 4 Religious Sisters, 4 Religious Brothers, 7 Deacons and 4 Chancery Staff members a bottle of inexpensive wine, a ham and a small monetary gift. I heard that his diocesan finances were so limited that year, where the minimum wage is $12.00 a day, that he would have to cut back and not be able to give them a small monetary gift that year. So, starting with my $1,000.00 tax refund, I decided on a personal goal of underwriting his whole diocesan Christmas party, as well as be able to give all 40 of them a small monetary gift.

I was so grateful on my 80th birthday, that I had a burning desire to “give” love, rather than “receive” it!” In our country where “love” is more and more about something we “receive,” rather than something we “give,” I wanted to go against that trend and be that “love-giver” that I am supposed to be as a priest! Giving, rather than receiving, is what really made me happy on my 80th birthday so that is what I did!

After that, rather than me traveling the world and enjoying myself on some beach, I decided to help build a church in Kenya, a home for a single mother and a new grade school in Tanzania (which opened last Thursday with its first 25 students and 35 more expected by January) while helping out in two nursing homes. two parishes, publishing my four times a week inspirational blog posts and leading short parish retreats here in the diocese. 

In telling you this, it is not my hope to get you to admire me for doing those things, but that these two examples will inspire you to perform similar “love-giving” actions, for your family, friends, strangers and even your enemies! That, my friends, is what real love is all about! As the Book of Proverbs says, “Those who water others, will themselves be watered.” Real love is not an exchange of warm feelings between you and somebody else! Love is not a feeling you have, but a decision you make. Real love is a “decision” you make to do good to others, even to those who cannot, or will not, be good to you!