ONE DOWN ONE TO GO!

FIRST A CRISIS THEN GOOD NEWS
Want to help with the final push?

As many of you know, I have been working hard in my retirement doing priest retreats, clergy convocations and parish missions, as well as asking around among some of my friends to get enough money together to buy two vans for the Diocese of Kingstown in the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the West Indies (Caribbean). My dream was to get the first one in time for my next volunteer trip down there in December and the second one by the time I go back down in February.

FIRST, THE BAD NEWS 

Not long after I thought I was getting close to having enough to buy the first van and even had a little toward the second, I learned that there is a 123% import tax in SVG which would have meant that the van would have been more than twice the purchase price. You can imagine my utter disappointment. Bishop Jason Gordon, however, made an appeal to the government of that island country to have that tax waived for both vans. He just got a notice that 50% of the import taxes have been waived. (We were first told it was 100%, but 50% is better than none at all!)

NOW, THE GOOD NEWS 

Because of the added tax, we were a little short for the first van so I have made up the difference and now I am happy to announce that we can at least make the first purchase ($43,116.00 for van, taxes, insurance and fees). Thanks be to God! I hope to be able to help bless this first van when I go down this December.

I will continue to do as many priest convocations and retreats as I can, but that won't be enough because I use much of that to pay my own travel and expenses when I go down. I am hoping for a $47,752 miracle so I can order van #2 soon and help bless it when I go down in February. 

  

          Here is what has been suggested by the parties down there for the sides of the vans.

ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF KINGSTOWN

Donated by R J Mission Projects

Bishop Jason Gordon is the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Kingstown, SVG, as well as the bishop of Bridgetown, Barbados, He is the only bishop of two dioceses in two separate countries. We met at St. Meinrad Seminary while he was visiting his seminarian studying there. He stayed at my house the last time he was in town before flying home the next morning. He is a good man with great responsibilities and limited resources.

                             

Does anyone want to help with the rest? If so, ........

Make your tax deductible donation by check made out to:

St. Bartholomew Catholic Church - SVG Mission Fund

Mail it to me at:

Rev. J. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Ct. #106

Louisville KY 40217

You will receive a letter of acknowledgment of your gift.

If you want to send the donation directly to St. Bartholomew, contact me.

_____________________________________________________________

While I will be on the island of St. Vincent to bless at least one of the vans, my main reason will be to lead a discernment retreat for six permanent deacon candidates. I am attaching a copy of the retreat outline to show you what I will be doing. It will be my first contact with them, but hopefully not my last. I hope to follow them through their process to their ordinations.  

“CALLED”

DEACON DISCERNMENT RETREAT SCHEDULE

Diocese of Kingstown, SVG

Rev. Ronald Knott, Director

Wednesday 

 16.00 pm Introduction 

18.00 Mass

19.00 Supper 

Thursday 

 7.30 Mass

8.30 Breakfast 

10.00 Conference: CALLED

Why was I born? 

What is a call? 

11.30 One-to-One (1)

12.30 Lunch

14.00 Conference: CALLED II

How do I hear my call?

Where will my call lead me?

15.30 One-to-one (2)

16.30 One-to-one (3)

17.30 Conference: CALLED III

The Call of Jesus

Called to Carry On the Work of Jesus 

19.00 Supper

20.00 Conference: CALLED IV

God Chooses the Weak and Makes Them Strong: Examples from

Scripture and Church History 

Friday 

 7.30 Mass

8.30 Breakfast 

10.00 Conference: CALLED V

Spiritual Leadership in the Universal Call to Holiness

11.30 One-to-One (4)

12.30 Lunch

14.00 Conference: CALLED VI 

The Two Arms of the Bishop: Diaconate and thePresbyterate

Made Holy and Making Others Holy Through Your Ministry 

15.30 One-to-one (5)

16.15 One-to-one (6)

17.00 Farewell and Next Steps

+ + + + + + + +

AN OMEN OF SUCCESS?

I saw this walking through the Toronto airport on my way home from leading the Corner Brook-Labrador priest retreat. It is a child's painting on a construction wall. 

MY VOCATION STORY

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

John 1:46

Even at age four in 1948, I was "outstanding in my field!" 

My official First Communion picture in front of neighbor Mrs.Georgia Vessels's house - 1951. I was seven years old in 1951, the year I first announced I wanted to be a priest. I announced it in response to a question Sister Mary Ancilla (below) asked - "What do you want to be when you grow up?" However, I proceeded to flunk the altar boy test three times which caused her to say, "Ronnie, you are a good kid, but I don't think you will ever be any good around the altar." We were friends till she died. 

Sister Mary Ancilla Meyer, SCN

This was my first year of high school seminary (1958) Latin book. It symbolizes everything difficult about my 12 years in the seminary. It has no good memories attached to it, but it does symbolize triumph over difficulties. 

This is my Le Nouveau Testament (New Testament).

We read Scripture in French every day in the chapel at noon. 

Sophomore of High School - St.Thomas Seminary - 1959 

Science Lab - First Year of College - St.Thomas Seminary - 1963 

Third Year of College - St. Meinrad Seminary - 1965

(Second back on the right - the really holy looking one!) 

College Graduation - St. Meinrad Seminary - 1966

Homily 11-8-15

RADICAL HOSPITALITY

                                         

           

              Do not be afraid. Your jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry.

       I Kings 17:10-16

               

One of the hard lessons we have had to learn as a country - and are still learning - is the fact that the way people think in the Middle East is not the way we think in the West. We can’t seem to understand that the whole world does not share our values, and when they resist our sharing them, we seem to be shocked. The question in the backs of our minds would no doubt be: “Why would anyone not think the way we think?”

Our readings today, especially the first one, give us a case in point. If you lived out West in an isolated mountain cabin and you looked up one day to see three men approaching your cabin, you would usher the kids inside and grab your gun. Your first instinct would be to protect yourself from a threat. If you did not know them, you would no doubt assume, until proven otherwise, that they were up to no good.

If you live in an urban area, you would not think of opening your door to three unknown men who came up on your porch and knocked, especially if you were home alone. You would probably ignore the doorbell, speak to them through a locked screen, make sure we have something to protect ourselves handy or even call the police. If you did not know them, you would no doubt assume, until proven otherwise, that they were up to no good.

We see this difference especially in the story of the call of Abraham and Sarah. We see Abraham doing something that we have been warned never to do. In the heat of the day, he is resting in the shade of his tent. When Abraham looks up and sees three men approaching, it says that he runs to meet them, bows down to them, invites them in and treats them like royalty – without even knowing who they are or what they want. He invites them to sit under a shade tree while he has water brought to cool their feet, has some fresh bread baked, has a tender calf slaughtered and some cottage cheese made. He waits on them as they eat it under the tree before continuing their journey.

This kind of hospitality is still common among the nomadic herders of sheep and goats who range about the Middle East as they try to live much as their ancestors have for centuries. Desert nomads, even today, are known for their sumptuous hospitality. The abundance of their generosity stands in sharp contrast to the desolate terrain in which they live. But their generosity is not just something nice to do for other people, in some kind of sentimental way. For them, it is a matter of survival. They know that counting on this tradition could one day mean the difference between life and death for themselves and their loved ones. If you live in that part of the world, you have to be able to count on the hospitality of strangers.

Even in such a situation, biblical hospitality is always a give-and take proposition as well. The host knows that strangers always bless them with gifts of their own: news from the outside world, fascinating conversation in a very dull and tedious landscape or maybe a vial of exotic spices from some faraway place.

In our first reading today, we see the obligation to offer hospitality in stark terms. Elijah receives bread from a desperately poor widow of Zarephath, Even though she is down to a handful of flour and a few drops of oil, she gives it away to a stranger rather than violate her obligation to hospitality. 

In the Emmaus story, on the first Easter Sunday, when Cleophas and his friend invite the stranger they meet on the road to Emmaus inside their home for dinner, they receive a tremendous gift – the presence of the risen Lord himself.  In the case of Abraham and Sarah, it is an important and unexpected message from God himself.  It is in this situation, from these three strangers, that Abraham and Sarah first hear that they are going to have their first baby - a precious son – even in their advanced age. In the case of the poor widow we read about today, she receives an unending supply of flour and oil in the midst of famine.

Hospitality can be a tricky business in our culture where we are taught, rightly so, to fear strangers, so how can we practice biblical hospitality without putting our lives at risk?  In a word, by being open, in an appropriate way, to a variety of people and the gifts God sends us through them.

One of the blessings of my life as a priest is being exposed to a variety of people, being welcomed by them and receiving the gift they have to offer. I have been stationed I am proud of the fact that, because of this exposure, I can relate to millionaires and street people, Protestants, Jews and agnostics, the highly educated and those who have no formal education to speak of, those who have traveled the world and those who have never really left home. My ministry has brought me in close contact with Asians, Africans, Europeans and almost everything in between. By being open to them, welcoming them into my life and being received by them, I have received blessings beyond what I could never imagine as a child growing up in a small, rural town. 

Students, one of the great blessings of being a college student is the opportunity to receive blessings from a variety of new people, if you are open to them. On this campus, you will be exposed to a variety of religions and ways of living. You will be offered opportunities to learn new languages and experience other cultures, both here and on study trips. Here will you will meet lifetime friends and maybe even a lifetime partner. If you are open to receiving new people into your life, as well as being received into the lives of new people, blessings and even messages from God are possible for you.

There is also another kind of hospitality you can practice while you are here– intellectual hospitality, an openness to learn all we can from the people around here. By committing to intellectual hospitality, an openness to sharing and receiving knowledge and insights, you can correct your own thinking and even find a fresh understanding of God. This sharing is marked by consideration toward others and recognition that others’ distinctive individualities and overall experience are sources of learning, as much as the information found in books. This receiving is often marked by an awareness that however initially strange it may appear at first, the perspective of others can enrich, and even transform, one’s self-understanding.

Professors can practice biblical hospitality by receiving students as people who have something to teach in the classroom and not just recipients of their own wisdom. When they recognize the inherent dignity of each student, they are able to receive new ideas and fresh paradigms that can bring a renewal of their own intellectual and relational lives.

The readings today challenge us to expand our narrow ideas of hospitality beyond “tea parties, bland conversations and a general atmosphere of coziness.” Being hospitable is about being open to the give-and-take that is necessary to receive the gifts that God sends us. God seldom gives his gifts to us directly. More often than not, God’s gifts are delivered to us indirectly, through his messengers. The word  “angel” in Scripture means simply “a messenger” and these “angels,” more often than not, look like ordinary people. In fact, they may just be ordinary people that God places on our paths. As the Letter to the Hebrews says, “People have often entertained angels, unaware.”

God, not doubt, has wonderful gifts for you this year. These gifts, no doubt, will be delivered to you by the unlikeliest of people, if you are open to all those who enter your life.   Practice the spiritual art of hospitality this year and watch as your life is enriched!  Restricting your life to one or two types of people is to forfeit untold blessings. Being open to blessings is the surest way of being blessed.