VANCOUVER PRIEST RETREATS - TWO OF THEM BACK TO BACK

HEADED NORTH-WEST TOMORROW TO LEAD MY


FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH 

CANADIAN PRIEST RETREAT

Archdiocese of Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada

May 15 - 19, 2017
May 22 - 26, 2017

Archbishop Michael Miller CSB

Map of the Archdiocese of Vancouver with parishes in blue.

Downtown Vancouver

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver has been faithfully serving Catholics in British Columbia since its formation by Pope Pius X in 1908. The Archdiocese covers primarily B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. It has about 430,000 baptized Catholics within its boundaries. Archbishop Miller is chief pastor and leader of the Archdiocese, tending to both the spiritual and administrative needs of the Archdiocese. The suffragan dioceses of the Archdiocese, Kamloops, Nelson, Prince George, and Victoria, all led by their own bishops.*

The Church in Vancouver has undergone massive change since the mission outposts of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate of the 1800s. As of 2014, the Archdiocese has 77 parishes, 7 missions, 106 diocesan priests, and 99 religious priests. It also has 92 religious sisters and 18 religious brothers. There are 50 Catholic schools as well as Catholic hospitals including Holy Family Hospital, Mount St. Joseph Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital and St. Vincent’s Hospitals: three colleges including Corpus Christi College, St. Mark’s College and Catholic Pacific College and Seminary of Christ the King. Within the Archdiocese there are also more than 80 organizations, associations, ministries and clubs that help carry out the Church’s mission.

The Archdiocese of Vancouver has recently announced its new Priorities and Goals, which will focus its pastoral efforts and mission as the Church and its followers work to intentionally help people experience God’s merciful love. Archbishop Miller invited everyone to play a role in their implementation. “Each of you is crucial to this endeavour, by lending a hand and offering advice on how we can all work together.”

THESE TWO PRIEST RETREATS WILL BE HELD AT

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Mission, British Columbia

Westminster Abbey in Canada

Abbey Church Interior

View of the Fraser River from Westminster Abbey, Mission, British Columbia, Canada

HAPPY 41st ANNIVERSARY TODAY, MOM!

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

My mother died of breast cancer May 12 in 1976 at the age of 58. We were holding her hand.
At the time, I thought she was old. Being 73 myself, I now know better.

I still miss her and I get chocked up at Mass on Mother's Day, her birthday and the anniversary of her death, when I stop to remember at Mass all those who have died and gone before us.





She is loved equally by ALL of her seven children who will be remembering her today.

 

Here she is on the day of my First Mass in 1970. I had no idea she would be gone six years later.



Here she is as a third-grader.



Here she is an a young adult.



Here she is @ 1948 with five of her seven children. That's me on the far right.
Notice we are all barefoot. As children growing up in the country, where everyone was relatively poor, we regularly went barefoot in the summer months.
My mother sewed, raised a garden, canned food, cleaned, cooked, went to church every Sunday and Holy Day, visited her parents and siblings, helped her neighbors and eventually took care of seven children and a husband.
How did she do it? She did it by being totally selfless!


Here is her grave in St. Theresa Church cemetery. I will be buried a few feet away.





This coming September 10, she would have been 100 years old!
The family is planning a special celebration!

DO YOU KNOW A "JAMES" YOU WOULD LIKE TO HONOR?

A NEW CHAPEL IN HONOR OF SAINT JAMES, APOSTLE AND FISHERMAN

i

WE ARE ALMOST THERE

Would you like to honor a "James" by helping us put the finishing touches on the new SAINT JAMES CHAPEL in the Kingstown Diocesan Centre down in the island country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines where I am volunteering? 

Here is what it is going to look like. They have already started some of the work. Most of it is paid for, but there are a few things left to pay for - things like a nice rug for under the altar, a new paint job for the walls, altar linens, liturgical books, small set of Stations of the Cross, a sign over the doors, light fixtures and shades. 

We have had several Jameses who have helped with the" heavy lifting" giving. We just need a few more Jameses, or those who want to honor a James, to help us put on the finishing touches. 

Make your check out to ST. BARTHOLOMEW CHURCH - SVG FUND

Send it to:

Father JAMES Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

#106

Louisville, Kentucky 40217 

If you have a JAMES you would like Bishop County and the people of his diocese to pray for, please send that along with your gift.




A sketch of the proposed chapel. The glass doors can be folded back, the altar turned and more chairs added for larger groups. 

The actual chairs that have been donated and being sent down. 

A FULL LIFE

I came that you may have life and have it in abundance. John 10:10

One Sunday, several years ago, I was standing out in front of the Bellarmine University chapel waiting for students to arrive for Mass, something I have done in rain and shine for practically every Sunday for the last 47 years wherever I have been assigned, including here. I had been in a bad space in my head for several weeks over the damnable “abuse scandal” that had surfaced in our church. I was alone and my mind was involved in one of those “negative mind chatter” episodes that I seemed to revert to when things get quiet and I am worried about something. 

What brought me out of it was the sound of a girl, one of our choir members, singing to herself as she bounced down the steps to the chapel. When I inquired about the source of her happiness, she said, “Look around you! It’s Easter! The whole message of Easter is that there is nothing to worry about! Everything is going to turn out OK!” 

It was exactly what I needed to hear! I have given hundreds of homilies with that very message and yet, I had temporarily forgotten it! It was a moment of grace, an eye-opener, a jerking back to reality! I still remember her words and smile to myself when things seem to be going downhill!

I came that (you) may have life and have it in abundance.

This beautiful line from today’s gospel is only one of many passages that say the same thing. It is this very gospel – the one according to John - that tells us of Jesus’ very first miracle, the multiplication of wine at the marriage feast of Cana! The miracles of Jesus are not just events to help the people who were there originally, they are “signs” to us of what God wants for us as well. According to scholars, the water he turned into wine amounted to about 163 gallons! That a lot of wine! Wine symbolizes the celebratory part of life! The message of that miracle is that God’s wants us to have the best and plenty of it, life in abundance! In another place it says, “Give and gifts will be given you: full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they be poured into your lap.” 

All week, I have been reminded that I do have a great life, a life of remarkable abundance! That student helped me wake up to the fact that I was seeing the glass as half empty rather than half full. She helped me count my blessings and remember that things are ultimately going to turn out OK! A few years ago, I came across a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson offering similar wisdom. Emerson wrote “Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always, sings.” 

I do have an abundant life! Let me count the ways!

(1) In spite of being very sad and embarrassed by the news that even some priests have been part of the awful scourge of sexual abuse, my faith remains unshaken. My faith has never been in my own goodness or in any other weak human being. My faith is solidly in God’s goodness, a faith that gives me great peace when I fail and, yes, even when others around me fail. This faith is undeserved and unearned gift from God. In spite of the fact that I am a flawed human being, I know for a fact that God loves me without condition. I know that He is an intimate partner in the adventure of my spiritual and personal growth. I have nothing to fear. My life is truly a life of abundance.

(2) I love my vocation. I’m no Mother Teresa, but I know I have been able to do a lot of good as a priest. To prove it, I have boxes of letters from people who have told me so. To be a priest, I have had to “give up” a few things, but believe me, what I have given up is radically small compared to what I have gained. I have never seriously thought about doing anything else. I have served several great faith communities over 47 years: St. John Vianney here in Louisville, St. Mildred in Somerset, St. Peter in Monticello, Good Shepherd in Whitley City, Holy Name of Mary in Lebanon, this Cathedral of the Assumption, the Vocation Office, Bellarmine University and St. Meinrad Seminary. I can also look at my column in The Record over the last 15 years, the hundred plus priest retreat in nine countries that I have led and now my volunteer work down in the islands. I have been blessed by all of these communities and ministries. My life is truly a life of abundance.

(3) I have friends all over the world, all over this country, all over this state and all over this city, people who love me, people to whom I can turn at a moment’s notice. My life is truly a life of abundance.

(4) I have had opportunities that many people only dream about: the opportunity to have a great education, the opportunity to mingle with people from all walks of life, the opportunity to travel, the opportunity to be there at the great moments of people’s lives: birth, marriage, sickness, tragedy and death, the opportunity to preach the gospel and to say mass and to help people unburden themselves of sin and guilt. My life is truly a life of abundance. 

(5) I have my health. I own my own home and car and I have more food to eat than I need. I have a great family. We are close. We have a great time when we get together. My life is truly a life of abundance. 

(6) I belong to a brotherhood of great priests that go all the way back in an unbroken line for 2,000 years to the apostles, a brotherhood of priests who are working all over the world as we speak: black, yellow, red, brown, white and every shade in between! Some of our group are saints, some are martyrs, some are heroes, some are public sinners and most of us are somewhere in between. We may lose everything else, but we are priests forever! Even if we are unfaithful to God, God can never be unfaithful to us. If we screw up, we may be stripped of our titles, our parishes and our freedom to function, but no one can strip us of our priesthood! God gave it to us for life! My life is truly a life of abundance.

I came that (you) may have life and have it in abundance.

What is the secret to receiving a life of abundance? As I look at the abundance in my own life, I know for a fact that it is not something I earned or something I deserve, but something that is a total gift from God. Abundance comes from hearing your call and answering it with all the gusto you can muster – whether it is marriage, priesthood or the single life. We all have a call from God to carry on some part of his work in the world. If we hear that call and answer it, an abundance of happiness and peace of mind will be ours. If we are out of rhythm with our calls, we will be unhappy without knowing why, driven to look for love in all the wrong places. We will be going against who we are, who God so lovingly created us to be. We will end up with a dry and parched desert of a life. 

I have spoken to enough young adult in the last few years to notice a pattern. Most are happy, I hope, but quite a few have not found their nitch! They have been career counseled, rather than vocation directed. They have ended up in careers and jobs they hate because they fell for the line that if you get into something that pays a lot of money, you can buy happiness. If they had been encouraged to listen to their hearts, where all vocations come from, they might have been doing what they love, as well as having all they need! 

How about you? Are you aware of the abundance you have, the abundance that only God can give? Do you know the difference between a job, a career and a vocation? Do you know in your heart of hearts who you are and what God is calling you to be? Do you listen to your own heart or do you listen to all those powerful voices around you telling you to go this way and that? Do you spend enough quality time with God to even hear his whispering voice in your heart of hearts? It is only there that you will recognize the abundance that you already enjoy. It is only there that you will discover the path to even greater abundance.