OH, PLEASE, NOT ANOTHER HOLIDAY PROBLEM!

 

                             "I don't have an Oedipus Complex, I just don't like you kissing mommy!"

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED ABOUT THAT?

 

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

  

Why do you have to "put your two cents in"... but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going? (taxes)

 

Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

 

What disease did cured ham actually have?

 

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

 

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

 

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

 

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

 

Why do doctors leave the room while you change??? They're going to see you naked anyway.

 

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

 

Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?

 

If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?

 

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

 

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

 

Why do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

 

Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

 

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

 

How did the man who made the first clock, know what time it was?

 

 

 

 

THE LAST PIECE OF MY FINAL BUILDING PROJECT

A Needed Guest House For Saint Theresa

in memory of Father Patrick MacNicholas

A dedicated former pastor of Saint Theresa Church in Rhodelia, Father Patrick MacNicholas, was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1820. In October of 1850, he was appointed pastor of Saint Theresa Church. At that time the parish was gathering in its second log church located in today's "old cemetery." The pastor was living in a log rectory adjacent to that church! 

The pastorate of the Irish Father MacNicholas was long and eventful.  In his twenty years as pastor of Saint Theresa, he erected the present brick church and opened Saint Theresa Academy. 

The church, dedicated in 1861, is pictured above as it would have looked toward the end of Father MacNicholas's pastorate. The main section of St. Theresa Academy, pictured below, was finished toward the end of Father MacNicholas's tenture as well. Father MacNicholas lived his whole long pastorate in a small log rectory in the old cemetery while he was overseeing the building of these impressive structures. 

Father Patrick MacNicholas left Saint Theresa in October of 1870 after completing twenty amazing years. No photos of him can be found, but he does have an impressive tombstone pictured below. Father Patrick MacNicholas is buried in St. Louis Cemetery in Louisville along with several other early pastors of St. Theresa Church.

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It wasn't till 1874, under the watchful eye of the French pastor Father Jule Pierre Raoux, when the pastor could move out of the log cabin rectory in the old cemetery into a new rectory (below) which was built close to the "new" church. 

Father Raoux's rectory (above) lasted till the very end of the 1950s when Father Felix Johnson built the present rectory (below). After Father Johnson's new rectory was finished, Father Raoux's old rectory served as the care-taker's home until it was finally torn down a few years ago.  It lasted over 100 years! It was in that old rectory where I met with Father Johnson about going to the seminary in 1958. We met in the big room with two windows on the left on the first floor. 

Father Johnson's new rectory, his last project, was a home for him for a short time and several pastor's after his death in 1960. It was used as a rectory until the present pastor from India, Father George Illikal, began residing in the rectory of the twined-parish of St. Mary Magdalen in Payneville. At that time, the rectory at St. Theresa became parish offices. With the completion of the new Family Life Center in the old school, the parish offices can now move into the Family Life Center. This frees up the old rectory for use as a "guest house." We need a place for visiting priests to stay when they come to fill-in, a place for Sisters, priests and lay people to make private retreats, a place for program presenters in our new Family Life Center who need to stay overnight and an over-flow place where parishioners' out-of-town guests can stay. There are no hotels in Rhodelia and none for miles and miles around! 

When this rectory renovation is completed, my last construction project commitment will be completed and then I can turn my attention to being one of the program presenters in the new Family Life Center. 

My brother, Mark, and I are leading the Guest House renovation. The house needs a complete upgrade. Mark has already seen to it that the outside is done: new doors, front and back, and a new deck behind the house to replace the rotting one.  We are both going to see to it that the inside is completed as soon as possible after the offices are moved out. We are committed, but we are open to having some help. While we will be joined by a few friends and local volunteers to accomplish this task, we can always use some financial help added to what we can contribute. We need some old temporary walls that were added to make offices removed, carpeting, paint, kitchen cabinets, new furniture, a bathroom upgrade, a few new light fixtures, some sheets, towels, blankets and bedspreads, as well as some dishes and small appliances. 

DECEMBER 6 WAS THE FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS

How About a Nice St. Nicholas Gift Toward Finishing My Final Project in Honor of Father MacNicholas?

Maybe You Can Use Our Guest House For a Personal Retreat Someday!

If you would like to help, please let me know! I have already bought and paid for some of the furniture during the November Black Friday sales, but I am only about one-third done. I am a great shopper because I start early and stay alert for unbelievable bargains after Christmas. Checks should be written to Saint Theresa Church and sent to me for forwarding at:

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

#106

Louisville, KY 40217 

FOR QUESTIONS, CALL

 502-303-4571

I DON'T WANT TO SEE IT, HEAR IT, FEEL IT OR EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT!

 

John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea. He wore clothing made of camel's hair. His food was locusts and wild honey.

Matthew 3:1-12

For me, John the Baptist has to be one of the hardest persons in the whole Bible to warm up to! To be honest with you, I’ve never really liked him! In fact, during this warm and fuzzy Christmas season, he can be a thorn in the side or a pain in the rear end! He was a true “wild man,” the kind of man you would grab the kids and pull them close if you ran into him on the streets. The smell of him alone would probably gag a horse! His home was a cave out in the wilderness where very few people would want to go there, much less live here! For clothes, he wore a disgusting old camel hide and for food he ate the locusts he found flying around and the wild honey that he found hidden in the cracks of rocks or in the hollows of scrub brush. Men who wear fur, eat bugs and scream a lot get on my nerves pretty quickly! On second thought, he had a beard so I guess he was not all bad!

Like a full-blown schizophrenic off his medication, John preaches the fire and brimstone message of repentance in preparation for someone he calls “mightier than I.” Like all charismatic preachers with a fresh message, people went out to hear him in droves and to receive his baptism. They craved the fresh start and new life that it symbolized.

When the religious establishment folks went to check him out and investigate this “nutcase” who was drawing people away from them, they found this hairy, bellowing preacher who did not mince words. He tore into them and called them “a nest of poisonous snakes,” warning them not to even try to hide behind their religious traditions. In his way, he told them to “put up or shut up,” to quit talking a good line and deliver on their claims, because a powerful “someone” would be coming who would separate the “wheat from the chaff” and the “good trees from bad trees.” He went on to say that once that separation was over, the “wheat” and the “the fruit of the good trees” would be gathered into his barn and the “chaff” and “dead trees” would be burned in an unquenchable fire.

These words certainly did not endear him to the religious establishment, but he did not stop there. He took on the political establishment as well. He got in King Herod’s face and told him that marrying his brother’s wife was not right. That kind of confrontation was tantamount to smacking a lion across the face. Embarrassed in front of his guests, Herod had John’s head cut off and served up on a platter for speaking so bluntly!

John was a “prophet” and this is what “prophets” do. Prophets are not so much people who predict the future as people who get up in your face and rub a present truth in your face and make you look at it. Today, we would call them “whistle blowers,” people who drag the truth out into the light of day whether it is convenient or not! Like prophets of old, whistle blowers are often considered “nut cases” at first. Like prophets of old, whistle blowers often get themselves killed, either actually or figuratively, because most establishments do not like to have their boats rocked or their embarrassing truths to come out. Instead of heeding the truth, they usually turn on the truth-teller. If you have ever been involved in such an action, you know just how dangerous it can be. If you were not physically hurt, you could be labeled or blackballed for years and maybe even for life.

We still kill prophets in a host of creative ways. We shun friends who will not go along with us when we do wrong. We rage against "wokeness" when what it exposes is too painful to admit. We ridicule the teaching of the Church and those who teach what the Church teaches when they won’t bless the wrongs we want to do. We call evil good and good evil so that we can live with our inconvenient truths, even when we know in our guts that we are doing is wrong.

All of us have a built-in “prophet” as well. That built-in “prophet” is called our “conscience.” Our conscience is constantly confronting us with truths that we would just as soon not look at. When our consciences keep accusing us of violating our principles, we have ways of “silencing” it temporarily and even “killing” it for good. We regularly silence our consciences with alcohol and drugs, so that we can do what we know is wrong. If we do it regularly and consistently over the long haul, we can even kill our consciences, until one day we are capable of doing or believing horrendous things that no longer shock us! As someone said, “When there is no faith, there is no conscience. When there is no conscience, there is no morality. When there is no morality, there is no humanity.” If we don’t start listening to our prophets, inside and out, we will soon be in a dark place with no escape. On the other hand, Jesus said this: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free!” (John 8:31-32) External prophets and our internal consciences make us wake up and face the truth because “people who tell us what we want to hear are not necessarily our friends and people who tell us what we don’t want to hear are not necessarily our enemies.” Yes, the truth will set us free, but as President James A. Garfield said, “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” To relieve our misery when faced with unpleasant and unwanted truths, we tend to kill our prophets and numb our consciences!

In times like these, the truth matters! We desperately need communal prophets and personal consciences to rub our noses in the truth no matter how painful it is to accept!