MY TRIP THROUGH HELL

BELIEVE ME!

RAISING MONEY FOR THE MISSIONS 
IS NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES!

I do about 15 priest retreats a year to raise money for my projects down in the Caribbean missions - mostly in Canada and the United States.  I did six - just since September - with two more to go before Thanksgiving. It is very rewarding on one hand and grueling on the other. I thought I would share one of the worst recent experiences - the trip home from the Ottawa, Canada. It is almost hilarious, after the fact! 

Here is the report in my journal the morning I got home. I wanted to document every bloody detail.  

MY TRIP THROUGH HELL

10-28-16

I got to the Ottawa airport about noon - 3 hours early. I was warned that "international flights take longer." It only took 15 minutes to go through US customs in Ottawa so I settled in to endure what I thought would be about five hours of waiting in the Ottawa airport, one fourth the size of Louisville's.

As the time of departure got close, my flight kept being delayed on the monitor. Finally, it was obvious I was going to miss my connection in Chicago.

At the ticket counter, I got my ticket changed to a new ticket on the last flight out of Chicago to Louisville that night with a good connection time.

When we were about to board from Ottawa to Chicago, we were delayed for about forty-five minutes because the gate for our incoming plane was still occupied. It started snowing. After waiting almost an hour, they changed the gate number, so we all moved to another gate and waited some more.

Just as we were about board, we were told that "pilot visibility in the snow storm was not good enough so the flight may have to be cancelled."

We all lined up again to change our tickets - yet again. I got a backup reservation from Chicago to Louisville for the next morning just in case. Just as the agent finished making that change for me, they announced that we would fly to Chicago that night after all.

We finally boarded and the plane started for the runway, still snowing, only to be directed back to the terminal for de-icing.

The de-icing took forever and just as they finished, something jammed on the de-icer truck and they had to call mechanics to pull the de-icer truck off the airplane. That took what seemed forever. The time to make my new connection in Chicago started running out again.

By this time, I was convinced that I would be in Chicago overnight, if I could only get out of Ottawa.

We did eventually take off in a blinding snow storm, however. Once in the air, the pilot told us he would "try to make up some lost time."

We landed in Chicago with barely enough time for me to make my second attempt at a connection. The flight attendant had confided in me that “it would probably be OK because we would land at terminal F and that the Louisville flight usually left from terminal F."

Just as we got ready to pull into our gate to de-plane, we were held up yet again because another plane had not left the gate we were scheduled to enter. By then, time was running out for sure. I was convinced that I was certainly going to miss my flight.

Finally, I got off the plane, checked a monitor and, to my horror, noticed that the Louisville plane was not leaving from terminal F after all. It was leaving from terminal C. Had she lied just to make me feel good?

I ran like a bat out of hell with a heavy backpack on my back through two terminals to Gate 4 in terminal C. When I got there, the door to the airplane was closed and the plane was already loaded.

I panicked and asked the agent at the next gate if she could call them and ask if they would open the door to let me on - something they never do - pointing out that I had exactly one minute to spare according to my ticket.

Just then the door to the Louisville gate opened and an agent for the Louisville flight told me that they were waiting for me and that she had just closed the door to go see about something on the plane. She apologized and kept telling me to breathe!

She led me on the plane personally, stuck her head into the cockpit and told the pilot he could now fly. I was the very last one to board. They closed the door behind me. Everyone was glaring at me for being late. I fell into my seat (the very back seat on the plane) breathing like I had run a marathon.

We mysteriously got to Louisville 20 minutes early which sounded great until we were told by the pilot that another plane was at our gate so we would have to sit on the tarmac until it was pulled back. (This was the third time this had happened on this trip.) By then, we were a few minutes late rather than twenty minutes early.

I got home a little after midnight after being totally stressed out for twelve straight hours!

Air travel is not the exotic experience it used to be! I wish they would put something in those oxygen masks that would put you to sleep as you fly. If not that, maybe some "laughing gas?"

I am already beginning to dread the flight from Louisville to Miami to Barbados for their mid-November priest retreat. The flight leaves Louisville about 5:30 am. There is only a forty-nine minute layover in Miami. If anything at all goes wrong, I will be stuck in Miami for seven hours at least - all day and overnight if I cannot get on the next flight that night!

Sometimes I ask myself why I didn't learn to play golf, move to Florida and act like a real retired priest!!! 

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS and......

.....HELP SOMEONE ELSE TO DO THE SAME! 

Are you tired of giving more stuff  every Christmas to people who don't need it? 

If so, I have some alternatives for you! 

SMALL CHRISTMAS GIFTS ARE NEEDED HERE

Abandoned and neglected children at St. Benedict's Children's Home operated by Carmelite Sister Nyra Ann. 

SMALL CHRISTMAS GIFTS ARE NEEDED HERE
Bread of Life Community for abandoned children with Aids run by Carmelite Sister Zita. 



ALSO A RETIRED CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST WHO WOULD BE WILLING TO  VOLUNTEER SOME TIME EACH YEAR. 



SMALL CHRISTMAS GIFTS ARE NEEDED HERE

Lewis Punnett Nursing Home on the main island of St. Vincent. 




RELATED OPPORTUNITIES

CREATING A SAFE,  COMFORTABLE PLACE FOR MY RETIRED PROFESSIONAL CATHOLIC SECOND WIND GUILD VOLUNTEERS


#1
ST. JAMES CHAPEL





We need about $20,000 to complete the new St. James Chapel. Through my giving retreats in Canada and the Unites States and the generosity of a few friends, we have most of the furnishings paid for: the altar, pulpit, cross, candles, credence table and chairs. Most of all, we desperately need about $20,000 more for the folding glass wall and enclosure above it, as well as lighting and wall painting. 

MY DREAM IS TO HAVE THIS CHAPEL PAID FOR BY CHRISTMAS!

I AM IN THE MOOD FOR ANOTHER MIRACLE. 


#2
CATHOLIC SECOND WIND HEADQUARTERS

Through my speaking engagements and a few generous friends, we have been trying to finish
the area where I will live when I am down there and the area where I will administer the program for retired professional volunteers we hope to bring down. We need about $20,000 more to finish the new entrance, bathroom and bedroom/office. This will include new furniture, lighting, floor replacement (dry rot), carpeting, closet rebuilding, plantation shutters, bathroom fixtures, three doors and lockable mini-office. 









#3
EIGHT GUEST ROOMS

We hope to remodel eight guests rooms for future retired professional volunteers, retreatants and priests/diocesan workers from the outer islands when they come to St. Vincent for diocesan meetings.  We are hoping to update the plumbing, painting, electricity, ceiling fans, lighting, carpeting, air-conditioning and furnishings for about $10,000
each. 





#4

In the future, we hope to tackle the kitchen, meeting rooms, decks, common living room and diocesan offices. 




IMPORTANT NOTICE

Because of mailing costs, the slowness of mail service and import taxes, only money can be accepted.  It also helps the local economy if they buy the needed items there. The money is sent to the Diocese of Kingstown, through a parish in Florida, and is distributed from there by the Bishop of Kingstown, SVG.

MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO:
St. Bartholomew Church - SVG Mission Fund

SEND CHECKS TO:
Rev. Ronald Knott
1271 Parkway Gardens Court
#106
Louisville, KY 40217

FOR QUESTIONS CALL ME:
1-502-303-4571




If you cannot help, pass this on to some people who can! 
THANK YOU

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?

It's my friend Bishop Jason Gordon of Barbados! 






He is here visiting his seminarian at Saint Meinrad Seminary. He will be staying at my house overnight on Thursday so that I can get him to the airport very early on Friday.



APPRECIATION DINNER NUMBER TWO 

Below are some photos of my second appreciation dinners for some of those who have supported my mission projects, especially in his former Diocese of  Kingstown in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
I hope to plan another dinner when he comes back through and invite some others.
 Anyone who would like to be on the list can contact me.







Jim Patterson II, my Partner in Mission Projects



Pat and Ken Peet, new friends of our mission work





Shirley and Deacon Greg Beavin of Brandenburg who hosted a Meade county-wide Parish Mission for the benefit of our mission projects.



James Thayler, long time supporter of me and my projects.



Mike and Martha Richardson. Martha researches possible interested persons for our projects.



Far. Tom Clark and Ann Mudd of Bardstown and Fredricktown, Ky. Father Clark went me on my last mission trip.





Gary and Rita Marvin. Gary is my tech man. He helps me with computer and blog problems.



Phyllis Drury takes me back and forth to the airport when I take my priest retreat trips to raise money for the missions.



Pat Patterson, a long time supporter of me and my projects.



Tim Schoenbachler who designs many of the project spaces, advertisements, blog designs, book editions, greeting cards and flyers,



Father Knott, partner with Bishop Gordon in both Barbados and St. Vincent.



Chef Josh Moore of Volare Restaurant who cooked fabulous meals at both dinners and who always comes out to greet our guests.



UPCOMING
DIOCESE OF BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS, 2016 PRIEST RETREAT

I will be leading Bishop Gordon's annual priest retreat the week of November 13-18 - just ten days away. This will be my 16th priest retreat or parish mission this year and my last plane trip of the year. I am looking forward to some rest before starting up again in Lent.

MAY THEY REST IN PEACE

ALL SOULS DAY

Remembering Those Who Have Gone Before Us

REMEMBERING THE DECEASED AT SAINT MEINRAD ARCHABBEY

REMEMBERING THE DECEASED AT THE ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI

FRANCISCAN FRIARS AT THEIR CEMETERY IN WASHINGTON DC



WHERE I WILL BE REMEMBERED SOMEDAY

To the left of Father Felix J. Johnson, my first pastor and
to the right of my parents and in front of my paternal grandparents. 








REMEMBERING ALL THE RELIGIOUS WOMEN

When I was down in Dallas leading the Carmelite Priest and Brother Retreat at the Provincial House of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, I visited the Sisters' cemetery. This stone stood out. Sister Mary Eugenia Potentia (formerly Eugenia Morkowski) died at the age of 105! She had been a nun for 90 years! If anyone deserves heaven, it has to be this woman! A nun for 90 years! Wow!




I couldn't help notice another Sister, Sister Mary Ancilla (formerly Delores Sojka) of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, who died the same year as my first grade teacher and friend, Sister Mary Ancilla Meyer of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. My Sister Mary Ancilla was 93 when she died and was a Sister for 75 years or more.

ALL SAINTS DAY

ALL SAINTS
CELEBRATING PEOPLE OF EVERY TIME, CULTURE AND WAY OF LIFE



The tapistries on the walls of Our Lady of the Angeles Cathedral in Los Angeles, California, picture canonized saints blended in with ordinary people from every time, culture and way of life. It is a stunning depiction of our belief in "the communion of saints" marching through history, a procession in which we will someday be a part. 



CATHEDRAL OF THE ASSUMPTION HOMILY
Feast of All Saints
November 1, 2016

I had a vision of a great multitude which no one could  count,  from every  nation,  race,   people  and tongue. They stood  before  the  throne  (of  God), wearing  white robes…..

REVELATION 7:2-4,9-14

Immediately after we were baptized, we were dressed in a white garment.  When it was placed on us, the priest or deacon addressed us by name, saying these words, “You have become a new creation and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.” 

In our first reading today, St. John gets a glimpse, across many generations to come, of a “great multitude which no one can count, from every nation, race, people and tongue, dressed in white garments, standing before the throne of God.”    Today’s feast reminds us that all people, including you and me, are called to stand before God with that great, uncountable throng of people from every part of the world, from every age!  According to St. John in our second readings, we are God’s adopted children! As children of light, we were called at our baptisms to become saints! Yes, you heard me, we are heaven bound, we are called to become saints!

What is a saint? Most of us have developed our ideas about holiness from a well-intentioned, but narrow, view of canonized saints. In its effort to hold up before us models of holiness, the church has sometimes elevated some saints to the point that they have sometimes become super-human! Some saints come off as life-hating  masochists.  Mostly virgins and celibates, some might admire them, but most people do not see themselves imitating them!  My favorite definition of sanctity comes from Kentucky’s famous  Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. This is the definition of holiness that guides me personally. “Sanctity,” he writes, “is not a matter of being less human, but more human that other men. This implies a greater capacity for concern, for suffering, for understanding, for sympathy, and also for humor, for joy, for appreciation of the good and beautiful things of life.”   This is the same message as the Beatitudes in today’s gospel! To borrow an idea from an old commercial, holiness is about “being all that you can be.”  Holiness, then, is not about being perfect, but about becoming the very best human being we can become: the best spouse, the best parent, the best church member, the best student, the best doctor, the best teacher, the best politician, the best artist, the best social worker or the best priest!

In other words, we become holy, not by mimicking the saints of old, but by answering our own unique calls.  We become holy, not by wearing sandals, a hair shirt and living on bread and water, but by living out our own unique call, not somebody else’s call.  We hear our calls by listening to our hearts.  While it is true that some people in the Bible received their calls in visions and dramatic events, most of us receive our calls in a simple, quiet knowing, the proverbial still, small voice within us.  We do, however, have to shut up long enough for God to get a words in edgewise!  It helps to spend some quality time with God. Most of the time, calls are not shown to us directly, but are mediated through people, symbols, dreams, symptoms, happenstance and synchronicities. We need to recognize that our calls can come in many disguises. Our unfolding as human beings requires that we be in constant dialogue with God who has called us to co-create ourselves, to do something with our lives and to contribute to the world God has given us.   

Someday, after we have done something with our lives, after we have become all we can be, God will call us home to be with him forever. At our funerals, we will be carried into church, one last time. Our bodies will be sprinkled with baptismal water and we will be covered be covered with a large white pall, a huge white baptismal robe.  At the end of our funeral Mass, dressed in that white robe, our funeral Mass our family and friends will commend us to God with these words, “May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come to welcome you and take you to the holy city….May choirs of  angels welcome you…..”  And then, we too will be a saint!  And some day, in the distant future, the church will gather on an All Saints Day like this, to honor us!

 

  

WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY

CATHEDRAL HOMILY

"An Alternate Route"

Rev. Ronald Knott

October 30, 2016

Zacchaeus could not see because of the crowd for he was short in stature.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus who

was about to pass that way.

Luke 19:1-10

It's been a very long time, over forty-six years in fact, since I graduated from the seminary. There is so much I can't remember, but there is one thing that remains vivid in my mind. It was toward the very end.  I forgot who it was, but one of our teachers asked us to present some "pastoral situations" for class discussion - maybe a wedding, funeral or counseling situation. He asked us to write up the "ideal" way we might handle the situation once we were ordained.

After we had all written up our "ideal" approaches to the situations we described, he collected the papers and stood there in the front of class and ripped them up into small pieces and threw them in the garbage.  After that we said to us, "You will hardly ever get to do the "ideal," so let's talk about some alternative approaches."  Man, has that insight ever come in handy over the last 44 years!

Right after ordination I was sent to southern Kentucky as the first Catholic priest to live in Wayne County. I found myself as the pastor of a church with only 7 parishioners (three adults and four children) with $70.00 in the bank. I was not trained to be a missionary. I knew nothing about the "bible belt" as they called that area of the country. I didn't know how to start a church or how to raise money.  It would have been nice if the bishop would have paid my salary and gave me some money for more education, but he said there was no money available. I could have just sat down and waited out my time down there, but I didn't! I remembered my seminary teacher's advice, "If you cannot do the ideal, find an alternative approach."

I asked three Louisville parishes and a Catholic car dealer if they would together pay my salary till I got settled. I then applied to McCormick Presbyterian Seminary in Chicago for a scholarship to study "parish revitalization."   Guess what? The three Louisville parishes and the car dealer agreed to pay my salary for three years and I got a full scholarship from the Presbyterian Church for a Doctor of Ministry degree in "parish revitalization" on two grounds - minority religion and poverty income!

When I came to Louisville in 1983,  I had been named pastor of this Cathedral. The church was almost empty - just 110 registered parishioners and a few visitors.  Very few people knew it, but it was on a list of churches up for possible closure. Some wanted to close it and make one of the nicer suburban churches our cathedral. It was also in very bad physical condition underneath the cosmetic renovation of the 1970s. I was told by the former pastor not to get my hopes up and that nothing could be done because "there weren't any Catholics living downtown" and "the last renovation had drained the archdiocesan coffers."

I could have just sat down and waited out my time here, but I didn't! I remembered my seminary teacher's advice, "If you cannot do the ideal, find an alternative approach."  I realized that there were very few Catholics living downtown and that raising a lot of money from within the diocese would be out of the question so I went for an alternative approach.  For parishioners, I went after the hundreds and hundreds of "fallen away" Catholics, especially those who worked downtown. For money, I asked people of all religions to help us fix up the cathedral so that all religions could use it. Guess what? In fourteen years we grew from 110 members to 2100 members and we raised over $22,000,000 and 67% of that $22,000,000 came from non-Catholics!    

This is why I love that little sawed-off guy in today's gospel, named Zacchaeus! He wanted to get a glimpse of Jesus coming down the road, but he was too short to see above the crowd! He could have said, "Oh, well, maybe next time," but he didn't. He found an alternative. We are told that he "ran ahead" and "climbed a sycamore tree"  along side the road where Jesus would be passing by.  Because of his ingenuity and determination, Zacchaeus not only got to see Jesus,  but because Jesus was able to see Zacchaeus in the tree and because Jesus admired his determination, Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus' house for dinner!

Zacchaeus reminds me of those guys who wanted to get Jesus' attention in another gospel story. Their buddy needed healing. He was crippled. When the door of the house where Jesus was staying was blocked by huge crowds of people, they could have given up and carried him back home. Instead they carried him up on the roof, tore a hole big enough to lower their buddy down, right in front of Jesus! Jesus commended those guys for their determination and healed the crippled man right then and there.    

My friends! We can learn a lot from this little man today! So many of us sabotage great possibilities in our lives by giving up too soon, especially when the door seems blocked to us! Zacchaeus teaches us that when the door is blocked, we should try another door,  maybe an open window, and if that does not work, go through the roof or even dig under the foundation!  Find an alternative route, but never give up without a search!

My friends! Declaring a situation as "impossible" is very convenient. It let's us off the hook and relieves us of the hard work of looking for "alternatives."  Nobody expects us to do the "impossible,"  do they?  Nobody will blame us for doing nothing if we can convince them that "nothing can be done," would they? Instead, learn from Zacchaeus!  Use you imagination, look for alternatives and be resourceful, but do not let go of your dreams too easily!  If you give up too easily or too early, you just might be the one to kill your own dreams and block your own blessings! 

Here is another story that I like to tell. It's about watching TV one day and seeing a young man who had been in a motorcycle wreck and had one of his legs amputated, being interviewed. He had been a great athlete and was eaten up with bitterness about the loss of his leg. It was depressing so I turned the channel. On the other channel was a young man, about the same age, coming dawn the mountains on skis. It wasn't till he got to the end of his run that I noticed that he was a one-legged skier in the Handicapped Olympics!

One young man gave up and the other one got up! The second young man, with one leg, got up and looked for alternatives. Like Zacchaeus, who really wanted to see Jesus, and found a way to overcome his shortness, the second young man found an "alternative" rather than simply "giving up." 

As my hero, Philo T. Farnsworth inventor of television, put it, "Impossible things just take a little longer!"   Here is another one of my favorite quotes. This one is from children's author, Chris Bradford.  "Anyone can give up; it is the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone would expect you to fall apart, now that is true strength." 

Never give up! Don't quit! Just look for an alternate route!