Knights of Columbus
Phillip Dries Assembly 1204
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
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FOURTH DEGREE NEWS FROM YOUR FAITHFUL NAVIGATOR Sir Knights and Ladies: As I write this column we are having a winter storm watch with rain and snow to follow. The sidewalks and streets are very icy! If you’re like me, I’m sure you are ready for SPRING! I don’t have a lot to write about since this is due before our February meeting has taken place. We are in the midst of the Lenten Season and I hope you are using this time for personal prayer and penance. The Fourth Degree Exemplification is April 12th in Oconomowoc. As of now I don’t have any applications. If any Third Degree member is considering advancement to the Fourth Degree I need their application immediately so reservations can be made. If I don’t receive any applications I will not be attending the Exemplification. Please remember our annual Fourth Degree Spaghetti Dinner is March 9th. Please come and join us for this event. If you would like to volunteer to help and have not been called on, please call me and I will make sure to find a job for you. It takes a lot of volunteers to make this a successful event! Please member the family of Jacob Hilpertshauser in your prayers. Jacob recently passed away. Our next meeting is on the Feast Day of St. Joseph, March 19th. Cocktails will be at 6:00 and dinner at 7:00. The menu will be the traditional “Corn beef & Cabbage or a seafood entrée that be determined. THINK SPRING!!! God Bless You! YOUR FAITHFUL NAVIGATOR Richard M Tauferner
4th DEGREE SCHEDULE Mar. 9 Annual Spaghetti Dinner, 3:30 PM KC Hall Mar. 19 Social & Dinner, 6:00 PM, KC Hall Apr. 16 Social & Dinner, 6:00 PM, KC Hall May 21 Social & Dinner, place to be announced Jun. 18 Memorial Mass 5:30 PM Social & Dinner, KC Hall
PRAY FOR OUR TROOPS
March, 2008
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CHAPLAINS MESSAGE
When you read this column
we will be well along on our Lenten journey and Easter will be close at
hand. The joy of lent, as Pope Benedict suggested on Ash Wednesday, is like
the joy of discovering a new friend or perhaps reconnecting with an old
friend. Benedict goes on to say “it might be like talking to a true friend
for there is something very satisfying in connecting with a friend who is
there for us as we are there for them.”
The joy of discovering God,
as a new friend, as an old friend,
or as an abiding friend,
is present during lent because it is a period of time during which we are
invited to turn way from things that are hauntingly busy and consumingly
worldly to that which is more
evenly paced, spiritual and meaningful.
It is in this “slow-down time” that God can be with us and we can be with
God, and like being with a good friend our interaction becomes engaging and
unhurried.
Sometimes lent is a time
when we are choosing- that is we can not quite bring ourselves to seeking
God and seeing Jesus as a loving friend and companion. Blessed Mother Teresa
writes that these struggling times, --“-remaining one half with our worldly
investment and one half with God and just a little with Jesus, -- is not
necessarily a negative situation.” This struggle, she writes: “is very
weighted on the side of choosing God and the companionship of Jesus because
the sufficiency of his grace may well move us to that joyful choice because
Jesus promised us this powerful assistance.”
I am intrigued with some of
the words of Pope John Paul to more graphically depict this choosing:
“following Jesus along the way of
his passion, we see not only Jesus' passion but also his sufferings.” He
goes on to say, in this same meditation, that “in contemplating the
sufferings of Christ we are impelled to open the eyes of our hearts and to
see with our hearts;-- for converting to Christ means receiving a heart of
flesh, a heart sensitive to the passion and the suffering of others." John Paul continues:--“Our God is not a distant God, untouchable in
his blessedness. Our God has a heart, indeed a heart of flesh, for Jesus
became flesh precisely to suffer with us and to be with us in our
sufferings. He became one of us, - to give us a heart of flesh and to awaken
in us a love for those who suffer and for those in need." If we are still on the
fence on Good Friday afternoon, --- perhaps we might listen to Jesus' words
from the cross: “My God my God why have you forsaken me,”-words which
theologians tell us reflect the most painful moment of Jesus’ life. He
accepts this separation form God to take upon himself all our sins which
indeed are just that –doors closed to God. Then on
Easter Sunday we might embrace the words of the Angel to the Holy Women at
the tomb – “He is not here he goes before you”- and then he goes before the
people and he meets the men on the road to Emmaus. -- At their invitation
the risen Jesus goes to their home, breaks bread with them, and they have
their eyes opened and say “were not our hearts burning in the breaking of
the bread.” Then perhaps we can identify with the doubting Thomas as he
pressed his fingers into the wounds
of Jesus’ hands and then places his hand into his side, exclaiming
on his knees :
“My Lord and my God.”
Easter
Blessings, Fr. Mike
Dineen
Chaplain, Knights
of Columbus, Council 722, Our Lady
of the Rosary
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