I would like to begin by asking you a few questions and challenge you to think about your answers.  These questions apply to your own family, and they apply to your parish family:

+ What do you do to take care of the people and the things you care about most?

+ What do you sacrifice daily for them?

+ What is it that keeps you committed?

+ What happens when you spend more money than you make?

+ How can this be corrected?

+ What are the realities of operating in an unbalanced financial condition?

A few months before Fr. Don left St. Anne, the finance ministry spoke at all the Masses and reported the financial shortfall we were experiencing at St. Anne and the fact that we did not have a balanced budget. Cutbacks were talked about and realities were put in front of us. For a small amount of time the parish responded and the weekly giving increased. Since then, we are struggling each month to make our bills. In October of this year, Fr. Bob sent out to every parishioner a detailed letter and Q & A describing the serious issues in front of us. He told you about the prior cutbacks in the music ministry, the challenges with our monthly bills and the effect this may soon have on our ability to serve the greater community through our social outreach, something that truly sets us apart and what Jesus calls us to do. In this letter, there were challenges to each of you to help increase revenue and close the gap.

For years we have been speaking about closing the gap and if we just had a little more from each family we could get there.  The situation in front of us is much more serious than that now.  Today, we are even further from being able to close the gap.  We just don’t bring in enough each month.

Some families are sacrificially generous and for that we are grateful.  Some families just can’t commit any more and we respect that. Some families may be holding back for whatever personal reason they have:  I challenge you to reconsider.

These realities that I would like to share with you that may make some of you run, some of you worry but mostly I hope it makes all of us pray.

St. Anne has a monthly mortgage payment of $37,500 and monthly operating expenses that average $40,000.  Over the years we have had to use our reserves to help pay for these monthly bills.  First, we used the reserves of the old parish center, but those are all depleted now.  With our current operating deficit, we will now have to begin using reserves from the Faith In our Future Fund to carry us through the monthly bills.  The intention of the Faith in Our Future reserves was to help us secure a long-term mortgage.  By taking from these funds we are putting ourselves in jeopardy of securing this loan.  In six months, when we begin to negotiate this new mortgage, we need to have a balanced budget, reserves to fall back on and adequate monthly income.  If we do not, there will not be a bank in town that will give us a loan.  This is the strongest reality in front of us.

Our staff is operating on bare bones. We have cut back the music ministry. We are holding checks and paying bills at the last minute. We are struggling to serve others in our community because we can’t even take care of ourselves right now. We are currently operating in the red. We simply do not have enough funds to cover our expenses.

Fr. Bob, parish council and the finance ministry are taking this situation very seriously and working diligently to resolve these issues and get St Anne on a healthy financial path.  We are looking at new ways to generate money within the parish.  We will continue to re-evaluate and trim the budget wherever possible.  We are committed to this path:  we simply cannot spend more than we take in.

At this time I would like to charge each of you with a few very doable tasks that will help lead us to that balanced budget and healthy financial state we so desperately need.

Please, sign up for ACH automatic giving.  Statistics show that, although families commit to weekly giving, in real life they give on average less than 45 of the 52 weeks each year.  ACH is a great tool which helps us fulfill what we have committed.  There are forms and workers after Mass to help with this. 150 families currently use ACH, our goal is to have 400 families use it, won’t you be one of them?

Please, purchase a minimum of $200 scrip each month. This year our goal is to sell 1.3 million of SCRIP, won’t you help us reach it.

Please pray and consider what your family can better tithe to our church community in knowing that there is so much received from the Lord in return. Set an attainable goal for your family and a minimum amount you will contribute each month.

Please, think and pray about all of this as you prepare to turn in your stewardship form, so that your solid pledge of commitment to our parish will enable us to plan financially and continue to have vibrant ministries to serve our community and the greater community.  If we are true to what we commit, Saint Anne will thrive.

What are you prepared to do for Saint Anne?

During the past twelve years I have watched on many occasions how generous and giving this community can be.  I have watched us first hand raise money for Carters wheelchair, a parishioner we all love and cherish so deeply.  When Fr. Oriol comes to pray with us we give to his ministries with amazing generosity.  When my own family suffered a great loss in the June 19^th 2009 flood, parishioners came to our door unannounced bearing financial gifts for our children and our home.  Most recently, we raised $10,000 for Claire Bevec, our parishioner who will undergo a kidney transplant this month.

We never hesitate to help those in need and we do it without reservation.  I know how hard it is to ask for help for ourselves, but today that is what we need to do.  We now need to help ourselves so we can sustain the giving, hospitable, caring and loving parish we all have grown to be a part of.  We need to get ourselves on a healthy financial path so we can ensure our outreach to the greater community for years to come.  We need to balance our budget and have a sustainable healthy income of $77,500 each month so we can move this parish forward and continue down a path of growth.

God has blessed us with the tools to make this work but it is up to us to do it. Please return your stewardship form, your gifts of time; talent and financial giving are the heartbeat of this parish.  Everyone matters and everyone can make a difference.  We must unite as a parish to make this happen, and focus on our future.

We all came to St. Anne for a reason; we found it to be a different experience, welcoming and one that made us feel like a family.  The only way this church can continue to exist is with the help of EACH of the parishioners – no exceptions. Just as I am asking for your commitment, I commit to you that I will report back with our progress, keep the financials posted in the bulletin, continue to review our budget and most importantly pray for each of you and your families.

Please honor your commitments to St. Anne and please continue to pray for us and with us! As Fr. Bob mentioned in his homily last week – as long as we walk with God, there is no situation that is without hope.

Thank you for your attention.  Together we will continue to make Saint Anne a strong and loving parish family.

Having an education means a great deal. If somebody works a s a cashier they need mental math to know how to correctly calculate a customer’s correct change. A police detective must be educated in problem-solving and critical thinking. A newspaper editor is required to have studied the English language. Education plays a key role in an individual’s life, and it is very important to me.

For most, the word education means, “go to school”.  Technically they are correct. However, education is everywhere. It could mean watching the news and being educated on current events. It could be trying a new food you never thought you might actually enjoy. It could mean listening to Wisconsin Public Radio station’s Ideas Network and hearing people discuss different topics from various perspectives. Even playing with your pet and learning their favorite toy is education. Education is all around us, and a majority of the time, humans do not realize it! A question on the Jeopardy TV show could relate to what a family member learned in school. You have just learned what they are learning about at school! Education offers numerous opportunities. Humans cannot live without it.

Education is a path to success. It allows technology or scientific advances to change our world into a never before imagined place. In the future, my brother, who is disabled with Cerebral Palsy, could be walking instead of sitting in a wheelchair. Someone could invent a device that would help him talk and control his body. Although distant, but within his lifetime, I believe it will happen. One could invest transportation systems that would not pollute and would automatically avoid accidents. We cannot change what has happened in the past, but we can improve our future with education.

Why is education important to me? I wish to become a scientist and professor in the field of veterinary medicine, earning a Masters Degree and doctorate. I hope to discover a cure for animal cancer and other diseases. In order to accomplish this goal, I will have to go through years of education. Knowing about science, mathematics, problem-solving, critical thinking, social skills, and speaking ability would add in pursuing my career. Therefore, by finishing school, keeping good grades and respecting others, I am taking steps to achieve my goal, which is to be educated on how to educate. I know I am smart, and want to share my knowledge. Education is very valuable and important to me.

Education is important to our country. Education has and will continue to advance my life as well. It helps a person achieve goals and understand life. Education is important to society and civilization. It is immensely important to me.

Maria Salerno – Brighton School         

Maria, age 12, won four tickets to the final home game of the Green Bay Packers with her essay.

One of the dangers of being in church as often as I am is that our wacky Christian beliefs all start to make sense. I find myself believing all sorts of things that I wouldn’t let anyone put over on me in the real world. That which people would choke on in everyday speech, they will swallow if they heard it in church first. That’s a blessing for those of us who spend so much time in church.

Kierkegaard said, “Christianity has taken a giant stride into the absurd.” It’s when the absurd starts to sound reasonable that we should begin to worry. “Blessed are the meek.”  “Thou shall not kill.” “Love your enemies.” “Go, sell all you have and give to the poor.” Be honest now. Blessed are the meek? Try being meek tomorrow at work and see how far you get. Meekness is fine for church, but in the real world the meek get to go home early with a pink slip and a pat on the back. Blessed are those who are peacemakers; they shall get done to them what they are loath to do to others. Blessed are the merciful; they shall get it done to them a second time. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; they shall be called fanatics. When you hear the Gospel, not with Sunday-morning ears but with Monday-morning ears, it can sound foolish indeed.

Is the world more like Sunday morning or Monday morning? The first Christians were thought to be drunk with new wine. By the world’s standards of what works, and who is greatest, and what is practical, the Christian faith can look foolish indeed.

In this season of Lent, as the church makes its way with our Lord to the cross, we pause with Paul to mock the world. “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles… the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

One of the earliest examples of crucifixes shows Jesus on the cross with the head of an ass. He, who entered Jerusalem on an ass, died as an apparent failure, outside our definitions of success.

And there was a kind of playful foolishness in Jesus and his teaching. The Kingdom of God is like a man who gave a party and nobody came, so the Lord of the Banquet got mad and invited in all the folk whom you wouldn’t be caught dead with on a Saturday night. And that’s the Kingdom of God.

It wasn’t that Jesus was being unreasonable or crazy, it was that he was exercising a different rationality than that of the world. After one has made a statement like, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself,” then all worldly rationales are thrown into conflict and everything is up for grabs. It becomes funny and foolish.

A certain sort of foolishness is required for any creativity, a playful willingness to roam, to revision, to see odd connections in things. All through Paul’s letters to Corinth, we hear this theme about divine foolishness. Corinthians says, “The word of the cross is foolishness to those whose lives are falling apart, but to those who are being saved, the cross is the very power of God.” We are called to be foolish.

Jesus said: “Someone hits you on one cheek, offer the other cheek for them to hit.” Dumb. Or, “Someone takes your coat, give them all your clothing as well.” Not smart. Or, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Get real. Or, “Your enemy spits in your eye, love them back.” Impossible. You have to be a fool to take that stuff seriously. His teachings are not practical, not reasonable, not sensible.

And then there is God’s grace which is so perplexing. This foolish love from God is all a gift to us. Tell me, what did you do to deserve the rain today? Nothing! The sunshine? Nothing! The snow? Nothing! The sunrise? Nothing! The sunset? Nothing! To be born? Nothing! God’s love is all a gift, a pure gift, like the rain, like the sunshine, like the forgiving love given to the crowd who crucified him on Good Friday. Pure gift. Pure grace.

At the very heart of the Gospel is a foolishness, a divine madness, a cross-like craziness that we are asked to take up.

A popular joke has a child being asked what God’s first name is, and he replies, “Andy.” He gets this name from the hymn In the Garden (“Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me, Andy tells me I am his own…”). From the Lord’s Prayer: “…Give us this steak and jelly bread, and forgive us our mattresses…and lead us not into Penn Station, but deliver us from eagles…”

My favorite joke of this type is particularly apt during lent. “…Gladly, the cross-eyed bear…” (from the 1894 hymn by Frannie Crosby – “Gladly, the cross I’d bear…”)

Foolish, yet somehow appropriate.

(click on picture for animation)

This next thought may seem like a non sequitur, but bear with me. Hanging on the wall in my office at St. Anne’s is a 14^th century music manuscript from an antiphonary (a collection of psalms sung in the church’s liturgies at proscribed times). This text of this particular leaf is of Psalm 137, one of my favorite Psalms. It is a psalm that is used often during Lent, and its musical imagery intrigues me. The text reads, in part: By the rivers of Babylon — there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

I first came in touch with this psalm when I was the musical director in the early 70’s for one of the road companies of the musical Godspell. One of the songs in Godspell is a beautiful setting of Psalm 137, “On the Willows.” 500+ performances and the song still moves me. Maybe it’s because the words resonate with many musician’s feelings of “geek”-ishness or outsider-ness that is conferred by society at large. After all, being a musician for a living is not normal. It’s not a buttoned down “9 to 5” kind of job. So this song of exile seems to resonate with the societal exile that some musicians feel. (This is no longer an issue for me, but I think back to high school. . .) And the captors asking for songs certainly resonates with anyone who has had to play cocktail hour in a piano bar for half-inebriated patrons requesting Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” for the 23^rd time that night.

Back to the manuscript. . .  It is a beautiful example of a 700 year old manuscript. These hand illuminated pages were once bound in a rather large book—large because it originally was placed on a stand with 5 or 6 singers gathered around it and the print had to be large in the dimly lit sanctuaries of 7 centuries ago. It’s easy for me to imagine my musical ancestors sharing this book, singing the 14^th century “hymn of the day.” The thing that fascinates me most is the lower right-hand corner of the page. It is worn away and smudged with dirt from centuries of use. By touching that corner I can grasp a bit of spiritual connection with the hundreds of church musicians who have preceded me. Just as the smudged fingers of generations of New York Times readers connects me with them, so this smudged corner of a centuries old manuscript serves as witness to me on a personal level. Imagine the hundreds of musicians just doing their job, year after year, generation after generation. And I’m connected to them.

It’s like having a personalized “cloud of witnesses” that the writer of Hebrews posits in chapter 12: “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

What a fellowship is that “great cloud of witnesses.”  It is as if they are in the stands of a great arena and we are down on the track. They are cheering us on as we run the race of life. They have all successfully run the race and have received the crown of victory. They now urge us to run with perseverance (an apt metaphor in these days of the Winter Olympics, “the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.”)

There is power in connecting ourselves with this great cloud of witnesses. This dirt-smudged and worn manuscript in my office reminds me that I am not alone as I embark on another Lenten journey. In keeping Lent, a season celebrated by the church since the 4^th century, you and I are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses as we step into this liminal time and space. As you and I step through the threshold of another Lent, we experience a strengthening through the sacred tradition of wandering in the desert and of being transformed in the process. We come to grips with our exile, realizing that we wander in a foreign land, preparing for the trip home.

And it all starts with Ash Wednesday’s smudge of dirt. What may seem like an odd experience, the ashes on our foreheads help us remember what it means to be human, the stuff of “humus=dirt,”  “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” The dust reminds us that we are a people in exile, that this is not our home, that heaven is where we’ll finally be at home.

Lent is a time to clear the plaque from our spiritual arteries, and remembering plays an important part. With the help of past generations of witnesses we can come to a clearer understanding of ourselves in the present. One historian put it this way:  The past is beauty. It is also burden. It is where we go, many of us, to remind ourselves who we are and even sometimes to find out.

And what a beautiful cloud! I remember Miriam who danced and sang, and David who played his harp, beginning the list that continues with Gregory I, Palestrina, Bach, and Handel, right down to Marty Haugen, David Haas and Suzanne Toolan.  With them cheering me on, and with eyes focused on Jesus, I can run the race with the prize of the victor’s crown at its end.

I still hold the verse I received at my confirmation 47 years ago in my heart: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Not always faithful, sometimes stumbling in the race, with dirt-smudged hands, singing the Lord’s song in this foreign land—but the crown is there waiting for me. It’s been promised.

Its funny how contemplating dirty smudges—on fingers, vellum, or forehead—can lead to a clearer understanding of where we stand in our own life journey, a journey we all must walk.

I look forward to the journey this year, surrounded by the community of St. Anne’s. A composer friend of mine, John Angotti, wrote this lyric: 

On a journey together
We can fare any weather
Keeping Christ the center of our community.
On a journey together
We can make the world better
By forgiving and loving starting with you and me.

Makes sense.

 I’d like to invite the women of our parish to attend the 2^nd Annual Women of Christ Conference, Saturday, January 30, 2010, in West Bend, Wisconsin, but first some background…

From a young age, I remember going to Mass every Sunday. I remember Easter and Christmas as the most important seasons of the church, but of course I also experienced these two holidays from a very secular standpoint – lots of gifts and fanfare.

During high school and college, I remember taking my faith for granted. Sadly, I’m not even sure I thought about my faith much during these times because I was too busy having fun.  On occasion, I’d find a way to Mass when I was at college, but more often out of guilt than desire. 

Then, after getting married, my husband and I agreed that our faith would be important to us – our marriage and our family. “Oh, we must baptize our child, if we call ourselves Catholic.”  But it wasn’t until my children started school that I truly started to take an active interest in my Faith.

Only recently, have I come to appreciate the gift of being Catholic. I say gift because it is truly a gift. Last year, I attended the first ever “Women of Christ Conference.”  This conference is an all-day retreat, of sorts, geared toward all Catholic Women of Southeastern Wisconsin.  There were (and will be) inspiring speakers, a lively Mass, awesome music, assortment of reading material to purchase, and importantly, time for self-reflection and prayer.  Last year, more than 2,000 women attended this event.  While this conference has just been one aspect of my faith journey, it has certainly been an important one. Let me share with you the impact this conference has had on my life.

•  Before, I might have attended mass more out obligation, but now I attend Mass with eagerness.  For me, Mass truly comes alive in every sense. I have found The Liturgy of the Word has profoundly spoken to me on many levels in my life. I have also found that Christ truly speaks through Fr. Don. Mark and I have looked at each other on many occasions wondering if Fr. Don had our home wired based on his words of inspiration and guidance.
• Before, I never really took the Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) seriously.  For years, I may have gone once per year, at best. Now, I find this sacrament one in which I can experience immeasurable healing and grace from God. By the same token, I find that when I fall back into a rut – and avoid confession for many months –  life gets a little blurry for me. I might fall into old bad habits – whether it’s negativity at work, impatience at home or simply being less caring or less giving. 
• Over the years, it’s been really difficult to establish routine prayer time. Actually, it still is.  But when I’m in a groove, I find I’m able to “hear” God nudge me to do his work, not mine.  For without prayer, I don’t think I would be participating in (or have an interest in) the various ministries St. Anne has to offer. With routine prayer, I find even the most mundane things in life more enjoyable, and in line with His will.
• Finally, over the years, I’ve never really thought about the Blessed Sacrament – the Holy Eucharist – and all that it is.  Now, I find that each time I receive the Eucharist, I receive a special gift…a gift to be in complete unity with Christ as he planned it. Truly, the feeling I have after communion can almost be described as supernatural. 

 By no means am I suggesting that I’ve “arrived.”  In fact, I feel like such a beginner in my faith with so much more to learn.  But events such as the Women of Christ conference are opportunities to re-awaken us in our faith journey….to give us hope…to be instruments for God’s work.  They are opportunities to truly appreciate the gift bestowed upon us.  And, I might add, these opportunities have allowed the faith community of St. Anne to come alive in my own life. The very things that are stressed in our Parish – peace, charity, justice, stewardship – have more meaning to me today than they might have in year’s past.

God has blessed me abundantly and given me multiple roles as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, and professional, among others. This conference gives me the opportunity to gain greater clarity in these roles, and how I can somehow do His work while I’m on earth. I invite the women of our parish to join me, Margie Mandli along with Chris Pillizzi (Parish Captains for the Conference) at the second annual conference:

Women of Christ Conference

Saturday, January 30, 2010

7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

$40 – Individual

$35 – Groups of five or more

$20 – Students

womenofchrist.net

If you are interested in attending, please call 262-515-6109 (Margie) or 262-945-6039 (Chris) or e-mail us at mmandli@wi.rr.com or nanapillizzi@hotmail.com  Please also feel free to call just to chat and learn more.  We will coordinate group rates through on-line registration.

As some of you already know, our daughter Claire was born with a rare genetic kidney and liver disease. At birth we were told she may only live a few days. She has been through countless doctor visits, surgeries, hospitalizations, endless tests and procedures, medications, reoccurring chronic illnesses, and a lot of poking and probing. And here she is, now 8 ½ years later; and her life has been pretty amazing for only having a few days to live.

But now Claire’s life (and ours) is once again at a crossroads. Her kidney function has continued to decline each year and she’s now nearing end stage renal failure. The extra challenge in all of this is that neither Frank or I, or anyone in our extended family can be a living kidney donor for Claire. None of us share her same blood type of O. So we’ve begun the rather awkward search for a non-related living donor. In my research I’ve been amazed to find that every day, 16 to 18 people die while waiting for a transplant of a vital organ, such as a heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, lung or bone marrow.

 The need for organ donors is astonishing:

• More than 100,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants.
• Every 11 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.
• Experts suggest that each of us could save or help as many as 50 people by being an organ and tissue donor.

 Being an organ donor is a selfless act of altruism in the purest sense. Or, as my friend Kate said, it is the very essence of the Eucharist. This is my body given up for you. It is life giving and life saving. It is being both broken and blessed. It is a gift beyond any measure of gratitude. And it is so much more than sharing a same blood type and doing a friend a favor. It’s the sharing of something deeply emotional, personal and spiritual; a kindred connection, a real calling, an assignment. At this time, we’re blessed to have 3 people who have offered to be a donor for Claire. But even prospective donors will have only a 40-50% chance of actually being a match after further testing and evaluation. So we prayerfully decided to share our story with you, our faith family. And our hope has now become not only to find a kidney donor for Claire, but to inspire everyone to think about the thousands of men, women, and children who, just like Claire, are holding on to hope. Perhaps you’ve never really thought of organ donation. I never did. Or, maybe you have fears that are really just questions in need of answers. The topic of organ donation may not be the most comfortable thing for us to talk about, but it really is a topic about LIFE more than DEATH.

We recently learned about an organization called Donate Life and asked for some brochures to make available  that would further explain organ donation. The woman I spoke to at the regional office told me it just happens to be what they call Donor Sabbath Week. Every November, donation and transplant families across the country speak within their faith communities to share the life-saving and enhancing gifts passed to others through organ donation. They raise awareness of the urgent need for organ and tissue donors and dispel fears about the incompatibility of religion and donation. During this season of “Thanksgiving” it’s a beautiful reflection on all we have been given; and all we have to share. Organ donors not only heal and strengthen their recipients, but families, friends and the larger community in which they live. What better place to spread that message of LIFE than in our own faith community? Nearly every religion in the U.S. supports organ and tissue donation. They regard it as the ultimate act of compassion and generosity. Pope John Paul sums up the position of the Catholic Church in these words:

“The Gospel of life is to be celebrated above all in daily living, which should be filled with self-giving love for others…Over and above such outstanding moments; there is an everyday heroism, made up of gestures of sharing, big and small, which build up an authentic culture of life. A particularly praiseworthy example of such gestures is the donation of organs…to offer a chance of health and even of life itself to the sick who often have no other hope.”

The more we’ve learned about organ donation, the more strongly we felt about sharing our story – not just because our daughter is in need of a kidney, but more importantly because she is one of thousands in need of this gift of life. Surely some of you here today are organ donors and have already declared it on your license or you carry a donor card in your wallet. Maybe some of you are recipients of organ donation – and you would not be here today had you not received such a tremendous gift. Or, maybe you have lost a loved one who was an organ donor, and you have an amazing story to tell about how his/her death gave new life to others in need.

Every year, thousands die because a virtually free gift is too seldom given. Those who die are often bright, young, talented people with years of living ahead….except for organ failure. The gift of life – organ, tissues, and eyes – is one that costs only the decision to give, yet that decision can literally mean life or death of someone in need.  

The situation of our daughter’s kidney failure and transplant is challenging and sad for us to face. But it has also given us the opportunity to share something truly wonderful…even joyful. Every one of her 8 birthdays has been nothing short of a miracle. Everyday events in her life are precious…watching her shoot hoops with her big brother, learning to ride a bike, hitting her first homerun, holding her new baby sister, making her first communion.

And to think that her life will continue because of one person’s decision to be an organ donor…how could I not be joyful and share that message and encourage everyone everywhere to think about how they too can save a life like Claire’s. By sharing our story we may help save the life of someone you love in the future if they are ever in need of an organ transplant…or maybe even your life.

If you feel led to learn more about being a kidney donor for Claire, or would like information on organ donation in general, please contact me.

 Thank you for giving us this opportunity to share our story and please keep our family in your prayers as we make this journey with Claire.

Life is not only worth living.

Life is worth giving.

-Linda, Frank, Frankie, Claire & Grace Bevec

Email: Lbevec@wi.rr.com

To learn more about Auto Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease and Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis: www.arpkdchf.org

To learn more about organ donation: www.donatelife.net

To follow our journey: www.caringbridge.org/visit/clairebevec

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has a policy that priests’ assignments are six-years in length. At one time pastors were assigned for life, but wisdom and experience showed that this practice brought complications and problems for both pastors and congregations. Term limits allow parishes the chance of growing with different pastors and they allow pastors to experience the gifts and talents of new communities. Should they desire it, pastors and congregations are given the opportunity to extend a six-year term to a maximum of twelve years. Father Don will be completing his twelfth year next June and will be assigned to another position in the Archdiocese.

Change can be hard. It is especially difficult to say good bye to Father Don, our leader for the last eleven years and a wonderful example of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. While the news of pastoral rotation comes wrapped in a bittersweet package, we must stand assured that this is indeed the work of God and an opportunity for greater growth and increased faith. This will make Saint Anne a stronger parish, and like every other change at Saint Anne, will be another marker of success for our parish. Saint Anne is known for its unconditional fellowship, unwavering faith, and time tested resiliency. This will be no different. Coming together as a community, praying together, and embracing this process will ensure a smooth transition for everyone.

Changing leadership is a process. There is a Transition Team at Saint Anne working to prepare us for our upcoming pastoral change. As we walk through the necessary steps, we ask for everyone’s prayers. Our team believes that preparation is the key to a smooth transition. Our goal is to keep all parishioners informed as we move through this process. We plan to communicate through all possible channels. Please watch for our communications and talk to us about your concerns.

There is a temptation to see Father Don as an irreplaceable core of Saint Anne. However, as Father Don has constantly and consistently taught, Saint Anne is its members, their faith, their fellowship, and their love for one another. It is our mission, to embrace this pastoral change with confidence and optimism. With the challenge of a pastoral transition before us, we may wonder, “What are we going to do? What role does the parish have in selecting and welcoming a new pastor?” We will continue to pray together, believe in each other, and have faith in the Archdiocese to do what is good for our parish. We will have opportunities to share our vision of a pastor and express who we are as a community of faith.

We will honor the work that Father Don has done here by following his teaching and example of servant leadership.  We will express our gratitude for the gifts he has given us by continuing to be a welcoming parish.  We will welcome our new pastor, who is coming to pray with us, to learn from our experiences, and to walk together with us on our ever-changing journey with Christ.

This is an important year of transition for Saint Anne’s community. Next Spring we will gain a new pastor as Father Don moves on to a new assignment. In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee the assignment of a new pastor is a year-long process.

October 2009 – Father Don submitted notice to the Archdiocese that his 12-year term as pastor would end in June of 2010.

January 2010 – Saint Anne’s will be “open listed”. Priests who are ready to transfer or who might be interested in serving here at Saint Anne are able to request a pastorate through the Priest Personnel Board.

January 2010 – The Archdiocese will send a “Parish Profile” to our Parish Council. They will be asked to provide details about the parish (population, finances, building conditions) and to submit a “picture” of the parish’s priorities, goals, and mission.

February-March 2010 – Members of the Priest Personnel Board will host an open meeting for the parish to listen to our concerns, hopes, and priorities regarding a new pastor. They do not take “requests”. Rather their task is to get a better feel for the community with the aim of making a good “fit” in recommending a new pastor.

April-May 2010 – The new Archbishop, after considering the recommendation of the Priest Personnel Board, will announce a new pastor.

June 13, 2010 – Father Don’s last Sunday as pastor at Saint Anne.

June 20, 2010 – We welcome our new pastor.

The St. Anne Pastoral Transition Team

Manoj Babu manojbabu@sbcglobal.net 308-2049

Ed Duncklee eduncklee@saint-anne.org 694-0026

Judy Hains judy.hains@sbcglobal.net 697-9441

Judy Hutchins gj5hutch@aol.com 496-8474

Sandy Milligan samilligan@wi.rr.com 652-5784

Barbara Scavone bscavone@wi.rr.com 914-2660

Carol Seitz cseitz1@wi.rr.com 694-0541

I am here at the request of the sisters from World Mission Ministries on behalf of the people of La Sagrada Familia, our Archdiocesen sister parish in the Dominican Republic. Last summer my teenage daughter and I took the 2,000 mile journey to spend 8 days with the beautiful people of La Sagrada Familia. Another parish, so worth the effort of traveling those many miles!

While it was difficult to leave my husband and son behind, we soon discovered many blessings in our huge extended human family abroad. Of course, we missed our shower at home. A bucket of non-drinkable water poured over one’s head is marvelously refreshing on a hot day in the Dominican Republic (which is every day in the Dominican Republic). About 25% of the homes in the village where we stayed do not have bathrooms. I am asking for your help today to change that.

There are 22 villages in the parish, which serves 30,000 people, with just two spectacular priests.
Masses in this desert-like province of Azua near the Haitian border are celebrated about once a month in each community as the good priests of our Milwaukee Archdiocese, Fr. Oriol and Fr. Marti, travel from village to village trying to meet the many needs of the poor. Some parishioners there will walk 10 miles to a neighboring village just to experience the miracle of Eucharist more often than once a month.

On Monday of this week I decided to walk 10 miles. I wanted to make real this experience of solidarity with our sister parish of La Sagrada Familia. I wanted to feel in my body, in my legs, this experience of “being” church even as I walked to church buildings. My intention was to pray for the people of La Sagrada Familia as well as the people of the parishes I passed, St. Lucy’s in Racine and St. Sebastian’s in Sturtevant, for those of my own parish at St. Anne’s, and of course for YOU here at St. Roman’s…which I did…but I confess that one’s mind wanders when they’re on a journey that’s sure to take longer than Gilliagan’s “3 Hour Tour”!

I wondered: “Will Jesus be disappointed that I brought along a cell phone and a bottle of vitamin water in lieu of a walking stick and sandals?”

I got distracted by my wet shoes and socks from Sunday night’s rain-water soaking the grass…At least I HAVE shoes, I remember thinking. Most of the children we met in the D.R. were barefoot, but Fr. Oriol sent me a recent picture showing many of the kids wearing matching pink Crocks surely donated by a generous someone here in the states. Maybe YOU…

I was distracted by how noisy Highway 11 was that day – full of traffic and construction noise. That made me think two things: one, that our taxes and stimulous dollars are actually hard at work, and two, boy, there are roads in the D.R. that get washed away in the rains over and over again prohibiting people from getting food, medical care and even the Holy Eucharist! Our stewardship can help with that…yours and mine! Fr. Oriol drives a 4-wheel drive truck that will one day require maintenance to keep him able to get to the people that so desperately need him…that so desperately need YOU!

I passed the Associated Bank on my walk and saw men washing it’s windows, and again thought two things:
one, they are blessed to have jobs, however menial, in this economy, and two, windows! Most homes in the village of Ganadero where we stayed do not have glass windows, nor even screens to keep the bugs out. In fact, one night a cat jumped right on my bed in the middle of the night! I remember our first night in Ganadero an arm came through the whole in the cement that was our “window”. It was our house-mother trying to show us how to open and close the metal blinds for privacy as we got ready for bed. I said in my Sesame Street Spanish, “Oh, abierto, cerado, abierto, cerado…Gracias!” and we all laughed together.

I passed a strip mall with many empty stores on my walk, too. While it is a sad example of our economy’s slump, how much worse it is in the Dominican Republic! The villages do not have stores as we know them. Where we stayed there was one little building about the size of the old FOTOMAT’s that used to dot the streets of Milwaukee. Remember those? It sold individual boxes of cereal and bags of water. Yes, I said “bags”, about the size of a ziplock sandwich bag. You bite off the plastic corner and squirt clean water into your mouth. Pure refreshment! Yet another way for you and I to live today’s Gospel…Perhaps YOU can be the one who gives drink to the thirsty…Please give to this mission appeal, for we are the Body of Christ, so when one of us is thirsty …all of us are thirsty…

As I neared St. Lucy’s on my walk the church bells began to chime, but as I neared St. Sebastian’s dogs were barking. This, too, took me back to Ganadero where many wild dogs, skinny, sickly, flea-infested dogs, wander sadly during the day, and fight madly in the dark. They do not know the hope of the people, the people who smile easily, love deeply and give generously of what little they have to us who visit, and who pray for YOU at every Mass in the D. R.

There are two teenagers from Ganadero, now my friends, who walked to neighboring villages weekly to catechize children and adults before my daughter and I arrived. We celebrated over 100 baptisms while we were there made possible by the witness and the walking done by Ana and Andreina. (Perhaps we should call them Eldad and Medad today !) What joy! What a privilege for us to see this commitment by teenagers to their neighbors! To Christ!

It was thoughts of THEM, thoughts of Ana and Andreina, that got me through the end of my long 10 mile walk. Ahead of me was what seemed like a mountain. Now, you must know that I live in Mount Pleasant and the joke has always been that there are no mountains in Mount Pleasant (unless you count the dump), but sure enough, ahead of me across from the Walmart was what looked like a very steep hill for my very tired legs to climb. I swear I had never noticed it before, not from my car anyway.

Now, of course, by this point in my 10 mile walk my Vitamin Water bottle was empty…and I thought to myself…That’s it! Empty thyself…Like I tell my daughter who runs cross country for St. Catherine’s High School, “Leave it all on the course!” Empty thyself….Less of me…more of Jesus…Empty thyself…because, of course, we’re never really empty, but full, fueled by the Holy Eucharist from the day before I could complete my walk; I could rush home to draft these humble words, with the Holy Spirit’s help, for you fine people…to encourage you to give generously to this Mission Appeal…to live the words of St. James today and not let your “wealth rot away”…Please share with the people of La Sagada Familia…Show them you stand in solidarity with them by your actions from abroad…

Turns out I beat Gilligan afterall – my walk only took 2 hours and 36 minutes!
So I can thank you from the bottom of my gluteous maximus, thigh and calf muscles, too, and most especially I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you will generously share with the people of La Sagrada Familia… Thank you for listening. May God bless you abundantly, and may He help you find the time and energy to take a good, long walk!

As we were preparing to celebrate our first Christmas in our new home, a cold wave with strong winds from the west also joined us for this December feast. We became aware of very cold drafts entering the building and temperature in the upper 20’s and low 30’s above the ceiling tiles. The major initial concern was the fire sprinkler system above the ceiling of the church. Would they freeze up and break? We gathered our architect and construction partners who came quickly, crawled all throughout the building, stuffed new insulation in various places, and drained the water from our fire sprinkler system and replaced it with an “anti-freeze” to protect us from freezing damage. That helped us get through Christmas.

Our partners reviewed the construction documents to attempt to identify where this air could be coming from. They crawled into every corner of the building they could to locate the source of the drafts. There was no quick or easy explanation for these drafts. Our situation was presented at various conferences and groups for “new eyes” to identify the problem and solutions. Over the years a variety of strategies were agreed upon by the architect and the parish to resolve the issue. The architect has spent almost $35,000 to resolve the issue. The parish has purchased materials and provided parishioner labor for other strategies. However the issue was still not completely resolved. The construction partner walked away from the problem and has since gone out of business.

Last summer our architect engaged a consultant who specializes in air-infiltration issues to help resolve our problems. We came up with a new strategy which was tested earlier in the year and found to be successful. This summer contractors completed the work. They found areas in the building where air could easily get in – an inch here or 4 inches there all adds up. We believe the insulation and caulking have finally resolved our problem.

In this last effort we agreed to fix the problem and not look to place blame. We pursued legal action for the construction partner’s builder’s risk insurance but were advised against it for additional costs this would create with no guarantees to recover our legal fees or project costs. Since there was no construction partner at the table to share the financial costs for our problem, I agreed the parish would need to do so.

I can certainly understand anger at the parish having to pay to fix a new building but I have learned that “new” does not guarantee there will be no problems. It can happen with a house, a car, a computer, a stove, or a church.

You may be wondering what the big deal is about some drafts in our building. Well freezing our sprinkling system is one major concern. Another is the use of our natural resources. When cold winter winds come into our building, it calls for heat to be warmed. Our heat also leaves the building and does nothing to raise the outside temperature. It works the same for air-conditioning in the summer. Doing nothing means more than living with a little discomfort. It means wasting our natural resources and the money to pay for them.

How long will it take to “pay back” our investment? That is a great question. We will begin to create a savings column in the bulletin for our gas and electricity costs as a result of the work done this summer. There is never a good time to pay for such unexpected emergencies. This will deplete our savings from the sale of the Parish Center. I ask for your help once again – to make sacrifices in gratitude for the bounty God has given you and us.