It was February 10, 1970 when Bishop David M. Maloney canonically established our parish of St. Paul’s.  We are in the 40th anniversary year of the establishment of our parish!  Last summer, Fr. Eric Weldon began to update that recreation area of the basement which turned out great.  And so, we are going ahead with some additional updating, such as: fresh coat of paint in the Christopher room and the basement, reorganizing storage space and moving furniture around to change it up a bit, and painting the stair-well.  You’ll notice the stenciling in the Christopher Room and the large chapel.  All of these things are ways we can give our parish facility a cost-effective updating.  And in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of St. Paul’s Parish, as you walk in the front doors you will see a new picture of St. Paul.  It is only appropriate that St. Paul would be front and center in his own church.  To the left of St. Paul a picture I found in the basement of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the right our pictures of the Pope and Bishop.  This depiction of St. Paul displayed in the center of the entryway is quite famous.  It is a picture of an icon written (they refer to the making of icons as “writing” because it is a spiritual process) by Andrei Rublev, a famous Russian iconographer.  This image of St. Paul is around 6 centuries old.  We have a wonderful parish, and it is not the building that is most important but the people that will use it.  This is a great time in the history of our parish and we have to work hard to maintain the beauty and purpose of this place.  The actual amount that we need each week to do that (without the diocesan subsidy) is $4,058.38.  As I said last week, we have a lot of work to do, but we will do it together.  God bless you.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. John N. Hay

Dear Parishioners and Students,

First, I just want to thank everyone in the parish for making me feel welcome and at home.  I already feel like this is my new home!  A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, which is the Patronal feast day of our parish.  I want to express my gratitude to all the parishioners and students who worked hard to make that day a beautiful celebration.

Also, I want to put a plug in for our recently re-stocked Lighthouse CD menu in the vestibule of the Church.  In the last few months I have listened to several different productions from Lighthouse and I can personally attest to the value and quality of their content.  Lighthouse is committed to putting out excellent materials for on-going faith formation of adults and really for the whole family.  I would encourage you to take a look through the different options available and trade them around among yourselves.  These CDs are great for drives to work and back home or when you’re just driving around running errands.

Consider a few of you trading CD’s around, so you can listen to them all over time.  The parish pays around $2 per CD so if you are able to make a little donation for them, please consider doing so, and if you cannot, don’t worry about it, I think the benefit from these catechetical tools is too important for a price!  We’ll make sure to keep it stocked with fresh titles, here are the most recent acquisitions:

God

When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

Why Go To Mass

The Healing Power of Confession

The Joy of Stewardship

Blessed Pier Giorgio

A Call to Joy

Defeating Satan’s Deadly Weapon Against Men

Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues

15 Things to Do in the Midst of Suffering

God bless you.  In Christ’s Love,

Fr. John N. Hay

Greetings WYD Pilgrims and Potential Pilgrims,

I am pleased to announce that our KS2WYD Incentives giveaway was a huge success! We have 30+ pilgrims who will be making the journey so far to Madrid. Congratulations on your decision to join the Holy Father and the million+ pilgrims from around the world. If you have not yet signed up or you are still thinking about it you still have plenty of time.

A special congrats goes out to the winners of our $2,000 in incentives giveaway.  Our 2 - $100 winners are Samantha Goevert of Church of the Magdalen in Wichita and Jay Wessel of the Immaculate Conception in Leoville. Our 2 - $300 winners are Chelsea Chavez of St. Paul/Newman Center in Wichita and Marian Crook of Blessed Sacrament in Wichita. Our grand prize winners of $600 are Paul Lievens of St. Thomas Aquinas in Wichita and Karen Vishnefske of St. Michael in Mulvane. Be on the lookout for another incentives opportunity coming this fall.

Every month leading up to August of 2011 a KS2WYD eCommunications will be sent out. This is eCommunication is to prepare those pilgrims going to Madrid with the tools they will need ranging from Spiritual Preparation to the History of WYD and the sights we will be seeing to “what will I need to bring?” The eCommunication also serves to keep those unable to go, with up-to-date information in hopes of keeping the pilgrims in thoughts and prayers.

Spiritual Preparation

As we begin to prepare for World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain, the first thing to always keep in mind, is that it is not a vacation. It is a PILGRIMAGE! A pilgrimage is a spiritual journey to a holy place, and therefore requires spiritual preparation. Yes, it is important that we are prepared by having enough clothes and gear for the journey, but it is infinitely more important that our souls are spiritually prepared for the journey, because the goal of the WYD pilgrimage is to renew and deepen our faith in Jesus Christ. In the months ahead, this section of the newsletter will offer you tips on how to allow God to spiritually prepare you for the upcoming WYD pilgrimage … so what should I work on this month???

DAILY PRAYER – Spending time with God each day in prayer is the foundation of our spiritual life! Just as you need to spend time with and talk with your friends to have a friendship, so prayer is necessary to have a friendship with God. Each day, we should set aside time, taking a break from our iPods and cell phones, to talk to God, the one who is most important in our life. How long should one spend in prayer? A minimum of 15 minutes a day is a good rule of thumb. What do I do during prayer? Prayer is simply talking to God and listening to His voice speaking to you in silence. Tell Him about everything going on in your life: how your day has been, your family and friends, your struggles and desires. Ask Him for His guidance and help. Ask Him for forgiveness of your sins, and pray for people who are sick or who are in need. Simply put, prayer is speaking to God as a friend!

When Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States in 2008, he met with a large group of youth and he talked to them about prayer: “What matters most is that you develop your personal relationship with god. That relationship is expressed in prayer. God by his very nature speaks, hears, and replies. Indeed, Saint Paul reminds us: we can and should ‘pray constantly’ (1 Thess 5:17) Far from turning in on ourselves or withdrawing from the ups and downs of life, by praying we turn towards God and through him to each other, including the marginalized and those following ways other than God’s path (cf. Spe Salvi, 33). As the saints teach us so vividly, prayers becomes hope in action. Christ was their constant companion, with whom they conversed at every step of their journey for others” (Meeting with Young People and Seminarians, Yonkers, New York, 19 April 2008).

Il Papa

Pope Benedict XVI was born in Marktl am Inn (Bavaria, or southern Germany) on April 16, 1927, which was Holy Saturday.

He was baptized on the same day in the new Easter water.

Next Edition

What is the history of World Youth Day?

More tips for Spiritual Preparation.

Dear Parishioners and Students,

St. Paul writes: “God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7.  This does not just refer to a gift of treasure, but a gift of self--living an other-centered life.  A beautiful quote of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “Unless life is lived for others, it is not worthwhile.”  Living a life of stewardship, a life of self-giving, a life of service is really the only thing that can bring true peace and joy into our souls.  Why?  Because it is the path that Jesus walked and when we follow His footsteps of self-donation then we bring His life into our own!  When I travel to other dioceses around the country, people are literally floored by what has been accomplished in the Diocese of Wichita through the stewardship way of life.  They cannot imagine a Catholic education made possible for every Catholic young person--EVEN if they cannot afford it.  The diocese of Wichita is blessed beyond imagining with Catholics who love and live their faith, vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and a vibrant Catholic community.  There is only one explanation for this kind of success: lives lived for others.  Here at our own parish, we will be coming up with stewardship opportunities for parishioners and students in the coming months.  As many other parishes around the diocese operate a school as their apostolate or work of charity, our parish of St. Paul’s operates a Newman Center for college students.  For many of these students, St. Paul’s Parish is a refuge from the stormy world of university life and is a place where these young Catholics can come together in faith and community to support one another.  This ministry that our parish does is so vital today!  It is not easy for young people to live their faith today when it is attacked by everyone on the outside.  I beg you to help me to bring stewardship to our parish in a new and deep way so that we can provide this vital service to the youth of our Church, no doubt they are the future!  Please support our Parish by your gifts of time, talent and treasure, the gift of self.  St. Paul, Pray for us!

St. Paul writes in the fifth chapter of his letter to the Galations: “For freedom, Christ has set us free.”  America is proudly the “land of the free” and it is our protection of freedom that affords us so many possibilities.  There is a serious distinction that needs to be made between the Christian understanding of freedom and the way many in the post-modern era define freedom.  A common post-modern definition of freedom is: “I can do what I want, when I want, and how I want.”  Because the human person is free, the human person is a moral subject, he or she can either choose good or evil.

“Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1731).  Christianity defines freedom as freedom for, I am free to choose the good.  St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions: “You have made us for Thyself, O Lord.”  When we make choices that lead us away from God we become less free.  In a very real sense, choices that take us away from God makes us into slaves (a slavery to sin).  When we choose the good we become more free because we are acting in accord with the way God made us.  Our actions either help to conform us to the good or not, and the more we choose the good, the more free we become.  St. Paul writes a little further on in the same chapter: “...do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.”  With freedom comes responsibility: to use this God-given gift in the right way.  The post-modern application of freedom is not freedom but oppression; it does not bring peace but chaos, and the consequences of freedom used in this way are unfortunate.  God does not take away freedom, He is the giver of the gift itself.  “The grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart. On the contrary, as Christian experience attests especially in prayer, the more docile we are to the promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence during trials, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the outer world.”  (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1742).  As we prepare to celebrate our nations independence from oppression, let us pray also for a true understanding of freedom for all people that leads to fulfillment and joy.

In Christ’s Love,

Fr. John N. Hay