St. Anne Catholic Church

MASS TIMES: Daily Tues-Sat. 7 a.m.; Saturday 5:15 p.m., Sunday 9:15 a.m. & 11:30 a.m.
(262) 942-8300 or (262) 331-0906

“Giving Our All” A Reflection of Sr. Virgina’s Passing by Theresa Setter

Hello my friends,

Last night when I got the shocking news about Sr. Virginia being hit and killed, accidently in a car accident, I was numb. I never had the privilege of having her as one of my teachers at St. Joe’s-(73-77) but I still had a great respect and almost reverence for her as a
person. I knew from all the Sister Virginia stories I have heard during the
years, that she was an excellent teacher and mentor to so many young people. Just last week, I saw her of all places in the hair coloring aisle at Target so I decided not to bother her but now I wish I had.

This weekend, the church begins the first Sunday of Advent and we will hear in Mark’s Gospel Jesus saying to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. No doubt
Sister Virginia was welcomed last night into the loving arms of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ the King.

It’s no coincidence that she passed from this life to eternal life on the feast of the Presentation Of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In a reflection written by Paul Pennick taken from “Living Faith” a daily Catholic devotional, I found yesterday’s Gospel from St. Luke 21:2 very comforting in light of this tragic situation. It’s about Jesus noticing a poor widow putting in two small coins.

The writer goes to say, “The story of the widow and today’s feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary seem somehow related. Here is a poor woman probably alone in the world reaching into her purse for her last two coins. She gave everything, her all to God. And God notices this.

St. Jerome and St. James write that Mary distinguished herself by her piety and her devotion to her studies and service. It is, then no surprise that this exemplary Jewish woman would be chosen to be the Mother of Jesus. When Mary was asked to assume this honor, she of course said, yes. Like the poor widow, Mary, trusted in God and gave her all to him.”

Like the poor widow, Sr. Virginia trusted in God and gave her all to Him. Sister followed in Mary’s example of giving her all to God through her service of teaching and being a wonderful role model of her Catholic faith, to her students at St. Joe’s High School for so many decades. She will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.

My own sister, Susie was at St. Anne’s Parish this weekend and saw Sr. Virginia in the assembly at the 10:15 am Mass.  It’s comforting to know that the last Sunday Gospel Sr. Virginia heard proclaimed was taken from Matthew 25: “Come, you have my Father’s blessing. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.”

May she rest in peace and dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Last but certainly not least, please also keep Jenny and her entire family in your thoughts And prayers during this most difficult and challenging time in the days and weeks ahead.

God bless you all. St. Joe’s has and will always remain such a special part of my life. We are all part of that great big family, the Body of Christ and so feel so connected whether it be in joy or in sorrow.

Love,

Theresa

Class of 77

National Donor Sabbath: A Special Opportunity to Make a Difference by Linda Bevec

For more than 12 years, the month of November has held special significance in the world of organ donation – it’s National Donor Sabbath. National Donor Sabbath is celebrated each November when leaders of all major faiths and denominations are invited to join together with organ donor and recipient families, donation organizations and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to bring attention to the precious gift of organ donation. It’s a time to spread the message of hope and healing to those in the faith community and make a difference for the more than 108,000 people waiting and for life-saving transplants by informing others on how to register to become organ donors.

Many life-threatening diseases have treatments, cures or can be managed with lifestyle changes, medication or surgery. But organ failure has no cure. Every day 20 people die from the lack of available organs for transplant and every 10 minutes another man, woman or child is added to the national organ transplant waiting list. Only one real hope exists for them and that is through the gift of donation and transplantation. Life is the greatest gift we’ve all been given. And it is also a gift that we are called to treasure, care for and save when at all possible. All of life is God’s, and deserves the chance to triumph over death; the unborn, the terminally ill, the impoverished, the elderly, the incarcerated. We live in a culture where life is not entirely valued; where the sanctity of human life is often so trivialized. I never thought of organ donation as being part of the pro-life message, but it is. It’s a powerful and faith-filled message of building up the culture of life and preserving the sanctity of all life when you consider the gift of organ donation and giving of oneself for the sake of another.

Our daughter Claire celebrated her 10th birthday two and a half months after her kidney transplant. And on her birthday this year she told me how lucky she feels to now have two birthdays – the day she was born, which is March 16, 2001, and the day she was given new life on December 31, 2010 thanks to the gift of a healthy kidney from our friend Jeff. I don’t think she was just hinting for more gifts, cake and ice cream. I think she knows far better than we ever could what it really means to be given that gift of life, a second time. God gave us all life, and He continues to show us the importance of human life by also giving us the ability to share it and save it whenever possible. Just think about the gift of a surgeon’s hands holding a human heart, a kidney or a liver and placing it into the body of someone who is sick and suffering. And then watching that organ restore and give new life; it’s an everyday miracle and testament to the sanctity of all life and we know the Lord has his hand in each and every one of those situations. That’s how precious life is to our Lord…so precious that He’s given us the ability to save it, protect it, share it and rejoice in it through organ donation.

If you’d like to learn more about organ donation please visit www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov to read some of the many stories and facts on how organ donation saves lives. You can also register at either site to be an organ donor in the state of Wisconsin. Next week I’ll also have a table of organ donation materials available after each Mass and will be available to answer some of the most common questions or concerns people have about becoming an organ donor. In the Catholic Church, like all other major religions, organ and tissue donation is considered to be an act of great charity and love. The Vatican supports it as building up the culture of life and preserving the sanctity of what God has created. Here’s was Pope John Paul II said about organ donation.

“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 or small, which build up an authentic culture of life. A particularly praiseworthy example of such gestures is the donation of organs, performed in an ethically acceptable manner, with a view to offering a chance of health and even of life itself to the sick who sometimes have no other hope.”

Please consider sharing your gift of life by registering as an organ donor today.

Goodness in Mass Intentions by Margie Mandli

Recently, I learned that my former boss was placed in Hospice Care. As background, she was a corporate officer at a major health care company with more than 30 years of experience in sales and marketing – a manager of many, and mentor, to be sure.  Many of us knew very little of her private life, except that she was happily married, and mother to a 15 year old son. She lit up talking about her son, Jake, and made sure to give him every opportunity in life, including an opportunity to be an exchange student in Mexico when he was about 12 (that’s a topic for a different day).

Sue had been battling a fight with breast cancer for about five years – a cross she carried ever so gracefully. In those years, she never complained about her lot in life. In fact, she wanted nobody to know about her cancer. Secretly, we all knew she was suffering. But I was always amazed at her poise, her beauty and grace during this time. She wore wigs.  Beautiful wigs. Wigs that not only looked natural but accentuated her classic beauty.  She smiled and laughed often. She enjoyed idle chit chat with employees in the hallway, as if all was good.

From my viewpoint, she could be best described as self-aware yet self-assured; humble yet strong; a peacemaker, to be sure…full of goodness. She never really wanted to fight the corporate battles that sometimes, unfortunately exist.  She just wanted to do what was right for the company in the most collaborative and polite way.  She never wanted to hurt anyone’s feelings – traits that often go unnoticed in Corporate America.

When I received the call that she was placed in Hospice, I was shocked.  I really shouldn’t have been surprised, but given her history and the manner in which she carried herself, no one really thought about this time to come.  But, the cancer hit fast and hard. Something came over me to have a Mass said for her.  It was Wednesday. So, I called the Parish office to have Mass said for her on Thursday evening.  But then, I thought, “Why do we do this as Catholics?”   I knew intuitively having a Mass said for someone was a good thing, but I wasn’t sure why.  So, as of late, anytime the word “why” enters my head, I Google it.  I was exhilarated to find an article on the power of Mass intentions.  Did you know for example, that some people have Masses said for their living family members…on their birthdays?  Most often, we see Masses intentions for deceased.

Well sadly, Sue passed away on Thursday morning.  God rest her soul.  Truthfully, I had no idea what her relationship with our Lord was.  That was between her and Him.  But, now the Mass was going to be said for her deceased soul. The article was not only timely but full of beauty – it revealed the sheer gift we have as Catholics in the ability to have Masses said for others.  I pondered, “Why don’t I do this more often?!”  Here’s an excerpt of this article:

“One must never forget the infinite graces that flow from the Sacrifice of the Mass which benefit one’s soul. Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical “Mirae caritatis” (1902) beautifully elaborated this point and emphasized the connection between the communion of saints with the Mass: ‘The grace of mutual love among the living, strengthened and increased by the sacrament of the Eucharist, flows, especially by virtue of the Sacrifice [of the Mass], to all who belong to the communion of saints. For the communion of saints is simply … the mutual sharing of help, atonement, prayers and benefits among the faithful, those already in the heavenly fatherland, those consigned to the purifying fire, and those still making their pilgrim way here on earth. These all form one city, whose head is Christ, and whose vital principle is love. Faith teaches that although the august Sacrifice can be offered to God alone, it can nevertheless be celebrated in honor of the saints now reigning in Heaven with God, who has crowned them, to obtain their intercession for us, and also, according to apostolic tradition, to wash away the stains of those brethren who died in the Lord but without yet being wholly purified.’”

To paraphrase this excerpt, it’s as if millions of saints and angels descend upon the altar uniting heaven and earth, carrying up the individual for whom the Mass is being said to Christ himself – praying with the greatest of power to be merciful on her soul and to lift her up to heaven!  Truthfully, the article gave me goose bumps as I read it, and once again I thanked the good Lord for this mystery and gift.  (Here’s a link to the full article): http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0812.html)

That Thursday evening, the Mass was exceptionally powerful for me. I wept like a baby during the homily, the offertory, the consecration, and while receiving the Holy Eucharist.  Yes, because I was thinking of Sue.  But, I believe the Spirit was alive in me – making the connections, helping me understand just how powerful this Mass intention really was.  It was an interior feeling…so difficult to put in words.

The morning Sue passed, I described to a friend that Sue was full of “goodness” – a word I’ve used only a few times in my life.  During the homily later that day, Fr. Bob was referring to the Gospel and discussing how when people live on this earth they choose their destiny, i.e., heaven, by the “goodness” they show to others.  In my mind, it was God affirming this Mass intention. An affirmation that will have a lasting effect. Do you need a Mass said for someone? I highly recommend it – there’s goodness in it. Call the Parish office for details.

Rare Beauty by Linda Bevec

Sage advice tells us “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” This age old “duck test” is a humorous form of inductive reasoning… a kind of reasoning that allows for the possibility that the conclusion is false even when all of the premises are true. In the world of medicine, clinicians learn that common diseases are common. However, sometimes, the rare diagnosis can actually be the right one.
Our family recently took a trip to Washington DC. Not so much for vacation and sightseeing, but for participation in a clinical research study at the National Institutes of Health Rare Diseases Program. We’ve been in the study for 7 years to hopefully be of some value to a small dedicated group of doctors and researchers who are seeking to better understand the rare genetic kidney and liver disease our daughter was born with. Each year we spend 5 days in the clinic shuffling her up and down elevators and long hallways to complete a marathon of tests, blood draws, exams and procedures.
At the end of the week we sit in a cramped conference room with members of the research team to review all test results and begin an in-depth discussion of polycystic kidneys, enlarged spleens, fibrous livers, abnormal bile ducts, portal hypertension and their overall clinical findings on the progression of our daughter’s rare disease. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “rare” in conversations over the years while talking to doctors or describing to family and friends the many clinical manifestations this awful disease can take and variety of eventual outcomes we have to look forward to. And in all of these situations “rare” is a word that has left me feeling somewhat unlucky; kind of like getting the short straw in a draw or being the last kid picked in the line-up for a game of kickball at recess. As if having any serious disease isn’t bad enough, but throw in the word “rare” and it sort of makes you feel like the one person out of a million to be struck by lightning each year.
But I’ve come to think of rare in slightly different ways. Like most words in the dictionary, rare has many definitions:
1. infrequently occurring; uncommon. Yes, our daughter’s disease is infrequent, occurring just 1:30,000 births per year. But I recently learned that rare diseases are actually quite common. There are 7,000 rare diseases that have been identified in the United States alone. We met a little girl at the research clinic years ago with a rare disease that affected her ability to grow and her bones were as brittle as chalk. She was confined to a wheel chair and often in great pain; but she had a smile that could light up the room. That is uncommon and rare.
2. Excellent, extraordinary; like a rare sense of humor. What child isn’t extraordinary? Each one is wonderfully formed by our Maker and unique like snowflakes. In our family alone we have green eyes, brown eyes, curly hair, straight hair, a lefty, and one with dimples. Heck, we even have one that likes brussel sprouts and we all know how rare that is!
3. Thin in density; rarefied; like rare air. If something is thin in density it is likely light and ethereal…perhaps even enlightening. Catching a glimpse of the silver lining in a newborn’s diagnosis of a rare and possibly deadly disease is perhaps enlightening. That one has taken me several years to get to, but the silver lining is most certainly there and I now see it every morning when she comes downstairs and greets me with her still, sleepy green eyes.

4. Cooked a short time to retain all the juice and redness. This is my husband’s favorite because he enjoys a good steak that is nearly burnt on the outside but bloody rare in the middle. And some would surely say it’s not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years. So whether it’s a steak quickly seared to perfection or an abundantly lived life tragically cut short perhaps there is a feeling of gratitude when you’ve been blessed with something truly rare. There are rare gemstones, rare coins, and rare birds.

I think a true friend is rare. And especially true love. I once saw a double rainbow on a roadside in rural Indiana and that was rare. So I asked my daughter today what she thinks of when she hears the word rare.  “I think of wildflowers, bald eagles, seeing a grizzly bear and finding blue sea glass on the beach.” Maybe we don’t often find rare things because we’re just so accustomed to not really seeing them with our eyes. Maybe rare things are actually quite common after all and we need to see them more with our hearts. So next time you see something that looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, be sure to take another look and it just might be an American Coot which is not a duck at all. And quite rare at that. 

St. Anne Catholic Church
9091 Prairie Ridge Blvd.
Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158
(262) 942-8300 or (262) 331-0906

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