Celebration of Life vs. Funeral

Celebrating a Funeral Mass

Human Concerns at St. Anthony on the Lake, Our Common Home and Us: Air, Water and Food

By Marty Van Hulle, Principal

Let me begin by saying I am delighted to be your associate pastor. I have been warmly welcomed and certainly invited to join many of you for dinner and great conversation. I am learning about the history and the people of St. Anthony on the Lake Parish. This parish has a rich heritage which has formed the community. Each of you speak about St. Anthony with pride and enthusiasm. All of you pray well thus it is a joy to lead you in prayer. Speaking of prayer, many of you have asked, “Why your devotion to Our Lady of Czestochowa?” I am going to tell you the story. In June of 2003, I was asked by the Vicar of Clergy to consider going to a southside parish called St. Veronica. It was a parish of 800 families with a school. I had been the administrator of St. Teresa in Eagle, Wisconsin and enjoyed that assignment very much. I accepted my new assignment to St. Veronica Parish and began a new journey of my priesthood. St. Veronica was my first pastorate at age 39. At that time, I had dark hair filled with more energy than you could imagine and very naïve of what it meant to be a pastor. When I arrived to the parish my desk was piled high with “stuff” that needed attention. In fact, the secretary handed me a letter stated that I was being summoned to the Archdiocesan Offices because my school of 350 children was being merged with five other schools. This presented some challenges for me. My school was selected to be the place to house the school, and the other pastors and parishes struggled as their schools closed and mine was the one left open. The parish financially was struggling. I had to manage a deficit budget and strengthen relationships with parishioners to create a new direction for the parish. I was completely overwhelmed. My prayer became, “Why have you brought me to this parish and why do I have to go through this situation?” Feeling quite abandoned by God and very wearied, I was down and out. Well friends, God never abandoned me, he heard my plea and quite miraculously his mother was about to step in and assist one of her son’s priests. It was right around this time of the year. It was a Sunday Mass. I had finished communion standing at the altar combining the Body of Christ into one ciborium and moving to the tabernacle, I genuflected, placed the ciborium in the tabernacle and there was a flash of light. I looked up and Our Lady of Czestochowa appeared to me. I didn’t know who she was at that time. Yes, she spoke to me, she said, “Take care, everything will be alright, I want you to dedicate this church in my name.” I didn’t say anything, I was awe struck. I walked to my chair and the server sitting next to me said, “Are you alright?” I said, “Yes, why?” He said, “It looks like you saw a ghost.” I simply didn’t know what to say. I finished Mass but knew something happened. A week had past, I finally had the courage to tell a priest friend of mine about the incident. We both agreed that it was the blessed Mother. He told me to follow her instructions. My question to him was, “Who is she?” All I remember to describe her were the scars on her face. My priest friend told me to contact the Rosary Evangelization Apostolate. I contacted Dick and Terry Boldin who are the leaders of the group. I shared my experience, and they said, “Father you need to follow our Blessed Mother’s instructions and dedicate St. Veronica Parish to our Lady.” I told them I will but who is she? Dick said, “I know of only one image with the Blessed Mothers cheeks bearing scars, Our Lady of Czestochowa.” I immediately began to research who she is and her history. I knew being on the south side of Milwaukee and having a great number of Polish families that people will know who she is and why we are dedicating this church to her. This led to the next step, how does one dedicate a church to our Lady? In June 2004, I spoke to Dick and Terry again and I asked them what I should do to dedicate the parish to our Lady. Dick suggested that a beautiful icon be painted of our Lady. He knew an artist from Poland that could paint this icon. Remember, we were financially in bad shape. I could not ask the parish to buy an icon of our Lady amid a financial crisis and everything else that was happening in the parish. I turned to our Lady and said, “You have asked me to do this, and I am afraid, help me.” Dick called me several days later and told me that he had a donor who wants to remain anonymous. The icon was painted and arrived at the parish in October of 2004. I needed to decide when to dedicate the parish to our Lady. The staff and I agreed to do it on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The staff and I agreed to take one of the side altars and prominently display the icon. We hung the icon a week before the dedication, I had it covered hiding the image until Dec. 8. Dec. 8 arrived, we celebrated the Feast Day and following Mass I spoke of the icon and the revelation that had occurred. I had the beautiful icon uncovered and we all prayed the Hail Mary together as a community. Friends, the community began to grow and flourish. Financially, the parish began to thrive, and I embraced a joy and enthusiasm that I had never had before. The Blessed Mother’s promise was fulfilled, and I feel her presence to this very day. I am a man of great hope knowing that when I’ve dedicated my parishes to our Lady of Czestochowa they thrive and grow and experience joy and enthusiasm because “everything will be alright.” I am an eternal optimist. The projects of the parish will be accomplished and people who visit St. Anthony on the Lake will experience joy. Our Lady bestows love and joy upon our parish. All it takes is a small mustard seed of faith to see that all will be accomplished. Prayer to Our Lady of Czestochowa (This prayer should be said each day upon arising) Holy Mother of Czestochowa, thou art full of grace, goodness, and mercy. I consecrate to thee all my thoughts, words, and actions—my soul and body. I beseech thy blessings and especially prayers for my salvation. Today, I consecrate myself to Thee, Good Mother, totally—with body and soul amid joy and sufferings to obtain for myself and others thy blessings on this earth and eternal life in Heaven. Amen.

For many Catholics, we think of the Church and the priest being present at major moments in our lives. We think of our family bringing us to the Church to be baptized, usually as an infant. We think of the priest being present to witness a marriage and to declare people husband and wife. And we think of the priest being present at the bedside of a dying relative to anoint them and pray for them as they move on to eternal life. These are great images, and yet the final one is not how the Church imagines that process. This is not to say that the Church and the priest do not accompany our families as our loved ones pass, but the anointing ideally should not happen in the last moments, but beforehand. Particularly to help ensure that the priest is able to anoint them, the sacrament should not be delayed to the point of death, and the Church has consistently affirmed this throughout history. The Church explained this Sacrament in detail at the Council of Trent in the 1500s. They declared that “this anointing is to be given to the sick, especially those who … appear to have reached the end of their life,” meaning that this is given to anyone who is sick, with an eye to those approaching the end of their lives. It is later clarified that it “strengthens the soul” in order to “more easily bear the trials and hardships of sickness, more easily resist the temptations of the devil … and sometimes regain bodily health, if this is expedient for the health of the soul.” Someone who is about to pass and go to Christ will not be bearing the sickness anymore; they will often, especially when they are not present mentally, be unable to sin or be tempted; and they will practically never regain bodily health. Therefore, waiting until the point of death for anointing actually rejects what the Sacrament does and deprives the person of grace that they could receive and would help them in their time of weakness. More recently, at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, this idea is stated even more firmly. The Council Fathers write that “anointing of the sick is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death.” They continue: “As soon as any one of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age,” they may receive the Sacrament. The introduction to the Rite of Anointing of the Sick states that someone may be anointed before surgery, or that the elderly may be anointed “if they have become notably weakened even though no serious illness is present.” It includes the instruction that the faithful “should not follow the wrongful practice of delaying the reception of the sacrament.” The Church is clear that people should be anointed earlier in their illness rather than minutes before their final breath.  While it is important to know that this is what the Church teaches us, it amounts to little if we cannot apply it to our lives. The basic application of this is to not wait to ask for your loved ones to be anointed. Particularly in the case of extended illness or the decline of old age, you should ask for anointing as early as reasonable. One concrete example is when one is admitted to the hospital or nursing home. By federal law, hospitals and nursing homes cannot tell us when your loved one has been admitted, you must. In almost all cases, as soon as you are admitted to one of these facilities, you can and should be anointed, and so shouldn’t wait. Especially in the case of the elderly, it is very possible that they will have very limited ability to sin once in a home, and so could be anointed once they enter and then would need only prayers and the Eucharist as Viaticum, as food to strengthen them as they cross into eternal life. So please, for the sake of our priests and your loved ones, as soon as they are admitted to any medical facility, ask for anointing so that you and the priest can arrange a time for them to come and administer the Sacrament. Also, if someone is anticipating a procedure, don’t be afraid to approach the priest before said procedure in order to receive an anointing, and they will gladly anoint you and pray for a successful procedure.

On September 7 I was ordained a deacon. My ordination was a wonderful milestone on a journey of love for me and for my wife Missy. We both believe St. Anthony on the Lake has been an integral part of this journey. Several years ago, through an Alpha program sponsored by the parish, I started to feel and appreciate God's great love for me. That experience awakened a desire in me to share His love with others. Missy and I both became more active in the parish--stewardship, finance council, lectors, and eucharistic ministers. But I still felt a desire to do more. That led us to consider and explore the diaconate. The deacon formation program formally took four years. During that time, so many members of our parish have been supportive and encouraging. The people who attend daily Mass have welcomed me and helped me learn how to lead a liturgical celebration. Fr. Tony has provided unbelievable guidance and support. Vince LaTona has gone out of his way to give me opportunities to serve. I could go on and on. Over the last few years, Missy and I have been overwhelmed by the number of parishioners who have randomly come up to us to encourage us, tell us they support us, and (most importantly) tell us they are praying for us. Those prayers have helped to open us up to God's love for us and His call to continue on the path toward becoming a deacon. I cannot tell you how much those prayers have meant to both of us. Please keep praying for us. I hope your prayers will allow me to serve the people of St. Anthony on the Lake parish in a way that helps each of them to feel my gratitude and God's great love for them. Thank you.

Women of Christ Conference

St. Anthony on the Lake Parishioners Attended the 10th National Eucharistic Congress