L
listeninginMI
Guest
I live and worship in the Saginaw Diocese in Michigan. I went to the Internet to find out a little bit more about our new bishop, Robert Carlson, and stumbled onto a thread from this site. I was distressed by the negative comments made about our late Bishop Ken and the supposed sorry state of the Saginaw Diocese. I am still deeply saddened by his passing and cannot believe that any who listened to one of his homilies, read one of his ‘Little Black Book’ worship aids, or had any contact with him at all could post such comments. I hope those who expressed or read those comments will continue to read on to get to know Bishop Ken a little better.
He was truly a man of God… or I should more correctly say a ‘person’ of God.
He chose to live among the people instead of in a mansion. He did not want physical gifts at birthdays or holidays as he did not need to ‘own’ those kinds of earthly treasures. His favorite hymn was said to be ‘The Servant Song’ which was sung at his funeral liturgy. The first verse of that is:
Brother, let me be your servant.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.
His gifts to us were many and I miss them greatly.
Here’s a sampling of one of the passages in ‘The Little Black Book’ for Lent 2004. These books were written by Bishop Ken to serve as six-minute reflections during daily prayer. I hope it will show you how down to earth Bishop Ken was; how he could make religion really relevant to our times. The passage starts with part of the gospel for the Mass of the day and continues with Bishop Ken’s ‘homily’ about it.
'Jesus said, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” (Mt 25:31-46)
Today’s well-known Gospel passage is from the last of the “great sermons” of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. When the sermon ends, the very next paragraph is the beginning of the Passion Narrative.
This passage isn’t a parable. At the beginning of the passage, Jesus uses the image of a shepherd, but the rest is a straightforward statement telling us how we will be judged.
The most astonishing truth here is that, whatever we do toward the poor, it’s not as if we were doing it to the Lord. We are doing it to him. Jesus is present in the down-and-out, and what we do to them, we are doing to Him.
Through his Incarnation, Jesus has identified himself with all human beings. But he has a special concern for the poor, the weak, the lowly, those who get left out.
It has been said that the Gospel can be summarized on the five fingers of my hand: “You did it to me,”
So what do I do - put more money in the poor box? Well, there’s something that has to come first - something more basic. It’s not simply a question of being nice to people who get left-out. Rather, it’s seeing the Lord in them.
How do I do that? Talk to the Lord about it.’
Bishop Ken truly personified Christ’s teachings in the way he lived his life and worked tirelessly to help others to do the same.
To me, being a Catholic and a Christian is much more about the ‘truth’ of how we live rather than the symbols or rituals used in our worship. It’s about walking the talk, not talking the talk. And that was the essence of Bishop Ken’s approach to worshipping God and helping us to worship more fully with him.
We still have kneelers in our church, but we do have female servers and a female homilist and I thank God that I live in a diocese that has been blessed by such forward-thinking. When I expressed my concern about possibly losing her as a homilist once the Bishop is installed, that homilist answered that she is keeping an open and prayerful mind about the changes that might be coming. I only pray that our new bishop, Robert Carlson, will do the same and listen to ALL the voices of the diocese.
Our music and liturgical director, when she first came from out of state to our parish 15 years ago, said that she came specifically to the Saginaw Diocese because it was known for the Spirit moving amongst us. We worship deeply and truthfully and I only pray that the Spirit will continue to bless us as we come to know our new Bishop and he comes to know us too.
He was truly a man of God… or I should more correctly say a ‘person’ of God.
He chose to live among the people instead of in a mansion. He did not want physical gifts at birthdays or holidays as he did not need to ‘own’ those kinds of earthly treasures. His favorite hymn was said to be ‘The Servant Song’ which was sung at his funeral liturgy. The first verse of that is:
Brother, let me be your servant.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.
His gifts to us were many and I miss them greatly.
Here’s a sampling of one of the passages in ‘The Little Black Book’ for Lent 2004. These books were written by Bishop Ken to serve as six-minute reflections during daily prayer. I hope it will show you how down to earth Bishop Ken was; how he could make religion really relevant to our times. The passage starts with part of the gospel for the Mass of the day and continues with Bishop Ken’s ‘homily’ about it.
'Jesus said, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” (Mt 25:31-46)
Today’s well-known Gospel passage is from the last of the “great sermons” of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. When the sermon ends, the very next paragraph is the beginning of the Passion Narrative.
This passage isn’t a parable. At the beginning of the passage, Jesus uses the image of a shepherd, but the rest is a straightforward statement telling us how we will be judged.
The most astonishing truth here is that, whatever we do toward the poor, it’s not as if we were doing it to the Lord. We are doing it to him. Jesus is present in the down-and-out, and what we do to them, we are doing to Him.
Through his Incarnation, Jesus has identified himself with all human beings. But he has a special concern for the poor, the weak, the lowly, those who get left out.
It has been said that the Gospel can be summarized on the five fingers of my hand: “You did it to me,”
So what do I do - put more money in the poor box? Well, there’s something that has to come first - something more basic. It’s not simply a question of being nice to people who get left-out. Rather, it’s seeing the Lord in them.
How do I do that? Talk to the Lord about it.’
Bishop Ken truly personified Christ’s teachings in the way he lived his life and worked tirelessly to help others to do the same.
To me, being a Catholic and a Christian is much more about the ‘truth’ of how we live rather than the symbols or rituals used in our worship. It’s about walking the talk, not talking the talk. And that was the essence of Bishop Ken’s approach to worshipping God and helping us to worship more fully with him.
We still have kneelers in our church, but we do have female servers and a female homilist and I thank God that I live in a diocese that has been blessed by such forward-thinking. When I expressed my concern about possibly losing her as a homilist once the Bishop is installed, that homilist answered that she is keeping an open and prayerful mind about the changes that might be coming. I only pray that our new bishop, Robert Carlson, will do the same and listen to ALL the voices of the diocese.
Our music and liturgical director, when she first came from out of state to our parish 15 years ago, said that she came specifically to the Saginaw Diocese because it was known for the Spirit moving amongst us. We worship deeply and truthfully and I only pray that the Spirit will continue to bless us as we come to know our new Bishop and he comes to know us too.
