Bulletin Article for the Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time (June 23, 2024)

Happy Midsummer.

I don’t know how many weeks in a row I can repeat myself. However, the appropriate thing to say is again, the craziness continues. This coming weekend I will be in Spokane, WA for a wedding of a former FOCUS missionary in Mankato. I will be flying out on Thursday and getting back on Sunday. Father Joe Fogal will have the Masses.

Today, the Gospel reading is Mark’s short version of Jesus calming the storm. I think we can very much relate the feeling of the Apostles in the boat with Jesus. Jesus is asleep in the stern on a cushion when the storm comes up. I don’t know about you, but I need it to be quiet and calm for me to fall asleep. This is why I don’t sleep much in planes or cars. But, yes, Jesus, is asleep as the storm is raging, tossing the boat. The Apostles wake Jesus and say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” How many times have we felt like that in our lives? “Jesus, do you not care that I am perishing?” My life is a train wreck and all my friends have turned against me? Or maybe one of your children has died. Life is full of storms. Jesus may or may not calm the storms. However, we can ask Him to calm our hearts. We can ask Him to give us greater faith, greater trust. Jesus does care, even when it seems like He doesn’t. Cry out to Him with trust and faith. It is not in the calm that our faith grows, but in the storms.

God bless,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (June 16, 2024)

What a blessed summer!

My summer of craziness continues. This coming weekend, June 21-23, I will be leading a retreat for men who are studying to become permanent deacons (like Deacon Bob) and their wives. Speaking of Deacon Bob. Deacon Bob will be baptizing Hazel Jean Mann, daughter of Carter and Bailey Mann, next Saturday, June 22. So please keep them in your prayers.

The funeral for Vi Lange is this coming Thursday, June 20 at 11 AM at St. Mary’s in Caledonia. Please pray for the repose of Vi’s soul.

This weekend we hear Jesus talk about the Kingdom of God. It is amazing when you think about it. Jesus started with just 12 Apostles. In the Gospel, Jesus talks about a mustard seed. It is small, but it grows up to be a big plant. God can supersize our efforts. If we give a little, and it is God’s will, He can make it into something great. Sometimes we can see and know how this happens. Other times, it can seem to happen miraculously. Like in the first parable from today’s Gospel. Jesus talks about the man who scatters seed. He sleeps and rises day after day and the seed sprouts and grows. Now, today, we know a lot more about geotropism, photosynthesis, and other scientific knowledge about the growth of plants. However, there is still a lot of mystery to God’s creation that we still do not know. What an amazing universe our God created. We should be constantly in awe of God and His creation.

I pray you have a blessed week and weekend,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for the Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (June 9, 2024)

People of God,

How are we doing? This week we are having the Summer Bash to support our school from 5-7 PM at Elsie’s. I guess the highlight is the dunk tank. I will be in the dunk tank from 6:40-7:00. There will also be karaoke, walking tacos, and family feud. So please come out and support our school.

Next weekend I will be gone for a wedding in Nebraska. I know. I agree. I have spent way too much time lately in Nebraska. I’ve been told by the locals that it is God’s country. I’m yet to be convinced. Anyways, pray for Jared and Lucy as they begin their life as husband and wife.

Today we celebrate the Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time. The readings this week are some good ones. In the Gospel Jesus talks about blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. He says whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but will be guilty of an everlasting sin. What does this mean? We teach kids and adults all the time that there is no sin that can’t be forgiven. So what is the correct teaching? They both are. There is no sin that Jesus won’t forgive. However, if we, in our own free will, are so obstinate against the mercy and love of God, then God can’t forgiveness. This is not a defect in the infinite power of God, but God honoring our free will. God’s grace, love, and mercy is always available, but we have to be willing to accept it. In some ways you can say that the Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus. And Jesus leads us to the Father. So if we are even closed off to the Holy Spirit, then no mercy and forgiveness can happen. If one dies in this state, then are bound to spend eternity in hell. They will be guilty, as Jesus says, of “an everlasting sin.” However, if we make the slightest turn back to God, He will meet us and extend to us His love, mercy, and forgiveness. God wants to forgive us. He wants us to ask for mercy. But He won’t force us to.

I hope and pray that you have a blessed week,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (June 2, 2024)

Hello from Nebraska,

As I’m typing this bulletin article, I’m still in Nebraska. It has been a great week. We got spend time with the Omaha tribe and the Winnebago tribe. The last few days have offered me opportunities to reflect on the intersection of the evangelization of the truth of Jesus Christ and the cultural heritage of group of people. The truth of Jesus Christ was not always shared in ways that respected the native Americans and their culture. However, it is true that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. This is true for everyone. Ideally everyone would live in the fullness of the truth proclaimed by the Catholic Church. We must constantly strive to find ways to share the truth of Jesus Christ with others while respecting their personhood and their culture.

This weekend we celebrate Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. When people ask me why I’m Catholic, I tell them one of the reasons is because of the Eucharist. I almost left the Catholic Church in college because I was hanging out with some Protestants. In the two and half years I hung out with the Protestants, even though I did a plethora of Bible studies and went over a lot of Scripture, we never went over the Gospel of John, chapter 6, versus 22-71. Verse 54 says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” So if we want to get to heaven, we need to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood. Thankfully we do this under the appearance of bread and wine. The Holy Spirit changes the bread and wine into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus at the consecration during Mass even though the appearance doesn’t change. The substance, the what-ness changes, but the appearance doesn’t change. The fact that Jesus would come to us so humbly, so vulnerably, so intimately, just shows how much He loves us. The Eucharist is the greatest gift we have from God on this side of heaven.

Peace and joy,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (May 26, 2024)

Hello,

I bet you were hoping to get back to just regular Sundays in Ordinary Time. I’m sure this greatly concerns many of you. Okay. Probably not. It is true though that this Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. As I have said many times before, God is love. The Bible says this in 1 John 4:8. The best definition of love is willing the good of the other. In God, God is a community of persons. God the Father completely and perfectly loves the God the Son. God the Son completely and perfectly receives the love of God the Father. God the Son completely and perfectly loves God the Father back. God the Father completely and perfectly receives the love of God the Son. This love exchanged between God the Father and God the Son, that it is the Third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit.

Have a blessed week,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for Pentecost (May 19, 2024)

People of God,

This weekend we celebrate the graduation of our 8th graders. Please keep them in your prayers as they transition to the summer and onto high school. I do realize I’m directionally challenged, but I’m pretty sure I got lost my first day of high school. We also want to thank the eighth graders for all they have added to our school for the last nine years. Their unique personalities will be missed.

A lot of the same can be said for our twelfth graders. This Friday is the graduation ceremony for our high school graduates. Please pray for them as they enter some of the most important years of their lives. I say this as a former college chaplain and as having my own major conversion to Christ during my college years. It is during this time that most people set their values, beliefs, and priorities that they will carry for the rest of their lives. So pray for our young people that they may embrace the love and values of Christ and His Church.

This weekend we are celebrating Pentecost, the event that in some ways started everything. As I have mentioned before, as I tell our Confirmation candidates, Baptism was for them. Baptism infused saving grace into their soul, the stain of Original Sin is wiped away, they became sons and daughters of God the Father, and many other gifts. Confirmation is for everyone else. In Confirmation you are given the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. With these gifts, you are meant to boldly proclaim Jesus Christ and His love to all the world. You are to share the good News of Jesus Christ with others, in season and out of season. At the Pentecost, these frightened men, impelled by the Holy Spirit, became an army for Jesus Christ. They boldly proclaimed the Truth of Jesus Christ to any who would listen. I have been reading the biography of Catherine of Siena. We have access to the same Holy Spirit that the Apostles received 2000 years ago. We too are called to be bold. I cannot go into all of your classes and workplaces. I have the easy job; the easy job to inspire you to live out your relationship with Jesus Christ within the walls of the church. You have the “hard” job of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ out in the world. Now this is’t completely true, but it is largely true. In some ways the Great Commission is even more relevant to you than it is to me. Jesus commands us in Matthew 28, to “go and make disciples of all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Filled with the Holy Spirit, we can do it!

Pax,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for the Ascension (May 12, 2024)

People of God,

Another weekend, another baptism. This week we have Layton Betty Anderson. Layton is the daughter of Ross and Emily. Please keep Layton and her family in your prayers. This weekend we also celebrate our seniors. The reason we have a Baccalaureate Mass is because God should be a part of every major event in our lives. We can think of weddings, funerals, baptisms, even job changes, etc. Graduating from high school is a big deal. Most will move away. They will be making decisions about time and priorities completely on their own. Even though I went to college in the same town that I grew up in, I lived on campus in the dormitory. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but I made the monumental decision to get up on Sunday morning and go to Mass. We pray that our seniors celebrate their accomplishments well and continue to live the moral and values they learned into the next chapter of their life.

This Sunday we celebrate the Ascension. Jesus ascended into heaven. Now we still think in ancient cosmology: that hell is down and heaven in up. However, both are in a dimension outside of the universe. They are real places, but cannot be contained by three dimensions (4 dimensions if you include time, 10 dimensions if you believe in string theory). Jesus ascends so that He can send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. Sometimes it is easy to imagine Jesus coming down and straightening everything out. However, in the Eucharist, through the Holy Spirit we received at our Baptism, Jesus is even more present to us than He was to the people who saw Him on earth 2000 years ago. What a great gift!

May God bless and keep you,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 5, 2024)

Dear People of God,

We are nearing the end of our Easter season. This means that Ascension Thursday is this week. But it is actually not for us. So Ascension Thursday, the recognition that Jesus was assumed with His human body into heaven, is usually (obviously) celebrated on Thursday. However, and maybe you already knew this, the bishops in our area are way nicer than I am. They have moved Ascension Thursday (a Holy Day of Obligation) to the following Sunday. This was less people commit a mortal sin by missing Mass in the middle of the week. Thus there is no Mass scheduled in the cluster this coming Thursday, May 8th. Instead, we will celebrate Jesus ascension into heaven next Sunday, May 11.

The Baptisms keep coming. I love it! It is beautiful when couples say yes to having a child; yes to raising an eternal soul, yes to being co-creators with God in creating human life. Saturday morning we have Sonny Matthew Felten, son of Brad and Anne. On Sunday morning after Mass we have Grace Elizabeth Pholman being Baptized. (What a great Catholic name!) Grace is the daughter of David and Laura. And finally, as I mentioned last week, our 10th graders are being Confirmed at St. John’s in Rochester this Sunday (May 5). So pray heartily for all of these young people and their families. May they receive and utilize the gifts they receive in these Sacraments.

God is love. (1 John 4:8) This is from our second reading today. Another way to think of this is an equal sign: God=love. Love, by its definition and nature requires both a giver and a receiver. In some ways, the giver and the receiver cannot be the same person. Even though we believe in just one God, this is still not a problem. God is a trinity of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is a community of persons. God the Father completely and perfectly loves God the Son. God the Son completely and perfectly receives the love of the Father and completely and perfectly loves the Father back. This exchange of complete and perfect love IS the Holy Spirit. So because God is a community of three Persons, God is a community of love. If God is love and we are made in the image and likeness of God, then our greatest call as a human person is to love and to be loved.

Peace of Christ,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (April 28, 2024)

Dear Sons and Daughters of God,

First we welcome Erick Liam, son of Martin Tzahahua Sanchez and Maricela Tzanahua Salas. Children are always a gift from God. Please keep Erick and his family in your prayers. Also, pray for our 10th graders as they prepare to be Confirmed next Sunday, May 5th at St. John’s in Rochester.

We have some great readings this week. I’ll just touch on the first reading briefly. St. Paul has just been converted. He who had been persecuting Christians was now speaking out boldly for the Good News of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. St. Paul was so effective that the Hellenists wanted to kill him. The Hellenists were those who believed in the Greek gods and the Greek way of life. St. Paul was converting them to Christianity. So the other disciples sent him on to Caesarea and onto Tarsus. It is easy to dwell on the negative, that St. Paul had to leave Jerusalem where there were many souls that needed to hear about Jesus Christ. However, because St. Paul had death threats and had to leave Jerusalem, he would eventually spread the Gospel all over the Mediterranean area. As I have said many times; God is the master of turning bad into good. Sometimes we need to just trust, trust that God will bring good out of our suffering.

Peace of Christ,
Father Vogel

Bulletin Article for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 21, 2024)

Dear Children of God,

Another Sacramental weekend. On Saturday (April 20), James Troendle and Claire Forget were married at St. Mary’s. Pray for them that they may have a strong life-long marriage. We are First Holy Communion at St. Mary’s. What a great gift the Eucharist is. It is the closest we get to God on this side of heaven. Jesus comes to us body, blood, soul, and divinity under the appearance of bread and wine. As Catholics, we believe in the Real Presence. Jesus is really present body, blood, soul, and divinity under the appearance of bread and wine.

The Easter season continues. Peter makes it very clear in our first reading. There is no salvation through anyone else. We can only be saved through Jesus Christ. It is great to be healed of illness here on earth. This may or may not happen to you. However, it is better to be saved, to get to heaven. And this we all have available to us through Jesus Christ. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is what we celebrate during this Easter season.

Jesus Christ has risen, Alleluia!

Father Vogel