Dear Brother Knights,

We are amid the holiest time in the Church’s liturgical year. It’s a time where God wants to do great things in us. We know very well that within the season of Lent, we take on greater prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to make room for the Lord to do these great things in us.

We don’t do this alone. Any blessing that we receive in the season of Lent or Easter is us accepting and receiving a grace from God. He will help us have a good Lent and a joyful Easter. We also have the assistance of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We enter into this penitential season together.

I even look at our Knights of Columbus Friday fish fry dinners in this light. Despite our extra sacrifices and giving of alms, the season is not meant to be dull and miserable. But rather, it can be a time of community among fellow Christians and an invitation to those around us. And I thank all that are involved in the fish fry dinners for bringing the community together.

May God bless you and your families with many graces in the holy season of Lent and much rejoicing in the resurrection as we celebrate Easter.

Sincerely in Christ,

Father Nicholas Kipper

Dear Brother Knights,

Across the world, catechumens and candidates are taking instructions in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA). At St. Teresa, we have several men and women taking instructions in the faith. These men and women are inquiring about being baptized and entering into full communion with the Catholic Church.

We should be intentional in praying for those in OCIA. It’s a grace from God that they are attending. OCIA is also a reminder of our need for continued study of the faith with the purpose of knowing Jesus better, so that we may be with him for all eternity.

How blessed we are to know and believe in God’s story of salvation. The ancient Israelites were given a portion of the fullness that God has revealed to us. We receive it in its entirety. When we look at the story told in Sacred Scripture, we get to see the whole plan of God worked out.

Let’s remember to pray for those who are in OCIA during these final months leading to the Easter Vigil. And may their study of the faith remind us of our need to do the same.

Sincerely in Christ,

Father Kipper

Christmas is a time of great wonder. The wonder and majesty of the Incarnation, God made man, draws us in during this holy season. The living God, whom the earth, the galaxies and the entire universe cannot contain lies in a manger as a little baby. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that this great feast is so beloved by all. It reminds us who God is and how tender his love is for us.

We celebrate how God came into the world in the subtlest, most unimaginable, and yet most perfect way. God became a man, but not immediately a full-grown man. He humbled himself to be a little embryo and a little child developing in his mother Mary’s womb. He became a vulnerable infant, completely dependent upon Mary, Joseph, and all those around him. And he did this so that we could become a part of his family.

May the Infant Jesus, who came down to our world to bring us to the family of God, bless you and all your families in the upcoming Christmas season.

Sincerely in Christ,

Father Kipper

Brother Knights,

St. Augustine in his book Confessions recounts the last moments of his mother’s life on earth. His mother, St. Monica, was a devout woman who prayed for the conversion of Augustine, who throughout his youth lived a Godless, debauched life. He, of course, had a great conversion, and became one of the great leaders in the history of the Church.

St. Monica became ill in the year 387 as she was traveling near Rome. She and her family lived in the Roman Empire, but in North Africa—not Rome. Augustine and his brother were with her on her death bed, and his brother mentioned to her that he was hoping that she might make it back to her homeland before she dies.

Augustine said that upon hearing this, “she reproached him with a glance because he had entertained such earthly thoughts.” She said to them, “bury my body wherever you will, let not care of it cause any concern. One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.”

St. Monica, a canonized saint in the Church was asking for nothing else on her deathbed, but prayers. She didn’t focus on pleasures and comforts throughout her life, and she was not about to start at the end.

We just celebrated two important liturgical celebrations in the Church. On the feast of All Saints, we celebrate the life of the Church triumphant—those saints canonized by the Church and those who are not officially canonized, but who, nevertheless, are enjoying eternal bliss with God, and ready to listen to our prayers.

On the feast of all souls, we pray for the Church suffering, those who died in God’s good grace, but await purification so that they can see God face to face. As we think about those who have gone before us, we can’t but help turn our thoughts to our own mortality, our own short time here on earth. We should all strive to reach that noble goal of sanctity, that process of purification and conversion, as Monica did. In doing so we are not just turning towards what is more important but in fact more real.

Father Kipper

Brother Knights,

This month on September 8, we celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When we celebrate a birthday, it is usually a time when we honor the person who has just reached this milestone.

We honor the Blessed Virgin Mary for many reasons. The Blessed Mother was called by God to give a human nature to Jesus. Mary, of course, did not create God, for she is a creature. But she did give birth to Jesus, and human mothers give birth to persons, and so this title is fitting and appropriate, and that is at the heart of what we celebrate here today.

We honor the Blessed Mother beyond her title as Mother of God. It wasn’t by pure luck that she happened to give birth to the savior of the world. We can look as to why God would have chosen Mary as the fitting womb as the first tabernacle, giving shelter to God made man.
As we celebrate in the feast of the Immaculate Conception, we believe that Mary was conceived without Original Sin and lived her life without personal sin.

Because of her goodness, Mary is also the example of the perfect disciple, the perfect Christian. She is called by the angel Gabriel, “full of grace,” and by her cousin “blessed among women.” Why is she “full of grace,” why is she “blessed among women”? Because she does the will of God without hesitation. That’s what disciples of Jesus do.

As we celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s birthday, let us look to her in her example of discipleship, and follow in her footsteps.

May God bless you and your families,

Father Kipper