Pastor Letters

Clem Chowder – 5/19/13

This is an important weekend for the church in Chicago. This is the weekend of the ordination of new priests for the Archdiocese. We congratulate our newly ordained priests and welcome them as they begin their priestly ministry. With each ordination the presence of the Holy Spirit is made manifest in the church. These new priests bring new life and ideas to the church and we are a richer community because of their commitment. We thank the Lord for these new vocations and we continue to pray that he sends more and more workers to the vineyard.

We are privileged to welcome Father Mike Zaniolo to the parish this weekend. Father is the chaplain at O’Hare and Midway chapels. He is celebrating his 25th Anniversary as a priest of Chicago and we are pleased to welcome Father and his family and friends to celebrate this important day. Congratulations Father and Ad Multos Annos.

As a church we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. This is really the beginning of the church as a group of tired and disappointed disciples were infused with the power of the Spirit and began to witness to the power of the name of Jesus. When I was a child my mother taught me a prayer that she said every day and I have continued throughout my life. It was a prayer to the Holy Spirit even though in those days we referred to Him as the Holy Ghost.

“Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth.”

We need that continuous presence of the Spirit in a world that is in need of renewing each and every day. The presence of the Sprit is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus to never leave those He loved alone to face the evils of the world. Jesus was true to that promise and the day that the Advocate became present to the Apostles the community of the church was born.

The Feast Of Pentecost also marks the end of the Easter Season. We will now begin a longer period of Ordinary time in the Church. It is always important to remember that even in ordinary time each and every Sunday is reminder of the gift of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. As we gather for the Eucharist each Sunday we celebrate that gift that the Lord has given to us.

Welcome home to all of our college students who are returning from a year of work and play. We have missed your presence here at the parish and we look forward to seeing all of you and hearing about your year at school. No matter where you travel you are a part of our parish family.

Welcome home also to all of our “snowbirds”. It is great to see all of you looking so well and rested. Thanks for bringing the nice weather back with you. It has been a long winter.

Have a great week. Know that you are loved and live that love. Enjoy the summer. Go Blackhawks!

                                                                                                         Fr. Clem

Clem Chowder 5/12/13

M—MARY OUR MOTHER AND THE  MODEL OF  MOTHERHOOD

O—OUTWARD SIGN OF GOD’S LOVE

T—TENDER LOVING CARE—A MOTHER’S WAY

H—A HEART ALWAYS OPEN TO LOVE

E—EVER PRESENT AND PROTECTIVE

R—RELIABLE—ALWAYS THERE FOR US

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

YOU’RE ALL OF THIS AND MORE.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL AS YOU HAVE BLESSED ALL OF US!

WRITTEN BY FR. CLEM

Clem Chowder 5/5/13

   Welcome to the month of May, the month of Our Lady. The Blessed Mother is such an important part of the faith life of the church. At the cross Jesus gave Mary to us as our mother and she remains our protective and loving mother. May is one of the months that we dedicate to the Blessed Mother and I encourage all of you to do some special prayers to Mary during this month. There are a dedicated group of people who pray the rosary every day before the 8:30 mass. I am sure that they would be happy to have some more participants do this special prayer of Our Lady. At the 11AM mass on Mother’s Day we will crown the Blessed Mother in a simple service. Our First Eucharist class will join in this crowning ceremony. May of course is the time when we honor all mothers and so it is especially important that we honor Mary during this month. I believe that our earthly mothers are an extension of the love that God gave us in the Blessed Mother and she remains our advocate to God. Often Catholics are accused of worshipping the Blessed Mother as if she were a God. Nothing could be further from the truth and nothing would be a bigger insult to the Blessed Mother than to place her above the God that she so faithfully served and His Son to whom she gave birth. Mary was the handmaid of the Lord. Mary’s yes to God’s plan made our salvation possible. She is and will always be our loving Mother. Let us take some time this month to give honor to Our Blessed Mother.

   Congratulations to Father Mannion who last Wednesday May 1 celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. As all of you know Father is recovering from a very serious surgery but he felt well enough to come on Wednesday and concelebrate the mass with me. It was a joy to share this special day with him and the people at the mass were delighted to see him. Father Mannion has devoted his whole life to the service of God and God’s people and we have truly been blessed here at Our Lady of Hope to have shared in some of those fifty years of ministry. Father is progressing well with his treatments and he thanks all of you for your thoughts and prayers but he is not out of the woods yet so keep storming the heavens with those prayers. Some pastors have problems with the old pastor of the parish. I am happy to say that that has never been the case with me. I salute Father Mannion on his 50 years of ministry and I pray that he continues to recover so he can continue to share that ministry with all of us.

    Our deacon couple Jim and Rose Ernst also had an anniversary last week. They celebrated 17 years in the ministry. Those 17 years have been shared with the people of Our Lady of Hope and the countless hours that they have spent in all sorts of ministry especially with the youth of this parish have been a big part of why this is such a good parish. I know that many things work better here and many people are served by the love and gifts of these two fine people. Congratulations and thanks to Jim and Rose even if they are White Sox fans. We all can’t be perfect.

   I just got a call that our Religious Education leader Mary Witt has fallen on her vacation and has broken a hip and will need surgery, I really don’t know details but I am sure that Mary and her family would appreciate your prayers at this time. We will give you more details as we hear.

     Have a great week. Know that you are loved and live that love.

                                                                                                Fr. Clem

Clem Chowder 4-28-13

    Do you remember your First Communion Day? It has been a very long time for me but I can remember details about that day that I can’t remember about what I did yesterday. I can remember what I was wearing and what we had to do and how proud I felt that day. I remember the smiles on my parents’ faces as I walked by them in the line. Must of all I remember how much more I felt that I belonged to the church and how close I felt to the Lord. In my own way I understood how our God fed us with himself and how gifted we were to be able to participate fully in the Eucharist. What I did not know then, that I do know now, is that I was a sign to the rest of the church and a reminder to them of the great gift of Eucharist and how all of us need to be as enthusiastic about its reception as we were on our First Communion Day. This weekend we celebrate First Communion in our parish and I want to congratulate the young people who will receive the sacrament and their families. I want to thank the parents who have cared enough for their children to share their faith with them and help them to prepare for this special day. I want to thank the catechists and sacramental teachers who have aided the parents in their role as teachers of the faith and I want to thank the young people for working so hard to get to this day. The parish is blessed this weekend by all of you and we, like my own parish so long ago are blessed with the special graces that these young people and their families bring to us. First Communion Day is a special day to be a pastor. Thank you for the privilege.

   Our thoughts are with all of you who have sustained damage during the recent flooding. It has been a difficult time and we hope that all of you are beginning to recover. As you can see from the workers, we have sustained some damage to the classrooms downstairs and are in the process of repairing the damage and restoring the building. It may take some time, but it will be done as soon as possible.

   Have a Great Week. Pray for all those who are in trouble because of the weather. Know that you are loved and live that love. Remember that with the love of the Good Shepherd, we have nothing to fear. Take a moment and remember your first experience of Eucharist and give gracious thanks to God for His gift.

                                                                                                                           Fr. Clem

Clem Chowder – 4/21/13

    Happy 4th Sunday of Easter. As we proceed through the Easter Season we are reminded of the goodness of the Lord and Jesus’ constant watchfulness of those who believe in Him and follow Him. In today’s Gospel he reminds those around Him that those who believe, His sheep, will recognize His voice and will respond to Him. This is another way of saying that those who believe in Christ do not have to worry because Christ is always there for us and vigilant over us so that people who we do not recognize cannot harm us. We are Christ’s and that special relationship will allow us to feel the presence and the love of God in our lives. We need to cultivate that relationship through prayer and sacrifice so that we are constantly in the love of the Lord.

    It is a different look outside of Our Lady of Hope these days since the trees that lined our entrance had to be removed due to the Ash Bore disease that had attacked all of them. Some have commented that they like it with the trees down since there is a cleaner view of the building and the area looks more wide open. Some have commented on the need to replace the trees with something since the inviting atrium effect of the trees is gone. There are varied and conflicting ideas about what should be done. We are taking in all of the ideas and have some landscape people coming up with possible plans. As we move along we will keep you informed about what will be done with the areas where the tree were. In the meantime we are contemplating planting flowers in those spaces to prevent people from tripping or slipping by walking through the areas. If you have an opinion, please feel free to voice it.

    If you haven’t noticed the CD’s in our rack have been changed and there are brand new titles available to you. Those of you who have listened to the CD’s have commented on how good most of them are. Stop by and take a look at the new titles and subjects that are being covered. We tend to pack all of our continuing religious education into Advent and Lent. Listening to these CD’s gives us a chance to learn more about our faith during the entire year.

   The tragedy at the Boston Marathon once again tests all of us. We are shocked and disheartened by events like this and we need to once again re-group  and move forward. Our prayers and our sympathies go out to the victims and all those who were injured both physically and psychologically. We need to be in prayerful support of all of them and their families. Once again we ask the question of what else can we do. I still believe that the best way to counter act this violence in our midst is to be people of peace in our homes and with our families. We need to spread the peace of the Easter season to all we come in contact with. We need to create a peaceful environment to stand up against the violence that surrounds us. Boston we are with you and you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Have a Great Week. Pray for Peace. Know that you are loved and live that love.

                                                                                                           Fr. Clem

Clem Chowder – 4/14/13

    The Gospel today is a rather lengthy one which tells a number of stories about Jesus and his Apostles particularly Peter. In the first part of the story we see Peter and the other disciples returning to what they were familiar with, fishing. They had left their boats and their families and had followed Him and now they had seen Him crucified and were trying to deal with the mysterious finding that He had risen from the dead.  Even though they had seen Him they still seemed to be doubtful of His presence and the reality of what had happened. In any case left to their own designs they had returned to what they knew best. Remember Jesus had told them that they were to be fishers of men but they really didn’t know what He meant by that so they returned to being fishermen. Ironically they fail at what they thought they were experts at and they catch no fish. Jesus calls them back to the work that He wants them to do by revealing Himself to them and by sharing with them the bread and fish as He had done when He fed the multitudes. I am sure that this caused them to remember that they were to continue His teaching and feed the poor and the hungry as He had done for them and for others.  Being in the presence of Jesus alters the way that a person reacts to things and lives life. Knowing Christ in an intimate way changes our hearts and calls us to walk a different path. In most of our lives like that of the disciples we follow closely for a time but often we return to our old ways which are more comfortable and familiar.  In those instances we, like the disciples, need to be called back to the way that, Christ has called us to live.

   In the second part of the story we see Jesus confronting Peter and asking Him if he loves Christ. The story tells of three times Jesus asking Peter, Do you love me? and Peter getting angry because he feels he has already shown Christ that he loves Him. Of course, Jesus asks for Peter’s declaration of love three times to counteract the three times that Peter denies that he knows Christ but Peter’s reaction is so much how you and I react to God’s asking us about our love and faith. We feel that we have answered that question and when we meet more and more hardship we want to say to God how much more do I have to do to prove to you that I love you. When our lives seem to be spiraling downward and there are more and more challenges that we must face, we like Peter, want to say How can you ask me for more?

     Jesus’ point of course is that if we love Him we will put those words into action. It is not enough to say that we love God; we need to share that love with others especially the poor and the outcasts.   As Jesus says to Peter if you love me feed my sheep. If we love Him we need to go the extra mile for Christ. We cannot stop and say enough. We need to be open and ready to respond to those in need wherever and whenever we find them. It is not a matter of proving our love of Jesus, it is a matter of truly understanding what it means to love Christ and follow in His footsteps.

    As we continue in the Easter Season let the joy of the Resurrection fill your hearts and the promise of eternal life give you renewed hope and may you continue to answer the Lord’s call to love.

    Have a great week . Know that you are loved and live that love.

                                                                                                               Fr. Clem

Clem Chowder 4/7/13

    Holy Week and Easter are past us now and it was such a wonderful time here at Our Lady Of Hope. I trust that you were able to participate in some of the week’s festivities.    The attendance at the services of the Triduum was fantastic. The only one of the services that was not that well attended was the Tenebrae Service and that is too bad since it is a beautiful time of prayer where both of our choirs adult and children helped us to pray with their beautiful voices. I think that next year we will need to let everyone know how beautiful the Tenebrae is and we may get a few more people. I was just so excited about seeing all the people at the services and I felt good for all of our elect being welcomed into the community. The excitement and enthusiasm that these men and women had during all the preparation and during the ceremony on Holy Saturday was infectious and gave new life to our community. It was great to see so many of you greeting and welcoming them at the reception. A special thanks goes to Mary Witt who coordinated the reception. Once again, the great staff of Our Lady of Hope outdid themselves during this Holy Week and it could never be what it is without the support and hours of service done by the whole staff of the parish. I’m not sure that all of you realize the time and effort that this staff puts into things here. I have been in many parishes where the staff was great but they were hired and that was that when they went home they were home. Our staff is at home when they are here and they give of themselves to make this the wonderful parish it is. Of course, special thanks need to go out to Deacon Jim Ernst who coordinates all of our services and Dr. Fred Grodecki who is married to his piano and organ for the duration of the week. Special thanks have to go out to all the ministries and the members who helped them in any way. I would never attempt to name them all here but I am so grateful to all who ministered in any way to help this be a beautiful and meaningful Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. May God be good to all of you and thank you for making everything so special. May the entire season of Easter be a time for us to rejoice in the living God. These are indeed the days that the Lord has made.

   It is great to have Fr. Mannion back at the rectory. He will continue his recovery here and you may even see him once and again enjoying a walk or stopping in for prayer. He is very grateful for all of your prayers and your kindness and I know that will continue. While we want him to know how great it is to have him back we also need to remember that he has a long recovery from a very long surgery and so we need to give him time to rest and recover. Just remember that while he wants to talk to you and see you there may be times when he needs to rest or wants to be alone. Let all of us respect that and continue to pray for his complete recovery.

   This morning after the 8 AM  Mass I will be going to the Carmelite Monastery across from Maryville to say the annual Mass in honor of Our Lady of Consolation, the patroness of Luxembourg. Her statue is at the monastery and each year we celebrate our Luxembourg heritage by honoring Our Lady. As many of you know, I am proud of my heritage and I want others to know that Luxembourg while small is a great country. I just wanted you to know that I am not away I am praying for all of you. I am asking Our Lady of Consolation to bless our parish and its people. If you are interested in finding out more about Luxembourg just ask and I will be glad to bore you to tears.

 Today is also Divine Mercy Sunday. We cannot live without the merciful love of God and so the church sets aside this Sunday to remind all of us of the merciful presence of Christ in our daily life.

 Have a wonderful Easter Season. It is spring, Baseball is back and all is well.  Hey, this week the Cubs and Sox were both in first place. Can we end the season now? Know that you are loved and live that love.

                                                                                                                                                 Fr. Clem