What’s Most Important

Details: 09 November 2012

Just several days ago, one of the better-known conservative radio talk show hosts who is a convert to the Catholic faith said she was going to pray on her knees before the Blessed Sacrament during the weekend prior to the elections. I was grateful that someone who is nationally known would mention the importance of praying in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Oh, how we need more people to do so.

In 1915, Pope Benedict XV in his Apostolic Constitution entitled Incruentum altaris sacrificium granted all priests the privilege of offering three Masses on All Souls Day- one for the souls in Purgatory, one for a particular intention and another for the intentions of the our Holy Father. As I offered one of these Masses during All Souls Day at our St. Joseph chapel I reflected that just a few years ago this place was a restaurant. Now, instead of people eating regular food, the children of God who are present here are able to eat the Bread of Angels, the food of immortality.

Just recently as many of you are aware, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz blessed and consecrated the St. Francis Center and its St. Francis Chapel in Auburn. Now like our other chapels in Hastings (Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel in our St. John Vianney Center) and in Lincoln (St. Joseph Chapel in the St. Joseph Center), the faithful may not only attend Mass but adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Before long there will be an additional place where the faithful may pray before our Eucharistic King- in the future Chapel of St. Isidore in the St. Isidore Center in Imperial, Nebraska. A lot of work needs to be done before this chapel and center will be ready to be opened some time in the spring of 2013. We already have a beautiful small altar that needs some renovation and a tabernacle that has been refurbished. We need your prayers to complete this very important project. This is one of the four elements of our recent Expanding the Works of Mercy Campaign and we are grateful to bring it to completion.

I cannot tell you how often I see people off the streets, many of whom are not Catholics stop in one of our chapels and comment on how much peace they experience while making a visit. This is one of the reasons I am grateful to Almighty God and to Bishop Bruskewitz for his permission to have a chapel in all of our permanent sites. First, having the Word Made Flesh among us helps us in our work in assisting the many needy individuals and families that come to us in crisis. In addition, it is an aid to those who ‘wander in’ off the streets because it is there that they find the peace that only Jesus can give. Please know that at Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska we will keep all of you in our prayers, while we are praying in our chapels scattered across southern Nebraska.