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November 2022 Update

Beacons of Light PDF Update August 2022

NEW name / PARISH PATRON Process

As we begin November – the month of saints and souls – I wanted to use this opportunity to begin the final stage of selecting our new parish patron as part of the Beacons of Light process. Part of the process of our parishes merging into a single parish is to determine the new patron for our parish. Many have asked, “why not keep it St. Henry?” It is important to remember that the churches will remain consecrated to their current patrons, but the parish patron will be the name of our new parish territory, and having a new name, something to rally behind for all of our parishioners, is critical as we come together to form a single parish family. Additionally, there are certain rules the Catholic Church has for naming a parish. The name must fit into one of six categories:

  1. A recognized title of the Blessed Trinity
  2. A mystery in the life of Christ, or a title already accepted in the liturgy
  3. The Blessed Mother under a title already accepted in the liturgy
  4. A title of the Holy Spirit already accepted in the liturgy
  5. The name of one of the archangels or a canonized saint

Though St. Henry is a saint, to use this name for our parish title would reference the town or one of our school districts rather than the saint himself. Having a new patron also gives us even more intercessors in Heaven – always a good thing! 

HOW THE NEW PATRON IS CHOSEN

In the Spring, a survey was distributed in which parishioners could offer a Mass schedule for our future, as well as suggestions for our parish patron. This newsletter shares the results of that “saint survey”. There were many good suggestions! I worked with our family council to determine the nominees to put forward for a parish vote. These four patrons, as well as some general information about them, fill the centerfold of this newsletter. Please spend some time reading about these potential patrons, perhaps even doing some research about them yourselves, and, of course, spend time praying before casting your vote, so we can have confidence the patron we select is God’s will. Please return your vote via the collection basket or to the parish office by December 4, and the nominees that receive the top votes will then be submitted to Archbishop Schnurr.

Please continue to pray and trust in all of this; the Lord will bless us as we follow Him through this difficult but hopeful time. May God bless you in the month ahead and may Mother Mary lead you more deeply into the Sacred and Merciful Heart of Jesus. I remain, affectionately yours in Christ,

Fr. Hess

Family Name Options

HOLY FAMILY

FEAST DAY: Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity, or December 30

If we take the Holy Family as our patron, we will consecrate in a special way every family in the parish to its care, and we will claim as our model God’s own family on earth, testifying to our faith that by God’s grace and our cooperation, every Christian home can be a place where God is known, loved, and served with obedience, humility, and devotion.

The family is God’s chosen instrument by which He forms new life on earth and souls destined for Heaven. In His eternal plan, He bestowed upon the family the noble and lofty task of serving as the cradle of faith, life, and love. It is in the Christian home that persons first learn love of God and love of neighbor, in which the whole law of God is summarizes. As St. John Paul II reminded us,

The future of humanity passes by way of the family. It is therefore indispensable and urgent that every person of good will should endeavor to save and foster the values and requirements of the family.

In our parish, family is alive and well, and taking the Holy Family as our patron expresses that we treasure the family and desire it to be more fully placed at God’s service for the spread of the Gospel.

Through God's mysterious design, it was in the Holy Family that the Son of God spent long years of a hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families. It was unique in the world. Its life was passed in anonymity and silence in a little town in Palestine. It underwent trials of poverty, persecution and exile. It glorified God in an incomparably exalted and pure way. And it will not fail to help Christian families-indeed, all the families in the world-to be faithful to their day-to-day duties, to bear the cares and tribulations of life, to be open and generous to the needs of others, and to fulfill with joy the plan of God in their regard (Familiaris Consortio, 86).

Parish invocation with this patron: Holy Family, pray for us!

MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT

FEAST DAY: Corpus Christi Sunday

By the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all; the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith:

Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking. If the Eucharist is the memorial of the Passover of the Lord Jesus, if by our communion at the altar we are filled with every heavenly blessing and grace, then the Eucharist is also an anticipation of the heavenly glory. The Church knows that the Lord comes even now in his Eucharist and that he is there in our midst. However, his presence is veiled. Therefore, we celebrate the Eucharist awaiting the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, asking to share in His glory. On that day we shall see Him, our God, as He is. We shall become like Him and praise Him forever through Christ our Lord.

There is no surer pledge or dearer sign of this great hope in the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells, than the Eucharist. Every time this mystery is celebrated, the work of our redemption is carried on and we break the one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ” (From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1324-1327, 1402-1405)

Because we have no communion either with God or with one another apart from the Eucharist, this reality deeply expresses what is the Lord’s most abiding desire for His people: “That they all may be one” (John 17:21). As we journey towards becoming a single parish family, to claim the Most Blessed Sacrament as the patronal title of our parish expresses our faith in the Eucharist as our source of strength and heavenly aid, where in our Lord provides abundant comfort and spiritual consolation to His people as they continue on their journey to Heaven.

Parish invocation with this patron: Jesus, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, have mercy on us!

MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

FEAST DAY: Monday after Pentecost

Mother of the Church is a title given to Mary in the Roman Catholic Church, as officially declared by Pope Paul VI in 1964. Pope Francis created a feast by this title in order to deepen within us the maternal sense of the Church, and to awaken a renewed sense of Marian piety and devotion. With regard to the title "Mother of the Church", St. John Paul taught that

Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom Christ gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John. Thus, in her new motherhood in the Spirit, Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and every one through the Church. In this sense Mary, Mother of the Church, is also the Church's model. Indeed, as Paul VI hopes and asks, the Church must draw ‘from the Virgin Mother of God the most authentic form of perfect imitation of Christ.’

The faithful first called upon Mary with the title ‘Mother’ to emphasize her personal relationship with each of her children. Later, because of the greater attention paid to the mystery of the Church and to Mary’s relationship to her, the Blessed Virgin began more frequently to be invoked as ‘Mother of the Church’.

While there are countless parishes dedicated to the Blessed Mother under some title, and many in our own archdiocese, the specific title of Mary, Mother of the Church is unique. Claiming this title as our patron would express our desire, in union with the Holy Father, that Mary be better loved as our mother and imitated in the lives of Catholics, so that in imitating her love for Jesus we may grow in that same love, and, like Mary, bear Him into the world through our own lives – the whole goal of being a Christian!

Parish invocation with this patron: Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!

14 HOLY HELPERS

FEAST DAY: August 8th (Old Calendar)

There is only one other parish in the whole United States with this patron, and there are only a few in the whole world! Because of our local, German heritage, as well as the various needs for which these saints are invoked (workers, craftsmen, professionals, domestic animals, various illnesses, mothers, protection in childbirth, etc.), they have a close relationship to the daily lives and concerns of our parishioners. Furthermore, there is a shrine to the 14 Holy Helpers in Bamberg, Germany, which would give us the opportunity to make pilgrimages in the future, both as individuals and as a parish.

The Fourteen Holy Helpers are a group of saints venerated together by Catholics because their intercession is believed to be particularly effective. This group originated in the 14th century in the Rhineland, now modern-day Germany, largely as a result of the Black Death epidemic. The fourteen saints are:

  • St. Agathius, headaches
  • St. Barbara, fever, sudden death, lightning and fire; patroness of builders, artillerymen, and miners
  • St. Blaise, illness of the throat; protection of domestic animals;
  • St. Catherine of Alexandria, sudden death, diseases of the tongue; patron of philosophers, theologians, maidens, female students, preachers, the dying, wheelwrights, mechanics, potters, and artisans who work with wheels; invoked by students, orators, preachers, and lawyers for wise counsel and for eloquence
  • St. Christopher, plague and dangers while traveling;
  • St. Cyriacus, temptation on the death-bed, diseases of the eye, and demonic possession
  • St. Denis, headaches and demonic possession
  • St. Erasmus, intestinal & stomach ailments, for domestic animals, and patron of sailors
  • St. Eustace, family conflict, fire (temporal and eternal), patron of hunters, trappers, and anyone facing trouble
  • St. George, herpetic diseases, invoked for the health of domestic animals, patron of soldiers
  • St. Giles, plague, epilepsy, mental illness, and nightmares, for a good confession, patron of the crippled, beggars, blacksmiths, and breast-feeding mothers
  • St. Margaret of Antioch, backache, for escape from evil spirits, patron of women in childbirth
  • St. Pantaleon, cancer, tuberculosis, for the protection of domestic animals, patron of physicians and midwives
  • St. Vitus, epilepsy, dyskinesias (Tourette's, etc.), lightning, storms, the bites of animals (especially venomous or rabid), for protection of domestic animals.

Parish invocation with this patron: 14 Holy Helpers, pray for us!

FINALIZED MASS Schedule

After review of feedback from parishioners and review of certain logistics,  here is the finalized weekend Mass schedule beginning February 4, 2023.

Baptisms will be moved to Sundays at 12:15 PM following the current rotation.

Saturday:
5:30pm St. Henry

Sunday:
7:00am St. Francis
8:30am St. Henry
*confessions before Mass 7:45-8:15 AM
9:00am St. Bernard
10:30am St. Henry

Parish Family Council Notes: October 10, 2022

  • SA: Ann Hemmelgarn Dave Wuebker
  • SB: Carol Niekamp Adam Stammen
  • SF: Mara Hibner Scott Hartings
  • SH: Ann Stammen Rick Osterholt
  • SW: Kris Meier Mark Dues

Please see the bulletin for contact information.

MASS SCHEDULE:

  • A large portion of discussion was on finalizing the Mass times for February. Feedback from parishioners and logistical reasons led to shifting from the previously proposed schedule.  Council voted and determined the final schedule.

NEW NAME:

  • A major part of the Beacon’s process is choosing a new name for the Family.  All current patron saints will continue to be the patron of each church building.  This  name will be a new title, connecting us as one family.
  • A brief description of the four options for our new name are listed in this flyer.
  • After prayerfully considering these options, parishioners will get to vote mid-November at all the Masses.
  • The top names will be sent to the Archbishop.

OTHER:

  • Designate Buildings & Grounds committee members and Financial Representative (from current finance council).
  • Any questions or concerns parishioners may have may be brought to any family council member to be added to meeting agenda.
  • Meeting overview will be printed in this monthly flyer.

 

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