Thursday, 01 July 2010 00:00

Seminarian snapshot
Seminarian: Andrew Dellasega
School attended last year: St. Mary Colgan, Pittsburg
Next year will begin: 1st College, Conception Seminary
Parish: Our Lady of Lourdes, Pittsburg
Parents: Douglas and Julie Dellasega

By Heather Welch

Andrew Dellasega said he has spent a lot of time in prayer discerning a possible calling to the diocesan priesthood. “I entered the seminary to further discern this call if it is what God wants of me and of my life,” he said. No single person or event inspired him to discern a vocation to the priesthood, he said. Instead, it has been all the priests who have come and gone at the parish throughout the years. “They have each been so great. They have all inspired me.”

A conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels

On the Feast of Corpus Christi we launched the parish phase of the TOGETHER vision. During this next 18 months, I will travel to every parish in our Diocese – in fact, I have already visited with parishes in Iola and Yates Center – to talk about each member of our Diocese as brothers and sisters in the family of God.

You could say that these parish visits are a key part of the TOGETHER vision because of the first two goals: to strengthen the sense of family or oneness in our Diocese and to deepen our practice of stewardship as a way of life.

For me, as the bishop, to be physically present at every Mass, in every parish, to say to every parishioner in the Diocese of Wichita: We are a family. It’s more than about me. It’s more than about my parish. It’s about us.

It’s like growing up at the Jackels home. Somebody had to set the table and clear the table. Another had to wash; another had to dry and put things away. Everyone had a part to play. I think that when we live this way, it’s certainly a lot more healthy and holy for each individual. And it makes the whole family much more healthy and holy.

The Diocese of Wichita is a family. We share in each other’s lives, and we share life with each other. And like in a family, everyone bears a share for the responsibility of the mission of the Church. Like in a family, the participation of each member of the family is modified to some extent by their circumstances, by their age or ability. My little brother couldn’t have done anything to set the table, but he entertained us while we were doing it until he got old enough to pitch in himself.

Everybody takes a part. Maybe that’s not the way it is in every family, but it certainly is in the family of God – the Church.

This call to take responsibility for the mission of the Church is a call to each individual, not just to some. All of us – myself and the newest infant baptized in our parishes – we all need to grow in this sense of family, in this sense of mission to do our part to help carry out the work at hand.

I’m looking forward to visiting each parish. And I’m confident that people will see the importance of these goals. I’m also confident that God, who began this good work, will bring it to a happy completion.

Goals of the TOGETHER vision
• Strengthen the oneness between parish and diocese.
• Deepen our practice of stewardship as a way of life, sharing responsibility for the mission of the Church.
• Invite everyone to help fund seminarian education, Catholic formation programs and a renovation of the Cathedral campus.

Friday, 18 June 2010 00:00

By Christopher M. Riggs

Bishop Michael O. Jackels kicked off the public parish phase of the TOGETHER vision at a Mass Sunday, June 6, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Wichita.

More than 250 representatives from parishes across the Diocese attended the Vision Sunday Mass. Bishop Jackels will return their visit during the next 18 months. He has scheduled visits to each of the 90 parishes to share the TOGETHER message.

"Today we begin the parish public phase of the TOGETHER vision, asking God, who began this good work to bring it to a happy completion," Bishop Jackels said.
Everyone in the diocese has a role in communicating this message about who we are, he said, "from Bushton to Baxter Springs, to Fort Scott to Zenda and all points in between," and invited all "to respond to the exhortation of Jesus and the Gospel: give them some food yourselves."

Bishop Jackels weaved the theme of food throughout his homily.

"Growing up in the Jackels family, we didn't have much. We were a big family living on an Air Force sergeant's pay. But I do remember – and I remember with relish – the meals we shared."

Bishop Jackels said his mother was a good cook – with the exception of the occasional meal of liver and onions.

"I remember how we ate. That we ate at least the evening meal together. And we shared not only a meal but also our lives, each of us being prompted by my mom and dad to contribute something to the table conversion, for example, something we did that day. I remember, while my mom actually cooked the meal, the rest of us had a part to play in it."

Monday, 24 May 2010 09:40

A conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels

Whenever I meet with young men who are applying to be seminarians, they talk about the origin of their vocation.

A lot of times it’s attributed to family and how they were taught the Catholic faith. Sometimes young men refer to the priests they know. Sometimes it’s through stewardship that they first hear God’s call. A lot of young men talk about the time they spent in prayer in churches where the Eucharist is reserved and how that has deepened their knowledge and love of Jesus contributing to their desire to serve.

And sometimes it happens where you find a young man who doesn’t have any of those things. Yet the mystery of God’s call is that if God wants you, He is going to keep pursuing you until you say yes.

I often encourage young people to ask themselves not only what they want to do when they grow up, but more importantly, what they want to be because God hasn’t made us to be an engineer or a policeman, a doctor or a nurse.

God has made us all for heaven and laid out a path for us to get there – either as a married person or as a religious, as a dedicated single person or as a diocesan priest. God has a plan. It is our job to discover that plan and once discovering it, to say yes to it and live it as fully and faithfully as we can.

Thursday, 06 May 2010 00:00

David Voss looks like a typical twenty-something. He likes to go camping, play sports and hang out with friends. The 2001 graduate of Bishop Carroll Catholic High School is also following God’s call.

Voss is one of more than 40 young men studying for the priesthood in the Diocese of Wichita, and he offers a glimpse into the life of a seminarian in his new blog, “Following God’s Call.”

“I think one main myth I would like to combat is that seminary is only for those who are ‘super-religious,’” Voss said. “God calls all sorts of people to the seminary.”
Voss hopes to draw readers who are still discerning God’s will, and he hopes to show our diocesan family a picture of what life in the seminary looks like.

“I hope David’s blog will unmask the mystery of life in a seminary for the readers,” says Fr. Michael Simone, director of Vocations. “I believe the blog will help them to understand the importance of priestly formation for the future of our local Church by enabling them to experience that formation through the eyes of one of our seminarians.”
The “Following God’s Call” blog is just one interactive part of the Diocese’s newly redesigned website – inviting parishioners from all 25 counties to learn more about our Diocese and our faith.

“Thanks to new methods of communication through the use of technology, our diocesan family is united,” says Fr. Simone. “I hope it will inspire everyone to understand in a tangible way what is happening to provide for the future needs of our local Church.”

Read David Voss’ blog here.

A Conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels

God has begun this good work, which we call the TOGETHER vision, and God will bring this vision to a happy completion.

That conviction expresses that the inspiration for TOGETHER did not come from me, or from another, but from God. This was inspired by the two things that are behind everything we do as Catholics: the glory of God and the benefit of others.

From my own reflection on past experience through the eyes of faith, I believe that everything, that is happily ended, ends that way only because God’s power, wisdom and goodness are enveloping it. But I also believe that, as St. Paul says in one of his letters, His power, wisdom and goodness reach perfection in us only in so far as we confess our need.

And so in undertaking the TOGETHER vision, we need to profess that God has begun it, and God will bring it to a happy completion. We absolutely need God to see that it does serve the glory of God and the benefit of others.

And for that reason, we have commended this worthy project and all of the goals of the TOGETHER vision, to the love and protection and intercession of Mary, the mother of God – who is the mother of the Church and who is the special patroness of our country, of our Diocese, and of our Cathedral Parish.

The official prayer for the TOGETHER vision is a prayer everyone knows; everyone – even children – can repeat it. You don’t have to have a special card to remember it. The Hail Mary is a beautiful expression of our childlike trust in the providence of God.

Thursday, 18 March 2010 14:57

A conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels

The celebration of the Chrism Mass in the Cathedral is my personal favorite out of the whole year.

The Second Vatican Council said that the best way to show others the real nature of the true Church is to point to the faithful gathered in church for Mass. So this celebration of Chrism Mass – in a very real way – gives flesh to these words.

If you want to show others the real nature of the true Church as it exists in the Diocese of Wichita, let’s go to the mother church where people from every parish are gathered together in the Cathedral to worship God at Holy Mass.

Mass is beautiful

It’s beautiful. You have the bishop there. You have the priests there. You have religious there. You have the lay faithful there from every parish.

Every parish comes to the Cathedral, the mother church of the Diocese, and from here they take some things that are absolutely necessary.

They take the oil of chrism that is necessary for the sacrament of baptism. They take the oil of sick, which is necessary for the anointing of the sick. They take the oil of catechumens that is used for baptism, and the bishop is supposed to celebrate this Mass. He’s supposed to bless these oils in the Cathedral at the Chrism Mass.

But the people also take something else home from the Chrism Mass. They take their priest because the Chrism Mass has two purposes. One is to bless the oils. The other is to gather the priests with the bishop and have each of them renew their promises, their commitment. And so the people also take their priests – renewed and recommitted – back to their parishes.

Friday, 05 March 2010 12:12

Thursday, 14 January 2010 07:11

A conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels
I never attended a Catholic school until the seminary. That was partly because it was not always available and partly because we couldn’t afford the tuition.
I went to a Parish School of Religion, and I have a high regard for Catholic education in a Catholic school because I believe it has the greatest potential for helping parents form their children into disciples of Jesus.
Religion courses are not just reserved for one lesson each day in a Catholic school. Ideally our faith permeates the whole day in the spirit of the school through prayer and religious ideas and articles shared in classes.

I remember watching a film about evolution in a 5th or 6th grade science class, and when it was over I raised my hand and asked, “What about God? I thought God created the world.” The teacher became nervous and changed the subject because she was unable or uncomfortable discussing religion in a public school.

In a Catholic school faith and reason can be as they are: wed together.
Catholic school has the greatest potential for forming not only the best person but the best citizen. Life is more than just “me.” It is caring about and for others.
The St. Katharine Drexel Catholic School Fund is so named because she shared the same conviction.
St. Katharine Drexel inherited a fortune from her parents, and she used her fortune guided by her Catholic faith to establish schools, colleges and universities for underprivileged minorities across the United States. She used her great fortune to provide for others a great fortune – a great education.
Through the St. Drexel fund the parishes of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita are better able to provide a Catholic school education to every child, helping parents form their children into disciples of Jesus Christ.

Goals of the TOGETHER vision
• Strengthen the oneness between parish and diocese.
• Deepen our practice of stewardship as a way of life, sharing responsibility for the mission of the Church.
• Invite everyone to help fund seminarian education, Catholic formation programs and a renovation of the Cathedral campus.

Thursday, 17 December 2009 08:48

A conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels
The first goal of the TOGETHER vision is to strengthen the oneness between parish and Diocese.
One way of talking about strengthening the oneness is from what we hope to overcome or avoid.
The word ‘parochialism’ is used to refer to narrow or selfish interests: ‘just me’ or ‘just us.’ It is a very tightly defined identity.
We can look at this goal as wanting to overcome that parochialism in hopes that people will not be limited by it.
Parochialism can set up an atmosphere where one might think, “of course I’m concerned about my parish but the rest of you neighboring parishes or the Diocese or the Church in the United States or the universal Church – those are not my concern.”
But nobody’s self-sufficient.
Even those who try to be self-sufficient have to get in a car, drive on a road and go to the store to buy or sell. We are reliant upon others.
We are connected, and we are not only connected in looking to others, trading with others, depending on others to supply us with what we need, but there is the dependence that others have on us.