Advance - Bishop's Message

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We all have felt the powerful impact of the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday and of the Stations of the Cross devotion. These celebrations impact us powerfully because we know suffering, we acknowledge our sins, and we recognize that our sins are the cause of Jesus’ suffering and death.
The Resurrection of Jesus on the other hand does not, for most of us, for some reason capture our attention as much as his Passion and Death. Maybe it is because we have no human experience of resurrection; it is in fact referred to as a mystery of faith.
It would nevertheless be incomplete, even wrong for us to stop at the Passion of our Lord, to fix our gaze only there. Resurrection with Jesus is the promise of faith. “He is risen” is the message Jesus’ followers are sent to proclaim. St. Paul wrote that “if Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith” (1 Cor 15:14).
Both the Passion of Jesus and his Resurrection have significance for our practice of Catholic Faith, especially for sharing our faith with others.
Jesus charged all his followers to share our Catholic Faith with others. If we cannot personally do missionary work, we can do it vicariously by providing material support to those who do: “We ought to support such persons, so that we may be coworkers in the truth” (3 John, verse 8). The health of our faith is to a great extent measured by how well we share it with others, teaching them to know Jesus so they can make an informed choice to love him and to serve their neighbors.
In support of the Church’s mission to share our faith, you are invited on Easter Sunday to make an extraordinary gift, over and above your regular parish tithe. The money received from the special Easter envelopes will be sent to our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI for the Peter’s Pence fund and to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which provides direct assistance to those working in the mission fields.
With kind regards and prayerful best wishes for a blessed Easter, I am
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+Michael O. Jackels
Bishop of Wichita

A Conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels

If you look closely at the TOGETHER logo, you will see the words, “We gather. We learn. We serve.”

These words are a part of the TOGETHER vision because they are inherent in who we are and in what we do.

We gather in church for worship on Sunday as members of the Body of Christ, children in the family of God. That assembly of believers is the Church. And that gathering influences how we live when we are outside of church.

At the end of Mass when the priest says, “Go in peace,” he is not simply releasing you out into the world. He is giving a command, sending each parishioner forth to carry out the mission of the Church.

We go from that assembly to learn and to teach, forming ourselves – and others – into Disciples of Christ.

And we go from that assembly to serve the needs of others.

TOGETHER: We gather. We learn. We serve. And we do all of those things from our Cathedral campus.

Our Mother Church and the buildings that surround our Cathedral represent the mission of the Church in the Diocese of Wichita.

Whether they are service ministries or education, they are diocesan ministries. They are not just for the Cathedral parishioners or the people who live in Wichita. These ministries are designed to benefit anyone and everyone.

The ministries and services that take place throughout our Cathedral campus represent what the Church is and does in Baxter Springs, Zenda, Fort Scott and all points in between.

Caring for the buildings on our Cathedral campus allows us to further the mission of the Church for the glory of God and the benefit of others.

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.

Where will Bishop Jackels visit next?
Bishop Michael O. Jackels continues his TOGETHER vision visits. Here is a schedule for the next few weekends.
March 19-20, St. Joseph, Andale
March 27, St. Paul - Newman Center, Wichita
April 2-3, Magdalen, Wichita
April 9-10, All Saints, Wichita

Bishop encourages all of the faithful to pray for success of TOGETHER
A conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels

The faithful of the Diocese of Wichita continue to show tremendous support for the TOGETHER vision through their financial gifts but also through prayer and song and words of support.

When I recently visited St. Cecilia Parish in Haysville, I was inspired by some very special words of support for the TOGETHER vision. They were special, not because they were unique or somehow more or less significant than others but because their authors represent the future of our Church. And TOGETHER is a vision for the future of our Diocese.

Some of these words were written in marker or crayon; others were typed neatly with hand-drawn illustrations. They spoke of a unified Church and promised gifts of prayer and service and even some money to benefit the needs of our diocesan family.

Two colorful banners hung in the parish hall for all to read. The Parish School of Religion (PSR) class had created one, and the students of Mr. Butler’s fifth-grade class had created another.

A Conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels
In this past year my heart has been warmed, and my hunger has certainly been fed as I shared the TOGETHER vision with individuals, small groups and whole parish families in 41 parishes across our Diocese.
And throughout 2010, so many responded to this call to take responsibility for the mission of the Church that more than $16 million was pledged toward seminarian education, faith formation programs and the renovation of our Cathedral Campus.
I am in awe and in gratitude to all of you for your response to this message. Thank you.
Such generosity continues to illustrate the goals of the TOGETHER vision: to strengthen the oneness between parish and Diocese; to deepen our practice of stewardship as a way of life and to invite everyone to support true needs in our Church.
The Cathedral parish alone responded with more than $1 million in pledges. Our clergy have also pledged just over $1 million. And I have been overwhelmed by the great effort and generosity put forth by the youth of several parishes, who held their own fundraisers, so that they would have an opportunity to participate in this vision.