Author: Kevin Wondrash

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Kevin Wondrash

This Christmas pray, profess, forgive, and resolve!

Dear Friends,

Where is Christmas joy to be found? And it IS to be found; it is real, and it is accessible. As I reflected last week, St. Paul tells us that we should, “Rejoice always,” and, “pray always.” I’ll not revisit each of my points from last week, but I’ll remind you that it is in doing all that we do in such a way that we might make it a pleasing offering to God, that we can truly pray always. St. Paul really does mean pray always; it’s not simply an unattainable ideal.

One can glibly say, “well, my work is my prayer,” and then never actually take time for prayer. To make our work into a pleasing prayer does not mean that we should not take time each and every day for focused prayer time. It is both/and; we should be spending time in prayer and also doing our work in such an excellent way that at the end of the day we are proud to present it as a sacrifice to the Lord. That really does turn work into prayer.

This is the very first step toward true Christmas joy — we pray always, so that we might rejoice always. In other words, we put God right at the center of all that we do and all that we are. Each one of us can do as much or as little as we want about that. Is our work a sacrifice of praise, ready to be offered to God? Are all of our interactions sacrifices of praise, ready to be offered to God? Is our prayer steady, daily, and substantial? Those are our very first steps to really experiencing Christmas joy and carrying that joy through the new year. And so, pray always!

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Kevin Wondrash

Change is not such a bad thing

grand mom

Aging is all about changes. Some changes are in-evitable. Some are good. And some are plain difficult.

Changing seasons is welcome. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I stood sorting through my closet before dressing for church. The time for rusts and golds was past and it was too soon for Christmas colors. I picked purple.

An hour later as I walked into church, our sacristan grabbed my arm. “You remember that you’re a lector today, right?” I hadn’t, of course.

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Kevin Wondrash

To give or not to give: The marital question

In a recent column, David O’Brien, the associate director of religious education for lay ministry in the Archdiocese of Mobile, Ala., recounts the story of Agnes and Jake, devout Catholics who conceived and delivered four children during the first five years of their marriage.Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Agnes described how Jake, “wanted to be a good father and husband, and he couldn’t see how that could happen if we continued to have more children. In short, he was getting a vasectomy.”

Spouse no longer open to life

Agnes had a strong Catholic formation, and understood that married couples should not engage in sexual acts that have been intentionally blocked or “rendered infecund.” She struggled with Jake’s new stance, and dug her heels in.

She wondered how she could possibly be an authentic witness to the Gospel “if within my marriage, I was no longer open to life? How could I minister to other women and encourage them to be bold in their faith if I wasn’t living it myself? And what do I teach my children about marriage and sex when their father and I weren’t aligned?”

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Kevin Wondrash

Giving thanks this Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all who joined in prayerful support of us bishops as we recently met in Baltimore for our annual fall assembly. The meeting was very upbeat and very joyful – in very large part due to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, his wonderful wit and sense of humor, and his determination to expedite our proceedings using every possible tactic. The archbishop’s approach meant that we bishops had more time for fraternal companionship, and that the meeting was a time when the Holy Spirit, though Archbishop Dolan and our new, gracious, and warm Apostolic Nuncio, confirmed us in our faith.

 

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Kevin Wondrash

Vaccinating our children for sexually transmitted diseases

Last month, an advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta recommended that nine- to 12-year-old boys be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus transmitted through sexual contact. The goal of the recommendations was to prevent cancers caused by HPV, such as certain cancers of the digestive tract.

Making Sense out of Bioethics column by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

The same committee had already recommended, back in March of 2007, that girls and young women between the ages of nine and 26 be vaccinated against HPV, to help prevent various cancers of the reproductive tract, such as cervical cancer.

Raises ethical concerns

While the motivation to prevent cancer and diseases is clearly good, a universal recommendation of this type raises ethical concerns. Because the recommendations of the committee relate to important aspects of human behavior and sexuality at formative ages for children and adolescents, parents need to look at the psychological and social messages they might be conveying by choosing to vaccinate their children against HPV.

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Kevin Wondrash

Faith of our Fathers

grand mom

I am most thankful this year for my astonishing discovery that traveling in Europe is still possible in your 80’s as long as you have a young and loving travel companion.

I recently did it with my 26 year-old granddaughter, Hillary, and a fun-loving group of Luxembourg Americans. There were 29 of us plus three guides.

Touring the countryside

I loved the rides on the tour bus each day because they were never too long (Luxembourg is only the size of Rhode Island) and the scenery was magnificent.

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Kevin Wondrash

Facing terminal illness realistically

In modern times, dying is more and more often portrayed as a cold, clinical reality to be kept at arm’s length, relegated to the closed doors of a hospital, almost hermetically sealed from the rest of our lives.

When it comes to the event itself, we diligently work to avoid confronting it, addressing it, or acknowledging it. Because of this cultural backdrop, patients receiving a diagnosis of a terminal illness can be tempted to indulge in unrealistic expectations about what lies ahead, clinging to unreasonable treatment options and hoping for highly improbable outcomes.

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