Fr Mike's Notes

  December 30, 2025 It does indeed have a similar feeling as to when I left for the Holy Land way back in November 1999.  The main difference is that I do feel a little more in control of my surroundings.  I'm not panicking (yet). Sabbatical officially begins on Thursday, January 1, 2026.  That's about 36 hours away from now.  I have Mass in the morning tomorrow, but my suitcases are packed to the guilds and nearly ready to be closed.  I know I have more that I cannot do until Thursday morning or so.  I had hoped to stay at my mother's place on Thursday and Friday and then leave on Saturday after breakfast.  That should give me enough time to get to the bottom of Illinois before stopping for the night.  Not sure if mom's is going to work as I thought, but I will work it out somehow.  She should be the last person I see and hug before I get on the road. People ask if I am excited or anxious.  I say both.  It's exciting to know t...

Today is December 11, 2025.  Today is the birthday of a very dear friend whom I just don't get to see like we once did.  Paul and I became friends a year before Charles and I.  It was an instant chemistry between us, simply built upon friendship and respect.  Like any good friends, we could talk about anything and open up about anything and everything.  We were truly looking out for the best of whatever the other needed. I was the choir assistant when Paul arrived.  It was the first time we met, at rehearsal one day.  I would always arrive early as it was my job to be sure all of the music was pulled from the music library (which was extensive) for the choir members to use, especially when it came to works that were for 4-part voices (tenor 1, tenor 2, baritone, and bass -- for those of you who care).  One afternoon, Paul arrived early too and asked if I needed his help.  When I saw him, I knew I needed to not only say yes, but that this was ...

 Yes, it's December 8th and we are celebrating one of the most misunderstood mysteries in the Catholic faith.  In 1854, Pope Pius IX used the authority of his seat as Vicar for Christ on earth to proclaim infallibly (NO ARGUING) that Jesus' mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was conceived without original sin.  For some people, this teaching seems so far-fetched and yet, as Catholics, we are to necessarily believe it.  It's considered MANDATORY.  Now that shouldn't be an issue in our day and age.  Seeing as it was given in 1854, I would normally think that would be enough time to sink in; then again, not everyone believes that Jesus is the Son of God either. People are not always aware that a teaching like the Immaculate Conception is not an old time teaching.  One might think that the early Church Fathers believed it and passed it down through the centuries.  Not so.  Even the most well known theologians (Aquinas, Augustine, Benedict, Dominic,...

  In November 1999, my seminary class was privileged to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land -- Israel.  We were in Bethlehem for 5 weeks, traveled through Galilee area for another week, then spending another 5 weeks in Jerusalem.  We returned to the United States on Valentine's Day 2000. It was an amazing trip overall.  As so many people have reflected upon in the past, it's an incredible thought to having walked through "streets" that were graced by the feet of the Savior of the world at different times in His life.  Bethlehem holds the great honor to have the Nativity grotto, traditionally known to be the place where Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born.  It doesn't look like much from the outside, hidden within a building that had seen better days I'm sure.  However there is a stairway that one enters through an opening in the stone walls.  That stairway is not wide nor very deep to go down, but what is at the bottom of the stairway IS deep -...