Volume 4, Number 10 Easter 2010

Life is always changing and everything, whether good or bad, will eventually come to an end. As we age, our body changes. We have health problems, emotional problems and spiritual problems. Nothing in this life remains the same; only God is unchanging and constant in His love, at all times.

In a parish, from time to time, a new pastor is appointed and the parish adapts to the new spiritual leader of the community. Back in September of 1997, I was fortunate enough to become the seventh pastor of St. Bonaventure Catholic Community, following Ambrose, Ernie, Quintin, Howard, Edmund, and Regis. I fell in love with St. Bonaventure parish immediately because of the dedicated and committed parishioners. I could see from the start that the people here were strong in their faith and in their desire to serve God and one another. About two weeks after I was here, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament began. Initially we had adoration once a week and in 2000 we started Perpetual Adoration. This has been the greatest blessing to the parish because we have come to realize that Jesus is the greatest blessing we could possibly ever have.

In June of 2010 the Franciscans will have a Provincial Chapter and at that time new guardians

and pastors will be elected. Since my third term as pastor will be completed, I have to step down and turn the parish over to the new pastor. Where I will go after this assignment will be determined in June. I did apply for a sabbatical and it has been granted for the fall of 2010. I will be taking a course on Spiritual Direction and Spirituality as I make my transition from St. Bonaventure’s, to a new assignment.

I have been a parish priest for 46 years: 9 years as an associate and 37 as a pastor. During that time I have been stationed in five parishes and I can honestly say that St. Bonaventure’s has been the most rewarding and the finest parish community that I have encountered. I trust that you will give the same love and support to the new pastor as I take my leave.

Finally, I want to thank all of you for your love, prayers, and support. It is hard to leave you, but as I said in the beginning of this farewell note, change is inevitable and all of us have to adjust to it. Just remember what I said over and over.

“Smile, God Loves You.”

—Father Bernie

Father Bernie’s farewell letter to parishioners

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Grateful for life By Sally Reinert

I was asked to write a little about my near-death experience when I had three major surgeries within five months. It was a time when my religion and faith in God pulled me through some times when things looked their bleakest. I often wondered what people do at times like that if they don’t believe in God. What an empty feeling that must be! I had so many people of all faiths praying for me, and I am alive and well. How could there not be a God?!

Before my third surgery I wrote down instructions for my funeral. I didn’t tell my family I did that—I told them I was going to be just fine. By doing that I could sense some relief on their part. By thinking that way, I believe it helped me convince myself I would survive. Sometimes it is harder for those watching helplessly than the one experiencing it.

After being in surgery for eight hours and needing 24 units of blood, it made me question my strength to get through another aorta replacement. During my last surgery I saw “that light at the end of a tunnel” that I had heard some people have seen. I remember thinking “I’m not ready to go yet.”

Father Bernie was there for me and that was so comforting. He anointed me and put a small particle of the host on my tongue when I couldn’t swallow. We were in “re-hab” at the same time in

the hospital—he in his exercise clothing, lifting small weights with his rehab class and me in my

hospital gown and robe, on an exercise machine. He came over and blessed me

as some other patients looked at us as if to say, “What is that guy doing?”

Thank you, Father. You truly helped me with your visits and prayers.

My niece, Maureen, brought me a cross called the “Clinging Cross.” It has no corpus, but has a dove carved in the middle and is shaped to fit the palm of your hand. Every morning I stand in

SALLY WITH TWO CHERISHED GIFTS: A

PAINTING GIVEN TO HER BY ST. BONI’S 1ST-GRADE FAITH FORMATION CLASS AND A

LOVELY, HAND-MADE PRAYER SHAWL, ONE OF TWO GIVEN HER BY PARISHIONERS.

Page 3

front of my crucifix holding it and thanking God for another night and again every night I thank him for another day. Someone asked me what that does for me, and I answered, “It gives me great strength to get through some trying times.” My surgeon said, “You must be made of steel.” He called me the miracle lady. I just showed him my cross and said, “You are right.”

God bless you all and, again, thank you for your many prayers, Masses, cards and good wishes!

You may have heard about prayer shawls. But have you wondered, “What is a prayer shawl and what does it do for the person who receives it?”

First, they are made right here by women in the parish, who put their heart, prayers and love into them. They are distributed personally to St. Bonaventure parishioners who are ailing or otherwise in need of prayers, hope, and comfort.

For example, a couple of years ago my son-in-law’s best friend suffered kidney failure and needed to go on dialysis. His health continued to deteriorate, and he was hospitalized. Only in his mid-forties, he was a man of faith. Both he and his wife were devout Catholics, and their teenaged sons grew up attending Catholic schools. Thinking he would appreciate a prayer shawl, I picked one up from our parish nurse, Gayle. My daughter brought it to him.

Following her visit, he left a message on my answering machine asking me to thank the people of St. Boni for their kindness in sending him the prayer shawl. “You don’t know what it means to me,” he said. “When I put on the shawl I feel God’s arms wrapped around me and I’m OK.”

Sadly, he passed away that year, just before Christmas and his birthday. At the funeral, his sons told me again how much the prayer shawl had meant to their dad. They added, “Mom keeps it on his bed.”

A few months later, their mother was diagnosed with cancer. She asked my daughter to tell me what the prayer shawl meant to her. “When I wrap the shawl around me I feel my husband’s presence, and I feel closer to God,” she said. “It gives me so much comfort.”

Both of these individuals experienced the miracle of love woven into their prayer shawls. And others can too. For information on how to obtain or donate a prayer shawl, contact our parish nurse, Gayle Vogel, at 952-854-4733, x14.

Covering of love By Phyllis Genest

THE “CLINGING CROSS” BECAME SALLY’S CONSTANT COMPANION THROUGHOUT

HER RECOVERY PERIOD.

PINNED TO EACH PRAYER SHAWL

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XXXXXXX By XXXXXX

Mass for teens becomes their Lifeline to God By Susan McKibbon

Chances are, you already believe in Jesus. You are a Christian. You may have been baptized in water as a baby. Perhaps you have learned about Jesus from the time you were young. But there is a lot more power from the Holy Spirit available to you.

—NET Ministries Lifeline brochure

Such a simple premise, such a simple promise—there is more. More music, more joy, and more understanding of the faith—all found in a gymnasium in West St. Paul on Saturday nights.

That’s where NET Ministries hosts its dynamic Lifeline Youth Masses. For 15 years, hundreds of local teens have made the trek up Robert Street to Crusader Avenue to hear the Word from musicians, priests, entertainers, and vibrant speakers. And it’s sinking in.

Largely because of the music, it’s sinking in. In some ways, we all rely on music to speak for us. We search for lyrics that express our frustrations, our longings. Music is essential to our daily lives. It shapes us, soothes us, and transports us. And, as NET Ministries understands so well, it can also inform us. They get it: Infuse the message into songs sung at full volume, and it WILL be heard.

“They make the Mass feel like a concert,” says parishioner Amanda Treseler. “Plus, you’re with a large group of your age group, and you get to be loud! At church! I don’t know about my classmates, but I think that’s pretty cool.”

There’s a method to the loudness. Through it comes a sense of communion, which gives way to understanding. As fellow participant Emily Blom says, “They made things easier to understand, and they played really cool music that got me into the groove. And I understood everything they were talking about after that.”

“I’ve always been a little confused at how I feel about my faith,” adds Amanda. “Sometimes I’m not even sure I believe what I do. And especially in the environment we teens are in today, with so many contradicting theories of how life started on earth, and with peers in different religions, it’s tough to decide what’s right and wrong in religion. But when you enter the building, you can practically feel the positive energy flowing through the place. It’s almost an escape, a place where everyone is reassuring that

everything will work out in the end, no matter how rough the road is on the way.”

NET (National Evangelization Teams) Ministries USA is an international youth ministry, connected to the church through the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minnesota. Also hosted are summer retreats called Discipleship Weeks, during which teens learn “the importance and adventure of

living an abundant faith-filled Catholic life” by discovering or rediscovering “the rich practices and beliefs of our Catholic faith.”

In short, NET Ministries provides enhanced instruction and enrichment exclusively designed to reach teens and inspire youth ministers. The Lifeline Masses are geared for Catholic teens in Grades 8 – 12 and are held from 6 – 9:30 PM the first Saturday of each month. Each one features guest pastors and speakers. For example, the kick-off Mass last fall was “Truly, Truly Igniting Your Faith,” presented by Fr. Bill Baer and humorous motivational speaker, Mike Hoffman. Another program, called “So Great a Love,” was presented by Fr. Mike Schmitz of the Diocese of Duluth, who speaks at countless youth retreats, camps and conferences. He explored the topic of whether it’s possible to “grasp the full meaning of the good news that ‘God is love’.”

(Continued on page 6)

“When you enter the

building you can

practically feel the

positive energy flowing

through the place..”

—Amanda Treseler

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Chances are, you already believe in Jesus. You are a Christian. You may have been baptized in water as a Group offers grief support to parents of multiples

By Kathleen Riley

Barb Schaack Kaminski surprised me with her lightness of spirit the day we met. She was excited to share the story of Bittersweet, the grief support group she began for parents who have suffered the loss of a child who is one of a twin, triplet or other multiple.

In 1983, Barb and her husband, David, experienced the joy of

becoming parents to identical twin daughters, Lisa and Amy. When Lisa was diagnosed with Asplenia Syndrome, they were informed she may possibly grow to be a teenager, but not to adulthood. Sadly Lisa died at only six-and-a-half months.

How others perceived their loss made their dark journey even more difficult. Wasn’t the hope and light of their surviving twin enough to sustain them? Couldn’t they be happy with the life they held with Amy? But even tiny twin Amy knew there was something very wrong. Her other half was gone—the child she grew in the womb with and held and played with was no longer there. She would stare for long periods of time into the empty crib.

Barb said the pain and devastation of their daughter’s death was excruciating. And even though they were unquestionably grateful for their surviving twin daughter, the pain they felt wasn’t diminished. Bittersweet was the word that best seemed to describe their emotions. Their grief was bitter, their appreciation for Amy and her older brother, Brett, was undeniably sweet.

Barb received help with the complexity of emotions from the Children’s Hospital chaplain. Parent support groups could not relate to her special situation. As Barb experienced some healing, she began to

volunteer at Children’s to help parents who had a death of a multiple.

She realized she needed to be the one to open her heart to others, to allow them to grieve along with her and parents like her. They understood completely what she was experiencing. She began to offer what she came to call Bittersweet meetings, expressly “for parents who have experienced the death of a twin or other multiple.”

On the third Tuesday of each month, the group discusses individual concerns and common issues. “We deal with our unique situation—mourning the death of our children and the loss of our chance to have twins or multiples, while celebrating the joys of the children who survived. It is bittersweet.”

Those suffering from a lost multiple could come to the group and know they could act and feel in any way comfortable for them. Barb has a gift for helping others know that they can freely express their pain without fear of judgment or critique.

Barb wants you to know that she understands even your darkest thoughts and guilt over the loss of your child. She believes God wants us to share our pain with others, much the same way that Christ openly shared his pain on the cross.

If we can openly talk about the pain we hold over the loss of a child, we can share in the Oneness, become part of the Oneness that God brings to the members of the Body of Christ.

There is no shame in feeling and talking about pain and guilt, loss and sorrow. At Bittersweet, you can be as open about your feelings as you want. The others in the group are there with you to help you know you’re never alone, that God hears you too, through the ears of your neighbor.

Sharing can be healing. It doesn’t matter how long ago you experienced your loss, or how difficult your

(Continued on page 6)

BARB SCHAACK KAMINSKI, FOUNDER OF BITTERSWEET

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suffering is. You will be accepted and come to know Bittersweet is a safe place where you can share openly.

Communicating and acknowledging the pain of your loss within the safety and confidentiality of a group can be life changing. Barb knows. Barb brings light into the darkness of grief. She understands the

tortured feelings of loss that can hide in the depths of your heart.

It was good to feel Barb’s effervescence when I sat with her. She radiated joy and peace. She was like a gift God wanted me to unwrap. The woman who came to meet me on this sleet-filled day would bring light into the darkness of my mind. You see, I had been nervous about meeting her, because, coincidentally, I have an identical twin sister.

(Continued from page 5)

Another session focused on vocations. “There were nuns who visited from different convents all around the country,” Amanda explains. “There was a lot of music I recognized, and it was easy to just go with the flow,” she explains.

More members of the St. Boni youth community are invited to join in the Lifeline Youth Masses with fellow students, Emily Blom, Megan Mails, and Amanda Treseler. They were made aware of the program by Julie Montgomery, director of junior/senior high faith formation for the parish. Also in attendance is former faith formation student, Sarah Mueller, now a teacher in Canon Falls.

And then there’s long-time St. Bonaventure parishioner and faith formation teacher, Jim Colby, who attends the Masses regularly. He notes, “The first time I went to a Lifeline Mass I was surprised at how many busloads of youth and their leaders were arriving from all over Minnesota and some from Wisconsin even from Canada, showing that the Masses have quite a draw. This is a chance for youth to see so many other youth who are living the Christian life and that by itself is inspiring!” He went on to say, “I get the most out of Lifeline from the homilies. The priests are picked because they’re very

good at delivering a message to youth, but that same message hits my heart and is inspiring to me. Another thing I really enjoy about it is that I end up meeting up with quite a few people that I already know from TEC, from other parishes, that I’ve met through Summer

Stretch and other activities. It’s a chance to get together with them . . . and say Hi.”

They go for the music. They go for the safety of an accepting environment. Most of all, they go to hear the good news that God is real and can be found there, among their peers. As Amanda describes one particularly

inspired session, the program leaders led them in this exhilarating exchange:

“‘God is good!’ they would shout. And we would respond, ‘All the time!’ Then in reverse, they would yell, ‘And all the time!’ And we answered, ‘God is good!’”

Message received.

(Continued from page 4)

For more information about NET Ministries and the Lifeline Youth Mass program, contact

Julie Montgomery, director of junior/senior high faith formation, or see this internet site:

WWW.NETUSA.ORG and also WWW.SAINTBONAVENTURE.ORG

IN THE FOREGROUND ARE EMILY BLOM AND MEGAN MAILS.

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Stations of the Cross/Benediction

FRIDAYS DURING LENT, 7 PM

Mass during Lent MONDAY - SATURDAY, 8:45 AM

TUESDAY, THURSDAY, 5 PM

SATURDAY 4:30 PM

SUNDAY 7:30, 9, 11 AM

Individual Reconciliation during Lent SATURDAYS, 3 - 4 PM

ALSO: SAT., MARCH 27, NOON - 1 PM

MON. - WED., MARCH 29 - 31, 6:30 - 7:30 PM

Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper APRIL 1, 7:30 PM

Good Friday Celebration of Our Lord’s Passion

APRIL 2, 3 PM

Reflections at the Foot of the Cross FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 8 PM

Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass APRIL 3, 8 PM

Easter Sunday Mass of Resurrection APRIL 4, 7:30, 9, 11 AM

Parish Mission with Father Jim Livingston ........................... SUN.-TUES., MARCH 7-9, 7-9 PM

EME/Lector Workshop...................................................................... SAT., MARCH 13, 10 AM

Spaghetti Dinner Youth Fundraiser ............................................ SAT., MARCH 13, 5:30-7 PM

Parish-Wide, Clergy-Appreciation Dinner at the Knights of Columbus Hall ............................................................ SAT., MARCH 20, 6 PM

Seder Meal with guest, Rabbi Ed Rothman ................................ WED., MARCH 24, 5:45 PM

Lenten Fish Dinner FRI., MARCH 26, 4:30-7 PM

Volunteer Appreciation Dinner ........................................................ SAT., APRIL 10, 5:30 PM

Divine Mercy Sunday Service ........................................................... APRIL 11, 2:30-3:45 PM

Ladies’ Spring Luncheon .................................................................SAT., APRIL 17, 11:30 AM

First Holy Communion Mass............................................................... SUN., APRIL 25, 11 AM

Life in the Spirit Retreat for Teens................ .......FRI., APRIL 30, 5:30 PM - SAT., MAY 1, 9 PM

Garage Sale ..... (Receive Goods) MON.-TUES., MAY 3-4; (Sale) ............WED.-THURS., MAY 5-6

Confirmation at the Basilica ................................................................... TUES., MAY 4, 7 PM

Lock-In for youth in Grades 6-12 ............................. FRI., MAY 7, 7:30 PM-SAT., MAY 8, 7 AM

Plant Sale Youth Fundraiser ................................................................FRI.-SUN., MAY 14-16

Father Bernie’s Farewell Reception................................................ SUN., JUNE 27, 12:30 PM

St. Bonaventure Conventual Franciscan Catholic Community

Phone: 952-854-4733; Fax: 952-851-9690 Email: office@saintbonaventure.org www.saintbonaventure.org Please direct questions, photographs, story ideas and features to Shared Ministry maryt@saintbonaventure.org (952-854-4753, X26) The News Staff reserves the right to edit articles for content, length, grammar and readability.

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Father Bernie bids parishioners a fond farewell ....... 1

Experiencing new life through near death................ 2

Prayer Shawls can be a touch from God ................... 3

How Mass becomes a Lifeline for our teens.............. 4

Bittersweet: Special program for grieving parents ... 5

Liturgical calendar & upcoming events..................... 7