5/21/2023

I have been assigned as Part Time Chaplain to the NWMSU Newman Center. I will continue to be your pastor at SGB. The assignment will be effective July 1, but there is not a lot going on at Newman involving the chaplain right now with the students gone. The arrival of Fr. Karl makes this possible. It is my hope that the students and parishioners of SGB will be able to integrate into one another’s programs. For example, I would hope to have larger RCIA classes with more college age students in them. As you know, Newman has its Sunday Mass here at our church at 5:30 PM. With Fr. Karl here to help, covering that Mass should be fairly easy. There will, of course, be events and ministries which are unique to Newman and to SGB, but in general it should be easier to implement, share, and integrate programs across the board in Maryville, and both Newman and SGB will be enriched. I will be working out the details with Fr. Karl and Max Pawlowski this summer. Max is the Administrator of the Newman Center.
Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime, today’s celebration is about the Lord’s Ascension into Heaven. The Liturgy of the Church is moving through the high points of the Paschal Mystery: from the passion to the death to the Resurrection to the Ascension of Christ and leading finally to the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Ascension is the Feast of Christ the High Priest who ascends as a resurrected human into heaven to represent us humans before the Father. It is the last step in the Perfect Sacrifice of Christ as he gives himself totally to the Father in love, but now He is human as well as Divine, so represents us perfectly. Along the way to this moment Jesus has collected a band of disciples, has promised them the Holy Spirit, has given Himself totally in love to the Father for his followers’ sake (crucifixion), has expressed his willingness or even determination to obey the Father’s will, and so has revealed the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now we know God’s plan for our salvation, we know who God is (in a manner of speaking – we hardly understand the Trinity), we see Love in action incarnate in human history. Now as we come to the end of Eastertime, we can sit back and marvel at how God has undone what Adam, Eve, and Satan did. Every year we repeat the celebration of this great Paschal Mystery. Please don’t miss the sweep of God’s plan in the course of celebrating each individual feast. This is an awesome part of the Liturgical Year!
It is a joy to be your pastor.

Father Albert, O.S.B.