By Josie Bopp Tell all your sins to a priest—regularly. You can’t get divorced. No eating meat on Fridays during Lent. Remember to follow the 10 Commandments. If you’re not Catholic, you’re probably going to hell. Oh, and don’t forget the big one: don’t have sex before marriage. For many who grow up Catholic, the Church is sometimes characterized as one resounding “no.” The experience of faith is sometimes mistakenly reduced to a set of rules and regulations, with the sense that if all of them are followed, a good Catholic will stumble his or her way into heaven, arriving with the correct answers, albeit having lived a seemingly miserable life. Even for those outside the Church, a caricature of the law-obsessed Catholic Church prevails. [caption id="attachment_6051" align="alignright" width="300"] Dr.…
By Pauline Lev We all have a story Every Christian who walks the path of the disciple has a story to tell. We live in a culture hostile in many ways to a life following Jesus. It takes a conscious, active choice to follow Him. Our journey from pre-evangelization to discipleship takes us deeper and deeper into his sheepfold, into the kingdom of God and the Catholic Church. Jesus invites us to the sheepfold of his Church, and he never stops inviting us to enter more and more deeply into his love and his mercy. A disciple is always learning and growing. Each person’s story of this journey is different. Some people’s stories are slow-moving, and it might be hard for them to pinpoint the actual moment when they chose…
By Renae Kranz In today’s world, bringing faith into the workplace seems like a terrifying prospect. Very few of us want to approach a co-worker to talk about religion, and fewer would even know how to do that. Let me relieve your anxiety. Bringing faith to work doesn’t have to mean overtly talking about your beliefs about divine realities. It’s more about revealing your entire self to the people around you and living the virtues of your Catholic faith in all areas of life. It’s about living an integrated, whole life with God always at the center of the things we do and say. And it’s easier than you might think. Meaning in work [caption id="attachment_5955" align="alignright" width="300"] Joe Rutten, director of the Benedictine Leadership Institute at Mount Marty University.…
By Renae Kranz It’s no secret our culture has been moving away from Christian values for decades now, and that move to a more secular world with no need for religion or God seems to be picking up speed. In this environment, Catholic parents worry their children will grow up and walk away from their faith—and they often feel powerless to stop it. What many parents forget is the real influence they have over how their children see and embrace their relationship with God and how well they learn their faith. And if parents don’t use that influence to help deeply ingrain their children’s faith in their hearts, our culture will sweep them into its secular current. Father Shaun Haggerty says parents are the key to passing on the Catholic…
By Renae Kranz Little is said about St. Joseph in the Bible. He himself says even less. In fact, he says absolutely nothing. And yet, he is the patron of the entire Catholic Church and of our diocese. Father Shane Stevens, pastor at St. Mary Parish in Dell Rapids, calls him the great saint of silence. This quiet man let his actions speak for him in the way he cared for Mary and Jesus and in the way he answered the call the Lord had for his life. He left a courageous legacy of faith behind as an example for the rest of us to strive toward. And he is a saint we can all turn to in times of trouble. Patron of our diocese [caption id="attachment_5844" align="alignright" width="300"] The…
By Renae Kranz [caption id="attachment_5775" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo by Ellen Keena[/caption] When you look at the face of Jesus on the cross, do you see only the face of the God who set us free? Or maybe you see the face of a man in excruciating pain, his head hanging low in agony. It’s hard to imagine the pain, emotions and thoughts our Lord had while he hung on the cross, dying for each one of us. We do know from the Gospels that he did several important things in his last moments. Some seem somewhat random or unimportant, but each word he says from the cross is carefully chosen to open the door to our salvation and establish the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Father James Morgan, rector…
By Renae Kranz Five or six years ago, I was driving home alone after doing something at church. Maybe I had gone to confession, maybe it was Stations of the Cross. Somehow that detail escapes me now. Whatever I had done at the church that night had stirred a new thought in me as I drove. I felt prompted to turn the radio off and drive in silence. I never do that. In fact, I always have something on to create noise. It’s how I have functioned my whole life. As I drove down 57th Street in silence, God found me. I think he had been waiting for some silence so I could hear him. He said to me, “I want you to write for me.” Once the initial “Wait,…
By Renae Kranz Each year when the Catholic Family Sharing Appeal begins, many of us can probably think of one or two ways we’ve come into contact with some of the things offered by the Diocese of Sioux Falls. Maybe one of our children went to a youth conference or a college-aged child is involved in the Newman Center on their university campus, or maybe we attended a talk by Dr. Chris Burgwald to deepen our knowledge of our own faith. This past year has been one where nearly every Catholic has regularly felt and seen some of the things the diocese provides for parishes and for all Catholics: Sunday TV Mass, The Bishop’s Bulletin, parish websites, and online parish giving just to name a few. These things have come…
By Renae Kranz Pride is a sneaky sin. It’s the sin of the Fall in the Garden of Eden. It creeps around seeking the ruin of souls. It seems like pride would be easy to recognize since it’s considered by many to be the root of sin, but it’s surprisingly stealthy in its manifestations. One way we often see it is when we think to ourselves, “I can do this on my own.” Or it could be, “I don’t need God for this.” Or even, “Look at all the good I’ve done.” It’s an easy trap to fall into—we want to be our own god. This was the sin of Adam and Eve, and it continues to be our biggest downfall. God didn’t leave us without an antidote, however. There…
By Renae Kranz Advent is a beautiful opportunity to wait with joyful hope for the coming of our Messiah. It can also be a time to refresh our souls with prayer and the sacraments, making ourselves ready for the Christ child on Christmas Eve. The wait during Advent seems easy because we know what the end of the wait will bring. But in our daily lives, we often face times of waiting that can leave us discouraged and rob us of our hope. You might be waiting to find a spouse to share your life with. You might be waiting to have a child. Or, you might be waiting to be healed from a disease. Whatever it is, the result you desire might seem impossibly out of reach; you wait…
