I know people who believe that a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman will guarantee a healthy environment for raising children.  Frankly, I believe that such an outcome cannot be assured by the proposed amendment.  Many children are raised with one mother and one father but do not live in a healthy and loving environment.  Many other children are raised by a single mother or father and receive a healthy, nourishing and loving upbringing. Children need parents who are mature, who love each other and who have the knowledge, the wisdom and the resources to meet their children’s many needs.  I do believe that a healthy & loving father and mother can generally provide the best upbringing for a child; however, the proposed amendment cannot insure this and is not intended to insure this.

I am very keenly aware that there are many loving relationships that we can experience throughout our lives.  I also remember the words of St. John: “If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us” (I John 4:12).  When St. John speaks about the “Greatness of Love” he is speaking about something beyond simple affection and attraction.  He is speaking about the Love of God revealed in the person and actions of Jesus Christ. The more perfectly that we experience this quality of love in our relationships with others, the more perfectly we will experience God.

Among the many human experiences of love, is the experience that is commonly referred to as “marriage.” A true and committed friendship is an important type of Love.  Jesus has told us that there is no greater love than this: “To lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).  Yet this is not the same as marriage. The love of parents for their children and the love of children for their parents is a wonderful example of Love.  But it is not an example of marriage.  The love that people have for their country or for other people in need is a true and admirable experience of Love, but it is not an experience of marriage.

Theologically, marriage is unique because it is a revelation of God’s image in our midst.  Beyond that, it is through the union of the male and female that God works to create new human beings who are called to be the children of God.  There have been societies in which homosexual love was highly valued.  Yet, even there, such love was not considered to be “marriage.”

As Christians we are called to respect all relationships of Love and to encourage the unique loving relationship of marriage.  Both are important but they are not the same.

Fr. Tom Sieg

Church of St. Michael Parish Ministry Survey Summary of Results – November/December 2011

Thank you for participating in the recent parish ministry survey. Our efforts in the areas of worship, formation and pastoral outreach will help the Church of St. Michael to “actively spread God’s Truth and live our Catholic faith in the world”.  Information from the survey will help Fr. Sieg, parish staff and volunteer leaders to effectively set parish priorities for the next 3-5 years.  313 parishioners took the survey.  65% have been parishioners for more than 10 years; 6% have been members for less than two years.

The survey results suggest that you have a very positive view of the Church of St. Michael and that parish leaders have been focused on many of the priorities that matter most to parishioners.  For example, over 95% of parishioners agreed* with the following statements:

• I feel welcome at the Church of St. Michael.
• The Church of St. Michael has a clear vision and direction for the future.
• Our parish staff responds well to my needs.
• The parish shares information timely and effectively.
• I feel a moral and spiritual responsibility to financially support the parish.

Over 90% agreed* with these statements:

• I have a strong sense of belonging at the Church of St. Michael.
• Catholic schools are an essential part of the Church’s educational mission.
• Our parish mission is clearly communicated.
• The parish does a good job communicating financial information.
• I’m satisfied with the parish’s management of money.

At the same time, the survey identified several areas in which our parish can improve. See the key observations section for information on these improvement opportunities. Fr. Sieg and parish leaders will address the opportunity areas and will communicate specific initiatives and actions in the coming months.

By a seven-to-one margin, parishioners overwhelming support paying off the parish mortgage over the next five years.  If we pay off the mortgage, we can invest in our ministries and do more of God’s work in our parish and community.

* Of those responding “Agree” or “Disagree”.

Some key observations regarding  Liturgy and Worship:

• Parishioners love our music ministry, as it was the most appreciated area of liturgy and worship – and the least frequently cited as needing improvement.
• “Homilies that help me to grow in my faith” is clearly one of your top priorities.  While over 50% of respondents listed it in their top two most appreciated areas, it was also the top focus area within liturgy and worship.
• Encouragement of religious vocations” and “Programs that promote spiritual growth” (with Eucharistic Adoration mentioned most frequently) were identified as areas of need by nearly 20% of respondents.
• In the comments, some parishioners suggested that we look at ways to shorten the Mass, while others called for quiet and reverence before and during Mass.

Some key observations regarding  Youth and Adult Formation:

• The most appreciated areas of youth and adult formation are “The quality of education at St. Michael Catholic School and Little Angels Preschool” and our high school faith formation program.
• Top improvement areas include “Reaching out to specific groups of parishioners” (with young adults cited most often), “Evangelization and reaching out to those who don’t attend Mass” and increasing the number of students at our school.
• Some respondents suggested expanding adult faith formation opportunities, while others commented on our school program and faith formation costs.

Some key observations regarding  Pastoral Care and Outreach:

• Over 60% of respondents appreciate the opportunity to serve the needy, while over 40% value what our parish does in three other areas: providing practical care for parishioners in time of need, supporting the needs of our sister parish, and promoting respect for human life and upholding family values.
• Top focus areas are: increasing the number of new parishioners and welcoming them into our parish family, increasing the level of volunteer participation (especially since 88% of respondents are willing and able to volunteer), and having more fellowship and social activities in order to meet with other parishioners.

Thanks again for taking the time to complete the survey…and for all that you do to serve God and to help others.

In the months ahead the people of Minnesota will need to make a decision regarding the meaning of Marriage within Minnesota law.  Of course, this will impact more than the letter of the law.  It will impact the way in which the people of this state will view marriage, and the family, for generations to come.  I believe that the issues raised by this decision are important and that every member of this parish needs to seriously reflect on the many elements involved in this decision.  I hope that every voter will let their voice be heard on this issue in November.

As a pastor, I have a responsibility to respect the right of each citizen to vote according to their own conscience.  As a pastor, I also have a responsibility to share with the members of this parish my own concerns and the concerns of the Catholic Church.  I realize that many people hold very strong convictions about this and that if I speak, or remain silent, some people will be upset.  Over the coming months I will try to carefully fulfill my role as a pastor and as a Catholic Priest while respecting the faith and intelligence of the members of this parish.  There are some things that I must encourage you to consider, without demanding your agreement.  In this brief article I intend to introduce some areas of reflection that I hope to address more fully in the months ahead.

Marriage did not originate with any government authority.  Nations have made laws to clarify the legal responsibilities of partners in marriage, the legal establishment of a marriage, the right and obligations relating to children and other legitimate concerns of society.  Marriage, however, has been a part of human society from our earliest history.  Its roots lie within our human nature and the formation of human communities.  I question whether any government today has the authority to alter something, so rooted in our humanity and in human society.  Marriage, throughout the centuries, has been an expression of the distinct and complementary differences between men and women.  Apart from any religious faith, we need to be very careful in respecting our own human nature and cultural roots.

Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, marriage also has been closely tied to our experience and understanding of the nature of God.  We are taught that human beings have been created in the “image and likeness” of God.  This image is to be seen in the male and female together.  In Catholic doctrine, the Sacrament of Matrimony is a living sign of the union between Christ and the Church.  While these issues are of concern to people of our faith, that concern may not be shared by those who live with different religious traditions.  We need to act carefully to allow our faith to influence our society without imposing our faith on others.  In the issue of legally defining marriage, we need to listen sensitively to other religious convictions, while being eager to share our own.

I hope that this short reflection will help you to begin your own personal reflections on this important decision that we, as a society, will make.

Christmas in Chimbote, Peru – 2004

By Michelle Nohner

Christmas in Chimbote, Peru is celebrated very differently than it is in the United States.  For Peruvians, Christmas doesn’t include all of the hustle and bustle that we have become so accustomed to over the years.  In Chimbote, the season purely revolves around the Nativity Story and the precious birth of Jesus.

At Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Christmas season begins with the celebration of the Immaculate Conception.  Evening mass is held outside the main church and begins with Gabriel appearing to Mary from the church’s steeple.  Gabriel, an elegant angel dressed in pure white and Mary, a young lady dressed in a light blue period robe with a headdress, enact Luke 1:28-38.

The Nativity is then dramatized weekly as each parish neighborhood presents a ‘posada’.  Each posada is a reenactment of Mary and Joseph looking for lodging in Bethlehem.  Mary, riding sidesaddle on a donkey, is led by Joseph to three houses.   At each house, Joseph knocks and asks for a room to stay.  Upon being denied access, Fr. Jack offers a prayer and Mary, Joseph and the crowd of neighborhood worshipers proceed to the next home in song.  Only at the third house are they offered a place to stay.  Mary and Joseph are then led around to the side of the home where, in the street or empty lot, a large manger has been constructed by the neighborhood.  More prayers are said and upon Jesus’ birth everyone begins to sing Silent Night.  All of the neighborhood children come dressed as angels and Peruvian shepherds.  The evening festivities include Christmas carols and dancing.

It seems, regardless of their economic situation, each home in Chimbote has a nativity scene in a place of honor.  The nativity scenes are not purchases all at once, but instead one piece at a time over many years.  The animals consist of any toy animal figurine that can be found in the home.  Jesus remains covered with a white cloth until midnight on Christmas Eve.  The nativity is commonly put away on the Feast of the Epiphany.  In one family, baby Jesus is passed from person to person and venerated prior to packing him way for the year.

After the fourth Sunday of Advent, the parish gathering area starts to take on the look of Menards’ “Winter Wonder Land”.  Artificial Christmas trees and decorations start to pop up in every corner and open space.

Christmas Eve is a lively day with many celebrations that include mission workers and parish groups.  Christmas Eve mass begins around 10:30 p.m. outside the main church and ends promptly at 11:45 p.m. with everyone singing Fr. Jack’s favorite song, “Go Tell it on the Mountain.”  All parishioners want to be back in their homes at midnight to begin celebrating the birth of Jesus.  These celebrations include removing the white cloth covering baby Jesus, drinking hot chocolate and eating the staple Christmas bread, panettone.   For most families, Christmas is celebrated by dancing with every member of the family at least once.  The dances go until early morning.

Following evening mass on Christmas Eve, Fr. Jack and a group of mission staff drive around Chimbote in taxis looking for the homeless.  The individuals and families are brought to the parish gathering area to enjoy Christmas music, sandwiches, panettone and hot chocolate served by long-term volunteers.

It is memories like these, with my brothers and sisters in Chimbote, which remind me to step back from the material nature of Christmas in the United States and to truly appreciate the real meaning of Christmas.

Feliz Navidad – Michelle Nohner

German Christmas

By Marion Anderson

One tradition that we’ve really kept is the German Christmas.

I was born in Germany and lived there for 20 years before I moved to the United States with my husband Jim in 1984.

“Something my Mom always cooked is rolled beef (Rolladen), She stuffed really thin slices of beef with spices, bacon, onions, and mustard. She made German potato balls (Knoedel) or Spaetzle (a homemade noodle) and some red cabbage.”

Introducing German traditions and foods to my family (Jim, Daniel and Sarah) is an important part of our holiday. I’ve tried all through their lives to always instill the German traditions that I had with them. I do have to respect their values and their American traditions just like they do mine. My kids are just lucky they get both worlds.”

German Christmas begins just like here on the 1^st Advent Sunday. It begins with advent wreaths and calendars. In Germany the wreaths have all red candles, but we now have taken on the Catholic colors from America,” pink and purple.

On Sundays, we’ll have a special half-hour session when we just come in and light the candles and have a cup of hot chocolate and some cookies. We do that for the four weeks before Christmas, every Sunday afternoon.”

Children’s advent calendars mark each day until Christmas with candy. “For the 24 days before Christmas, they get to open up a door of the calendar every day and there’s a piece of chocolate behind the door. So, they are busy eating all the little chocolates. Some Christmas traditions vary by region. In southern Germany, where I grew up in Karlsruhe, a town of about 500,000 people, we celebrated St. Nicolas Day on Dec. 6, with small gifts delivered by a family member dressed as St. Nicolas. I remember vividly the excitement my 2 brothers and I had on that day. We put our boots outside the front door and St. Nicolas delivered small treats or sometimes (especially when we were little) even came in person.

My parents put in oranges and nuts and just a little gift on some sort, like a $5 gift, and some chocolates. Our kids still love that tradition even at the ages of 27 and 20. To this day our Children still put their boots outside the front door on St. Nicolas Day. We also decorate our Christmas tree on December 6th.

On Dec. 24th the Christkindle (sort of the German version of Santa), a holiday spirit, delivers presents beneath the tree. A parent decorates the tree to surprise the children on Christmas Eve. My father used to go and get a tree on Christmas Eve. He’d lock himself into the living room and decorate the tree. Because the trees are fresh, we always had real candles on the tree. It was always very beautiful. The tree is only up for a couple of weeks in Germany, so it was pretty safe, On Christmas eve in the evening, we’d go to church and while we were at church the Christkindle would come and bring gifts. It’s basically like a fairy or an angel that comes when we leave the window open. After we got home we would eat supper and wait. Eventually, my dad would ring a little bell, and then we were able to go into the living room. We (my 2 brothers and I then had to sing a song, recite a poem or say a special prayer. Now that my brothers have their own families they have also kept that tradition alive. Most Germans take their trees down Jan. 6 to symbolize the three kings coming to visit baby Jesus, but families also take the tree down early to plant it in the yard.

Christmas Stollen is another wonderful part of the Christmas season. My grandma used to make it homemade every year and give it as a present during the season of advent. It can be found at all grocery stores during the holidays, but the meaning isn’t available on the package. The German fruitcake is rolled in powdered sugar and shaped into an oval loaf. The cake’s tapered oval shape “symbolizes baby Jesus in swaddling clothes.” Our oldest German Christmas item in their home is the Christmas pyramid we brought from Germany when we first moved to the United States. The wooden windmill-shaped decoration contains nativity scenes and other holiday or regional figurines on a center spindle. It is something that almost every family has in Germany. If you adjust it correctly, the heat from the candles will spin it, and then the inside of it will turn. The center spins as air movement rotates a propeller on top.

The biggest difference when celebrating in the Unites States is that people here don’t take 2 days off,

German Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve. That day all stores close at noon. The 25th and the 26th are two holidays where all the stores are closed. Those are the two days that you spend with your family or relatives. We still to this day celebrate German Christmas on Christmas on Christmas Eve and American Christmas on Christmas day.

God Bless,

Marion Anderson

I remember attending Midnight Mass in the small and very old Church of St. Joseph in Elkader.  This was the first time I had ever celebrated Christmas away from our home parish of St. Thomas in south Minneapolis.  These are some of the things I can still remember about that Christmas celebration.  In the sanctuary there were several aluminum Christmas Trees.  They were the ugliest Christmas trees I had ever seen.  The manger scene in the church was much smaller than the one back home and much less attractive.  The choir that sang at Mass had enthusiasm but not much talent.  I was no great musician myself but even I realized that the music that Christmas was “nothing special.”  My memories from our home parish of St. Thomas made the celebration at the Church of St. Joseph a disappointment.  Yet, that Christmas was one of the most special that I can recall.

As a priest it may seem odd for me to say that the worship had little impact on me, but that year it was true.  The Mass was a “let-down.”  Being away from home and the absence of my father was difficult.  But what made Christmas so wonderful that year was the presence of my grandmother, my aunts and uncles, my cousins and all the ways they tried make our visit a happy one.  I had never been able to celebrate Christmas with so many close relatives around me.  It was that year that I learned that it is the people with whom I celebrate that makes a Christmas great – not the decorations or the gifts or ever the worship of Midnight Mass.

It occurs to me that the Gospels never tell us that Mary or Joseph ever saw the angels who came to the shepherds or the star that guided the wise men.  If anything was able to add to the joy of the birth of Jesus, it must have been the wonderful people who came to share in their happiness.  It is the Presence of loved ones (rather than the Presents from loved ones) that make Christmas Day and the Christmas Season so special and happy.

I was fortunate to learn that lesson at the age of 14.  For some people it takes longer.

Presents are important, especially for the young. Every year, worship becomes a more important part of Christmas for me.  Yet, when you focus on the basics, it is still the people with whom we celebrate the birth of Jesus who make all the difference.

All gifts must be NEW and placed under the tree UNWRAPPED with the IDENTIFYING

ORNAMENT ATTACHED.  Please be aware of the deadline for your gift. Please have the gifts at church BEFORE the 10:30AM mass on the deadline date.

ALPHA PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTER:

Rectangular Ornament – Deadline is Sunday, December 18th  – Because Alpha is moving towards a Mobile Pregnancy Counseling Unit, and they have a large quantity of baby supplies on hand, they are changing their focus this Christmas.  26 Needy families from the Scott County area have been “adopted” by Alpha-please see the ornament for detailed gift ideas.  Alpha’s mission is still pregnancy counseling and support for women and families.

CATHOLIC CHARITIES:

Green Ornament – Deadline is Sunday, December 18th

FRANCISCAN BROTHERS OF PEACE:

White Ornament – Deadline is Sunday, December 18th

CHURCH OF THE BLESSED KATERI:

Red Ornament – Deadline is December 11th

SOUTHER VALLEY ALLIANCE:

Blue Ornament – Deadline is 11th

SHARING AND CARING HANDS:

Yellow Ornament – Deadline is December 18th

SAFE HAVEN:

Purple Ornament – Deadline is December 18^th

St. Michael Singles over 50 will hold their Christmas Party on December 2nd at Dangerfield Restaurant in Shakopee. Happy Hour at 5:00 p.m. and Dinner at 6:00 p.m. Just a reminder non St. Michael members are also welcome.  If you have questions and to sing up call Walter Jobst at walter@jobstinc.com 952-447-6024 – Sue Shaffer at kgenzler@charter.net 952-447-2962 or Donna Dupont at ddupont@integra.net 952-447-3995.

by Georgia Fritz

My favorite Christmas memories are those experienced as a child.  Weeks of preparation and anticipation preceded the season which was all about the newborn Jesus.  For us children the season began on the feast of St. Nicholas on Dec. 6th when the elaborately robed gentleman visited our school with bags of candy, nuts, and fruit for everyone.  Gifts were rare, but those we found under the tree on Christmas morning, we believed were from the baby Jesus.

Visiting the Creche before midnight mass was always special, as was the Christmas program where we all showcased our “musical talents”.  We celebrated with extended family on Christmas Day followed by the feast of St. Stephen on Dec. 26th, which was my uncle’s names day.

We all played games and cards while the women and older girls prepared a fabulous feast for all of us to share.  Christmas goose and lots of treats come to mind.  The season ended on Jan. 6th, the feast of the Three Kings, and also my grandmother’s birthday.  Then we took the tree down and put the decorations away for next year.