From the Desk of Angel Koerkel

Journey Into Holy Week Hosanna to the Lord!  Happy Palm Sunday, my friends!  As we are joyfully waving our palms and praising the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem, we also look to the days ahead this Holy Week; and so, I invite you to take a little journey into the upcoming Holy Triduum.  Remember, “triduum”…

3:16-ish Since this article is being published in our March 16 bulletin, I thought I’d share something kind of interesting (at least it is to me) about the Bible. Many years ago, I noticed that a lot of the verses revealing something key about who God is can be found at/around chapter three, verse sixteen-ish.…

RECONCILIATION – A REFRESHER Our students preparing to celebrate their First Reconciliations have been learning about the sacrament, what it is, and how to do it.  Keep them in your prayers as they open their hearts to Jesus in this way.  For the rest of us, with Advent just around the corner, this seems like…

Confirmation Two weeks from today, October 20, Bishop Boyea will celebrate our annual Jackson Region Confirmation Mass at Our Lady of Fatima.  Included in this Mass are candidates from all of the Jackson area parishes and this year we anticipate more than 100 young people, 17 of them from St. John the Evangelist, will receive…

When God Shows Himself When I first started going to Bible study, probably around 2008, I literally knew nothing about the Scriptures, God’s love letter to me.  Okay, maybe not “nothing”.  I knew that there were four Gospels and could name them; I knew there’s an Old and a New Testament; and I could name…

The Stations of Advent If you’re anything like me, by now – the 3rd Sunday of Advent – you’re tired of trying to come up with the “perfect” gift ideas, tired of the running around & busyness, and especially tired of hearing the same five Christmas songs on endless repeat.  Yet, today, this Gaudete Sunday,…

The Sacraments of Initiation While there are seven sacraments in the Church, the three that are the “Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist – lay the foundations of every Christian life,” (CCC 1212, emphasis original*) and usually at this time of the year we begin to get a lot of inquiries from parents…

“With great power comes great responsibility.” Those words, spoken by the fictional Uncle Ben to his nephew, Peter Parker (aka: Spiderman), might be from a comic book, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t true and worth serious consideration.  As Catholic Americans, we belong to two of the most powerful institutions on the face of the…

Getting From Point A to Point B  Although it may be hard to believe, we are about to enter into an incredible journey together.  This week we will celebrate Ash Wednesday, aka: point A, and begin our travels through Lent toward our destination, point B, the holiest season of the year: the Triduum.  The word…

Have you ever been so busy you can’t even think straight?  I don’t know what to write here.  I’m tasked with writing a bulletin article this week, but like many of you, I’ve been very busy lately with lots of other “stuff” and have put it off until this moment.  Now I sit here, in…

If you’re a parent, or if you’ve ever had a parent, then I’m sure that you are at least somewhat familiar with the concept of ‘house rules’.  These are the things that we, as parents, decide to enforce within our homes for the safety and well-being of our children as individuals, but also for the…

Happy Mother’s Day and Happy Good Shepherd Sunday! Moms (including stepmoms, Godmothers, care-givers, aunts who are like second moms, and all the other possible mom-like roles out there), what do you have in common with a shepherd, particularly a shepherd of the middle east, a couple of millennia ago? You might, understandably, think, “Not a…

Lent is just around the corner. Usually, at this time of the year, we hear (or ask) the question, “What are you giving up for Lent?” a lot….and that’s a valid question; it should spark us to reflection and prayer on where God is calling me to go deeper into relationship with Him and how…

Clearly, we don’t have the space here to go into all of the nuances and connections between the story of the creation of woman and Jesus’ teaching on divorce mentioned in today’s reading, but we can take an overview look at some of the highlights. The first, and probably foundational piece to understand, is the…

Happy St. Valentine’s Day! Happy World Marriage Day! And Happy Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time! If you’re married, you’ve probably been spending a lot of time together at home over this past year. My husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary back in August in the midst of the pandemic. It wasn’t quite how…

My dad is an atheist and my mom was a fallen-away Catholic. Sadly, the early part of my story is not as unusual as I used to think. My mom had me Baptized when I was a toddler because that’s what you do with children and she had been Baptized in the Catholic Church. We…