You may or may not think you know Fr. Tom Venne. But if you are part of St. Anthony on the Lake in any way, Fr. Tom has touched your life.

If you pray in our church, you benefit from him moving our worshiping community out of the basement of the school into our beautiful church building and the parish offices out of the old convent, where staff meetings were at the kitchen table. Our offices, the good sisters’ former tiny bedrooms, moved into functioning staff offices.

If you have a Peru family or are associated in any way with our sister parish in Peru, you are benefiting from how naturally he followed in the footsteps of Jesus in his love of the poor.

If you or your family have been part of the Family Program, you are benefiting from his dedication to the vision of lifelong faith formation.

If you or your children have been students in our school, you are benefiting from his support of Catholic Education, growing our grade school to include a middle school.

If you or your children have been on a teen mission trip, a teen retreat, or taken part in any youth activities, you are benefiting from his devotion to adolescents’ faith journey. He was the first youth minister St. Anthony ever had, leading the first Confirmation retreat and being at every retreat in his tenure here, starting the Wednesday night confirmation small groups, leading the first mission trip and taking our youth and leaders to the National Catholic Youth Conferences long before the archdiocese did.

If your children have spent any time in our childcare room, or eaten donuts in Fellowship Hall, you are benefiting from Fr. Tom’s commitment to the young and the old and every age in between.

In his time here, he knew every parishioner by name. He would ask you about your family with an amazing capacity for recalling details about each member. Before First Communions, he mapped out a route to visit the home of every First Communicant and personally delivered a gift to them.

We have been triply blessed to have Fr. Tom’s legacy supported, developed and enhanced by the priests who followed him, Fr. Joe Hornacek and Fr. Tony Zimmer, priests he loved, entrusted with this legacy, and have lovingly shepherded with their leadership.

If Fr. Tom Venne touched your life in any way, you have been blessed to know a true model of selfless love.

On a personal note, Fr. Tom hired me at a challenging time in my life. With his gentle steadfast unconditional love for everyone and selfless expression of faith, he was a leader who I knew I would follow anywhere.

Fr. Tom made sure every mission trip, family camping, sacramental prep, etc., included his favorite song, This Little Light of Mine. Fr. Tom, thanks for so authentically shinning God’s love. Your light will continue to shine for generations to come. Thank you for serving God, loving us and bearing the light. Well done, good and faithful servant.

Eternal rest grant unto Fr. Tom, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

“Ambassadors for Humanity.” I loved this description of the Artemis II astronauts. While I am not a space geek, this mission captured my mind and heart as the crew ventured farther into space than anyone in history and they shared their rich descriptions about our common home, Earth. They had a unique perspective that is impossible to duplicate from where we stand on this planet.

The astronauts were so articulate and insightful about the emotional experience of seeing Earth from deep space. Christina Koch, referred to Earth as “a ‘lifeboat’ in the darkness hanging undisturbingly in the universe, a tiny and fragile entity surrounded by the ‘blackness’ of space.” She emphasized that it wasn’t just the planet itself that struck her, but the vast “blackness around it” that highlighted our world’s isolation and need for care.

She also said, “Planet Earth—you are a crew,” suggesting that everyone on the planet is “inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked.” She compared the fact that the astronauts depended on each other, as humanity, we depend on each other in our shared existence in the universe.

The space travelers urged unity and gratitude for the home planet, emphasizing that the experience deepened their perception of how special it is to be a human on Earth. Their collective message focused on the planet’s fragility and the inescapable bond shared by all humanity. The crew expressed that the “human experience” was the most extraordinary part of the mission. They urged global unity, with astronaut Jeremy Hansen, noting that while the science was incredible, the sight of a “tiny Earth” reinforced the value of supporting and loving one another.

As they circled behind the moon, contact was lost for 40 minutes. When the signal finally flickered back into life the voice of Christina Koch crackled back to mission control. “We will explore. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers, we will do radio astronomy, we will found companies. We will bolster industry, we will inspire… But ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.”

Those who have traveled into space describe a profound appreciation of the uniqueness of Earth and that all humans share the planet together. The experience of seeing our planet surrounded by the blackness of space truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same things keep every single person on planet Earth alive.

Austin Glover, referred to Earth as a “spaceship” created for humanity, urging people to love God and their neighbors. While this was not a religious mission and little else was said about God, it sure sounded like they were describing what God created, who God is and what God does! I am grateful to these brave souls who reminded me what a gift it is just to be human on the planet Earth.

One privilege of my ministry is meeting with families to help plan the funerals of their loved ones. I always learn something important from spending time with people during these sacred times in their lives. Recently we met with the family of Dave who I had not seen in many years. Their children grew up in our programs, but I had lost contact with them.

The first thing they wanted to share was a story. They said that many years ago Dave and his sister had a conversation about the fact she was having trouble praying, sharing that in the many words of her prayer, she was not connecting with God. She recalled Dave responded that in Family Program he had learned a prayer could be as simple as saying the name of Jesus, the person’s name you are praying for and close with the name of Jesus. So, she and Dave’s family had adopted that as a form of prayer in their life. It especially became a bond between the two grown siblings. She said, years later, as she sat with her brother while he was in hospice, this was how they prayed together, over and over again. Jesus. Dave. Jesus.

I hope you will not think less of me if I share that I don’t remember exactly teaching that prayer 30 years ago in Family Program. But I am sure we catechized about the power in the name of our God, Jesus Christ. The conversation reminded me to never underestimate what sharing faith from your heart can do in another person’s life.

It also reminded me of St. Theresa’s advice, “I (pray) like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and He always understands me.” St. Theresa also is credited with advising, “Pray as you can, not as you can’t.” There are as many ways to pray as there are stars in the sky.

In Dave’s case, it was, as a friend affectionately called it, a “Jesus Sandwich.” Doesn’t this reflect what we hear in Scripture? “And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do…If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)

I think Dave’s sister was not believing her “Jesus Prayer” was a magical formula, but it was expressing her trust in Jesus and how she was lovingly entrusting her brother into God’s care. It is a commitment to live God’s will, even if it is not understandable to us in the moment. It is a prayer of surrender to God’s authority in our lives.

Dave learned something that he could have kept to himself. But he was a witness of faith by simply sharing the prayer he was given. The prayer from his heart became a lasting gift to others.

Jesus. Dave. Jesus. Rest in peace, Dave.

One night last week I couldn’t sleep. So I got up way too early and went to my desk in my home office. I thought I may as well get some work done. To be honest, I was not happy as I sat in the dark with only the light from my computer, feeling chilly, and thinking this winter of short cold days is getting old. I was definitely thinking crabby thoughts. It was too early to get up but my mind was crowded with concerns about people I love, unresolved issues to be faced, the all too quickly passing of time, the lack of peace in the world…

The monkey chatter in my mind was interrupted by a sound that I didn’t expect in the cold dark winter morning. Through the window I faintly heard a bird chirp and I smiled. Daylight is on its way, the earth is moving toward light and warmth, my life is not a problem to be solved but a holy mystery to move through with trust and hope. A bird chirping in February was a graced call to remember this.

Sometimes one small thing can change everything.

Recently a book was published called Born Survivors. It is an inspiring story about three women, torn from their husbands, all sent to concentration camps. They were able to hide their pregnancies, which revealed would have meant immediate death to them and their unborn children. Despite unthinkable conditions and malnourishment, in the last days of Nazi Germany, they gave birth and the three babies, now in their 80’s, survive to this day.

There was so much about their stories that were heartbreakingly sad and unbelievably heroic, as well as a testimony to the human spirit and sacrificial love. But one scene especially stayed with me. One of the women said she saw her husband only once after they were taken prisoners. For a brief moment, from across the camp, they were close enough that she could hear him say to her, “Stay strong and only think good thoughts.”

That is remarkable. Experiencing the depth of cruelty humanity is capable of, he gave his wife and unborn child this gift of the call to goodness, in a loving thought that still inspires 80 years later.

Isn’t this how our God comes to us? In the bleakest times. In the cold lonely moments. In the one bird’s reminder of the turning of warmth and light. In a few words from someone who loves you to rise above malevolence.

May a bird chirp for you when the winter seems too long. May someone give you words of goodness to hold fast to in the world’s darkness. May these small and great miracles remind us of a God who loves us in the mundane state of tired crabbiness and will find a way to give us a lifeline of hope and find a shred of goodness for each other when we are most lost. 

My brother gave a talk at his church. In it he said:

“I grew up on the East Coast and Midwest amongst parishes, schools, relatives, and holidays that were Catholic as far as the eye could see. It was a loving, if ineffable, God at the center of it all.”

My siblings and I were impressed with his word choice, “ineffable.” Our dad always had an appreciation of a good “word choice.” 

As I reflected on his description of our religious upbringing, I had to agree. We learned who God was through a kind of osmosis. Our parochial education and extended family kept us mainly in circles of people who all believed the same things and held the same world view, as well as the after-life possibilities of heaven and hell.

One thing we knew for sure: God was God. We thanked Him for our food before meals and for our blessings at bedtime. We worshiped Him on Sunday. We knew Jesus died an awful death on the cross for us. We loved His mother and she loved us.

The God that I grew up knowing was more mystery than definable. More known though sacrament and symbol than conversation in prayer. More caretaker than companion. This wasn’t all bad. As my brother said, we grew up believing, trusting and loving a God who loved us.

I looked up the definition of ineffable, “too great or extreme to be expressed in words.” It denotes qualities that transcend human comprehension. I think it is a good thing to believe that God is so holy and has a love for us that is so intense and beautiful it cannot be expressed in words. It signifies the respect we should have for the fundamental gap between the magnitude of the divine and the limits of human expression and comprehension.

Looking back, I do wish we had learned more about Jesus from reading and reflecting on Scripture. I think my relationship with Jesus has flourished more since I have learned this practice. I am grateful as an adult to live every day with an awareness of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, promised to be with me always. I believe the Holy Spirit guides me with gifts of knowledge, understanding, wisdom and courage, given to me at Baptism. I have learned these gifts are available for me to call upon every day.

More than anything, I am grateful that my faith was cultivated as a mystery of unfathomable love. It was a blessing lasting a lifetime. I just hope I have passed it on to those in my care so they will know whatever the question, our God will answer it with love though we may not have the vision to know or see it until we are finally home with our ineffable God.

November is a soulful spiritual month in the Catholic heart. How could it not be, when the first day recognizes saints and the second day remembers souls?

November begins with saints. We honor the men and women we believe are exemplars of lives well lived. They remind us, our life mission is simply to love God above all things in our own unique way. Like Saint Francis, who taught peace and simplicity. Saint Joseph, who demonstrated unmitigated devotion to Mary and Jesus. Saint Therese of Lisieux, who invited us to do little things with great love and who inspired Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who loved the dirty, dying poor as if each one was her precious child. Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who in the concentration camp said, “Let me take the place to die for this man. He has a family.” Or Saint Mary, Mother of God, who simply said, yes, her fiat, to love, no matter the cost.

The month moves into the second day, remembering the souls who we have known, loved and lost from this world. We stand with those who grieve, who so bravely move on though the way is difficult, the time disorienting and the nights lonely. They do it for the sake of those who are left. The bereaved embody what courage means – to know no light but move forward because all we have is the next step, the next day, and for the sake of the gift of life they still have.

The month moves forward darkening. The days become shorter. The air chills. The colors of October literally fall and we are faced with the reality of the memory of winter reawakening. Between us and summer, there are boots, driving in the snow and even shorter days. But as beings of hope we begin to open our mind and heart to the unique gifts of the coming season- holiday lights making up for the natural darkness, the wonder of a white snow filled morning, a cup of hot chocolate and the cozy lure of warm homes and the peace of restful long nights.

And just when you think, “Yikes, winter is going to be long and cold,” the secular world calls out and says, “Wait. Give thanks for all you have been given!” And we collectively, as a people, count our blessings. One by one we remember all we have been given- family who treasure us, home to shelter us, food to sustain us, friends to remind us to laugh. We give thanks for the Christian community who faithfully tell the story of a God who loved us so, born in poverty, with only the love of a young mother and a loyal stepfather to survive in this world. That is a God who exemplifies radical trust.

Finally, on the last day of this month we begin Advent, waiting in joyful hope to remember, above all else, God who loved us into being, lived so we can become saints here on earth and one day souls together in the Kingdom of peace and justice.

Know I wish you and your family the soul and grace of these days. May this Thanksgiving be a celebration of all God’s generous blessings in your life. 

Have you wondered about our theme this year? Why, Open the Door, and to what? The theme is inspired by this being a special year! 2025 was officially proclaimed by Pope Francis as a Jubilee Year, also known as a Holy Year, which is a special year of grace traditionally occurring every 25 years.

The Jubilee Year & the Holy Door are deeply intertwined concepts in Catholicism. The Holy Door is a ceremonial entrance in each of the Vatican’s four major basilicas- opened only during Jubilee years. Pilgrims come to cross the threshold of these doors. The practice encourages Catholics to reflect on their journey of faith and place their trust in God’s promises. The Holy Door and the Jubilee Year serve as powerful reminders of God’s abundant mercy & forgiveness. It is a call for Catholics to embark on a spiritual journey of conversion, renewal and deeper communion with Christ.

Most significantly, the Holy Door can remind us, Jesus himself, is referred to as the “door” through which we are saved. May it encourage us to center our life to follow and be guided by Christ.

One thing that came to mind when I thought about our theme was a little story about a boy named Josh who had been bullied. By some grace he had the idea to respond by adopting one simple act, opening the door to fellow students. At first his gesture was not understood but in time, through doing this, he opened up relationships with his peers. Josh took opening the door literally and it opened the hearts of his classmates and changed the culture of the school. I began to reflect on how differently I feel when simply greeted by a smile or not. How would our families, our communities, our Church, our lives be changed by such simple things as a smile, a warm greeting, a kind word, or an open door?

The most important question is, will this theme have meaning to each of us? What doors is Jesus opening for you? What doors does Jesus call you to open?

This year’s theme is an invitation to open doors to opportunities and graces offered by Christ to us in any given day.

“Another week of Bible Camp in the books!” said Tasha Baures, who capably led our Bible Camp this year, with our dedicated Faith Formation staff Lea Boyd, Ann Grunwaldt, Debbie Kusch, Michelle Lukas and incredibly wonderful volunteers, especially Ann Fons, Jack and Maribeth Blankenheim, as well as many fabulous leaders of every age from middle school through our retired gifted pros.

A parishioner, whose children are in their 40’s, said to me that she sent her children to Vacation Bible School as it was known at the time, the only place it was offered, at the Lutheran Church.VBS has been a tradition in Protestant churches for decades. We Catholics are latecomers to this model of catechesis. But we are catching up quite well.

Often as Catholics, we gave prayer books, statues and medals as gifts. While these were, and are, great gifts, children were rarely gifted a Bible, and certainly Scripture was an afterthought in a catechetical lesson. We weren’t taught this is a library, preserving a legacy of our ancestors in faith and how it is a chronicle of Salvation History. We weren’t shown the beauty of the poetry of God’s Word. The biggest compliment I hear about a homily is “Father made it sound like the readings related to my life.” When actually everything in Scripture relates to our life! I believe that was the point of God’s Holy Spirit inspiring the writers. 

So, why is Bible Camp, as we call it today, valuable and important?

1.) It presents the narratives in Scripture as accounts that give us lessons for life today; the importance of being brave for our faith like in David and Goliath, reminding us how to listen to God and do hard things as Moses and of learning from the Master Teacher, Jesus, that the bonds of death are broken by his Resurrection.

2.) It presents these lessons of our faith through a joyful, vibrant methodology.

3.) If a child participates in most years of childhood, they have 50 Scripture stores in their minds and in their hearts laced with memories of warm relationships.

4.) It is an intergenerational experience, where all ages are learning and teaching, from preschoolers to octogenarians.

5.) It vitalizes our spirituality by combining song, story, art, games, memorization, beauty, nature, and snacks into a summer experience of learning and fun.

6.) It creates community. Relationships are formed between our Catholic school children and Family Program children, between new parishioners and longstanding members and between staff and volunteers.

7.) It is a leadership development program where middle school, high school and all ages of adults work side by side to catechize and share our faith.

8.) It deepens the knowledge, understanding and inspiration found in the Bible, God’s Living Word, meant to inspire us each and every day.

9.) It helps our children come to know our God who loves them dearly.

Bible Camp is something every parish should support, and every family should prioritize.

My 1^st grade granddaughter was talking to her mom after Bible camp and asked, “Mom, are we Israelites?”

It was a great week. We all learned a lot. But I guess we have more work to do. Hope to see you part of this wonderful week next year!