Hi friends,
Good day to you.
I am happy to write this to you. As you are, I am too excited to see you all and be with you all. I am transferred from Mauston to your place. Though the change is hard sometimes, it is wise to accept it as some of the changes are not in our control and need to hope that those changes are for something good. I would like to introduce myself a bit to you.
I am from a tiny village in India. Even from the time I was in my elementary level, the desire of becoming priest sprouted in my heart. So much so I joined the minor seminary which was started in my Diocese, in my seventh Grade. It is from that time I had been in the seminary for my priestly formation which was a longtime. After my secular education with a degree in Economics, I was in the seminary for my philosophical and theological studies for my priestly formation. After these, I was ordained priest. I had been seventeen years serving the Lord in various places. My parents are alive. I have two elder sisters and two younger brothers. They are all married and are doing well. I have several nephews and nieces.
As we are getting to travel together, we hope to have a good time of knowing each other well and helping each other in this spiritual journey. I am excited to know you much more deeper so that I may be able to cater to all your spiritual needs. That needs mutual trust and friendship which we need to develop in course of time. I am coming there with an open heart and mind to grasp easily your needs.  I hope you receive me the same way. Anything that you would need from me to fulfil your spiritual needs, I am ready to do to the best of my ability. The door of my office would always be open for you to approach me for your spiritual needs. You may feel free to approach me and do not be scared.
I am feeling a familial bond as I am going to be your Pastor. Let us all strive together to create a good, Christian, spiritual family, united in Christ and knit together with the bond of Christ’s love. May the love of Christ be the root of our relationship.
As we are in the weekend of July 4th, I would like to wish you all a very Happy July 4th. May you all enjoy the fruit of the Independence that the country achieved.
God bless you all.
Yours sincerely,
Fr. A. Antony
 

Praised be Jesus Christ!
 
On this, my last weekend here at St. Michael’s, St. Mary’s, and St. Kilian’s, I would like to once again thank God, Bishop Callahan, and all of you for the privilege of being able to serve as your pastor here for the last three years.  I have come to know so many wonderful people and there is much that I have learned.  I am grateful to you for your kindness and generosity, which you have shown me in so many ways.  Please stay in touch and don’t hesitate to stop in at Notre Dame if you’re ever passing through Chippewa Falls.  And most importantly, don’t listen to whatever the pastor of St. John’s in Marshfield says about me!  Maybe he’ll forget about me, but I doubt it.
 
I realize there are many who are still upset over the sudden changeover in pastors.  Many of us remember the days in our youth when pastors stayed put for 15 or 20+ years.  Not only is this very rare today, but it is virtually impossible to maintain given the number of parishes and the number of active priests in our Diocese.  When one or two priests need to move (for various reasons, such at retirement, poor health, etc.), the “dominos fall” and the Bishop must try to assign the “right priest” to the “right parish” as best as possible.  As long as we have as many small and separate parishes in our Diocese as we do, the likelihood of seeing a quick changeover in pastors is greater, especially in smaller parishes like our own.  Please try to understand the great difficulty our good Bishop faces!  Please pray for Bishop Callahan and, if you wish to write him, thank him for his ministry as Bishop of our Diocese, and thank him for sending another priest.
 
In the changes ahead, all of us, myself included, are being called to deeper faith and relationship with the Lord.  Big changes in life, as I preached about this past Easter, call us to this.  They teach us greater detachment from the things and persons of this world and summon us to fix our gaze on the Lord and things eternal.  May we not let ourselves get down about such changes and what is beyond our control, for this will only stifle the work the Holy Spirit wants to do on our hearts.
 
Please give a warm welcome next weekend to your new pastor, Fr. Antony Arokiyam, who is coming to you from St. Patrick’s in Mauston.  Get to know him.  Invite him over to your home.  Bear in mind that this is a sudden and unexpected change for him as well.  Undoubtedly, Fr. Antony will bring with him his own unique set of pastoral gifts and abilities, and will enrich your communities in new and unanticipated ways.  Be open to the Holy Spirit and receive him warmly!
 
Please pray for me and I will pray for you.  God bless you all!
Father Burish
 

Praised be Jesus Christ!
 
This weekend the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.  The greater our devotion for receiving the Holy Eucharist, the deeper our relationship is to Jesus Christ, and vice versa.  The Eucharist is and should be the source and summit of our faith.  For this reason, I thought I would dedicate a column to the central part of the Mass from which flows the Eucharist: the Eucharistic Prayer.  During the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass, many of us follow along in our missalette, while others simply listen and watch.  Either way, the more we understand what is going on in this part of the Mass, the more deeply we are able to participate in it with our prayers as the priest says the words.
 
If you pay close attention to the words of the prayer, you would notice that the words are addressed not to the congregation, or even to Christ, but to God the Father.  This is because the prayer of the priest at the altar conveys the worship offered by Christ to the Father while undergoing his passion, death, and resurrection.  Yes, this was an act of worship in the sense that Christ was making an offering to God his Father on our behalf.  And so in the Mass, the priest acts in the person of Christ and makes the same offering, along with all the baptized who make up the Church, Christ’s Body in the world.  When we, the Church, pray the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, we not only offer Christ to the Father, but we also offer ourselves – our whole lives, all our joys and sufferings, in union with Christ on the cross.  We are participating in Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, which occurs eternally and outside of time.  And to think some people say that Mass is boring!!  There is truly nothing else like it on earth!
 
As you may have noticed in your missalettes, there are several different versions of the Eucharistic Prayer, but they all essentially follow the same format.  These are the main parts:
1) Preface: The words of the preface are thanks and praise to God for his whole work of salvation, or some aspect of it.  The preface varies according to the day, feast, or time of year.
2) Sanctus: The Holy, Holy, Holy is sung in union with all the saints and angels in heaven worshipping God.
3) Epiclesis: When the priest extends his hands over the bread and wine at the altar, the Church implores the Holy Spirit (this is what “epiclesis” means) to consecrate them, that they may become the Body and Blood of Christ.
4) Words of Institution: the words and actions of Christ at the Last Supper are re-presented.  “This is my body…  This is my blood…  Take this, all of you…”  Through these words the sacrifice of Christ is effected.
5) Anamnesis: This is the Church remembering (this is what “anamnesis” refers to) what Christ has done for us.  We recall his blessed passion, glorious resurrection, and ascension into heaven, and we proclaim “the mystery of faith,” and say, for example, “we proclaim your death O Lord, and profess your resurrection, until you come again.”
6) Oblation/Offering: The Church offers Christ, the sacrificial Victim, back to the Father in the Holy Spirit.  We also offer ourselves so that we may be one with God and with each other.
7) Intercessions: We acknowledge that we celebrate this Eucharist in communion with the whole Church in heaven and on earth, for her and for all her members, living and deceased.
8) Final Doxology: The glorification of God is expressed and concluded with everyone’s response, “Amen.”
Next time you come to Mass, try to identify these parts of the Eucharistic Prayer.  In doing so, you will find that you can be more fully engaged in this beautiful act of worship to God.
 
Father Burish
 

Praised be Jesus Christ!
 
Is the Catholic Church simply black and white?  I’m not speaking about race here, but rather about matters of the Church’s teaching, especially moral teaching.  As a priest, I’ve heard this question from people on both ends of a spectrum.  On one end, I’ve heard people complain that what the Church teaches is too black and white – that it is out of touch with the complexities or “gray area” of life in the real world.  On the other end, I’ve heard people say that they appreciate the clarity of the Church in her teaching – and that there should be no room for “gray.”  Or, the latter would sometimes complain that priests, bishops, and the Pope come off being too gray when it comes to teaching on some issues.
 
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, Director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, in his 2012 article entitled “Black and White, or Gray?” stated, “Many human actions, when freely chosen, will always be unacceptable.  These actions, referred to as ‘intrinsic evils,’ are immoral regardless of circumstance.  Adultery would be an example of an intrinsic evil…  Many people who recognize that an action may be black may still be tempted to think that because their intentions are white, the ‘gray’ action may be done.  But good intentions cannot bleach the blackness of a deed…  Indeed, morality itself… is not fundamentally ‘gray’ at all, but is, by its very nature, a code of black and white.  In the final analysis, the cult of moral grayness is too easily a revolt against fixed and essential moral values.”
 
In August of 2016, Pope Francis addressed a group of Polish Jesuit priests and stated that “Future priests need to be formed not with general and abstract ideas, which are (overly) clear and distinct, but … fine discernment of spirits, so that they can help people in their concrete lives…  In life not everything is black and white, white and black.  No!  In life shades of gray predominate.  We must then teach how to discern within this gray.”
 
Do Fr. Tad Pacholczyk and Pope Francis contradict each other?  No, understood in their proper contexts, I believe there is continuity in what these two men of the Church are saying.  Is the Church to be black and white, or not?  I don’t believe this question can be answered simply, since it depends largely on what we’re talking about.  Pope Francis is acknowledging the fact that, in today’s world, life is complicated, and simplistic black and white answers to the dilemmas we face do not suffice.  We must pay attention to the details and circumstances to discern well the best course of action in keeping with the truth and good.  Fr. Pacholczyk also states that, “although fixed moral values must always guide our decisions, correctly applying a general moral principle to a particular situation will often require specific knowledge of the circumstances and details of that situation…  The question of my moral duty… is not a ‘gray area’ at all, nor a matter of relative morals, but rather a question of careful discernment, weighing variables, seeking to do the good, and so on.”
 
In my experience as a priest, I know how complicated life can be in today’s world if one is striving to live according to the Gospel.  I have talked to many people who experience difficulty accepting what the Church teaches on a variety of topics.  Many such persons have argued that what the Church teaches is too black and white.  But what I have found is that often such persons struggle with one or both of the following problems: (1) It isn’t so much that the Church’s teaching is black and white and overly simplistic, but rather a person’s understanding of the Church’s teaching can be overly simplistic.  As stated above, good discernment and the weighing of variables are necessary.  Sometimes we need to seek the counsel of another faithful person.  (2) Sometimes a person may understand the teaching of the Church/Gospel intellectually, but their heart has not yet experienced the love of Christ sufficiently to be converted, and to desire his will and trust in his goodness.
 
I think Catholic writer Isabella R. Moyer put it best when she said, “Our faith is neither solely about black-and-white pronouncements, nor is it simply about warm, fuzzy feelings.  It is about knowing what we believe, loving what we believe, and putting that belief into concrete action in the messiness of everyday life.”
                                                                                                                                                                  Father Burish