December 23, 2009
A Fair Trade Story
Dale and I were fairly new to St. Anne’s when we we attended a Whole Community Catechesis program that was done by Sandy, and taught us about Fair Trade and its benefits. Since then, while we are not solely Fair Trade and organic, we have certainly made an effort. I commented on a Facebook post made by Fair Trade about how Zac and Skylar enjoy playing Fair Trade games while we are shopping to keep themselves busy and was asked to write a blog about incorporating Fair Trade into our family life. The blog for Fair Trade was the first I had ever done (or thought about doing) and this is the second. Father Don, saw the blog and thought that it would be nice to post it to the parish blog, and I agree. Afterall, it was St. Anne’s that introduced us to Fair Trade, and through one of St. Anne’s wonderful family programs we were able to learn about this little thing called Fair Trade, which has now become part of our lives. So check out “My Fair Trade Kids”, and thanks St. Anne’s for the introduction to Fair Trade.
November 24, 2009
Life is Worth Living and Giving
My name is Linda Bevec. My husband Frank and our children Frankie, Claire and Grace joined St. Anne’s 4 yrs ago this month. We feel so very fortunate to have found not only an amazing church to come to for prayer and worship and song, but a true faith family to be part of and grow with over the years.
As some of you already know, our daughter Claire was born with a rare genetic kidney and liver disease. At birth we were told she may only live a few days. She has been through countless doctor visits, surgeries, hospitalizations, endless tests and procedures, medications, reoccurring chronic illnesses, and a lot of poking and probing. And here she is, now 8 ½ years later; and her life has been pretty amazing for only having a few days to live.
But now Claire’s life (and ours) is once again at a crossroads. Her kidney function has continued to decline each year and she’s now nearing end stage renal failure. The extra challenge in all of this is that neither Frank or I, or anyone in our extended family can be a living kidney donor for Claire. None of us share her same blood type of O. So we’ve begun the rather awkward search for a non-related living donor. In my research I’ve been amazed to find that every day, 16 to 18 people die while waiting for a transplant of a vital organ, such as a heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, lung or bone marrow.
The need for organ donors is astonishing:
- More than 100,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants.
- Every 11 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.
- Experts suggest that each of us could save or help as many as 50 people by being an organ and tissue donor.
Being an organ donor is a selfless act of altruism in the purest sense. Or, as my friend Kate said, it is the very essence of the Eucharist. This is my body given up for you. It is life giving and life saving. It is being both broken and blessed. It is a gift beyond any measure of gratitude. And it is so much more than sharing a same blood type and doing a friend a favor. It’s the sharing of something deeply emotional, personal and spiritual; a kindred connection, a real calling, an assignment. At this time, we’re blessed to have 3 people who have offered to be a donor for Claire. But even prospective donors will have only a 40-50% chance of actually being a match after further testing and evaluation. So we prayerfully decided to share our story with you, our faith family. And our hope has now become not only to find a kidney donor for Claire, but to inspire everyone to think about the thousands of men, women, and children who, just like Claire, are holding on to hope. Perhaps you’ve never really thought of organ donation. I never did. Or, maybe you have fears that are really just questions in need of answers. The topic of organ donation may not be the most comfortable thing for us to talk about, but it really is a topic about LIFE more than DEATH.
We recently learned about an organization called Donate Life and asked for some brochures to make available that would further explain organ donation. The woman I spoke to at the regional office told me it just happens to be what they call Donor Sabbath Week. Every November, donation and transplant families across the country speak within their faith communities to share the life-saving and enhancing gifts passed to others through organ donation. They raise awareness of the urgent need for organ and tissue donors and dispel fears about the incompatibility of religion and donation. During this season of “Thanksgiving” it’s a beautiful reflection on all we have been given; and all we have to share. Organ donors not only heal and strengthen their recipients, but families, friends and the larger community in which they live. What better place to spread that message of LIFE than in our own faith community? Nearly every religion in the U.S. supports organ and tissue donation. They regard it as the ultimate act of compassion and generosity. Pope John Paul sums up the position of the Catholic Church in these words:
“The Gospel of life is to be celebrated above all in daily living, which should be filled with self-giving love for others…Over and above such outstanding moments; there is an everyday heroism, made up of gestures of sharing, big and small, which build up an authentic culture of life. A particularly praiseworthy example of such gestures is the donation of organs…to offer a chance of health and even of life itself to the sick who often have no other hope.”
The more we’ve learned about organ donation, the more strongly we felt about sharing our story – not just because our daughter is in need of a kidney, but more importantly because she is one of thousands in need of this gift of life. Surely some of you here today are organ donors and have already declared it on your license or you carry a donor card in your wallet. Maybe some of you are recipients of organ donation – and you would not be here today had you not received such a tremendous gift. Or, maybe you have lost a loved one who was an organ donor, and you have an amazing story to tell about how his/her death gave new life to others in need.
Every year, thousands die because a virtually free gift is too seldom given. Those who die are often bright, young, talented people with years of living ahead….except for organ failure. The gift of life – organ, tissues, and eyes – is one that costs only the decision to give, yet that decision can literally mean life or death of someone in need.
The situation of our daughter’s kidney failure and transplant is challenging and sad for us to face. But it has also given us the opportunity to share something truly wonderful…even joyful. Every one of her 8 birthdays has been nothing short of a miracle. Everyday events in her life are precious…watching her shoot hoops with her big brother, learning to ride a bike, hitting her first homerun, holding her new baby sister, making her first communion.
And to think that her life will continue because of one person’s decision to be an organ donor…how could I not be joyful and share that message and encourage everyone everywhere to think about how they too can save a life like Claire’s. By sharing our story we may help save the life of someone you love in the future if they are ever in need of an organ transplant…or maybe even your life.
If you feel led to learn more about being a kidney donor for Claire, or would like information on organ donation in general, please contact me.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity to share our story and please keep our family in your prayers as we make this journey with Claire.
Life is not only worth living.
Life is worth giving.
-Linda, Frank, Frankie, Claire & Grace Bevec
Email: Lbevec@wi.rr.com
To learn more about Auto Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease and Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis: www.arpkdchf.org
To learn more about organ donation: www.donatelife.net
To follow our journey: www.caringbridge.org/visit/clairebevec
October 15, 2009
Solidarity in Stride
Recently, I was asked by the World Mission Office to speak at St. Roman’s weekend Masses on behalf of the Mission Appeal for La Sagrada Familia. The weekend readings included Numbers 11:25-29, James 5:1-6 and Mark 9:38-48 and I attempted to share an experience of humility and humor with the good people of Milwaukee. Since St. Anne’s is near and dear to me I mentioned you, of course, and thought you might like to read about my sometimes sane, sometimes silly moments: …My name is LeAnn Rogan and I am from St. Anne’s Parish in Pleasant Prairie. Round trip from my home to St. Anne’s is 23 miles. Some parishes are worth the drive! Worth the time and effort it takes to celebrate a weekend Mass together. I hope you feel that way about St. Roman’s. I already do! Thank you, Father Brian…
I am here at the request of the sisters from World Mission Ministries on behalf of the people of La Sagrada Familia, our Archdiocesen sister parish in the Dominican Republic. Last summer my teenage daughter and I took the 2,000 mile journey to spend 8 days with the beautiful people of La Sagrada Familia. Another parish, so worth the effort of traveling those many miles!
While it was difficult to leave my husband and son behind, we soon discovered many blessings in our huge extended human family abroad. Of course, we missed our shower at home. A bucket of non-drinkable water poured over one’s head is marvelously refreshing on a hot day in the Dominican Republic (which is every day in the Dominican Republic). About 25% of the homes in the village where we stayed do not have bathrooms. I am asking for your help today to change that.
There are 22 villages in the parish, which serves 30,000 people, with just two spectacular priests.
Masses in this desert-like province of Azua near the Haitian border are celebrated about once a month in each community as the good priests of our Milwaukee Archdiocese, Fr. Oriol and Fr. Marti, travel from village to village trying to meet the many needs of the poor. Some parishioners there will walk 10 miles to a neighboring village just to experience the miracle of Eucharist more often than once a month.
On Monday of this week I decided to walk 10 miles. I wanted to make real this experience of solidarity with our sister parish of La Sagrada Familia. I wanted to feel in my body, in my legs, this experience of “being” church even as I walked to church buildings. My intention was to pray for the people of La Sagrada Familia as well as the people of the parishes I passed, St. Lucy’s in Racine and St. Sebastian’s in Sturtevant, for those of my own parish at St. Anne’s, and of course for YOU here at St. Roman’s…which I did…but I confess that one’s mind wanders when they’re on a journey that’s sure to take longer than Gilliagan’s “3 Hour Tour”!
I wondered: “Will Jesus be disappointed that I brought along a cell phone and a bottle of vitamin water in lieu of a walking stick and sandals?”
I got distracted by my wet shoes and socks from Sunday night’s rain-water soaking the grass…At least I HAVE shoes, I remember thinking. Most of the children we met in the D.R. were barefoot, but Fr. Oriol sent me a recent picture showing many of the kids wearing matching pink Crocks surely donated by a generous someone here in the states. Maybe YOU…
I was distracted by how noisy Highway 11 was that day – full of traffic and construction noise. That made me think two things: one, that our taxes and stimulous dollars are actually hard at work, and two, boy, there are roads in the D.R. that get washed away in the rains over and over again prohibiting people from getting food, medical care and even the Holy Eucharist! Our stewardship can help with that…yours and mine! Fr. Oriol drives a 4-wheel drive truck that will one day require maintenance to keep him able to get to the people that so desperately need him…that so desperately need YOU!
I passed the Associated Bank on my walk and saw men washing it’s windows, and again thought two things:
one, they are blessed to have jobs, however menial, in this economy, and two, windows! Most homes in the village of Ganadero where we stayed do not have glass windows, nor even screens to keep the bugs out. In fact, one night a cat jumped right on my bed in the middle of the night! I remember our first night in Ganadero an arm came through the whole in the cement that was our “window”. It was our house-mother trying to show us how to open and close the metal blinds for privacy as we got ready for bed. I said in my Sesame Street Spanish, “Oh, abierto, cerado, abierto, cerado…Gracias!” and we all laughed together.
I passed a strip mall with many empty stores on my walk, too. While it is a sad example of our economy’s slump, how much worse it is in the Dominican Republic! The villages do not have stores as we know them. Where we stayed there was one little building about the size of the old FOTOMAT’s that used to dot the streets of Milwaukee. Remember those? It sold individual boxes of cereal and bags of water. Yes, I said “bags”, about the size of a ziplock sandwich bag. You bite off the plastic corner and squirt clean water into your mouth. Pure refreshment! Yet another way for you and I to live today’s Gospel…Perhaps YOU can be the one who gives drink to the thirsty…Please give to this mission appeal, for we are the Body of Christ, so when one of us is thirsty …all of us are thirsty…
As I neared St. Lucy’s on my walk the church bells began to chime, but as I neared St. Sebastian’s dogs were barking. This, too, took me back to Ganadero where many wild dogs, skinny, sickly, flea-infested dogs, wander sadly during the day, and fight madly in the dark. They do not know the hope of the people, the people who smile easily, love deeply and give generously of what little they have to us who visit, and who pray for YOU at every Mass in the D. R.
There are two teenagers from Ganadero, now my friends, who walked to neighboring villages weekly to catechize children and adults before my daughter and I arrived. We celebrated over 100 baptisms while we were there made possible by the witness and the walking done by Ana and Andreina. (Perhaps we should call them Eldad and Medad today !) What joy! What a privilege for us to see this commitment by teenagers to their neighbors! To Christ!
It was thoughts of THEM, thoughts of Ana and Andreina, that got me through the end of my long 10 mile walk. Ahead of me was what seemed like a mountain. Now, you must know that I live in Mount Pleasant and the joke has always been that there are no mountains in Mount Pleasant (unless you count the dump), but sure enough, ahead of me across from the Walmart was what looked like a very steep hill for my very tired legs to climb. I swear I had never noticed it before, not from my car anyway.
Now, of course, by this point in my 10 mile walk my Vitamin Water bottle was empty…and I thought to myself…That’s it! Empty thyself…Like I tell my daughter who runs cross country for St. Catherine’s High School, “Leave it all on the course!” Empty thyself….Less of me…more of Jesus…Empty thyself…because, of course, we’re never really empty, but full, fueled by the Holy Eucharist from the day before I could complete my walk; I could rush home to draft these humble words, with the Holy Spirit’s help, for you fine people…to encourage you to give generously to this Mission Appeal…to live the words of St. James today and not let your “wealth rot away”…Please share with the people of La Sagada Familia…Show them you stand in solidarity with them by your actions from abroad…
Turns out I beat Gilligan afterall – my walk only took 2 hours and 36 minutes!
So I can thank you from the bottom of my gluteous maximus, thigh and calf muscles, too, and most especially I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you will generously share with the people of La Sagrada Familia… Thank you for listening. May God bless you abundantly, and may He help you find the time and energy to take a good, long walk!
