WINFIELD – Straight from the New Testament, Father Jerry Schweitzer shared the original stories of the Blessed Virgin Mary and other women in the Bible at a Women’s Lenten Retreat hosted by the One Catholic Family parishes at Holy Spirit on Feb. 7.
“How did the women of the New Testament respond to the Eucharist?” asked the senior priest and scripture scholar in an inspirational address sprinkled with humor and personal insights. “What are these women like in sacred scripture, before the images added by the (Catholic) Church later?”
Father Schweitzer pointed out that some of the Gospels don’t even mention the Blessed Mother, while St. Paul’s letters only note, “Jesus Christ was born of a woman.”
Luke’s Gospel, written in the last 20 years of the first century A.D., is the best source of information about Jesus’ mother, while John introduces her in his second chapter at the Wedding in Cana, the priest explained.
“How are we pregnant with the Word of God in our life?” Father Schweitzer asked.
“When you are reading the Word of God as a lector, or distributing the body of Christ at communion, are you enthusiastic? It should be exciting to do it each time.
“Always proclaim the Mass as if it were your first Mass or your last Mass – because you never know when it will be your last. That’s why each day you come to the liturgy is so important.”
Father Schweitzer likened the Eucharistic celebration to a feast. “How well do we prepare ourselves to come to Christ’s meal on Saturday night or Sunday? (You) consume the body of Christ as he consumes (you); there is no greater intimacy.
“When the deacon says, ‘Go and share the Good News’ at the end of Mass, do we share what just happened to us at that feast, or is the Eucharist just fast food – go to church, get in the bread line, get the food, eat it and leave, like you do when you go to the drive-thru, order food and eat it in the car?”
When the priest holds the host in front of us, Father Schweitzer said, “We come in our poverty to the Eucharist and we leave rich, not with fast food, but with the sustenance that gives us life.”
“The words about going out and sharing the Word after Mass stuck with me,” said Deborah Janik, a Holy Spirit parishioner anxious to “increase my spiritual life and prepare myself for Lent. What I want to answer, though, is that nobody wants to listen (to the Word). Only when I bring Holy Communion to someone do I feel they are like a sponge, soaking up the prayers.
“I truly believe the Eucharist is the real body and blood of Jesus,” she added.
Father Schweitzer, 78, who began discerning his priestly vocation as a second grader, shared a story from his days as a seminarian, when he developed a close friendship with a childhood friend. A planned lunch together was canceled by a snowstorm, he noted, and the duo later lost touch and went their separate ways, he to ordination, and she to marriage and motherhood.
“Sometimes we think to ourselves that if something in our life had changed, our life would have been different, and we think about what would have happened to us,” he added. “Because of where I was, and maybe that blizzard, I am who I am.”
People need to “tell their stories, pass them along, as Mary did after Jesus’ death and resurrection, when she became one of his disciples, as it says in scripture,” Father Schweitzer urged his audience. “After a family funeral, we will return home and tell stories about grandma or grandpa, pass them onto others in the family, and that is important.”
St. Paul wrote his letters in about the fourth decade of the first century, before the Gospels were written,” said Father Schweitzer. “He didn’t have the Gospels (to refer to), but he had the stories told by the early Christian community. He’s very important as an example of conversion in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).
“The Word of God has to come for lectoring into you and out of you to the people, so you need to prepare for lecturing by reading and listening to the readings. Bring all three readings for the Sunday into your thought process,” urged Father Schweitzer.
“When you are doing the Stations of the Cross or saying a Rosary, sometimes do just one Station a day or one decade of the rosary, so you can meditate upon that one mystery in the Stations of the Cross or that one mystery of the Rosary,” the priest said of prayer.
“Think of your prayer life as a dialogue with the Lord. What is your life like in dialogue with the Lord?” Father Schweitzer suggested pondering as a Lenten exercise. “When you think of fasting for Lent, think not only of food, but fasting from sin. Do I still think of sin as I did at seven years old, now that I am 78? Consider Lent as a “period of enrichment in spirituality.”
Diane Golarz, a Nativity of Our Savior parishioner from Portage, rushed to sign up for the Holy Spirit retreat after hearing Father Schweitzer speak at another recent retreat with the Poor Handmaids of Christ in Donaldson. “He is a very fascinating speaker, and I came for help to become more spiritual, a better person and more God-like. As you get older, you get more spiritual.”
Nancy Lowhorn, a Valparaiso resident and who attends St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Student Center, also finds Father Schweitzer “such an inspiring speaker. I attended all three sessions of his program at St. Paul last year, and I feel like he helps me become closer to God. I am working this Lent to enrich my life and become even closer to God.”
Caption: Father Jerry Schweitzer, a senior priest and scripture scholar in the Diocese of Gary, answers a question from the audience during the Women's Lenten Retreat at Holy Spirit in Winfield on Feb. 7. He discussed Women in the New Testament, most specifically Mary the Mother of God, and on the eve of Lent, urged his audience to share the Word of God with others. (Marlene A. Zloza photo)