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The Sacraments Keep Us Catholic

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

“At last the most wonderful day of my life arrived, and I can remember every tiny detail of those heavenly hours … How lovely it was, that first kiss of Jesus in my heart—it was truly a kiss of love.” – St. Therese of Lisieux, describing her first Holy Communion

Last month I was blessed to witness nearly 140 young people from our parish and school receiving their first Holy Communion. They were, by and large, reverent and excited—and those I spoke with personally understood at least in concept that they were receiving Jesus’s Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine. I hope at least a few of them remember the day with the same deep joy and devotion as St. Therese expresses above.  I’m almost certain, unfortunately, that a few have not been back.

Our approach to preparing children for First Confession and First Communion in recent years has increasingly fallen on their parents. In one sense, this is as it should be: the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that, through marriage, “parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children” and “should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith.”

On the other hand, many parents do not feel equipped to share those mysteries, being uncertain themselves about the Church’s teachings on Reconciliation and the Eucharist. And while we provide families with workbooks to help them teach their children, these are poor substitutes for the level of love and support young Therese had in the months leading up to the sacraments. Her desire to make a good confession and to receive the gift of the Eucharist consumed her completely, and everyone in her family and community fueled her understanding and love for the Lord in whatever way they could.

As a parish, we can certainly do more. Beginning this fall, First Reconciliation and First Communion students will have an extra class or activity (in addition to LIFT) each month dedicated to sacramental preparation and a deeper understanding of the great gifts of Christ’s love and mercy we find on the altar and in the confessional. But this is no substitute for the evangelizing witness of parents leading a sacramental life in which their Catholic faith is a top family priority.

This is true for two reasons. The first is this: because children naturally observe and imitate their parents’ actions and interests, parents don’t have to have all the right answers, but it helps if you do the right things. Secondly, the sacraments are defined as outward signs instituted by Christ to give us grace—in particular, sacramental grace, which strengthens us to live according to our faith and state in life. The sacrament of Matrimony, for example, confers upon the spouses the graces needed to live in union as husband and wife, come what may.

The same applies to the sacraments of Confession and Communion. They strengthen us to resist temptation and seek communion with God, to forgive and seek forgiveness, to love sacrificially—in short, to be holy men and women of God. Each time we receive them, we are changed for the better. And when our children imitate us, so are they. What better way to ensure our kids remain Catholic?

Blogger’s Note: This article appears in the Sunday, May 24, church bulletin.

On the Verge: Local Band Pabulum Shakes the Shed With Eclectic Mix of Rock and Humor

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment
Set List:
Are You Ready? – Pabulum
Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes
Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
Luminous – Luke Eicher
Apologize – OneRepublic
I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
Tribute – Tenacious D
Fun-Size Love – Pabulum
Valley of Lights – Pabulum
Verbigeration – Pabulum

Who: Pabulum with special guest Luke Eicher (all ages show)
When: Saturday, May 16, 2015, 10:30 p.m.
Where: The Shed in St. Michael

It’s a rare treat for a rock reviewer (or a rocker’s parent) to get in on the ground floor of a band’s rise to stardom, but that was the vibe at The Shed last night, where rock trio Pabulum and guest pianist Luke Eicher played their first-ever show. Local promoter Abigail Herbst took a chance on the new band to close Catholic Prom, a do-it-yourself formal dance for the youth St. Michael and St. Albert parishes and their friends hosted by the Eicher clan. The result? A rough and ready glimpse of young rockers in the making.

Although the three founding members of the trio aren’t related by blood, Pabulum is very much a family affair: cymbal-smashing drummer, accordian player, guitarist, and vocalist Joe Eicher is brother to part-time contributor and classically trained pianist and singer Luke Eicher; and laconic bassist Brendan Thorp’s bowler-hatted and bow-tied brother Gabe is the band’s stage manager, tech, and jack-of-all-trades. The band’s primary front man and lead guitarist Jeff Geiger is their brother-from-another-mother, setting the tone for the group by alternating freely between aspiring rock god and manic musical comic.

The band changes configurations between songs.

In fact, that dual identity pervades Pabulum’s music, their influences, and even their name. Webster offers two opposing definitions for pabulum: “intellectual sustenance” or “something that is insipid, simplistic, or bland.” The band enjoys the irony, and their set Saturday included radio- and  chick-friendly pop songs as well as classic rock tunes and their own unique sound. The band opened with the surging “Are You Ready?”, which ends abruptly just as the crowd swells to a fever pitch — the laughter showing that the band and their fans share a special brand of humor. A raw stomp through The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” kicked off and held together by Brendan’s deft bass work, was followed by a soulful rendition of “Simple Man.” (“By Lynyrd Skynyrd, covered by Shinedown, perfected by Pabulum,” Joe told the crowd). A cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” with the Eicher brothers harmonizing on vocals elicited a chorus of “Awwws” from all the ladies in The Shed (including the moms, I think), then Luke’s original piano-and-vocals composition “Luminous” brought the house to a hush, his voice and keyboard work highlighted only by accents from the rhythm section.

The crew…

So rapt was the audience that they didn’t notice Joe, who had gone out into the wet night to retrieve his accordion, which he played through the crowd and back to the stage to lead a cover of OneRepublic’s “Apologize.” The song reached its climax with Jeff leaping from a chair to match Joe solo for solo with his gleaming Strat and Joe’s accordion. The battling front men made amends moments later, combining voices and acoustic guitars on Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours.” (Jeff’s scatting was one of several humorous highlights of the evening.)

But Pabulum really hit its stride beginning with the cover of a band favorite, the epic rock-comedy masterpiece from Tenacious D, “Tribute.” Brendan set aside his bass to tell the tale of the band’s confrontation with a shiny demon who demanded they “play the best song in the world, or I’ll eat your soul.” They succeeded, of course, crushing the demon utterly — but they have no recollection of the song and are powerless to repeat it. What was essentially a hard-rock in-joke signaled a shifting of gears to three original pieces showing the depth and diversity of the band’s musical interests. The first, “Fun-Size Love,” dedicated to 6′ 2″ Brendan and his diminiutive girlfriend Olivia, was two parts ’80s power ballad; one part heartfelt ribbing among friends who share an affection for miniature candy bars and “short” jokes. (Best line: “I got to know you/It didn’t take much time.”) The second was the show-stopping “Valley of Lights,” a prehistoric slab of psychedelic blues rock penned by Jeff and propelled by Brendan’s huge, brontosaurus bass — showing the bands love of the sounds of the ’60s and ’70s and calling to mind Led Zeppelin, the early days of The Black Keys,  and Jack White’s post-Stripes projects, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. They closed the set with “Verbigeration,” a rousing blast of punk-piano-rock (or something like that), with Jeff’s rapid-fire rapping about Culver’s cheese curds and his emotions at the death of Jabba the Hutt in Jedi — Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beastie Boys over a mellow-yellow summertime groove. It was classic Pabulum: smart, funny, energetic, and totally rocking.

According to Pabulum’s management, they are booking now for grad parties this summer. Email them at pabulumrocks@gmail.com, and catch them while you can — definitely worth the price of admission!

Full of Grace

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment
Annunciation by Paolo de Matteis (1712)

Yesterday was a rare treat: a three-sacrament day. I went to work, then to Confession at lunch time, received a pre-surgery Anointing of the Sick late in the afternoon, then went to evening Mass to receive the Eucharist. Never have I felt so full of grace — and today is the Feast of the Annunciation. Providential?

Then I came home — late, because I was tying up loose ends to be out of the office for awhile. The family had already eaten supper, but we still managed to spend some quality time together before bed. They’ve got Dad’s back with prayers today, as do countless other friends and family members, and a few acquaintances I just barely know. I’m a little embarrassed by the support, but I will never refuse prayers. We are blessed to have such love in our home, in our parish, and in our extended families.

Hernia surgery is supposed to be a pretty routine thing, for the surgeons, at least. Less so for me. I’ve never had any sort of surgery, except the removal of my wisdom teeth before I left for college. That involved local anesthesia and laughing gas; I remember begin vaguely fascinated by the industrial crunching and grinding noises emanating from my own mouth. This is different, and I don’t think I’ll care to know what’s going on as it’s happening.

I’m not a great patient, either. Oh, I’m generally alright (perhaps a little talkative) with doctors and nurses…but on the homefront, I’m more of a Man-Cold kind of guy. My bride, who works from home, is so looking forward to the next few days.

But you know what? This is actually a penitential season, in which we strive to enter more fully into Jesus’s suffering for us. This is an opportunity for me to grow in this regard — to be still, to pray, to suck it up a bit in solidarity with the One who took nails for us.

Ask Jodi at Easter if I manage to pull it off. Much love and many blessings to you this Holy Week and Easter!

Call—and Response

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment
Given March 11, 2015

I spent two days in St. Paul last week, training to become a VIRTUS facilitator. VIRTUS is the archdiocese-approved program for helping church employees and volunteers keep our children and youth safe from abuse. A number of the presenters spoke of feeling calledto protect kids—and I immediately felt out of place, not because I don’t want to keep kids safe, but because by primary motivation for signing up to become a facilitator was, “Somebody’s gotta do it.”


But over the course of the training the leaders encouraged us to think more deeply about our motives, and I learned something about myself. I told the gentleman next to me, “Our church is like a second home to me and my family—we’re there all the time!—and if there’s anything I can do to make it safer, so that my family and other families can feel at home there, I want to do it.”

Maybe there was a deeper call there after all. 

Two weeks ago I announced that we were putting together a new team of people to help shape our faith formation programs going forward. So far, Kathy and I have received 20 responses about joining the LIFT Crew—15 yes and 5 maybe—from current and past teachers, FFAC members, small-group facilitators, and more. Only one person I’ve spoken to has said no, and even she shared an hour’s worth of great ideas from more than a decade of teaching kids in our parish.

Think about that for a moment: We have people in this community who have been sharing their faith with children for ten, twenty, even thirty years! We have a committee of dedicated parishioners who work behind the scenes to create, promote, and improve LIFT with little public recognition of their time, effort, and results. We have people who are committed to praying specifically for the success of our programs and the conversion of souls. We have teens who, without knowing or asking what it might entail, have said, “Mr. Thorp, I saw that you are looking for people to help with LIFT—sign me up!”

We are surrounded by people who love the Lord and want to live out His call to make disciples. That’s a beautiful thing.

And it works: these people are setting a high bar that others respond to with more prayer, more service, more love. Last Wednesday I went to the archdiocese for training, then hustled back to St. Michael to prepare for LIFT and Confirmation classes. Kathy and both priests were gone, two Confirmation teachers were out, and another was running late. Two out of three videos were malfunctioning, and the mic in the gathering space wouldn’t plug in. I joked that my goal for the evening was to survive.

At the end of the night, one of our catechists handed me a picture. It was a pencil drawing of a “spiritual bouquet” from her Confirmation class, with each flower labeled with an act of sacrifice and love her teens had pledged to perform for me and my family in the coming weeks. Prayers, chaplets, and rosaries. Holy Hours in the Adoration chapel. Pain and suffering. Offered up for my family and for me. What else can I do but reciprocate?

Christ calls us to love, and we respond. Love begets love begets love. It’s a beautiful thing.

Blogger’s Note: This article appears in the Sunday, March 22, church bulletin .

We Need You on the LIFT Crew!

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

I’m not a fan of change for the sake of change. I am a creature of habit, a lover of tradition, and a big fan of consistency. Don’t get me wrong: I like to make a difference and improve things. But as a former boss of mine used to say, “A horse is easiest to ride in the direction it is going.” So it’s nerve-wracking for me to share the first significant change to how we approach faith formation at St. Michael Catholic Church, and invite you to be a part of it.

Eight years ago, I was elected to the Faith Formation Advisory Committee (FFAC). The FFAC is an group of parishioners that meets once a month to advise and support parish staff regarding LIFT and related activities. Over the years, FFAC members have been faithful, thoughtful, hard-working … and frustrated. In my own experience, the frustration stems from a sense of powerlessness. No matter how good the intentions or bold the ideas, the FFAC itself was never in a position to make a real difference.


Meanwhile, youth ministry at St. Michael has grown and thrived since it adopted its core team approach. The idea behind a core team is to engage people who are called to a particular ministry and willing to do whatever it takes to help it succeed through prayer, planning, and action. We have these people involved in the LIFT program today—motivated and joy-filled parishioners who go the extra mile to draw people closer to Jesus and His Bride, the Church, but who have never been asked for their prayers, ideas, or support beyond their current niche. And we need them to help build a better LIFT program and grow it!

So beginning now, we are recruiting for the LIFT Crew—parents, teens, teachers, greeters, worker bees, prayer warriors, and people just looking to make a difference—to help reshape LIFT for next year and beyond.  We want to get more people involved to deliver a better program. Because the emphasis is on calling and commitment, the LIFT Crew will not be elected or capped at a specific number. However, we will identify a LIFT Leadership Team, a subset of the LIFT Crew to help provide direction for the overall group.

The FFAC has agreed to continue to meet until this team is in place, but plans to disband once it’s up and running. I am reaching out to individual people I hope will be interested, but I’m also looking for volunteers and nominations. Specifically, we are looking for people who would commit to at least a year of service in one or more of the following areas: Family Faith Formation, First Reconciliation/First Communion, Confirmation Prep, Hospitality, and Prayer Team.

We have a vibrant parish filled with faithful people who love the Lord and want to serve. We also have a tremendous opportunity to reshape LIFT in a way that better reflects its original intent and purpose: Learning In Faith Together. I hope that you will prayerfully consider the call to join our Crew. If you have questions or wish to volunteer or nominate someone, please drop me a line. Finally, please pray for our parish and our program!

Blogger’s Note: This article appears in the Sunday, March 8, church bulletin .