Journal bears visit Cathedral during Easter preparation rite

Fuzz and Honey had never been to the cathedral, so they went along for the ride.

It turned out to be their biggest adventure yet.

“Honey was so excited!” Jeannine Dove wrote in a journal chronicling the little plush bears’ exploits. “Honey met our new bishop, Bishop Shawn McKnight! ... She got to see his miter, crosier, pectoral cross, and ring.”

The bears usually go home with students in Mrs. Dove’s and Rhonda Kusgen’s kindergarten classes at Sacred Heart School in Sedalia.

But this time, it was the teachers’ turn.

Mrs. Kusgen is preparing to become Catholic at the Easter Vigil through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) at Sacred Heart parish in Sedalia. Mrs. Dove is her sponsor.

Together, they traveled to the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City Feb. 18 for the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion.

There, Bishop McKnight exchanged a sign of peace with all in the diocese who are seeking sacraments of initiation in their parishes at Easter. He inscribed the names of the catechumens into Book of the Elect and urged the catechumens and candidates to spend the rest of Lent pursuing repentance and deeper conversion with the support of Catholics throughout the world.

Catechumens are preparing for baptism in the Catholic Church. Candidates have already been baptized and are seeking First Holy Communion and confirmation.

At a reception after the Rite of Election, Bishop McKnight greeted each of the candidates and their sponsors, and the catechumens and their godparents.

Mrs. Kusgen and Mrs. Dove got his blessing and had their photo taken with him — along with Fuzz and Honey.

“The kids back at school are going to be so excited when we go back on Tuesday and show them that picture!” said Mrs. Dove.

Mrs. Dove began sending the bears home with kindergarteners 10 years ago in order to help her students cultivate their writing skills.

It’s always a big deal to get to take Fuzz and Honey home.

“We send them home overnight or over a weekend, and we have a little bag for each of them,” said Mrs. Dove. “And there’s a journal in their bag, and they have a toothbrush and a sleeping bag and all kinds of clothes and accessories that go home with them.”

During each of these home visits, the students plan an adventure with one of the bears, write about it in a journal and then share the story when they get back to school.

Going to the Rite of Election with the bears gave the teachers an opportunity to describe something completely different to the students.

“Our children have been learning so much about, ‘What is a bishop?’ and ‘What is a diocese?’ and we watched Bishop McKnight’s ordination on TV and were so thrilled about that,” said Mrs. Dove.

After instructing the bears to be on their best behavior, she snuck them into the cathedral in her purse and let them out at the reception as she and Mrs. Kusgen greeted the bishop.

“He kindly let us take his photo with them,” said Mrs. Dove.

From a child’s point of view

Mrs. Kusgen grew up in a little Protestant congregation in rural Cooper County, where she became knowledgeable in Sacred Scripture and learned to know and love Christ.

Several friends and family members in nearby Pilot Grove were Catholic, so she was always comfortable and familiar with Catholic Christianity.

She spent most of her career teaching in public schools but taught kindergarten with Mrs. Dove at Sacred Heart in 2006.

That’s when the first seeds of Catholicism were planted in her, as she attended Mass with the kindergarteners and listened to Mrs. Dove teach religion class to them.

Mrs. Kusgen returned to Sacred Heart after retiring as a public-school educator in 2016.

She said her students have helped her learn to see Jesus through a child’s eyes.

“It’s very simple for them, very easy, very black and white,” she noted. “What’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong. Sometimes, as we get older, those lines kind of get drawn into gray.

“But when you hear it from a child or watch it from a child’s point of view, or when you look over and the whole pew of them is kneeling down and praying, and you see those little heads —there’s just something very moving about that.”

In worshipping God in that same environment, Mrs. Kusgen finds an overwhelming sense of peace and wellbeing.

“It just fills your body, fills your spirit, fills your soul,” she said. “It feels good when you’re there being part of all of that.”

She is drawn to being Catholic because she loves the beauty of it.

“I feel moved by it,” she said. “It’s beautiful. It really is a beautiful expression of faith. The beauty, the continuity, the history — I just love it all.”

When people ask her why she wants to be Catholic, she tells them, “I feel like I’m being called.”

She points to her heart.

“There’s something in here,” she says. “It’s a feeling that this is right. Whenever I go to Mass, there’s just always a feeling of ‘right,’ of something good.”

She said Mrs. Dove has been a wonderful coworker and mentor in the faith.

“There’s no one else I could have considered having as my sponsor,” she said. “So I asked her, and we’ve been on this journey together, and I love it.”

The Sacred Heart kindergartners have learned a lot from Mrs. Kusgen’s journey into the Church and from the diocese’s welcoming of a new bishop.

Mrs. Dove said her students were “over the moon” excited that Honey and Fuzz got to meet Bishop McKnight.

“We have had so much fun learning about him and studying about the ordination and installation,” she said, adding that the students were particularly interested in his miter (the pointy, ceremonial hat he wears at Mass) and crosier (his ceremonial staff).

“The fact that Honey and Fuzz actually met Bishop McKnight made him seem much more real to the students,” she said.

Mrs. Dove added that she’s humbled that God would allow Mrs. Kusgen to be led toward being Catholic “by listening to me teach my kindergarten students about my faith.”

“This has been a special bond for Mrs. Kusgen and me,” Mrs. Dove said.

Finishing strong

Mrs. Kusgen noted that she and everyone else who’s preparing to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church at Easter are “on the last leg of the journey.”

“It’s the countdown to Easter now,” she said. “And it’s going to be wonderful. No doubt about it. And we’re getting there.”

She realizes that she’s in sort of a honeymoon stage in her conversion process, and that it might become difficult sometime down the road.

So as she and her fellow candidates and catechumens embark on these final, more intense weeks of preparation for initiation, she asks for prayers for strength and perseverance to “keep on going.”

“Sometimes you have to have that str­ong finish,” she said. “Sometimes you can get a little worn down during the time you’re going through (RCIA), or answering the questions, or from any resistance you may encounter along the way. So probably just pray for that — to keep going.”

“I always want to be joyful, to have that heart,” she said.