24 Gulf Pine Catholic • February 13, 2026 The following article is an expanded version (with additional details) of the homily given by Deacon Karl Koberger at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Gulfport at the Masses on the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (the weekend of Jan.31-Feb. 1). Deacon Karl was quoted as saying: “I haven’t been able to talk much about our experience in Turkey in 2025 to the public, but when I read what the Gospel reading was going to be (Matthew 5:1-12a -- the Beatitudes) on this weekend that I was scheduled to do the homilies, God told me it was time to share His story! We were TRULY blessed!” The Greek word for “blessed” carries two kinds of meanings in scripture. The “blessed” one is described as a recipient of divine favor, and also as one who is “happy” or “fortunate.” In the beatitudes, Jesus combined these two meanings, giving us a road map to help us find not only happiness, but the blessing and grace of God in our lives. These beatitudes must have shaken up the people who first heard Jesus speak them -- just as they seem strange to us today! How can the poor and the meek, the merciful and pure of heart, even the persecuted, consider themselves happy? Wouldn’t you naturally recoil from such a description? This is precisely why Jesus’ words can be so challenging: Reality is not always what we see immediately in front of us. Everybody has problems. Because we have been taught to pray for what we need, there is a part of us that expects God to work magic for us and take all our problems away when we ask Him. Sometimes our prayers are answered just the way we want, and I assure you while I am in favor of prayer, I also know that when we pray we don’t always get what we ask for. Now, I believe that no prayer is ever wasted and that somehow we will benefit from every prayer that we pray, but how do we explain those hard times when the problems do not go away no matter how hard we pray? While we were on vacation in October, 2025, when my wife, Marianne, fell, hit her head, and we were forced to disembark our cruise ship in Turkey in a country that we didn’t speak the language, and I was afraid and panicking because things were happening so quickly and the doctor told me that she had to have brain surgery … I certainly didn’t feel blessed. But you know what? … I WAS! When Marianne started showing symptoms of a problem with her speech the day after we left the port on our cruise, we went to sick bay and were taken good care of and watched, but we had two days of travel by sea until we could reach the first port for Marianne to get to a hospital for a CT scan. God never abandoned me. He was always there. He was there in the ship doctor and the nurses. He was there in Sofija from Serbia, the Assistant Guest Service Manager who helped me pack our belongings and disembark from the ship to be with Marianne at the hospital. She stayed with me on the pier as I waved goodbye to our friends, Jane and Deacon Norbert Lloyd, and gave me tissues to wipe the tears and gave me a hug as she had to leave to board the ship and sail away. God was there when the hospital wanted payment and my daughter started a “Go Fund Me Account” and Bishop Kihneman, the people of St. Joseph Parish, people from all over the Diocese of Biloxi, our friends and family, and people we didn’t even know began to donate to the fund for us to pay expenses. Believe it or not, people from all over the world were praying for us, some people we don’t even know! We were blessed! Bishop Kihneman called the Archbishop of Turkey and let him know our situation. The Archbishop called a priest who was the closest one to us and that priest traveled 50 miles from Ephesus to visit us in the hospital and brought us Communion (The only Eucharist we had in the 19 days we were in the hospital. He gave me his personal cell phone number to call him if we needed him!) and Marianne received the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. (Here’s a Side Bar: On that first stop of our cruise, we were supposed to visit St. John’s house in Ephesus where John took Mary after the crucifixion of Jesus! That’s where that priest was from! He was the caretaker of Mary and John’s house in Ephesus.) He told us that the area in which we were hospitalized was not a Christian area of Turkey and as a matter of fact, no religion, Christian or Muslim was allowed to be shown in public! The mayor or governor of that area considered himself a god and so he made it against the law for anyone to wear anything that showed their religion. The priest could not wear his clerical collar in public. He had it in his pocket and when he came into the hospital room he put it on to administer the sacraments to us! … We were blessed! I was afraid to leave the hospital or even the floor we were on because I didn’t want to get lost. Every day Marianne would have a CT scan to check her condition and I would follow her to the lab and wait outside for her scan to be finished. On the following Thursday when they did the scan, the doctor (using a translator, Alper, the only English speaking translator on staff during the day) told me that she had to have surgery right then … I really went into a panic. I could not go with her, I had to remain in the room and I remember praying over and over again, “Jesus, I Trust in You!” … I was blessed! Even though the nurses did not speak English, I used a translate app on my phone to communicate with them (sometimes a slow process while passing my phone back and forth between us). After the surgery, I was told that during the healing process there would be setbacks as different parts of her brain would be affected. The translator for the doctor told me there would be some memory loss, but it would be temporary and would return. It was hard when the next day, she couldn’t remember our grandchildren’s names and then they would come to her hours later. Later she didn’t remember our children’s names, it was very scary for me since I had no one to talk to. And then, even though he told me about the loss of memory I was not prepared for the day she didn’t remember who I was! I was devastated. Alper, the translator was there and comforted and consoled me through my tears! I was blessed! Marianne did regain her memory, but to this day is still having trouble with short term memory! They say it may take a while! The doctor warned me that she may have problems with her right side since the surgery was on the left side of her brain. And sure enough the next day, she had no control of her right side. Again I panicked. But the nurses and the doctor came right away and consoled me! That day, I was alone with Marianne when she had to go to the bathroom. I took her but as she was in the bathroom, she fell (not hitting her head) but fell onto the toilet. While trying to help her not hit her head, I fell against the wall into a liquid soap dispenser that was near the sink. Liquid soap was all over the floor and I was afraid I couldn’t get her out without us both slipping on the soap. So I left her and when to the nurses’ desk, but before I could type in what I needed to tell them about Marianne, they noticed the blood dripping down my left arm. They jumped up and started tending to me because I had cut my arm on the plastic soap dispenser when it broke! I got them to follow me to help with Marianne. Things were hectic but under control. We both were fine. Again, we were blessed! I didn’t complain about anything for fear of not receiving good service … or of being an “ugly American,” but we could not stand most of the food in the hospital. It just was not what we were used to eating and because of that, we both loss about ten pounds while we were hospitalized. I finally learned we could order pizza and hamburgers from a deli in the hospital and they would deliver it to us! But I couldn’t communicate to the deli on the phone and so, I would call Alper, the English translator, and he would order for me! Another angel. Another blessing! Bishop Kihneman and Terry Dickson facetimed us twice during our stay while they were in Saltillo, Mexico; each time the bishop prayed for us and gave us blessings. Family and friends called and texted. A St. Joseph parishioner who I used to work with at Hancock Bank before I retired, helped me with finances at our local bank. (Due to limits on foreign transactions we had to break up hospital payments into smaller increments.) She was an angel for me! …We were blessed! SEE GUEST COLUMNIST, PAGE 25 Thank you from Marianne and Deacon Karl Koberger! Deacon Koberger Guest Columnist
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