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Christmas party goes on despite storm
Disabled, elderly come out for Apostolate event

MONROE -- A snowstorm hit southern Wisconsin on December 1, but it didn't stop the 40th annual Christmas party sponsored by the Apostolate to the Handicapped at Monroe Senior High School from happening.

"We Have Seen Incredible Things Today" - the theme for this year's event - seemed especially appropriate considering that over 650 disabled and elderly people managed to attend.

Called a 'miracle'

"The miracle was that it happened," said Msgr. Thomas F. Campion, director of the Apostolate. "People came and they had a wonderful time. We really had a great day."

Monsignor Campion said the number attending was about half of those expected, but much more than when the Apostolate held its first Christmas party 40 years ago.

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Combining song and Scripture
for Christmas
Bishop Bullock to host annual Lessons and Carols

MADISON -- Fresh from auditions at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine returns to Madison to sing with the Madison Diocesan Choir in its Christmas holiday concert, Lessons and Carols, under the direction of Dr. Patrick Gorman, Sunday, Dec. 16, at the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center.

Guarrine and her husband, cellist Karl Knapp, will be the featured artists. Both sang with the St. Raphael Cathedral Choir, also directed by Gorman, while earning their graduate degrees in music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They now live in Minneapolis, where Guarrine is in her third season as an artist in residence with the Minnesota Opera.

"It's so amazing, the world is amazing with opera," Guarrine said during a telephone interview between auditions in New York. With her schedule of auditions, she said she would leave New York on a flight to Madison only the day before the concert. "I will be in voice and ready to go."

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What is the Trusting in the Spirit Implementation?

All of the faithful of the Diocese of Madison, over the last 15 months, have been working through the Guided by the Spirit planning process, an extended period of self-evaluation leading to the recently released bishop's directives for all parishes of the diocese.

	Training schedule: • Trusting in the Spirit training

These directives are meant to define the direction for each cluster of parishes so that as priestly assignments change, each parish has an idea of where they are heading with regard to their pastoral leadership and the sacramental life of their community. It is believed that this will reduce the anxiety from change that people generally feel when things are made different, for whatever reason.

Also, having planned change allows for people to make the best use of the resources available to their community, whether personnel, financial, or material. All of this planning occurred under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and using the best thinking of all in the diocese.   Full story ...