Diocesan Choir to perform Fauré's Requiem

Diocesan Choir Spring Concert Where: Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, 702 S. High Point Rd., Madison When: Saturday, May 3, 7:30 p.m. How much: Free admission. Freewill offering to support the choir taken. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible. Large-print programs available. Who: The Madison Diocesan Choir has been traveling throughout the diocese and the world since 1973, fostering and encouraging full, conscious, and active participation in the liturgy through its music ministry. Members come from parishes throughout the Diocese of Madison.

MADISON -- Spring may seem like a strange time to hold a concert to perform a Requiem, the music for a Mass for the Dead. But, then again, perhaps the time of budding flowers and greening grass is indeed a perfect reminder of the new and eternal life that springs from Christ.

Certainly, with its intimate structure and gentle melodies, Gabriel Fauré's Requiem aids in thoughts of the hope of the resurrection.

In a concert dedicated in a special way to deceased children and siblings, the Madison Diocesan Choir, directed by Dr. Patrick Gorman, will present this moving work by the 19th-century French composer for their annual spring concert Saturday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the Bishop O'Connor Center in Madison.

The mainly choral piece will be performed with the accompaniment of the organ, played by assistant director and organist Glenn Schuster, and a small orchestra. The soprano solo "Pie Jesu" will be performed by Pat Paska and the bass solos performed by Michael Flotmeyer and Tom Eichmann.   Full story ...

Cloistered Cistercian nuns

PRAIRIE SU SAC -- Shortly after founding the Diocese of Madison in 1946, Bishop William P. O'Connor was conscious of the need for prayerful support for the new diocese.

Rare open house The Cistercian nuns at Valley of our Lady Monastery near Prairie du Sac will hold a rare open house on Saturday, May 17, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Directions to the monastery: Take Highway 12 north out of Sauk City. Turn left onto Waterbury Rd until it deadends. Turn right onto Old Bluff Tr. There will be a sign for the monastery. Turn left onto Yanke Dr. The monastery is the first place to turn on the right. The address is E11096 Yanke Dr., Prairie du Sac.

He petitioned the Vatican to help find a group of contemplative Sisters to create a monastery to pray for the needs of the diocese. Bishop O'Connor said this was to be a "powerhouse of prayer" for the welfare of the diocese and for all humanity.

Nuns respond to invitation

In 1957, six Cistercian nuns from the abbey of Frauenthal in central Switzerland responded to the bishop's invitation. The nuns live the contemplative monastic life, following the Rule for Monasteries written by St. Benedict in the sixth century and the traditions of the Cistercian Order, founded in France in 1098.

The Cistercian nuns settled in a "temporary" makeshift monastery in a rural setting seven miles north of Sauk City. In 2008, they still live at that temporary Valley of Our Lady Monastery, leading a balanced life of liturgical prayer, meditative reading, and work.   Full story ...