When we take a long, hard look at our culture today, it is painfully clear that we are in a profound crisis.
The racial, economic, political divisions in society, exacerbated by COVID, the elections last fall, and the violence in our midst, have become a profound obstacle to unity, peace, compassion, and even truth.
BARABOO — During this Year of St. Joseph, a week dedicated to St. Joseph will be celebrated at St. Joseph Parish in Baraboo concluding with a Holy Hour on Friday, March 19, the feast day of its patron saint.
Following is the schedule for the week:
Friday, March 12 — St. Joseph Pastor Fr. Jay Poster will present and bless a statue of St. Joseph to each of the school classrooms.
Saturday, March 13, and Sunday, March 14 — Steve Angrisano, will be introducing himself as the Lenten parish mission speaker at all the Masses.Ninth in a series on the 75th anniversary of the Diocese of Madison
In 1949, the Pallottine Fathers opened Queen of Apostles Seminary on Madison’s east side. They made it available to diocesan seminarians.
The growth of the Diocese of Madison was reflected in an increase in vocations.
By 1962, Queen of Apostles Seminary was filled to capacity, and neighboring seminaries were overcrowded.
It has often been said that we, as a people, fall into two categories: Pessimists or optimists. Some of us look upon our world and what is happening to it as pessimists and some take an optimistic view of things as they exist.
If you are of the former, you may see things about you as being like a cup that is half empty; if you are of the latter, you see things like a cup that is half full.
A pessimist is likely to see the world as going to hell in a handcart. |
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During my previous career as a TV news producer, I had friendships with many of the on-air “talent”.
A few of them were with meteorologists (who really are good and decent people who do the best they can in spite of all the criticism they face for getting a forecast wrong).
While I don’t think the one I’m about to refer to will be reading this (although his ears might be ringing now!), I still want to mention he had a daily ritual of asking me — with an air of both irony and general concern — “How’s your comfort level?”A beautiful, basic tenet of our faith, articulated in the creation account of Genesis, is that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God, the imago Dei.
The Scriptures narrate the words of God Himself: Let us make man in our image and likeness.
This conviction is the bedrock of the Church’s defense of human dignity, proclamation of inherent rights, and responsibilities of each person and a motivation for all of our concern for the poor, the young, the elderly, and the suffering.
While these past almost 12 months have been filled with reasons and methods to “distance” ourselves from one another, dozens of people growing in their faith recently had a chance to come closer to something.
MADISON — “On March 8, our spring 40 Days for Life campaign will have completed 20 days with 20 days to go of praying and fasting for an end to abortion,” said Gwen Finnegan, co-leader of the Madison campaign.
“It’s time to gather members of our pro-life community at our vigil location, Planned Parenthood, 3706 Orin Rd. in Madison, to thank God for how far we’ve come and to pray for the endurance to finish strong. So far, we know of one baby and mother saved from abortion on the sidewalks outside of Planned Parenthood in Madison from this campaign.”
40 Days for Life is a peaceful, highly-focused, non-denominational initiative that focuses on 40 days of prayer, fasting, and peaceful witness outside abortion facilities, as well as on grassroots educational outreach.
The 40-day time frame is drawn from examples throughout Biblical history.MADISON — Getting away for the weekend can often include a fun road trip, a new-to-you destination, and a lot of great memories, but for a local group, a recent weekend included something a bit atypical: Religious Sisters.
Last month, Fr. Greg Ihm, Diocese of Madison vocations director, led a group that included 10 St. Ambrose Academy students, a mother of one of the teens, and four other Madison-area women on a journey of prayer and discernment.
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“These are the good old days” — William Powell as “Nick Charles” in The Thin Man (1934).
Someday, Lent will pass and spring will have arrived. Someday, winter will be back. Someday, I’ll hit age 40. Someday, I will no longer be the editor of the Catholic Herald. Someday, I will die. (Well, that escalated quickly.)
Everything we know, love, and treasure on this Earth will be lost to us or will pass away.
Despite the initial emotional reactions to those statements, they are facts.
All of our “stuff” will either leave us or we will leave it. The same goes for our friends and loved ones. For life to go on, ob-la-di, ob-la-da, someone has to depart from someone.
