Author: Kevin Wondrash

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Kevin Wondrash

Go forth and make disciples!

Bishop Donald J. Hying's column

When I became a bishop back in 2011, I attended a nine-day conference in Rome for new bishops from all over the world, put on by the Vatican.

The best part of the experience was meeting the other participants, 16 other Americans, 25 from Brazil, and one bishop from Iraq whose predecessor had been murdered by terrorists. The informal conversations were often more interesting than the scheduled talks.

Dealing with declining Church

At lunch on the third day, I sat with a newly appointed bishop from a diocese in the southern Netherlands. He told me that Mass attendance there hovered at about two percent, mostly elderly people; he had no seminarians, so there was no future for the priesthood. It wasn’t so much that the Church had collapsed as that it had evaporated!

I asked him where he was going to start in such a daunting situation. How do you begin when everything seems so hopeless? What he said did not surprise me, but it has stuck with me.

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Kevin Wondrash

Office of Worship to host series on Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

MADISON — The Office of Worship of the Diocese of Madison is continuing a series of popular seminars called This Sacred Council: An In-Depth Study of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

All sessions are led by renowned liturgical scholar Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB. His informative and enjoyable presentations make these sessions appropriate for anyone who participates in the Church’s liturgies.

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Kevin Wondrash

Catholic Charities to hold annual Faith in Action Celebration

MADISON — Catholic Charities Madison will celebrate the accomplishments of its programs, volunteers, program participants, and members of the community at its 24th annual Faith in Action Celebration.

This year, the annual Faith in Action Celebration will be held on Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Madison Marriott West. Registration and cash bar open at 5 p.m. Dinner begins at 6:30 p.m., followed by the awards presentation concluding at 8:30 p.m.

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Kevin Wondrash

Contradictory suicide messaging

In July 2014, police found the body of 18-year-old Conrad Roy inside his truck in Fairhaven, Mass. He had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

As the case unfolded, it became apparent that a friend of his, 17-year-old Michelle Carter, had encouraged him toward suicide. In a series of texts, she repeatedly pressured him to go through with it by sending messages like, “You keep pushing it off and say you’ll do it but u never do. It’s always gonna be that way if u don’t take action.”

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Kevin Wondrash

We are called to build a monastery in our hearts

Bishop Donald J. Hying's column

The center point of my spiritual geography is New Melleray Trappist Abbey, just west of Dubuque, Iowa. I have returned there often for retreats ever since I first visited at the age of 19.

Founded in 1849 as a daughter house of Melleray Abbey in Ireland, this monastic community rises at 3:30 a.m. every morning for Vigils, the first liturgical hour of the day. The monks’ days are filled with prayer, meditation, work, and silence.

From the first time I entered their beautiful stone chapel, I have felt profoundly embraced by God at New Melleray; some of my deepest prayer experiences have occurred there. If I could have ever convinced God that the Trappist life was my vocation, I would be peeling potatoes and scrubbing floors there as I write now!

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