The three classical spiritual practices that the Church urges us to embrace during Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Category: Columns
She sent a hundred love letters
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In a recent essay in the Wall Street Journal, Kimberly Cutter chronicled the death of her father by suicide. As he struggled with rapidly progressing prostate cancer, he lost more than 30 pounds, becoming gaunt and emaciated. Back pain and nausea forced him to spend much of his time in bed.
A few days before Christmas, he shared with Kimberly that he was thinking about shooting himself. Kimberly argued with him, stressing that she and her sisters couldn’t accept a violent ending: “If he shot himself, my father would die alone. Someone in our family would have to find him,” she wrote.
Looking into options
His daughters convinced him to look into other options. When he started investigating lethal drugs, he ran into questions of reliability. He encountered horror stories about “wrong dosages and unreliable contents, painful, drawn-out demises.”
Focusing on forgiveness this Lent
“Say ‘I’m sorry,’” I remember telling my children when they were toddlers squabbling over toys.
“I’m sorry,” parroted the perpetrator, who sometimes had to repeat it a few times before exhibiting the requisite tone of remorse.
“Now say ‘I forgive you,’” I would tell the victim, who also parroted the phrase without completely understanding its meaning.
For years we have done this in our household, trying to explain to the children the importance of forgiveness. And yet, I myself was an adult before I understood its full meaning.
The time is 100 seconds to midnight
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On January 23, 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board, together with 13 Nobel Laureate consultants, moved their famous Doomsday Clock to 100 seconds before midnight — warning how extremely near humanity is to a global catastrophic midnight posed by the increasing threats of nuclear war and climate change.
“We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds — not hours, or even minutes. It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Doomsday Clock.
A season to receive Sacrament of Reconciliation
An unemployed man unsuccessfully tried to find work. His wife nagged him for his failure. He explained that he was trying his best and he needed the understanding and support she promised to give him in their marriage vows.
What is ‘synodality’ and walking the synodal path?
It was a great privilege for me to participate in the Synod on Young People in the fall of 2018.
Fr. Samuel Mazzuchelli inspires us
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Carlo Gaetano Samuel Mazzuchelli was born on November 4, 1806, in Milan, Italy. He died on February 23, 1864, at St. Patrick Parish in Benton, where he was pastor. Years later, when I became pastor of St. Patrick’s, my knowledge and admiration of him deepened.
Father Samuel accomplished so much that I get tired just thinking about it. One parishioner appropriately called him “our steam engine missionary.” It would take books to completely cover his many accomplishments and gifts, so I will focus on just a few areas.
A mysterious occurrence
On October of 1863, according to Sr. Nona McGreal, Father Samuel rode to St. Matthew Parish in Shullsburg to celebrate Confirmation conferred by Milwaukee Bishop John Henni.
Christian girls and abortion
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When Mother Teresa visited New Bedford, Mass., in June 1995, she told those of us gathered at St. Lawrence Martyr Church: “Abortion is the greatest evil of today.”
Never one to mince words, Mother Teresa’s courage, truthfulness, and charity were palpable. Parents today need similar fortitude, honesty, and love to be able to discuss the hard topic of unplanned pregnancies and abortion with their children.
Parents exercise influence
Parental input and advice are critical when these situations arise. Even as children profess independence, parents exercise influence over them, whether for good or for ill.
The maintenance of harmony in the Church
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Some years ago, my friend Msgr. Francis Mannion wrote an article concerning the three essential features of the Eucharistic liturgy — namely, the priest, the rite, and the people.
When these elements are in proper balance, rightly ordered liturgy obtains.
Further, from these categories, he argued, we can discern the three typical distortions of the liturgy: clericalism (too much of the priest), ritualism (a fussy hyper-focus on the rite), and congregationalism (a disproportionate emphasis on the people).
Valentine’s Day invites us to be thankful for friends
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Valentine’s Day is celebrated annually on February 14.
Originating as a Western Christian feast day honoring one or two early saints named Valentinus, Valentine’s Day is recognized as a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romantic love and friendship.
Jesus calls his apostles his friends
In John 15: 14-15, Jesus tells his apostles, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know what his master is doing. I call you friends because I have made known to you everything that I have learned from my Father.”