At the conclusion of Lent, nearly 140 people are going to become new members of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Madison.
Tag: Eucharist
Diocese of Madison to observe Year of Mercy
Pope Francis has declared a Year of Mercy — December 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016 — throughout the worldwide Church.
How about spending more time with Jesus?
To the editor:
What an inspiring and wonderful experience we had with Pope Francis. How amazing to see the thousands who traveled many miles and waited hours for even a glimpse of the Holy Father as he drove by.
Yet isn’t something wrong when we have Jesus, Himself, present on our altars for Adoration and the majority of us do not stop our “busy” lives for even an hour for a personal visit with Him?
Why you need spiritual food
Every third summer, the Catholic lectionary provides a series of readings for Sunday Mass from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. This is the magnificently crafted chapter in which the evangelist’s Eucharistic theology is most fully presented.
It is a curiosity of John’s Gospel that the Last Supper scene includes no “institution narrative,” which is to say, the account of what Jesus did with the bread and cup the night before he died.
Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration begins January 1 in Sauk City
SAUK CITY — “Spending time before the Blessed Sacrament is the gift we can give to God this Christmas,” according to Fr. John Blewett, pastor of Divine Mercy Parish in Sauk City.
The parish has been working since May to expand its current, two-day a week Eucharistic Adoration Program held at St. Aloysius Church to a Perpetual Adoration program slated to begin January 1.
Bishop Robert C. Morlino is scheduled to dedicate the new chapel, called the “Mary, Mother of God Chapel,” fittingly on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, January 1.
Cathedral Parish plans pilgrimage
MADISON — Join the Cathedral Parish for a pilgrimage on Saturday, Nov. 8. Pilgrims will spend the day in spiritual preparation for receiving the Eucharist.
Sr. Patricia Vinje will share her reflections on prayer and guide the pilgrims through many devotions of the day. Msgr. Kevin Holmes will share his insights into the Eucharist as well as celebrate the 5 p.m. Mass when participants return to Madison.
Pilgrims will travel by motor coach to the Sauk City area and visit Valley of Our Lady Cistercian Monastery and Wollersheim Winery to learn about bread and wine production. During the visit, pilgrims will also collect both species of the Eucharist to be utilized at the Masses for that weekend. The schedule is:
Knights of Columbus ‘Culture of Life’ essay contest calls for entries
MADISON — Many of us know that life is becoming increasingly chaotic in America, and there is a growing opinion that elements of our culture and even our government no longer regards life as valued or sacred.
Many people who are pro-life consider it very difficult or even impossible to change our culture and our government on their own.
Importance of the Eucharist
The Most Holy Eucharist — as the source and summit of the Christian life — separates us from sin, strengthens us, and unites us more closely to Christ. We receive sacramental graces from the Eucharist that help us work with God in the salvation of other people for the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. As members of the Church, strengthened by grace, we are able to call people to conversion on developing a culture of life in America.
BLT still on the menu: Bishop Morlino continues to badger us lovingly with the truth
On August 1, 2003, Bishop Robert C. Morlino was installed as the fourth Bishop of Madison during a Mass at St. Raphael Cathedral.
During his homily at that Mass, Bishop Morlino focused on the image of Jesus the Good Shepherd. He called that image “one of the richest in the Gospel.”
Just as a shepherd feeds his flock, he noted that priests and bishops nourish people with spiritual food, most notably Christ himself in the Eucharist.
“To enter into that full communion, we have to listen to the word of truth and respond with a profession of faith that we are ready to be nourished by his Body and Blood in the Eucharist,” said Bishop Morlino in that 2003 homily.
The Eucharist — Believe it: We truly encounter Jesus’ presence
During this Year of Faith, the Catholic Church is asking all of us to reflect on various aspects of our faith and its meaning in our daily lives.
When Pope Benedict XVI talked about the reasons for calling for a Year of Faith, he said that one of his considerations was that it would provide an opportunity “to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed and also the source from which all its power flows” (Porta Fidei).
Pope Benedict’s words are actually taken from a document of the Second Vatican Council called Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which calls the Eucharist “the source and summit of Christian life.”
Christ is really present in the Eucharist
Our Catholic faith teaches us that Jesus Christ is really present in the Eucharist. At the Last Supper Jesus changed bread and wine into his body and blood. This is a key doctrine of our faith.
What is sad is that surveys have shown that many Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Some only believe that the bread and wine are symbols, not the real body and blood of Christ.
The Holy Eucharist: History of the Mass, part four
This is the final installment in a four-part series on the Eucharist.
In the last segment of this history of Holy Mass, we noted the rise of the “Liturgical Movement” in the 19th century — an effort to achieve genuine and deep renewal of the sacred liturgy. In the United States, certain monasteries led the movement in a particular way, much as had been the case in Europe.