On a warm fall day, on the Feast of All Souls, dozens of people gathered together with Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison before a new statue and columbarium now adorning the grounds of Resurrection Cemetery.
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An autumn reflection
The bare tree outside my office, which only days ago was laden with fiery red leaves, reminds me that autumn is rapidly moving us towards the snow and cold of winter, as nature falls asleep.
This fallow period of dormancy, rest, and apparent lifelessness we know well, both because we live in Wisconsin, where our trees are leafless six months out of the year and because we have tasted the cycles of the Paschal Mystery, the dying and rising of Christ.
The poignancy of these colder and darker November days speaks of the golden summer now past, the brevity of life as we pray for the dead and the cycle of the seasons of the heart.
Farmers invited to Rural Life Listening Sessions
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| Tom Nelson, far right, member of St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Monroe, works in the St. Thomas Aquinas outreach garden in Madison. With him, from left, are St. Thomas Aquinas parishioners Neil Vassau, Paul Scheffelman, and Tom Hartberg. (Photo by Jane Lepeska Grinde) |
NOTE: The first Rural Life Listening Session scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12, in Highland has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No decisions have been made yet on other scheduled sessions in November. A session in Iowa County will be rescheduled sometime after January 1.
MADISON — “Our bishop has planted the seeds, and now we must cultivate and tend the row so the harvest may be fruitful and sustaining across the heartland of our rural diocesan home,” said Tom Nelson, diocesan rural life coordinator in announcing three Rural Life Listening Sessions to be held this month.
The first session will be on Thursday, Nov. 12, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Ss. Anthony and Philip Church, 726 Main St. in Highland.
The next session will be on Monday, Nov. 16, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at St. Clare of Assisi Parish, St. Victor Church, 1760 14th St. in Monroe.
Letter from Bishop Hying concerning Pope Francis’ comments on the topic of ‘civil unions’
On October 21, news of Pope Francis’ comments from a 2019 interview included in a new documentary film, which seem to signal his private and personal support for civil unions of homosexuals, made world headlines.
The truth and the divinity of Christ
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I recently read a survey of Catholics which indicated a significant number of the respondents did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is not divine.
We may rightfully distrust the full accuracy of surveys, yet this data point troubles me greatly.
If one does not affirm the divinity of Jesus, our entire Catholic faith is deceptive and illusory.Rural Life Listening Sessions to be held
NOTE: The first Rural Life Listening Session scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12, in Highland has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No decisions have been made yet on other scheduled sessions in November. A session in Iowa County will be rescheduled sometime after January 1.
The Diocese of Madison Rural Life Ministry is coordinating listening sessions in all 11 counties, so that Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison and diocesan leaders can better understand the blessings and challenges of our rural communities.
We watch with great concern the crises our farmers face, especially the loss of family farms, financial failure, plunging dairy and meat prices, and increasing costs of production, all the while being more productive than ever-before.
Making Mary a bigger part of our lives
In this month of October, we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Rosary; we celebrated this feast on October 7.
All of the saints and indeed the Church herself encourage us to pray the Rosary on a daily basis.
We find in this simple and repetitive prayer a profound meditation on the Gospel, as we ponder the mystery of the Incarnation in the Joyful Mysteries, the revealed grace of the Lord’s ministry in the Luminous Mysteries, the overwhelming suffering of Christ’s Passion in the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the triumph of the Resurrection in the Glorious Mysteries.
‘Christianity is for losers!’
Ted Turner, the famous media mogul, once memorably said that Christianity is for losers.
In his opinion, religious faith is a crutch for those who are too weak to stand on their own two feet and simply acknowledge that we are alone in the universe.
What he hurls at us as an insult, we should actually wear as an epithet of honor. Christianity is for losers!
Our faith is custom-designed by God for those who are humble enough to acknowledge that they are sinners in need of a savior, those who do not have it all put together, those who need Christ’s help.
We, and everything on earth, belong to God
These past three Sundays, the Gospel spoke of vineyards. We heard the parables of the Workers in the Vineyard, the two sons called by their father to work in the vineyard and the Evil Tenants in the Vineyard.
What does the vineyard symbolize?
What work are we as missionary disciples called to embrace there?
Like much of Scripture, the meanings are multi-layered.
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us!
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Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is October 4, remains one of Catholicism’s most popular saints.
Statues and pictures of him abound, especially in gardens and fields, and young people often choose him as their Confirmation saint.
He captures the imagination of artists, writers, poets, intellectuals, and common folk alike.
It is easy to romanticize his story, but like all saints, Francis shows us what happens when an individual gives everything to Christ.