Ever since I was in the fifth grade — when we finally got a television set in our home — I have enjoyed watching the Olympics.
Since our daughter was a competitive figure skater for many years (and I am still a member of the Figure Skating Club of Madison), I have especially looked forward to the Winter Olympics to watch figure skating. I also watch some of the other events.
I believe the Olympics continue to be important in our world today.
We are deeply saddened that you would publish a letter that promotes violence.
The person who recommends use of automatic weapons to “protect” our churches and schools should not be given access to readers of a Catholic publication dedicated to promoting a message of peace and respect. May Our Lord grant him the wisdom to understand peace and respect.
MADISON — On […]
BELOIT — On September 21, Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic School children took part in an international art project, Pinwheels for Peace, by “planting” pinwheels with messages of peace in front of their school and church.
Pinwheels for Peace is an art installation project started in 2005 by two art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillan, of Coconut Creek, Fla., as a way for students to express their feelings about what is going on in the world and in their lives.
MADISON — So, what do you think most teenagers do during the summer? Sleep in? Head to the beach? Hang out with friends?
All of that may be true. I hope it is true — summer is summer, after all.
But summer is also a time to serve: to be the “light of Christ” in the world and to be “Sent Forth by the Spirit.”
Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Madison has students that serve all year long: as ushers, altar servers, cantors, leaders of the Children’s Liturgy of the Word, etc.
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In Vietnam, Brian Rooney, an Army medic, knelt to read a dying soldier’s dog tags. As he did, the soldier whispered, “Remember me.” Rooney promised that he would remember him.
He certainly did. According to the May 23, 2003, Los Angeles Daily News, Brian Rooney spent thousands of his dollars and hundreds of hours memorializing and remembering America’s war dead.
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A few years ago, our Catholicism series film crew arrived at the shores of a large lake in far northwest Ireland, in the county of Donegal. We stepped onto a ferry and were taken to an island in the middle of the lake.
On the island was a collection of buildings, which in both architecture and color reminded me vividly of Alcatraz prison. The weather that day was horrific: temperature around 50, heavy winds, and a steady cold rainfall. Our hosts offered us tea and scones and then we made our way onto the island to begin our work.
Just before Christmas, we learned of more violence in the world. In Berlin, Germany, a truck drove into a crowd of holiday shoppers at a Christmas market, killing at least 12 people and injuring as many as 50.
This attack came just hours after the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. The gunman was identified as a Turkish police officer who yelled, “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria,” after he shot Andrei G. Karlov in the back.
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Jim Mahoney, a Marine sergeant, was married shortly before going overseas in World War II. He and his wife never had the chance to celebrate Christmas together.
He returned from the Pacific in December of 1945, hoping and praying that he would make it home in time to be with his wife for Christmas so he could surprise her with a special Christmas gift.
He flew into New York City on Christmas Eve after the stores were closed. As he rode in a cab, he noticed a drugstore that was still open. He stopped the cab and made a purchase.
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During this wonderful time of the year, when Christians throughout the world focus minds and hearts on the coming of God himself upon the earth as one of us, our attention naturally turns to the place where the incarnation occurred.
While all the earth is a holy creation of the Almighty, Bethlehem and the surrounding lands that Jesus walked upon, taught upon, miraculously acted upon, suffered and died upon, and gloriously resurrected upon is uniquely holy, and thus deserving of the title Holy Land.
In the Holy Land, the Prince of Peace taught humanity the way to true peace.
