Prayer is not always high on the list of priorities for many young people today, but it should be — especially if they want God’s help in deciding the future direction of their lives.
Tag: prayer
U.S. bishops call for prayer and postcard campaign addressing critical concerns
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| Patrick Delaney |
At their annual meeting in November 2012, the U.S. Catholic bishops launched a pastoral strategy addressing critical life, marriage, and religious liberty concerns. This strategy included first and foremost a call to prayer and sacrifice along with the activism of a nationwide postcard campaign.
In addition to the continued promotion of contraception and abortifacients in our schools, neighborhoods, and in international population control programs, and the resulting sadness and crime of widespread surgical abortion, two additional recent “flashpoints” elevated the urgency of our need for prayer and action.
First ‘flashpoint’: HHS Mandate
The first is the Health and Human Services (HHS) Mandate which requires almost all employers, including Catholic employers, to pay for employees’ contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs regardless of conscientious objections. Not only, therefore, are Catholics and other people of good will expected to live in a society which promotes these evils to our young people with our tax dollars, but now the government wants us to pay for and provide them ourselves within our own communities.
Each of these practices violate what Pope Benedict XVI called the “language of creation,” traditionally referred to as the Natural Moral Law, which proceeds from the Creator and is inscribed on the human heart. And attempting to force Catholic and non-Catholic citizens to violate the laws of God the Creator is a grave affront to America’s first freedom, religious liberty, as well as to the inherent dignity of every human person.
God’s Mother inspires us to work for peace
We Catholics begin the New Year by celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.
On New Year’s we also celebrate the World Day of Peace. This is a feast established by Pope Paul VI and supported by other modern popes.
In many ways these two feasts complement each other, because peace begins in the family. Responsible parents teach us to be persons of peace. Mary is Queen of Peace and the mother of the Prince of Peace.
Pilgrimage to shrine in La Crosse offered
LA CROSSE — The Servants of Our Lady of Guadalupe wish to invite all Catholics to make a pilgrimage on the Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse.
The pilgrimage will also include a special prayer vigil remembering the victims of abortion at 10:30 a.m. outside the Memorial to the Unborn at the shrine. It will also be coordinating events with the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and concluding with a pro-life prayer vigil at Gunderson Lutheran Hospital in La Crosse, where abortions are performed.
Politicians and Pentagon have committed country to wars around the world
To the editor,
Regarding your editorial, “Haven’t we learned? Pursue negotiations before taking military action in Syria” (September 5 issue, Catholic Herald), yes, the people have learned a long time ago, but the politicians have sold out to the corporations and will not listen as long as there is money to be made. It also keeps the Pentagon employed.
Finding real peace in the face of conflict
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This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
This past Saturday, along with so many of you I’m sure, I took up Pope Francis’ worldwide call to offer a day of prayer and of fasting for peace — especially for peace in Syria. As I write this column, the gears are turning, and we shall see what comes in terms of action in Syria, and all of the Middle East.
There is already suffering, no doubt! The situation in Syria and all around that part of the world is terrible. But the need for peace extends far beyond the Middle East, and peace is needed at a much deeper level for all of us.
Regardless the outcome of the current deliberations with regard to Syria, our work for peace should continue. If we desire peace, we must make an examination of conscience and work for peace within our own lives first, to seek a peace that cannot be disturbed. There is more on that below.
Remembering 9/11
I cannot fail to mention that this week we come upon the anniversary of September 11, 2001, when so many Americans came to know the Prince of Peace and, we continue to pray, to reside with Him.
Of course, the violence of terrorism is intended as a direct attempt to rob a large number of people of their peace — not only those immediately affected, but those who continue to live in fear, in terror. May the Lord continue to remove fear from our lives, replacing it with hope — the hope that only He can bring.
The most prayerful experience of my life
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As I follow people on Twitter and help to put together the issue of the Catholic Herald each week, I read about a lot of Catholics taking pilgrimages to the three approved Marian Shines in Wisconsin: the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians at Holy Hill, near Milwaukee; the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, in Champion, near Green Bay; and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, near La Crosse.
I have been to two of the three sites, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe being the only one I have yet to visit. I would now like to reflect on the first time I visited one of these shrines.
A chance to go
Back in May of 2012, I went on a one-day bus trip with parishioners from St. Christopher Parish in Verona to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion (formally known as Robinsonville).
Pray for an end to abortion
After hearing Fr. […]
Family Adoration at Ashton
ASHTON — Family Adoration is a time of guided prayer and song that is perfect for families with children who would like to learn more about Eucharistic Adoration and experience this powerful prayer time together.
Adoration lasts 30 minutes and is followed by a potluck meal and fellowship.
Bring Lent to life: Look for opportunities to nourish your faith by praying, fasting, and giving
Lent is a special time set aside by the Church to prepare for Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection through 40 days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
There are many ways we can observe the Lenten season. In his message for Lent this year, Pope Benedict XVI asked us, especially in the context of this Year of Faith, to “meditate on the relationship between faith and charity: between believing in God — the God of Jesus Christ — and love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which guides us on the path of devotion to God and others.”
Pope Benedict emphasizes that faith and charity are linked together. “Everything begins from the humble acceptance of faith (‘knowing that one is loved by God’), but has to arrive at the truth of charity (‘knowing how to love God and neighbour’), which remains for ever, as the fulfilment of all the virtues (cf. 1 Cor 13:13).”