In a sign that Easter was only a few days away, St. Maria Goretti Church in Madison was filled with people the evening of April 15 for the annual Chrism Mass.
Day: April 24, 2014
CRS director Woo gives St. Thérèse lecture
MADISON — “This is your work. We do this work in your name.”
Dr. Carolyn Woo, CEO and president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), emphasized those words as she began her talk on Friday, April 11, at the Bishop O’Connor Center in Madison.
Her presentation was the first of 2014’s two lectures in the St. Thérèse series in the Diocese of Madison.
Feed My Sheep meets its 2014 goals
MADISON — The pack event for this year’s Feed My Sheep Lenten Project was held April 5 at the Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC) in Madison.
Sarah Ramthun, executive director for 6:8, the organization coordinating the project, reported that 552 volunteers packed 100,008 meals.
The Pascal Mystery: Death evolving into life
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| Sr. Ruth Battaglia, CSA |
After successful treatment for breast cancer 16 years ago, it returned with a vengeance — 15 small brain tumors and a lung tumor. This time it was stage four cancer.
The diagnosis stunned everyone. The news of Patty Kelbel’s condition spread quickly, especially among the Christian Experience Weekend (CEW) community. CEW is an intense retreat experience, directed mostly by laity, that has been a joint venture between the parishes of St. Ann in Stoughton and Holy Mother of Consolation (HMC) in Oregon for a number of years.
Visiting agency services
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Q I am the only family member involved in my mother’s care.
She lives in an apartment and has a service agency visiting daily to help her get up, prepare meals, and to be there for companionship.
Since my mother is not receiving much of a monthly income, I pay for this service. I have repeatedly asked this agency to keep me informed of their activities. It seems all they are interested in is sending me the monthly bill.
I hear about things second hand or well after the event has occurred. I am talking about missed visits as well as observations the staff has about my mother and her overall health and well being. Since I pay for her care, shouldn’t I be able to get all the details? (A concerned son in Columbus).
God subtly gets his point across
Throughout my life I have many times been reminded of Sister Gregory, my favorite teacher’s comment that God has a sense of humor.
Why Jesus is God: Debunking skeptics
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It’s Easter time, and that means that the mainstream media and publishing houses can be counted upon to issue debunking attacks on orthodox Christianity.
The best-publicized of these is Bart Ehrman’s book, How Jesus Became God. Once a devout Bible-believing evangelical Christian, trained at Wheaton College, the alma mater of Billy Graham, Ehrman “saw the light” and became an agnostic scholar and is on a mission to undermine the fundamental assumptions of Christianity.
Jesus just an ‘itinerant preacher’
In this most recent tome, Ehrman lays out what is actually a very old thesis, going back at least to the 18th century and repeated ad nauseam in skeptical circles ever since, namely, that Jesus was a simple itinerant preacher who never claimed to be divine and whose “resurrection” was in fact an invention of his disciples who experienced hallucinations of their master after his death.
Ehrman, like so many of his skeptical colleagues across the centuries, presents this thesis as though he has made a brilliant discovery. But basically, it’s the same old story.
Pray that rights to life, liberty, and happiness will survive
To the editor:
We, the people of the United States of America, who profess to be Christians, are facing one of the greatest threats to our religious liberty since our forefathers included these God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence more than 200 years ago.
In a case now being heard before our U. S. Supreme Court, the constitutionality of the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate will be decided. This mandate demands that all hospitals and clinics providing health care must also do abortions on demand to all requests and that all drug-dispensing facilities must distribute contraceptive supplies.
It’s more than one day: Pope Francis reminds us to continue to share Easter joy
In our fast-paced world, it seems as if one holiday is barely done and we’re starting to get ready for the next one on the horizon.
This is especially true in the greeting card sections of our stores. The Mother’s Day cards have been on display for a few weeks (even though Mother’s Day was a month away at the time), and the graduation cards are on the racks. Before we know it, the Halloween cards will be making their appearance!
We should have time to savor each special day in our lives and not be rushing past any of the religious or secular holidays.
Continue to celebrate Easter
However, Easter should be the definite exception to our quick celebrations. That’s because Easter is more than just one day, as Pope Francis reminded thousands of visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Monday. In fact, he told them to celebrate Easter all through the week — and beyond.
Easter with Flannery O’Connor
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This coming August 3 will mark the golden anniversary of Flannery O’Connor’s “Passover,” to adopt the biblical image John Paul II used to describe the Christian journey through death to eternal life.
In the 50 years since lupus erythematosus claimed her at age 39, O’Connor’s literary genius has been widely celebrated.