BARABOO — On December 10, 1925, Our Blessed Mother appeared to Lucia at Pentevedra, Spain.
She said, “I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to me, on the first Saturday of five successive months, go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary.”
MONONA — Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) School, 5913 Schofield St., is hosting the second annual Hispanic Festival on Saturday, May 3, from 5 to 8 p.m. The festival celebrates the heritage of the Hispanic community at IHM and in the Diocese of Madison.
Children at IHM School have participated in a Hispanic dance group all year. They will be performing the traditional dances they have learned and be dressed in authentic costumes. Entertainment will also be provided by other Hispanic dance groups from the area. A dinner of homemade traditional foods, such as tamales and salsa, will be provided along with drinks.
COTTAGE GROVE — Eager to get your garden going? A visit to a local garden center from Friday to Sunday, May 2 to 4, could give you that chance — and the opportunity to help local people in need.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is asking those visiting America’s Best Flowers Garden Center in rural Cottage Grove this weekend to purchase and donate vegetable-transplant four-packs destined to become fresh produce on the tables of Dane County families in need.
 |
|
Our two newest saints — St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II — have been inspirations in my life and the lives of many people in the last 50+ years. Their canonizations should help bring more attention to their lives and their influence on the Church and the world.
Pope John XXIII (now St. John XXIII) died in 1963, the year I entered Aquinas High School in La Crosse. Despite his death, he had a profound impact on my high school years. That’s because during my daily religion classes we talked about what was happening at the Second Vatican Council called by Pope John XXIII. We also studied the documents of the council, hot off the presses.
The one I remember most is Gaudium et Spes (“Joy and Hope”), the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. This document touches on many of the challenges facing people in the modern world which we continue to face today: rapid change, an abundance of wealth and resources, discoveries in science and technology, advances in biology and psychology . . . the list goes on. This document is available in its entirety on the Vatican website (www.vatican.va) and is certainly worth reading today.
It was a typical Saturday morning when I heard the phone ringing. Upon picking up, one of my closest friends began squealing, “It was the perfect first date!” I then spent the next hour listening to every magical detail of my friend’s date the previous night.
She met this lovely gentleman at a charity gala and they enjoyed each other’s company. He asked her out to dinner and apparently the night was a huge success. They both laughed at the same jokes, loved the same movies, and genuinely enjoyed each other’s company.
As I was listening to this very excited description — with the underlying hope that a new relationship was blossoming — only one thought came to mind. Finally I asked, “What about faith? Is he also Catholic? Did you ask?” My dear friend’s response left me a little sad, “No I didn’t ask. I just felt it was too soon.”
 |
|
Among married men and women who undergo surgical sterilization through a vasectomy or a tubal ligation, it has been estimated that anywhere from 10 to 20 percent will come to regret the choice.
Sometimes there may be an immediate awareness of wrongdoing following the surgery, while in other cases, as Patrick Coffin, radio host and author of Sex au Naturel notes, sterilized couples may “. . . drift for years before acknowledging that something between them is no longer in sync. After the initial pregnancy fear subsides, and the vision of 1001 erotic nights turns out be something of a scam, spouse may (subtly) turn against spouse while doing their best to ignore the silent, disturbing ‘presence’ of the choice they made.”
Their decision to seek out a permanent form of contraception can also affect their marriage in other important ways. As Dr. John Billings has noted, there is “an effect that is even more tragic than the clinical, and it is that in many cases the use of contraceptive methods in marriage has been followed by an act of infidelity of one of the members.
