BARABOO — Join Catholic women from the diocese to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Madison Diocesan Council of Catholic Women (MDCCW) and “Find Grace through Faith, Trust, & Patience” at the annual MDCCW convention.
The Sauk Vicariate will host this event, beginning the afternoon of Tuesday, May 20, and continuing the next day at the Clarion Hotel & Convention Center, 626 Hwy. 12, Baraboo.
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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,
It is always strange to prepare a column for this issue of the Catholic Herald.
As I write, it is Monday and we’ve just entered into Holy Week. When this issue arrives at your homes, it will most likely be Holy Thursday, and yet this will also serve as the “Easter issue.”
We’ve just experienced Palm Sunday, when we rejoiced and sang “Hosanna!” as Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem.
So should I reflect upon those moments of worldly glory? Should I rejoice with all the gusto of Easter, knowing that you may read this in the glow of those days? Or, should I consider the darkness of Christ’s passion and death, bearing in mind that you may read this column on Holy Thursday or Good Friday?
Of course it wouldn’t be the end of the world to do any of this, and the point is not really the tension of writing this column.
I reflect upon it though, because it’s actually the tension in which we live day-in and day-out.
For us, Christ’s life, His passion, His death, and His raising to new life all are present at once.
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By prayerfully meditating before a crucifix, one can see and begin to understand, the ultimate result of sin.
The Romans’ sins, the Jews’ sins, our sins nailed our Lord Jesus to the cross. The cost of sin is death. Our sins killed the Son of God. Our sins crucified our loving Lord. And our sins continue his suffering passion.
Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ and is the most important feast of the Church.
At Easter we renew our faith and welcome new members into the Church.
It is the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil) that is the high point of the Church year.
Easter is the fulfillment of the paschal mystery — the suffering, death, and rising of Jesus. This mystery is not a one-time historical event. As members of the body of Christ, we live this mystery throughout our lives.
We entered the paschal mystery at baptism. We were baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. This means that we share in Christ’s suffering, death, and rising throughout our lives.
The paschal mystery assures us that the “pain and dying” we experience in our daily lives ultimately leads to resurrection.
It is our Christian belief that God can and does bring good out of evil and suffering.
Jesus’ life is the greatest example of this. God did not leave Jesus in his pain. God raised him from the dead. Death had no power over him.
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When I saw that Reza Aslan’s portrait of Jesus, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, had risen to number one on the New York Times bestseller list, I must confess, I was both disappointed and puzzled.
For the reductionistic and debunking approach that Aslan employs has been tried by dozens of commentators for at least the past 300 years, and the debunkers have been themselves debunked over and over again by serious scholars of the historical Jesus.
The Jesus that Aslan wants to present is the “zealot,” the Jewish insurrectionist intent upon challenging the Temple establishment in Jerusalem and the Roman military power that dominated Israel.
His principle justification for this reading is that religiously motivated revolutionaries were indeed thick on the ground in the Palestine of Jesus’ time; that Jesus claimed to be ushering in a new Kingdom of God; and that he ended up dying the death typically meted out to rabble-rousers who posed a threat to Roman authority.
It always makes me sad to read the Scripture passages telling how the apostles fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane just before Jesus’ arrest — not only once, but three times!
Jesus says to them, “Could you not watch one hour with me” (Mt. 26:40)? It doesn’t seem like much to ask of his disciples — who had traveled with him and were the primary teachers of his message — to stay awake by his side. However, the apostles were human. Jesus recognized their humanity when he added, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Unfortunately many of us aren’t always being vigilant about what is happening around us, especially when it comes to things that are impacting our faith and our Church.
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Seeing Easter through children’s eyes can open windows of wonder and love that we busy adults sometimes keep closed.
A mother experienced this when she overheard Danny, her five-year-old son, talk with his friend Jeremy whose father recently died.
“Where did your dad go when he died?” asked Danny.
“My mom said that he went to Heaven,” replied Jeremy.
“What’s Heaven?” asked Danny.
BARABOO — The staff and volunteers of Durward’s Glen invite the public to join them at the “Gala for The Glen” event from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, at the Baraboo Arts Banquet Hall.
This year’s event will be bigger and better than ever, with fine food and wine, dancing to the Big Band sounds of the Hal Edwards Orchestra, door prizes, and a silent auction.
Madison Catholic Woman’s Club plans 100-year anniversary celebration |
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All women of the Diocese of Madison are invited to join the Madison Catholic Woman’s Club for its 100-year celebration to be held at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, 702 S. High Point Rd., Madison, on Tuesday, May 6. A social at 9:30 a.m. will begin the day with coffee, pastries, and historical exhibits. A Rosary is scheduled at 10:40 a.m. with Mass at 11 a.m. followed by a luncheon. Bishop Robert C. Morlino will preside at the Mass, which will be a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the patroness of the club. Concelebrants will include Fr. Roger Nilles, the club’s current spiritual director, and priests who served as previous spiritual directors. Lori Lonergan will be the cantor at the Mass and Josephine Cowen will be the accompanist. A program, “A Walk down Memory Lane,” will begin at 1:15 p.m. All past spiritual directors and past Christian Achievement Award recipients are especially welcome. Paid reservations must be received by April 23. Cost is $22 per person. Make checks payable to MCWC and send to Teri Kinney, 5117 Comanche Way, Madison 53704. For more information, call 608-246-8508. Guests are welcome. The facility is barrier-free. |
Thanks to Madison Catholic Woman’s Club members Ann Furhman and Syl Kimberly for historical information provided for this article, along with an archived article by Helen Matheson Rupp published in the Catholic Herald on the occasion of the club’s 75th anniversary in 1989.
MADISON — In 1914, three women met in Madison and conceived plans to form a Madison Catholic Woman’s Club (MCWC) with a great eagerness to do good work.
Mary Adams, Mrs. E. T. Adams, and Mary O’Connor encouraged 100 women to join them at a meeting held at St. Raphael School hall in downtown Madison. Eighty-five more women joined them as charter members of the new club. Dues were $1 a year.
In 1915, the club launched its first major project: service to what was then Madison’s neglected minority, the Italian immigrant community in the Regent-Brooks-W. Washington Ave. area, which was known as the “triangle.”
This “Italian Aid” project would continue for over 40 years, until the neighborhood was bulldozed in the path of urban renewal.
Today as the MCWC prepares to observe its 100th anniversary with a special celebration on Tuesday, May 6, it can rejoice in a notable record of charitable work undertaken, in addition to spiritual, educational, cultural, and community activities.
Barb Kutchmarek, chairman of the club’s anniversary celebration, commented, “I am so happy to be part of this 100-year anniversary celebration. Having served as co-president for two years and working with many of the wonderful members of MCWC, I felt we could make this a remarkable event and provide many memories for the members, both old and new.
MONONA — “It’s basically goodness starting within myself and flowing out to others,” Dr. Robert D. Enright said as he explained forgiveness.
“When we have been treated unfairly by others and choose to forgive, we do two things: we get rid of something negative and then we try to offer the one who hurt us some kind of moral goodness, whether it’s respect, generosity, kindness, or even some kind of moral love.”
