MADISON — Getting away for the weekend can often include a fun road trip, a new-to-you destination, and a lot of great memories, but for a local group, a recent weekend included something a bit atypical: Religious Sisters.
Last month, Fr. Greg Ihm, Diocese of Madison vocations director, led a group that included 10 St. Ambrose Academy students, a mother of one of the teens, and four other Madison-area women on a journey of prayer and discernment.
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“Look!” my husband said proudly one evening. “I fixed it for you!”
He held up my favorite handheld kitchen tool, the stainless-steel pastry cutter, and pulled on it to illustrate that he had fixed its broken handle.
To his dismay, the handle pulled apart in his hand.
MADISON — No pork hock and sauerkraut dinner will be held this year in the St. James Church basement.
The annual event that started decades ago with sauerkraut made by former Dane County Sheriff John Haas is taking a year off.
Haas’ son John continued the tradition of making the sauerkraut and offering it to the parish for the dinner usually held in February or March.
MADISON — All women of the diocese are warmly invited to join Madison Catholic Woman’s Club (MCWC) members as we celebrate our parish priests, Religious, and staff on Tuesday, March 9, at Blessed Sacrament Church, 2116 Hollister Ave., Madison.
Mark your calendars to join us in person at 11:10 a.m. to pray the Rosary followed by Mass at 11:30 a.m. with Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison presiding.
For those wishing to participate virtually, the event will be livestreamed on the Blessed Sacrament YouTube channel.Eighth in a series on the 75th anniversary of the Diocese of Madison
Bishop William P. O’Connor traveled to Rome several times after becoming the first bishop of the Diocese of Madison.
Bishop O’Connor made three ad limina visits to the Vatican. These visits are called ad limina apostolorum (“to the threshold of the Apostles”) because they are traditionally pilgrimages made by bishops to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The bishops in the United States are required to make visits to Rome personally or through authorized delegates about every five years to present a report on the state of the diocese.
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“These are the good old days” — William Powell as “Nick Charles” in The Thin Man (1934).
Someday, Lent will pass and spring will have arrived. Someday, winter will be back. Someday, I’ll hit age 40. Someday, I will no longer be the editor of the Catholic Herald. Someday, I will die. (Well, that escalated quickly.)
Everything we know, love, and treasure on this Earth will be lost to us or will pass away.
Despite the initial emotional reactions to those statements, they are facts.
All of our “stuff” will either leave us or we will leave it. The same goes for our friends and loved ones. For life to go on, ob-la-di, ob-la-da, someone has to depart from someone.
WHITEWATER — Warhawk Catholic, the campus ministry for Catholic students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, is pleased to announce the winner of its Distinguished Alumni Award is Msgr. James Bartylla.
He is being recognized as part of an extended celebration of the 50th anniversary of Warhawk Catholic.
Many UW-Whitewater graduates are Catholic, one notable alum being Monsignor Bartylla ‘83, the vicar general of the Diocese of Madison. |
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In last week’s column, I meditated on the surrender of Mary and Jesus in the key moments of the Annunciation and the Agony in the Garden.
We all know the difficulty of handing over our wills to the Lord.
We want to be in control, have a clear idea of how events should unfold, and we often think God is letting us down when we face disappointment, tragedy, and suffering.
How do we find peace amidst the storm and trust in the middle of life’s chaos?
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| A screenshot of the Stations of the Cross YouTube video produced by the Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities-Diocese of Madison. The video is available during Lent. (YouTube image) |
MADISON — During most seasons of Lent, it is a devotional tradition to pray the Stations of the Cross.
During typical years, parishes in the Diocese of Madison will host praying of the Stations at their churches where many gather to pray them together.
This year, with many people not entering church buildings due to health concerns and restrictions on the number of people allowed to be in a building at the same time, the Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities-Diocese of Madison has produced a YouTube video that gives everyone the opportunity to pray the Stations of the Cross from their own homes or elsewhere through the blessings of technology.
It’s called the “Stations of the Cross presented by the Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities-Diocese of Madison”.
The nearly 24-minute video begins with a reflection from Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison.
“As we pray the Stations of the Cross, we participate and share in Jesus’s suffering and death,” he says in part of the reflection.PORTAGE — St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Portage recently announced plans for a capital fund drive to its members.
The effort will be entitled the “Our Church-Our Future” campaign.
Its aim is to raise the funds required to renovate and expand the church and parish facilities.
A minimum goal of $3,500,000 has been set for the effort which will enable the parish to break ground on the project.
