Author: Chris Lee

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Chris Lee

Semana Santa y protección del auténtico matrimonio

Queridos amigos:

Mientras pasamos de Semana Santa a la Pascua, una de las cosas más saltantes que encontramos es un alarmante oximorón, una contradicción aparente, en términos de la muerte de Jesús en la Cruz tan desagradable como tortuosa, y sin embargo hermosa.

Es uno de los misterios más tremendos de nuestra fe: la terrible fealdad y la tortuosidad, detrás de las cuales está escondida la más hermosa Verdad en toda la historia humana.

La Semana Santa mantiene la yuxtaposición de estas dos realidades. Nuestras liturgias de Semana Santa se inician con la belleza del Domingo de Ramos, con la procesión de Jesús en Jerusalén.

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Chris Lee

Volunteers from parishes joining together in Feed My Sheep effort

MADISON — In 2012 several parishes banded together with the Catholic Multicultural Center, Kids Against Hunger, as well as the organization 6:8 Making Service Personal and made a plan.

The plan, called Feed My Sheep, was to invite people from local Catholic parishes to donate toward building 25,000 meals for people in need in the Madison area and throughout the world. Each meal only cost a quarter, yet 25,000 meals sounded like a lot of quarters . . . and it was.

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Chris Lee

Let us live our Easter faith every day

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes, a column by Fr. Donald Lange

A mother 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. “Mom said that he went to Heaven,” replied Jeremy.

“What’s Heaven?” asked Danny.

Jeremy answered, “Mom said that Heaven is a place where we go after we die. Everyone will be happy. We’ll see Jesus, his mom, my grandma, grandpa, dad, and others we know who died. I can’t wait to go there!”

“Wow! Wow!’ said Danny, “But how did your dad get to Heaven? His car is still here.”

“I don’t know,” replied Jeremy. “I’ll ask mom. She knows everything!”

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Chris Lee

God brings good out of suffering and evil

Cutting Edge by Sr. Margie Lavonis

Most people would find it difficult to get through a day without reading or hearing about some violent or painful situation.

It can be about people being beaten or killed for protesting an unjust situation in their countries, or about the threat of nuclear bombs being used by an unstable ruler.

There are stories about homes and lives being destroyed by natural disasters or of a company who has to lay off many of its employees due to the poor economy.

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Chris Lee

¡Tenemos Papa! ¡Habemus Papam!

Queridos amigos:

¡Tenemos Papa! ¡Habemus Papam! La semana pasada, mientras se distribuía a sus hogares el Catholic Herald, el Espíritu Santo, obrando en el Colegio de Cardenales, nos dio un nuevo Santo Padre, Papa Francisco.

Él es, como seguramente ya han visto o seguido en los informes de los medios seculares, “un Papa de los primeros”: él es el primer Papa del “nuevo mundo”, un argentino, el primer Papa que fue formado como sacerdote jesuita, el primer Papa en tomar el nombre Francisco, en homenaje especialmente al tan amado (y con frecuencia mal entendido) San Francisco de Asís.

Estamos conociendo a nuestro Santo Padre, pero ya hay muchas cosas que dan una idea y nos ayudan a conocer mejor quién es.

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Chris Lee

St. Thérèse of Lisieux lecture to focus on Christ in The Hobbit

Joseph Pearce

MADISON — In a prestigious 1997 British readers’ poll, J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings was voted the greatest book of the 20th century.

In the United States, a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers selected this same novel as the greatest book not merely of last century, but of the millennium.

No less celebrated is this novel’s charming prequel, The Hobbit, as last year’s new blockbuster motion picture adaptation bears witness.

How did J.R.R. Tolkien’s devout Catholic faith influence his story telling and serve as a guide for communicating beauty, goodness, and truth in The Hobbit? How can this film provide a cultural means for evangelization?

World renowned Catholic author and EWTN television host Joseph Pearce will be exploring these questions and more at the spring St. Thérèse Lecture on Friday, April 5, at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center in Madison at 7:30 p.m. His lecture is titled, “The Hobbit and the Beauty of the Christian Life.”

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Chris Lee

Fennimore church expected to undergo renewal of splendor

FENNIMORE — The sanctuary of the church, where Jesus resides in the Blessed Sacrament, should be “heaven on earth” — both visually and spiritually, said Rick Statz, national project director at Conrad Schmitt Studios of New Berlin, a firm that specializes in restoration and conservation.

In the latter half of the 20th century, though, in an effort to egalitize and modernize the churches in the post-Second Vatican Council age, many Catholic churches lost the symbolism that reminded worshippers of the extraordinary place they were entering.

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