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Word on Fire
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Editor’s note: Following is a slightly edited version of a homily given by Msgr. Kevin Holmes, pastor of the Cathedral Parish in Madison, on Good Friday, March 30.
As many of you know, I was privileged to spend the first two weeks of this Lent on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
After I got back, Marc Laudonio — on the parish staff — asked me an interesting question, namely: “Rome or Jerusalem? If you could visit only one, which would you choose?”
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| Sandra Clisham holds a picture of St. Damien De Veuster and Christ, painted by Henry, a leper patient she treated in Hawaii. St. Damien cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii. (Catholic Herald photo/Pat Casucci) | |
BELOIT — Perhaps Sandra Clisham, an Our Lady of the Assumption (OLA) parishioner in Beloit, could be described as being rooted in service and sacrifice.
Clisham is a licensed LPN and is now retired. She spent the better part of 10 years working in Hawaii, the last four of those at Kalaupapa Hospital, which served the leper colony on the island of Molokai.
The leper colony itself is located on the remote, windy, north shore of the Kalaupapa Peninsula. Some of the highest cliffs in the world surround the peninsula. Supplies arrive by barge. Food is flown in.
She shrugged her shoulders and said in her calm, humble manner, “I never considered it that important” when she was asked about her experiences in Hawaii.
Her adventurous spirit led to her work of service and care for the few remaining people who chose to continue living at the former leper colony on Molokai.
On a trip to Hawaii in the early 1980s, Clisham visited the leper colony and was impressed with the contrast between the beauty of the area and its history.
She explained, “While I was there on the trip, I jokingly said to a hospital official, ‘If you have any job openings at the hospital, let me know.’” She admitted, “I knew it would be a challenge. But life has always been a challenge for me.”
Not long afterwards, the hospital called and told her she had a job there. At first she worked in a larger hospital on the island of Kauai until there was an opening at Kalaupapa.
So began Clisham’s odyssey.
She pointed out that leprosy is now called Hansen’s disease. By the 1800s, it had spread rapidly throughout the Hawaiian Islands and by mid-century, lepers were exiled to the Kalaupapa Peninsula.
The disease was not understood, and the lepers were left to fend for themselves. Walled off from the world, they bonded together, living their lives out in what histories describe as sad, demoralizing, neglected conditions.
For more than a century, hundreds of people were forced to live there. After 1969, the quarantine ended when the disease became better understood and could be treated with antibiotics. The colony is now designated as a National Historical Park.
MADISON — On April 4, staff members of The Beacon, along with members of the Madison Police Department, presented stories of successes and challenges from its first few months of operation.
A comprehensive day resource center for people experiencing homelessness in Dane County, The Beacon opened in October of 2017. It is a joint venture among Catholic Charities Madison, Dane County, the City of Madison, and United Way of Dane County.
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Word on Fire
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“She hears, upon that water without a sound, a voice that cries, ‘The tomb in Palestine is not the porch of spirits lingering. It is the grave of Jesus where he lay . . .'”
Somber words. One should say, inappropriate words for Easter Sunday.
They come from the American poet Wallace Stevens, an excerpt from his poem, Sunday Morning.
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This article is the second in a two-part series.
In Grammar of Assent, John Henry Newman reminded us that truth is brought home to the mind, becoming convincing and persuasive, when it is represented, not through abstractions, but through something particular, colorful, and imaginable.
REEDSBURG — Camp Gray’s Benefit Dinner is said to be the most exciting fundraising event this side of the Mississippi, and the ninth annual Benefit Dinner on Saturday, April 28, will be no exception.
“Why?” you might ask? Well, for the first time in the history of the Benefit Dinner, Camp Gray is happy to be hosting the event in its newest building — the St. John Paul II Dining Hall.
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A boy returned from Catechism class where he learned about Jesus’ resurrection.
During his walk home, he stopped by a religious goods store to study a window display of a huge cross with an image of the crucified Jesus nailed to it. An elderly man who walked with crutches joined him. The man seemed confused as he stared at the crucifix.
MADISON — For the people of the Diocese of Madison who have read the books Searching For and Maintaining Peace, Interior Freedom, and Time for God, the night of March 20 was something they had been waiting for.
The author of those works, their spiritual guide while making their way through the pages, spoke to them, personally.
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This article is the first of a two-part series.
There is a very bad argument for celibacy which has reared its head throughout the tradition and which is, even today, defended by some. It runs something like this: married life is morally and spiritually suspect; priests, as religious leaders, should be spiritual athletes above reproach; therefore, priests shouldn’t be married.
Many families have Holy Week and Easter traditions.
Some of them have been passed down from generation to generation.
Such is the case for Jason Studnicka of Muscoda.
