I love attending ball games. A beautiful summer day at the park; the smell of freshly cut grass and grilled hot dogs; and the competition playing to a cheering crowd.
But, this was no ordinary ball game that I was going to. I had looked forward to this afternoon for some time and couldn’t wait to see “North Rock” take on their arch rivals from “South Rock” in the eighth year of their annual kickball showdown.
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We are a people of new beginnings! In our faith, this is manifest most directly in the sacraments.
In Baptism, we are reborn in Christ, washed clean of the stain of original sin, beginning anew in him. When we confess our sins in Reconciliation, we are forgiven, washed clean of sin, and begin anew in Christ. When we present ourselves humbly before the Lord and receive his body in Holy Eucharist, He enters our very being and creates us anew in him (2 Cor 5:17, Rev. 21:5). We are a people of new beginnings!
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Every third summer, the Catholic lectionary provides a series of readings for Sunday Mass from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. This is the magnificently crafted chapter in which the evangelist’s Eucharistic theology is most fully presented.
It is a curiosity of John’s Gospel that the Last Supper scene includes no “institution narrative,” which is to say, the account of what Jesus did with the bread and cup the night before he died.
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| Kevin Phelan | Eric Schiedermayer | William Yallaly |
MADISON — Effective August 28, Kevin Phelan retired as chancellor of the Diocese of Madison, a position he has held since 2004.
Before he came to Madison, Phelan served as chancellor of the Diocese of Helena, Mont., for two years. In both dioceses he served as the sexual abuse victim assistance coordinator.
While thanking Phelan for his “faithful lay service,” Bishop Robert C. Morlino said “his departure both necessitates and allows for other changes at the diocesan level.”
The bishop said, “In order to address some of our current needs, as well as to bring our office in closer alignment with the curial structure provided in the Code of Canon Law, two major changes will take place at this time”:
MCFARLAND — How do we show love to those who are hostile to us because of our Christian beliefs? How do we persevere in the faith when others would like to eliminate God and religion from this country?
What can we do to bring the light of Christ’s truth and mercy to the attacks on our religious liberty?
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Bill Droel, a Labor Day historian, wrote that Labor Day began in 1882 when machinist Matthew Maguire and carpenter Peter Maguire organized a worker’s parade in New York City.
Both were Catholic laymen who were active in the Knights of Labor, the first successful national union in our country. In 1894, Congress voted that Labor Day be a national holiday.
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| Ask IPS |
QUESTION: “I had an abortion some years ago. While I’ve been to therapy and looked to Project Rachel* for help, with all of the media hype about Planned Parenthood I’ve been having nightmares, flashbacks, and I’m just angry all the time. Will I ever find healing?”
RESPONSE: William McKenna, M.S., Clinical Extern at the IPS Center for Psychological Services
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Recently, Stephen Colbert gave an interview in which the depth of his Catholic faith was on pretty clear display.
Discussing the trauma that he experienced as a young man — the deaths of his father and two of his brothers in a plane crash — he told the interviewer how, through the ministrations of his mother, he had learned not only to accept what had happened but actually to rejoice in it: “Boy, did I have a bomb when I was 10; that was quite an explosion . . . It’s that I love the thing that I wish most had not happened.”
MARSHALL — There aren’t many women in their mid-20s who would give up a teaching career and move to a southern African country to help young women in need — but sometimes all it takes is one person to make a difference.
Twenty-eight year old Marshall native Mary-Kate Martin is one of those women.
The member of Holy Family Parish in Marshall and Waterloo is the founder and executive director of Hosea’s Heart.
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| Veronica Arntz |
To prepare for the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this September, the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Diocese of Madison is providing a monthly series on a particular theme on marriage and family. Each theme is a chapter in the preparatory catechesis developed for the event entitled Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive, available in paperback from www.osvparish.com or for free online at www.worldmeeting2015.org
