Author: Kevin Wondrash

On
Kevin Wondrash

St. Ambrose Academy holds Service Day

MADISON — The St. Ambrose Academy Fall 2019 Service Day took the school’s junior and senior high students out into the community to serve at 17 different community organizations, parishes, and schools.

After several weeks of coordination, the student leadership team guided their peers from the start of the day to the end of the service projects. Having older students matched up at service sites with young students is one of many ways that the entire student body of 112 students can come together across the span of grades to build a strong culture of service and love for one’s neighbor.

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

Humility is the basis of the spiritual life

Bishop Donald J. Hying's column

“Though He was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather, He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. He was known to be of human estate, and it was thus that He humbled Himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross!”

Paul quotes these lines of the Kenotic Hymn in the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians, citing Christ’s example of humility as a model for the community to emulate.

Two leaders of the Christian community in Philippi were fighting with each other, causing dissension and conflict, so Paul, from his prison cell, seeks to heal the division. The Kenotic Hymn is probably the earliest Scriptural articulation of the Paschal Mystery, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The Greek word “kenosis” means “self-emptying,” a pouring out, a radical gift of self.

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

Edgewood Chamber Orchestra presents benefit concert for Catholic Charities of Madison

MADISON — The Edgewood Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Blake Walter, presents a special concert to benefit Catholic Charities of Madison.

It will take place on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel at Holy Name Heights, 702 S. High Point Rd., Madison.

There is no admission charge for this concert, but a freewill offering will be taken to support Catholic Charities of Madison.

Concert program

The concert includes the Donna Diana Overture, by Emil Reznicek; Pavane, Op. 50, by Gabriel Faure; Little Suite by Witold Lutoslawski, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, “The Miracle.”

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

National Vocation Awareness Week is November 3-9

Seminarian Group
Seminarians from the Diocese of Madison are pictured with Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison and Fr. Gregory Ihm, vocations director for the diocese, right. For more on discerning and answering God’s call, see the special section on vocations in the October 31 issue of the Catholic Herald. (Contributed photo)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic Church in the United States will celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week, November 3-9, 2019.

During this week, dioceses across the U.S. lead the effort in parishes and schools to uphold and encourage the fostering of vocations among the faithful, and to pray for those currently discerning a call to marriage, ordained ministry, or Consecrated Life.

In his message for the 2019 World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis reminded the faithful that unlike a secular career, a vocation is a gift born from God’s own initiative: “The Lord’s call is not an intrusion of God into our freedom; it is not a ‘cage’ or burden to be borne. On the contrary, it is the loving initiative whereby God encounters us and invites us to be a part of a great undertaking.”

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

A ‘beautiful’ priesthood for Bishop Hying

“It’s a call that comes to you through God, obviously mediating through others, and through our experience,” said Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison.

In his first year as the fifth Bishop of Madison, Bishop Hying is celebrating 30 years of priesthood.

While now the spiritual shepherd of the diocese, Bishop Hying’s journey began like that of many men — discerning and living out a call to the priesthood.

“Every priest really has a vocation narrative,” he said.

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

Reflections on Dominus Iesus, part two

Bishop Donald J. Hying's column

In my last column, I began speaking about the Declaration Dominus Iesus (“the Lord Jesus”), which recalls for us “certain indispensable elements of Christian doctrine” that we all need to keep in mind as we think about one of the big questions confronting the Amazon Synod in Rome, which is simply this: how are we called to relate to followers of non-Christian religions, many of whom have never heard the proclamation of the saving truth of the Gospel?

What are these “indispensable elements of Christian doctrine”? The Declaration mentions more things than we have space to discuss here, but I want to highlight the first one in particular, which has to do with the fullness and definitiveness of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Read More
On
Kevin Wondrash

Imagine having no place to call home

Just imagine for a moment that you have no home. What will you do for meals today? Where will you shower? Where will you sleep? If you have children, how will you provide for them?

And how will you cope with being homeless tomorrow, next week, next month?

Sad crisis

Such imaginations are distressing. Aren’t they? But let’s not allow these distressing imaginations to cause us to ignore the sad crisis facing so many children, women, and men: the crisis of having no place to call home.

Instead, let’s make an effort to better understand why this devastating crisis exists. And what we can do to help end it.

Read More