PRINCETON — Have you heard of the phenomena called “Flash Mobs”?
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 1211 W. Main St., is organizing a “Mass Mob” to fill the pews with as many people as possible. It will take place on Palm Sunday, April 13, at the 10:30 a.m. Mass.
MADISON — I have been with Pregnancy Helpline since 2011. When I joined, I had been a member of St. Maria Goretti’s Saint Vincent de Paul (SVDP) chapter for a few years.
Part of that ministry includes home visits, which is a chance to share and offer SVDP clients information about the different services that the county offers for those in need.
MADISON — In August of this year, Lumen House will open its doors to residents in the downtown area near the UW-Madison campus.
The Lumen House project allows Catholic students actively involved in the ministries of St. Paul’s University Catholic Center or the Cathedral Parish to pay rent at a reduced rate. It also offers a $100 a month, per person, rent scholarship to students actively involved with St. Paul’s.
MADISON — The newspapers and gossip columns are filled with Hollywood stars and their prenuptial agreements. These agreements are not just being used by the super wealthy.
Fr. Tait Schroeder, who did his dissertation on prenuptial agreements, will de-mystify some of the aspects of what prenuptial agreements mean for Catholics approaching marriage. He will delve into how prenuptial agreements impact marital consent.
SPRING GREEN — “We are truly a family here at St. John’s School” is proclaimed on the website for St. John the Evangelist School in Spring Green (www.stjohns-springgreen.org)
The average class size is less than 15, which allows the teachers to know every student as an individual and to respect each for his or her own individual talents and gifts.
Several Catholic parishes of southwestern Wisconsin will host the annual “Living Last Supper” performance at multiple parishes between March 29 and April 13.
WAUNAKEE — The Rite of Election of Catechumens and Call to Continuing Conversion for Candidates for Full Communion in the Catholic Church will be celebrated by the parishes of the Diocese of Madison on Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m. at St. John the Baptist Church in Waunakee.
The priesthood of Venerable Fr. Samuel Mazzuchelli lasted just more than 30 years, from his ordination in 1830 until his death on February 23, 1864.
MADISON — College students are known for “pulling an all-nighter” to stay up through the night writing a paper or studying for an exam.
For Audrey Hilts, a sophomore at UW-Madison and student leader at St. Paul Catholic Center, her first all-nighter last year was a little different.
“The night before Ash Wednesday, St. Paul’s offered all-night perpetual Eucharistic Adoration — praying with the Blessed Sacrament in the middle of the night was such a powerful way to begin Lent!”
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
Last week in my column I talked a lot about conscience, and I’d like to pick the theme back up, as our Gospel from this past Sunday touches on that very same message.
Conscience should always drive us toward perfection. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48),” is the parting exhortation from our Lord in this past Sunday’s Gospel. A correctly formed conscience never says to you, “How little can I do and still call myself a Catholic?”
Conscience does not open the door to be a minimalist. It is not a tool for our saying, “How can I give myself permission to do the minimum?”
Conscience opens the door to perfection, to the heroic, to the maximum, because the well-formed conscience serves as that truth-seeking radar, by which we choose to follow the law of the Lord.
As I said, we very much need to spread the word about conscience, and the readings of this past Sunday really help us with one detail of how to do that.
If we’re going to spread the good word about conscience, that means we’re going to have to correct others, especially our brothers and sisters who are Catholic. We know that this is not easy.
What is easy, when we seek to inform the consciences of others, is to seem as if we are judging the person themselves. We have to avoid that judgment of the individual, but we must not hesitate to help them, by offering the truth about their actions.
