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The massive rose windows of the medieval Gothic cathedrals were not only marvels of engineering and artistry; they were also symbols of the well-ordered soul.
The pilgrim coming to the cathedral for spiritual enlightenment would be encouraged to meditate upon the rose of light and color in order to be drawn into mystical conformity with it.
KIELER — A Kairos TEC (Together Encountering Christ) retreat will be coming to Immaculate Conception Parish in Kieler December 28 to 30.
Open to all from juniors in high school and older, TEC is an intergenerational movement of the Catholic Church designed to help meet the spiritual needs of Catholic Christians.
Each TEC retreat proclaims the Paschal Mystery: the death, resurrection, and mission of Christ. Participants not only hear about the Paschal Mystery, but they also experience it.
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Lew Wallace’s 19th century novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, inspired two silent movies in the early decades of the 20th century and the magnificent 1959 film starring Charlton Heston in the lead role.
Almost everyone agrees that Heston was born to play the part, and who can forget the drama and excitement of the chariot race with which the movie comes to its climax?
Roma Downey and Mark Burnett have produced a new instantiation of the story, a streamlined version of the 1959 film. Like its predecessor, this one features a charismatic actor (Jack Huston) as Ben-Hur, plenty of visual grandeur, and yes, a stunning chariot race, depicted this time with the most up to date camera technology and CGI virtuosity.
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?
The most important thing we can do is to recognize that these are spiritual battles and we must counter them with prayer — the Holy Rosary being the greatest weapon in our arsenal.
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With his latest film, Last Days in the Desert, Rodrigo Garcia has accomplished something truly remarkable.
He has taken a portion of the life of the single most compelling person who has ever lived and turned it into a colossally boring movie.
MCFARLAND — For the fifth year, Christ the King Parish, McFarland, will be holding weekly Rosary Rallies for Religious Liberty.
The kick-off is on Tuesday, June 21. Pastor Fr. Steve Smith will present a short overview of the issues and talk about the perspective Catholics can bring to the challenges facing religious groups.
At the beginning of each subsequent rally, a three-minute reflection on faith will be read, with a related Rosary intention. The overview and reflections are printed in a booklet that will be available to anyone attending the rallies, and upon request.
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| Love Begins Here missionaries help to sort items at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Monroe during a week spent in the area in a previous year (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash) |
MADISON — It’s almost time for another summer of hundreds of teens doing small things with great love.
This summer marks the eighth of its kind for Love Begins Here (LBH) — an apostolate of the Diocese of Madison Office of Evangelization and Catechesis.
It provides youth with an opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ in a life-changing way through weeklong, local mission trips where they live in community and continue God’s work on earth.
On June 12, the first group of a total of 600 LBH teens over the course of the summer will make their way to parish number one – Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Beloit.
It could be a milestone week for LBH, as the program is nearing its 50,000 hours of service to the communities in the diocese.
Leading the teens will be a Core Team of 12, the largest ever for the program — some of whom were LBH teen missionaries themselves in years past.
LBH Mission Director Lindsay Becher calls it “a delight to see that number grow and to watch what they can give back to the missionaries.”
Becher added there is “something nostalgic about having them with us . . . It’s fun to hear the stories that they remember from the earlier days” when the program was smaller and just beginning.
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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,
Why did Christ ascend to heaven? Wouldn’t it have been nice if He had just stayed here on earth and appeared regularly for the rest of history? Wouldn’t it be nice if every so often we could go to a certain place and He would appear? Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole world simply knew the truth and would not have to seek after faith, since they would have regular audiences with Christ, our God? Wouldn’t it be nice!
What was so important that Christ, with His Father and the Holy Spirit, decided not to do it that way? What could be so important? Two things:
First of all, the Eternal High Priesthood of Christ had to be definitively accomplished, completed, and revealed. And that Eternal High Priesthood was definitively completed and revealed only when Jesus ascended and took His place at the Father’s right hand.
It says in the Hebrew Scriptures, the one who takes his place at the Father’s right hand is, in fact, the Eternal High Priest. “The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand while I make your enemies your footstool . . . You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek (Psalms 110: 1, 4)’.”
BARABOO — Fr. Christopher Crotty will lead two “Healing of the Heart: Mission of Christ in the Modern World” retreats at Durward’s Glen Retreat and Educational Center.
According to Father Crotty, “We are healed and set free in Christ Jesus to proclaim His Wonders!” He will focus on Christ’s healing during this retreat.
The first retreat will be held May 20 to 22, starting Friday night at 6 p.m. and ending on Sunday at 12 noon. The second retreat will be held June 3 to 5, starting Friday night at 6 p.m. and ending Sunday at 12 noon.
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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,
This past weekend we celebrated our Second Sunday of Easter — Divine Mercy Sunday — and the readings point in a particular way to the way we as a Christian people are called to respond, when acting simply in faith.
In the Gospel, we saw our Lord appear in His resurrected body, and we heard him speak to Thomas and the Apostles saying, “Blessed are they who have not seen but have believed (Jn 20:29).” These are words which are terribly important for our country and for our culture and for our day and age.
Our country and our culture and our day and age have tried to convince us that the only truth is to be found in science, that is, seeing what is visible by some method of physical observation, by some scientific method. If there is some kind of physical seeing possible, then we have truth. I see it with my own eyes!
Our strides in science are wonderful and our knowledge impressive, but what does Jesus say to us? “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Gospel tells us that knowledge by grace, knowledge from God’s point of view, gives us far more certainty than science, which is limited to picturing how things go in the physical world. We continue to have a greater and greater understanding of how things work in our physical world, but there is far more to understand.
