“Why do we have Catholic schools?” I mean really, why do we have Catholic schools? It’s a question I hear much too often.
Yet it is a question that I am passionate about answering, not just because I’m the superintendent, but because I’ve experienced Catholic schools as a student, a parent, a teacher, and an administrator, and I am completely, totally, and unequivocally convinced that Catholic schools are awesome!
During the holidays I love hearing from old friends, voices from my past; Charlotte, a “mother’s helper” who lived with us for her senior year of high school and now has grandchildren of her own; Tom and Betty, who taught with Bob in the ’50’s and shared our laughter and tears.
They were the short term relationships, the layers of love that add flavor and richness to our lives. The long term relationships were the foundation.
I thought of the analogy as I was making my seven layer taco dip for a New Year’s Eve party.
Seven west side churches in Madison representing four denominations will join together in offering a series of events in January that explore the connections between food, faith, and farming.
The settings couldn’t be more different. One, Mukuru, a slum in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi, home to some 10,000 living in wood and corrugated metal shacks, crowded together, with no running water, electricity, or sewage systems.
Two weeks into the NFL season, ESPN ran a Sunday morning special exploring why the third-string quarterback of the Denver Broncos, Tim Tebow, had become the most polarizing figure in American sports.
He has become more polarizing than trash-talking NBA behemoths; more polarizing than foul-mouthed Serena Williams; more polarizing than NFL all-stars who father numerous children by numerous women, all out of wedlock.
Why does Tebow, and Tebow alone, arouse such passions? Why is Tebow the one whom “comedians” say they would like to shoot?
A pilgrimage, in its most basic sense, is a journey. But it is far more than that — often undertaken as a form of penance or as a way to spiritually strengthen oneself, a pilgrimage is a test of one’s faith, endurance, and dedication to God.
It was so refreshing to see Rory McIlroy win this year’s U.S. Open golf tournament in Bethesda, Md.
Of course, we would always like to have an American win this coveted trophy. But being of Irish descent myself, I was pleased to see McIlroy triumph.
In his first win in a major golf tournament, he broke 12 records. He is the youngest player to win the Open since Bobby Jones in 1923.
Must we live through a lot of history before we love history? Must we be an antique before we appreciate antiques?
My fascination with ancestors just took off this year when Janine, my daughter-in-law, discovered a Luxembourg Museum in her Wisconsin territory. For Christmas she and my son John bought me a year’s membership and took me for a visit soon after. What an exciting adventure!
A college student wrote in her college newspaper that sometimes she wished that she were a Catholic. Then, like her Catholic friends, she could confess her sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Through the absolution of the priest, she would be assured of God’s forgiveness.
God’s merciful forgiveness is expressed in the words of absolution: “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” is the familiar cry of Jesus on the cross.
In our own lives, we may also sometimes feel abandoned, with hope seeming to disappear. As we cope with the serious illness of someone close to us. As we face economic challenges, perhaps even the loss of our job. In the gray loneliness that follows the death of a beloved wife or husband.
And yet, in the midst of our darkness, we remember that God did not abandon His beloved Son and the suffering of Good Friday transformed into the hope of our Lord’s Resurrection. God does not abandon us.
