Tag: Lindsay Becher

On
Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Love Begins Here’s ‘biggest summer yet’

love begins here
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.

This year at LBH

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.

Read More
On
Sue Barry, Catholic Herald Correspondent

Love Begins Here ministry is alive and growing in the diocese

MADISON — Have you ever dreamed of going on a mission trip where you could help other people in need, but thought it would be too expensive or too scary to be far away from home in an unfamiliar place?

Well, maybe you can dream again.

One dreamer with that deep desire to serve others in need made her wish come true right here in the Diocese of Madison.

Read More
On
Lindsay Becher

Finding the heart of practicing our faith

Year of Faith column logo

During this Year of Faith, we are called to take time to consider what is at the heart of the practice of our Catholic faith.

Hopefully this season of Advent has been a chance to prayerfully think about this topic and wait in anticipation for the answer. This may have been a battle, as our world poses many challenges to this task. There are Christmas parties to attend, light displays to enjoy, trees needing to be trimmed, gifts waiting to be wrapped, and meals to be planned. The pre-Christmas to-do list goes on and on.

Read More
On
Lindsay Becher

Resolutions for the year of faith

Year of Faith column logo

Most Americans are familiar with New Year’s resolutions; many embrace them with enthusiasm for the first two weeks of January each year. As winter trudges on, those resolutions lose some of their fervor. Almost all Catholics are familiar with the practice of fasting from things they enjoy each Lent; the good majority stay strong throughout those 40 days.

Based on the success rates of keeping resolutions, it seems like the better and more serious a reason to make one in the first place, the more enthusiasm and effort is put forth in keeping it.

As this Year of Faith began in early October, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his opening homily spoke of a “desertification” happening throughout the world. Many people have found themselves drifting away from the practice of the faith, putting stake in the world’s definition of happiness and no longer desiring the beautiful.

Read More
On
Lindsay Becher

Witnessing to a wide web world

Year of Faith column logo

As the faithful enter this Year of Faith, they will be called to give witness to their faith more and more. In Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict wrote, “faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy.”

In a time when the virality of a message and success in communications is often measured by the number of views a video gets on YouTube and how many times an article is shared on Facebook, it makes sense that Catholics would feel like their message and witness is not easily or rapidly spread through the world today.

Read More