Mass – Page 23 – Madison Catholic Herald Archive (2001-2025)

To the editor:

Local Catholics need to know that the former Saint Benedict Center, now renamed Holy Wisdom Monastery (HWM), makes no proper distinction between Holy Mass with the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and a protestant service. It’s not at all in keeping with a Catholic understanding of authentic ecumenism.

The Sisters, who left their vows in 2006, now lead something like a pseudo-parish, not in communion with the Catholic Church, and host various activist dissent groups and so-called “womenpriests.”

Around the Diocese

On January 16, 2013

Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Reflections on the Holy Mass DVD series available

MADISON — As of January 14, Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, was thrilled to receive the first shipment of his DVD series called “Reflections on Holy Mass.”

The Orate Institute of Sacred Liturgy, Music, and Art, under the direction of Abbot Rooney, has prepared 40 reflections on the Mass that appear on eight DVDs.

Letters to the editor

On December 5, 2012

Bill and Joy Exner

Why we attend Mass, in defense of Sister Joan

To the editor:

Aside from the fact that weekly attendance is an obligation, we attend Mass to worship God and to participate in the Pascal mystery. We are not there to be entertained or to see what we can get out of it. We attend for what we put into it.

Letters to the editor

On November 21, 2012September 6, 2023

Tyler J. W. Dickinson

The Mass is not about us but for us, a gift from God

To the editor:

I wanted to take a brief opportunity to respond to two recent letters (both November 1, 2012), by Mr. Paul Krogman and Mr. Bill Wambach. As I read them, I was saddened because they both seem to have been offended by the articles of Mr. Nico Fassino and Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo regarding liturgical music.

Letters to the editor

On October 25, 2012May 5, 2021

Peggy Rakow

God has gifted us with many, varied types of music

To the editor:

While I do enjoy music created by creative dead white Europeans, I also find that God has gifted us with many new and varied types of music for our time.

Nico Fassino writes that the Mass is not for “us” and I must agree with him.

BUT! I also know that the Mass is our most intimate experience with the living and active Christ. In the Mass not only do we worship God, but we find Him with us . . . speaking to us in the Gospel and homily, praying with and for us, teaching us, comforting us, forgiving us, feeding us, and blessing us.

Letters to the editor

On October 18, 2012September 6, 2023

Adam Lewandowski

Sing with joy before God

To the editor:

In the article “Rebuilding Catholic Culture,” Sr. Joan Roccasalvo, C.S.J., argues that much contemporary liturgical music is of lower quality than traditional forms and has a destructive effect on the human spirit. Her complaints against the contemporary liturgical songs are that they are “trite,” “romanticized,” or having “jerky, heavy, frenzied rhythms or dance rhythms.”

Letters to the editor

On August 9, 2012

Syte Reitz

Attending Mass on vacation enhances appreciation for Cathedral Parish music

To the editor:

During a recent vacation, which included attending Mass at a variety of new (to me) Wisconsin Catholic parishes, boy, am I happy to be back at Madison’s Cathedral Parish, where the Mass is the Mass, the music is appropriately solemn and dignified, and the lyrics don’t center on us and on God’s good fortune that we showed up, but on a humble, grateful, and reverent attitude towards God.

Real Life Catholic

On June 21, 2012May 20, 2021

Christopher Stefanick

The priest: in persona Christi

I met a young priest in Fairfax, Va., last week. Of course “young” is a relative term. Everyone around me gets younger with each passing year.

Father Jaffe had been at the parish for less than a week and was the priest on call for the local hospital. It was 2 a.m. when his pager went off. A couple had lost their eight-year-old son hours before and the mother wouldn’t let go of his body.

All attempts of the staff and hospital chaplain to get her to release her son had failed. She sat rocking him, unresponsive to anyone. The woman wasn’t Catholic, but the staff knew from experience that it was time to call in a priest.

When the newly ordained 26-year-old arrived, he did the only thing that came to mind. He sat with the parents in silence for a moment and said, “It looks like you need some prayer.” He opened his rite book, The Pastoral Care of the Sick to the section with the prayers for the deceased and he began to pray aloud.

Propagation of Faith

On April 5, 2012

Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer

Making a world of difference

Mukuru, a slum in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi, is home to some 10,000 people living in wood and corrugated metal shacks, crowded together, with no running water, electricity, or sewage systems.

Sunday Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Mukuru is packed. At the Offertory procession, with the gifts of bread and wine are baskets of vegetables, flour, rice, bread, and other necessities for the less fortunate members of the parish.

Spreading the Good News

Then, at the end of Mass, the new words of dismissal — “go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” — come to life immediately as the missionary priest and others navigate narrow dirt paths, spreading the Good News of God’s love to the sick and those suffering in any way.

Notes from the Vicar General

On March 22, 2012

Msgr. James Bartylla, Vicar General

From the Threshold of the Apostles

“Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days” (Galatians 1:18).

In my previous two-part preparatory article, I outlined the historical context and current format and content of the ad limina apostolorum pilgrimage, literally, “to the threshold of the apostles,” by bishops to Rome on a quinquennial basis, i.e., five-year basis.

Bishop Robert C. Morlino and the bishops of Region VII, comprising Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, recently completed their pilgrimage and I’ll offer a brief reflection in thanksgiving as a privileged pilgrim accompanying Bishop Morlino on the ad limina pilgrimage.

I extend my deepest thanks to Bishop Morlino for the opportunity to assist him and accompany him on the ad limina pilgrimage.