CROSS PLAINS — All women are invited to a Ladies of Divine Mercy Evening of Reflection at St. Mary of Pine Bluff Church, 3673 CTH P, Cross Plains, on Friday, March 18.
The evening begins with the Angelus and sung Vespers at 6 p.m., followed by Eucharistic Adoration. Around 7 p.m., Fr. Scott Jablonski will give a spiritual reflection. The evening concludes with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Benediction.
CROSS PLAINS — […]
Dear Friends,
By the time that you read this, we’ll likely have jumped right into Lent. It’s one of those years in which the gap between the end of Christmas and the start of Lent is a bit abrupt. Nevertheless, in so many ways, the readings of this past Sunday end up being particularly fitting for a pre-Lenten exhortation — especially in this Year of Mercy!
MADISON — During the Year of Mercy, the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish community is holding events to encourage awareness of mercy — both as a gift given and a gift received.
Each month, the parish is focusing on one or two of the Works of Mercy. For February, the focus is to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty.
SAUK CITY — Shoreless Lake Middle School, an all boys school, will be opening in September, 2016, in Divine Mercy Parish, Sauk City.
The priests and Consecrated Women of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest, have been working to establish a middle school here for young male students that will guarantee an integral and total education based in Catholic values and tradition.
According to Fr. Pedro Escribano, the school’s principal, “Shoreless Lake School will provide students with an intellectual and scientific formation of the highest calibre.”
BARABOO — On Saturday, Jan. 30, St. Joseph Parish in Baraboo will be hosting a men’s retreat titled, “Men of Mercy” at Durward’s Glen.
This year’s featured speaker is Fr. Scott Jablonski, parochial vicar at St. Bernard and St. Henry Parishes in Watertown. Activities during the day include Mass, small group discussion, Rosary, Confession, and Adoration.
The retreat begins with Mass at 8 a.m. and concludes by 3:30 p.m. New this year, there will be an optional Friday night program beginning at 7 p.m. for those who want to extend their retreat.
PINE BLUFF — The Knights of Divine Mercy and Ladies of Divine Mercy invite all men and women to an evening of reflection on Friday, Jan. 15, at St. Mary of Pine Bluff Church, 3673 Co. Hwy. P, Cross Plains.
The evening begins at 6 p.m. with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. An hour of Adoration will be followed by a reflection by Msgr. James Bartylla, vicar general of the Diocese of Madison, on “Discernment of Spirits.”
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| Beth Ulaszek |
In conjunction with the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this past September, the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Diocese of Madison is providing a monthly series on a particular theme on marriage and family. Each theme is a chapter in the preparatory catechesis developed for the event entitled Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive, available in paperback from www.osvparish.com or for free online at www.worldmeeting2015.org
One of my favorite books is Blessed Are You: Mother Teresa and the Beatitudes, by Eileen Egan and Kathleen Egan, OSB (1992). When Pope Francis announced that Blessed Teresa would be canonized in 2016, I took the book out again.
Each chapter of the book offers a short meditation on one of the Beatitudes, Blessed Teresa’s own reflections on that Beatitude, and how she and her order – the Missionaries of Charity — lived that Beatitude.
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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 Sunday — Gaudete or “Rejoice” Sunday — provided plenty of reason for rejoicing.
In addition to our celebration of the rapidly approaching Feast of Christmas (which celebrates not only the Incarnation of the Lord, but also our hope in the Second Coming) we marked, in a particular way, the beginning of the Year of Mercy in the Diocese of Madison.
On this past Sunday we opened the Holy Doors, which are present at the two sites of the Cathedral Parish (St. Patrick Church and Holy Redeemer Church) and at the Schoenstatt Founder Shrine.
As I mentioned in my letter for the opening of the Year of Mercy, these doors should be a place of pilgrimage for us and they bear with them a plenary indulgence granted by Pope Francis.
It should be noted, however, that the indulgence does not simply come upon passing through the doors. There is spiritual conversion that is to be done. You need to grow in freedom from the attachment to sin.
A primary symbol of this Year of Mercy is the entrance through the Holy Doors. So, I encourage you to take the time and consider making several pilgrimages through one of the Holy Doors of Mercy.
In the second reading of this past Sunday (Phil 4:4-7) we have that wonderful admonition from the Lord. “Rejoice in the Lord always! Rejoice!”
Now, if you look around the world with all the violence, and at the collapse of the culture in our own country, and at the war against the Natural Law, against the law of human reason, which is being waged, there’s reason not to rejoice.
But St. Paul says to rejoice anyway — “Rejoice in the Lord always!” Nothing is so big that it can conquer the joy of Christ. Nothing.
This Year of Mercy could also be called the “Big Picture Year,” where we keep the big picture in mind — Jesus Christ is still risen from the dead!
