Tag: prayer

On
Kevin Wondrash

Day of prayer and formation in Watertown

WATERTOWN — St. Henry Parish, 300 E. Cady St., Watertown, is hosting a day of prayer and formation for all lectors, musicians, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, catechists, greeters, altar servers, ushers, and art and environment committees on Saturday, March 1, from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, will be the keynote speaker. Abbot Rooney is a dynamic speaker who has consulted on the liturgy with Blessed John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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Patrick Delaney, For the Catholic Herald

U.S. bishops call for prayer and postcard campaign addressing critical concerns

Patrick Delaney

At their annual meeting in November 2012, the U.S. Catholic bishops launched a pastoral strategy addressing critical life, marriage, and religious liberty concerns. This strategy included first and foremost a call to prayer and sacrifice along with the activism of a nationwide postcard campaign.

In addition to the continued promotion of contraception and abortifacients in our schools, neighborhoods, and in international population control programs, and the resulting sadness and crime of widespread surgical abortion, two additional recent “flashpoints” elevated the urgency of our need for prayer and action.

First ‘flashpoint’: HHS Mandate

The first is the Health and Human Services (HHS) Mandate which requires almost all employers, including Catholic employers, to pay for employees’ contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs regardless of conscientious objections. Not only, therefore, are Catholics and other people of good will expected to live in a society which promotes these evils to our young people with our tax dollars, but now the government wants us to pay for and provide them ourselves within our own communities.

Each of these practices violate what Pope Benedict XVI called the “language of creation,” traditionally referred to as the Natural Moral Law, which proceeds from the Creator and is inscribed on the human heart. And attempting to force Catholic and non-Catholic citizens to violate the laws of God the Creator is a grave affront to America’s first freedom, religious liberty, as well as to the inherent dignity of every human person.

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Fr. Donald Lange

God’s Mother inspires us to work for peace

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes, a column by Fr. Donald Lange

We Catholics begin the New Year by celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

On New Year’s we also celebrate the World Day of Peace. This is a feast established by Pope Paul VI and supported by other modern popes.

In many ways these two feasts complement each other, because peace begins in the family. Responsible parents teach us to be persons of peace. Mary is Queen of Peace and the mother of the Prince of Peace.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Pilgrimage to shrine in La Crosse offered

LA CROSSE — The Servants of Our Lady of Guadalupe wish to invite all Catholics to make a pilgrimage on the Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse.

The pilgrimage will also include a special prayer vigil remembering the victims of abortion at 10:30 a.m. outside the Memorial to the Unborn at the shrine. It will also be coordinating events with the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and concluding with a pro-life prayer vigil at Gunderson Lutheran Hospital in La Crosse, where abortions are performed.

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Finding real peace in the face of conflict

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 Saturday, along with so many of you I’m sure, I took up Pope Francis’ worldwide call to offer a day of prayer and of fasting for peace — especially for peace in Syria. As I write this column, the gears are turning, and we shall see what comes in terms of action in Syria, and all of the Middle East.

There is already suffering, no doubt! The situation in Syria and all around that part of the world is terrible. But the need for peace extends far beyond the Middle East, and peace is needed at a much deeper level for all of us.

Regardless the outcome of the current deliberations with regard to Syria, our work for peace should continue. If we desire peace, we must make an examination of conscience and work for peace within our own lives first, to seek a peace that cannot be disturbed. There is more on that below.

Remembering 9/11

I cannot fail to mention that this week we come upon the anniversary of September 11, 2001, when so many Americans came to know the Prince of Peace and, we continue to pray, to reside with Him.

Of course, the violence of terrorism is intended as a direct attempt to rob a large number of people of their peace — not only those immediately affected, but those who continue to live in fear, in terror. May the Lord continue to remove fear from our lives, replacing it with hope — the hope that only He can bring.

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

The most prayerful experience of my life

As I follow people on Twitter and help to put together the issue of the Catholic Herald each week, I read about a lot of Catholics taking pilgrimages to the three approved Marian Shines in Wisconsin: the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians at Holy Hill, near Milwaukee; the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, in Champion, near Green Bay; and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, near La Crosse.

I have been to two of the three sites, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe being the only one I have yet to visit. I would now like to reflect on the first time I visited one of these shrines.

A chance to go

Back in May of 2012, I went on a one-day bus trip with parishioners from St. Christopher Parish in Verona to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion (formally known as Robinsonville).

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