I sat down in the midst of my children today and did Morning Prayer aloud.
Never mind that it was already 10:30 a.m. Never mind that the two little ones were giggling and grabbing markers from each other at the kitchen table.
Never mind that the older ones still needed to empty the dishwasher and take out the recycling and I still needed to start the laundry.
Never mind that we needed to pack a lunch for our day of running errands and playing at the park.
Today I found a marble while doing the laundry. There it was, blue and shiny among the grey folds of my son’s sweatshirt.
My heart leaped as I picked it up and admired its beauty, thinking about how Michael would smile when I showed him his lost treasure.
But just as suddenly as I found it, the marble slipped from my fingers and bounced into the dusty unknown beneath the hot water heater. Sighing in defeat after peering into the darkness, I shrugged and continued with my work.
Editor’s Note: Joy and Bill Exner are section representatives for the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. in the Diocese of Madison. They are members of St. Mary Parish in Pine Bluff, where they are both lectors and involved in marriage preparation. Bill is a parish trustee, Rosary leader, and sacristan.
We just returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and want to share with you some of our experiences.
Our observations focus mainly on the people living in the Holy Land rather than the holy sites, as it is the people who sustain these holy places and keep them alive.
Dear Friends,
Of late it seems that all roads — whether in Rome or at home — lead to one place, to one theme: mercy.
Just a week or two ago, many of us in the diocese were blessed to experience the presence of the major relics of St. Maria Goretti — the Church’s youngest canonized Saint and one of our greatest examples of mercy. If you do not know her story, I highly encourage you to learn about it.
The tour of St. Maria Goretti’s remains around the United States is part of a preparation for the Year of Mercy, which Pope Francis has announced and which will begin on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — December 8.
WATERLOO — Fr. Jorge Miramontes, pastor of Holy Family Parish, is leading a Spiritual Warfare Series called, “Angels and Demons.” It is being held at the school cafeteria, 387 S. Monroe St., on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. The series began Sept. 29 and continues to Nov. 3.
The program is for anyone who wants to deepen their knowledge about angels and demons and understand how to engage in ongoing spiritual battle.
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Every third summer, the Catholic lectionary provides a series of readings for Sunday Mass from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. This is the magnificently crafted chapter in which the evangelist’s Eucharistic theology is most fully presented.
It is a curiosity of John’s Gospel that the Last Supper scene includes no “institution narrative,” which is to say, the account of what Jesus did with the bread and cup the night before he died.
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Over the years, there have been numerous films that feature the character of the “monster-mentor,” by which I mean an elder who forms a young apprentice through the toughest kind of tough love.
Think of Lou Gossett, Jr.’s character in An Officer and a Gentleman who puts Richard Gere’s young Navy recruit brutally through his paces; or of the awful drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket who ruthlessly prepares one young man to be a soldier, even as he leads another to commit suicide; or of Pai-Mei in Kill Bill, Vol. 2, the Kung-Fu master who brow-beats one recruit until she is able to put her fist through a four-inch thick piece of wood.
We have a loving and compassionate God, and Jesus calls us to practice these virtues in our lives. This is our mission as Christians.
When I was growing up, we learned the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. They are tools for living a good Christian life, showing us how to be compassionate.
Jesus tells us about the Corporal Works of Mercy in Chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew. He challenges us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, and bury the dead. We will be judged by how we do these things.
At first glance, we might think that we are rarely presented with opportunities to exercise many of these good works. But, if we look a little closer, we might be surprised at how often we are presented with ways to do some of them.
MADISON — An automobile accident in 1975 changed Paula D’Arcy’s life forever.
She woke up to discover that her husband and daughter had been killed in the wreck, but the baby she had carried for three months was still alive inside her.
“Everything about my life altered at that moment,” she says. “I was at a fork in the road; I could despair, or I could go deeper.”
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QUESTION: What does mental health have to do with our faith?
RESPONSE: By William McKenna, M.S., clinical extern at the IPS Center for Psychological Services
For years, psychology and theology were like two squabbling siblings. Always ready to fight, but actually always seeking the same end.
