MADISON — Each day brings St. Paul’s Catholic student community on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus a little closer to having a new place to call home.
The Student Center is buzzing with excitement as the clock ticks out the final weeks for savoring the happy memories associated with what will be soon known as “old St. Paul’s.”
St. Paul University Catholic Center stands on the threshold of a new era in its ministry to students on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The leadership of St. Paul’s has given the green light to setting in motion plans that will replace the 50-year-old concrete chapel and century-old student center with a …
“Give, expecting nothing thereof.”
That is the motto of Phi Kappa Theta-Wisconsin Lambda, a national social fraternity with a chapter recently chartered on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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| Frs. Eric Nielsen and Mark Miller distribute ashes at St. Paul University Catholic Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Ash Wednesday is the busiest day of the year at St. Paul’s with over 1,900 students attending Mass. (Contributed photo) |
MADISON — The marquee on Library Mall read, “Get your ash to Mass.” And get to Mass they did.
When Ash Wednesday comes around at St. Paul University Catholic Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, it’s all hands on deck.
Our liturgical rotation on Ash Wednesday included three priests, five sacristans, eight altar servers, 10 lectors, dozens of choir members, and 17 ashes-distributors for our five Masses.
We needed all the hands we could get. With students typically going back home for Christmas and Easter, Ash Wednesday is by far the busiest day of the year in the St. Paul’s chapel.
This year, over 1,900 students came through our doors to be told that they are dust and to dust they shall return. That number is about double the attendance of a typical Sunday.
We’re still not sure what makes this day more popular than any Sunday or holy days of obligation.
Apparently, being repeatedly asked the question, “Excuse me, did you know you have dirt on your face?” at every class throughout the day is no deterrent to these students.
More likely, it’s an incentive. The fact that so many hundreds of students on campus would sooner claim Catholicism as an identity than to practice it by, for example, fulfilling the Sunday obligation is an indication that the Catholic brand is alive and well here.
This has major implications for the New Evangelization. It means that more people of the Millennial generation than we might think are willing to give the Catholic faith a chance, but have never discovered a reason to become fully alive in that faith and to actively seek a nearer approach to God.
As classes get underway at the start of another new school year on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, more than 60 students are taking up residence in a building that combines the old with the new.
MADISON — As warmer spring weather approaches, Catholics across the Diocese of Madison are invited to the fifth annual Spring Wine Fest, benefitting the mission of St. Paul University Catholic Center.
St. Paul’s continues to grow its mission and outreach to thousands of Catholic and non-Catholic students who come to UW-Madison from across the diocese and state.
With a blessing and a ceremonial groundbreaking, the Lumen House student housing project is underway in downtown Madison.
To say the night was merely a success would certainly be an understatement. Now in its fourth year, the Spring Wine Fest hosted by St. Paul University Catholic Center was held on Friday, May 3, at the Madison Concourse Hotel just steps away from the Wisconsin state capitol building.
MADISON — You are invited to join fellow Catholics at the Spring Wine Fest on Friday, May 3, hosted by St. Paul University Catholic Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
The mission of St. Paul’s has grown extensively in the last decade and each year; sacraments, highly impactful programming, and outreach are offered to the approximately 10,000 baptized Catholics who call Madison home during their undergraduate or graduate studies.
MADISON — Many students who attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (including me) have fond memories of attending St. Paul’s University Catholic Center.
It has been a “home away from home” for thousands of Catholic students on the secular university campus since the early 1900s.
