Tag: water

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Fr. Joseph Baker

The issue of food and water

Death: Our Birth into Eternal life

Fr. Joseph Baker

The following article is the next installment in a series that will appear in the Catholic Herald to offer catechesis and formation concerning end-of-life decisions, dying, death, funerals, and burial of the dead from the Catholic perspective.

Having examined when life-sustaining treatments can be discontinued or forgone, we turn to the issue of food and water.

It must be noted that food and water fundamentally differ from life-sustaining treatments.

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Chris Lee

Stoughton students help build well in Sudan

stoughton students
Sixth grade students from St. Ann School in Stoughton are collecting money to send to Water for South Sudan to help build a well in a village there. Students include Savannah Hendrickson, Anthony Teche, Maggie Langenohl, Charlie Mehring, Lillian Talbert, Ellee Milota, Max Mueller, and Seth Allhands. (Contributed photo)

STOUGHTON — A group of St. Ann School sixth graders is putting their empathy into action for people in a village more than 7,000 miles away.

Inspired by the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park that they read and discussed in their language arts class, the students put together a Lenten project to help build a well in South Sudan.

A Long Walk to Water is about Salva Dut, a boy from a village in South Sudan, Africa, who fled his village as war erupted outside of his school. He ran with many other children to escape the violence. They ran not knowing if they’d ever find their families again.

Dut ended up walking more than 1,000 miles to safety, first to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, and eventually to Kenya. He spent 11 years in refugee camps until being sent to New York City to start a new life.

The book talks about Dut’s journey and about the plight of the people who often do not have access to good, clean water. Dut, after working and saving money, decided to go back to help his fellow Sudanese people by drilling wells.

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Patrick Gorman

Baptism: What really happens

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Patrick Gorman

The last four articles have reflected upon the elements of the Baptismal ritual leading up to the actual Baptism.

Some of these elements are the welcoming of the candidate for Baptism, the sign of the cross, the blessing of the water, and the renunciation of sin and profession of faith.

The actual Baptism is really quite simple. The Baptism takes place with water which is either poured over the head of the person being baptized or in which he/she is immersed (standing or kneeling in the water), while the baptizer invokes the Trinity:

“I baptize you in the name of the Father (water), and of the Son (water), and of the Holy Spirit (water).”

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Patrick Gorman

Baptism: A new Exodus

Patrick Gorman

Lent is a season of preparation and recollection of our Baptism. This is the third in a series of several articles reflecting upon the Sacrament of Baptism.

One of the most compelling stories in the Old Testament describes the Exodus (Ex 14-15:1), when God brought the people of Israel from slavery to freedom.

At the climax of the story, God parted the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to pass through the water. As the Egyptians pursued, God allowed the water to rush back, destroying Pharaoh’s chariots and charioteers and saving the people of Israel.

The Scripture describing all of this is read each year at the Easter Vigil because it so clearly prefigures Baptism as we go through the baptismal waters from the slavery of sin to the freedom of a life in Christ.

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Patrick Gorman

This Lent, remember your Baptism

This is the first in a series of several articles reflecting upon the Sacrament of Baptism.

We are approaching the season of Lent, a time set aside by the Church to help us prepare for Easter.

For many, this season is seen as a time that we “give something up.” While offering ourselves to God always is important, the Church primarily views Lent through the lens of Baptism. In fact, here is what the Church says about Lent:

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Tony Magliano

Thirsting for clean water

We turn on our faucets and out comes water — clean, refreshing, plentiful, life-sustaining water. But we rarely give it a thought.

We just tend to take for granted that it will always be there. We even forget to thank God — the well-spring of life.

Lack of access to clean water

But for 768 million fellow human beings, clean plentiful water is a distant dream, according to the United Nations. For them, the water they drink, cook with, and bath in, is polluted and often disease-ridden, and must be carried long distances in many cases.

According to figures released by the United Nations Children‘s Fund in 2013, lack of access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene is a leading cause of death from diarrhea in children under five, amounting to approximately 1,400 children dying each day.

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