HUBERTUS — On Saturday, Oct. 5, all young Catholics are invited to the 13th Annual “Fire On the Hill!” — the largest youth event in the state of Wisconsin.
Last year, over 1,500 teens and young adults poured onto the grounds of the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians, popularly known as “Holy Hill.”
This beautiful fall event includes bonfire, speakers, sports, and the sacraments. Massive tents are set up for the speakers, music, and Eucharistic Adoration.
After a long, 25-hour adventure of traveling that got us to Rio de Janeiro for the beginning of World Youth Day, the Madison pilgrims, having joined with our new friends from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, were finally en route to the church we would be able to call home for the week.
On the bus, we travelled across the entire city all the way to a far west suburb, Recreio dos Bandeirantes. As we passed through famous areas of Rio, Copacabana, and Ipanema, I craned my neck to try to find the statue of Christ the Redeemer towering above the city, welcoming us to town.
Journey is a poor word to describe our pilgrimage to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for World Youth Day. The better way to describe it would be to call it a quest. A quest in which the forces of light battle the hordes of darkness. However, in this case the darkness is inside of us. This darkness is the thought that we are alone in our fight against evil, that Church is weak, diminishing, powerless against the aggressive advances of the devil in our world.
On a sunny Thursday morning in late June, dozens of teens made their way downstairs to the parish hall at St. Bernard Parish in Middleton. They just spent the fourth of five nights sleeping on the floor of a classroom. While it doesn’t sound like a fun way to spend part of their summer vacation, they love it.
By Thursday afternoon, things were in full swing at Camp Gray. Campers, ranging in age from second-graders to young adults who just finished high school, spent the last few days growing closer to God together and having fun together.
MADISON — The […]
BEIRUT (CNS) — When a committee of Catholic youth in Lebanon set out to compose the meditations for the Way of the Cross, they had no idea that a new pope would preside over the Good Friday service at Rome’s Colosseum.
By custom, the pope invites a cardinal or an ecclesial community to prepare the meditations. This year is the first that young people of a particular country were asked to participate. Pope Benedict XVI invited the youth of Lebanon to participate through Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai, who was named a cardinal in November.
MADISON — So. It’s Autumn. How did you live your faith this summer? Mass? Good. Eucharistic Adoration? Going on retreat? Personal prayer time? Terrific. Love Begins Here and other Mission Trip experiences? Great.
Farmers Market? Fabulous.
Wait. Farmer’s Market?
Yes. Farmer’s Market.
“If I knew then what I know now” is a common opener for us senior citizens.
It is especially appropriate for things involving health care . . . the benefits of regular exercise, for example.
Granted, our Mamas got lots of exercise hanging out laundry, the Papas didn’t have power lawn mowers, and the kids didn’t get rides to school. Everybody walked everywhere.
I just wish I had heard about exercise during my childbearing years in the late 40s and early 50s.
I expected to get back into shape by pulling on a Playtex rubber girdle. (Oh, the memory of sweating through that one!)
“Why do we have Catholic schools?” I mean really, why do we have Catholic schools? It’s a question I hear much too often.
Yet it is a question that I am passionate about answering, not just because I’m the superintendent, but because I’ve experienced Catholic schools as a student, a parent, a teacher, and an administrator, and I am completely, totally, and unequivocally convinced that Catholic schools are awesome!
