- Pope John Paul II

“We, as Catholics, recognize the Eucharist as the source and summit of our Catholic faith,” Bishop Ricken said in a conference message. “With the help of Our Lady, Mother of the Eucharist, those who attend the conference will realize with greater visibility the hidden power of the Eucharist and the important role in which Our Lady serves to unite us with Jesus in the Eucharist.

Speakers will include Bishop David Ricken, Fr. Rocky Hoffman, George Weigel, Mark Forrest, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Fr. John Girotti, Mother Assumpta Long and Fr. Seraphim Michalenko.

Conference events and talks will be held at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, St. Norbert College and the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.

For full conference details and to register, please visit http://www.gbdioc.org/marian-eucharistic-conference.html

The Shrine is not a parish, they call it a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and other believers from throughout the United States and beyond.

The ground sit is located on ia absolutely beautiful. The walk up the hill from the welcoming center to the chapel is breathtaking.

As left the Pilgrim Center and begin to ascend the trail to the site of the Shrine Church, paused  at the Mother of Good Counsel Votive Candle Chapel.

Inside the Chapel the largest candle rack in the United States, it contains 576 votive candles and measures 14 feet high and12 feet wide on each of its four sides.

Located along the paved meditation trail are devotional areas to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (the first Native American Blessed) as well as a beautiful 9 ft relief of St. Joseph the Workman and the Holy Family.

Once you reach the top of the hill you come upon the shrine church. We attended the 10:00 Latin Mass. It was a wonderful day and a meaningful visit, I would encourage all of you to visit.

Be sure to stop and say a prayer at the Memorial to the Unborn. Dedicated on December 12, 2008 (The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe), remembers the many babies who have died in their mother’s womb.  Within the beautiful arcade, there are bronze plaques which explain the teaching of the Catholic Church on the topics of contraception, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and the dignity of all life.  Several planters and a walking path outside the arcade comprise Mary’s Garden – a garden of flowers traditionally named in honor of Our Blessed Mother.

We are all creatures of habit, for good and for ill. Habits are hard to break, whether they are sins or acts of mercy and kindness. The Gospel reminds us that the employer had a streak of goodness and generosity that no amount of complaining or accusations of injustice could undo. Would that you and I were so stubbornly generous that nothing or no one could ever even cause us to think of acting otherwise! And so, family-members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, parishioners are either habitually helpful or usually unwilling to lend a hand. And we also know who’s who. While some complain that it’s always the same ones who “do all the work around here,” the reason for that is simply—Good habits are hard to break!
May each of us acquire a few!

You have probably heard often enough from family and friends who don’t attend church, ―I just don’t get anything out of it.‖ I’m not exactly sure just what it is they expect to get – surely not palms and ashes every time. We may even try to challenge them to examine what they bring rather than on what they get.

But maybe it is really about getting something – or Someone. How often do we come to Mass with aching hearts, anxious spirits, troubled souls? We long for comfort, strength and courage to go on. As Catholics we believe that each time we gather as a community, Christ is present in us, in the Word of God proclaimed, in the priest who gathers us as one and especially in the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. Christ comes to us unconditionally, completely. We ―get‖ Christ and, as a community, become the Body of Christ – sent to be Christ’s hands and heart and life for others.

I once read that St. Therese of Lisieux spoke of the consecration at Mass and the reception of Holy Communion as the Kiss of Jesus, the kiss of Love. Not long after reading that I was at Mass sitting behind a young mother with her 2 year old. Just at the consecration, the priest is raising the Host and saying ―this is my Body‖, the child spontaneously kissed her mother. Shazam! I got it!

This Palm Sunday and throughout this Holy Week, let’s be open to the total self-giving God who loves us beyond measure.
“We belong to you, oh Lord of our longing, We belong to you. In our daily living, dying and rising, we belong to you.”

Peace to you,

Then, on their way to church that morning, the mother said to the boys, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?” This time Ryan responded, “Because people are sleeping.”

No wonder Jesus sensed that the kingdom belongs to children. Unless we become that innocent, that imaginative, that honest, we will never know what it means to be alive in Christ. Children’s minds are so open to learning; their spirits are so ready to accept change; their hearts and souls are so confident that God loves them. And the even more astounding miracle is that some adults never lose that childlike faith.

They, too, continue to learn more and more about themselves and the world in which they live; they, too, continue to embrace change as a way of stretching themselves and growing the Church; they, too, continue to believe that God’s love will help them through even the most tragic of circumstances. And it is for them that the kingdom of heaven will dawn.

Autumn—a time of change in the cycle of nature—begins this week. Daylight gives way to darkness, which has its own warmth and beauty. As we let the child within us emerge, we play in the leaves, stuff scarecrows, paint pumpkins, and eat apples and in every activity give praise to our God with hearts hued in the colors of God’s grace.

An irate customer called the newspaper offices and loudly demanded to know where her Sunday newspaper was. “Ma’am,” said the employee, “today is Saturday. The Sunday paper is not delivered ‘til Sunday.” There was quite a pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a ray of confusion, when the elderly woman said, “So that’s why no one was in church today.”

Being Labor Day weekend, there will be no one in church today either. For some, of course, they don’t need “gone for  the holiday!” as an excuse. They never seem to find a seat to worship with us. But, we keep  working at it—gently inviting and freely witnessing to the joy that we experience from coming together each weekend. New school years can be like New Years—resolutions and all—so maybe September will attract a few new faces, especially if our children are learning the importance of the third commandment in their religion classes. It’s always rather touching to hear a child ask, in the sacrament of reconciliation, “Is it a sin to not go to church on Sunday when my parents don’t take me?”

We know in our hearts that God has indeed given us the strength, the tools, and the intelligence to truly make a difference in the lives of the poor through our missionary efforts—together. Through our prayer, generosity, creativity, and hard work, those who have not heard of Jesus are evangelized, those who are hungry have food to eat, and those who are oppressed are set free.