Invitation to Worship and Beauty: OremusMKE Held During Riverwest 24

                          (OremusMKE Benediction at St Hedwig Church on the East Side. Photo: Sam Vosters/Tom Klind)
Nearly two weeks ago, the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist opened up its doors, offered candles and invited Bastille Day goers to enter into the sacred worship space to spend some in quiet prayer for peace and to garner interest in the church and the Catholic faith. This coming Friday Oremus MKE will be held at Our Lady of Divine Providence- St Mary Czestochowa site during the Riverwest 24 Bike Race from 7pm until 10pm. Confession will be available during Eucharistic Adoration. Please see below for more details and how to get involved in bring others closer to the Lord.

Via: OremusMke

"A Church which 'goes forth' is a Church whose doors are open...Often it is better simply to slow down, to put aside our eagerness in order to see and listen to others, to stop rushing from one thing to another and to remain with someone who has faltered along the way." Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium

OremusMKE is an outreach ministry that seeks to literally open the doors of our churches to welcome people in. The life of our churches does not always coincide with the life of our neighborhoods. By opening our churches for prayer, adoration, music and reflection during a busy weekend night, we hope to bring people into our churches so that they can experience the power of God and the hospitality of our parishcommunity.

The doors of Our Lady of Divine Providence-St. Mary Czestochowa (3055 N Fratney St) will be open on Friday, July 24 from 7-10 pm. Pairs of people will invite our neighbors from the Riverwest 24 bike race in to see the beautiful church and to light a candle for peace. There will be Eucharistic adoration throughout the evening.

All in our four-parish family are invited to come pray in the church. If you are interested in helping or have questions please contact Samantha Vosters at samantha.vosters@gmail.com or Chad Griesel, Director of Adult Faith Formation, at 414-271-6180 or grieselc@archmil.org.

Learning To Love

                                                         (Photograph copyright of John Paul Bender)

One of the hardest things in life is learning and coming to accept that the way you think is not always the way someone else thinks. In high school I gave a persuasive speech about my stance on gay marriage thinking that I could shift my classmate's opinions to be more aligned with mine.  I was met with both agreement and disagreement on my viewpoint.  And now, once again, I stepped into the waters of this heated issue by sharing my opinion about the same-sex marriage decision that was recently made by SCOTUS in Facebook comments.

The world and its sports, music, emotions and politics are all channeled through social media. Nothing is private anymore. Everyone has to tell everyone else where they stand on everything under the sun even if what they post becomes offensive to others. Seeing my Catholic faith being criticized in Facebook posts for the Church's defense against SCOTUS's decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all fifty states, brought out a desire for me to try to give some of my friends and family members a better understanding of why we as a church believe what we believe. I would comment on a status with an attempt to show a person why the Church is so upset over the ruling, only to be ridiculed and told that I am posting radical and passive aggressive thoughts. It saddened me as I found myself "unfriending" a large amount of my friends who were celebrating the outcome.

In trying to make my opposition clear, I heard the phrase, "This is the reason why people fall away from the Catholic Church, because you can't tolerate opinions that are different than your own." As a result, I feel the need to revisit humility. Instead of chastising, I think we need to take a step back and reassess the need for kindness, humility and love. Our reasoning behind our defense is legitimate, but words get in the way. In our efforts to lead someone to the truth, we can end up damaging feelings and lose a number of potential disciples. A great friend of mine once said, " Real love is not being able to have all the answers, but rather crawling down into the hole that someone has dug themselves into and being present with them."  A loving embrace, a heartfelt prayer and great courage and patience can go a long way in bringing someone out of the darkness and into the light of truth. 

Intent on improving the way I bring about truth in the world, I'm going to try a new approach to evangelizing. I am still going to promote my love for the Catholic faith and Catholic teachings, but rather than try and engage with others about differences in opinion, I am going to take a step back and allow them to discover God's will on their own. Instead of trying to teach with my words, I'm going to focus more on living out my faith to the best of my ability. I feel I can make the most impact on someone who is searching for truth in this way. The old saying "actions speak louder than words" still holds very true.

Yes, I think the same-sex marriage decision is terrible and I do not stand for or agree with it, but I think that the most important thing we can do is to love one another regardless of differing beliefs and opinions. We need to learn to love again and forgive again even when it hurts to do so.  How will you continue to show your love for those around you who disagree with you?

Offer Christ The Gift Of Your Heart This Year

                   (Photo credit: Anne Bender- As children in our family we really celebrated the Epiphany well)

"If you wish to be brothers, let the weapons fall from your hands. One cannot love with offensive weapons in his hands." - Blessed Pope Paul VI

This past weekend was the Feast of the Epiphany where we celebrate the event of the three magi welcoming the young Christ child in the manger with gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh. What always fascinated me about this scene was the fact that the Magi were from totally different countries and had an extremely different way of worship. Although they were complete strangers to the Holy Family, they still allowed themselves to witness the coming of a young ruler, offered him royal gifts and let Christ touch their hearts.

This is of particular interest today because, as I look at the world, and as I look at the situation in Milwaukee where so many people are angry and confused, sad and hurting over the Dontre Hamilton Case, with disrespect towards law enforcement and higher authorities, rising abortion numbers, children without loving parents and guardians, and young men and women deciding to break the law instead of practicing honesty and integrity. There is so much violence and bigotry in our city, and the Feast of the Epiphany is a perfect reminder that we need to love a bit more, forgive a bit more and let everything that divides us go.

Individually, we all have a lot of worries and stresses that can weigh us down. In my own life I have a lot of worries that can begin to weigh me down with work, with the responsibilities of living on my own As we begin this new year, it is my prayer that we offer our hearts, no matter how blackened with sin or weighed down with worry to Christ, just as the Magi offered their gifts. Let the love and the mercy of Christ fill you with light and warmth this New Year.