Browsing Father Stephen's Columns
The Jubilee Year (1/19/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 1/15/25
The Jubilee Year This is the fourth in a series on the Jubilee Year of 2025. The Jubilee was the single most radical societal command God ever gave the people of Israel, an intensification of the Sabbath Year. If carried out properly, it was meant to most perfectly ... Read More »
The Sabbath Year (1/12/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 1/15/25
The Sabbath Year This is the third in a series on the Jubilee Year of 2025. We learned last week about the importance of the Jewish Sabbath, a day of rest from work in honor of God’s liberation of Israel from slavery in order to regain the gifts ... Read More »
The Sabbath (1/5/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 12/31/24
The Sabbath
This is the second in a series on the Jubilee Year of 2025. Last week, we learned about the Church’s jubilee, a year of favor given by God for the forgiveness of sins and the gaining of graces. To understand where it came from, we have ... Read More »
The First Jubilee (12/29/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 12/31/24
The First Jubilee This is the first in a five-part series on the Jubilee Year of 2025. Pope Boniface VIII, the first pope in Church history to proclaim a jubilee in the year 1300, was not a model of papal holiness. He was fickle, arrogant, and many ... Read More »
Advent's Message of Hope: Trusting in God and Choosing Life (12/22/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 12/18/24
This week, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Christ-Child, I turn over my bulletin column to Dcn. Jim Matthias, a fellow disciple formed at St. Dominic’s in Brookfield. His message about supporting life at its most vulnerable initial stages resonated with me this Advent, and ... Read More »
St. Stephen, Witness of Love (12/15/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 12/04/24
St. Stephen, Witness of Love While St. Stephen’s ministry of worship and works offended no one, his ministry of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ ran into trouble early on. Like his Master and Lord Jesus Christ, Stephen took to speaking in the city of Jerusalem about the ... Read More »
St. Stephen, Steward of Divine Worship (12/8/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 12/04/24
St. Stephen, Steward of Divine Worship Of the three responsibilities that St. Stephen the deacon undertook (ministry of works, word, and worship), the latter is the least visible in the Scriptures. There is no mention of St. Stephen assisting in the early Church’s Eucharistic worship alongside the apostles. ... Read More »
St. Stephen, Proclaimer of the Word (12/1/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 11/29/24
St. Stephen, Proclaimer of the Word As I noted in last week’s column, St. Stephen was ordained as a deacon along with six others to provide for the widows of the early Church. His only prerequisite for ordination was fullness of the Holy Spirit and wisdom in order ... Read More »
St. Stephen, Minister of Good Works (11/24/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 11/19/24
St. Stephen, Minister of Good Works This is the second in a five-part series on the ministry of St. Stephen, our parish patron. Our parish patron St. Stephen is uniquely situated within salvation history as the first generation of disciples who were not apostles but chosen to ... Read More »
Heavenly Patronage (11/17/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 11/13/24
Heavenly Patronage This is the first in a five-part series on the ministry of St. Stephen, our parish patron. God’s providence guides all the events of human history, and so we can be certain that nothing occurs without his permission or desire (even the most seemingly random ... Read More »