Browsing Father Stephen's Columns
Prayer: Consolation and Desolation (4/6/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 4/08/25
Prayer: Consolation and Desolation Returning to our series on prayer, we notice that in the spiritual life, like life in general, there are ups and downs, highs and lows. There are times when we experience God’s closeness and his presence seems almost palpable. Prayer comes easily and ... Read More »
Notes on Parish Membership (3/30/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 3/26/25
Notes on Parish Membership I’ve been getting some comments and questions about parish membership and its implications recently. Some folks are thinking about joining the parish, but are uncertain if they are able to do so. Others are asking if parish membership is necessary in order to ... Read More »
Some Housekeeping (3/23/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 3/19/25
Some Housekeeping
Breaking from my normal way of writing bulletin columns (formational vs. informational), this week we’ll do some housekeeping for the coming months.
Firstly, I hope you appreciate what an excellent charity the St. Bakhita House is in our local Milwaukee area! The wonderful work they ... Read More »
Jubilee Saint: Josephine Bakhita (3/16/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 3/12/25
Jubilee Saint: Josephine Bakhita
Continuing our look at saints who exemplified aspects about the biblical jubilee, we turn to St. Josephine Bakhita (~1869-1947). Born in the Darfur region of Sudan, the girl who would become St. Josephine Bakhita grew up happy and relatively prosperous until she was ... Read More »
Prayer: What It Is (3/9/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 3/04/25
Prayer: What It Is
A couple weeks ago we looked at what prayer is not, the misconceptions and myths we have about prayer. This week, we’ll examine prayer more directly through a few definitions that the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us (paragraphs 2558-2565). The compilers ... Read More »
How to Live Lent Well (3/2/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 2/26/25
How to Live Lent Well Lent begins this Wednesday with the reception of ashes on our foreheads as a sign of our sorrow for our sins and our desire to begin again by God’s grace. During Lent, all disciples are challenged to engage the spiritual life more ... Read More »
Prayer: What It's Not (2/23/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 2/19/25
Prayer: What It’s Not
Another recurring series this year will be on the nature of prayer and how we can grow in our prayer life as disciples of Jesus Christ. I’ll begin by first dealing with common dead-ends and misconceptions of prayer to clarify what our expectations ... Read More »
Jubilee Saints: Isidore the Farmer May 15th (2/16/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 2/12/25
Jubilee Saints: Isidore the Farmer (May 15)
This article begins an assortment of stories about saints who demonstrated what it meant to live that perpetual jubilee I spoke about last week. It’s always easier when learning a skill to see someone doing it in action. Whether through ... Read More »
The Perpetual Jubilee (2/9/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 2/12/25
The Perpetual Jubilee This is the seventh in a series on the Jubilee Year of 2025. Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church precisely to embody him and perpetuate the jubilee message of his Life, Death, and Resurrection. As Jesus forgave sins, that spiritual debt weighing so many down, ... Read More »
The Messiah of the Jubilee (2/2/25)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 1/29/25
The Messiah of the Jubilee This is the sixth in a series on the Jubilee Year of 2025. As mentioned last week, the people of Israel were expecting the Jewish Messiah to come during their lifetime. Out in the desert of Judea, celibate Jewish monks called the Essenes ... Read More »