Over the centuries our Church has produced a great wealth of wisdom and teachings. While many Catholics are introduced to this tradition during their time in Catholic Schools, once Catholics leave it can be difficult to know where to go in order to continue to develop our knowledge of our faith. With that in mind, I’d like to share a few of the online resources I have found to be accessible, orthodox, and inspiring ways to encounter the riches our Church has to offer.

Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire: Bishop Barron and his team post weekly homilies as well as videos and articles on faith and culture. Over the years, Bishop Barron has discussed a huge number of issues, from interpreting the Bible to movie reviews to engaging with current events. His material is thoughtful, thought provoking, and consistently orthodox. wordonfire.org

Fr. Mike Schmitz: Fr. Mike Schmitz is from the Diocese of Duluth and wears many hats. He is a nationally known Catholic speaker and shares weekly videos on YouTube through Ascension Presents. He addresses questions and gives practical advice on how to life the Christian Life and grow in virtue. (Youtube.com, search “Ascension Presents”)

McGrath Institute for Church Life: The Institute for Church Life comes from the University of Notre Dame and provides a number of resources that can be helpful, thought provoking, and engage in a deeper and more scholarly way some of the issues and challenges of the Church in the modern world. Their articles tend to be more academic but may be a great resource for someone who wants dive a little deeper into the thinking of the Church. Their journal is a great resource. churchlife.nd.edu

The Bible Project: I’ve mentioned this resource before. […]

It goes without saying that everyone is facing an awful lot of challenges in light of the coronavirus pandemic.  Many people have had many different reactions, but it seems like “unprecedented” is a word that keeps coming up in conversation.  Old or young, we’ve never been through anything like this, and that is very unsettling.

Whenever anything is that jarring, there’s a spiritual dimension to it.  Yes, we’re wondering how we will keep our loved ones healthy, and how we’ll manage a whole host of logistical issues.  But we also wonder how we can persevere through this without losing hope.  Perhaps we’re even wondering how we can be a source of hope and strength to others.

From that perspective, perhaps it’s providential that this is all happening during Lent.  Without over-spiritualizing this crisis or making light of the suffering many are going through, perhaps one way to persevere lies in our traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  So let me offer this for your reflection:

¨ Prayer:  There are a whole lot of opportunities for prayer that none of us anticipated a month or two ago.  If you find yourself with a little extra time on your hands, perhaps you can use some of that for prayer.  If your family is spending more time together in closer quarters than usual, then perhaps you can pray a family rosary, or go to the Bishops’ web site (usccb.org) to pray together with the readings for Sunday Mass.  There’s no shortage of intentions to pray for.  Pray for those who are sick and those who have lost a loved one.  Pray for world leaders to make good decisions, and for health care workers who are putting in long hours.  Pray […]

Over the past few weeks, I hope you’ve seen the announcement in the bulletin about the scheduled power outage that will take place this week.    Just to make sure everyone knows:

THE CHURCH AND THE RECTORY WILL BE WITHOUT POWER THIS WEEK (MONDAY, MARCH 2ND THROUGH FRIDAY MARCH 6TH).

(Sorry for the all-caps announcement, but I need to make sure everyone sees it!)   This power outage is a planned part of our construction schedule, and we’ve had enough notice to be able to prepare well ahead of time.  Here are some things you’ll need to know:

¨ We will still have Mass at 8:30am and 5:30pm throughout the week.  However, our Masses will be candlelit and unheated, so we encourage our weekday Mass-goers to go to another parish for Mass this week.

¨ 6:00pm Confessions will be canceled on Wednesday March 4th.

¨ Eucharistic Adoration will be canceled on Friday March 6th.

¨ No Stations of the Cross on March 6th.

¨ The Parish Office will be closed all week.

¨ There will be no SCRIP sales this week.

¨ We will not schedule anyone for the Casserole Program or Pack-a-Lunch Ministry for this week.

¨ Calls to the Parish Office will be redirected to the school.  However, you won’t be able to leave a voice mail for any Pastoral Team members that week.  We encourage you to use email instead.

¨ For any medical emergencies requiring the immediate attention of a priest, a priest may be reached any time, day or night, by calling the sacramental emergency line directly:  (574) 273-6709

¨ To see how individual meetings and ministries might be affected during that week, please contact the head of that ministry.

¨ The school will still have power and will only be minimally affected.  A separate communication has gone out to school families via the weekly school […]