We are living in a missionary time. We are a missionary diocese. We are missionary parishes and schools. We are missionary priests and deacons. We are all called to be missionary disciples.
With the start of every new “thing” (new year, new season, new stage in life), I find it very difficult to stop and consider the previous “thing” (the previous year, the previous season, or the previous stage in life). And I find myself just kind of doing the same things over and over again. There seems to be no end in sight. What do I do?
National Catholic Schools Week is an annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. This year, Catholic Schools Week is Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, 2024.
The Year 2023 could be said to have begun for the Diocese of Duluth a few days before the actual calendar page turned over, with the release on Christmas Day of 2022 of Bishop Daniel Felton’s pastoral letter, “The Dawn from on High Shall Break Upon Us: Healing, Hope, and Joy in Jesus.”
During Advent, I preached three talks at a retreat on Christian hope in one of the parishes I serve, and I thought, as a new calendar year begins and as the church in northeastern Minnesota, under the guidance of our bishop, leans in to hope along with healing and joy, it would be fitting to share some reflections from the three talks I gave.
A regular part of the life of a priest is getting invited to people’s homes for meals. It is a great way to get to know our parishioners better and a way for us priests to “be shepherds with the smell of the sheep,” as Pope Francis likes to say.
One of the church’s greatest solemnities is the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. The Epiphany actually consists of three events: the visit of the magi, Jesus’ baptism by St. John in the Jordan river, and his first miracle at the wedding at Cana.
Just before Christmas, a good friend strongly suggested we have a book club together. People who meet me quickly figure out who I am and what is important to me. Sometimes, people assume I have a strong political leaning, but those who assume don’t understand that my leaning is not toward a political party but a belief system that serves the common good, a good that is ordered toward a world less wounded and a path that directs life toward eternal rewards.
A few weeks ago, at the commencement of Hanukkah, my Word on Fire team published on our social media platforms a graphic of a Menorah accompanied by a text from St. John Paul II celebrating the spiritual bond that connects Catholics and Jews. Harmless enough, right? Wrong apparently. For this simple image and quote were met with a firestorm of angry protests from, it appears, even some Catholics who gave vent to frankly shocking expressions of anti-Semitism.
Catholics are able to receive a plenary indulgence until Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation, by praying before a Nativity scene in a church led by someone from the Franciscan Family (First, Second and Third Order).
In the attempt to re-introduce the patriarch of the Diocese of Duluth to the readers of The Northern Cross, we are introducing a feature called “Buh Brief” in which we will have a short story about Msgr. Joseph Buh.
On Nov. 8, bishops in the state of Minnesota issued a letter to the Council of Catholic Women regarding efforts in the Legislature to legalize physician-assisted suicide.
Two headdresses were repatriated back to the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe on Monday, Dec. 18, at the Reservation Tribal Council headquarters in Grand Portage.
Assumption Catholic School in Hibbing announced last month that it will be adding seventh and eighth grade classes to begin the 2024-25 school year this fall.
As the dawn of a new year graces our calendars, the halls of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School are filled with a sense of joy and renewed dedication. As we wrap up the Christmas season, we are filled with a sense of joy and our hearts are renewed and refreshed as we come back to school after Christmas break.