STL Catholic: This Year, Why Not Celebrate Tradsgiving?

It's that time of year again, as we approach that unique mix of secular and religious occasions that are amorphously called the Holiday Season. First we have Thanksgiving, the closest that a secular holiday gets to decent religion. We are informed that this holiday was first celebrated by the pilgrims (though the Spanish claim it was celebrated earlier in St. Augustine, FL; trot out this little gem at Thanksgiving and you will deservedly be ridiculed for the Cliff Clavin that you are), but it was officially installed as a national holiday on a set date by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, who saw fit to mandate thankfulness for the Northern victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. FDR, another wallflower reluctant to impose national solutions, later changed the date to the fourth Thursday in November.

Next, we have the annual mass-worship of the god Retail, known by its remarkably descriptive name of Black Friday. The portents of this holy day are scanned, analyzed and reverently feared, as the blessings or curses of Retail are made known. It is a most amusing mix of Baal worship, Aztec heart surgery, and Groundhog Day-- only six more shopping weeks until Christmas Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or some other nondescript Winter celebratory event!

continue at Saint Louis Catholic

A must read. 

Photo: Canterbury Tales

St. Cecilia, ora pro nobis!

Stefano Moderno, "Saint Cecilia," 1599, church of St. Cecilia, Trastevere, Rome

Cecilia, in the meantime, continued to make many conversions, and prepared to have her home preserved as a church at her death.

Finally, she too was arrested and brought before the prefect. He ruled that she should die by suffocation in the baths. Saint Cecilia was locked into the bathhouse and the fires vigorously stoked. She remained there for a day and a night but was still alive when the soldiers opened the doors. She was then ordered beheaded, but the executioner, after striking three times without severing St Cecilia's head, ran away, leaving her badly wounded.

St. Cecilia hung onto life for three days after the mortal blows, preaching all the while. She made many more conversions and people came to soak up her flowing blood with sponges and cloths. There exists in Rome a church in St. Cecilia's honor that dates from about the fifth century. Her relics were believed to have been found by Pope Paschal I in 821 A.D., in the cemetery of St. Celestas. These remains were exhumed in 1599, when Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati rebuilt the church of St. Cecilia, and said to be incorrupt.

more at saintcecilia.us

I believe she was the first recorded case of the phenomenon of incorruptibility.  The above statue is said to be what she looked like when the grave was exhumed some 1,200 years after her death.  I couldn't find the quote, but I read somewhere those exhuming the body said she looked alive like a young girl sleeping. 

Healing of the family tree

Every family and ancestry – save for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph -- has tendencies that were or are negative and need to be purged. It could be a family inclination to selfishness, division, pride, or argumentation. It could be occultism. It could be a preoccupation with materialism. It could be lying. These characteristics need to be cast out as “spirits” – blotches of darkness -- or they will repeat themselves like a broken record in our lives and then in the lives of those who come after us. “Loving families lay the foundation for our eternal progress,” writes another who had a near-death episode.

“They help us build strengths, identify and overcome weaknesses, and bring challenges of their own for us to overcome. They significantly influence us in our earthly missions and affect how we influence others in their missions. Every family bond – with spouse, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, uncles, cousins, etcetera – can play a crucial role in teaching us how to love and be loved.”

When the sin is intense, claims Father John Hampsch, who wrote a seminal book called Healing the Family Tree, the effects may go beyond the three or four generations so commonly mentioned. The greater the sin, the more darkness we attract. We also may draw demonic spirits of a higher level. As the Bible tells us, there are powers and principalities. They mimic the hierarchy of angels (seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, and angels).

There are also earthbound or departed “familial” spirits – those who have not “gone on.” These are spirits that have attached themselves to a person, family, things, or locations. If someone commits a murder, this is a strong force that attracts the demonic. If there is a spirit that was addicted to sex, drugs, or alcohol, it may seek to draw from or enter a living person who is indulging in excessive alcohol or illicit sex (in order to re-experience it). An involvement in the occult is a transgression known to greatly enhance spiritual infestation.

continue at Spirit Daily 

I've read other articles on this topic and have found it to be very insightful.  I think it comes from a the charismatic movement, but I know I have a prayer to Divine Mercy for healing of a family tree.  I can't find anything on it now, maybe some of you have also prayed this prayer?  If so, please share where we can find it.  For some time I was very interested in the charismatic movement, as I had never heard a priest talk about evil spirits or any spiritual realities of this world.  I do not think it is a fascination; in fact, knowing we can help bring my family to faith is something that continues to motivate me to keep fighting; and particularly that my personal sin affects more than just my relationship with God.

From Orthodoxy - GK Chesterton

Certain new theologians dispute original sin which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.

Some followers of the Reverend R. J. Campbell, in their almost too fastidious spirituality, admit divine sinlessness, which they cannot see even in their dreams. But they essentially deny human sin, which they can see in the street. The strongest saints and the strongest skeptics alike took positive evil as the starting-point of their argument. If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two deductions.

He must either deny the existence of God, as all atheists do; or he must deny the present union between God and man as all Christians do. The new theologians seem to think it a highly rationalistic solution to deny the cat.

Photo

HT JB

Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy

Angel of Death - Evelyn de Morgan

From a book on the death of his brother Satyrus, by Saint Ambrose, bishop
(Lib. 2, 40. 41. 46. 47. 132. 133: CSEL 73, 270-274, 323-324)

We see that death is gain, life is loss. Paul says: For me life is Christ, and death a gain. What does “Christ” mean but to die in the body, and receive the breath of life? Let us then die with Christ, to live with Christ. We should have a daily familiarity with death, a daily desire for death. By this kind of detachment our soul must learn to free itself from the desires of the body. It must soar above earthly lusts to a place where they cannot come near, to hold it fast. It must take on the likeness of death, to avoid the punishment of death. The law of our fallen nature is at war with the law of our reason and subjects the law of reason to the law of error. What is the remedy? Who will set me free from this body of death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We have a doctor to heal us; let us use the remedy he prescribes. The remedy is the grace of Christ, the dead body our own. Let us then be exiles from our body, so as not to be exiles from Christ. Though we are still in the body, let us not give ourselves to the things of the body. We must not reject the natural rights of the body, but we must desire before all else the gifts of grace.

What more need be said? It was by the death of one man that the world was redeemed. Christ did not need to die if he did not want to, but he did not look on death as something to be despised, something to be avoided, and he could have found no better means to save us than by dying. Thus his death is life for all. We are sealed with the sign of his death; when we pray we preach his death; when we offer sacrifice we proclaim his death. His death is victory; his death is a sacred sign; each year his death is celebrated with solemnity by the whole world.

What more should we say about his death since we use this divine example to prove that it was death alone that won freedom from death, and death itself was its own redeemer? Death is then no cause for mourning, for it is the cause of mankind’s salvation. Death is not something to be avoided, for the Son of God did not think it beneath his dignity, nor did he seek to escape it.

Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy. Human life was condemned because of sin to unremitting labor and unbearable sorrow and so began to experience the burden of wretchedness. There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing.

The soul has to turn away from the aimless paths of this life, from the defilement of an earthly body; it must reach out to those assemblies in heaven (though it is given only to the saints to be admitted to them) to sing the praises of God. We learn from Scripture how God’s praise is sung to the music of the harp: Great and wonderful are your deeds, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not revere and glorify your nature? You alone are holy; all nations will come and worship before you. The soul must also desire to witness your nuptials, Jesus, and to see your bride escorted from earthly to heavenly realities, as all rejoice and sing: All flesh will come before you. No longer will the bride be held in subjection to this passing world but will be made one with the spirit.

Above all else, holy David prayed that he might see and gaze on this: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I shall pray for: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and to see how gracious is the Lord.

iBreviary

Wow, that's good stuff! 

And may perpetual light come to shine upon them

The Catholic ghost story

Fr. John Hardon, SJ in his Modern Catholic Dictionary defines "ghost" as:

... a disembodied spirit. Christianity believes that God may, and sometimes does, permit a departed soul to appear in some visible form to people on earth. Allowing for legend and illusion, there is enough authentic evidence, for example in the lives of the saints, to indicate that such apparitions occur. Their purpose may be to teach or warn, or request some favor of the living” (p. 229).

Hmmm, if you are interested read this review of "Holy Ghosts" by Gary Jansen.

He puts forth his arm in strength

The Crescat

Origin of the "Hail Mary Pass"

I agree with Brian at MCH that the term "Hail Mary Pass" is a cliché, but at least it is our cliché.  Here's the origin of the term.

In the Dallas/Minnesota 1975 NFL playoff game, the Cowboys started with the ball on their own 15-yard line, trailing 14-10, with one minute and fifty-one seconds left in the fourth quarter. Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach(a staunch Catholic) managed a nine-play drive to midfield against the Minnesota Vikings defense. From midfield, with 24 seconds now remaining, Staubach lined up in the shotgun formation, took the snap, pump-faked left, then turned to his right and threw a desperation pass to wide receiver Drew Pearson, who was being covered by Minnesota Vikings cornerback Nate Wright. Wright was pushed in the back and fell to the ground and Pearson was barely able to complete the catch by trapping the ball against his right hip at the 5-yard line and backing into the end zone to make the score 16-14 in favor of Dallas, and what would eventually be the winning touchdown. In a later interview with Pearson, he stated that he thought he dropped the ball only to find it against his hip and then just waltzed right into the end zone.

The term "Hail Mary pass" was used by Roger Staubach following the game in a post-game interview. Previous to this play, a last-second desperation pass had been called several names, most notably the "Alley-Oop". Staubach, who had been hit immediately after throwing the ball and didn't see its ending, was asked about the play and he said, "You mean [Pearson] caught the ball and ran in for the touchdown? It was just a Hail Mary pass; a very, very lucky play." Staubach told reporters "I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary". This was among the plays by Roger Staubach that enhanced his fame and legend as noted in NFL.

You may know Badgers football suffered the losing end of one of these plays on Saturday.  I'm told LarryD may have said a Hail Mary.  If the two teams match up again in the championship game, I'll be sure to pray that he falls asleep rendering him unable to invoke the Theotokos. 


"Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?"


... if you keep watching you can see the Viking fans hit an official in the head with a whiskey bottle.

It is really cool to see the Vikings playing outdoors though.

Doesn't the broadcaster sound like long time Packers radio sportcaster Jim Irwin?

Sts. Crispin and Crispinian, ora pro nobis!

I wonder if A and K still follow the BC...  The feast was made famous by Shakespeare's epic speech in Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt.  Crispin and Crispinian were twin brothers who were martyred in the early Church.  The feast was removed from the General Calendar following the Vatican II liturgical reforms.

Martyrdom of SS Crispin and Crispinian

Makes me feel like standing up on a beer barrel and giving this speech to Sconnies as to how we will pass Personhood in Wisconsin.

HT Fr Z

Holy Father Francis, herald of the great King, ora pro nobis!

St. Francis of Assisi seeking martyrdom before the Sultan of Egypt

Litany of St Francis of Assisi

The "Franciscan Spirit" has become an even more paganised misnomer than "The Spirit of Vatican II."  Several so called Franciscans in this state invoke St. Francis of Assisi to justify worshiping nature.  It's clear that they just don't get the valiant knight of Christ or the Franciscan tradition of the Seraphic Doctor St. Bonaventure.

“The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshippers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.”

-GK Chesterton

Wis. Rapids Halloween Cemetary Prayer Vigil

6th Annual Halloween Cemetery Prayer Vigil
Monday, October 31, 2011, 8:00 PM
Calvary Cemetery, Highway 54 East, Wisconsin Rapids

Come and Pray with Father Tim Welles and The Knights of Columbus Honor Guard

The evening will include:
• Evening Prayer, Litany of the Saints, Night Prayer
• Exposition, Eucharistic Procession, Benediction
• Campfire

(Dress appropriately for the weather, bring your own flashlight or candle and if you plan to stay late, also bring your own lawn chair, hot cocoa and snacks.)

Sponsored by the Marian Center for Peace
Mother of America Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel
715-424-MARY / info@mariancenterforpeace.org / www.mariancenterforpeace.org

 Cool idea!

Fr. John Hardon; blessed are the sorrowful

This is a transcription of an audio recording, so you lose a bit in the translation..

Sorrow - surely if there is anything that we would not expect to bring joy it is sorrow. It is as though Christ said, “Happy are the unhappy.” We are tempted to say, “Lord, what do you mean?” But we know this is one place where experience is not only the best, but it is about the only teacher. Truly this symbolizes the cross. It is the trials that God sends us. But I wish to distinguish because, remember we are talking about joy, and we are stuck with our vocabulary. What else can we do? We can wave our arms or shake our heads in communicating ideas. We found a convenient method on making strange sounds through the orifice called the mouth. And people hear it, and they get ideas. So making strange sounds. 

The sorrow which Christ gives us, accept and patiently endured is not sadness. What is the difference? In both cases of course there is pain, but though I am sorrowful the reason (it is always objective) that in effect it means psychologically or subjectively between a sad person and a person weighed down with sorrow, well I might not be able to tell the difference. They both seem to be, well, under a heavy burden. But there is a big difference. It all depends on what we are morning about. Which is legitimate sorrow and it is not (to coin a word) illegitimate sadness.

Our best paradigm for this is Christ Himself. What are the two occasions, which our Savior wept? He wept over Jerusalem; he wept at the grave of Lazareth. Was that it? As far as I can tell that was it. Now as we know the gospels are revelatory not only in what Christ taught, but also in what He did. In this case, His tears are a revelation. Not that He wept, which showed that He was human, but the reasons why He wept.

Authentic sorrow therefore, which is one of the conditions for happiness, is sorrow over sin and sorrow over loss of those we love, which is a sign of love. Let’s take the second first. It is not wrong, and you should not consider it weakness, either in ourselves or in others, and to develop a sensitivity (I don’t want you to anticipate what I am going to talk about yet) but to recognize there is a genuine beauty about weeping over the loss of a loved one. I don’t mean unrestrained sorrow. But the sorrow, which means bereavement, may indeed be tinged with some self-interest because the loved one I will no longer have. But it can also be deeply self-less.

In other words I have come to love someone very dearly and that person is gone. A sensitivity to other people’s sorrow over their loss of loved ones is of God. But secondly, the sorrow that is born of sorrow for sins, this is Christ. Christ wept over Jerusalem because Jerusalem had as we know rejected Him and with Him its promise of salvation. He also sorrowed as we know, over both the sin of Jerusalem and the sufferings. The fall of Jerusalem as a consequence of sin.

So you might say there are three kinds of authentic sorrow blessed by God. The sorrow of bereavement, the sorrow over sin, the sorrow over the sufferings of others knowing that not all people profit from their sufferings, and my compassion goes out to those who are in pain. What a sentence! Sadness is every other kind of mourning. It is essentially selfish, sadness. Sadness is the sorrow (to use that word) over things that don’t deserve to be mourned over. And while we may and should indeed sorrow, we are forbidden to be sad. Sadness when yielded to is a sin. Sorrow within the limits we have described is a virtue.

Fr. Hardon Archives

Our Lady of Sorrows, ora pro nobis!

jvlin

Dolores del Puente

Duluth deacon gets first taste of solemn high Mass

When Deacon Scott Peters of St. Benedict in Duluth was in deacon formation, he was told repeatedly that you never know just what ministry you will find yourself in. But perhaps the last thing he expected was to be preparing for a solemn high Mass as it would have been celebrated in 1962.

Yet that Mass, with a polyphony choir, a chant schola, servers and another permanent deacon who is coming up from a Twin Cities parish famous for its traditional liturgies to fill the subdeacon role, will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, at St. Benedict. The liturgical celebration is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and it is the anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum,” which liberalized access to the traditional Mass.

“I never thought that I would be working in liturgy, especially the Traditional Latin Mass,” Deacon Peters said. When he was in formation, he was doing social work and thought his ministry might involve that. He says he didn’t even know what the old rite was.

He said the whole thing began with the Duluth Men’s Schola. (Full disclosure: This writer is the founder and director of the schola, which will be singing Sept. 14.) Then Father Eric Hastings, who will celebrate the Sept. 14 Mass, began to offer the simplest version of the Traditional Latin Mass, a “low Mass,” and there were no servers, so Deacon Peters learned how to serve.

From there, things began to develop slowly. The next step was doing the more complicated sung version of the Traditional Latin Mass, a “missa cantata,” culminating in a heavily attended missa cantata last year featuring a polyphony choir. (This year the choir will be singing William Byrd’s “Mass for Four Voices.”)

From there, the next step was a solemn high Mass, which is vastly more complex — and a vastly more demanding liturgy for a deacon.

Deacon Peters said all along it was something meant to be guided by the Holy Spirit and carried out peacefully.

“There are no agendas, there were no expectations, it was just people who loved liturgy and wanted to be faithful to what the Holy Father was asking of us,” he said.

He said the pope’s writings on the liturgy call the older form of the liturgy a “precious treasure to be preserved” and something he wants to offer “to all the faithful.”

“In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture,” the pope wrote in Summorum Pontificum, in a passage pointed out by Deacon Peters. “What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.”

In the Traditional Latin Mass, there is really no liturgical role for a deacon in the low Mass or even in a missa cantata. All that changes in the solemn high Mass. For one thing, he will have to chant the Gospel — in Latin.

But the complexity goes well beyond that. Deacon Peters said the deacon’s role includes praying some of the prayers that in the ordinary form of the liturgy are said only by the priest.

“It’s a subordinate role, but it’s much more assisting the priest,” he said. “. . . It’s very heavy rubrics, and the deacon is assisting the priest in every aspect of it.”

continue at Diocese of Duluth

Brick of cheese by brick of cheese.

Photo

HT JB

Dad29: The USCC's Argument With Reality: New Missal Edition

The black-hatted (not biretta-ed) one promises a lot of fun over the next few weeks.

Here's just a taste:

In 2002, Pope John Paul II introduced a new edition of the Missale Romanum ( editio typica tertia, the "third typical edition" [since the Second Vatican Council]) for use in the Church.  Soon after, the complex work of translating the text into English began.   USCC, Office of Mis-Information

Reality:

...when in fact, the process actually began nearly twenty years earlier. That's because then they would have to admit, that they were stupid enough to let the aging-hippie academicians and liturgical iconoclasts loose on the project, to the point where the Holy See had to finally step in and make them start over.

Well, what's a fact or two when we have Important People to......ahhh.........protect.  (After all, that worked so well in other cases, right?)

Dad29

Altar girls in the Diocese of La Crosse

I got this tidbit via a reader:

Shortly after altar girls were approved, La Crosse Bishop John Joseph Paul[1983-1994] approved the usage of female altar servers for the Diocese of La Crosse and it was his last official act as bishop because he retired soon after that. When Bishop Raymond Burke had the last diocesan synod, he had legislation approved prohibiting girl servers at Pontifical Masses.

Also a good article on the subject from Thee Catholic Herald.

Name the pope who said this:

“In conformity with norms traditional in the Church, women (single, married, religious), whether in churches, homes, convents, schools, or institutions for women, are barred from serving the priest at the altar.”

 Photo

Poll Alert: Save the altar girls

Mil Cath Herald Twitter

You can vote over at chnonline.org.  The poll is kind of halfway down on the right hand side of the page.

The question "The rector of the cathedral in Phoenix will no longer allow girls to serve Mass. Which best describes your reaction?"

My answer was; He's right; only boys should serve Mass.

But you probably already knew that.

Anyone else think it a bit odd for the Milwaukee paper to do a poll on the ongoings at church in Arizona?  On the other hand I guess it was in the news...

Servant of God, Fr. John Hardon on the matter:

All the evidence indicates that the reason for the approval of altar girls came from a strong representation by bishops in the United States. Now I have the document here in Italian. It is signed by the Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and is dated March the15th of this year[1992]. And it’s in answer to a question whether both men and women can participate in assisting in the liturgy, and the answer is in the affirmative according to instructions given by the Holy See. In other words, the document approving women altar servers stands here approved by this Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

 I didn't have time to find the quote, but Fr. Hardon on multiple occasions said he pleaded with Pope JP2(who asked for his consultation) not to enact the exception.  If anybody has it, please post.

Update 8/26 5:30PM Keep it coming!

Option	Votes	Percent
He's right; only boys should serve Mass	29	78.40%
His decision is frightening and inexcusable	5	13.50%
He set youth ministry back several decades	2	5.40%
His bishop should set him straight	1	2.70%

Update 8/29 7:30AM

Option	Votes	Percent
He's right; only boys should serve Mass	47	81%
His decision is frightening and inexcusable	8	13.80%
He set youth ministry back several decades	2	3.40%
His bishop should set him straight	1	1.70%

Li'l Friar shines in the shadow of the Basilica

The Li'l Friar Basilica Gift Shop, 622 W. Lincoln Ave., is a storefront that sits directly in the shadow of St. Josaphat Basilica. However, the store, which opened in 2000, is owned by the Franciscan Order and not the Basilica.

The bishop of La Crosse Diocese, Bill Callahan, started Li'l Friar when he was pastor at St. Josaphat. "He said, 'There's so many beautiful pieces of religious art, let's try to bring them together'," says Melissa Rabi, the store manager of Li'l Friar.

The gift shop carries an impressive array of crosses from Mexico, Slovakia, Austria, Ireland, Germany, Venezuela, Kenya, Thailand, Peru, Poland, Bethlehem and Russia. The inventory changes regularly, and currently includes two art pieces on consignment from artists in the neighborhood. By Christmas, the gift shop will have 150 different nativity scenes.

continue at On Milwaukee

Dad29: The Rights of Man Under Natural Law

This text should be vaguely familiar.

[Man has been given] the right to life, to bodily integrity, to the necessary means of existence; the right to tend toward his ultimate goal in the path marked out for him....; the right of association and the right to possess and use property.

Earlier we had mentioned that the Founders' core beliefs, as expressed in the Declaration, were Christian beliefs. They are not those of the French Revolution, nor of Locke, et.al. Rather, they are Burkean.

Oh, the quote?

Pius XII, Divini Redemptoris, para. 27.

The document is, in the main, a vigorous rejection of Communism (and Libertarianism) and of "liberal" (i.e., material-centered) economics.

Dad29

Bishop Callahan performs Traditional Confirmation at St. Mary's in Wausau

Bp Callahan at St. Mary's Oratory in Wausau

On Saturday, July 9, His Excellency, the Most Reverend William P. Callahan, Bishop of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, made his first pastoral visit to St. Mary’s Oratory in Wausau and conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form on sixty-five candidates. Over one third of the candidates are faithful who attend the Institute’s apostolate at Saint Mary’s in Cashton, Wisconsin, which is also located in the Diocese of LaCrosse.

Following the Confirmations, Canon Matthew Talarico, Vice-Provincial, celebrated a Solemn High Mass in the presence of Bishop Callahan. His Excellency was assisted during the Confirmations and the Mass by Canon William Avis, provincial Master of Ceremonies for the Institute’s US province, by Canon Henrique Fragelli, Rector of Saint Mary’s in Wausau, and by Canon Glenn Gardner, Rector of the Institute’s apostolate in Cashton.

more photos at ICKSP - Wausau 

Great photos!  Oddly enough, I've never seen the interior at St. Mary's in Wausau.  Fantastic!  Outstanding!  Beautiful!  Thank you Bishop Callahan for your support!

We're selling our house and looking for a new home right now.  This make me want to move to Wausau.  Would I move to a new city just for a beautiful church and liturgy?  That's affirmative.  I know an Australian Catholic who's children can serve the entire Byzantine Rite liturgy.  The Latin Rite liturgy was so terrible that the family joined a Byzantine Rite parish.  The gentleman laughed as the scoffers who say nobody can learn the Latin since all his children learned Ukrainian to serve at Mass.  When you fall in love with the beauty of Catholic liturgy, no substitute will satisfy.