“Found Christianity”

Happy Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

It has become harder to find sincere expressions of Christian faith in the public sphere, but they have become more precious to me when I do find them.

villamariamary

On a building that was once a private girls’ dorm, Villa Maria, located in the warren of little streets behind Langdon Street.

capitolreligion3

Emblem depicting “Religion”, amongst other ceiling decorations in the WI State Capitol Building representing fields of human effort important to Wisconsin (why is it crooked? because I crouched down and put the camera on top of my head pointing up). And not just any religion. There is a Cross. Godlessness is foreign to Wisconsin, which I noticed is constitutionally grateful to Almighty God for our freedom:

wiconstitutionalmightygod

Friday Fish Fry

They do fish fries on Fridays in Wisconsin by cultural habit, right? A weak example of “found Christianity”, I thought–but took the picture. Later I noticed down at the bottom, removing doubts about the Catholic meaning of this particular sign, “Also served on Wednesdays during Lent.”

UW Memorial Union thinks you should practice Friday abstinence every Friday in accordance with the canonical norm, and during Lent maybe even more often than just Fridays, and they’re right.

And it’s timely to bring this up since the US Bishops have called for a new movement of prayer for Life, Marriage and Religious Liberty, embracing several measures including Eucharistic Holy Hour especially the last Sunday of every month, daily Rosary, and abstinence from meat and fasting on Fridays (fasting doesn’t mean not eating. it means one meal per day, with optionally one or two small snacks if necessary), scheduled to begin, in fact today, the Feast of the Holy Family. Let us all get in.

6 Responses to “Found Christianity”

  1. Fantastic photo essay, Liz.

    Permalink
    • thanks… I have a bad cold or something and didn’t make it to 7am Mass due to waking up with a headache. I went at 9am. Who had the TLM this morning? What did I miss?

      Permalink
      • It was a Low Mass with Fr Isaac Mary. The Gospel was the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple and prophecy of St Simeon. Father remarked that he thinks it is one of the most lesson-filled Gospel readings there is. He began by commenting on the humility and obedience shown by Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, who did not need to submit to the Jewish laws of Purification and Circumcision, but did so to set an example of humility for us, and to avoid causing unnecessary scandal to their Jewish neighbors and relatives.

        Father then went on to discuss the prophecy of St Simeon (“Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And your own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed”). He explained that if we are not living in a way that contradicts the spirit of the world, then we need to examine our consciences; how when we fall into sin, the perfect humility, obedience, and purity of Our Lord and Our Lady is a sign of contradiction of our sinful ways, and that we must strive to love Christ so much that we would be willing to join with the Blessed Mother in accepting a sword piercing through our hearts out of love for her Son.

        Of course Fr Isaac had much more to say, including some great quotes from Sts. Alphonsus Ligouri, Bonaventure, and Bernard, but this is just my quick summary from memory.

        Permalink
        • Thank you Michael!! One thing I love about Fr Relyea is his references to the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.

          At 9am Mass Monsignor Schmelzer substituted for our dear and still-ailing Monsignor Holmes. In the Novus Ordo calendar of course it is the Feast of the Holy Family and so he talked about Jesus in the home of Mary and Joseph, obedient to them and learning the ways of the world and of work. He always so unfailingly hits the necessary points, for instance the necessity of passing on the Faith to the next generation, the importance of sexual ethics and marriage, as well as charity to the poor.

          Permalink
  2. My mom was given a gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings and we used it on a Friday in Lent earlier this year because I had a job interview on that side of town, but my mom wanted to watch a Badger basketball game on cable during the same time, which we don’t have at home. They actually had a special lenten menu which included a lot more meat-free options than the restaurant usually carries.

    Permalink

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.