Newman Center of Oshkosh

Fr. Benjamin Sember

The Call of Peter – Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 
http://holypriesthood.blogspot.com/

Fr. Luke Strand

Pastor of Holy Family Catholic Community in Fond du Lac, WI
Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 
http://www.hffdl.org/

Basilica of Holy Hill

We are going on retreat this weekend to Holy Hill…Sorry for the short notice, but if you’re not busy, we’d love to have you! This Saturday, October 24th, we will be meeting at the Newman Center at 9am and return between 3 and 4pm. We have rented a suburban from the University and our very own Jenny Pauly will be driving us down. It is going to be a pretty relaxed day! We’ll get down there by 10:20ish, just in time to go to Confession if you need and then there is Mass at 11am. After Mass, we will get a chance to look around, pray, go to the gift shop, climb the bell tower, etc.

Jenny Pauly, Suburban Driver

We will stop for a later lunch on the way back up to Oshkosh so bring a couple bucks for that and anything you may want to purchase in the gift shop. If you are interested in coming and haven’t signed up yet, you can email Geralyn Smith at smithg00@uwosh.edu. This event is sponsored by the Newman Council!

Geralyn, Seth, Leann, Laura, Kendal

Did you know our diocese has an order of Discalced (without shoes) Contemplative Nuns who unceasingly pray for you??? Well, we do! And we went to their monastery outside of Denmark, WI (near Green Bay) to celebrate a HUGE Carmelite Feast Day! Holy Mother Church celebrates St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face,  popularly known as the Little Flower, every October 1st!

She entered Carmel at 15 and died at 24…not a very long life, but a life of love and holiness indeed! Thérèse is known for her “Little Way.” In her quest for sanctity, she realized that it was not necessary to accomplish heroic acts, or “great deeds”, in order to attain holiness and to express her love of God. She wrote,

“Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”

This life of holiness is not complicated…it is simply about doing small things with great love, hence the “Little Way” not the “Complicated, Unattainable Way.”  She described her Carmelite vocation beautifully when she wrote: In the heart of my Mother the Church, I WILL BE LOVE.

There are 9 holy souls in Denmark praying for our diocese, sacrificing for you and me. 9 holy souls who have given up the ways of this world to be an open witness of the reality of the presnece and existence of God. They are a reminder to the world of the validity of the Gospel values. In this hidden garden of Carmel, the needs, joys, wounds and sorrow of the world are carried before the throne of God daily-hourly-especially n the Sacred Liturgy.

Prayer is the Carmelite nun’s form of apostolate, and through it they reach out to the world, the Church, the young, the sick and elderly, but most especially to priests. In this sense, they are “apostles” of the apostles.

How sweet is that? Fr. Benjamin Sember celebrated the Mass and it was awesome! After Mass, he blessed a bunch of roses and each person who came got one. We loaded up on posters, holy cards, post cards and the love of Christ! What a morning…that’s all I can say…what a morning…the sacrifice of tiredness and warmth to catch a small glimpse of heaven right here on this earth…definitely worth it!

For more information about the Discalced Carmelite Nuns you can check out their website, write or email Mother Mary Elizabeth

Mother Mary Elizabeth
Monastery of the Holy Name of Jesus
6100 Pepper Road
Denmark, WI 54208
holynamecarmel@catholic.org
http://www.holynamecarmel.org/

ST. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS…pray for us!