 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Tuesday, August 15th MASS SCHEDULE Tuesday, 8:00am @ SVdP Tuesday, 5:30pm @ SSPP This is a Holy Day of Obligation  It is commonly observed that the world in which we live is increasingly fast-paced, hectic, and noisy. The human brain just can’t take all of that input. Advertisers understand this phenomenon as well; that’s why they make their commercials so loud and fill them with images geared to grab our attention. We have become so conditioned by this loud and active culture in which we live, that many people are now uncomfortable when experiencing silence. (Do you start to fidget after 30 seconds silence during Mass?!) But the Scriptures indicate that it is necessary for us to be silent - to be quiet inside as well - in order to hear God speak to us. The first reading from today’s Mass recounts how Elijah did not find the Lord in the strong and heavy wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in a “tiny whispering sound.” The Gospel, too, tells us how Jesus went up on the mountain by himself to pray. If Jesus Himself needed some quiet time alone to pray, just think how much we need it! Make a quick examination of your life, and of the routines that you follow. Do you automatically turn on the TV or radio whenever you enter a room? Are you frequently checking your phone or tablet? Do you find that you need to have some background noise present so that you don’t get uncomfortable or fidgety? Then I suggest you consciously decide to make some time each day - especially on Sundays - when you leave all the noise aside. It may take some effort at first to do this. The troubling events in the Church and in our country - political, social, and economic - make it more necessary. But if we are going to be able to hear the Lord speak to us in a tiny whisper, we will need to be quiet. This Tuesday, August 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation. Mass at St. Vincent de Paul is at 8:00am, and at SS Peter & Paul at 5:30pm. See you at Mass! May God bless you! Fr. Schaller  Our Lady Queen of All Saints Homeschool Conference Saturday August 12, 2023 from 9am-5pm at St Matthew's school, Wausau, WI We will have speakers, interactive workshops, and a huge used curriculum sale! https://wicatholichomeschool.com  Among the many challenges of the modern world the crisis of marriage and the family is perhaps the greatest. This includes issues like divorce, same-sex unions, transgenderism, laboratory production of life (cloning, in vitro fertilization, etc.), premarital sexual activity, and STDs (AIDS, etc.). At the beginning of the sexual revolution Pope Paul VI promulgated his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae (On Human Life). In this encyclical (published on July 25, 1968, 55 years ago) the Holy Father reaffirmed the constant teaching of the Church regarding the dignity and purpose of Christian marriage. God made man and women, and He is their final end. We properly fulfill our human nature when we live according to God’s wise plan. Marriage (and especially Christian marriage), according to God’s plan, is directed toward the mutual good of husband and wife in a lifelong covenant of love, and the begetting and raising of children (the very fruit of their parent’s love). These two reasons for marriage - for love and for life - are intimately connected. In fact, to separate them is to attack the very heart of marriage. The Holy Father’s encyclical has often been characterized only as an attack against artificial birth control. It is true that he does restate the Church’s constant teaching against artificial birth control. But Humanae Vitae is primarily an affirmation of the beauty and dignity of Christian marriage when it is lived according to God’s plan: in fidelity, fruitfully, generously. Beginning decades before the 60’s, we have been subject to the “world’s” influence in regard to our understanding of sexuality, marriage, and the family. In fact, many Christians have rejected the Church’s teaching in favor of the “world’s” standards. Perhaps the time is right to reconsider what the Church has to say on these most important issues: not what people think the Church teaches, but the actual teachings themselves. One can easily download the document on the internet from a number of sources (including www.vatican.va). I hope you will take the opportunity to see how beautiful, good, and true the Church’s teaching is. May God bless you! Fr. Schaller  Dead Theologians Society 6:00pm-7:30pm Wednesday, July 26 In the SSPP church basement Like the first Christians under persecution, the DTS meets in a catacomb-like space, learns about God and his saints, and chants praises to God. All Middle and High schoolers welcome!  One of the common objections that people make about God’s providence and His goodness is the reality of evil in the world. How can it be, they ask, that God allows sin and evil to exist alongside His good creation? The key word in this is “allows.” As the first parable in today’s Gospel makes clear, sin and evil (the weeds growing among the wheat) exist not by the hand of God, but rather because “an enemy has done this.” Like the good wheat which must struggle to bear fruit while fighting against the weeds, we must struggle to live holy lives in a world infected with sin and evil. God intends for us to be saved, and so He gives us the strength necessary (through the Grace of the Sacraments) to persevere until the “harvest time.”
Another aspect of this question about the existence of evil involves the possibility of human freedom. If it were not possible for a man to choose evil, there would be no virtue in having chosen the good. Human freedom would not exist if it were not possible for us to choose one or the other. It is precisely the existence of human freedom – and the possibility of choosing good or evil – that warrants the praise of virtuous acts and the condemning of evil acts. Parents experience this simple principle when their child “who is old enough to know better” does something which is wrong. Out of respect for their child who is now able to make moral choices they show their displeasure. Conversely, when they witness their child doing something good it is right to give praise. May God bless you! Fr. Schaller  All Weekday Masses the week of July 31– August 4 will be held at SSPP church @ 11:30am To accommodate the Totus Tuus program.  It is time for our parish to again donate our time at Focus for the Food Pantry. We will be working August 14-18 hours to be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 11:45am-4:00pm; Tuesday 3:45pm-7:00pm. Please contact Mary Bronk  We are looking for a 1st grade Catechist and classroom helpers, and childcare helpers for our Family Faith Formation program. Family Faith Formation meets one Wednesday a month from Sept-April with December off and an end of the year party in May. What is Family Faith Formation? Family Faith Program is for families with children in grades K to 12. Our program is designed to be a learning experience for both children and their parents (and sometimes grandparents)! We recognize the calling and responsibility of parents as primary educators and role models to their children. The FFF program is here to assist parents in passing on our faith to their children. The Catechism states that “The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason, the family home is rightly called “the domestic church,” a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.” We meet one Wednesday a month, and the following weeks parents catechize their children at home. Can you give a couple hours of your time one Wednesday of the month to the children and families of Saints Peter and Paul? For more information contact Mindy Konkol at mindy@ssppwisrapids.org.  We Wisconsinites have a deeper sense of appreciation for summer than our fellow citizens from the South. It is time for vacations, travel, cookouts and family reunions – valued even more now because of time lost during the past 3 years by the covid lockdowns. Since five of my siblings still live in the La Crosse area we always find an excuse to get together, though we sometimes head out to South Dakota, where some of the family now lives. We save money by putting up all the “out of towners” at the homes of those who live in the area. We get some pretty full houses. My parents (now both deceased) had 12 children (three are now deceased), 48 grandchildren, and over 100 great-grandchildren. Including the spouses of their children and grandchildren, they have nearly 200 descendants. (When you get this many, who can keep count?!) As the “family priest” it is my pleasant responsibility to preside at a fair number of baptisms and weddings. I don’t bring this up to brag about my family (after all, I am not the cause of this big family, only one of the many happy beneficiaries), but to reflect upon the fruitfulness of human love which is possible by God’s Grace. The scripture readings of today’s Mass (especially Isaiah and Matthew) speak to us about God’s Word, which potentially “bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” Is God’s fruitfulness not also demonstrated in the blessings of children, by which the human family - made in the image of God - grows and develops? Too frequently children are seen merely as burdens, or as a drain on our material resources. Such an attitude is the corrupt fruit of a culture of death. But the Gospel of Jesus is a Gospel of Life! I feel tremendously blessed by God to have been born into my family (the eleventh of twelve!). My mother, at her death, had over 120 direct descendants. What a blessing that she lived to see her “hundredfold” and more!
May God bless you! Fr. Schaller |