Some weeks ago, around the date of 31 October, I wrote about an event in Eau Claire to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. The joint prayer service among Catholics and Lutherans was a local event to come together in prayer and concentrate on matters of unity. The prayer service was held in a Catholic church, the social was hosted in a Lutheran church across the street. I also understand that, on the same date, Catholic and Lutheran bishops from our state were gathered together for a similar prayer service. Further, the prayer service was also used by members of the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation on the same date. I can say, with some confidence, these three, and perhaps other similar prayer services, all used the same prayer service which was assembled by the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Prostate cancer, testicular cancer, male depression and male suicide. These four topics and others similar to them typically do not conjure up happy thoughts. Add to the above list cancer in general, often cancer treatment causes hair loss, and you get a sense of the recipe for the rationale as to why some men choose to grow facial hair during November. Add to that, some encouragement on some websites to discontinue trimming other bodily hair, like legs, and you can quickly come up with gender inclusive reasons for unkempt body hair during November.

One of the countless delights in living the vocation of the Holy Priesthood is meeting countless people from countless walks of life. Recently I was having a conversation with a well-established realtor. He commented on how he and his wife move often and find the moves to be a good opportunity to do some serious housecleaning. In fact, they continue to strive to keep their belongings down so as to have less labor when a move comes around.

We have once again come to this point in time when we use the month of November to pray for all the faithful departed. Today, I find it worthwhile to reflect upon Mass Intentions, something I have likely done before and will likely do again.

Celebrating Mass is one of the core prayer forms for our Catholic Church. At its basic form, the Mass has two parts, namely the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

A commercial was airing on television this summer and one reference is toward a character who "over shares" his life. The reference is to the other character that is turned off by the other character's desire to over share. Perhaps you know people like this in your life. As human beings, each of us is called to live in relationship some one or more people. We quickly discover that some people around us are really quiet, others really loud. Some are difficult to converse with while others are easy. Some people need to be pried to share about themselves, others over share. And the list of comparisons may go on and on. Somewhere within that spectrum of people is where we find ourselves. While we move into the season of sharing, we might want to consider the sharing in which we participate. For the sake of this article, we might want to consider three different perspectives.

Over the years, some of you have run across two priests of our Diocese, Father John Schultz and/or FatherDerek Sakowski. They are mentioned this weekend because of their work they are doing, along with countlessother priests around the world, along with clergy from the Lutheran church, along with countless lay faithful. The project has been in the making for 500 years, and more recently within the last twelve months. October 31,1517 is the date when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door in Sweden; Luther’s action began theProtestant Reformation, and more specifically, the beginning of the Lutheran church.

Over the decades, believers used countless titles for what happens in church on weekends from the mouth of the minister. Some places call it a sermon, others a homily, others a speech, lesson or preaching. Within our Catholic world, the modern title to the message after the Gospel from the clergy is called a homily. Typically, the title was sermon until more recent years, say the last several decades. From my understanding, the sermon was meant to teach/catechize some doctrine of the Church whether or not it was connected to the weekend scriptures.

Today the Church of St. Boniface will be celebrating their 150 Anniversary. The invitations have been sent and the reservations have been received. The dinner and the fixins have been prepared. The flowers and decorations are in place and the music has been practiced. The Bishop will be celebrating the Mass for the faithful people of the Waumandee Valley today. What a fine day this is going to be. This is a day to remember that as early as 1858 Mass was celebrated in homes and in the fields across our Buffalo County.

While some of you are aware of our change with the hot lunch program at Saint Boniface Catholic School, some of you may not be aware of the community-building event the decision has become. To be brief, while enrollment is 19 students Pre 3K through 8th Grade, after some deliberation with parents, we made the decision to discontinue using the Department of Public Instruction Hot Lunch Program. We learned that some limitations were unreasonable in our situation and additional human and financial resources would restrict what we are trying to accomplish at this point in the School history. The students bring a cold "sack" lunch on Tuesdays. On the other weekdays, we are able to provide lunch for them through purchased and donated food. If you would like to join others who have already donated food, or funds to provide food, be in touch with Carrie Venner, our Head Teacher. On Fridays, we have found success in asking people from outside the School Staff to provide hot lunch and this concept has worked famously so far.

On Sept. 8, 2017, the Catholic Bishops of Wisconsin issued the following statement in response to the Administration's announced termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program six months from now:

"The bishops of Wisconsin affirm their support for the continued protection of youth under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Most of the nearly 8,000 DACA Wisconsinites, who are among almost 800,000 DACA young adults nationwide, know no other home than the U.S., having been brought here in their youth through no choice of their own.

We are honored to celebrate Catechetical Sunday today. Catholic parishes across the United States arerecognizing people who have agreed to use their God-given talents and abilities to help form our young peoplein the ways of faith. In many cases, including our parish cluster, catechists are volunteers. Many will tell you,however, that their reward comes from deepening their relationship with Jesus, especially through the youngpeople with whom they interact. There is something really special in observing young people “get it” when “it”comes to matters of faith. There is even greater reward knowing that you have made a difference in a youngperson’s life through witnessing to the Gospel.

Every now and again I field questions from people, typically from those who are aging, about suggestionsregarding preparing for the end of life. I’m sure countless volumes of books may be read which explain the bestmethods of making these preparations. I’m also confident, that at the core of any suggestions, is the reality tobe attentive to each person’s relationship with God and how that impacts their relationship with the peoplearound them. In other words, we do a really good part knowing the Gospel, but we also need to consider howwe do in integrating the Gospel message into our daily living.

Carrie Venner and the other teachers at our Saint Boniface Catholic School have been fervently working thisweek preparing for the upcoming academic year. I was a brief part of the in-service on Tuesday morning. Ourconversation included some remarks about the beginning of a school year and the fresh start which the new yearaffords. We reflected on our desire to give each and every student a new chance to begin anew; being sensitivethat their attitudes may have changed over the summer; hopefully for the better. We also hope students andfamilies give us and our programs a fresh start which can always bring about a greater good.