By: Msgr. Stuart Swetland Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 10 Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7 or Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11; Psalm 29:1-4,9-10 or Psalm 104:1b-2,3-4,24-25,27-28,29-30; Acts 10:34-38 or Titus 2:11-14, 3:4-7; Luke 3:15-16,21-22 ONE OF my favorite passages in sacred Scripture is 1 John 3:1-2. It reads “See what love the Father has given us that we should be called […]
Continue readingAs this is written Wednesday, the winner of the college football championship game between Texas and Alabama on Thursday night had yet to be decided. It was the scheduled highlight of dozens of bowl games during recent weeks, and a television audience of tens of millions was expected to view the contest. In this space, […]
Continue readingROCK ISLAND — Retreats and programs planned for this month by the Sisters of St. Benedict of St. Mary Monastery include a book club that will focus on the challenge of being a Christian in a difficult time. “Compassion,” a book by Father Henri Nouwen, Donald McNeill and Douglas Morrison, will be studied on six […]
Continue readingPERU — Funeral Masses are planned in LaSalle and East Peoria for Deacon Ron Rager, a member of the first class of permanent deacons ordained for the Diocese of Peoria, who is being remembered as “a man of service, who had a heart of charity.” “Truly loved his God and truly loved his neighbor,” said […]
Continue readingCHAMPAIGN — Minette Sternke has a big dream. She would like to see an office for deaf ministry established in the Diocese of Peoria, but she isn’t sitting back and waiting for someone else to do the work for the deaf community in central Illinois. Already active at St. Patrick’s Parish in Urbana, Sternke continues […]
Continue readingPONTIAC — A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, at St. Mary’s Church here for Jayne L. Brunskill, 95, the mother of three children including Father Richard Brunskill, a priest of the Diocese of Peoria on senior status. Mrs. Brunskill died at 2:40 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011 […]
Continue readingLONDON (CNS) — Three former Anglican bishops were received into the Catholic Church just hours after they officially gave up their ministries in the Church of England. Bishops Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, John Broadhurst of Fulham and Keith Newton of Richborough will be soon ordained as priests for a special Anglican ordinariate that will be […]
Continue readingNEW YORK (CNS) — The Nassau County Department of Health on New York’s Long Island is offering immune globulin or hepatitis A vaccine to parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa Park who might have been exposed to hepatitis A when receiving Communion at two Christmas Day Masses. Mary Ellen Laurain, a spokeswoman […]
Continue readingA MEMORIAL Mass will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Church in Peoria at 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16, for Father Marne Breckensiek, OFM, who served as pastor of the downtown Peoria parish for 24 years. Father Marne died on Dec. 29, 2009, at St. Margaret Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was 71. A Mass […]
Continue readingBy: Ninth Festival Letter of the Most Rev. Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, Bishop of Peoria In the early centuries of Catholic Christianity, when calendars were uncommon and often imprecise, a bishop would send out an annual “Festival Letter” to announce the proper dates for observing the fasts and feasts of the Liturgical Year. It was […]
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