"He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick--no food, no traveler's bag, no money." ~Mark 6:8continue at Imprisoned in my Bones
St. Francis de Sales Seminary has a wonderful new vocations director, Fr. Luke Strand, (pictured next to Bishop Hying) and he is just full of energy and fabulous ideas! He has begun a new initiative called Mission Milwaukee which is a young adult outreach of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, a project for the New Evangelization. Every Tuesday night a group of about 40 young men gather at St. Robert's Parish in Shorewood for dinner and fellowship and a group of women gather at the Newman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for dinner and fellowship, as well. Then they all join each other for a holy hour and benediction followed by Mass. At the end of the evening, the men return to St. Robert's Parish for night prayer.
As part of Mission Milwaukee, Fr. Luke has also organized a walking pilgrimage from St. Francis de Sales Seminary to the Basilica of Mary, Help of Christians at Holy Hill. The pilgrimage covers about 50 miles on foot and is expected to last four days from start to finish. My son John is taking part in this pilgrimage. He is on the front right-hand side in the above picture.
The pilgrimage began with Mass at 7:30 AM on Thursday, July 18th and then proceeded to Bishop Hying's office at the Cousin's Center for a blessing. The morning of the first day included stops at several churches along the way until they arrived at St. Anthony's Parish on Mitchell St. for morning prayer. The next stop was Marquette University Campus with a visit to the St. Joan of Arc Chapel. Since the Marquette Campus is only two blocks away from my office, I invited the group to stop at my office for lunch.
Great stuff!!! The young men and women have separate events but do spend some time praying together. Fantastic setup. And now I'm hungry.
Photo: Arch. of Milwaukee on Facebook
3 comments:
This is great, the Bishop is leading by example. In Europe there still exists a great tradition of pilgrimages (maybe facilitated by the ample weeks of vacation time) pilgrimages are a logical outgrowth of a Catholic culture and something we should really be cultivating in Wisconsin. This route, Saint Francis to Holy Hill with stops such as at Joan of Arc Chapel, is just great. If one wanted to go further I think they could hike up along the "Ice Age Trail" through the Northern Kettle Moraine and get towards the shrine of Our Lady near Green Bay. The Church could even set up the parishes along the way as stopping points for pilgrims, say one every 20 miles or so. Turn abandoned convents or rectories into pilgrim hostels.
I know most of the young men in this picture, including Bishop Hying and Fr. Luke. They are an inspiriation that these quality of men are discerning the priesthood, either already in seminary or strongly considering it. They give immense hope to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee :-D
You might consider sharing this little bit about Fr. Luke and his brothers!
http://news.yahoo.com/video/three-wis-brothers-three-priests-072907006.htmlut Fr.
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