Category Archives for "Community Contributors"

As we make our way through Lent, various themes are brought to our attention.  These include: repentance, healing, forgiveness, obedience and listening to God. As we approach Holy Week, however, the theme of the cross becomes ever more on our minds.  We recall that Jesus is headed for Jerusalem where He will suffer and die before rising again.  We are reminded, […]

In preparation for Christmas this year with my family, I have been baking a lot of cookies. I started weeks ago searching the internet for ideas and inspiration and dreamed of how my cookies would turn out. I inevitably waited until the last minute and ended up frosting cookies late the night before leaving. While […]

The Third Sunday of Advent — the readings, the “pink candle,” Gaudete Sunday — reminds us of the promise of hope amidst what can feel like a long time waiting for the birth of Christ and joy in a world that does not always make us feel joyful. My husband and I have been waiting […]

Since I was a little girl, my favorite Mystery of the Rosary has been the Visitation. I love reflecting on this mystery. I love thinking about Mary making haste to visit Elizabeth. I love imagining their embrace when they finally meet. I find myself tearing up at the greeting Elizabeth gives Mary, “And how could this […]

Guest blogger Rebecca Calderone shares a reflection for the first Sunday of Advent. Rebecca is a chaplain at St. Benedict Senior Community. Read more about her in her bio at the end of her post. There are some patients that I will always remember. Maggie* is one of them. I remember clearly the first time […]

Are You incarnate, Jesus, in my face? in my actions? Do I radiate Your compassion to the news reports I don’t want to hear? the people who suffer? the child with hungry eyes and distended belly? the woman who is aging too fast, who loses her way yet wants to be her former self, small […]

Today is the feast day of our patron saint, St. Cloud. Fathers Scott Pogatchnik and Doug Liebsch pray Day 9 – the last day – of the novena. They pray together at St. Cloud’s shrine, located inside St. Mary’s Cathedral in St. Cloud. After the prayer, Father Scott gives a short history of the shrine. […]

Today’s video comes from Villard, Minnesota, where Reed and Sarah Heidelberger pray Day 8 of the novena with their children. To learn more about the life of St. Cloud and for the full text of the novena, visit http://stcdio.org/about/saint-cloud-saint/.

Steve and Wendy Gessell pray together under the arch outside the Diocesan Pastoral Center in St. Cloud which Steve built and tends. Steve and Wendy are both staff members of the Diocese of St. Cloud. Join them in praying Day 7 of the Novena in honor of St. Cloud.  

Today, Mayuli Bales, director of the diocesan Office of Multicultural Ministries and Venezuelan Father Oswaldo Roche pray Day 6 of the Novena in honor of St. Cloud. They pray today in Spanish. If Spanish is not your native tongue, we encourage you to follow along with the English text below and enjoy the beauty of […]