REMINDER to Parishioners * 24 Hour Eucharistic Adoration – 2017 - First Friday – Feb. 3 through Feb. 4 ** Starting at 9 am on Friday an ending at 9 am on Saturday) Note: There will be a prayer petition book placed out the week prior to our First Friday Eucharistic Adoration. Anyone wishing to have petitions offered during Adoration may enter their petition into the book and they will be prayed for. Attention: Church doors are locked @ 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. if you are coming to pray during this time please knock on door (under carport) 5 minutes before the start of each hour and you will be let in by person already inside of church.

* Evenings of Recollection * Eucharistic Adoration and Reflection * Meditations in honor of the “Year of Mercy” led by Father Samuel Martin * Evenings will alternate between the parishes of St. John’s / Mfld and Christ the King / Spencer . Time: 6:30 pm-8 pm on Thursday-Thursday Feb 2, 2017 @ Christ the King Catholic Church in Spencer. Theme: St. John of the Cross

The Annual Holy Name Pancake Breakfast and Raffle taking place on Sunday -February 26, 2017 * SUBJECT: Raffle Tickets Sales *** Please take time to stop at table in gather room of church to pick up your completed addressed raffle ticket envelope. This saves postage costs in mailing them out. ** If you wish to have more, to sale, they can also be found on the table. 

Adult Confirmation: Are you a baptized adult who has received your sacraments except for confirmation? Join us for an Adult Confirmation Class on Monday evenings from 6:30-8 pm beginning on Monday-Jan. 16, 2017. Classes will be offered Jan.-Feb as adults prepare for the sacrament on March 5, 2017 Registration is required, for more information and to register, contact Deb Mlsna @ 715-659- 4480 Ext. 3 or at ReligiousEd@fronities.com today. We warmly welcome all Catholics in the area but please note this is not an RCIA class. ​

RALLY IN ROZELLVILLE - rescheduled Marshfield Deanery will be hosting a youth rally at St. Andrew’s in Rozellville expecting hundred of teens from across the Diocese to celebrate faith March 5, 2017, with a band from the Twin Cities, a meal and a free-Will offering will be taken. For more information, contact Mr. Dan Kitzhaber.

Steubenville Youth Conference for teens presently in grades 8-12 An awesome, high energy event with 2,000 other teens . PLUS: we'll roll up our sleeves and lend a hand while serving others. It will be at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, July 28-30, 2017. The cost will be about $260 includes most meals, transportation, & all housing A deposit of $50 is needed with sign up by January 10, 2017. To sign up, please contact: Dan Kitzhaber.

CATHOLIC Adventure Camp July 9-14. This is for teens currently in grades 6-12. Crosswoods Christian Adventure Camp, located south of Ashland, has been reserved for the Diocese of LaCrosse! This high adventure week will offer you the chance for rock climbing, repelling, canoeing, mountain bike riding, low ropes and high ropes, adventure trails, hiking, and time for prayer, the sacraments and reflection on God’s marvelous creation. The total cost will be about $410 for youth and $250 for adults. Signup soon. Financial help is available. Informational meeting * Tuesday—February 7, 2017 in the Columbia Room @ St. John’s in Mfld. If you have any other questions, please contact Mr. Dan Kitzhaber.

Praised be Jesus Christ! “Iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17) – this was a favorite Scripture passage for Saint Thomas Aquinas. He firmly believed that the truth comes to the surface through discussion and argumentation. Aquinas was charitable enough to always honor his opponents by knowing their arguments better than they did; this also allowed him the necessary insights to be able to refute them. More often than not, the goal for an argument is to win, and to do so at any cost. Not so for Aquinas – he rightly believed that the goal of argumentation is that the truth will come out so that all will benefit. We’re witnessing some argumentation these days around who can and who cannot receive Holy Communion. Such discussions are as old as the Catholic Church and are necessary so that none of us will take this remarkable privilege for granted. Every time we attend Mass we begin with the penitential rite so as to examine whether we’re in the state of sanctifying grace. This means that we can only receive Holy Communion if we are not aware of having any mortal sins on our soul. Briefly, mortal sin means that we’ve done something gravely disordered (e.g. missing Mass on Sunday without a serious reason, sexual sins, drunkenness or drug use) and that we knew it was wrong and freely did it anyway. What helps more than anything is regular confession, as it both removes the stain of sin and further refines our conscience so that we will more readily choose the good while refraining from the many temptations that we must fight day by day. All of this is a simple refresher to challenge us to honor God by sincerely preparing to receive His Son in Holy Communion. The aforementioned argumentation at the highest level of Church life has to do with couples who went through a divorce, then remarried without an annulment. What is at stake is the indissolubility of marriage – Jesus said “What God has joined, let no man put asunder,” (Matthew 19:6). When a marriage ends, the Church’s presumption is always in favor of the bond; an annulment claims that the bond was defective from the very outset and that it was always lacking one or another of the components that comprise a valid, sacramental marriage. When a person divorces and remarries without an annulment, there is the distinct possibility that the first marriage is valid and that the person is presently living with someone with whom he is not married. This compromises our communion with God. To allow divorced and remarried couples to receive Holy Communion substantially changes either what we believe about Holy Communion or what we believe about the indissolubility of marriage. These are significant realities and we should pray to the Holy Spirit, that He will guide the Holy Father and all Bishops so that they will both understand and obey the will of God. Sometimes people manipulate such situations to justify what they want to believe, but we should be patient and trust that the truth will prevail in the end (Jesus promised that even the gates of hell could never prevail over the Church). In the meantime, let’s examine our consciences and prepare humbly to meet and receive our God in Holy Communion. And if you’re in an irregular situation (e.g. married civilly but not in a Catholic Church or divorced and remarried without an annulment), please let me help you so you can receive Holy Communion again. May God guide all arguments so that we come to know the truth and so have our hearts free to love!

Your friend in Christ,
Father Martin

The Annual Holy Name Pancake Breakfast and Raffle taking place on Sunday -February 26, 2017 * SUBJECT: Raffle Tickets Sales *** Please take time to stop at table in gather room of church to pick up your completed addressed raffle ticket envelope. This saves postage costs in mailing them out. ** If you wish to have more, to sale, they can also be found on the table. 

The next “Baptismal” preparation class will be on Tuesday - January 31, 2017 @ 5:30 pm - 8 pm. @ St. John’s in Mfld. / Columbia room of the school. Pre-registration is required; please do so by calling 715-659-4480. For those not registered as members at Christ the King parish, information will be given on how to do so. This class is mandatory for all parents expecting their first child and/or those who have not taken Father Martin’s baptismal class.

Adult Confirmation: Are you a baptized adult who has received your sacraments except for confirmation? Join us for an Adult Confirmation Class on Monday evenings from 6:30-8 pm beginning on Monday-Jan. 16, 2017. Classes will be offered Jan.-Feb as adults prepare for the sacrament on March 5, 2017 Registration is required, for more information and to register, contact Deb Mlsna @ 715-659- 4480 Ext. 3 or at ReligiousEd@fronities.com today. We warmly welcome all Catholics in the area but please note this is not an RCIA class. ​

News from the USCCB
USCCB President Urges Encounters Of The Heart In Message For Martin Luther King Jr. Day - WASHINGTON—The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, issued the following statement in relation to the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Full statement follows:…Read More

News from the Pope:
Pope Audience: We look with hope to unity not division - (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said on Wednesday that Christian Unity and reconciliation are possible. He was speaking during his weekly General Audience in the Paul the VI hall where he also continued his catechesis on Christian hope…Read More
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News from the Church:
Pope Francis: Mother Cabrini Is a Model for Caring for Migrants -VATICAN CITY — On the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis pointed to St. Frances Cabrini as an example of how to treat foreigners, calling her a “courageous” woman who knew how to bring God’s love to those who were lonely and in hardship. After praying the Angelus with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 15, Pope Francis sent a special greeting to members of different ethnic communities who had gathered in honor of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees….Read more

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Praised be Jesus Christ! “First impressions, second thoughts, and the third degree” – that’s a phrase from the longtime Wisconsin State Journal sports writer Andy Baggot and it works well when a column is going to be a bit more wide-ranging than usual. First up is the remarkable story of Father Stan Rother. You may already know that Pope Francis announced on December 2nd that this holy priest has been formally recognized as the first martyr born on American soil. At our annual class gathering a classmate from Father Rother’s home diocese of Oklahoma City regaled us with some very edifying stories. Father Rother was born on March 27, 1935 on his family farm outside of Okarche, Oklahoma. When the Rothers brought their baby boy for baptism, the pastor asked what name they had given the child: “Stanley Francis” the parents responded. The old German pastor Monsignor Zenon Steuber noticeably halted and with a disapproving look answered back, “There is no saint named Stanley. He will be Francis Stanley.” Now that Father Rother’s path to beatification has been opened, it seems we may soon have a Saint by the name of Stanley after all! After enduring some significant academic struggles during his years in seminary, Father Rother was ordained and later sent to the missions in Guatemala. He served with great distinction though the times were rife with danger and instability. As the political situation deteriorated, Father Rother witnessed one of his catechists being abducted just outside the parish church at dusk – sadly, there was nothing he could do. Tortured bodies were sometimes found, but many were never seen again. Father Rother knew that his name was on a death list. When he came home for Christmas with his family in 1980 those closest to him noticed how distant and absent he seemed. As he walked the land he once worked on his family’s farm, he was strikingly listless and without vitality. Eventually he determined to go back – he said at that time that “the shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.” So against all advice he returned. Masked gunmen came for him in July of 1981. Father Rother knew their routine and he put up significant resistance, telling the men that they’d have to “do it here” and that he would not go with them. Shots rang out and Father Stan was killed in his rectory bedroom. The men were never identified or caught. At the request of the people of the mission who deeply loved him, they asked the family if Father Stan’s heart could be buried at the church. The family permitted it. The rest of his body was returned home and is now buried in the Catholic cemetery of Okarche, Oklahoma. And now Father’s extraordinary sacrifice has been officially recognized, meaning that he’s on his way to being beatified. What a blessing for the Church in America! Now please allow what is often called a non sequitur: Recently someone passed along the following for our ongoing growth in church etiquette: “In the document, Instruction On Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests, put out by the Vatican on August 15, 1997, we read, "In eucharistic celebrations deacons and non-ordained members of the faithful may not pronounce prayers — e.g. especially the eucharistic prayer, with its concluding doxology — or any other parts of the liturgy reserved to the celebrant priest. Neither may deacons or non-ordained members of the faithful use gestures or actions which are proper to the same priest celebrant. It is a grave abuse for any member of the non-ordained faithful to "quasi preside" at the Mass while leaving only that minimal participation to the priest which is necessary to secure validity" (ICP Practical Provisions 6 §2).” For the record, the only gentle correction for us is that solely the priest is to pray in the orans position (i.e. with arms in the form of a cross) during the “Our Father.” I just thought you’d like to know. May God bless us with holiness in our priests and in our people, that we may worship Him in word and deed!

​Your friend in Christ, Father Martin