Greetings from Wisconsin

Peace to you in Jesus Christ!

I write to you from Morrison, Wisconsin, a tiny farm town 25 miles south of Green Bay. This is my mother's home now and my annual family visit has the added bonus of taking place in a very quiet idyllic setting. I have always found the pastures, cows, trees, geese and cranes that form the landscape to be particularly renewing for prayer. I have had the chance to say Mass each morning at St. Mary's, a mission church that is currently in danger of being closed and consolidated with several similar parishes into a larger church. So it has been particularly comforting this week to listen to the first reading wherein the temple is being rebuilt.