Barb Umberger

St. Odilia in Shoreview recently served as a pilot site for a seven-week series of classes in Spanish that focused on the Catholic Church’s social teachings.

David Kruse entered the seminary in 2012, spending eight years in formation for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in divinity from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

Growing up, the family of Bishop Joseph Williams always started Thanksgiving with Mass. And as a priest, he said he has loved Thanksgiving Day Masses.

The play “Nicholas” begins a month-long run Dec. 1 at Open Window Theatre in Inver Grove Heights.

Kendra Tierney is a mother of 10 children, but she makes time to include traditions at home based on the liturgical calendar.

While he was growing up, the family of Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis “appreciated having an Advent wreath,” he said, with family members taking turns leading prayers and lighting the candles.

Quinci Schmidt is a self-described “huge cow person,” having grown up on her family’s dairy farm near Rogers. Chores weren’t always fun as a child, she said, but as she got older, she realized she “really loves this lifestyle.”

School Sister of Notre Dame Stephanie Spandl knows she started thinking about religious life in seventh grade because it’s in her “seventh grade journal.”

As the Church approaches the 60th anniversary of the release of “Nostra Aetate” (“In our Time”), its messages apply today, said Father Erich Rutten, As the Church approaches the 60th anniversary of the release of “Nostra Aetate” (“In our Time”), its messages apply today, said Father Erich Rutten, pastor of Christ the King and St. Thomas the Apostle parishes in Minneapolis. The conversation behind the document likely started around 1960, about 15 years after the end of World War II and the horrors of the holocaust. The document is often considered the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, promoting respect and dialogue.

Advent is a season where the faithful can “much more deliberatively just enter into silence and … into that more meditative feel of the season, of Advent is a season where the faithful can “much more deliberatively just enter into silence and … into that more meditative feel of the season, of hopefulness,” said Father John Paul Erickson, pastor of Transfiguration in Oakdale. It also brings the “beautiful practice” of the Advent wreath used in many Catholic homes, he said.