December 2015 First Quarter

Watch 10:30 a.m. St. Dominic Sunday Mass

Channel 3, Lakeland Communication Cable

Watch Mondays at 3pm—Wednesdays at 7pm

Check our website

At

www.sd-ic.org

Phone: 715-327-8119—Fax: 715-327-8125

E-mail: stdomfrederic@lakeland.ws

Publisher: Fr. Tom Thakadipuram

Editor: Sue Wallin

Our Catholic Voice

St. Dominic and Immaculate Conception

Address Service Requested

P.O. Box 606

Frederic, WI 54837

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PERMIT NO. 65

FREDERIC, WI

Our Catholic Voice St. Dominic and Immaculate Conception Catholic Communities

Mark Your

Calendars

Feast of Immaculate Conception:

Tuesday, December 8

Advent Reconciliation @ SD:

Wednesday, December 9 @ 7 pm

St. Dominic Family Activity:

Wednesday, December 16 @ 6:00 pm

Advent Lessons and Carols @ SD:

Sunday, December 20 @ 6:30 pm

Office Closed: Thursday, December 24

Friday, December 25

Friday, January 1

Ash Wednesday:

Wednesday, February 10

Regular Mass Schedule

Saturday: 4:30pm at SD

(Confessions at 4:00 pm)

Sunday: 8:30am at IC

(Confessions at 8:00 am)

10:30am at SD

A Christmas Letter from Our Pastor Dear Friends,

It is with great joy and love that I am writing this letter to wish you a wonderful Christmas and

a grace filled New Year. Three aspects of Christmas are celebration, salvation, and harmony.

It is time to celebrate the life of Christ with great joy as God’s family. It is a time of salvation

for us personally as Christ sets our hearts free from fear and anxiety and collectively as the

light comes into the heart of the world removing all darkness. It is a time of peace and harmo-

ny beyond conflicts, war, and disharmony within and without.

I am pleased to see the great unity in our communities and the commitment of staff, parish

ministry leaders and volunteers to keep up the life and ministry in our parishes. The Parish

Summits held at the beginning of this year have invigorated our parishes with new life and en-

thusiasm, bringing greater collaboration and cooperation with new initiatives and programs.

The capital campaign at St. Dominic was a great success with generous giving and support to

preserve our legacy. At Immaculate Conception, we have a new sound system and a new

building and grounds committee established to move projects forward. We are hoping and

praying that a new bishop will be appointed to do the Confirmation Ceremony which will take

place in April. Our children bring great joy and young adults give new hope to our parish fam-

ily. Looking back at the past year, I am happy to note that it has been a year of great bless-

ings with excellent parish festivals.

Pope Francis, visiting the United States for the first time, has stirred the hearts of the people

to new excitement and hope. He has declared December 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016 the

“Year of Mercy.” This is a time to experience the rich mercy of the Father and show mercy to

one another, going the extra mile.

Christmas brings great joy to the whole world. It’s a wonderful time of giving and receiving

God’s gift of inner peace and love through Jesus Christ. I deeply appreciate your prayers,

support and care for me and for the whole community. It has been a great joy and honor to

visit many families especially those who are sick and homebound. We remember gratefully all

those who have gone before us to the heavenly peace and joy. Many thanks for your contin-

ued love, dedication and generous contributions to St. Dominic and Immaculate Conception

parishes.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!

Yours in Christ Jesus,

Fr. Tom

Our Catholic Voice - 2 Our Catholic Voice - 7

Spotlight on Students

Maddie Duncan is the daughter of Kevin and Joanie Duncan. She is a junior at Grantsburg School and is the oldest of three children.

She is an altar server at Immaculate Conception and is in the Confirmation class.

She is involved in Cross Country, Softball, Academic Honor Roll, Na-tional Honor Society, and Link Group. This past summer Maddie enjoyed life guarding at Grantsburg Pool. This fall she is looking forward to hunting with her family.

Sarah Wells is the daughter of Joel and Kalen Wells. She is a senior at Frederic School and has two older sisters. Sarah was a St. Dominic altar

server and Sunday greeter. She has also played the piano for Sun-day services. Sarah played volleyball this year, and plans to go to college when she graduates this spring. She enjoys spending time with family and friends and has a dog named Larry.

Matthew Wick-strom is the son of Doug and Stepha-nie Wickstrom. He is in 3rd grade at Grantsburg School and has one sister.

He enjoys being active in Cub

Scouts and T-ball. Matthew’s favor-ite subjects in school are reading and math.

In his free time, he does computer design-ing and likes using his Kindle.

Lexi Doyle is the granddaughter of Joe and Sandy Memmer. She is in eighth grade at Frederic School.

Lexi was a St. Dominic altar server. She has

also taken part in the Children’s Choir and is a lector for the monthly Youth Masses. Lexi likes playing on the soccer and basketball teams in school. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She loves fash-ion, especially shoes.

Daisy Roehm is the daughter of Todd and Deb Roehm. She is in second grade at Luck School and has an older broth-er and two younger brothers.

Daisy participates in the Chil-dren’s Choir during the Youth Mass-es at St. Dominic. Her favorite subjects in school are reading and art. She likes learning and playing basketball with her friends and loves dancing at home and playing with her brothers.

Olivia Ohnstad is the daughter of Dan and Marie Ohnstad. She is in the 8th grade at Grantsburg School and has four older sib-lings.

Olivia is an altar server at Im-maculate Conception.

She loves playing basketball and volleyball for both school and club. Olivia has been an Academic All-Star (straight A's) throughout her middle school years. In her free time, she likes reading and loves spending time with her family.

Pope Declares Year of Mercy By Deacon Stan In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, we read about the Year of Jubilee. In Jubilee, all debts are supposed to be cancelled and all land is supposed to be returned to its original owner. This is a time when Liberty was proclaimed throughout the land. One of the purposes was to sanctify Israel’s internal economy. This Jubilee celebration happens in 50 year cycles. In a similar tradition, since the year 1300, every 25 or 50 years the popes pro-claim a holy year, which features special celebrations and pilgrimages, strong calls for conversion and repentance, and the offer of special opportunities to experience God’s grace through the sacraments, especially confession. Extraordinary holy years (jubilee years), like the Holy Year of Mercy, are less frequent, but offer the same opportunities for spiritual growth. To help us become rich in mercy as our Father is merciful; Pope Francis has proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy beginning this December 8. The Pope said: “Dear brothers and sisters, I have thought about how the Church can make clear its mission of being a witness of mercy.” “It is a journey that starts with a spiritual conversion. For this reason I have decided to declare an Ex-traordinary Jubilee that has the mercy of God at its center. It will be a Holy Year of Mercy.” “I am convinced that the whole Church will be able to find in this jubilee the joy of rediscovering and making fruitful the mercy of God, with which we are all called to give consolation to every man and every wom-an of our time,” Francis added, entrusting the Holy Year to Mary, Mother of Mercy. "Let us not forget that God pardons and God pardons always," the pope continued. "Let us never tire of asking for forgiveness.” “We entrust it as of now to the Mother of Mercy, because she looks to us with her gaze and watches over our way," Francis said. "Our penitential way, our way of open hearts, during a year to receive the indul-gence of God, to receive the mercy of God." The Pope also said he wants the church to live the upcoming holy year "in the light" of Jesus' words in the Gospel of Luke: "Be merciful, just as your father is merciful." As we progress through this Jubilee Year, there will be opportunities for us to show mercy and to live in harmony with the biblical message of mercy. It is up to each of us to receive God’s mercy in an individual fash-ion, and then, to move forward living a Christian life that has been touched by God’s mercy. As a parish community, we will need to discuss the ramifications of this important message. We pray for God’s wisdom.

IC Council Members

Following June elections/appointments to the Pastoral Council and the Finance Council, the councils now consist of the following members:

Pastoral Council: Finance Council:

Ken Kutz Mike Myers

Cheryl Smith Mike Cole

Shari Harter Gayle Janson

Stephanie Wickstrom Tanya Carlson

Kim Feit Stan Peer

Officer elections will be held in February. Thank you to Barb Benson and Emily Hesla for their service on the Pastoral Council.

SD Council Member Elections St. Dominic will hold Parish Council elections on Decem-

ber 5 and 6. Two new members will be elected as Ray

Draxler and Jeanette Laqua have completed their four

year term. Parishioners will be voting for two of the fol-

lowing candidates:

Carol Scheidt: Carol is married to John Scheidt. They have two

sons and two daughters. Carol has worked as a secretary, at a

bank and at a ski hill in Michigan where she lived most of her life.

She and John moved to Frederic in 2013.

Elisabeth Franzen: Elisabeth is married to Stephen Puetz.

They have seven children. Elisabeth has worked as a cabinet

maker. She also enjoys quilting, painting, and working with wood

and stain glass. She and Steven have lived in Frederic since

1980. Continued on Page 3

By Shayla French

Are you looking to prepare for Christmas while still recognizing Advent as its own unique liturgical season? This year, St Dominic will be offering an Advent Lessons and Carols service on Sunday, December 20th at 6:30pm. This simple prayer service started in Eng-land in the late 19th /early 20th century and has spread to many different countries and cultures since. Traditionally, nine lessons are read, detailing the longing for the promised Messiah and then the fulfillment of that promise. After each biblical passage, a carol ap-

propriate to that reading will be sung including some old Advent and Christmas favorites as well as other traditional pieces. Adapted to a more specifically Catholic audience (though other Christian denominations are welcome to at-tend as well), this prayer service will conclude with Benediction.

Following in the footsteps of this long standing tradition, a Christmas party will take place after the blessing and final carol.

Anyone willing to help with set-up, singing in the choir, reading a lesson during the service, or helping with the party should contact Shayla French @ 715-653-2284. Feel free to leave a message.

St. Dominic to Offer Advent Lessons and Carols

Our Catholic Voice - 6 Our Catholic Voice - 3

Students Prepare for Confirmation

St. Dominic Students: Back - Delaney Johnson, Taylor Alseth,

Ann Chenal, Rosie French, and Paul French. Front - Jena Laqua

and Sarah Wells.

Immaculate Conception Students: Back - Violet Ohn-

stad, Austin Olson, Camilo Volkmann, and Maddie Dun-

can. Front - Allie Webster, and Kirsten Olson.

Fourteen students from Immaculate Conception and St. Dominic are in their last year of preparation for the sacrament of Confirmation. They will receive this sacrament on Saturday, April 2 at Immaculate Conception Church at 6:30 pm along with students from St. John Parish in Webster. Please pray for these young people as they prepare for Confirmation.

Religious Education

Upcoming Events

SD & IC First Reconciliation Service @ SD

Wednesday, December 9 at 6:00 pm

Parish Family Activity @ SD

Wednesday, December 16 at 6:00 pm

No Religious Education Classes

Wednesday, December 23 and 30

Religious Education Classes Resume

Wednesday, January 6

Youth Mass @ SD

Sunday, January 17 at 10:30 am

No Religious Education Class (Ash Wednesday)

Wednesday, February 10

Diocesan Youth Rally @ Medford

Wednesday, February 17 at 6:00 pm

Youth Mass @ SD

Sunday, February 21 at 10:30 am

First Communion Parent Meeting @ IC

Tuesday, March 1 at 6:00 pm

First Communion Parent Meeting @ SD

Wednesday, March 2 @ 6:00 pm

Knights of Columbus Punt, Pass and Kick Competition

Mike Murphy and his band of volunteers have succeeded in running the Punt, Pass and Kick Contests in Septem-

ber and October. The first was a Knights of Columbus local competition and the second was a Pepsi area con-

test. Winners from our parishes are pictured here. Nicholas Webster went on the compete at the state level in

DePere, Wisconsin on Saturday, November 7.

Oct. 10 Regional PPK at Siren Ball Park

Age 10

1st Place

Nicholas Webster

Age 14-15

2nd Place

Jordan Webster

Age 9

3rd Place

Lucas D’Jock

Age 10:

1st Pace 2nd Place

Nicholas Webster Wyatt D’Jock

September 19 Local Level Punt Pass and Kick at Siren Ball Park

Knights of Columbus

52 Week Raffle Knights of Columbus Council 6370

is selling tickets now through the end of

December for their Annual 52 Week

Raffle. These tickets are $10 each and

are sold before and after weekend

masses at both parishes.

Fifty-two week winners will be

drawn in February. Each winning ticket

is returned to the drawing for another

chance to win. There will be 48 - $50

winners and 4 - $100 winners. The

winners are published in the church

bulletin each month. These tickets are

sold only by SD and IC Knights.

Proceeds are given to the communi-

ty through several programs: Coats for

Kids, Punt, Pass and Kick Competition,

Seminary Fund, Disabled Priest Fund,

Fire Victims and other community

needs.

This raffle is one of the Knights’

most important fund raisers. Help sup-

port the council by purchasing a ticket

with 52 chances to win.

In support of the youth of our parishes, the Knights of Columbus Council 6370 will be selling fresh cut Christ-mas trees on the properties near each church. Trees cost $20 each and will be sold after masses in Decem-ber until the trees are gone. Proceeds from the sales will be shared between the Knights of Columbus and the youth groups. For large orders contact John Scheidt at 906-221-1802 or jtscheidt1@hotmail.com

Knights of Columbus sell Christmas Trees

Children’s Choir at November’s Youth Mass

By Amy Bartylla

After serving the parish of St. Dominic for nearly 13 years, Amy Wallin has resigned as an ac-companist for weekend liturgies. She began playing piano at St. Dominic when she was in high school and continued during summer breaks in her college years. When she settled

in Amery in 2009, she began playing regularly.

Five years ago, she, along with Amy Bartylla, started the Children’s Choir for the Youth Masses. Every Wednesday, Amy drove from Amery to practice music with the students that would be sung at the monthly youth mass. She has played piano for every Youth Mass since its beginning.

Music is an essential part of every liturgical service. It can make our mass more reflective, more spiritual and more meaningful. But it takes many hours of preparation behind the scenes, as our musicians select and practice the music that will enhance our time of worship.

We thank Amy Wallin for her dedication and for sharing her talent with our parish for so many years.

Thanks to Amy Wallin

More SD Parish Council Candidates: (continued from page 2)

Tom Werran: Tom is married to Mary. They have three children.

Tom has worked for Tradehome Shoes as a store manager and then

on the construction of new stores. Tom has been active on finance

councils and as a Eucharistic Minister. He enjoys golfing and bowling.

Scott Weyenberg: Scott is married to Stephanie. They have one

daughter. Scott is an ecologist with the National Park Service . He and

Stephanie moved from South St. Paul to Milltown in 2008. He has

served on pastoral councils, taught religious education classes and was

a lector. He enjoys woodworking and fishing.

Presently the Councils consists of the following members:

Pastoral Council: Joann Hasse, Mark Ronningen, Nancy Axelson, Jerry Spies and Jerry Tisher (Trustee and Ex Officio member)

Finance Council: Glenn Meier, Russ Herbst, Fred Memmer and John Klatt (Trustee and Ex Officio Member)

Our Catholic Voice - 4 Our Catholic Voice - 5

Remembering Loved Ones

Ken Bistram, member of Immaculate Conception Church,

died August 21, 2015. He was born on August 6, 1940,

graduated from Grantsburg High School and married Diane

Nowak in April 1959. Five children were born of this union:

Ken Jr., Shari, David, Chuck and Brian. Ken enjoyed coach-

ing youth sports, hunting, fishing, meat raffles and garage

sales. A Memorial Service was held at Immaculate Concep-

tion Catholic Church on August 25, 2015.

Millie Nelson, member of St. Dominic Church, died on

October 6, 2015. She was born on May 4, 1924, and joined

the Navy during WWII where she met and married Roger

Nelson in 1945. She and Roger adopted four infant children

through the Catholic Charities: Mark, Teresa, Kevin and Jo-

seph. Millie was an active member of the church and volun-

teered many hours. A Mass of Christian Burial was held at

St. Dominic Catholic Church on October 10, 2015.

Jerry Klinkhammer, member of Immaculate Conception

Church, died October 19, 2015. He was born on March 20,

1929, was the youngest of 10 children and grew up in Turtle

Lake. Jerry married Carol Gamache in 1948, and they had a

son, Jeffrey. After Carol’s death in 2002, he married Karen

Erickson on March 17, 2005. Jerry enjoyed snowmobiling,

fishing and hunting. A Memorial Mass was held for him at

Immaculate Conception Church on October 28, 2015.

Nick Schommer,

son of Walt and

Mary Schommer,

married Savannah

Johnson at St.

Dominic Catholic

Church on Satur-

day, September 19,

2015.

SD - December 7—5:00 pm

SD - December 8—10:00 am

IC - December 8 - 6:00 pm

IC CCW St. Nicholas

Day Baskets

Bidding ends

on December

6th. Winners

will be an-

nounced and

baskets will be

distributed that

day!

St. Dominic

CCW Fall

Bazaar

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the annual bazaar such a big success!

The winners of the major raffle are:

Handmade Lap Quilt - Carol Scheidt

Bitty Baby Doll - Diana Herbst

Rocking Horse - Carol Schommer

Basket raffle winners include:

Amy Wallin Nancy Cumming

Kathy French Angie McIntyre

Tahilia Pepper Barb Ott

Pattie Derks K Dehrer

Ann Froehlich Roxanne White

Natalie Fredricks

Robin Johnson

Congratulations to

ALL!

Immaculate Conception Fall

Festival Raffle Ticket Winners 1st: Mike Janke 4th: Louis D’Jock

2nd: Danielle Erickson 5th: Doug Wickstrom

3rd: Mary Hinrichs 6th: Nick Lindgren

Congratulations to our winners and a special thank

you to all who helped to create yet another

successful Fall Festival!!

Don’t FORGET! Scrip Gift Cards are great for gift giving, gift purchasing and even stocking stuffers!

Purchase cards before or

after mass in the Fellow-

ship Hall or call 715-472-

8399 or 715-689-2850

December 24

IC - 5:00 pm

SD - 7:00 pm

December 25

IC - 8:30 am

SD - 10:30 am

Christmas Mass Schedule

The Knights of Columbus will host a Father Daughter Dance on Sat-urday, January 2, 2016 at St. Dominic Parish Hall. The celebration begins with Mass at 4:30 pm followed by a candle lit, three course meal with

stuffed pork loin and twice baked potato as the main en-trée. Dancing will follow. Tick-ets will go on sale in Decem-ber. Watch the bulletin for more infor-mation.

Feast of Immaculate Conception

Holy Day Mass Schedule

By Colleen Draxler

Shayla French has recently accepted the position of Administrative Assistant for our parishes. She is almost a life-long member of St. Dominic as her family moved here when she was four months old. A recent Liberal Arts graduate of the College of Saint Mary Magdalen in Warner, New Hamp-shire, Shayla’s academic specialties were philoso-phy and theology. She enjoyed singing in the choir, tutoring other students in Latin, logic and geometry, and serving as student government secretary.

Shayla is enthusiastic to share her talents and energy to reach out to people, building a stronger church community. Promoting sacramental preparation and expanding our adult faith formation opportunities are two of her goals for the Reli-gious Education program. She is also learning the bookkeeping work with training from Larry French. Shayla’s friends and family describe her as hard-working, ap-proachable, prayerful and a good problem solver.

Stop in and welcome Shayla to her new position. Office Hours are Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

New Administrative

Assistant

Sunday, November 1 (All

Saints Day) found the St.

Dominic Choir dressed as

their favorite saints: Ka-

ren Hill - St. Nicholas, Kim

Runnels - St. Bridget,

Emily Hill - St. Emily,

Stephanie Weyenberg -

St. Gianna Beretta Molla

and Laura Hill and Maria

Weyenberg - St. Elizabeth

of Hungary. Who is your

favorite saint?

Knight of Columbus to

Hold Father Daughter

Dance

Eucharistic

Adoration! We are blessed to have Eucharistic Adoration available every Wednesday at Immacu-late Conception - 7 am to noon and St. Dominic - noon to 3 pm. We need more people will-ing to commit to one hour each week as the Blessed Sacrament may never be left unat-tended.

Please consider spend-ing time with Our Lord.