Events & Retreats – 8.18.21

Sinsinawa Art Gallery features Nature, Architecture, Watercolors

Sinsinawa Art Gallery presents “With Every Leaf a Miracle” from Sept. 1 through Oct. 11. The gallery is available for viewing 8 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. Please check our website for current COVID protocols. Artist Patricia Mroczka will display her watercolor and pen and ink art created on 100-percent rag paper—hot and cold press—and Daniel Smith watercolors. She begins wet-on-wet, then layers watercolor for depth and richness of color, then completes her painting by using her form of doodling. Mroczka began her love of art at St. Clara Academy, Sinsinawa, Wis., while taking four years of art classes from Sister Dolora Salter, OP (1892–1977). She has since studied art education at the Art Institute of Chicago and taken art classes from prominent artists in the Midwest. Her fondness for architecture also began at St. Clara and led her to an associate degree in architecture. Mroczka has incorporated this into her artwork for the past 30-plus years, inspired by the quaint homes and downtown area of her home in Downers Grove, Ill. She also draws inspiration from gardening. For more information, contact Mary Kay Kane at 608-748-4411 or visit our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter. Sinsinawa Mound, the motherhouse for the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, is located in southwest Wisconsin on County Road Z, off Highway 11, about five miles northeast of Dubuque.

Workshop on Indigenous Colonization

Brenna Cussen Anglada will lead Roots of Injustice, Seeds of Change from 9:30  to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, at Sinsinawa Mound Center. This interactive workshop traces the historic and ongoing impacts of the Doctrine of Discovery, the 15th century legal justification for European subjugation of the land and peoples of this continent. The goal of the exercise, which is a response to a call from Indigenous leaders of the United Nations and World Council of Churches, is to increase awareness of these impacts, recognize them in ourselves and our institutions, and explore how we might begin to take actions toward right relationship with Indigenous peoples. Participants are asked to be aware that the exercise may trigger trauma for those who have experienced genocide and/or forced family separation in their communities and are encouraged to join in at their own comfort level. Cussen Anglada is an activist; organic farmer; facilitator; writer; and cofounder of St. Isidore Catholic Worker Farm, Cuba City, Wis. The fee is $25 per person, and the registration deadline is Sept. 8. Please register by contacting Arrangements at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter. Sinsinawa Mound, the motherhouse for the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, is located in southwest Wisconsin on County Road Z, off Highway 11, about five miles northeast of Dubuque.

Sacred Gazing: Henri Nouwen’s Eye for Icons

Sacred Gazing: Henri Nouwen’s Eye for Icons is being sponsored by Sinsinawa Mound Center virtually from 10 a.m. to noon CDT Saturday, Sept. 18. Sister Kathleen Flood, OP, a Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa, will facilitate. September 25 is the 25th anniversary of Henri Nouwen’s death. In honor of Henri’s contribution to the spiritual life, we offer this reflection on icons. He developed an eye for icons and invites us to “re-see” them, too. Icons can bring us into the inner room of prayer and closer to the heart of God. We will take time to learn about icons and learn ways to use them for prayer. Sister Kathleen has been a frequent presenter for the Spiritual Formation Academy. Most recently, she taught a class about Catherine of Siena for Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

The fee is $20 per person, and the registration deadline is Sept. 16 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Arrangements at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Praying Our Troubling Emotions

Sinsinawa Mound Center is sponsoring Praying Our Troubling Emotions virtually from 7-8 p.m. CDT Wednesday, Sept. 15. Pat Pintens will explore with participants how emotions, both “positive” and “negative,” are part and parcel of being human. Yet people often find themselves struggling with or against certain negative emotions, for example: anger, jealousy, sadness, etc. Nonetheless, these negative emotions carry important messages. Learning how to pray negative emotions opens one to the messages and the gifts they offer. Pintens, a presenter at Marywood Franciscan Spirituality Center in Arbor Vitae, WI, will lead this workshop. She is a native of northern Wisconsin and has been involved in parish ministry as catechist, director of religious education, campus minister, parish director and choir member. Pintens holds a bachelor’s in home economics education and two master’s in Christian spirituality and theology. The fee is $15 per person, and the registration deadline is Sept. 14 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Arrangements at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Father Samuel Mazzuchelli Memorial Mass

The annual Father Samuel Mazzuchelli Memorial Mass and dinner will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021, at St. Patrick Church, Benton, Wis. The public is invited to attend the day’s events sponsored by the Father Mazzuchelli Assembly 1202 Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus, Lancaster, Wis.

Prior to the Mass, the public is invited to visit St. Augustine Church, New Diggings, Wis. Tours will be given from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. by the knights. The church, which has been restored, was designed and built by Fr. Mazzuchelli in 1844 and is the only church that remains as he originally designed it.

Before and after the Mass, people can visit Father Mazzuchelli’s restored home and his grave site at the church in Benton. Due to the COVID pandemic, there will not be a dinner this year.

Father Mazzuchelli is known in the tristate area for establishing at least 35 parish communities, designing and building at least 24 churches, and founding the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. He was declared “Venerable” by Pope John Paul II, the first step to sainthood. Father Mazzuchelli’s life and example continue to have meaning for people today. His commitment to justice for the oppressed, education, and responsible civic participation are relevant values for our time.