St. Joseph Parish - La Crosse, WI

06/07/2026

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ | June 7
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At the end of the Bread of Life discourse, recorded in John 6, many of Jesus' disciples walked away. Not enemies, not Pharisees... but disciples. The people who had been following him.
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They weren't confused. The Greek text is precise: where Jesus had previously used the ordinary word for eating, he switched at the critical moment to trōgō...to gnaw or to chew, the verb used for animals at feed.
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The USCCB's own footnote on the passage acknowledges the shift directly. His listeners grasped what he was saying. That was the problem.
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He did not call them back. He turned to the Twelve and asked: Do you also want to leave?

06/06/2026

Seven men will be ordained to the Diaconate today at 10am at the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman. Watch live at diolc.org/live

06/04/2026

With great sadness we are announcing the loss of Leland Gregorich. Leland has played for the St Joseph and St Peters Choirs since 2017. He will be very missed.

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06/04/2026

Please join us in praying for these seven men as they are about to be ordained to the Diaconate on Saturday.
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All are welcome to attend the Mass being held at St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral on Saturday at 10am.

06/03/2026

Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions | June 3
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Among the twenty-two Catholic martyrs killed on this day in 1886 in Uganda, the youngest was thirteen years old. His name was Kizito. Charles Lwanga had baptized him in secret just days before their arrest. When the condemned were marched thirty-seven miles to the ex*****on site at Namugongo, eyewitnesses reported that Kizito went laughing and talking with his companions.
He had been a Christian for only a matter of days.
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Charles Lwanga, their leader, was burned separately. As the flames consumed him, he told his ex*****oners: "You are burning me, but it is as if you are pouring water on my body."
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His last word was Katonda — My God.

06/01/2026

Memorial of St. Justin Martyr | June 1
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Born a pagan in Samaria, Justin spent his early life moving from one school of philosophy to the next, searching for something that could hold the weight of ultimate truth. None of it satisfied.
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The turning point came in a conversation with an elderly stranger near the sea, who told him to set aside the Greeks and read the Hebrew prophets instead.
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He did and he spent the rest of his life defending in writing, openly, before the most powerful empire on earth what he learned.
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Not from a safe distance. He lived and taught in Rome itself.
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In 165 AD, under Marcus Aurelius, he was arrested, tried and beheaded alongside his students for refusing to offer sacrifice to the emperor.
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A philosopher who found the truth he was looking for... and paid the price the Roman Empire charged for it.

05/31/2026

"Today I put on a terrible strength, invoking the Trinity, confessing the Three with faith in the One as I face my Maker." ~ St. Patrick's breastplate
Today is Trinity Sunday. Father, Son and Holy Spirit: one God, three Persons, eternal love. The Catechism calls the Trinity “the central mystery of Christian faith and life.” In today’s Gospel, that mystery is revealed as love: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
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Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

05/29/2026

St. Lawrence was a deacon in Rome during a time of vicious persecution.
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When Roman authorities demanded the “treasures of the Church,” Lawrence gathered the poor, the sick, the widows and the vulnerable, then presented them as the Church’s true treasure.
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St. Lawrence, pray for us.

05/27/2026

Ordinary Time is back. Which means most of us are back to ordinary things: work, dishes, emails, school events, appointments, errands, parish meetings, and wondering what’s for supper.
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And... that is where most holiness is built!
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The Christian life is usually formed in the small repeated choices: patience when we’re tired, prayer when we’re distracted, forgiveness when we’d rather keep score, generosity when it costs a little more than expected.