Blizzard conditions, snow and deteriorating road conditions cancel Ash Wednesday Masses in multiple diocesan locations. Although As Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation, many Catholics are drawn to start the penitential season of Lent by attending Ash Wednesday and receiving the sign of ashes upon their foreheads.

More than 150 people attended the School of Healing hosted by St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll at Holy Spirit Church Feb. 28 and March 1 to learn ways to be instruments of God’s healing and words. Facilitated by Gilbert Rodriguez and Jay Jong of Encounter Ministries, Father Patrick Behm, pastor of St. John Paul II, explained they offered catechesis on various aspects of the charism of healing.

Two high school students who will be graduating this spring were selected as Bishop Scholars and will receive scholarships to attend Briar Cliff University in Sioux City beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The two new Bishops Scholars are: Alaina Beitelspacher of Le Mars is a student at Gehlen Catholic School and a parishioner of All Saints Parish. Desirae Dreckman of Le Mars is also a student at Gehlen and member of All Saints.

Last spring, the Diocese of Sioux City was able to award $2.18 million to 2,700 Catholic school students through the diocesan scholarship program. Stacia Thompson, coordinator of enrollment and outreach for the Catholic Schools Office, said her office anticipates a similar amount of dollars available to award for Catholic school scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year. She encourages parents to apply before the May 1 deadline.

“This is an annual trip sponsored by the Vocations Office and hosted by the seminarians of the diocese. It’s an opportunity to meet other young men around the diocese to grow in your faith to be challenged in brotherhood and to be open to God’s call in your life,” Father Travis Crotty, director of vocations described the annual Quest trip. Quest 2025 will be held June 2 to 5 and is open to high school and college aged men. The group will travel to Winona, Minnesota and La Crosse, Wisconsin.

A Danbury Catholic schoolteacher recently released a children’s book designed to help young ones not only pray but build excitement for reading. Prayer Everyone, Anywhere is the name of the book penned by Cameron Brenner. The target age group is for children in preschool through second grade.

The season of Lent begins March 5 with Ash Wednesday. The regulations for Catholics during this season from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are as follows: • Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence (no eating meat) for Catholics. In addition, Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence.

Nominations for the 2025 Catholic school leadership awards – the Excellence in Education Award and the Good Shepherd Award - are now being sought. The Excellence in Education Award is given to teachers who emphasize Catholic identity and academic excellence in their classrooms and serve as a role model to their students and peers. The Good Shepherd Award is for any school employee who is a witness to their faith inside and outside of the school and has a joyful passion for serving their community.

As C.S. Lewis puts it: “If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.”

Bishop Walker Nickless' letter of support of the March 8-9, 2025 special collection on the First Sunday in Lent - Aid to Global Churches. This is the combined collection for Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Catholic Relief Services.

“When we come together for holy days of obligation in particular and Holy Week, we really lack a common language to be able to pray together,” said Father Brent Lingle, pastor of Storm Lake St. Mary Parish said of his diverse parish with English, Spanish, Vietnamese and other languages spoken by his parishioners. “So, the common language of course is what the church prescribes and that has always been Latin. That can be the thing that unites us in prayer across the cultural and language differences.”

Parish ministry leaders including faith formation directors and directors of religious education (DREs) often collaborate with the diocesan Faith Formation Office regarding upcoming programming, ministry resources and current topics such as OCIA. Through a series of webinars from the Faith Formation Office dubbed, “The Conversation,” ministry leaders receive training without leaving their offices. “With our conversation webinars, we tried to hit a variety of topics to reach different audiences within the DRE community,” said Karmen Bower, diocesan faith formation director.

The Vocations Office is sponsoring two trips for young people this summer that allows time for prayer, discernment about what God wants for their lives and some fun. The Quest trip for young men has been a staple in the Diocese of Sioux City for a number of years and thanks to the efforts of some parish catechetical/formation leaders this summer the Ave Young Women’s Retreat will be offered at the same time, June 2-5.

Missouri River Historical Development Inc., (MRHD) awarded a total of $300,000 to four local colleges during an award ceremony Feb. 20 at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City. Briar Cliff University, Morningside University, St. Luke’s College, and Western Iowa Tech Community College each received $75,000 to administer MRHD Scholarship Grants during the 2025-26 academic year.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Hospers native, Arcbishop Dennis M. Schnurr of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. His successor will be Bishop Robert G. Casey, auxiliary bishop of Chicago. The announcement was made Feb. 12, the same day Bishop Walker Nickless' resignation was accepted.

A Suicide Support Group will be offered in the Carroll County area for any high school students who may have been affected by the death of a friend, family member or classmate who died by suicide. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Sioux City and St. Anthony Regional Hospital are collaborating to offer the group starting later this month.

At a Feb. 12 press conference, Bishop Walker Nickless introeduced his successor, Bishop-elect John E. Keehner of the Youngstown, (Ohio) Diocese. The bishop-elect shared his background, when he received his appointment and thoughts on his ministry thus far. His ordination will be May 1 at 2 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Epiphany.

Faced with an aging and outdated elementary building coupled with a desire for a single site school campus, St. Mary School in Remsen recently launched a $7 million capital campaign. Elementary wing The primary goal of the We Believe…Our Faith, Our Family, Our Future Capital Campaign is to build a new elementary addition to the existing middle/high school building, which will be updated. The campaign general chairs are Ryan and Melissa Feeck and Danny and Sara Harpenau.

A weekend is a long time to go without food. It’s hard to come back to school on a Monday, ready to learn, when there has been not quite enough food to go around for a family for two and a half days. When a long-time Backpack Buddies program ended in Fort Dodge at the start of the 2024-25 school year, the precarious balance of food insecurity tipped in the wrong direction for many area families. St. Edmond students went to work to help feed their classmates.

Lumen Message Column by Dawn Prosser: Amongst other February comemmorations, such as feast of the Presentation and throat blessings on Feb. 3, we as a nation celebrate Black History Month. The National Black Catholic Congress commemorates Venerable Father Augustus Tolton and six other Black Catholic holy men and women on the journey towards canonization.