Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Church

Deacon Don’s Uganda Update for Mission Sunday

Posted on October 17, 2023

It was 10 years ago as Our Lady of the Wayside parish helped send Deacon Don Grossnickle with a “heart on fire and feet on the move” to visit and help start a mission in Uganda East Africa. His work [read more...]

Tylenol Murder Crisis Inspires Global Leadership Activism

Posted on January 30, 2023

Kasia Janus was a young schoolgirl when told her father had been killed by poisoned Tylenol capsules. Today she is remembering the supportive care she experienced by her school and community . She is mobilizing her memories from 40 years [read more...]

Stories of Thanksgiving

Posted on October 24, 2022

Set aside some time before turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie to connect life stories and feelings of personal gratitude in this special season of Thanksgiving. The evening brings Chicago’s celebrity storyteller and songster emcee Wayne Messmer. Our distinguished host, recently [read more...]

Deacon Don Heading Back to Uganda

Posted on March 7, 2022

In 2017, 25 local Northwest suburban friends based in Our Lady of the Wayside Parish chipped in $500 to purchase and donate a laboratory microscope to St. Jude Clinic, a financially struggling medical clinic based in a small village in [read more...]

Where In The World is Deacon Don?

Posted on December 7, 2021

Advent Message from Kasese Uganda East Africa After 34 years as a full-time Deacon at Our Lady of the Wayside, another ministry has been keeping me quite busy these days. I am surprised that, at this late stage of my [read more...]

Faith in Action: Deacon Don Update

Posted on May 14, 2021

This just in from Our Lady of the Wayside’s Deacon Don Grossnickle: So glad to share news of my MAAPF friend Pavan. Pavan and I and MAAPF worked to support his research fighting deadly malaria. He needed a microscope and I [read more...]

Deacon Don Discusses Depression, New Book, “My Maja”

Posted on October 29, 2020

While he was growing up in Chicago, Deacon Don Grossnickle loved visiting his grandmother Maja, an immigrant from Sweden, and listening to her stories about her home country’s “enchanting winters, the Christmases, the sleighs, the horses, the beautiful lakes,” he [read more...]