A few weeks ago I learned that my lung cancer had crept into my bones and is likely to take my life within six months. That’s the bad news.
Month: December 2014
Core of the Christmas and Easter Mysteries
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
Please let me first wish you every blessing of Christmas, and abundant blessings for the year to come — blessings of joy, health, and above all, always deeper faith.
Live in the glow of Christmas
I hope that you are continuing to live in the glow of the Christmas season, for we should remember that Christmas is not something that begins at Thanksgiving (or even as soon as Halloween has ended) and ends when presents are returned on December 26.
Our commemoration of Christmas should start on Christmas Eve and carry forward through the Epiphany and beyond. For indeed, Christmas should serve as an annual reminder of the tremendous gift and mystery of the Incarnation.
Christmas is a mystery
Christmas is a mystery, and there is a danger, between the commercialism and the outwardness of Christmas (all of the arguments about if and where you can put a Nativity Scene, and how you greet people), that the fact that Christmas is a mystery gets lost.
Christmas is a time when budgets get challenged, when people get defensive about their beliefs or lack of beliefs, and now where people have all kinds of parties as an excuse to eat and drink too much! (Not that I am immune from the fault of eating too much!) But Christmas is so much more!
Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration begins January 1 in Sauk City
SAUK CITY — “Spending time before the Blessed Sacrament is the gift we can give to God this Christmas,” according to Fr. John Blewett, pastor of Divine Mercy Parish in Sauk City.
The parish has been working since May to expand its current, two-day a week Eucharistic Adoration Program held at St. Aloysius Church to a Perpetual Adoration program slated to begin January 1.
Bishop Robert C. Morlino is scheduled to dedicate the new chapel, called the “Mary, Mother of God Chapel,” fittingly on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, January 1.
A God-haunted film
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The great British physicist Stephen Hawking has emerged in recent years as a poster boy for atheism, and his heroic struggles against the ravages of Lou Gehrig’s disease have made him something of a secular saint.
The new bio-pic A Theory of Everything does indeed engage in a fair amount of Hawking-hagiography, but it is also, curiously, a God-haunted movie.
Religion for atheists
In an opening scene, the young Hawking meets Jane, his future wife, in a bar and tells her that he is a cosmologist. “What’s cosmology?” she asks, and he responds, “Religion for intelligent atheists.”
Christmas and the humbling of the wise men
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It might seem that everything that could be said, has been said, about the shepherds, the wise men, and the Christ Child.
But that’s one of the marvels of Scripture: the unfolding history of the Church draws out of the inspired Word of God allegories and images previously unrecognized.
Events at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish
MADISON — St. Thomas Aquinas parish has two upcoming events open to all interested persons.
• Saturday, Jan. 10: “Six Dates for Catholic Couples” — Consider making a New Year’s resolution to spend more quality time with your spouse. All married couples are invited to participate in “Six Dates for Catholic Couples,” an opportunity to invest in your loving, happy marriage.
These once-a-month evenings begin with an opportunity to attend 4:30 p.m. Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas (602 Everglade Dr., Madison). Immediately after Mass, come to the social hall for a brief social and presentation. By 6:15, couples leave for a date night with a marriage-enriching topic for conversation. This is the first of the “Six Dates.”
Document on Religious is ‘sugar-coated’
To the editor:
I praise the document of the Congregation for Religious in Rome, released as a final report of the visitation of women’s religious congregations in the U.S.
I am not known for sugarcoating grave problems within Religious life — but kindness is the only way to go for the Church’s pastors. Some Religious congregations aren’t only on a demographic cliff, but teetering on the edge in terms of ecclesial communion, as the document alludes.
How a Catholic should live is the key issue
To the editor:
I’d like to add a few observations to Fr. Robert Barron’s column, “It doesn’t matter what you believe . . .” (Catholic Herald, December 4 issue). He reports that “88 percent of those surveyed said ‘how a person lives is more important than whether he or she is a Catholic.’”
However, if the respondents had been asked, “How should a Catholic live?” the answers would not have been cavalier at all.
A New Year’s resolution: working for peace
Most of us think of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as occasions to enjoy some food and drink with our family and friends. We might even wear party hats!
But according to the Church calendar, New Year’s Day is much more than a day to party. First of all, it is a holy day of obligation— the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. That means that faithful Catholics are obliged to attend Mass that day.
World Day of Peace
In addition, the Catholic Church has designated January 1 as the World Day of Peace. This was introduced in 1967 by Blessed Paul VI, who was inspired to do so by the encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) written by his predecessor, St. John XXIII.
Nativity display at State Capitol is the right thing to do
This year a group of families from the Diocese of Madison decided to sponsor a Nativity display at the State Capitol.
“For the thousands of folks that will visit the Capitol with their children and grandchildren, the Nativity will remind everyone that Jesus is the reason for this special season,” said Geralyn Kettermann of St. Joseph Parish in Edgerton in a letter that was published in our paper.