Month: December 2017

On
Bishop Robert Barron

Advent and the many faces of anticipation

This article is the first of two parts from Bishop Robert Barron.

Advent is the liturgical season of vigilance or, to put it more mundanely, of waiting. During the four weeks prior to Christmas, we light the candles of our Advent wreaths and put ourselves in the spiritual space of the Israelite people who, through many long centuries, waited for the coming of the Messiah (“How long, O Lord?”).

Read More
On
Dick Jones, For the Catholic Herald

Restored pipe organ has uplifting sound

MADISON — Enter the quiet chapel at Holy Name Heights, walk down the aisle, then turn and look to the balcony. The pews are gone, and an organ console is visible. That’s different. Otherwise, not much to see, nothing all that remarkable.

Yet, there is now something truly noteworthy in the choir loft. Behind a wall of organ swell shades are the pipes and inner workings of a superb instrument, an Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ, old and used, but newly restored and installed in the chapel.

Read More
On
Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk

Assisted suicide: destroying my freedom in the name of freedom?

In an August 2015 column in The Washington Post, George F. Will argued in favor of physician-assisted suicide, summing up his perspective this way: “There is nobility in . . . affirming at the end the distinctive human dignity of autonomous choice.”

His conclusion, however, raises several important questions: Shouldn’t death-dealing actions directed against ourselves be seen as a deep repudiation of our autonomy, insofar as suicide eliminates our personal freedom once and for all?

Read More
On
Chris Lee

Deaf priest to preside on TV Mass

MADISON — Fr. Christopher Klusman, associate director of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Apostolate for the Deaf who is deaf himself, will preside on the weekly TV Mass airing on Sunday, Dec. 17, in Madison.

Father Klusman verbally will recite the Mass and interpret it in American Sign Language at the same time.

The Mass is broadcast at 6 a.m. on WISC-TV and at 7 a.m. on TVW and Direct TV 14.

Read More
On
Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Comfort others by pointing them to Christ

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,

If one were to put together the themes of the first reading and the Gospel from this past Sunday, Dec. 10, one might well conclude that the one who gives comfort to the people — the comforter — is St. John the Baptist. But, St. John the Baptist appears in camel’s hair.

Now, when St. John the Baptist is presented as the one who gives comfort, that is not the same use of the word as in “comfort food” — of which I have had my share. This is not the meaning of comfort at all. How can we tell that at first glance? Well, St. John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey . . . that ain’t comfort food!

Comfort others by being strong

To comfort, in the Latin derivation, is to be “strong with.” To comfort someone is not just to make them feel good, as they might over a beautiful, and yet, light lasagna. St. John the Baptist comforted the people by being strong with them.

St. John the Baptist preached the Holy Spirit and fire. He told the people to prepare for the wrath to come.

Read More