Category: Bishop Morlino’s Columns

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Using the gifts of knowledge, reverence, fortitude

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 allow me to return to one of my familiar themes at this beginning of Lent. I mention often at Mass and in other contexts that all of us, especially we adults, should be mindful of the graces and gifts received at our Confirmation.

I think forgetfulness that we have been confirmed is one of the true enemies of our growth in holiness.

So many times in life we need courage, we need consolation, we need joy, we need to be freed from confusion, we need to make prudent judgments –and we forget that in the Holy Sacrament of Confirmation, we have been strengthened by the Holy Spirit, in precisely the gifts which we need to face the difficult moments in life.

How often do we fail to pray, “Lord, you gave me the gifts to face this problem, with prudence, patience, and strength when I was confirmed. Now Father, stir up these gifts. Make them real for me, so that by these gifts and by your grace you will bring me through whatever difficulties I might face.”?

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Harden not your hearts, grow in 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,

As you can see elsewhere in this issue of the Catholic Herald, I was recently blessed to be with a large number of our young women and men during “Frassati Fest.”

It was a joy to be with so many young people excited about their faith, and who were willing to make the sacrifice to gather. I also have to give my special thanks to Lindsay Becher and all those who worked so hard to put the weekend together.

During the Sunday Mass I celebrated with those great young people, I reflected on the readings of the day, and I’d like to share a bit of my reflections here, adapted slightly for print.

Beautiful message

The Scriptures of the day leave us with a beautiful message which we can take back into our homes and which have, not surprisingly, three points.

The first point was repeated in the Psalm (Ps 95) over and over again: “If today you hear His voice, harden not your heart.”

Now what does that really mean? What does “today” mean? It doesn’t simply mean Sunday, Feb. 1, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. “Today” means our whole time redeemed by Christ in this world, before this world passes away.

“Tomorrow” refers to the great heavenly rest, when this world has passed away. So, the Psalmist is writing, “harden not your hearts,” while it is still today! Today is a long time, but it is not endless; there is a limit to “today,” and so there is an urgency there. “Harden not your hearts while it is still today.”

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Core of the Christmas and Easter Mysteries

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!

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Believing and trusting in God’s plan for us

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,

The timing of this column falls into one of those awkward periods that comes with the schedule of our weekly publication.

As I write, we are still at the height of preparation for Christmas, yet this will likely be the edition of the Catholic Herald that is in your homes on Christmas Day. As such, I’m going to look forward joyfully and reflect upon the goodness that is “already, but not yet.”

I suppose it’s appropriate to be stuck in this place of anticipation, as it does speak to our lives each and every day, and it’s made especially clear at Christmas.

Rejoice at Jesus’ coming

At Christmas we celebrate and rejoice in the reality of eternal life made possible for us by God’s coming into the world.

We celebrate that everything is now changed for humanity. We celebrate God with us, a light in the darkness, the Word made flesh, God’s Kingdom at hand.

And yet, we remain in a period of waiting and of laboring. The world is not right. We may be redeemed, with hope for forgiveness, but we still fail, and falter, and sin.

When Jesus came into the world, it meant redemption from sin and the hope of an eternity of joy, but it did not mean mankind would be unable to choose otherwise, it did not mean everything would be peachy for us at all times.

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Reclaim the gift of Fear of the Lord

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,

Last week I joined with a group of faithful men for their monthly time of prayer and spiritual reflection. With them I focused upon the seventh gift of the Holy Spirit, and I’d like to do the same with you here.

Hopefully you recall the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So many of us older folks have them memorized while unfortunately, some of the middle-aged and younger don’t even know that they have access to such gifts.

The gifts are: wisdom, understanding, council, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and Fear of the Lord. All of these gifts belong to the Christian first by way of their Baptism, and especially by the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation.

If we use them and count upon them, these gifts help to perfect virtues in us and aid us in living the moral life and in obeying divine inspiration in our life.

Fear of the Lord

While it’s likely that all of us could use a refresher on every one of these tremendous gifts, I want to focus on that seventh gift at the moment: Fear of the Lord. Perhaps the timing will seem odd, because we’re getting ready to commemorate the coming of God into the world as a tiny baby, but Fear of the Lord properly understood, dovetails perfectly with God’s plan for our salvation, and I hope to help you understand why.

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Are you a sheep or a goat?

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,

This past weekend we marked the great Solemnity of Christ the King. The imagery of the Christ as king is used in many passages of Scripture and in the Gospels.

He’s likened to a king who threw a banquet. He’s likened to a king who sent his armies out to fight. He’s likened to a king who is putting his economic life in order and who was very severe to make sure his finances were well handled. Kings are pictured doing a lot of things in Scripture, and so many of those images refer to the Messiah, to Jesus.

Christ the King as the Judge

On this Feast of Christ the King in 2014, Christ the King has been presented as the Judge. He is separating the sheep from the goats. And, in doing that, He is showing us what it means for Him, for His Father, to be “all in all,” as it says at the end of the second reading (1 Cor 15:28).

God will be all in all. What does that mean? It means God will be everything for everyone. And that’s how we are judged, basically.

Did I live as though God was everything for me? Or, did I live as though God just took up some small corner of my life? Did I live as though He was everything? Or did I live as though He were only a marginal character in my life?

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Praying for, focusing on unity in the Church

Dear Friends,

This past Sunday we had the opportunity to celebrate a Feast Day which can often pass by unnoticed and under-appreciated by many Catholics.

November 9 is always the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, but for those Catholics who do not attend Mass on a daily basis, the opportunity to hear about this feast only comes about when November 9 is a Sunday.

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