Category: Bishop

On
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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Bishop Robert C. Morlino

God’s unfailing mercy and our response

Dear Friends,

Last week I was blessed to be in Rome for the ordination for two of our men (Scott Emerson and Gabriel López-Betanzos) to the Order of Deacon in St. Peter’s Basilica. It was a wonderful event, and I was so pleased to experience it, with so many faithful from our parishes and some brother priests.

I know you’ll all join me in prayer for our two new deacons and the three we saw ordained this spring (Deacons Chahm Gahng, Christopher Gernetzke, and Tafadzwa Kushamba), as they make their way to priestly ordination this coming June 26!

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

God will be generous in our obedience

Dear Friends,

As with most anniversaries and milestones, it’s hard to believe it was 15 years ago, this past Sunday, that I knelt on the floor of the Cathedral of St. Helena, with the Gospel book opened over my head, being commissioned and ordained a bishop.

In some ways, that morning in Helena, Mont., seems like an eternity ago, and in other ways, it seems like just yesterday.

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

The Cross as part of our faith

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 Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

This Feast Day takes place each year on the 14th of September and so, while it is a major feast day for the Church, it is often missed by those who do not attend daily Mass, or at least Mass on major feasts.

This year, however, we were particularly blessed to have the feast fall on a Sunday, and so important is the feast that it actually “trumps” the typical Sunday readings.

It is indeed an important day — so much so that it used to be followed by three Ember Days of prayer and fasting.

Why is it so important? It is not the feast of the Crucifixion of our Lord; obviously we mark that on Good Friday. And, in fact, each time we approach the altar for Mass, we represent the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we recall His suffering, death, and resurrection; why have a special day just for the exaltation of the Holy Cross?

Because, in our Catholic faith symbols matter! We are a physical people, whose very bodies are destined to be glorified, and so the physical, tangible things of this world matter.

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