Year of Faith – Page 3 – Madison Catholic Herald Archive (2001-2025)

During this Year of Faith, we are called to take time to consider what is at the heart of the practice of our Catholic faith.

Hopefully this season of Advent has been a chance to prayerfully think about this topic and wait in anticipation for the answer. This may have been a battle, as our world poses many challenges to this task. There are Christmas parties to attend, light displays to enjoy, trees needing to be trimmed, gifts waiting to be wrapped, and meals to be planned. The pre-Christmas to-do list goes on and on.

Year of Faith

On December 12, 2012

Lindsay Becher, For the Catholic Herald

Has the faith changed

“Families only had one car in those days. . .” Tom Delaney smiles as he recounts the details of proposing to his bride Nan over 50 years ago. Around Christmas of 1961, he asked her dad for permission to borrow her family’s car to take her to midnight Mass at Holy Hill. A bit flustered, he forgot to ask her dad for permission to marry her.

Despite the small blunder, on that Christmas Eve he offered her a diamond, and she accepted.

Year of Faith

On December 5, 2012

Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB

Sacraments of Christian Initiation: baptism for infants

The previous installment in this series spoke of Baptism for Adults. The Church has shown its understanding of this sacrament’s importance by creating the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

But the Church has always had the tradition of baptizing infants and children also. Thus, Acts 16 and 18 speak of three instances in which the “whole household” was baptized. Patristic evidence assures us that the practice of Infant Baptism continued unbroken in the first centuries — and so it has been down through the ages.

Year of Faith

On November 28, 2012

Patrick Gorman

Encountering Christ in the liturgy

One of the great contributions of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy is the brief synthesis on Christ’s presence in the Church’s prayer.

“Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations,” (art. 7). Christ’s presence in the Mass is multifaceted and mysterious, but there are four specific ways named by the Council — in the Eucharistic species, the Word of God, the person of the priest, and in the gathered community in which “the Church prays and sings” (art. 7).

Year of Faith

On November 14, 2012

Patrick Gorman

Regarding the constitution on the sacred liturgy

The liturgical renewal of the Second Vatican Council was grounded in centuries of Church tradition, in the Council of Trent, in the writings of the popes of the 20th Century, and in developing scholarship and practice throughout the world.

The first document promulgated by the Second Vatican Council was the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. This document is one of only four constitutions issued by the council. Constitutions are the most authoritative and important documents issued by the council.

Year of Faith

On November 7, 2012

Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB

Sacraments of Christian Initiation: baptism for adults

In the first article of this series, we considered the fact that God uses earthly and human realities to meet human beings and to express His love for them.

When the Church uses these earthly realities and ritualizes this encounter with God, then they become what we call sacraments. The first of these realities is water; the sacrament which uses water to place us in a very special relationship with God is called Baptism.

Year of Faith

On November 7, 2012

Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB

Sacraments of Christian Initiation: baptism for adults

In the first article of this series, we considered the fact that God uses earthly and human realities to meet human beings and to express His love for them.

When the Church uses these earthly realities and ritualizes this encounter with God, then they become what we call sacraments. The first of these realities is water; the sacrament which uses water to place us in a very special relationship with God is called Baptism.

Year of Faith

On November 1, 2012

Patrick Gorman

From Trent to Vatican II — ongoing reform

While the liturgical reforms promulgated by the Second Vatican Council were unexpected by many people, the seeds of the reform actually were planted centuries earlier at the Council of Trent (1545-1563).

The Council of Trent was a monumental moment for the Church. Held in the decades following the Reformation, the council sought to define, unite, and codify many of the Church’s dogmas and practices. In terms of the liturgy, the most significant task that they accomplished was directing the pope to standardize and revise the books for the celebration of Mass.

Year of Faith

On November 1, 2012

Patrick Gorman

From Trent to Vatican II — ongoing reform

While the liturgical reforms promulgated by the Second Vatican Council were unexpected by many people, the seeds of the reform actually were planted centuries earlier at the Council of Trent (1545-1563).

The Council of Trent was a monumental moment for the Church. Held in the decades following the Reformation, the council sought to define, unite, and codify many of the Church’s dogmas and practices. In terms of the liturgy, the most significant task that they accomplished was directing the pope to standardize and revise the books for the celebration of Mass.

Year of Faith

On October 18, 2012

Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB

Why the Church has sacraments

When the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became incarnate on earth, in Jesus Christ, He became the most perfect Way that the God could communicate with us humans.

God had communicated since the creation of human beings. God did this, first of all, through nature: human beings could simply look on the greatness of the natural world about them and be led to the knowledge of God.