All of us bear wounds inflicted by others: Painful conflicts, harsh judgments, hurtful comments, rejections of proffered love and friendship, lack of gratitude and support, embarrassing humiliations, experiences of being ignored or overlooked.
Tag: evil
We are made in God’s image
A beautiful, basic tenet of our faith, articulated in the creation account of Genesis, is that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God, the imago Dei.
The Scriptures narrate the words of God Himself: Let us make man in our image and likeness.
This conviction is the bedrock of the Church’s defense of human dignity, proclamation of inherent rights, and responsibilities of each person and a motivation for all of our concern for the poor, the young, the elderly, and the suffering.
Make sure the devil has one hell of a Lent
 |
|
| 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,
And so, we begin Lent. It strikes me as though yesterday was Labor Day and yet, here we are. There was the possibility that Ash Wednesday might be overshadowed for some by the blissful celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.
However, a far more sinister overshadowing overtook them both. Once again, wonderful young people, with their whole lives ahead of them, were meaninglessly and horrendously slaughtered and injured. So many family lives were changed forever, and not for the better.
Sadness really hung around this St. Valentine’s Day. Deep sadness. And, if any good was to come from this sadness, I hope that it awakened our consciousness to Lent and to our own mortality and need for both repentance and salvation.
Confrontation with the devil
This past Sunday we heard that the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, to be tempted by the devil (Mk 1:12-15). He drove Jesus out, into a face-to-face confrontation with him who is pure evil. This confrontation was therefore necessary for the sinless, only begotten Son of God.
And as we begin Lent, that tells us, in a way, that this confrontation with the devil is what Lent is all about. For while Jesus has the ultimate victory over the devil in the life to come, in this world the devil maintains his camp, and so we too must confront him.
Pray to Saint Michael the Archangel
Bishop Robert C. Morlino has asked that people in the Diocese of Madison pray for the triumph of good in our world and the overcoming of evil by praying the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel at all Sunday and Solemnity Masses in our diocese.
In doing some research (see www.catholic.org), I learned that Saint Michael the Archangel is the leader of all angels and the army of God. He has four main responsibilities, according to Scripture and tradition:
• To combat Satan.
• To escort the faithful to heaven at their hour of death.
• To be a champion of all Christians and the Church itself.
• To call men from life on Earth to their heavenly judgment.
Pray to Saint Michael the Archangel
Bishop Robert C. Morlino has asked that people in the Diocese of Madison pray for the triumph of good in our world and the overcoming of evil by praying the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel at all Sunday and Solemnity Masses in our diocese.
In doing some research (see www.catholic.org), I learned that Saint Michael the Archangel is the leader of all angels and the army of God. He has four main responsibilities, according to Scripture and tradition:
• To combat Satan.
• To escort the faithful to heaven at their hour of death.
• To be a champion of all Christians and the Church itself.
• To call men from life on Earth to their heavenly judgment.
Bishop asks for prayers to defeat evil in world
Dear Friends,
I pray that you and yours enjoyed a very happy Thanksgiving this past week.
Further, I hope that you are able to enter into a very blessed season of Advent. Please God, it will be an excellent time of preparation for the glorious celebration of Christmas.
Last week, I sent a letter to your priests with regard to an addition to the Prayers of the Faithful and a particular prayer of heavenly intercession I am asking to be included during (at least) every Sunday Mass, at parishes within the Diocese of Madison.
The Avengers and Nietzsche
 |
|
C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their colleagues in the Inklings wanted to write fiction that would effectively “evangelize the imagination,” accustoming the minds, especially of young people, to the hearing of the Christian Gospel.
Accordingly, Tolkien’s Gandalf is a figure of Jesus the prophet and Lewis’ Aslan is a representation of Christ as both sacrificial victim and victorious king. Happily, the film versions of both The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia have proven to be wildly popular all over the world.
Light will overcome darkness through 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,
Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! Let the whole world shine forth with joy! Alleluia!
In these days we recall the ultimate reality of our faith and the source of our joy and hope. Jesus Christ, in His victory over sin and death, has won the victory for each of us and for the whole world. The powers of sin and death are but passing things, which shall ultimately hold no power over the Creator of the world, and His Son, sent to redeem it.
Our Easter faith
As I mentioned in my homily at the Chrism Mass this past week, the realities of our Easter faith are essential to keep in mind, especially as we are living in the shadow of the horrible episode in the French Alps, wherein a plane was deliberately destroyed by one of the pilots. The man was sick, we pray for him and we pray for those whom he killed, 150 in total.
There is a great deal of effort being expended attempting to determine what led to this horror. And indeed, there seems to be some serious, clinically-diagnosed depression at play here.
Dealing with guilt and shame
 |
| Ask IPS |
Question: “During Lent, I feel like there is a large emphasis on sinfulness. I find myself feeling constantly ashamed of my past sins. Is this healthy?”
Response:William McKenna, M.S., Clinical Extern at the IPS Center for Psychological Services
Why goodness depends on God
|
|
One of the most common observations made by opponents of religion is that we don’t need God in order to have a coherent and integral morality.
Atheists and agnostics are extremely sensitive to the charge that the rejection of God will conduce automatically to moral chaos. Consequently, they argue that a robust sense of ethics can be grounded in the consensus of the human community over time or in the intuitions and sensibilities of decent people, etc.
What I would like to do is lay out, in very brief compass, the Catholic understanding of the relationship between morality and the existence of God and to show, thereby, why it is indispensably important for a society that wishes to maintain its moral integrity to maintain, at the same time, a vibrant belief in God.