November is the traditional month we as Catholics ponder the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. As we celebrate All Saints’ Day on November 1 and pray for all the souls in Purgatory on November 2, God draws our hearts to ponder the brevity of this life, the urgency of conversion, the beauty of eternity with God, and the possibility of losing our salvation through habitual mortal sin without repentance.
Tag: heaven
Preparing for the Kingdom
As we well know, two criminals were crucified on either side of Jesus, as narrated in Luke 23: 37-43.
Life, death, and beyond: A lot to ponder
In these November days when we celebrate all the saints and pray for our beloved dead, the Church invites us to ponder the final things: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and the Last Judgment.
Heaven is not a place on Earth
Many people — those seeking happiness in their normal lives and those seeking glory through dictatorial leadership — have gone astray by trying to create a Heaven on Earth.
‘Don’t know what you got (till it’s gone)’
 |
|
“These are the good old days” — William Powell as “Nick Charles” in The Thin Man (1934).
Someday, Lent will pass and spring will have arrived. Someday, winter will be back. Someday, I’ll hit age 40. Someday, I will no longer be the editor of the Catholic Herald. Someday, I will die. (Well, that escalated quickly.)
Everything we know, love, and treasure on this Earth will be lost to us or will pass away.
Despite the initial emotional reactions to those statements, they are facts.
All of our “stuff” will either leave us or we will leave it. The same goes for our friends and loved ones. For life to go on, ob-la-di, ob-la-da, someone has to depart from someone.
That’s not a bad thing
Because it is Lent, you get to read the obligatory “but that’s not a bad thing . . . because Heaven” spiel.Learning from the ‘Hound of Heaven’
One of my favorite poems is the “Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson, in which the poet experiences God as a hugely powerful dog who resolutely chases him down the pathways of his life.
Despite every attempt to escape, hide, or elude the mighty hound, Thompson cannot do so, ultimately surrendering to being caught, only to find that this creature, which he mightily feared, is actually his very salvation.
Difficult life
The poet speaks profoundly of his own difficult experience. Thompson was born in London in 1859, entered medical school at the behest of his father, but eventually dropped out of his studies and left home.
Priest who had afterlife experience to speak at All Saints Parish in Berlin
BERLIN — Fr. John Tourangeau, OPraem, who had an afterlife experience following a major heart attack, emphatically states, “Heaven is for real!”
Within this enlightening and hope-filled presentation, Father Tourangeau weaves a powerful and dynamic tapestry of the Kingdom of God at hand — heaven — through exploration of Christian tradition, Sacred Scripture, Catholic teaching, and personal experience.
Lent is a time to remember that God and Heaven should be our top priorities
 |
|
| 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 readings for the first Sunday of Lent give all of us a general principle for evaluating our own lives and determining areas for growth during the holy Lenten season.
The First Reading reminds us of Satan’s successful deception of Adam and Eve, convincing them that pride, that is, disobedience of God, will enable them to be like God.
In fact, Adam and Eve are left in the Garden for the first time experiencing shame as they learn the hard way that the wages of sin never amounts to being like God, but rather the wages of sin is death.
God and Heaven are top priority
The Second Reading makes clear that disobedience and death really are the very same choice.
Disobedience and that assertion that “I know better than God!” leads me to place God and Heaven at a lower priority in my own life. Once this happens, it becomes progressively easier to make my goal something less-than-God, something less-than-Heaven.
But God and Heaven alone are the fullness of life, and ultimately to choose what is less-than-God or -Heaven as my top priority is to choose death.
Lent is a time to remember that God and Heaven should be our top priorities
|
|
| 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 readings for the first Sunday of Lent give all of us a general principle for evaluating our own lives and determining areas for growth during the holy Lenten season.
The First Reading reminds us of Satan’s successful deception of Adam and Eve, convincing them that pride, that is, disobedience of God, will enable them to be like God.
In fact, Adam and Eve are left in the Garden for the first time experiencing shame as they learn the hard way that the wages of sin never amounts to being like God, but rather the wages of sin is death.
God and Heaven are top priority
The Second Reading makes clear that disobedience and death really are the very same choice.
Disobedience and that assertion that “I know better than God!” leads me to place God and Heaven at a lower priority in my own life. Once this happens, it becomes progressively easier to make my goal something less-than-God, something less-than-Heaven.
But God and Heaven alone are the fullness of life, and ultimately to choose what is less-than-God or -Heaven as my top priority is to choose death.
Proclaiming the truth about the Ascension
|
|
| 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,
Why did Christ ascend to heaven? Wouldn’t it have been nice if He had just stayed here on earth and appeared regularly for the rest of history? Wouldn’t it be nice if every so often we could go to a certain place and He would appear? Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole world simply knew the truth and would not have to seek after faith, since they would have regular audiences with Christ, our God? Wouldn’t it be nice!
What was so important that Christ, with His Father and the Holy Spirit, decided not to do it that way? What could be so important? Two things:
Christ is Eternal High Priest
First of all, the Eternal High Priesthood of Christ had to be definitively accomplished, completed, and revealed. And that Eternal High Priesthood was definitively completed and revealed only when Jesus ascended and took His place at the Father’s right hand.
It says in the Hebrew Scriptures, the one who takes his place at the Father’s right hand is, in fact, the Eternal High Priest. “The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand while I make your enemies your footstool . . . You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek (Psalms 110: 1, 4)’.”