Two weeks ago, I reflected briefly on the fundamental shift in worldview in the West, beginning with the Renaissance and then gaining greater traction with the French Revolution and the Enlightenment.
This movement from a theistic, God-centered vision to a humanistic, this-worldly orientation is complex, long, and multi-faceted, and therefore not easy to fully understand or articulate.
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| Beth Ulaszek |
To prepare for the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this September, the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Diocese of Madison is providing a monthly series on a particular theme on marriage and family. Each theme is a chapter in the preparatory catechesis developed for the event entitled Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive, available in paperback from www.osvparish.com or for free online at www.worldmeeting2015.org
Four years ago I was given the first in a series of life changing gifts in the form of a diamond ring.
For weeks I would stare and delight in its beauty as light touched it and bounced back in various colors. In my excitement every friend, acquaintance, and stranger got to know my beloved as I feverishly relayed the story of how such a beautiful gift wound up on my finger.
Greater gifts followed as I became a wife and mother of two.
MADISON — Ann Walsh was selected as the Irish Person of the Year by the Dane County Shamrock Club. She will be honored at the club’s Irish flag ceremony in the Capitol rotunda, 2 E. Main St., at 12 noon on Sunday, March 15; at the St. Patrick’s Day parade following the flag ceremony; and again at the club’s St. Patrick’s Day dinner on March 22. These events are open to the public.
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“The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” With these two compelling sentences — as recorded in the Gospel of Mark — Jesus inaugurates his ministry and sums up what his mission is about: to break the shackles of sin that enslave humanity, to put us on the path of liberation from all oppression, and to teach us how to unconditionally love one another.
But what does it mean to repent?
Striving to avoid sin and living virtuously is certainly part of what it means. But there’s more.
In the Gospels, the biblical word used for repentance is the Greek word metanoia — a radical change of mind, heart, soul, and action.
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Many atheists and agnostics today argue that it is possible for non-believers in God to be morally upright.
They resent the implication that the denial of God will lead inevitably to ethical relativism or nihilism. They are quick to point out examples of non-religious people who are models of kindness, compassion, justice, etc.
A recent article proposed that non-believers are, on average, more morally praiseworthy than religious people. God knows (pun intended) that during the last 20 years we’ve seen plenty of evidence of the godly behaving badly.
MADISON — On January 18, Edgewood High School (EHS) once again hosted the Urban League of Greater Madison as they celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with an Outstanding Young Person Breakfast.
This breakfast attracted more than 900 youth, families, and community leaders.
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A team of sociologists, led by Catholic University professor William D’Antonio, published a survey a few years ago that received quite a bit of media attention, for it showed that many Catholics disagree with core doctrines of the Church and still consider themselves “good Catholics.”
Forty percent of the respondents said that belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is not essential to being a faithful Catholic. Perhaps the most startling statistic is this: 88 percent of those surveyed said “how a person lives is more important than whether he or she is a Catholic.”
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St. Jeanne Jugan was well into her 40s when she established the Little Sisters of the Poor. Some might consider her a “delayed” or “late” vocation, but I don’t think Jeanne was delayed at all. From an early age she had a sense of her vocation.
Jeanne knew that God loved her and was calling her; she just didn’t know where the call would take her. When Jeanne turned down a marriage proposal, she told her mother, “God wants me for himself, he is keeping me for a work as yet unknown, for a work which is not yet founded.”
As the 20th century came to a close, the United Nations celebrated the International Year of Older Persons, heralding the vision of “A Society for All Ages.”
The first years of the new millennium have been anything but that, with the abandonment of frail seniors during natural disasters from New Orleans to Japan, the legalization of assisted suicide in several U.S. states and foreign countries, and political rhetoric that seems to consider the growing population of seniors merely as a drain on our health care system and the federal budget. Is this the society for all ages we envisioned in 1999?
Now that the governor has presented his state budget to the Legislature, fiscal issues and spending priorities will dominate the legislative agenda for the next several months.
First, the Joint Committee on Finance will hold hearings on the proposals. Then some of the standing committees may hold “subject matter” hearings on aspects of the budget related to their areas of expertise.
