Enter into the mystery of Christ’s life
There is no doubt that Holy Week is the most sacred time of the year. Even the secular media will [...]
Faith should be at root of cultural pride
This is the week that we wear green and red. On March 17 everyone is Irish and the “wearing of the green” depicts a proud identification with the contributions and influence of the sons and daughters of Ireland. Even in my totally Polish household, we all sat as a family before the television screen watching John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara develop their somewhat stormy relationship in the “Quiet Man.” Of course we know that the movie depicted stereotypes, however, at the very foundation of the movie was a love of country, family and faith.
Lenten discipline: From what shall we fast this year?
About this time every Lent, it becomes clear that our first fervor of Ash Wednesday has dimmed, if not worn [...]
Lent: A time for spiritual formation
As we make our way through Lent, the Season of Mercy, it is important to maintain our dedication to the [...]
Prepare for his mercy and love
In these first six weeks since my installation, I have completed the regional Masses and meetings with our priests; visited [...]
The faith passed on and preserved
Last month I had the privilege of traveling with priests from around the country who had been part of my [...]
The worst sometimes brings out our best
I awoke early Wednesday morning and after a quick prayer turned on the television to find out what was happening in the world. The pictures of the Haitian earthquake bombarded the news. It was painful to watch men, women and children fleeing frantically, many covered in dust from the rubble of buildings which had been devastated by the angry earth.
One image was of a mother clutching her child, who was buried in her breast, propped up on her hip. There was an immediate feeling of helplessness, faces in shock, a need to run, a need to escape, but to where?
Anniversaries large and small
Looking back over the past half century, it hardly seems possible that I have been privileged to serve for 50 years as a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee! Undoubtedly, like couples who celebrate five decades of marriage or individuals who have been employed for great periods of time at the same company, we are amazed and wonder where the time has gone? Good days and more challenging ones … where have they gone?
In December of 1959 it was a very different world from what we now know and take for granted. The Cold War sharply separated the democratic West from the communists of the Eastern European Bloc, each regarding the other with profound suspicion and mutual distrust. Europe was being rebuilt after the Second World War, and air travel was just beginning to become common. Space travel was a dream mostly relegated to comic books and science fiction.
New year, new archbishop
By the time you read this column many New Year resolutions, made with such earnest, will be broken. Writing 2010 instead of 2009 will start to become a habit and I will now have been the Archbishop of Milwaukee for a few days.
Transitions are such a major part of our lives. I have a deeper appreciation for the families that must travel to new territories because of the change of jobs and for children who are up-rooted from their schools, friends and homes, or for the parents who must say goodbye to their sons and daughters leaving for college or the military.
Advent darkness: A new beginning for the re-creation of the world
Because so many of the Christmas readings from Scripture speak of the imminent arrival of a great Light, the season of Advent has assumed a kind of darkness, perhaps similar to the dark void before creation. That distinctive notion of darkness might also be experienced at night before the dawn or in the thunderous heart of a severe storm before the breaking out of the sun. The angelic chorus of Bethlehem seems to assume that the birth of the Christ occurred at night and our Midnight Masses reinforce that bit of Catholic piety. Christmas carols invariably describe the “O Holy Night,” and their carolers usually go forth after sunset.
In the weeks of Advent prior to Christmas we are encouraged to watch and wait. The prescribed color of vestments is a certain hue of serum purple, dark yet not harshly penitential (broken only on the third Sunday of Advent by that awful color of off-rose which always makes me feel like a bottle of Pepto-Bismol).