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| Bishop Speaks | ||||
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| February 26, 2004 Edition | ||||
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At Lent:
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Dear Friends,
During Lent we prepare ourselves to celebrate the greatest feast of our Church year in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ - indeed if Christ is not raised, then our faith is in vain. And essential to our resurrection faith is that Christ was raised in a glorified body, a body in some mysterious way continuous with His earthly body - He was identified by the nail prints in His hands, His feet, and His side by the apostle Thomas.
All of us are destined for a bodily resurrection because to be human is to be a mind-body unity, not a mind-body split. And that mind-body unity is intended by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be our way of life for all eternity.
During Lent we prepare for our life in eternity, that is we go against those tendencies within us that reflect a mind-body split, and we seek a mind-body unity. This is not so easy in our culture because our culture seems to tell us that if I intend something to be the case, and I feel that it is the case, then it is the case. This puts our life in the body aside and gives complete reign to the life of the mind.
Because of Christ's having taken human nature upon Himself including a human body, and because of His bodily resurrection, our faith calls us to believe that the body is no less sacred than the mind - it is our presence to this world destined for glory in the next.
Express reverence in mind and body
It strikes me that one of the tasks for all of us during Lent is to be more true to the gift of the Holy Spirit that we received at Confirmation, that Spirit who is a Spirit of reverence. So often in our country and in our culture we apply the mind-body split to the notion of reverence; I intend to be reverent, I feel reverent, therefore I am reverent. Reverence has every bit as much to do with what is manifest in the body as it does with what I intend. If manifestation in the body were not important, Christ would not have appeared in the flesh - it is that simple.
". . . one of the tasks for all of us during Lent is to be more true to the gift of the Holy Spirit that we received at Confirmation, that Spirit who is a Spirit of reverence." |
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The hesitancy on the part of some Catholics to genuflect or kneel is a case in point. I think that most of us, if we were physically able, would kneel if our Blessed Mother appeared to us privately - I think we would find it natural. How much more natural to kneel or genuflect before Christ our God present in the Eucharist when this is appropriate.
Our culture leads us to be inattentive about reverence particularly at Mass. To receive the sacred host, the Body and Blood of Christ, into our mouth while we are chewing gum could not possibly be construed as a sign of reverence. I know that people who do this, primarily young people, intend no harm, and they may even intend to be reverent, but intending has to be lived out in the body and not only expressed in the mind. Coming to Mass on time, remaining until the end, dressing appropriately and modestly, all of these are part of the language of the body as it applies to reverence.
Swim against tide of culture
It also strikes me that major contributors to a decline in reverence in our culture and society are television programs and much of what appears on the Internet. The culture as it is displayed on those mass media is generally a place where any display of reverence is quite rare. Even our religious signs and symbols find themselves scorned and desecrated as when the crucifix was plunged into a bottle of urine and this was presented as an acceptable artistic presentation. And perhaps I have already said too much about the play Corpus Christi.
Lent would be a marvelous time for all of us to ask Jesus to bring to life within us His Spirit which we received at Confirmation, the Spirit of reverence along with His Spirit of courage to swim against the tide and live out in our body the reverence that we want to have toward the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit which abides in our minds and in our hearts. Reverence would make as good a theme for our self-discipline this Lent as any. And that reverence of course should be shown to every human person all of whom are sisters and brothers, and to all human life from conception to natural death. Reverence really seems to pull it all together. Reverence is where it's at.
Have a good and holy Lent, a joyful Lent! Thank you for reading this and God bless each one of you. Praised be Jesus Christ!
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Official Appointments:
Most Reverend Robert C. Morlino wishes to announce the following:
Reverend Gerald C. Vosen, from Pastor, St. Joseph Parish, Baraboo, to Administrative Leave, effective February 13, 2004.
Reverend Lawrence M. Bakke, from Chaplain, University Hospitals, to Administrator, St. Joseph Parish, Baraboo, effective February 13, 2004.
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Bishop's Letter
Collection on Ash Wednesday
Dear Friends in Christ:
Each year on Ash Wednesday we are asked to open our hearts to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe by sharing our prayers and monetary resources with our brothers and sisters who withstood decades of oppression. Catholics in some 27 countries continue to work to reestablish and reinvigorate the Church after years of neglect and persecution, while confronting excessive materialism and rampant secularism. Ethnic rivalries make the task even more challenging.
Your contributions fund grants that support schools and religious education programs; the training of seminarians and lay catechists; needed social ministries; the building and rebuilding of churches, schools, and convents; as well as new ways to spread the Gospel message to those who have been deprived of the good news of Jesus Christ for so long.
As we begin our Lenten journey, a time for penance, fasting, and almsgiving, please be generous in praying for and, through this special collection, helping the Church in Central and Eastern Europe recover its spiritual legacy.
Faithfully yours in Christ,
Most Reverend
Robert C. Morlino
Bishop of Madison
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Bishop's Letter
Raising funds for Cistercian sisters
To All the Faithful of the Diocese of Madison:
Shortly after the founding of our diocese in 1946, Bishop William O'Connor, conscious of the need for prayerful support for the welfare of the diocese, petitioned the Vatican to help find a group of contemplative sisters to create a monastery here to pray for the needs of the diocese. This was to be a "powerhouse of prayer" for the welfare of our diocese and for all humanity. In 1957, six Cistercian sisters from Frauenthal in Switzerland with great self-sacrifice responded to this invitation. The sisters follow the rule of St. Benedict and live in silence and solitude near Prairie du Sac; they supported themselves by farming. Finding this inadequate to their needs, they began to make altar breads for the parishes of Wisconsin. At present a major portion of the parishes in the dioceses of Madison and La Crosse use the labor of their hands in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
After becoming firmly established, the six original sisters returned to Switzerland and American sisters have responded to this contemplative vocation. Thirteen sisters now occupy this "temporary" and makeshift monastery. Mold in the walls and lack of space to receive more vocations prompt the sisters to initiate the building of a permanent and more adequate monastery.
Harvy and Marcie Yero of Highland have donated an ideal property for this hoped for solution to the sisters' need. The new monastery would ideally serve the sisters for centuries to come. Space for 25 sisters is an urgent need.
It is easy for us to think that we are not personally involved. We forget that we as a diocesan church have invited the sisters here for our benefit rather than any preference of theirs. At Bishop O'Connor's invitation, they belong to us. We as faithful Catholics are their hosts. We are their beneficiaries. They surely are our moral responsibility.
The sisters have begun a financial drive to raise money to build this new monastery which then would be an abbey for up to 25 cloistered and contemplative sisters. As Bishop of the Diocese of Madison, I heartily endorse this project and encourage individuals and parishes to be generous in responding with sacrifice to this appeal. Remember that countless blessings for our diocese surely have resulted from this "powerhouse of prayer" for nearly 50 years.
Faithfully yours in Christ,
Most Reverend
Robert C. Morlino
Bishop of Madison
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