Bishop's Schedule: Schedule of Bishop George O. Wirz Tuesday, January 22, 2002 7:00 p.m. -- Presentation to RCIA Candidates and Parishioners, St. John the Evangelist Parish, Spring Green

We Live Out Our Baptism

		The Bishop: A Herald of Faith Bishop William H. Bullock

As we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord on Sunday, January 13, we concluded the Christmas and Epiphany liturgical feasts and stepped back into what the Church calls "ordinary time."

National Vocation Awareness week, January 13-18, began on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

As God's holy people we are all born into the Church by the waters of Baptism. The Baptismal font was referred to in the early days of the Church as a spiritual womb from which we were all born.

Living out the promises of the renunciation of Satan and all his empty promises, as well as pledging ourselves to once again live by God's revealed and taught truths, we have a major challenge each day of our Christian lives.

In living our baptismal life we have a relationship with our God, with one another, and with ourselves. Love is Christ's command to us. Do everything in His name and in His way is his mandate to us.

Priorities for 2002

In this year of grace, 2002, I am pleased to share with you some priorities that emerge from the needs of our day and in our world from terrorism. These priorities are:

"The Baptismal font was referred to in the early days of the Church as a spiritual womb from which we were all born."

1) Evangelization -- a method by which we become true readers and doers of His Gospel. In simple terms it means that the full teaching of Christ's message has an aliveness in our minds and hearts. It also means that we take seriously, but with deep joy, our call from God to activate His Word in our lives in ways that others may see Christ in us.

2) Social Justice -- the call to live justly requires us to accept the basic tenets of Church teaching regarding social justice -- the rights of other people.

3) Stewardship -- being good stewards of God's creation requires us to respect God's universe. It means respecting the environment and the basic rights of other people. It means sacrificing, sharing, caring, and rendering to others what is rightfully theirs.

4) Hospitality -- requires of us that we welcome people of other colors and cultures, that we will be open to learn from them and bestow on them good and helpful aspects of our own American culture.

It means in our homes, in our parishes, and in our relationships we can help people belong. It means converting our hostilities, little and large, into hospitality -- room and space for other people.

Living out the promises of our Baptism calls us to be evangelized, deepen our sense of social justice, address real stewardship in our lives, and open ourselves to new measures of helping others be at home through Christian hospitality.

Next week I would like to pick up on this theme as lived in the life of Blessed John XXIII.

Bishop's Letter

Dear Friends in Christ:

As your Bishop I am pleased to lend my pen to write you, lend my prayer that God will bless us with qualified priests and sisters to serve in our Diocese in the years ahead.

In the title of the National Vocation Awareness Week the word awareness occurs. It causes me as a priest of nearly fifty years to smile and chuckle a bit because I grew up in a era of the Church where we were surrounded by reinforcements about the beauty and promise of being a priest or religious. It was constantly before us.

The 2002 National Vocation Awareness week, January 13-18, brings to me vivid memories of my youth and God's call to me to become a priest. Let me share some them.

As young men, we were surrounded by invitations from pastors, priests, parents and sisters to think carefully about what was termed in those days as "studying for the priesthood."

My home parish of Saint Timothy in Maple Lake provided seven priests for service to the Church. We were a small parish.

The pastor was a strong advocate from the pulpit for vocations to the priesthood and sisterhood. He prayed. He promoted. He spent time with young men interested in the priesthood.

The following were often asked questions to us as young men, "Is God calling you to become a priest?" "Are you willing to study, pray and be formed in Christ, be ordained in order to give yourself totally in loving, priestly service to the Church?" The priesthood in those days of my youth was portrayed as a privilege, not in the sense of preferred gentry, but as a gift from God and not something you earned.

The life of a priest was portrayed as a life of commitment, of hard work, a life that could bring you to many different types of assignments. You were called to a life of prayer, of sacrifice, and of service. We were also told that, as was true in marriage, we could expect an intermingling of sorrow, heartache and pain, but that in sacrifice, many people would be helped in their spiritual lives, and we would have profound joy.

I offer my thoughts and insights of fifty years in the priesthood to say to any young man qualified and called -- give it your best. It is a wonderful, rewarding life full of deep, deep joy and fulfillment. Pray, study, form yourself in Christ, make a commitment to a lifetime of service! Hear Jesus say, "Come, follow me."

My special thanks to all who promote vocations to the priesthood, our Vocation Team, Serrans, the Cloistered Sisters who pray, to parents who are truly supportive of vocations.

As we continue to fight against and conquer terrorism we, in a deeply spiritual way, can assist and combat sin by leading our people as priests in Christ who is, "The way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6).

Sincerely yours in Jesus Christ,

Most Reverend William H. Bullock
Bishop of Madison