Bishops' Schedules: Schedule of Bishop Robert C. Morlino Wednesday, December 3, 2003 Attend Solemn Vespers Service, Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, Toledo, Ohio Thursday, December 4, 2003 Concelebrate at the Mass of Installation of the Most Reverend Leonard P. Blair as Bishop of Toledo, Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, Toledo, Ohio Schedule of Bishop George O. Wirz Saturday, November 29, 2003 10:30 a.m. -- Celebrate Memorial Mass, Rev. Timothy Kinast, St. Jude Parish, Beloit Thursday, December 4, 2003 10:30 a.m. -- Chair Board Meeting for Office for Continuing Education of Priests, Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center, Madison

For Americans, November is month of gratitude

		Under the Gospel Book + Bishop Robert C. Morlino

Dear friends,

Frequently our culture leads us far astray from our core convictions and values as followers of Jesus Christ, but not always. Thanksgiving Day, falling as it does toward the end of November, and marking the beginning of preparation for Christmas, is an exceptional boost that we can take from our culture.

Because Thanksgiving is the most natural sentiment or attitude of a believer in Christ Jesus. Why else would we use the term Eucharist, which means Thanksgiving, to describe the greatest action that can be performed in this world? The celebration of Thanksgiving begins a long wind-up for the pitch which is the Christmas Eucharistic celebration, and so it should be.

Thanksgiving for all of you

It is natural for me to express thanksgiving in the first place to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all of you, the priests, deacons, consecrated religious and lay faithful of the Diocese of Madison, my newest most special gift from the Lord.

Though I have yet to meet many of you, and I have yet to visit many of our parish families, nonetheless my early days have offered me the opportunity to be in communication with so many of you, to be inspired and encouraged by you, and I am so grateful.

The challenge to all of us each day is to grow evermore thankful to Christ for the gift of one another as we forge forward toward the joy and the holiness of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let us never take one another for granted, for then we might miss out on the joy that comes from appreciating a very great gift indeed.

Taking some vacation time

Secondly, I would like to express thanksgiving for two very specific joys which have been or are part of my life these days. I am so grateful that I am finally able, after the Bishops' Meeting in November, to take some of the vacation that I had planned for last August but then canceled so that I could begin my ministry with all of you.

Without looking for sympathy, I needed a rest then and I need one now, and I am very grateful for this opportunity for some recreation and refreshment in the Lord.

After the Bishops' Meeting I'll have the pleasure of enjoying a Notre Dame football game and then proceeding to Sicily and to Rome for a needed and I hope worthwhile change of pace.

Grateful for our seminarians

On a more serious note I am so grateful for our seminarians with whom I was able to spend the weekend of All Saints and All Souls Day. I had decided to journey to St. John Vianney Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, to visit Ben Kessler and our other five seminarians from Mundelein in Chicago and St. Mary's in Winona decided that they wanted to join Ben and myself on that occasion.

We shared some good prayer time, many laughs, and solid fraternal communion. There are only six of those seminarians and there should be 26. But you and I are very blessed with the fine young men whom the Lord has called for service in the Diocese of Madison.

Looking to the future, there is much to be enthusiastic about as we renew our commitment to invite young men to consider the possibility of priesthood, and to encourage them and pray for them all the while. It is a wonderful way for parents, in the spirit of thanksgiving, to offer gratitude to God by praying that He might offer their son the gift of a priestly vocation and by seeking generosity from the Lord to make that precious gift of their son to Christ and to His Church.

Remember all who have died

The fourth area of gratitude that lives in my mind and heart during November is gratitude for family - for my parents and grandparents personally, but really for all of our loved ones who have died. This is the month of "the Holy Souls," and it is a time to remember how big the Church is - it includes the angels and saints in heaven, all of Christ's followers on earth, and indeed the souls in purgatory whom we can help every day of the year, not just in November, by our prayers, so that their hope for the fullness of heavenly joy can be realized.

Please let us never forget how big the Church is - so much bigger than our parish, so much bigger than the Diocese of Madison, so much bigger than even the Church on earth. Let us do what we can through prayer and good works every day to assist our brothers and sisters in purgatory who are waiting in hope for the full glory that comes from seeing the face of Christ.

Grateful for the gift of our faith

As I have said, for us Americans, November is the month of gratitude when we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. All of us know we are called to be more grateful for what we need than for what we don't need. We are called to be more grateful that there is food on the table than that there is a fourth car in the garage.

But we certainly are called to be most grateful, not for those things that sustain earthly life, but for those things that prepare and nourish us in our heavenly life in Christ. For us, November is a month to be most grateful for our baptismal faith, and especially for Christ present in the Eucharist. The frequent and even daily attendance at the Eucharist, the Great Sacrifice of Thanksgiving, is surely the best way to say thank you to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for their gift of what all of us need most - the call to heaven and the grace to make the journey.

Thank you for reading this. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, and God bless each one of you. Praised be Jesus Christ!