Category: Columns

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Fr. Robert Barron

A very Christian ‘Cinderella’

Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella is the most surprising Hollywood movie of the year so far.

The director manages to tells the familiar fairy tale without irony, hyper-feminist sub-plots, Marxist insinuations, deconstructionist cynicism, or arch condescension. In so doing, he actually allows the spiritual, indeed specifically Christian, character of the tale to emerge.

It probably strikes a contemporary audience as odd that Cinderella might be a Christian allegory, but keep in mind that most of the fairy stories and children’s tales compiled by the Brothers Grimm and later adapted by Walt Disney found their roots in the Christian culture of late medieval and early modern Europe.

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Tony Magliano

Making the way of the cross with Jesus

Writing a column on social justice and peace offers me plenty of timely issues to choose from. And I always truly sense from God the exact issue he desires that I write on.

I’m not claiming here any special revelation. God’s active, guiding presence is available to everyone. All we need to do is deeply trust, quietly listen, and patiently wait.

Now in my case, God knows I’m on a deadline. And almost always his Spirit graciously gives me plenty of lead time. But regarding this particular column, the Spirit seemed to be silent, that is, until I visited a parishioner at the Little Sisters of the Poor’s home for the elderly in Baltimore.

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Sr. Margie Lavonis

Be compassionate

Cutting Edge by Sr. Margie Lavonis column logo

We have a loving and compassionate God, and Jesus calls us to practice these virtues in our lives. This is our mission as Christians.

When I was growing up, we learned the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. They are tools for living a good Christian life, showing us how to be compassionate.

Corporal Works of Mercy

Jesus tells us about the Corporal Works of Mercy in Chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew. He challenges us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, and bury the dead. We will be judged by how we do these things.

At first glance, we might think that we are rarely presented with opportunities to exercise many of these good works. But, if we look a little closer, we might be surprised at how often we are presented with ways to do some of them.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Strategy for the New Evangelization

I once gave a sermon in which I mentioned Keith Richards, the lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones.

I recounted how struck I was by a passage from Richards’ autobiography in which the guitarist described the almost maniacal dedication with which he and his bandmates set out to learn Chicago blues.

“Benedictines,” he said, “had nothing on us.” I urged my listeners to approach their spiritual lives with the same “Benedictine” focus and fervor that the young Rolling Stones had in regard to the blues.

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Chris Lee

Baptism: Immerse yourself in mystery

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Patrick Gorman

Lent is a season of preparation and recollection of our Baptism. This is the sixth in a series of several articles reflecting upon the Sacrament of Baptism.

When I was studying liturgy, there was a running joke with both teachers and students — “If you don’t know the answer to a question, write down that it is a mystery” (because so much of our faith is a mystery — something which we will never understand completely in this life).

The mysteries of our faith are not like the mysteries we read. They are not a puzzle to be figured out if offered enough clues but rather realities that need to be lived and that each of us reflect upon.

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Patrick Gorman

Baptism: Immerse yourself in mystery

Guest Column logo
Patrick Gorman

Lent is a season of preparation and recollection of our Baptism. This is the sixth in a series of several articles reflecting upon the Sacrament of Baptism.

When I was studying liturgy, there was a running joke with both teachers and students — “If you don’t know the answer to a question, write down that it is a mystery” (because so much of our faith is a mystery — something which we will never understand completely in this life).

The mysteries of our faith are not like the mysteries we read. They are not a puzzle to be figured out if offered enough clues but rather realities that need to be lived and that each of us reflect upon.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Putting God first in our lives

Artistic representations of the Ten Commandments often depict two stone tablets on which there are two tables of inscriptions.

This portrayal follows from a classical division of the commandments in which there are two specific categories: those that order humanity’s relationship with God and those that order human relationships with one another.

If we consider the Bible as a totality, it becomes apparent that the Scriptures give priority to the first table, those commands dealing with God.

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Patrick Gorman

Baptism: What really happens

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Patrick Gorman

The last four articles have reflected upon the elements of the Baptismal ritual leading up to the actual Baptism.

Some of these elements are the welcoming of the candidate for Baptism, the sign of the cross, the blessing of the water, and the renunciation of sin and profession of faith.

The actual Baptism is really quite simple. The Baptism takes place with water which is either poured over the head of the person being baptized or in which he/she is immersed (standing or kneeling in the water), while the baptizer invokes the Trinity:

“I baptize you in the name of the Father (water), and of the Son (water), and of the Holy Spirit (water).”

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John Huebscher

Budget hearings offer chance to make a difference

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher column logo

When the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) staff talks to groups around the state, we emphasize that faithful citizenship is a 12-month obligation.

During the latter part of March, Catholics and others who want to be heard on how and where the state should spend our money will have a chance to do so.

They can show up at one of four hearings on the 2015 budget bill. The hearings, conducted by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance, will take place over a two-week period beginning on Monday, March 23, and concluding on Friday, April 3.

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Fr. Robert Barron

A message written in blood

Recently, the attention of the world was riveted to a deserted beach in northern Libya, where a group of 21 Coptic Christians were brutally beheaded by masked operatives of the ISIS movement.

In the wake of the executions, ISIS released a gruesome video entitled A Message in Blood to the Nation of the Cross. I suppose that for the ISIS murderers, the reference to “the Nation of the Cross” had little sense beyond a generic designation for Christianity.

Sadly for most Christians, too, the cross has become little more than a harmless symbol. I would like to take the awful event on that Libyan beach, as well as the ISIS message, as an occasion to reflect on the still startling distinctiveness of the cross.

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