MADISON — Bishop […]
Tag: bishop
The ‘Waze’ of Providence
 |
|
Just after I was named auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles (LA), Archbishop Gomez, my new boss, told me to get the Waze app for my iPhone.
He explained that it was a splendid way to navigate the often impossible LA traffic. I followed his instructions and have indeed used the app on practically a daily basis since my arrival on the West Coast.
What precisely is the Gospel?
|
|
Some years ago, I was involved in a Catholic-Evangelical dialogue. One of our Protestant brothers challenged the Catholics in the group to articulate clearly what the Gospel is.
I knew what he was getting at: many Evangelicals pride themselves on the fact that they can succinctly sum up the Good News in a way that people find compelling and helpful, whereas many Catholics, it seems, get tongue-tied.
Solemn Mass for Feast of Immaculate Conception
MADISON — A special Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite will be celebrated at the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center, 702 S. High Point Rd., on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 7:30 p.m., in the presence of Bishop Robert C. Morlino.
December 8 is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and a Holy Day of Obligation.
A Solemn Mass includes the service also of a deacon and subdeacon.
‘Bridge of Spies’ and the path to virtue
|
|
My great mentor Msgr. Robert Sokolowski told a class of eager philosophy students many years ago that we should read Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics every year of our lives. As we grew older, he explained, new dimensions of the book would continually present themselves.
I can’t say that I’ve followed Sokolowski’s advice perfectly, but I have indeed returned often to Aristotle’s great text for inspiration and clarification.
Sneak preview tour of Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center renovation
MADISON — A special invitation has been extended to parishioners in the Diocese of Madison and friends for a sneak preview tour of the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center renovation. It will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 2 p.m.
Get an insider look at the sensitive, eco-friendly restoration initiatives now underway. When the renovation of the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Center is complete in spring of 2016, it will be home to diocesan offices, Catholic Charities, the Catholic Herald, Relevant Radio, and 53 beautiful one- and two-bedroom residences at Holy Name Heights.
René Girard, Church Father
|
|
René Girard, one of the most influential Catholic philosophers in the world, died recently at the age of 91.
Born in Avignon and a member of the illustrious Academie Francaise, Girard nevertheless made his academic reputation in the United States as a professor at Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, and Stanford University.
New social theory
There are some thinkers that offer intriguing ideas and proposals, and there is a tiny handful of thinkers that manage to shake your world. Girard was in this second camp. In a series of books and articles, written across several decades, he proposed a social theory of extraordinary explanatory power.
St. Thérèse Lecture on November 20
MADISON — The fall presentation in the St. Thérèse Lecture Series presented by the Diocese of Madison will be Friday, Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of the Bishop O’Connor Center in Madison.
It will be entitled “A Treasure of Inestimable Value: The Beauty of Liturgy,” and will be given by Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB.
Abbot Rooney is president of the Orate Institute of Sacred Liturgy, Music, and Art. The institute is dedicated to the renewal of the sacred liturgy in our churches and other Catholic institutions.
Daniel and the great unveiling
|
|
Toward the end of the liturgical year, we Catholics hear at Mass from the mysterious, often confounding, and utterly fascinating Book of Daniel.
Recent scholarship has demonstrated that the Book of Daniel had an extraordinarily powerful influence on the first Christians, providing them a most important template for understanding the significance of Jesus.
Daniel is, of course, an example of apocalyptic literature, which in the common understanding means that it has to do with the end of the world.
Preaching the strange word
|
|
About 15 years ago, I prepared an elective class at Mundelein Seminary which I entitled “The Christology of the Poets and Preachers.” In this course, I endeavored to explore the Catholic tradition’s non-technical, more lyrical manner of presenting the significance of Jesus.
I studied the literary works of Dante, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and G.K. Chesterton, and I also investigated in detail the sermons of many of the greatest masters: Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, Bernard, Aquinas, Newman, and Knox, among others.
What struck me with particular power, and caused me, I confess, to re-think things rather thoroughly was this: none of these figures — from the late second century to the 20th century — whose sermons we specially revere and hold up for imitation, preached the way I was taught to preach.