Alleluia! Dear sisters […]
Tag: Easter
Easter invites us to share our faith with joy
Greta Weissman, a […]
Living the Liturgical Year
Most of us have some sense of the Church’s liturgical year. The priest wears purple during Advent, the sanctuary is filled with poinsettias during the Christmas season (and beyond), and our parishes add extra hours for the Sacrament of Penance during Lent. The life of the Church is ordered around the rhythm of the liturgical year.
Unfortunately, most people’s lives are ordered around a different calendar. School starts every fall, December is packed with too many things to do, travel plans are made when the kids are on spring break, etc.
Startling news of the resurrection
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Just a few weeks before the most significant Christian holy day of the year, British Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking on an evangelical radio program, articulated what, for him, is the meaning of Easter.
He explained that the central message of Easter is “kindness, compassion, hard work, and responsibility.” I’m for all of those virtues, but so, I would venture to guess, is any decent person from any background, religious or non-religious. Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, fair-minded agnostics, and atheists would all subscribe to that rather abstract and harmless description of the significance of Easter.
In a sense, we shouldn’t blame the prime minister for his characterization, for the Christian Churches in general, but especially the Anglican Church, have not distinguished themselves for the crispness of their doctrinal formulations.
But if that’s all Easter is about, not to put too fine a point on it, the jig is up.
Faithful Christians bear crosses today
To the editor:
Good Friday service with the reading of the “Passion” and the “Veneration of the Cross” had a deeper meaning for me this year considering the events happening in our world today.
Approximately six weeks ago, 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians were beheaded by the Islamic State in Libya and a few days ago, Al-Shabab, another Islamic extremist group, murdered 148 university students and personnel in Kenya who professed to be Christian and not Muslim.
This follows a pattern that has been happening frequently throughout many parts of North Africa and the Middle East. In addition to the killings, these groups are destroying churches and priceless artifacts dating back to Biblical times.
Light will overcome darkness through faith
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! Let the whole world shine forth with joy! Alleluia!
In these days we recall the ultimate reality of our faith and the source of our joy and hope. Jesus Christ, in His victory over sin and death, has won the victory for each of us and for the whole world. The powers of sin and death are but passing things, which shall ultimately hold no power over the Creator of the world, and His Son, sent to redeem it.
Our Easter faith
As I mentioned in my homily at the Chrism Mass this past week, the realities of our Easter faith are essential to keep in mind, especially as we are living in the shadow of the horrible episode in the French Alps, wherein a plane was deliberately destroyed by one of the pilots. The man was sick, we pray for him and we pray for those whom he killed, 150 in total.
There is a great deal of effort being expended attempting to determine what led to this horror. And indeed, there seems to be some serious, clinically-diagnosed depression at play here.
Easter and evangelism: learning from St. Paul
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Galatians 1:15-18 is not your basic witness-to-the-Resurrection text.
Yet St. Paul’s mini-spiritual autobiography helps us understand just how radically the experience of the Risen Lord changed the first disciples’ religious worldview, and why an evangelical imperative was built into that experience.
St. Paul’s story
Here’s the Pauline text:
Easter’s eternal surprise
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In February 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, Ruth Dillow received the sad news from the Pentagon that her son Clayton had stepped on a mine in Kuwait and was killed.
Ruth said that the grief and shock she felt was almost unbearable. For three days she wept constantly. For three days family and friends tried to comfort her, but they could not. Her grief was too great! She felt some of the grief that Mary surely experienced when her son, Jesus, was crucified.
Surprising news
After the third day, the telephone rang. “It’s just another stranger trying to comfort me,” she thought. Reluctantly, she picked up the phone. The voice on the phone shouted joyfully, “Mom, it’s me. I’m still alive! It’s me!”
Reliving Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear friends,
We stand at the threshold of the holiest of weeks, reliving the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Indeed, the Sacred Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday — comprise a microcosm of our whole life lived in Christ.
To enter as fully as possible into the mysteries of these days is to enter more fully into the mysteries of the life of each one of us. For instance, in the fervent celebration of the days of Holy Week, we can come to have an initial grasp of the mystery of why good people suffer.
Meaning of life unveiled
The meaning of life is unveiled by a fervent and serious celebration of the mysteries of these days.
So, please make every effort to be present for the Holy Thursday evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the solemn commemoration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, and the great Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.
Our churches really should be full (and then some) on these days, because of the gifts of grace available to us at so special a time — and available in a way that they are not otherwise available.
Reconciliation helps us to live Lent with renewed faith
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In Matthew 9:10-13, the Scribes and Pharisees complain that Christ dines with sinners and tax collectors. They are right. He does. Jesus responds by saying that he has come not to call the righteous, but sinners.
R. Charles Miller wrote that a sinner, as used here, is someone who admits they have sinned and needs God’s forgiveness to help them change. Conversely, the self-righteous think they don’t need forgiveness.
Sharing God’s mercy
Christ became flesh and took on a human nature to share the Father’s mercy with us. Chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel features three parables of God’s mercy.