Last weekend we finished the Easter season with the celebration of Pentecost, the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples gathered with the holy women and the Blessed Virgin in the Upper Room.
Tag: Holy Spirit
Let’s be on fire for new Evangelization Initiative
Bishop Donald J. Hying is officially launching his Evangelization Initiative in the Diocese of Madison on Pentecost Sunday, celebrated on May 31 this year.
Go forth and make disciples!
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When I became a bishop back in 2011, I attended a nine-day conference in Rome for new bishops from all over the world, put on by the Vatican.
The best part of the experience was meeting the other participants, 16 other Americans, 25 from Brazil, and one bishop from Iraq whose predecessor had been murdered by terrorists. The informal conversations were often more interesting than the scheduled talks.
Dealing with declining Church
At lunch on the third day, I sat with a newly appointed bishop from a diocese in the southern Netherlands. He told me that Mass attendance there hovered at about two percent, mostly elderly people; he had no seminarians, so there was no future for the priesthood. It wasn’t so much that the Church had collapsed as that it had evaporated!
I asked him where he was going to start in such a daunting situation. How do you begin when everything seems so hopeless? What he said did not surprise me, but it has stuck with me.
Christ alone is our King, not politicians
Dear Friends,
We find ourselves in the wake of an election season that has divided our country, broken friendships, and even estranged families to an extent I’ve never witnessed in my life.
Now, engaging in and taking the human science/art of politics seriously is an objectively good thing.
But that anyone would or could allow their politics, a candidate, or an election to keep them from talking to a friend or loved one, for any period of time, or to “unfriend” someone is beyond my comprehension.
The Blessed Mother and the Holy Spirit
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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 are right in the middle of the month of May and this past Sunday we celebrated the great Feast of Pentecost, so what better time to say something about the Blessed Mother and the Holy Spirit?
The Blessed Mother’s relationship with the Holy Spirit is powerful and unique.
This is made very clear by some of the most pivotal moments in Scripture and in all of human history.
In the first place, we know that the Holy Spirit overshadowed Our Lady when Jesus was conceived.
Reclaim the gift of Fear of the Lord
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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,
Last week I joined with a group of faithful men for their monthly time of prayer and spiritual reflection. With them I focused upon the seventh gift of the Holy Spirit, and I’d like to do the same with you here.
Hopefully you recall the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So many of us older folks have them memorized while unfortunately, some of the middle-aged and younger don’t even know that they have access to such gifts.
The gifts are: wisdom, understanding, council, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and Fear of the Lord. All of these gifts belong to the Christian first by way of their Baptism, and especially by the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation.
If we use them and count upon them, these gifts help to perfect virtues in us and aid us in living the moral life and in obeying divine inspiration in our life.
Fear of the Lord
While it’s likely that all of us could use a refresher on every one of these tremendous gifts, I want to focus on that seventh gift at the moment: Fear of the Lord. Perhaps the timing will seem odd, because we’re getting ready to commemorate the coming of God into the world as a tiny baby, but Fear of the Lord properly understood, dovetails perfectly with God’s plan for our salvation, and I hope to help you understand why.
God is a family of three eternal persons in Trinity
To the editor:
In his article in the October 16 issue, Father Barron writes that unbelieving scientists don’t seem to know what we mean by “God.” He states that a universe of contingent entities requires a non-contingent source.
Some unbelievers assert that our universe and others derived from space time fluctuations that always existed. This debate, which has been raging for several years, is partly our fault because we leave the impression that God is a solitary individual who arbitrarily created the universe from nothing.
The Holy Spirit brings harmony
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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
In his homily for Pentecost morning – which, of course had three points and which was focused upon the Holy Spirit — Pope Francis began by saying that he is very devoted to a particular Church Father who said that the Holy Spirit is, Himself, harmony. The Holy Spirit is, Himself, harmony. When we’re celebrating a Year of Faith and of the New Evangelization through beauty, what a beautiful image that is for the Holy Spirit — harmony.
It is the harmony that we hear so beautifully mirrored by well-prepared choirs singing good music. Harmony is pleasing to the ear and it lifts up the heart. Harmony has a particularly positive effect on people when they are disposed to it, because they themselves are harmonized in the first place. You can hear all the harmony you want, but if you yourself are not harmonized, it really doesn’t make any difference.
Many people are not harmonized
In our society and in our culture, many people are not harmonized. That’s why young people for example, can get used to the music that they listen to a lot of the time. Much of it is really not pleasing to the ear, but it’s an acquired taste, and it certainly resonates with those who are experiencing a great deal of un-harmonized angst in their daily lives.
This is why it appeals so easily to the young people — it resonates with the tremendous angst which teens are used to encountering anyway, but which is multiplied by our own culture. And so, the teens easily acquire a taste for it and become habituated to it, until anything else seems strange.
Spreading joy: Pope Francis leads the way in showing us how to do it
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Romans 15:13).
It’s his smile. That’s what we have noticed especially about our new Holy Father, Pope Francis. His smile literally lights up St. Peter’s Square — and that’s a big place!
It’s not that our previous popes haven’t exuded happiness. They did show us joy, too. But Pope Francis has been unusually open in approaching people, walking right up to them in the crowds, touching people and picking up children (I’m sure his security staff is pretty nervous at times).
I think his joy his contagious. People have been responding to him in person and have been enjoying watching videos. Catholic News Service has posted some wonderful videos of Pope Francis interacting with people of all ages. Some of these videos can be found on the Catholic Herald website (www.madisoncatholicherald.org) on the home page. If you haven’t watched these videos, I encourage you to take a look. You will come away smiling.
Adjusting to the empty chair
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Dear Friends,
Last Thursday morning, as I was leaving Rome to return to Madison, Pope Benedict was still the Bishop of Rome and the Pope of the Universal Church; by the time I arrived in the United States in midafternoon, the Chair of Peter was empty.