"Even if God exists," the world wonders, "how can he be close to us? Can our lives be significant to God? Does he really love us?"
According to polls most Americans believe, for the most part, in God. But for many, God is a distant and impersonal force – a concept more than a person. For many, the idea of a personal God is foreign and in some ways uncomfortable. Modern man, having lived in a culture devoid of love, is skeptical of a God who loves him.
Tragedies, like the unspeakable...
For the first time, tonight we celebrate this glorious feast in the presence of the precious relic of the holy tilma that bears Our Lady’s miraculous image! This is the only relic of this kind in our country or anywhere else outside of Mexico City.
With this relic in our new Chapel to the Virgin, we feel a deep spiritual connection tonight with our brothers and sisters in Mexico – and with Guadalupanos of every continent!
We belong to one family of God! Our brothers and sisters are...
Awaken, Discover, Inspire defines our efforts for the Year of Faith in our Diocese and also can characterize our celebration of Advent.
AWAKEN
Advent stirs in us a longing for the Lord to come more fully into our lives. Christ’s coming testifies vividly God’s desire to dwell among us, to experience firsthand the struggles we experience. This season awakens in us a grasp of God’s selfless love for us, that moves us to love as we have been loved. This season awakens in us a burning...
This past Sunday, the Church began the celebration of Advent, the season in which we prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas.
All of us know that Christmas is coming – we are bombarded with the signs and sounds of Christmas already. But knowing that Christmas is coming, and being prepared for it, are two different things. The Church’s Advent season is meant to be an opportunity to open our hearts to Jesus Christ – who comes small and quietly into our lives, but who can...
[On the first Sunday of Advent, we pray in the opening prayer of Mass the following oration:
Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
As we look forward with the eyes of faith to the Second Coming...
In last month’s Montana Catholic, I wrote about the Special Synod of bishops in Rome, convened in October by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. I stated that the convening of a Special Synod indicates there are pressing issues on the Holy Father’s mind and heart, concerns needing worldwide consultation and expertise.
We know from his speeches and writings that those issues include:
-religious indifference.
-the spread of secularism.
-the ascent of atheism, especially in nations where...
The Holy Father's Plea
On May 30, 2011, Pope Benedict announced the convening of a special Synod of Bishops in Rome, beginning Oct. 7, 2012. Bishops from all over the world, including four from the United States, were invited to participate in this gathering.
A special Synod indicates there are issues and concerns of particular urgency on the Holy Father’s mind, issues and concerns that require expansive consultation and expertise, and intensive prayer.
We know from the Holy Father’s...
We spent a lot of time at the Synod on the New Evangelization in Rome talking about salvation.
On the one hand, I guess this should not shock us, since Jesus came as our Savior, offering us the “good news” of eternal salvation.
However, on the other hand, this is a surprise, because, as some Synod participants have chillingly observed, the Church rarely, if ever, speaks of salvation these days, since most of us today presume it, or don’t think we even need it!
Think about that…why do...
I write to you again this week from Rome, where the Synod of Bishops for the new evangelization has become a “synod of saints.”
Pope Benedict XVI opened the Synod almost three weeks ago by adding St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. John of Avila to the elite list of Church “doctors” – saints are special teachers of holiness and of theology and spirituality.
This past Sunday, which was World Mission Sunday, I was blessed to concelebrate a Mass in which the Pope proclaimed seven new...
A friend of mine quipped recently that the real religion of Americans has nothing to do with churches or synagogues. Our “real” religion is politics and the juggling for power it involves. He was being humorous. But as I write these words in late October, and we head into the final days of another, uniquely important, presidential election, his words don’t seem quite so funny.
In the heat of ugly political conflicts, we can easily lose sight of our real vocation as Christians: holiness....
