Advance - Bishop's Message

Bishop Michael O. Jackels has requested that the faithful pray for the following intentions:
• For the blessing of moisture – that those who work the land can bring forth an abundant harvest, to inspire their praise of Divine Providence, to contribute to their material benefit, and to feed the hungry of the world.
• For the defense of life, marriage and religious liberty – that all people in our Country will recognize the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, the beauty of God’s plan for marriage, and the meaning of true religious liberty.

Prayer Intentions of Pope Benedict XVI
Here are Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer intentions for this month.
Migrants. That migrants throughout the world may be welcomed with generosity and authentic love, especially by Christian communities.
Christ, Light for All Humanity. That Christ may reveal Himself to all humanity with the light that shines forth from Bethlehem and is reflected in the face of His Church.
Intentions provided by the Apostleship of Prayer, www.apostleshipofprayer.org.

By Bishop Michael O. Jackels
The Year of Faith is about strengthening our relationship with Jesus and the practice of our Catholic Faith. Pope Benedict has identified one way to do this: by our readiness to serve others out of love.
Service of others is the guarantee that our worship of God is true, more than merely fulfilling a duty, more than an empty ritual.
One particular and recommended way to share our gifts is to teach children, youth and other learners in some form of religious education or faith formation what we ourselves learn about Christ and his Church.
Learning and teaching Christ is for a number of reasons the most important work we do as Catholics.
It is important because the people who worship at Holy Mass or serve the poor (as well as other works of religion or mercy) do these things because they love God, which is inspired by their knowing God, which they can claim because someone – a parent, a pastor or a religion teacher – taught them about God.
Learning and teaching Christ is also important because Jesus gave all of his followers the great commission to teach others all that he himself taught.
And it is important on account of how it makes it possible that the learners of today, when they become the leaders of tomorrow will make decisions that reflect reverence for the sacredness of human life and the dignity of every human person, and that because someone taught them about Christ and his Catholic Church.
Everything else we do as Catholics rises or falls on the vigor of our efforts to learn and teach Christ. Therefore, even if we do not have children or school-age children, learning and teaching Christ should be a priority for all of us.
If we do not feel called or able formally to teach others about our Catholic Faith, we can still teach them informally, by witnessing to our faith when we lovingly serve one another.
Serving and sharing with, in love of God and neighbor, is our grateful response to recognizing and receiving all that we are, can do, and have as a gift from God. We serve and share with others either within our parish or diocesan Church family or outside in the general community.
This is not something optional – this is a way of life for Christians; a stewardship way of life. Just as service of others is the guarantee that our worship of God is true, it is also a sign that we are true followers of Jesus.
We are not all able to serve and share with others in the same way, but we can and should do something according to our gifts and circumstances. And every gift shared in love of God and neighbor is valued and significant.
What will you do during this Year of Faith to strengthen your relationship with Jesus by serving and sharing with others in love?

By Bishop Michael O. Jackels
The Year of Faith is about strengthening our relationship with Jesus and the practice of our Catholic Faith. Pope Benedict identified one way to do this: by making more real our sense of belonging to the universal church family.
Faith leads us to friendship with Jesus, who leads us to his family, the church, which we experience mostly in our parish. But our church family also includes Catholics in our diocese and all over the globe, as well as the saints in Heaven and the poor souls in Purgatory.
And the badge of membership in this church family, according to Saint Ambrose, is love for each other. We each (including the saints and the poor souls) bear a share of responsibility to continue the mission of Jesus and to care for each other’s well-being.
For example, with regard to the saints, while there is no service we can offer them, we call upon them for their intercession. The poor souls, on the other hand, cannot offer us a service, but there is one we can render them.
The bible teaches that nothing unclean can enter Heaven (Rev 21:27). Some of us may still need, after death, before entering Heaven, to be purged of the temporal punishment due our past and forgiven sins. Purgatory is the name given to this final purification.
Temporal punishment? Jesus’ mercy takes away eternal punishment due to sins. But justice demands that we make amends for the disorder caused by our sins; this is called temporal (not eternal) punishment.
Let us say that in anger you broke my window. You afterwards repented and asked pardon. I forgive you, but justice demands that you make amends by replacing my window – temporal punishment.
Temporal punishment is why the priest in Confession gives us a penance, and why we practice penance and works of mercy as part of our Christian life. If we have not satisfied justice during earthly life, then before entering Heaven we need to undergo the final purification of Purgatory.
And just as others can chip in to help pay for the window you broke, so we can help the poor souls in Purgatory satisfy temporal punishment that justice might still demand for past and forgiven sins.
We can serve the well-being of the poor souls by praying to God that their final purification be quickened: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
The best prayer we can offer is of course Holy Mass. We can make the eternal rest of the faithful departed our intention at Mass, or ask a priest to make it his (when we do that it is customary to give the priest a five dollar stipend, though neither the gift nor the amount is required).
What will you do in this Year of Faith to make real your sense of belonging to the church family in your parish, the diocese, all over the globe, Heaven and in Purgatory? What will you do to bear a share of responsibility to continue the mission of Jesus and for each other’s well-being?

By Bishop Michael O. Jackels
The need for us, in the Year of Faith, to strengthen our relationship with Jesus and the practice of our Catholic Faith has been greatly on the mind of Pope Benedict.
Not long after announcing the Year of Faith, the Pope shared with the Cardinals in the Vatican his concern for the Church, especially in Europe, saying that it is characterized by “faith fatigue … [a] sense of having had enough of Christianity.”
As evidence of this, the Holy Father observed that regular churchgoers are increasing in age and decreasing in numbers; that recruitment of priestly vocations is stagnating; and that skepticism and unbelief are growing.
Pope Benedict contrasted the faith fatigue in Europe with the “joyful passion for the faith” that he encountered in his pastoral visit to Benin in Africa and to World Youth Day in Spain.
He described what he experienced on these visits as “a new, more youthful form of Christianity” that is expressed in five notable ways:
• Belonging to a universal Church family. We have the same inner encounter with Jesus as the basis of our living faith. We pray in the same way, especially in our common liturgy.
• Readiness to serve others. The encounter with Jesus inflames us with love that inspires service, even self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the benefit of others.
• Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The spirit of adoration determines our life and enables us to celebrate the Eucharist correctly and receive Holy Communion rightly.
• Making a regular Confession. This calls for humility, asking God for forgiveness, seeking purification, and awakening in us love of God and others.
• Living in joy. This comes from the certainty that we are loved, accepted, wanted by God. Only then can we love and accept ourselves.
The Church in our country, in order not to follow what is happening in Europe, should ensure that these five notable expressions of a more youthful form of Christianity are in evidence here as well.
And if this is going to happen on a national level, then it has to begin on a local and personal level: in the Diocese, in each parish and institution, in each religious community, and in each of the faithful.
What will you do during this Year of Faith?