Blessed Sacrament Church

Concern about the commercialization of Christmas has been a trope for so many decades that most of us likely don’t remember a time when it wasn’t well known. To cite one example, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” dating all the way back to 1965, famously had it as a central theme, contrasting focus on presents and gaudy fake Christmas trees and “a big commercial racket” that is “run by an Eastern syndicate” with the true meaning of Christmas, which unfolds as Linus recites the story of the Nativity from the Gospel of Luke. 

That theme rumbles in the background of other disputes, such as retailers betting their bottom lines on people overspending on Christmas gifts while nevertheless recoiling at using the holiday’s name, or simply our collective amazement at seeing the “holiday shopping season” begin earlier and earlier each year, now starting long before a single Thanksgiving turkey goes in the oven. 

In essence, it’s as if there are two Christmases that overlap and intersect somewhat uncomfortably — the loud secular one with the over-the-top shopping and Bing Crosby crooning “White Christmas” from every speaker from before Thanksgiving until the clock turns midnight on Dec. 26 and the religious one that follows four quiet, reflective weeks of Advent and only gets started on Dec. 25. 

As American Catholics, we have a foot in each of those two worlds. But this year, as we look at massive inflation and many are counting every penny just to make ends meet, perhaps in God’s Providence it’s an invitation to step more fully once again into that real meaning of Christmas, the one that Linus recites so memorably. 

As we tighten our belts, maybe we’ll discover that simple, personal, perhaps even handmade presents — or even just being together — have a meaning that a big January credit card hangover can’t begin to match. Perhaps, as our hearts open for our neighbors in need, we’ll rediscover the Dickensian joy Ebeneezer Scrooge learned, of giving to those who can’t repay us. 

Maybe in this way, our difficult times may prove to be an unexpected gift. 

On Facebook a couple of weeks ago, I posted the following quote from Ven. Fulton Sheen: “The real test of the Christian is not how much he loves his friends, but how much he loves his enemies.” 

Deacon Kyle Eller Mere Catholicism

If we take that seriously (as we must), it’s definitely a hard saying of our faith. 

In response, a Facebook friend of mine asked exactly the kind of question I imagine most deacons would love to get in such a circumstance: Basically, how? As my friend noted, often “enemies” are equated with “evil.” How can love exist in the midst of evil? 

I thought it was a good question, both in the sense that it reflects a good disposition of heart and in the sense that it’s a question I’ll bet many people have, on a teaching all of us struggle to live out at times, and one that cuts against the grain of our culture. 

So I thought I would expand on my answer here. 

We begin by recognizing some things that make it hard. First, powerful forces in our culture are working against our loving our enemies, even sometimes unintentionally. Think of the computer algorithms that influence our lives so profoundly, selecting everything from what media our favorite streaming service offers us to consume to what posts we see when we log on to social media. Those algorithms take into account what we’ve looked at and reacted to before, and they then show us more of those things. More user engagement means more clicks, which means more advertising and more money. 

But it turns out people engage not only with things they like but with things that make them angry — with things they “love to hate.” So when things make us angry, often we get fed more of that content, creating a kind of outrage loop. I have actually had people get upset with me for not getting as angry as they expected me to be about whatever they just saw on the Internet that angered them. I wonder how many times I’ve done the same. 

That’s to say nothing of actual demagoguery, where people deliberately attempt to spread hatred at perceived enemies, which is also very prevalent. 

Loving our enemies begins with intentionally resisting the pull of these temptations. 

There’s also the truth my friend was alluding to, that evil is real. Many are tempted to deny this truth, but there really are people who wish to do evil, who even sometimes intend to do harm to us or to others, from the small everyday harms to the kind that require police departments and armies and court systems. 

It’s these people that Sheen, echoing Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, is telling us to love. It’s a radical call that includes not just the little enemies — that annoying neighbor or overbearing boss or schoolyard smart-aleck — but the big ones too. 

It’s helpful to know what this love is — and isn’t. The love here is not primarily warm feelings of affection (although those are good too). It’s not a moral relativism that ignores or downplays evil or pretends everything is OK when it isn’t. It’s not even (or at least not always) a choice to let evil have its way, as though we would never defend the innocent or ourselves. 

Love is willing the good of that enemy. We can always do that. The highest good, of course, is heaven, and we can and should always will that for everyone. We also will the good of our enemies in this life, alongside our desire for justice. Even if an enemy is in prison, we will his rehabilitation and a dignified life and ultimately, insofar as justice and public safety allow, for him to be reconciled with the community and restored to a wholesome place in it. 

We love by seeking as best we can to overcome evil with good. We pursue justice with due restraint. We love by seeking understanding. Even people who do the worst things usually do so out of some misguided pursuit of a good. So we can (and in justice must) distinguish between evil actions and evil persons and resist making harsh personal judgments, leaving those to God who knows the heart. 

We can refuse the temptation to “gild the lily” and make the person’s wrongdoing out to be as bad as we possibly can, whether in our own hearts or in the hearts of others. Deeper understanding can even be a bridge to help bring reconciliation, a starting point for bringing them more fully to the truth. 

And we can always extend mercy, forgiving the wrongs done to us and to others. 

This, after all, is the way God loved us. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, notes that “while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (5:10). In this Advent season, as we approach Christmas, consider in that light the words of the angels to the shepherds, proclaiming peace to people of good will. The Incarnation of Jesus, and ultimately the saving work of his cross and resurrection, act as an invitation to reconciliation to all of us, who by our own sins made ourselves enemies of God. 

When Jesus commands us to do something, he is also always the perfect model of how to live that out, and he always gives us the grace to do it. Humanly speaking, loving our enemies may be beyond our powers, but when we love with the same love with which God has loved us and filled our hearts, even this hard saying becomes truly possible. 

Deacon Kyle Eller is editor of The Northern Cross. Reach him at dcn.kyle.eller@duluthcatholic.org

This month we celebrate one of the church’s great solemnities, the Immaculate Conception. It is the patronal feast of our country. For this reason, Dec. 8 is a Holy Day of Obligation. So make sure you get to Mass. 

Father Nick Nelson Handing on the Faith

Now, who was immaculately conceived? This, unfortunately, is a question too many Catholics get wrong despite celebrating this Holy Day year after year. Many Catholics without hesitation say “Jesus!” when it was actually Mary, our Blessed Mother, who was immaculately conceived. Jesus was “Incarnate by the Holy Spirit.” This reality is celebrated by the Solemnity of the Annunciation. 

So for this month’s column, I’d like to go deeper into these solemnities and the realities they both celebrate. 

In the year 1854, Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed infallibly, “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful” (Ineffabilis Deus). 

First, this does not mean that this wasn’t true until Blessed Pope Pius IX declared it. The entire deposit of faith was given by Christ to the Apostles to be protected and handed on through the generations. The faith, like an acorn, needed to grow and develop. It was only in 1854 that it was declared and necessary to be believed by all the faithful. But it was always true that Mary was immaculately conceived. 

Second, Mary was conceived in the normal way through conjugal union of her father Joachim and mother Anne. But from the beginning of her existence, her conception, she never had original sin. And not only was she preserved from original sin, she was preserved from the effects of original sin. This means her will was at full strength, her intellect was fully enlightened, and her passions were perfectly ordered towards the good. On the other hand, although baptism cleansed us of original sin, we still have to live with a weakened will, a darkened intellect, and disordered passions. 

Thirdly, this wasn’t her doing. She didn’t deserve it. It was due to redemption won by her future Son, the God-man Jesus Christ, and it was a pure gift. God who is All-Powerful can do all things. God, foreseeing the redemption that Christ would win, applied the merits of that redemption to Mary’s conception. God did this so that Jesus would have a pure, sinless temple to dwell in. 

Mary’s birthday is Sept. 8, which is nine months after the Immaculate Conception. 

Now, let us consider Jesus’ conception. Every Sunday we profess the Nicene-Constantinople Creed from the year 381, “And by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” Jesus was not conceived in the normal way. There was no conjugal union between Joseph and Mary. The Son, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, always was. He always existed. In the fullness of time, by the Holy Spirit, the Son took on flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Divine Person became a human being, one divine person with two natures, divine and human. This is what the term “incarnate” means, taking on flesh. Due to the Incarnation, Mary has the title of spouse of the Holy Spirit in addition to the spouse of St. Joseph. 

The solemnity that celebrates Jesus’ conception is the Annunciation, March 25. Did you ever notice that the Annunciation takes place nine months before Christmas, Dec. 25? 

So now you will be able to speak correctly about the conceptions of both Mary and Jesus, about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Annunciation of the Lord. You can help others go deeper into the mysteries of our faith. 

Father Nick Nelson is pastor of Queen of Peace and Holy Family parishes in Cloquet and vocations director for the Diocese of Duluth. He studied at The Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome. Reach him at fr.nicholas.nelson@duluthcatholic.org

By Catholic News Service 

Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester expressed outrage Nov. 2 over the desecration of several graves and the columbarium at the diocese’s Calvary Cemetery in Rochester “with hateful and obscene graffiti” on Halloween night.

A columbarium is seen Nov. 1 at Calvary Cemetery in Rochester after it was desecrated Halloween night. A columbarium holds funerary urns with cremated remains of the deceased. Graves also were damaged by the vandalism, which included “hateful and obscene graffiti,” said Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester. (Image blurred because of vulgarity.) CNS photo/courtesy KTTC-TV

He assured his prayers for families “of those whose final resting places were so dishonored.” 

The diocese “will cooperate with police in assuring that those responsible are brought to justice,” he added in a statement issued on All Souls’ Day, when the Catholic Church “honors our beloved dead.” 

“Cemetery staff is working diligently to repair the damage and restore the grounds,” Bishop Barron said, and he pledged to bless and reconsecrate “this sacred space” once the staff’s task “is completed.” 

“May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace,” Bishop Barron added. 

Arson, vandalism, and other destruction have taken place at more than 100 Catholic sites across the United States since May 2020. 

In October 2021, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty began tracking such incidents, saying: “These incidents of vandalism have ranged from the tragic to the obscene, from the transparent to the inexplicable.” 

“There remains much we do not know about this phenomenon, but at a minimum, they underscore that our society is in sore need of God’s grace,” said a joint statement issued by the chairmen of the bishops’ religious liberty and domestic policy committees. 

They called on the nation’s elected officials “to step forward and condemn these attacks.” 

In a statement issued to mark Religious Freedom Day 2022, observed Jan. 16, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the religious liberty committee chairman, lamented attacks on houses of worship as an assault on their respective individual communities that gather there in prayer. 

Such vandalism also is “an attack on the founding principle of America as a place where all people can practice their faith freely,” he said. “And it is an attack on the human spirit, which yearns to know the truth about God and how to act in light of the truth.” 

Cardinal Dolan called on people to promote religious freedom as a treasured right for all Americans. 

By Catholic News Service 

Retired Bishop Paul J. Swain of Sioux Falls died Nov. 26 while in hospice care at Dougherty House, nearly 15 years to the day since he had blessed the Avera health services facility as head of the diocese. He was 79.

Bishop Paul J. Swain of Sioux Falls, S.D., is seen at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome March 5, 2012. He died in hospice care Nov. 26 at age 79. He headed the diocese from 2006 until his retirement in 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

“It is with heavy heart that we announce the passing of Bishop Emeritus Paul J. Swain,” the Sioux Falls Diocese stated Nov. 27 on Facebook. “Bishop Swain entered into eternal life late last night, after receiving all of the sacraments and prayers the church offers as one approaches death. In your kindness, please hold Bishop Swain in your prayers.” 

Visitation began the afternoon of Dec. 2 at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Sioux Falls. In the evening recitation of the rosary was followed by a liturgical wake service. 

A funeral Mass was celebrated Dec. 3 at the cathedral with Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis presiding. 

Bishop Swain served as spiritual shepherd for Catholics in eastern South Dakota for 13 years — from his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 until his retirement at age 76 in 2019. 

During those years, Bishop Swain ordained 33 men to the priesthood and 20 men to the permanent diaconate. He also led the diocese in a project to restore the Cathedral of St. Joseph to its beauty as envisioned by the original architect. 

Addressing Mass congregants on the day he dedicated the new altar July 26, 2011, Bishop Swain said his prayer was that the restored cathedral “will be a shining light on the hill outside and in, by the beauty of sacred things and by the beauty of faith lived well, can therefore be a sign of the hope that can only be fulfilled in Christ.” 

The bishop also oversaw the creation of the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House, an emergency shelter for individuals and families, which opened its doors January 12, 2015. It is named for the late Bishop Paul V. Dudley, who headed the Sioux Falls Diocese from 1978 to 1995. 

At its blessing and opening, Bishop Swain described the new facility as “more than a shelter, it will be a beacon of hope, a house of hospitality that welcomes, that treats each person with respect, that seeks to help address special needs, that offers a helping hand, that says you matter and that sees Christ in each person with wisdom of the heart, that calls each person by name.” 

Among other highlights of his tenure, Bishop Swain blessed eight different properties in six communities that were erected by St. Joseph Catholic Housing to provide affordable housing for families. He also blessed seven different facilities built by Avera to expand its health care outreach. 

He spent time praying the rosary in front of Planned Parenthood nearly every month that he served as bishop. He joined with Bishop Robert D. Gruss, then head of the Rapid City, South Dakota Diocese, to create the South Dakota Catholic Conference as the public policy arm of the church in South Dakota. 

He led an effort to erect a permanent home for the Adoration Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who pray continuously for the needs of the diocese. At the invitation of U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Bishop Swain also served as chaplain to the U.S. Senate for a day and led eight different pilgrimages to holy sites across the globe. 

Facing a decline in the number of available priests and the withdrawal of religious orders who were serving the Sioux Falls Diocese, Bishop Swain oversaw a consultative planning process that involved over six years of listening sessions and facilitated meetings. 

Paul Joseph Swain was born Sept. 12, 1943, in Newark, New York, the fifth of William E. and Gertrude Swain’s six children. He and his siblings were raised by their grandparents. 

As a child, Paul received his religious formation in the Methodist church. He would attend Sunday school classes and Sunday services with his grandparents. In high school, he first aspired to be an attorney and took an interest in the political process. He graduated from Newark High School in 1961. 

At the prompting of a neighbor whose son was a professor at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio, he enrolled and studied history. He moved to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1965 and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a master’s degree in political science. 

He voluntarily entered the military as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force, serving in Vietnam from 1967 to 1972. He earned the Bronze Star Medal during his service. He then was legal counsel and policy director for Wisconsin Gov. Lee Dreyfus, a Republican, from 1979 to 1983. The future bishop also practiced law in Madison. 

He became a Catholic at age 39, studied for the priesthood at Pope St. John XIII Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts, as a seminarian for the Diocese of Madison. He was ordained May 27, 1988, by Bishop Cletus F. O’Donnell. 

Then-Father Swain held many positions in the diocese including as vocations director, moderator of the curia, priest secretary, and vicar general. 

He was vicar general under Madison Bishop Robert C. Morlino when he was named to head the Sioux Falls Diocese Aug. 31, 2006. 

In a statement on his appointment, Bishop-designate Swain described his adult life as being marked by two phases. 

“One was in the secular sphere that included military service, civil law practice, and government office. The second came after undergoing a spiritual conversion that changed and refocused my life,” he said. 

“My years in the secular life were exciting and interesting, yet filled with the lures that can result in excessive focus on the things of the world and an individualism that can warp priorities and moral values,” he said. “They also revealed a yearning for something more than professional success.” 

“It is in the church that I found the forgiveness and mercy that I needed and still need,” he said. 

Bishop Swain was preceded in death by his parents and his five siblings and three of their spouses. He is survived by one sister-in-law. 

By Julie Asher 
Catholic News Service 

Beginning Jan. 1, Ascension Press will launch “The Catechism in a Year,” taking listeners through the four parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and “providing explanation, insight, and encouragement along the way.”

Over the course of 365 daily podcast episodes, Father Mike Schmitz will read the entire catechism. Throughout 2022, the priest has hosted the popular “The Bible in a Year” podcast with Scripture scholar Jeff Cavins. 

Father Schmitz read every verse of the Catholic Bible in 365 days, using a reading plan based on Cavins’ Great Adventure Bible Timeline. The reading plan organizes the 14 narrative books of the Bible into 12 periods to help readers understand how they relate to one another and to God’s plan for salvation. 

A priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Father Schmitz is a popular Catholic speaker and author. He and Cavins created the Bible podcast with the backing of Ascension. 

“We don’t think it’s an accident that after ‘Bible in a Year,’ the No. 1 requested thing from our audience was a ‘Catechism of the Year,’” said Lauren Joyce, communications and public relations specialist at Ascension, a multimedia Catholic publisher based in West Chester, Pennsylvania. 

Helping the faithful understand and read the Bible with Cavins’ timeline learning system and the podcast format “made such a big difference for accessibility,” she said at a Nov. 2 news conference via Zoom. “Our audience is saying do the same thing for the catechism: ‘We know we should like it, we know we should read it [and] struggle to do so, so help us out.’” 

In the 30 days before the news conference, the Bible podcast had reached an audience of 1.5 million people via various electronic devices, such as a cellphone, a tablet with downloaded episodes, or YouTube. 

According to Chartable Global Reach, a podcast measurement company, “The Bible in a Year” was No. 1 in 2022 in the religious/spiritual category. 

Ascension also has released a new print edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Its four sections have navigation features for the reader, including color-coded corner tabs, key words and citations from Scripture, church councils, popes and/or doctors of the church. 

There is an extensive glossary and appendices, which include a timeline of ecclesiastical writers who contributed to the development of doctrine throughout the church’s history. 

There also is an accompanying foldout chart, “The Catechism at a Glance,” which is “like a road map if you will,” John Harden, senior product manager at Ascension, explained at the news conference. 

“The back side shows how all the sources of Scripture and tradition flow into the catechism,” he said, “and the front side shows how the four parts are arranged — what we believe, how we worship, how we live our lives as Christians, and how we pray as Christians.” 

He called it a joy to work on this edition of the catechism. “I really hope people learn to grow in love and appreciation for all we believe as Catholics.” 

Harden also “gave a big shoutout and thanks” to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for working with Ascension on the issue of copyright and permissions that allowed the Ascension volume to go forward. He noted that there will be an ongoing theological review of the “Catechism in a Year” podcast content and the podcast itself. 

Each country’s local bishops control permissions and copyrights for the catechisms disseminated within their country. For this reason, Ascension currently only has permission from the USCCB to sell Ascension’s edition of the catechism within the United States. Ascension said it hopes to work with other episcopal conferences to receive their approvals in the future. 

The catechism recognizes “that what God is doing in this world didn’t end” with Chapter 28 of the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, Father Schmitz said. The fifth book of the New Testament tells of the founding of the church. “God continues to reach out to his people. … [With the catechism] we get to love him more,” he added. 

“What we did with the Bible, we’re going to do with the catechism,” the priest said about the podcast. “For 365 days, we are going to take a little section of the catechism every single day. 

“We’re going to read it, explain it, and expand upon it so that by the end of this year we’ll be able to say, ‘I know what the church believes, I know what God’s plan is for my life, I know how to talk to God, I know how to listen to his voice, and I know how to worship him.’ It’s going to be incredible.” 

“For us to grow as Catholics, we need to know what our faith is. We need to articulate our faith in order to share it,” said Cavins, who will host a new program titled “The Bible Timeline Show.” 

In 60-minute episodes, he’ll unpack questions raised by listeners of the “The Bible in a Year” podcast with Father Schmitz and other guests. 

“The Catechism in a Year” podcast will be available for free on all major podcast platforms as well as the Hallow app. Ascension also is providing Catholic schools and parishes free materials promoting the podcast, including flyers, posters, media graphics, and bulletin announcements. 

Editor’s Note: More information about “The Catechism in a Year,” the new catechism edition and resources available to parishes and schools can be found at https://ascensionpress.com. 

Photo by Deacon Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross

Father Trevor Peterson, parochial vicar of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Mary Star of the Sea, gives a meditation on the Eucharist Nov. 19 at St. John the Evangelist in Duluth as part of the 40 Hours Devotion. The parishes in the eastern part of Duluth collaborated for the 40 Hours Devotion Nov. 18-20, with continuous Eucharistic Adoration combined with other devotions and liturgical prayers, such as the rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and parts of the Liturgy of the Hours. Father Peterson’s was one of three talks given during the weekend.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! The words to this favorite Christmas hymn really say (sing) it all. First of all, what is the joy that is brought into the world? Well, in this case, it is not so much a what as a who. It is the Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is joy, has come into the world. He took flesh. He became one like us is all ways but sin. He is the game changer. He is the deal breaker. As the gospel of St. John reminds us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). In Jesus, there is a divine healing, hope, and joy that the world cannot give but only receive from Jesus as its Lord and King. This year, as we celebrate the season of Christmas, let us receive the joy that only Jesus can give to ourselves, our families, our parishes, and to the communities in which we live — in other words, to the world in which we live, move, and have our being. The invitation to all in this holy season of Christmas is simple. As the hymn proclaims, “Let every heart prepare Him room.” In your own heart, home, and neighborhood, prepare Him room, and Jesus will take care of the rest. And for the first time, perhaps in a long time, there truly will be joy in the world. 

May the blessings of the Christmas Christ come upon you and your loved ones,

+Daniel 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Bishop Daniel Felton Believe in the Good News

As we approach this great Feast of Christmas, the divine mystery that is unfolding is so deep and wide that it will carry us through Christmas Day, then the Christmas Octave, then the 12 Days of Christmas, and then Christmastide, which ends with the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. It will take us this long to even begin to fathom what this mystery is for us every day of our lives. Jesus was born, lived, died, and is resurrected. It is this mystery that we are seeking to embrace, embody, and express as disciples of the Christmas Christ.

It is this mystery unfolding in Jesus Christ that sustains us when we are feeling the grief of missing loved ones who are no longer with us on earth for our Christmas celebrations. We pray and believe that if they have died in the Lord, they will rise in the Lord. Therefore, we believe that they are with us in this Christmastime as the Communion of Saints, as together we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ here on earth as it is in heaven. 

One of our retired priests, Father Paul Fruth, is an acclaimed poet. Poetry often captures that which we grapple to express in everyday words. As we reflect on the beautiful mystery that unfolds in this Christmas season and as we remember loved ones who are no longer with us, let this poem of Father Fruth speak to our hearts and to the divine mystery. 

Grandma’s Gift 
by Father Paul Fruth 

While in grade school I spent Time with Grandma 
She had a very warm heart, 
And she shared her little dog with me. 

One year, near Christmas, Grandma became ill. 
In time her earthly life was to change. 

As Christmas was coming, Grandma asked my 
Parents to bring me to see her. 
She was suffering from a stroke 
She had very little use of her hands and voice. 

When we visited, she gave to me a Christmas card, 
Inside the card was a dollar bill. 
She asked me to buy something for Christmas. 
She wanted the gift to remind me always of her. 

After Grandma’s death, Mother and I went 
Shopping in the next town. 
We walked through many stores and I saw an 
Iron dog like Grandmother’s. 

I paid 75 cents for the iron dog 
I have always kept it by my bed. 
Often, I reach out to touch it with my hand. 

This dog was my Grandmother’s last gift to me, 
It reminds me she still lives within my heart. 

Merry Christmas Grandma. 

May the blessings of the Christmas Christ be upon you and your loved ones here on earth and in heaven! 

Merry Christmas, 
Bishop Daniel 

Bishop Daniel Felton is the tenth bishop of Duluth. 

I have a problem with pride. It seems to me that it is one of my more serious faults. What do I do? 

Father Michael Schmitz Ask Father Mike

This is a fantastic question. In fact, one of the first requirements for attacking pride is acknowledging its existence. 

Pride is one of those sneaky vices. It’s the kind of vice that we can see in other people but rarely notice in ourselves. The fact that you not only notice it in your own life but acknowledge that it is a problem is a great sign. 

In order to deal with and root out pride, it would be helpful to have a definition. There are two definitions of pride that I find both compelling and helpful. The classic Catholic definition of pride is “the excessive love of one’s own excellence.“ Hopefully, in this definition, you see that there is nothing wrong with the ordinate or appropriate love of one’s own excellence. Remember the two great commandments (essentially: love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself). That second commandment about loving our neighbor as ourselves implies that we actually have some degree of love for self. 

As difficult as it might be, we are actually called to love ourselves. This kind of love should be “ordered“ or “appropriate.“ This kind of love for self would be similar to the love that we have for others. Which reminds us that we need a good definition of love. The best definition of love I’ve come across describes love as “willing the good of the other.“ Therefore, when applied to our own lives, love of self means willing one’s own good. That kind of self-love is praiseworthy and necessary in the life of the Christian. 

Pride, on the other hand, is the excessive love of one’s own excellence. This goes beyond merely “being proud of oneself“ and leads to the second definition of pride. St. Thomas Aquinas noted that pride is “that frame of mind in which a man, through the love of his own worth, aims to withdraw himself from subjection to Almighty God ….“ 

You can see how the “excessive“ part of the definition does not lead a person to merely appreciate their own gifts but to see themselves as independent of God. 

For this reason, pride has been called as the “queen of all vices“ and is often the source of so many other sins. I hope that this makes sense to you: If we do not need God, then we do not need to submit our lives to his law or to his grace. This might be one of the reasons why Satan, filled with pride, rebelled against the source of everything good in himself. 

So how do we defeat pride? The brief answer is by growing in humility. This is accurate. The problem is, for many people it is not very helpful. Have you ever tried to be humble? What does that look like? Does it mean just “thinking humble thoughts”? If so, what is a “humble thought”? Or is there something else a person could do to grow in humility? 

There is. And that “something else“ is gratitude. 

One thing absent from the truly prideful person’s life is gratitude. If I have an excessive love of my own excellence, I have no one to thank. If I do not see myself as subject to God, I am not grateful for any of his gifts. And I am not grateful for God’s gifts because I don’t recognize any of his gifts. On the contrary, the truly humble person is constantly thankful. The truly humble person constantly recognizes the gifts that come to him or her at every moment of the day. 

If you would like to destroy pride, become humble. If you would like to become humble, be grateful. Practice gratitude. I would invite you to take five minutes every morning and five minutes every night. Set that time apart to recognize which gifts have come to you that day. What good things are in your life? What blessings has God given you that, in your most honest moments, you know that you didn’t deserve? And then thank God for those gifts. It would also not hurt if you thank the people around you for their acts of generosity, patience, and love that they do for you each day as well. In fact, that might go quite a long way. 

Father Michael Schmitz is director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth.