“A Visit with Our Bishop”: Highlights from a newspaper column

The depths of Bishop John R. Gaydos’s wisdom on many topics was on full display in his regular column in The Catholic Missourian throughout his time as bishop.

Here are a few of the many highlights:

“With God’s help, and despite its difficulties, every family can advance in the ways of goodness and holiness.

“... I am convinced that is the surest way to enrich the Church and the world with an abundance of laborers for the harvest in priestly and religious life, as well.”

— “Visit,” Apr. 17, 2015

“In our world, ecumenism and interfaith dialogue are more important than ever. Without our efforts in these areas, we may never see “that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and ‘serve Him shoulder to shoulder.’”

— “Visit,” July 26, 2013

“Back when I was in grade school at St. Agnes School in St. Louis, Sister Mary Fides, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, told us to be careful about people who think they’re holier than the Pope.

“Many years later, Cardinal John J. Carberry of St. Louis would always remind people, ‘Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia’ — in English, ‘Where there is Peter, there is the Church.’”

— “Visit,” Feb. 20, 2015

“We are all homeless until we are home with our Lord in heaven. We all share the burdens of sickness in our lives, and we all experience conditions that keep us from living in the full freedom of a child of God.”

— “Visit,” Jan. 15, 2016

“To believe in Jesus is a radical commitment to follow Jesus as disciple — rooted in our conviction that Christ is the ‘Way, Truth and Life.’

“To believe in Jesus is to participate in his self-giving love and to be a person of hope — even in the face of the divisiveness and injustice in today’s world.

“This transformation in Christ is not possible without prayer. In prayer we meet God and open ourselves to the goodness of divine love. We say YES to God.”

— “Visit,” Feb. 8, 2013

“God wants to partner with us as we confront our own weaknesses, our sinful world, or the extremes and catastrophes of nature. God also wants to share in the joys that come to us — both those that are carefully planned and those that are a complete surprise.”

— “Visit,” Feb. 10, 2012

“‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins.’”

“Take a look at that statement. It ranks up there with ‘I believe in God, the Father Almighty... .’

“In fact, the only reason I can or should believe in the first statement is because of the truth of the second one.”

— “Visit,” Mar. 18, 2014

“Collaboration is the way that we serve each other in the Church and the way the Church serves the world. It is not just an organizational theory or an aid to ministry. It is something that is fundamental to the development of a community of believers and to the growth of each of us as a member of that community.”

— “Visit,” Apr. 9, 2013

“Christ calls His followers together, and through Sacred Scripture and the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit in the teachings of the Church, He offers a challenging set of values and teachings for His disciples — the Church, the Body of Christ.

“The mission of this Church is not to boost people’s egos or ensure their freedom or security but to transform the world, to help them claim their God-given role in building the Kingdom of God.”

— “Visit,” Aug. 7, 2009

“... As these summer days quickly draw to a close, let us always offer grateful prayers to God for the many people who have preceded us in handing on our precious faith.

“Let us especially pray for the generosity to imitate them in our sacrificial dedication to making the love of Jesus Christ known in our families and throughout our communities.”

— “Visit,” Aug. 19, 2016

“Returning to the roots of the Church takes us back to a time and place where being a Christian meant swimming against, not with the tide. With standing up, and standing out, not blending in.”

— “Visit,” Oct. 4, 2013

“Our life is really a pilgrimage, each day a call and an opportunity to walk in faith, in hope and in love toward that final, eternal union with God. Our journey to God, which looks ahead to the end of our earthly life, is really a journey in which this ‘God in the distance’ is really a God present with us each step of the way. We just need eyes of faith and hearts of love to realize that God is walking with us.”

— “Visit,” Nov. 19, 2010

“My priority as your bishop is to unite us as stewards of God. As the Gospel reading for last weekend reminded us, we respond as good stewards by living out God’s two greatest commandments: ‘to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength,’ and ‘to love your neighbor as yourself.’ Beyond the boundaries of our homes, parishes and diocese we truly are each other’s neighbor and steward.”

— “Visit,” Nov. 6, 2000

“As we wait the dawn of the New Millennium of Christianity let us not forget that our grace-filled destiny is somehow mysteriously bound up in the legacy of our many forebears. Their energy and sacrifices should make us tireless in our opportunities for the New Evangelization in the years ahead.”

— “Visit,” May 16, 1999

“It is important to remember that only the Blessed Virgin Mary has shared completely in her Son’s innocence through the unique gift of her immaculate Conception. In other words, if we truly examine our conscience, all of us find an abundance of cause for us to seek the loving forgiveness of Christ.”

— “Visit,” Feb. 20, 1998

“Christ has revealed to us the fullness of who we are. He has redeemed us in His very Incarnation. We should do what we can to let this jubilee of our restoration be a special time to announce to the world the reason for our joy.

“Just think of it. Because Jesus became one like us, we not only share the very life force of God (sanctifying grace), but also we have the power to live and act in a way higher than normal human nature, in supernatural Faith, Hope and Love.”

— “Visit,” Dec. 5, 1997

“There is an old saying, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ That tendency in human nature would make it easy for us to presume that at our death we leave the Church for the next stage of life that God has prepared for us.

“But the truth is that, since the Church is the Body of Christ, as long as we hold firm to the grace of baptism that is our birthright, we remain members of the Body of Christ, the Church, throughout time and eternity.”

— “Visit,” Oct. 6, 1999

“We are therefore greatly concerned about there being any empty chairs at Mass on Sunday. If one of those empty seats belongs to you, we invite you, urge you and pray for you to reclaim it at once. If you cannot come to Mass each Sunday due to sickness or age, we offer you our prayers and blessings and the continuing bond of kinship in faith. If you are away for any other reason, know that we are keeping your place at the table, that we are sorry if anything we said or did that may be keeping you away, and that our circle of believers will not be complete until you return to your seat among us.”

— “Visit,” Sept. 28, 2012

“Dogs don’t sing! They can’t sing. They may howl forlornly when we produce sounds that irritate their keen hearing, but they aren’t singing. Many animals and birds have ways of communicating with sound to attract or repel others or to stake out territory, but they don’t sing. Only humans sing. Only humans produce music to share with one another and to share with God. And when beautiful music is joined with beautiful words the effect can be absolutely sublime.”

— “Visit,” Oct. 16, 2015

“Faith invites us to ground our efforts in the renewed and redeemed relationship that grace itself establishes within us. We are asked to renew our awareness and proclamation that we come from God, we share God’s very life in the exercise of faith, hope and love, and we are destined to return to God. Christ, the beginning and the end, not only has restored our origin in the heart of the Father by His becoming one like us in the Incarnation, but ‘dying He destroyed our death, rising He restored our life.’ As  the New Adam, He ‘re-starts’ our life and conquers the presumed finality of death.”

— “Visit,” Nov. 23, 2012

“While still a persecuted group of people hunted down for extermination, those early Christians regularly gathered, just as we do today, to pray, to reflect on the Word of God and to share in the Holy Eucharist. And they gathered on the shore of Galilee, in the glorious pagan city of Rome, in the shadow of the army garrisons in Trier and in countless other places throughout the Mediterranean Basin.

“In nature, when all of the elements are in place, something called spontaneous combustion can take place. In the realm of grace, the fire of the Holy Spirit can have the same effect.

“And it could very easily happen right now in our time. These days leading up to Christmas teach us that we should learn to expect miracles.”

— “Visit,” Dec. 16, 2011

“The chains of sin are broken. Our faith is not in vain. Our wildest hopes are legitimate. Love is triumphant. Kiss the cross of our redemption and lift it proudly on high in our hearts and in our churches. The blood of the martyrs becomes a seed of life. Let the bells ring out joyously the Alleluia of the resurrection! All of us are called to be witnesses to the power of the Risen Lord. Let us keep the joy of our salvation alive and vibrant.”

— “Visit,” April 1, 2007

“God did not intervene in history to establish His kingdom by a political or military miracle, overturning old rulers and setting new ones on the throne. There were not a few Christians who thought that is what God ought to do. They wanted God to overhaul things in a large way and establish a Utopia, a heaven-on-earth.

“... Easter changed nothing on the outside, but it changed everything on the inside. It inspired an inner revolution, which created what St. Paul called 'newness of life.' This newness of life was based on the awareness that all could be freed from the age-old natural human condition of sin and death."

“If there were no Holy Spirit, the Church would have ceased to exist long ago. But the fact is that the Church now reaches into every corner of the globe and continues to grow. ... No undertaking of merely human origin has ever lasted this long.”

— “Visit,” May 22, 2015