Message from Bishop John
September 2025
CATY MRAZ | THE U.P. CATHOLIC
Candles lit by visitors and parishioners sit in St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Calumet during the annual Baraga Days held Aug. 29-30. The event was held in the Copper Country area of the Upper Peninsula.
What Do We Really Want?
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
What do we really want? What fulfills the deep desires of our hearts?
Pop music reflects the culture, and periodically I check the Billboard Hot 100 to see what people are listening to in order to take the pulse of our culture. As I write these lines, the song "What I Want" by the country music singers Morgan Wallen and Tate McRae is number three on the Billboard Hot 100. Let us consider the opening lines of the song and what it says about the desires of our hearts.
"She said, 'You don't want this heart, boy, it's already broke.'
Told me everything she touch just goes up in smoke.
Only stay a couple nights, then she gon' be gone.
I said, 'Baby, you should know that's what I want.'"
The woman has been deeply wounded through failed relationships and doubts that she can have a successful one: "everything she touch just goes up in smoke." As a result, all she offers is a couple nights. Tragically, the man says that is what he wants. This bespeaks the often misguided desires of the culture. Here in the song, the misguided desires are rooted in deep wounds.
The wounds of a broken heart, of broken relationships run deep in many people. To soothe the wounds, it is easy to turn to illusory promises of fulfillment. In the song, they mistakenly think that a couple of nights will bring some sense of fulfillment.
The deep desires of our hearts can only be filled with a love that is faithful, everlasting, and unconditional. This kind of love is what we really want. This kind of love is only found in Jesus. Turn to him if you are suffering the wounds of a broken heart, the wounds of a broken relationship.
These lyrics can also be an opportunity for us to examine how we love other people. Through our baptism, we receive the grace to love God and others with the love of God. The love of God is poured into our hearts with the pouring of or immersion in the baptismal waters and the gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to us. Let us strive to be faithful to the gift of love given to us in baptism. In our relationships with others, let us do our best to love others as Jesus has loved us, with a love that is faithful, lasting, and unconditional.
May God send his blessings on you and your loved ones.
In Christ,
+Most Reverend John Doerfler
Bishop of Marquette
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