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  From 2-2-2022 General Audience [D]eepen our understanding of the figure of Saint Joseph. Sometimes even Christianity can fall into forms of devotion that seem to reflect a mentality that is more pagan than Christian. . . . Even when we rely fully on the intercession of a saint, or even more so that of the Virgin Mary, our trust only has value in relation to Christ. As if the path toward this saint or toward Our Lady does not end there, no. Not there, but in relationship with Christ. He is the bond, Christ is the bond that unites us to him and to each other, and which has a specific name: this bond that unites us all, between ourselves and us with Christ, it is the “communion of saints”. . . . What, then, is the “communion of saints”? The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: “The communion of saints is the Church” (no. 946). See what a beautiful definition this is! “The communion of saints is the Church.” What does this mean? That the Church is reserved for the perfect? No. I...

I know what you mean about being repulsed by the Church when you have only the Jansenist-Mechanical Catholic to judge it by. I think that the reason such Catholics are so repulsive is that they don't really have faith but a kind of false certainty. They operate by the slide rule and the Church for them is not the body of Christ but the poor man's insurance system. It's never hard for them to believe because actually they never think about it. Faith has to take in all the other possibilities it can. Anyhow, I don't think it's a matter of wanting miracles. The miracles seem in fact to be the great embarrassment to the modern man, a kind of scandal. If the miracles could be argued away and Christ reduced to the status of a teacher, domesticated and fallible, then there'd be no problem. Anyway, to discover the Church you have to set out by yourself. The French Catholic novelists were a hero to me in this—Bloy, Bernanos, Mauriac. In philosophy, Gilson, Maritain an...

It was only a matter of an inch; but an inch is everything when you are balancing. The Church could not afford to swerve a hair's breadth on some thing if she was to continue her great and daring experiment of the irregular equilibrium. Once let one idea become less powerful and some other idea  would become too powerful. It was no flock of sheep the Christian shepherd was leading, but a herd of bulls and tigers, of terrible ideals and devouring doctrines, each one of them strong enough to turn to a false religion and lay waste the world. Remember that the Church went in specifically for dangerous ideas; she was a lion tamer. The idea of birth through a Holy Spirit, of the death of a divine being, of the forgiveness of sins, or the fulfillment of prophecies, are ideas which, anyone can see, need but a touch to turn them into something blasphemous or ferocious. . . . If some small mistake were made in doctrine, huge blunders might be made in human happiness. A sentence phrased wron...

The character of “movement” distinguishes them in the ecclesial landscape in as much as they are powerfully dynamic realities. They are capable of provoking a particular attraction to the Gospel and offering a proposal of the Christian life which, basically global in outlook, touches every aspect of human existence. The gathering of the faithful into groups, with an intensely shared common existence in order to strengthen their life of faith, hope, and charity, expresses well the ecclesial dynamic as the mystery of communion for the sake of mission, and manifests itself as a sign of the unity of the Church in Christ.  In such a sense, these ecclesial groups arising from a shared charism tend to have as their goal “the broad apostolic purpose of the Church”. In this perspective, groups of the faithful, ecclesial movements, and new communities propose renewed forms of following Christ in which the communio cum Deo and the communio fidelium are deepened. Thus the attractiveness o...

Christoph Schonborn in  Civiltà Cattolica  ©   [Continue] Carlo Caffarra in OnePeterFive  ©   [Continue]

The Drama of Atheist Humanism Henri de Lubac gratis  Rudolf Voderholzer The Discovery of God Henri de Lubac  gratis  Rudolf Voderholzer The Paradoxes of the Faith Henri de Lubac gratis  Rudolf Voderholzer The Motherhood of the Church Henri de Lubac gratis  Rudolf Voderholzer Meet Henri de Lubac Rudolf Voderholzer   gratis  Rudolf Voderholzer At the Service of the Church by Henri de Lubac gratis Joseph Fessio The Mystery of the Supernatural by Henri de Lubac The Splendor of the Church by Henri de Lubac gratis Paul McPartlan The Eucharist Makes the Church by Paul McPartlan The Meaning of Tradition by Yves Congar 

The Council and Reunion Hans Kung Who's Who in Shakespeare Robin May Memories of a Catholic Girlhood Mary McCarthy   Child of My Heart Alice McDermott     Enter Isabel: The Herman Melville Correspondence of Clare Spark and Paul Metcalf Paul Metcalf   T. S. Eliot Poet A. D. Moody  

Faith, however, is born and reborn from a life-giving encounter with Jesus, from experiencing how his mercy illumines every situation in our lives.   From the homily What is the Lord asking us to build today in our lives, and even more importantly, upon what is he calling us to build our lives? In seeking an answer to this  question, I would like to suggest three stable foundations upon which we can tirelessly build and rebuild the Christian life.  The first foundation is memory. One grace we can implore is that of being able to remember: to recall what the Lord has done in and for us, and to remind ourselves  that, as today’s Gospel says, he has not forgotten us but “remembered” us (Lk 1:72).  Faith is also hope for your future and a light for life’s journey. Faith is the second foundation I would like to mention. There is always a danger that can dim the  light of faith, and that is the temptation to reduce it to something from the past, somethin...

The testimony of this sinner has sowed restlessness in the heart of  the innkeeper. What happened to this innkeeper the Gospel does not say – and doesn’t even record his name. But surely this man’s curiosity grew, his restlessness has  been allowed to grow in his heart. From the address Pope Francis, Vatican Radio reports, gave a catechesis on Luke’s gospel passage of the Good Samaritan. There are many characters in this passage, he said, but who  qualifies as a neighbour? The robber, the poor man who was left for dead on the road, the priest, the doctor of the law, the lawyer? Or the innkeeper? Perhaps none  of these knew how to answer such a question. The priest was in a hurry, like all priests and no doubt he’s looking at his watch and saying to himself that he must  celebrate the Mass, or that he’s left the door of the church open and he must close it. The doctor of the law, a practical man, said “But if I meddle in this,  tomorrow I must go to c...

F aith does not take us out of the world but inserts us more profoundly in it. Not like those perfect and immaculate ones that think they know it all, but as persons that have known the love that God has for us. From the address In fact, to look at our families with the delicacy with which God looks at them helps us to put our consciences in His same direction. The accent put on mercy puts us before the reality in a realistic way, not, however, with just any realism but with God’s realism. Our analyses are important and necessary and they will help us to have a healthy realism. But nothing is comparable to the evangelical realism, which does not halt at the description of situations, of problems, — even less of sin — but always goes beyond and succeeds, seeing behind every face, every story, every situation an opportunity, a possibility. Evangelical realisms is committed to the other, to others and does not make ideals and of “having to be” an obstacle to encounter others in the...

Enter into an experience of faith that overcomes any materialistic appropriation or human understanding of the divine mystery.

Sun.Star Cebu's  Carvajal: "Presidential" AS THE saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. That is basically what post-modern sociology means when it defines man/woman as a “social construct,” a  product of the society he/she was born into. It remains true that man/woman is a rational being. But how this being behaves in ground zero, like how irrational he gets over some issues, is programmed into him  by the social milieu. Free will would be what sociology refers to as “agency” or the ability to get out of the conventional mould and become your own man or woman.  Thus, a nation’s establishment protects the system that affords it so much power, wealth and privilege by promoting a culture of submission to, dependence on and  acceptance of the existing social order. Through this dominating culture, it subconsciously “constructs” society’s children into submissive, accepting and  unquestioning members of their society’s way of doing things and of gi...

T he mystique of Saints and Martyrs. And this is the generous work of ongoing formation in the mission that you have to do; which is not only an intellectual course, but inserted within this wave of missionary passion, the witness of martyrs. From the address While it is important to worry about the collection and distribution of economic aid that is diligently administered in favor of the many churches and many needy Christians, a service for which I thank you, I urge you to not just limit yourself to that. Mystique is necessary. We need to grow in evangelical passion. I fear - I confess - that your work remains very organizational, organized perfectly, but lacking passion. This it can also make an NGO, but you are not an NGO! Your Union without passion is not needed; without the "mystical" element it is not needed. And if we have to sacrifice something, let us sacrifice the organization, and move forward with the mystique of the Saints.   [full text]

The epicentre of his [a Christian's] heart is outside of himself. He is not drawn by his own “I”, but by the “Thou” of God and by the “we” of other men and women. From the homily Contemplating the Heart of Christ, we are faced with the fundamental question of our priestly life: Where is my heart directed? Our ministry is often full of plans,  projects and activities: from catechesis to liturgy, to works of charity, to pastoral and administrative commitments. Amid all these, we must still ask ourselves:  What is my heart set on, where is it directed, what is the treasure that it seeks? For as Jesus says: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt  6:21). ...  To help our hearts burn with the charity of Jesus the Good Shepherd, we can train ourselves to do three things suggested to us by today’s readings: seek out,  include and rejoice....  Such is a heart that seeks out – a heart that does not set aside times and spaces as private, a ...

So let us go forward! Do not forget about prayer. Pray as best you can, and if you fall sleep in front of the tabernacle, so be it. But pray! Don’t ever lose this. Don’t fail to let yourselves be gazed upon by Our Lady, and keep her always as your Mother. Don’t ever lose your zeal, and your closeness and availability to people. And also, may I say: Don’t ever lose your sense of humour… So let’s move forward! From the priest's retreat Our people value this in a priest who cares for the poor and the sick, for those whose sins he forgives and for those whom he patiently teaches and corrects… Our people forgive us priests many failings, except for that of attachment to money. This they don’t forgive. It is not so much about money itself, but the fact that money makes us lose the treasure of mercy. Our people can sniff out which sins are truly grave for a priest, the sins that kill his ministry because they turn him into a bureaucrat or, even worse, a mercenary. I have always be...

The heart that God joins to this moral misery of ours is the heart of Christ, his beloved Son, which beats as one with that of the Father and the Spirit. It is a  heart that chooses the fastest route and takes it. Mercy gets its hands dirty. It touches, it gets involved, it gets caught up with others, it gets personal. It does  not approach “cases” but persons and their pain. Mercy exceeds justice; it brings knowledge and compassion; it leads to involvement.  From the priest's retreat Let us think for a moment about the “embarrassed dignity” of this prodigal yet beloved son. If we can serenely keep our heart balanced between those two extremes – dignity and embarrassment – without letting go of either of them, perhaps we can feel how the heart of our Father beats with love for us.... Let us look a little more closely at this, and ask why this tension is so fruitful. The reason, I would say, is that it is the result of a free decision. The Lord  acts mainly throu...

Available in life, meek of heart and in constant dialogue with Jesus, you will not be afraid to be servants of Christ, and to encounter and caress the flesh of the Lord in the poor of our time. From the homily One who serves cannot hoard his free time; he has to give up the idea of being the master of his day. He knows that his time is not his own, but a gift from God which is then offered back to him. Only in this way will it bear fruit. One who serves is not a slave to his own agenda, but ever ready to deal with the unexpected, ever available to his brothers and sisters and ever open to God’s constant surprises. One who serves is open to surprises, to God’s constant surprises. A servant knows how to open the doors of his time and inner space for those around him, including those who knock on those doors at odd hours, even if that entails setting aside something he likes to do or giving up some well-deserved rest. One who serves is not worried about the timetable. It deeply troub...

It is Jesus who blesses and breaks the loaves and provides sufficient food to satisfy the whole crowd, but it is the disciples who offer the five loaves and two  fish. From the homily Jesus wanted it this way: that, instead of sending the crowd away, the disciples would put at his disposal what little they had.  And there is another gesture: the  pieces of bread, broken by the holy and venerable hands of Our Lord, pass into the poor hands of the disciples, who distribute these to the people.  This too is the  disciples “doing” with Jesus; with him they are able to “give them something to eat”.  Clearly this miracle was not intended merely to satisfy hunger for a day, but  rather it signals what Christ wants to accomplish for the salvation of all mankind, giving his own flesh and blood (cf. Jn 6:48-58).  And yet this needs always to  happen through those two small actions: offering the few loaves and fish which we have; receiving the brea...