miniZibaldone

  From 9-15-2023 Audience A Heart Expanded by the Unspeakable Sweetness of Love [B]y contemplating creation, by letting yourselves be challenged by daily events, by experiencing work as prayer, to the point of transforming the very means of your work into instruments of blessing, and finally through people, in those brothers and sisters whom divine Providence leads you to encounter. In all this, you are called to be seekers of God . [...] Indeed, nowadays, in a globalized but fragmented and fast-paced world devoted to consumerism, in settings where family and social roots sometimes almost seem to disappear, there is no need for Christians who point fingers, but for enthusiastic witnesses who radiate the Gospel “in life through life.” This is always a temptation: go from being “Christian witnesses” to “Christian accusers.” There is only one accuser, the devil. We should not assume the role of the devil but of Jesus. We are students of the school of Jesus, of the Beatitudes. [...] [Y...

from  english.clonline.org What We Are Learning: Our Silent World Letters by witnesses “ Life Changes ” : a conversation with Italian author Maurizio Maggiani “ The Renewal of My Humanity ” : Giorgio Vittadini reflects on the temptation to cling to all sorts of  “ have to be ’ s ” “ In the Right Place ” : cardiologist Francesco Rotatori talks about what is happening in New York “ A Continuous  ‘ Here I Am ’ ” : monk Sergio Massalongo on  his experience of “our yes to Christ is, before all else,  our contribution to the salvation of every man and woman today.” “The Touch of the Mystery ” by Luigi Giussani

continue reading:  https://english.clonline.org/news/culture/2020/04/01/pasolini-my-foot-caught-in-the-stirrup

continue reading:  https://english.clonline.org/news/current-events/2020/03/13/faith-puts-fear-in-its-proper-place

Nikkei Asian Review ,   "Election risks reigniting Philippines inflation: Failure to fix economic bottlenecks leaves country vulnerable to price pressure" What might Milton Friedman make of the Philippines today? The Nobel economist popularized the theory that inflation is "always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." Since the 1960s, his argument that demand for money controlled all prices won converts from London to Tokyo. Look no further than the Bank of Japan's deflation battle and you see the American's outsized influence 12 years after his death. But events in Manila show that even the great man was not always right. Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte's team demanded that the Manila central bank explain why the nation suffers the highest inflation in Southeast Asia. Though price pressures cooled in late 2018, the 5.2% annualized rate far exceeded the 2.9% gain in 2017. The response from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was to say to Dutert...

Nikkei Asian Review ,   "Apple held hostage by its Chinese puzzle ": How iPhone maker's success manufactured the rise of Huawei TAIPEI/ HONG KONG -- Soon after Tim Cook was hired by Apple's founder Steve Jobs in 1998 to whip the company's U.S.-focused supply chain into shape, he made a bold decision. Within two years he began shutting Apple's U.S. factories and outsourcing production to China. His decision drove down costs and gave Apple the resources it needed to develop its next blockbuster products, the iPod and iPhone. It also created a competitive manufacturing base, capable of mobilizing hundreds of thousands of workers with just a phone call. But eight years after Cook became CEO, this strategy is being called into question. Not only has it left Apple dangerously exposed in the escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing, but the highly complex supply chain that Apple built in China over 20 years has given rise to one of its fiercest compe...

Fr. Giussani—after the visit to John Paul II, when the Holy Father said, “You have no homeland , because you cannot be assimilated to this society”—described how we are without a homeland if we want to live with our eyes fixed on Jesus. [...] In order truly to be able to live without a homeland, the faith must truly satisfy , and not be something just made of words. [...] The test of faith is satisfaction , and this putting together of faith and satisfaction is decisive, because so often we speak of faith as if it had nothing to do with satisfaction: we would find satisfaction elsewhere, according to our frameworks or images, as if there were no real and true relationship between faith and satisfaction. Instead, beginning to put them together enables us to start the verification to assess up to what point for us faith is the acknowledgment of something so real , of a Presence that is so real, true because real, that it brings satisfaction.

Nikkei Asian Review ,   " Asia shares blame for its export slump " A moment of reckoning for Asia's exporters is a time for somber reflection and for bold action. Since Jan. 1, the region's advanced economies reported export drops thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. First came news that December overseas shipments by South Korea fell 1.2% from a year earlier. Then it was Taiwan down 3%, Singapore down 8.5%, and now the biggest collateral-damage victim -- Japan down 3.8%. To no surprise, China also had a rough December. Exports slid 4.4%, the steepest decline in more than two years. Asia's biggest economy is, of course, the main target of Trump's protectionist jihad. But as China's neighbors sustain blows, they must accept some of the blame for their difficulties -- and make urgent adjustments.   [link] Vatican Insider,  " Pope Francis’ 'Montini-inspired realism'" The "criterion" of Christian...

Mary: Faith and Faithfulness Notes from Fr. Luigi Giussani’s words at the XV Pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Snows in Andro, Italy, on May 7, 1989 I would like to thank Our Lady and also Fr. Gino for giving me the opportunity to participate, at least in part, in this great, beautiful gesture that a pilgrimage is. It is a great and beautiful gesture because it is a symbol of life: without our willing it, without our thinking of it, one step after the other, life, too, is a walk toward the destiny that is God, He who made us, He who gave us our father and mother, and He who awaits us at the end of our labors–yes, because life is toil. If God came among us (you’ve already meditated on this along the course of your pilgrimage), if God came among us to die, to work like everybody else, but above all to die, it means that life is something toilsome. And, in fact, it is the test for going where there awaits us, as Jacopone da Todi says, the “heavenly reign, that fulfil...

From a homily With faith everything is possible In this second week of Advent, Pope Francis continued, “we ask for the grace to prepare ourselves with faith to celebrate Christmas.” He noted that Christmas is often marked in a worldly or pagan fashion, but reiterating the Lord’s request that we do so with faith, the Pope said “it's not easy to keep the faith, it's not easy to defend the faith… it's not easy!” “It will do us good today, and also tomorrow, during the week, to take chapter 9 of the Gospel of John and read this beautiful story of the boy who was blind from birth”. “From the bottom of our hearts” he concluded “utter an act of faith and say: I believe Lord. Help me in my faith. Defend my faith from worldliness, from superstitions, from all that is not faith. Keep it from being reduced to theory, be it theological or moral…  Faith in You, Lord”.

Salvation is not for sale “When one loses—not the capacity to love because that is something that can be recuperated—but the capacity to feel loved there is no hope and all is lost” he said. It reminds us, Pope Francis concluded, of the writing on the gate to Dante’s inferno ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’—we must think of this and of the Lord who wants His home to be filled: “Let us ask the Lord to save us from losing the ability to feel loved.”   [link]

A Christ without a cross is not the Lord: he is a teacher, nothing else [...] It is one of the temptations.... The other temptation is a cross without Christ....This is a type of spiritual masochism: only the cross, without hope and without Christ. A Christ without a cross is not the Lord: he is a teacher, nothing else. This is perhaps what Nicodemus, without realizing it, was seeking. It is one of the temptations. Yes, Jesus: ‘What a good teacher’, but… without the cross, [only] Jesus. Who bewitched you with this image? Paul is angry. Jesus Christ is presented but not as crucified. The other temptation is a cross without Christ, that is, the anguish of remaining down, depressed by the weight of sin and without hope. This is a type of spiritual masochism: only the cross, without hope and without Christ. The Cross is a mystery of love; the Cross is faithful; the Cross is noble. Today we should take a minute to ask ourselves these questions. Is Christ crucified a mystery of love?...

Faith isn’t an easy way out of life’s problems, but it supports us on the way and gives it meaning. When one doesn’t grip the Lord’s word to have greater security, one consults horoscopes and fortune-tellers, one begins to go down. It means that faith isn’t that strong. Today’s Gospel reminds us that faith in the Lord and in his word doesn’t open a way for us where everything is easy and tranquil; it doesn’t subtract us from life’s storms. Faith gives us the certainty of a Presence, the presence of Jesus that drives us to overcome the existential storms, the certainty of a hand that grips us to help us face the difficulties, pointing out the way to us also when it’s dark. In sum, faith isn’t an easy way out of life’s problems, but it supports us on the way and gives it meaning.... This episode is a stupendous image of the reality of the Church of all times: a boat that, along the crossing must also face adverse winds and storms, which threaten to sink it. What saves it is not th...

[T] he light of faith, which is in us through Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit, we must not keep as if it were our property.  From the Angelus The mission of Christians in society is to give “flavour” to life with the faith and love that Christ has given us, and at the same time to keep away the polluting germs of egoism, of envy, of malicious gossip, and so on. These germs ruin the fabric of our communities, which instead should shine as places of hospitality, of solidarity and of reconciliation. To fulfill this mission, it is necessary first of all that we ourselves are liberated from the corrupting degeneration of worldly influences, which are contrary to Christ and the Gospel; and this purification never ends, it goes on every day!   [full text]

We are being asked not to tire of keeping the key message of the faith front and centre: the Lord is risen.  Nothing is more important;  nothing is clearer or more  relevant than this.  Everything in the faith becomes beautiful when linked to this centrepiece. From the homily It is by loving that the God-who-is-Love is proclaimed to the world: not by the power of convincing, never by imposing the truth, no less by growing fixated on some  religious or moral obligation.  God is proclaimed through the encounter between persons, with care for their history and their journey.  Because the Lord is not an  idea, but a living person: his message is passed on through simple and authentic testimony, by listening and welcoming, with joy which radiates outward.  We do not  speak convincingly about Jesus when we are sad; nor do we transmit God’s beauty merely with beautiful homilies.  The God of hope is proclaimed by living out the  ...

Upon entering the gate of Jesus, the door of faith and of the Gospel, we can get out from worldly attitudes, bad habits, by selfishness and by our own closures. When there is contact with the love and mercy of God, there is a real change. And our life is illuminated by the light of the Holy Spirit: an inextinguishable light! From the angelus He leads us into fellowship with the Father, where we find love, understanding and protection. But why is this door narrow? One can ask. Why is it narrow?  It is a narrow door not because it is oppressive – no, but because it asks us to restrict and limit our pride and our fear, to open ourselves with humble and trusting heart to Him, recognizing ourselves as sinners, in need of His forgiveness. For this [reason], it is narrow: to contain our pride, which bloats us.  The door of God’s mercy is narrow but always wide open, wide open for everyone! God has no favorites, but always welcomes everyone, without distinction.  A door, th...

Saint Dominic had a dilemma at the beginning of his life, which marked his whole existence: “How can I study with dead skin, when Christ’s flesh suffers.” ...  In the encounter with the living flesh of Christ we are evangelized and recover the passion to be preachers and witnesses of His love; and we free ourselves of the  dangerous temptation, so present today, of Gnosticism. From the message God stimulated Saint Dominic to found an “Order of Preachers,” preaching being the mission that Jesus entrusted to the Apostles. It is the Word of God, which burns  within and spurs to go out to proclaim Jesus Christ to all peoples (cf. Matthew 28:19-20). The Founding Father said: “First contemplate and then teach.” Evangelized  by God, to evangelize. Without strong personal union with Him, the preaching might be very perfect, very reasoned, even admirable, but it will not touch the heart,  which is what must change. So essential is the serious and assiduous study of...

Semen est sanguis Christianorum . —Tertullian

Prayer is the first and principal “work tool” in our hands. To insist [on something] with God is not in order to convince him, but rather to strengthen our faith and our patience, that is, our capacity to fight beside God for the things that are truly important and necessary. In prayer we are a pair: God and me, fighting together for what is important. From the Angelus Father.  This word is the secret of Jesus’ prayer; it is the key that he himself gives us so that we can also enter into this relationship of trusting dialogue with the Father who has accompanied and sustained his life. ...  To the name “Father,” Jesus associates two petitions: “hallowed be your name; your kingdom come.” Jesus’ prayer, and therefore, a Christian’s prayer, is before all to give space to God, allowing him to manifest his holiness in us and allowing the advance of his kingdom by the possibility of exercising his lordship of love in our lives. ...  Another three petitions complete this pr...

Others make us question ourselves. And when others do not have this effect on us, something there is not right; something in such hearts is not Christian. From the angelus And He says to each of us: “Go and do likewise,” especially to the brother or sister you see in trouble. “Go and do likewise.'” Do good works, do not just say words that go to the wind. A song comes to mind: “Words, words, words.” No. Please, do. Act. And by the good works that we do with love and joy for others, our faith grows and bears fruit. Let us ask ourselves – each of us responding in our heart – let us ask ourselves: Is our faith fruitful? Does our faith produce good works? Or it is rather sterile, and therefore more dead than alive? Am I ‘the neighbor’ or do I simply just pass along? Or am I among those who select people according to their own pleasure? It’s good to ask ourselves these questions and often because, in the end, we will be judged on the works of mercy. The Lord will say to us: ‘But y...