miniZibaldone

The center of the Gospel "is not the miracle [of the resurrected son], but Jesus' tenderness toward this boy's mother. Here, mercy takes the name of great compassion toward a woman who had lost her husband and now her only son is also bound for the cemetery. This mother's great sorrow moves Jesus and causes the miracle of the resurrection" From the audience St. Luke remarks on Jesus' feelings: "The Lord saw her and had compassion for her and said to her: '“Do not weep.”Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still "(vv. 13-14). Great compassion guided the actions of Jesus: it is he who stops the procession touching the coffin and, moved by deep compassion for this mother, decides to face death, as it were, face to face. And he confronts it definitively, face to face, on the Cross. " "When Jesus saw the mother crying, she entered his heart! Everyone arrives at the Holy Door everyone bringing with them thei...

May the Virgin Mary help us to be persons and communities not focused on the present, or, worse, the nostalgic about the past, but turned towards the future of God, towards the encounter with him, our life and our hope. From the angelus Earlier, the pope had commented the Gospel reading of the day (Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C) concerning three parables on vigilance (Lk, 12:32-48). "The first,” he explained, “is the parable of the servants who wait during the night for the return of the master. ‘Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival’ (v. 37). It is the blessedness of waiting with faith for the Lord, of getting ready in an attitude of service. He becomes present every day, knocking on the door of our heart. And blessed will be those who open it because they will have a great reward: for the Lord himself will be the servant of his servants; in the great feast of his Kingdom, he will himself serve them. “With this parable, set at ni...

From Communio journal [Full text]

August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord The Holy Transfiguration by Robert Slesinski

St. Paul, who had been acquainted with the sporting world of his day, in the first Letter to the Corinthians, which we have just listened to, writes to those Christians living in the Greek world: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it!" (1 Cor 9:24). Here we see that the Apostle of the Gentiles, in order to bring the message of Christ to all peoples, drew from all the concepts, images, terminologies, modes of  expression, and philosophical and literary references not only of the Jewish tradition but also of Hellenic culture. And he did not hesitate to include sport among the human values which he used as points of support and reference for dialogue with the people of his time. Thus he recognized the fundamental validity of sport, considering it not just as a term of comparison to illustrate a higher ethical and aesthetic ideal, but also in its intrinsic reality as a factor in the formation of...

"This is why life is an inexhaustible certainty, and we live our life at peace, with the continual possibility of joy..." " Now, if it is an Other who saves me, who justifies me, what is this Other? "

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis To Lucy Barfield My Dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis