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The Root of Forgiveness In secular society, forgiveness, like hope, is doomed to fail without a foundation in Christ, the origin of the love which is the only truth that can uphold such an ideal by lorenzo albacete Recently, I was watching the movie  Gladiator  with Russell Crowe on the movie classic channel, and I was struck by how the highest ideals were pursued by the most shocking cruelty without anyone noticing the incompatibility between the two. I thought how this was the dominant culture when the first Christians arrived in Rome and the great cities of the Empire. These first Christians did not seek protection from this culture. Instead, by engaging with it at all of its levels, they humanized it, inserting into it their experience of the dignity of the person, the greatness of reason, and the possibility of mercy and forgiveness. This happened not as the result of political strategies, but as a fruit of their efforts to respond to their encounter with Christ...

God Is Mercy Notes from a talk by Luigi Giussani during the Memores Domini Lenten Retreat in Pianazze, Italy, on February 16, 1975 The prayer last night [ “Through our annual Lenten observance, Lord, deepen our understanding of the mystery of Christ and make it a reality in the conduct of our lives.” ] called us to the two results of conversion: the passion of the knowledge of Christ (“knowledge” in the full, biblical sense of the word), thus the passion for Christ, the love of Christ as the desire to cling to Him, and hence the second result, good works. Lent is the instrument–the sacramental instrument–for fostering this conversion. In other words, operating the Lenten sign, making ours the pedagogic indications that the Church uses for the Lenten call to conversion, something happens in us through the power of the Holy Spirit that is greater than what our usual efforts would yield. It is a sacramental time, a time destined by God to give us a greater impetus of transf...

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Reading is the first way to listen, and thus to learn. Invitation to read From  “ The Day After Redemption” “Where in your time, in your body has Jesus redeemed you? Show me where because I don’t see the place. If there was a place where Jesus had redeemed you, that would be the place for you to be, but which of you can find it?” At the beginning of Flannery O’Connor’s  Wise Blood , the would-be anti-Christ Hazel Motes says to Mrs.  Wally B. Hitchcock, a passenger seated in front of him on a train: “I reckon you think you have been redeemed.” Mrs. Hitchcock, clearly taken aback by the question, “snatched at her collar,” not knowing how to answer the question. “I reckon you think you have been redeemed,” Hazel insisted. “She blushed. After a second she said, yes life was an inspiration, and then she said she was hungry and asked if he didn’t want to go into the diner.” Thus begins Hazel Mote’s relentless efforts to expose Christian hypocrisy by founding ...

Bukong (Max Surban) Abtik ug kursunada Bisa’g asa mi punta Okay bisan way kwarta Ang amo lang buhaton Kaulaw di bati-on Mag-anad sa pamukong Sakay-sakay sa frontsit Ang konduktor thank youhon Busa tawgon dibukong Restawran wa kutrihon Kun masakpan maga-antos Sa plato pahugason Korus: Bukong, kay kami namukong Bisan asa padulong Pirming way riserbisyon Bahala na’g magpungko Magkapyot magtikungkong Antuson lang kay bukong Magdaginot sa gasto Kung duna mi sinsilyo Para lang sigarilyo Usahay kung swertehon Malibre’s paniudto Libre pa’s panihapon To Korus Usahay kun badlungon Bisan nipis nga nawong Bagan na kung hikapon Hilaw na ang pahiyom Ulo kalut-kaluton Ang dagway maglipadhong To Korus Bukong

Reading is the first way to listen, and thus to learn. Invitation to read From the interview  “The Wound of Beauty ” “This book will break your heart, and will show you why your heart needed to be broken.” Thus a reviewer of one of the stories by Michael O’Brien, the Canadian painter and writer (author of  Father Elijah: The Apocalypse , among other works). His stories tell of men and women, often humiliated and injured, apparently of little importance, but whose “little” choices, whose journey toward love and truth, prove decisive for the destiny of the world, capable of leading others to love and freedom. O’Brien has been compared to writers like Flannery O’Connor, Graham Greene, and C. S. Lewis. During the last Spiritual Exercises, Fr. Carrón continually reminded us of our original dependence on the Mystery of God. He told us that every man is a “direct, exclusive relationship with God, and the reverberation of this is our being poor beggars.” You, o...