CHURCH FATHERS (27) – Saint Athanasius of Alexandria
– Anastasios
In the 4th century all Christianity was shattered by an heretical doctrine, Arianism. This doctrine, among other things, taught that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God but only God’s most excellent creature. But there were lonely men of God resisting, as Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373). In 325 he was deacon at the Council of Nicaea, the Council that will condemn Arianism. But Arianism did not end in 325. Athanasius will be Bishop of Alexandria in 328 and also in that position he will undergo strong persecution from the supporters of Arianism, that were a lot. He will be dethroned and restored in his position for many times and will be exiled for almost 17 years.
BITE-SIZE PHILOSOPHY (80) – So what if the First Cause is Pure Act?
PHOTO: Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)
– Rev José Mario O Mandía
The five ways of Saint Thomas conclude respectively as follows:
(1) First Way: Unmoved Mover and Pure Act
(2) Second Way: the First Efficient Cause
(3) Third Way: the Necessarily Existing Being
(4) Fourth Way: Perfect Truth, Goodness and Beauty
(5) Fifth Way: Supreme Governing Intelligence.
THE ONE WHO SERVES IS MORE WORTHY – 23 September 2018, 25th Sunday In Ordinary Time (B)
WIS 2:12,17-20; JAS 3:16 - 4:3; MK 9:30-37
– Fernando Armellini SCJ
Claretian Publications, Macau
Right in the beginning of today’s gospel we are faced with the question: “He is about to be delivered,” by whom? The answer seems obvious: by Judas. But the theologians call the ‘delivered’ a divine passive, i.e. God himself is the doer of the action. “It is God” who gives his Son, “who delivers him into the hands of people.”
GREAT FIGURES OF THE MISSIONARY WORK – Bengal and the Kingdom of the Dragon (20)
– Joaquim Magalhães de Castro
By the turn of the 17th century, numerous references to a Christian community of considerable size, certainly of “Firingi” origin, appeared in Rangamati on the banks of Brahmaputra. A text dating from 1682 and written by the Augustinian monks living in Bandel (Hoogly) in Bengal devotes a few paragraphs to the Christian community of Rangamati, which at that time totaled 7,000 souls. Frey Sicardo, the Augustinian priest who was there attending to the spiritual needs of Catholics, refers to another place that the records refer to as Hossumpur (or Ossumpur), apparently in the vicinity of Rangamati, where another community of firingis would reside. Since then the missionaries of the Portuguese Padroado do Oriente would make frequent visits to Rangamati and Hossumpur.
TRUTH AND POST-TRUTH (2) – Knowing, saying and doing
PHOTO: Uroburos at Pixabay
– FAUSTO GOMEZ OP
A Christian philosopher writes: “Truth has too many preachers and few martyrs; hence our little credibility in the world” (Carlos Diaz). Proclaiming the truth in life – even up to martyrdom – entails the following integrated and harmonized steps: to know the truth, to say the truth, and to do the truth in love.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH FATHER ENRICO FINOTTI – Culmen et fons
– Aurelio Porfiri
The name of Father Enrico Finotti may ring familiar for the readers of this magazine (at least those of the English edition). For some months, we have been offering the translation of one of his books about the liturgy in Q&A format: Il mio e il vostro sacrificio. Father Finotti is now also working on a monumental book (around 1400 pages!) on the Roman Canon.
MARIAN APPARITIONS (82) – Vera Cruz, Mexico
When Hitler’s armies defeated the French and entered the city of Paris during the latter part of 1939, a young woman, Maria Hendizabal, fled from France to live in Mexico. Arriving at Vera Cruz, she went to the Mexican capital to make a new home. Among her few possessions she had a large picture of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart which she wished to give to some church for safekeeping, since she would be obliged to live in a small town and expected to have nothing more than a small room for herself. Padre Juan Gomez of the Church of San Jose (Saint Joseph) allowed her to place the image on the wall of the vestibule on February 2, 1940.
NEWS BRIEFS
– Tej Francis
STRASBOURG, FRANCE
MYSTIC AND RELIGIOUS FOUNDER MOTHER ALPHONSE MARIE BEATIFIED IN STRASBOURG, FRANCE
(CNA) A personal encounter with Mother Alphonse Marie Eppinger inspired “conversions which were far more miraculous than the raising of the dead,” recounted her spiritual director, Father Jean-David Reichard. The nineteenth century French mystic and religious founder was beatified this week in her native Strasbourg after a miraculous physical healing through her intercession was confirmed.
