Category Archives: Faith & Life
APOLOGIA (26) – Did Jesus spend time in India?
– Anastasios
Objection 1: We have a gap between the childhood of Jesus and his public ministry. This gap is of around 18 years, not a little time. Some scholars believe he traveled to India to learn from wise men there. Can be this a reliable hypothesis?
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BITE-SIZE PHILOSOPHY (79) – How does induction lead us to the Unmoved Mover?
PHOTO: soej24 at Pixabay
– Rev José Mario O Mandía
“It seems that God does not exist,” Saint Thomas writes (Summa Theologiae (S Th) I q2 a3 objection 1), “because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word ‘God’ means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.” You probably have heard this argument from many a doubting friend: there is no God because there is evil in the world.
PETER FOLLOWED JESUS BUT MISUNDERSTOOD THE GOAL – 16 September 2018, 24th Sunday In Ordinary Time (B)
Is 50:5-9a; Jas 2:14-18; Mk 827-35
– Fernando Armellini SCJ
Claretian Publications, Macau
“You are the Messiah.” Peter gave a precise definition but he continues to be convinced that the Master will soon begin an earthly kingdom. For Jesus the time to correct this dangerous mistake has arrived. Jesus makes it clear, that the goal of his journey is through suffering and crucifixion. The disciples can neither understand nor accept the prospect of the gift of life. It’s not for this that they left the house, the boat, the family to follow the Master. Where does he want to lead them, to ruin, to defeat?
ASK THE LITURGIST (13) – The humeral veil
– Enrico Finotti
Is the humeral veil optional?
“The priest or the deacon should wear a white cope and humeral veil to give the blessing at the end of adoration, when the exposition takes place with the monstrance; in the case of exposition in the ciborium, the humeral veil should be worn” (Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside the Mass).
MARIAN APPARITIONS (81) – Arras, France
Our Lady of Ardents, or Eglise Notre-Dame des Ardents d’Arras in French, is a small, charming red brick church in the lower part of town in Arras, France. It was built in the beautiful style unique to the twelfth century in order to celebrate the appearance of the Blessed Virgin, and to commemorate the miraculous assistance she gave to the people then living in the region.
GOD’S FAITHFUL AND PRUDENT SERVANT – Pope Francis and the miraculous image of the sleeping St Joseph
PHOTO CAPTION: A statue of the sleeping St Joseph at the Macau St Joseph Seminary. Photo by Fr Leonard Dollentas.
– Fr Leonard E Dollentas
When it comes to patron saints and intercessors, Pope Francis seems to play favorites. This has become apparent when many times he mentioned that he has special devotions to St Joseph and the Virgin Mary.
Hence, the Pope keeps a St Joseph statue in his office. However, the image that sits on his desk is no ordinary St Joseph image with his carpenter tools, with the child Jesus learning his trade or with a staff blossoming with the flowers of purity. This image, is a representation of St. Joseph that we are not accustomed seeing and having … St Joseph in slumber.
PREPARING FOR DEATH WITH ST ALFONSUS MARIA DE’ LIGUORI
– Aldo Maria Valli
In the first day of August, the Church remembers St. Alphonsus Maria de’ Liguori (1696-1787), to whom I am attached for many reasons. He composed Tu scendi dalle stelle (You come down from heaven), the best known Christmas folk song, and to him is entitled the parish of which I have been part since I live in Rome. Also he wrote Preparation for death, a very useful work, because it reminds us that down here the only thing that matters is to prepare ourselves for life up there.
BITE-SIZE PHILOSOPHY (78) – Can we demonstrate the existence of a First Cause?
PHOTO:By Free-Photos at Pixabay
– Rev José Mario O Mandía
Can we demonstrate the existence of a First Cause? But first, what do we mean by “demonstrate”? To demonstrate is to show that something which we cannot directly know (i.e., a truth that is not self-evident to us) is true, using some truths that are more known to us.
EPHPHATHA: BE OPENED; BE BAPTIZED – 9th September 2018 – 23rd Sunday In Ordinary Time (B)
Is 35:4-7a; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37
Fr Fernando Armellini SCJ
Claretian Publications, Macau
The sick to be healed is a “stuttering deaf” as in the original text. For Isaiah, the “stuttering deaf” was the people of Israel. However, the patient who is presented to Jesus is a pagan. It is the condition of every person who has not yet met Christ or one who deliberately closes his ears and does not allow the word of salvation to penetrate his heart.
CHURCH FATHERS (26) – Eusebius of Caesarea
In the past century history has seen a strong rethinking about many assumptions coming from the Rankean tradition, that tradition established from the German historian Leopold von Ranke which demanda that history has to establish “what has really happened.”
