The Society of Jesus is celebrating, until July 31st, the 500th anniversary of a personal transformation that changed the history of the Church. The example set by Saint Ignatius of Loyola will inspire, to a large extent, the activities that the Macau Ricci Institute intends to promote throughout the current year. The first activity – an online forum on “spiritual transformation” – takes place next Monday.
A bicycle ride bound for the campus of the University of Macau on Hengqin Island set, once again, the Lusophone Scouts Group (GELMac) in motion, after a short Christmas break. The Catholic Scouts movement celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2022, but the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to overshadow the celebrations.
The 20-year-old Francis found peace in the radical and liberating love of God: “‘loving him without asking anything in return and trusting in divine love; no longer asking what will God do with me: I simply love him, independently of all that he gives me or does not give me. Thus, I find peace’ and the question of predestination – which was being discussed at that time – was resolved, because he no longer sought what he might receive from God; he simply loved God and abandoned himself to his goodness. And this was to be the secret of his life which would shine out in his main work: the The Treatise on the Love of God.”
Bishop Stephen LEE announces that, with immediate effect, faithful who are unable to utilise the Macao Venue Code or whose Health Codes are Red or Yellow are dispensed from the obligation of attending Masses.
What must have been the gaze of Christ?
In the liturgy, on the other hand, the symbols, rites and precepts are precisely established by the Church as they become the intermediary of great mysteries and effectively transmit the grace that saves us. Just as the liturgical proclamation of the Word of God is closely linked to Sacred Scripture and does not admit any deviation from what the inspired Word is, so in sacred rites and prayers there must be fidelity to the symbols and texts established by the Church. Without this observance, the liturgy undergoes falsifications, reductions, omissions or additions that do not conform to faith and prayer which are proper to the Church.
The Seattle Jesuit school for poorest kids was not just a dream come true but that dream reached as far as outer space recently.
The development of Christian spirituality is grounded on the sources of Revelation, that is, Sacred Scriptures and Christian Tradition. Christian spirituality has developed exuberantly through the centuries from the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures, through the Fathers of the Church, theologians, mystics, and saints, and the evolving magisterium of the Church.
“We have books in our hands, but the facts before our eyes,” said Saint Augustine in speaking of fulfillment of the prophecies in the Scriptures by Jesus. Jesus’ facts were his miracles, his gestures of compassion, his forgiveness of sinners, and the sacrifice of his life for us. The eyes of our sons and daughters, of our pupils, or of our coworkers are fixed on us too: they expect not perfection but love; not convincing eloquence, but truth. They want to “see” that God’s mercy can truly permeate, (or better, “anoint”) all our life, all our actions, all our dreams, even our failures: nothing excluded.
Fr. Pedro Chong said that the exhibition wishes to show the Lord’s presence in the community of Mong-Ha and to explain the mission of the parish. “History is not made by man. Man is only a visitor who participates in the formation of history.”