A devotee of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and formerly an architect, the priest says that the mission entrusted to him by the Bishop of Macau, D. Stephen Lee Bun-sang, is a sign that God placed him under the direct protection of Our Lady. The new parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima spoke to O Clarim.
In Macau, devotion to St Joseph is evident not only in the Catholic community but also in the religious institutions and buildings dedicated to him. Among these are the St Joseph’s Seminary and Church, St Joseph the Worker Church and St Joseph’s University. The Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macau, on its World Heritage website, tells us that the old St Joseph’s Seminary – center of formation for numerous Catholic priests – was founded in 1728 and the adjoining church was built in 1758. It is mentioned that the Seminary, together with the College of St Paul, “was the principal base for the missionary work implemented in China, Japan and around the region.”
We can recall different forms of fasting: fasting for health, fasting for balance and physiological well-being; therapeutic fasting to regain health and maintain it; athletic fasting to achieve excellent sports performance; aesthetic fasting, to maintain good body shape, etc. Hence, fasting as such today does not undergo any crisis, but rather is on the increase.
Let us reflect on the observations made by the scholar Renata Salvarani who speaking about Baptism, observes that “between the ninth and tenth centuries, the baptismal liturgies underwent some transformations, even significant ones, which can be found both in the normative provisions and in the ecclesiastical practice.”
João de Brito accompanied all these persecutions in south India from outside; he had wanted to suffer those trials with his converts, but they had managed to keep him out from such convulsions, reminding him that the flock might lose some sheep, but it could not be without its shepherd.
On 28th January 2022, the Escola de Santa Teresa do Menino Jesus held Chinese Culture Day – Chinese Culture Art. Students were able to experience the Chinese Lunar New Year and learn about the Chinese Culture Art.
In our times, is there such a thing as a “just war”?
As we enter the season of Lent, the Church offers a great number of suggestions for our spiritual progress. One common devotion is the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) which is more commonly referred to as ‘Way of Sorrows’,‘Via Dolorosa’, or simply the Stations of the Cross.
Our faith not only affirms but elevates human dignity because it adds a more important and supernatural reason: “The dignity of the human person is rooted in his or her creation in the image and likeness of God” (CCCC 358). It is this fact that explains why we have the capacity of self-determination, why we are endowed with freedom. The same point of the CCCC continues: “Endowed with a spiritual and immortal soul, intelligence and free will, the human person is ordered to God and called in soul and in body to eternal beatitude.”
Fasting and penance are ways of purification, perfection, and spiritual combat. Jesus, when He let himself be led by the Spirit into the desert to face the temptation of the devil, shows us – gives us – one of the spiritual weapons He used to fight the devil: fasting. Already in the fourth century, St Peter Chrysologus wrote: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So, if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy.”