St Telesphorus is the 2nd pope of Greek nationality. Caporilli (The Roman Pontiffs) reports that he instituted the seven-week fast before Easter. He was said to have ordered that each priest celebrate three Masses on Christmas night and added new prayers to the Mass.
Today is in our hands but not fully: today is made up of many moments. Only this moment is in our hands. From the perspective of Christian faith, of spiritual/moral life, what is the meaning of “the moment”? When she was very young, St. Therese of the Child Jesus was worried about the future. After she became a Carmelite nun, she focused her life on the present moment: “I just keep concentrating on the present moment. I forget the past, and preserve myself from worries about the future… Let us see each instant as if there were no other. An instant is a treasure.”
This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. We can say that the Trinity is the House of love. Through it love overflows, the world made flesh and made His dwelling among us and the human being is created us in the image and likeness of God’s love. However, due to his natural limitations and because he freely sinned, he lived partially distant from the Trinitarian communion. Even so, God did not abandon him, manifesting His grace to him in different ways until redemption was fully accomplished in the salvific life of Jesus Christ. In today’s Gospel, Jesus promises that He will send the Holy Spirit to teach us all the truth. This shows that we cannot have access to the fullness of truth nor know ourselves deeply without the help of the Trinity. This is because the human being is not self-referential. Creation and its existence are incomprehensible without the Trinity: “the mystery at its highest level, the mystery par excellence” (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger). Based on Scripture and the Tradition of the Church, this mystery can be called “love.” Since he who loves must love something or someone, the very logic of love demands that – in divine life – there be plurality, authority, communication, reciprocity, that is, it is not just a gift of oneself, like a mirror that reflects its own image, but rather a gift in itself that, like glass, allows the ray of light to pass through it.
The life of an authentic Christian is a virtuous life: following the Virtuous One Jesus Christ, God and Man. A virtuous life is the life of a disciple of Christ who practices virtues: the seven virtues (and their respective allies) which according to St. Thomas Aquinas make a good Christian. The Magnificent Seven: faith, hope and charity (the theological virtues), and prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance (the cardinal moral virtues).
The community of disciples, together with the Apostles and the Virgin Mary, gathered in expectation. The Lord Jesus, the master and teacher they cherished had returned to His glory with the Father, completing His “Passover”—the transition from death to life and the fulfilment of His redemptive mission. His resurrection was not merely a triumph over death but a revelation of the eternal glory He possessed from the beginning, which He fully enjoyed with his return to His Father. Before His departure, He reassured His followers, saying “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper/Comforter, will not come to you” (Jn 16:7). At first, this seemed a paradox. How could His leaving be good? Would their Teacher and Savior not be more valuable to them in His visible presence? This mystery puzzled me for a long time, but understanding the connection between the Jewish Feasts of Passover and Pentecost allowed me to have a deeper understanding of God’s plan for salvation.
The Church celebrates the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord this Thursday. In some places however, such as Macau, this date is not a holiday, hence the celebration is moved to the following Sunday. This dogma of the Catholic faith teaches that, forty days after His Resurrection, the physical manifestation of Jesus on Earth ends: He ascends to heaven and seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
After stepping out to the main balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica as Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost identified himself not by nationality, but as being “a son of Saint Augustine, an Augustinian”. That sense of identity, Father Javier González claims, is more than symbolic and unquestionably influences the pope’s spiritual and theological outlook. The former Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of Our Lady of the Rosary is confident that Pope Leo XIV will continue the legacy of his predecessor, albeit with a much more moderate style. The Spanish missionary – who as a Dominican follows the Rule of Saint Augustine – believes Pope Leo will strive to safeguard the Church’s prophetic value and her loyalty to the Gospel of Christ. Fidelity to the Gospel, Father González says, is the only limit the Holy Father will face.
Some days ago, I was meditating on my journey of life. Four important words came up: forgiveness, the cross, compassion and prayer. It convinced me that these four words are excellent vitamins of another kind for the journey of this life. I decided to share my reflection with my dear readers.
As we all know well, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost Martinez was elected Pope on May 8, 2025 in the fourth vote of the Conclave of Cardinals meeting at the Sistine Chapel (the Vatican). He chose as his name Leo XIV, right after Leo XIII, the pope that initiated powerfully and creatively the so-called Social Doctrine of the Church, which is necessary part of the teaching and practicing our Christian faith. When Cardinal Prevost Martinez (with Spanish and French/Italian roots) was elected the 267 Successor of St. Peter, he was the Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops and the President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
ST EVARISTUS (96/99 – 108)
The Liber Pontificalis notes that Evaristus was, “by nationality a Greek of Antioch, son of a Jew named Judah, from the city of Bethlehem.” Memmo Caporilli, in his chart of The Roman Pontiffs says that Evaristus was the founder of the first seven diaconates in Rome which were entrusted to senior priests. These were given the task of keeping a watch over the doctrinal correctness of the bishop’s preaching! This group of seven priests is believed to be the origin of the present College of Cardinals. How careful were the pastors of the early Church to make sure that they were teaching the doctrine of Christ and not their own!
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