The New Testament shows us how Jesus gave special treatment to Peter, how he chose him from among the twelve. Does the New Testament also tell us about how Peter played his role? Yes, it does.
Category: Faith & Life
Follow
JOURNEYING TOGETHER WITH FAITH AND HOPE – Hopeful Pilgrims on the Journey of Life (2)
The Psalmist presents himself: “I am a pilgrim on the earth” (Ps 119:19); We live “as aliens on the land” (Ps 119:19). And St. Peter: “We are strangers and pilgrims on earth” (1 Pet 2:11). In our second column, we try to answer this question: Who are hopeful?
REFLECTION FOR SUNDAY GOSPEL – Four Illusions of Worldly Happiness
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C (Lk 6:17.20-26) – February 16, 2025 Fr Daniel Antonio de Carvalho Ribeiro, SCJ We can all agree that everyone wants to be happy. However, if we talk to different groups of people from…
KEEPER OF THE KEYS (2) – Jesus Chose Simon to Be Peter
Jewish tradition prepared the first Christians of Jewish background to understand the “new” teachings of Jesus such as the Eucharist, the priesthood, the papacy, and the role of the Blessed Virgin. Last time we studied the meaning of the terms ‘rock’ and ‘keys’ in the Old Testament and other Jewish writings.
JOURNEYING TOGETHER WITH FAITH AND HOPE – Permanent Relevance of Hope (1)
Human life is indeed a narrative of hopes in the plural – human hopes – and of hope in the singular – Christian or theological hope. The 2025 Jubilee Year is the Holy Year of Hope. We wish to reflect on hope. Thereafter, we meditate on the nature of Christian hope, on the dimensions and properties of hope, on sins against hope, on hope as creative fidelity to the present. Finally, the author tells us how he nurtures his hope and hopes, mainly his theological hope.
SELECT TRAFFIC LIGHTS – Developing and Using AI in an Ethical Manner
A few days ago, the Holy See published an extensive document on artificial intelligence. The title, in Latin as usual, is “Antiqua et nova”. This technology is still in the dazzling phase typical of any innovation. The printing press was a revolution! The railways, too! And the electric light, the telephone, the radio, the automobile, the airplane, the calculating machine! Sometimes newness leads to confusion, especially when compared with common experience. In the 19th century, when a steam train completed its maiden voyage, charitable hands covered with blankets the machine, “sweating and exfoliating”, to prevent it from catching cold. The telegraph was another amazement. You would touch a key and, from across the street, through the wires, the machine would make clicks. Edison explained this transmission at distance with the image of a very long cat: you step on its tail and it meows at the opposite end. The impact of major innovations is enormous. How is it possible to talk at a distance? Or travel through the air? Or, so many things?… But the surprise is short-lived, the thing becomes trivial, and children soon consider it is normal for the fridge to be cold, or the light bulbs to give off light.
5th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – The Amazing Power of God’s Call
After a moment of Eucharistic adoration at St. Rose of Lima school, a little girl, perhaps 6 or 7 years old, approached me and said, “Father Ed, Yyou say that Jesus speaks to us, but I can’t hear Him.” Children at this age often go straight to the heart of the matter, asking questions that can be challenging for us to answer. I simply told her, “Jesus speaks inside your heart.” Fortunately, the little girl didn’t ask a follow-up question, but I’m not sure she was satisfied with my answer.
THE COMMEMORATION OF THE VIRGIN OF DONG LU – Our Lady of China and the Lunar New Year
The Catholic Diocese of Macau welcomed the Year of the Snake this Wednesday, January 29th, with the observance of the feast of Our Lady of China. The commemoration of the Virgin of Dong Lu on the first day of the Lunar New Year is a liturgical tradition exclusive to the local Catholic Church. Elsewhere in the world, the solemnity of Our Lady of China falls every year on the day before the second Sunday of May. But how important is Marian devotion to Chinese Catholics? How did Our Lady of China become an integral part of the Lunar New Year celebrations in Macau? Andrew Leong, head of the Department of Catholic Theology at the Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy of the University of Saint Joseph, explains.
Gospel Reflection – PRESENTATION OF THE LORD
Mary and Joseph were faithful Jews who obeyed the Law of Moses. Jewish Law prescribed that two ritual acts needed to take place for a firstborn son. First, the mother of a newborn son was ritually unclean for seven days, and then she was to “spend thirty-three more days in a state of blood purity” (Leviticus 12:2–8). During these forty days she was not to “touch anything sacred nor enter the sanctuary till the days of her purification are fulfilled.” For this reason, today’s feast has at times been called the “Purification of Mary.” Second, the father of the firstborn son was to “redeem” the child by making an offering to the priest of five shekels so that the priest would then present the child to the Lord (see Numbers 18:16). Recall that the firstborn male of all the Egyptians, animals and children, was killed during the tenth plague, but the firstborn males of the Israelites were spared. Thus, this offering made for the firstborn son in the Temple was a way of ritually redeeming him in commemoration of protection during that plague. Since Jesus was presented in the Temple for this redemption, today’s feast is now referred to as the “Presentation in the Temple.”
BEATIFICATION OF FATHER GIOVANNI MERLINI – There is Someone Who Loves You Even Before You Deserve it
“There is someone who loves you even before you deserve it”. This phrase has always served as a motto for Giovanni Merlini, a priest of the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood born in 1795 and beatified, after a process that lasted more than a century, less than two weeks ago in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.