“We are in a sense our own parents, and we give birth to ourselves by our own free choice of what is good” (St Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon on Ecclesiastes).
Category: Faith & Life
Follow
The silent guardian of Jesus and Mary Most Holy
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.”
Christian fasting?
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.
Liturgy and Archeology: Giovanni Battista De’ Rossi
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.”
HEROES OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH IN THE EAST: João de Brito and the converted under torture (7)
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.
No to war always?
In our times, is there such a thing as a “just war”?
The Stations of The Cross: A Thoroughly Catholic Devotion
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.
BITE-SIZE THEOLOGY (167) On what is human dignity based?
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.”
Ways of purification, perfection, and spiritual combat
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.”
Inner lights in the outer darkness
But in darkness, light shines brighter. During the Second World War, St. Maximilian Kolbe was able to witness the power of God’s love even in the most horrific conditions of a Nazi concentration camp, by offering his life in exchange for a fellow prisoner while forgiving his executioners. During the cruel slave trade of the 19th century, the Sudanese St. Josephina Bakhita, a slave who for years endured torture and abuse on a daily basis, converted to Christianity and regained both her freedom and her dignity. As a consequence, she decided to dedicate the rest of her life serving those in need as a nun, with no regrets nor hate for her previous owners.