“When we were going through and creating beer recipes, the first few beers that we created were Vienna lagers,” he said. “There’s no greater person to link to the Vienna lager than Blessed Karl since Vienna was the capital of Austria-Hungary during his time.”
Considering that the Christian faith preached by Father João de Brito dismantled several Hindu principles, mainly the division of society into castes as the irreversible destiny of all human beings, soon the missionary began to suffer severe persecutions.
Finding myself on a trip and visiting some large churches, I also admired beautiful candelabra, which, as the tour guide told us, once held the Easter candle. I wonder: why aren’t they still used for this purpose, instead of putting the paschal candle on a normal stand as is commonly done in churches?
We should certainly ask ourselves where we are now, not only in terms of the fight against the virus, but also in terms of our spiritual response to the situation that we are facing all over the world.
Pope Francis holds up to us, the faithful, the life of St Joseph as a model for our own daily lives. Like him, we too are to bloom where we are planted, faithful to whatever is asked of us in each of our daily tasks and activities. If we are faithful in this way, we too will delight the heart of God and merit a holy death, with Jesus and Mary at our side. As it was for St Joseph, such a happy death will be for us the crown of a life well-lived-in love and fidelity to God.
The family is an image of the Blessed Trinity. It is an image of the life of mutual knowledge and mutual love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This image is sacred. This is why the devil will do everything possible to destroy this sacred image, this life of mutual knowledge and mutual love. This is why husband, wife and children will have to use both human and supernatural resources to strengthen and to defend their family.
We can reflect in front of a portrait upon the mask and the face. We are all often forced to wear a mask because we are afraid that our real face can be seen without protection, that face which is the mirror of the soul. Meditating in front of the paintings is a healthy exercise, I would say, almost spiritual.
Through the Beatitudes, Jesus offers humanity the possibility to tap into the spiritual power of suffering by enlightening the darkness of the present with the light coming from God’s future.
The Catholic Church dedicates a special devotion for each month of the year. The month of January was dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus. For this month of February, the Church dedicates it to the Holy Family.
Although mystical life has often been almost exclusively connected with extraordinary supernatural phenomena, in reality it is similar to spiritual/moral life, to a good Christian life, which begins with the presence of God’s grace (and the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity) in the soul and develops through the experiential realization of that loving presence.
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