This piece on Sts. Peter and Paul is an excerpt from a sermon (Sermo 295, 1-2, 4, 7-8; PL 38, 1348-1352) by St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, who died in the year 430AD. It is used in the Roman Office…
Monthly Archives: June 2009
This reading on the birth of John the Baptist was taken from a sermon of St. Augustine of Hippo (Sermon 293, 1-3; PL 38, 1327-1328) The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will…
The link between devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of Jesus is shown in the following passage: “…a short time after Pascal had carried out the first experiments in modern physics and Descartes had perfected the mathematical…
Pope Benedict XVI has declared as “Year of the Priest” the period that stretches from the feast of the Sacred Heart June 2009 to the same feast day in 2010. The occasion for such an observance is the 150th anniversary…
1. Every Christian is fundamentally and primarily consecrated in baptism. Through baptism, the Christian is consecrated to the Holy Trinity. The mission of Jesus, “to baptize them in the name …” (Mt. 28:19) means this: “to baptize them in the…
“We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God.” As I utter the words of this antiphon with which the Church of Christ has prayed for centuries, I find myself today in this place chosen by you, O Mother,…
The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist…
In Genesis, the people of God included bread and wine in their sacrifice as a sign of gratitude to God. The priest-king Melchizedek of Salem “brought out bread and wine” as offerings to the Most High. In Exodus, God told…
221. In what way is the Father the source and the goal of the liturgy? 1077-1083 1110 Through the liturgy the Father fills us with his blessings in the Word made flesh who died and rose for us and pours into…
On the first of every month, Our Lord gives Anne a new message about His call to service. June 1, 2009 Jesus Dear apostles, I ask that you remind yourselves each day that I am participating through you in the…
Extravagant displays of devotion to Mary gets curtailed as world culture emphasizes the rational, scientific and technological aspects of life. There seems to be no more time for the more affective expressions of religion.
Then, after a while, people get fed up with the absolutely rational and logical culture, and rediscover religion and the affective part of the human soul and its needs.
And Mary is one of those.
The Church is certainly a human and historical institution with all that entails, yet her nature is not essentially political but spiritual: the Church is the People of God, Holy People of God making its way to encounter Jesus Christ. Only from this perspective can a satisfactory account be given of the Church's life and activity.
Christ is the Church's Pastor, but his presence in history passes through the freedom of human beings; from their midst one is chosen to serve as his Vicar, the successor of the Apostle Peter.
Yet Christ remains the center, not the Sucessor of Peter: Christ, Christ is the centre.
May every Christian rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.
A gift of love, faith and goodwill from the people of the Philippines. Pope Pius IX once said: “Give me an army praying a million rosaries a day and we will conquer the world.” We are not out to conquer the world…but to save it for God to whom it rightly belongs.