From www.chiesa.com:
But the boundaries between Latin America and the northern hemisphere are no longer so clear. With 37 million Hispanic immigrants, the United States is now the fourth nation in the world – and soon will be the fourth – by Latin American population, after Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, and ahead of all the other countries in Central and South America. One out of every three Catholics in the United States comes from Latin America, speaks Spanish or Portuguese, and prefers to attend churches where there are other faithful from the South.
Furthermore, almost half of the Hispanic immigrants in the United States identify themselves as Charismatics, exactly as in their countries of origin. And this is perceptibly changing the religious landscape in the United States, and also in regard to the Catholic Church. The Latin Americans are not only revolutionizing the numbers, but they are changing the way in which Catholicism is lived in the leading country in the West.
A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public life, published in the United States on the eve of Benedict XVI's trip to Brazil, is the first in-depth study of this powerful transformation, which will have repercussions on the future of Catholicism worldwide.
For the report go to Magister's page...
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
From the Secular Press: Is Phil Spector Possessed?
From Yahoo News, Woman says Phil Spector turned 'demonic' :
Ogden testified Monday that Spector seemed to undergo a personality change as she tried to leave another Spector mansion in Pasadena after a party in 1989.
"He was screaming at me, the F-word," she said. "He wasn't my Phil, not the man I loved. It wasn't him. He was demonic. It scared the hell out of me."
She said he first approached her with a rifle, then picked up a pistol and "he put it all over me, yelling things."
Ogden pointed to various parts of her face to indicate where the gun was pointed.
"It was like he was taken over by something. It wasn't Phillip."
Ogden testified Monday that Spector seemed to undergo a personality change as she tried to leave another Spector mansion in Pasadena after a party in 1989.
"He was screaming at me, the F-word," she said. "He wasn't my Phil, not the man I loved. It wasn't him. He was demonic. It scared the hell out of me."
She said he first approached her with a rifle, then picked up a pistol and "he put it all over me, yelling things."
Ogden pointed to various parts of her face to indicate where the gun was pointed.
"It was like he was taken over by something. It wasn't Phillip."
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Into the Great Silence
We began watching this last night (movie totals close to 3 hours)and it would be hard to describe it accurately, but I'll try. I think what this movie does, not with words (because there are hardly any) is to immerse you into the silence of the Carthusians. I think you will get more out of this beautiful movie if you first read the excellent book written about the English Carthusians at Parkminster,An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order
. This book will make the movie very intelligible to those who do not understand even the basics about monasticism....on the other hand you might watch the movie and then read the book to answer the questions that will inevitably arise from the experience.And watching this film is an experience. Joseph who watched the early part of the film with me (which takes place during the winter) said, "there isn't much color" and I replied, "not much talking either." He was intrigued as the monks prayed, "kept vigil--watch" in the middle of the night...waiting for the Lord who will return "like a thief in the night"when we least expect so "keep watch" and wondered "do they ever sleep?" This is truly a film unlike any I've ever seen. I joked with Amy that she was about to see the monk's interviews--the camera focuses on them for a few minutes individually, they say nothing and in saying nothing they speak volumes.
Looking for a short retreat?
I once thought and still think that an encounter with monasticism challenges everything that we think about life and our purpose here in the great exile.
Update: Some have questioned how we have this when it hasn't been released yet, the answer is that we have the one-disc version that was available from the Canadians. However...this two disc version that will be available contains a great additional disc that will have some of the things that I felt I wanted to see and didn't in the actual movie...like how they make that liquor they are famous for....
Feast of Our Lady of Pompei
From Vultus Christi:Tuesday, May 8, 2007 is the Feast of Our Lady of Pompei. In Italy and in places all over the globe the feast will be marked by the solemn recitation at noon of Blessed Bartolo Longo's moving prayer, the Supplica, meaning supplication or petition.
The Prayer of People the World Over
The Supplica is, of Blessed Bartolo Longo's published prayers to the Mother of God, the most famous. Its incandescent words have opened countless souls to the grace of Christ through the all–powerful intercession of His Mother.
The Supplica is a prayer that people have made their own. It is known on every continent; it has been translated into hundreds of languages. No authority ever imposed it, it is not part of the liturgy of the Church, it was never submitted to revision by ICEL, and yet, it has become universal. Sociologists of religion, take note! Translators of liturgical texts, wake up and smell the Italian coffee!
A Prayer of the Heart
Certain rationalistic types disdain the Supplica. They see it as representative of an unenlightened, sentimental, southern Italian piety bordering on superstition. They find its emphases embarrassing, its display of emotion unnerving.
The literary style of Blessed Bartolo Longo is the expression of his own character. He was capable of gentleness and of passion. He was, like all meridionals, rich in sentiment and quick to express it both in song and in tears. He was moved, before all else, by the reason of the heart.
Blessed Longo was a lover of Truth; but his particular grace was the discovery of Truth through love. He found Truth, not in syllogisms and in concepts, but in the Heart and on the Face of the Word Made Flesh in the womb of the Virgin, and held in her arms.
The Prayer of One Delivered From Evil
The Rosary was the means by which, at the age of twenty–eight, a confused and desperate Avvocato Bartolo Longo — a practicing Satanist and medium at the time — was converted to the Truth and delivered from the powers of darkness. He vowed that he would spend his life proclaiming to others the Rosary's liberating and healing power. This is why, at the end of the Supplica, he exclaims: "O blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we shall never abandon you."
Bound to Mary by the Rosary
The Supplica may not be everyone's cup of tea. Even pious folks may find it a bit too baroque, a bit overdone. It may be the southern Italian blood (mixed with Irish) that runs hot in my veins, but I love the Supplica and I plan on saying it with thousands of other people at noon on Tuesday. It is the prayer of a man very like myself: a poor sinner who fears nothing when he holds the Rosary in his hands, knowing that the Mother of God holds her end of the chain, and will not let it go.
I include the Supplica in my book The Church's Most Powerful Novenas
, beginning on page 175, you can also find the text of it at Vultus Christi.Fr. Z has information on the Indulgences that can be gained by praying this prayer as well as an MP3 of the Supplica.
Israeli Archaeologist Finds Tomb of King Herod
From Fox News:
Haaretz said the tomb was found by archaeologist Ehud Netzer, a Hebrew University professor who has been working at Herodium since 1972. The paper said the tomb was in a previously unexplored area between the two palaces Herod built on the site. Herod died in 4 B.C. in Jericho.
Haaretz said the tomb was found by archaeologist Ehud Netzer, a Hebrew University professor who has been working at Herodium since 1972. The paper said the tomb was in a previously unexplored area between the two palaces Herod built on the site. Herod died in 4 B.C. in Jericho.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Four New Offerings from Doubleday
Not the Pope book yet....one more week until that is out!
So far, I've only had a chance to browse these four books...but all are very interesting and different in there own way....
1. Mother Angelica's short pithy sayings (compiled by Raymond Arroyo) is an excellent little book that can be read in chunks--or whenever you feel you need a boost in relation to a particular area of your life. By now everyone knows about the little nun from Canton, OH who built an international Catholic network (where many more powerful entitities have failed)...and how she did it with a great deal of Faith in God. So there has to be a lot we can learn from her and there is...for example:
"If you are following God, He never shows you the end. It’s always a walk of faith.”
If you know Mother's story you can see the wisdom in that saying...
2. Anthony DeStefano's Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To: Divine Answers to Life's Most Difficult Problems
is an excellent little book that could serve as a primer on what is really important to pray about--namely how God wants me to live my life with all the reality that it brings. Too often prayer is addressed to God in a way that is asking God to make me something else, rather than make me what I am and give me the tools to do it with joy. DeStefano gives a good foundation here and then neatly ties it all together with a prayer at the end of the book that incorporates the "ten" prayers all into one.
3. The Physics of Christianity
by Frank J. Tipler would not be a book that I normally would even pick up, but I when I did--I found a wealth of very accessible answers to the big questions that people's faith often hinges upon...like the problem of evil and free will (something that Einstein rejected). I have to think that this book is a must read for anyone involved in apologetics--explaining the faith to a modern world. Great insights here and the possibility of seeing the world in a different light.
4. Scott Hahn's latest offering is an apologetic book, but as he told me a few monthis ago when I asked him about it, not your typical apologetics book. This is a book that helps you through Scott's own story to learn to look for answers as to why do we believe as we do (you might want to also check out Father Benedict Groeschel's little book Why Do We Believe
?). Written in the very accessible way that all Hahn books are this will please both longtime fans and those who haven't been exposed to him yet. Faith is not unreasonable, and here Scott gives you a reason to believe!
So far, I've only had a chance to browse these four books...but all are very interesting and different in there own way....
1. Mother Angelica's short pithy sayings (compiled by Raymond Arroyo) is an excellent little book that can be read in chunks--or whenever you feel you need a boost in relation to a particular area of your life. By now everyone knows about the little nun from Canton, OH who built an international Catholic network (where many more powerful entitities have failed)...and how she did it with a great deal of Faith in God. So there has to be a lot we can learn from her and there is...for example:
"If you are following God, He never shows you the end. It’s always a walk of faith.”
If you know Mother's story you can see the wisdom in that saying...
2. Anthony DeStefano's Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To: Divine Answers to Life's Most Difficult Problems
is an excellent little book that could serve as a primer on what is really important to pray about--namely how God wants me to live my life with all the reality that it brings. Too often prayer is addressed to God in a way that is asking God to make me something else, rather than make me what I am and give me the tools to do it with joy. DeStefano gives a good foundation here and then neatly ties it all together with a prayer at the end of the book that incorporates the "ten" prayers all into one.3. The Physics of Christianity
by Frank J. Tipler would not be a book that I normally would even pick up, but I when I did--I found a wealth of very accessible answers to the big questions that people's faith often hinges upon...like the problem of evil and free will (something that Einstein rejected). I have to think that this book is a must read for anyone involved in apologetics--explaining the faith to a modern world. Great insights here and the possibility of seeing the world in a different light.4. Scott Hahn's latest offering is an apologetic book, but as he told me a few monthis ago when I asked him about it, not your typical apologetics book. This is a book that helps you through Scott's own story to learn to look for answers as to why do we believe as we do (you might want to also check out Father Benedict Groeschel's little book Why Do We Believe
?). Written in the very accessible way that all Hahn books are this will please both longtime fans and those who haven't been exposed to him yet. Faith is not unreasonable, and here Scott gives you a reason to believe!
Catholic Author Karl Schultz
I have worked with Karl Schultz on a number of projects: a pamphlet on the Bible, The How-To Book of the Bible and Praying with the Bible. There is one project that he had been after me to publish ever since I first had contact with him back in the late 1990's--a book that extolled the teachings of Pope Paul VI We never took him up on this offer, but thankfully the book is now published.
Last week the former Univeristy of Michigan basketball player (6'7") presented me with a copy that he autographed. It is a great overview of the teachings of Paul VI, check it out--as well as Karl's new book on Lectio Divina:
Last week the former Univeristy of Michigan basketball player (6'7") presented me with a copy that he autographed. It is a great overview of the teachings of Paul VI, check it out--as well as Karl's new book on Lectio Divina:
Time Magazine's Top 100 Influential People: Pope Benedict
No President Bush in the list...
In the magazine the Pope is on the same page as Osama Bin Laden and Angela Merkel (which makes some sense). I can't help but wonder at the conversation that went behind putting him underneath those two.
The picture they chose is a good one that caused one reader of this blog to ask, when Amy and I had posted the picture last year if it was a picture of George Steinbrenner.
From Time Magazine:
It was never going to be easy to follow a man like Karol Wojtyla, a "Technicolor" Pope, with his unmatched skills as a preacher and an actor. Everyone thought that when Joseph Ratzinger, 80, became Pope, the crowds in St. Peter's Square would greatly diminish and the mass interest in the papacy would disappear. But just the opposite has happened. And therein lies the enigma of Pope Benedict XVI: Why are the faithful (and others) drawn to an intellectual who concedes nothing to the show, who says difficult things (like his September speech about faith and violence in Regensburg, which touched off anger among Muslims), who doesn't bargain with the Gospel? What makes people rush to this fragile man who speaks softly and politely without moving his hands, without ever acting? Evidently, there is a sort of secret attraction, as if many can sense the fascination of the sacred through the witness of Benedict's thoughts and his modest and humble life. After the Slavic sentiment arrives German seriousness—different charismas that confirm that the Catholic Church knows how to make room for every kind of temperament, letting the human qualities of such different men shine through.
Hispanics Bring Catholicism to Its Feet
....in the United States. There is something very natural and reverent about these liturgies...something that when mimiced doesn't work in Anglo parishes. There is a natural flow, where everyone is doing the same thing, the music is of one kind, as well as the preaching.
From the Washinton Post:
"Everyone on their feet!" cried Gladys Cardenas, a stout and fiery Puerto Rican, as a band struck up behind her. "Come on," she shouted in Spanish. "Get ready to celebrate God!"
From the Washinton Post:
"Everyone on their feet!" cried Gladys Cardenas, a stout and fiery Puerto Rican, as a band struck up behind her. "Come on," she shouted in Spanish. "Get ready to celebrate God!"
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Pope: We Walk with Mary
From the Regina Caeli:
“After Vatican Council II, which underlined the role of the Most Holy Mary in the Church and in the history of salvation, the Marian cult underwent a profound renewal. And the month of May, coinciding at least in part with the Easter season, is highly propitious to illustrate the figure of Mary as a Mother who accompanies the Community of disciples gathered in unanimous prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit (cfr Acts 1: 12-14). This month, therefore, could be an opportunity to return to the faith of the early Church, and together with Mary, to understand that today too, our mission is to announce and testify with courage and joy to the crucified and risen Christ, the hope of mankind.”
“After Vatican Council II, which underlined the role of the Most Holy Mary in the Church and in the history of salvation, the Marian cult underwent a profound renewal. And the month of May, coinciding at least in part with the Easter season, is highly propitious to illustrate the figure of Mary as a Mother who accompanies the Community of disciples gathered in unanimous prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit (cfr Acts 1: 12-14). This month, therefore, could be an opportunity to return to the faith of the early Church, and together with Mary, to understand that today too, our mission is to announce and testify with courage and joy to the crucified and risen Christ, the hope of mankind.”
Pope: We Walk with Mary
From the Regina Caeli:
“After Vatican Council II, which underlined the role of the Most Holy Mary in the Church and in the history of salvation, the Marian cult underwent a profound renewal. And the month of May, coinciding at least in part with the Easter season, is highly propitious to illustrate the figure of Mary as a Mother who accompanies the Community of disciples gathered in unanimous prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit (cfr Acts 1: 12-14). This month, therefore, could be an opportunity to return to the faith of the early Church, and together with Mary, to understand that today too, our mission is to announce and testify with courage and joy to the crucified and risen Christ, the hope of mankind.”
“After Vatican Council II, which underlined the role of the Most Holy Mary in the Church and in the history of salvation, the Marian cult underwent a profound renewal. And the month of May, coinciding at least in part with the Easter season, is highly propitious to illustrate the figure of Mary as a Mother who accompanies the Community of disciples gathered in unanimous prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit (cfr Acts 1: 12-14). This month, therefore, could be an opportunity to return to the faith of the early Church, and together with Mary, to understand that today too, our mission is to announce and testify with courage and joy to the crucified and risen Christ, the hope of mankind.”
Saturday, May 05, 2007
The Power of the Rosary Against the Devil
From Vultus Christi:
Concerning the Holy Rosary, once while the priest placed a rosary around the neck of the person who was being exorcised, all of a sudden the demon began crying out, "It is crushing me, it weighs on me, it is crushing me, this chain with the Cross on the end of it." The exorcist exclaimed, "From this day forward this sister of ours will pray the Rosary every day."
Immediately the demon replied, "But you are so few who say it (the Rosary), compared to the whole world!" It is just as well for me that it should be so, because it (the Rosary) harms me. You invoke That One (referring to our Lady), you make me remember the life of That One (referring to the life of Jesus meditated in the mysteries of the Rosary).
Another day, while exorcising the demon, the exorcist pulled a rosary out of his pocket; immediately the demon cried out: "Take away that chain, take away that chain!" "What chain?" "The one with the Cross on the end. She whips us with that chain." This, of course is metaphorical language; it makes us understand, all the same, in very concrete terms, the power of the Rosary and how much the devil fears it.
Translated from Possessioni diabolici ed esorcismo by Father Francesco Bamonte (Paoline, 2006)
Concerning the Holy Rosary, once while the priest placed a rosary around the neck of the person who was being exorcised, all of a sudden the demon began crying out, "It is crushing me, it weighs on me, it is crushing me, this chain with the Cross on the end of it." The exorcist exclaimed, "From this day forward this sister of ours will pray the Rosary every day."
Immediately the demon replied, "But you are so few who say it (the Rosary), compared to the whole world!" It is just as well for me that it should be so, because it (the Rosary) harms me. You invoke That One (referring to our Lady), you make me remember the life of That One (referring to the life of Jesus meditated in the mysteries of the Rosary).
Another day, while exorcising the demon, the exorcist pulled a rosary out of his pocket; immediately the demon cried out: "Take away that chain, take away that chain!" "What chain?" "The one with the Cross on the end. She whips us with that chain." This, of course is metaphorical language; it makes us understand, all the same, in very concrete terms, the power of the Rosary and how much the devil fears it.
Translated from Possessioni diabolici ed esorcismo by Father Francesco Bamonte (Paoline, 2006)
Was Cho Possessed by the Devil?
Updated: Fr. Tom asked that I include the last paragraph in my excerpt.
From Father Tom Euteneuer at Spirit & Life:
Well, first let me say that, as a Catholic priest, I have seen and worked with my share of possessed and obsessed individuals. It’s entirely possible for someone to be at once responsible for his own acts and totally under the influence of the devil in committing them. In this case, Cho pulled the trigger, but the devil was the author of the deed. Does not Jesus call him “a murderer from the beginning”? The devil is the prime mover of all evil in the world, but human beings freely cooperate with him in their evil decisions. No one gets off the hook of responsibility by blaming the devil, but we can’t say that the devil is a detached observer to crimes like this.
The evil work that Cho perpetrated bears the classic marks of a possession that he cooperated in. Four clear signs of serious demonic influence were evident in his life and virtually assured that he would commit some kind of heinous crime against humanity in time. These are the devil’s tactics for the destruction of body and soul: isolate, distort, excite, plot—and then kill.
First, it is not always clear how a demon enters someone, but it is sure that once a demon enters a person, that demon bends all his efforts of mind and will to overtake his host’s life and make it his own. Isolation is the best technique. By all accounts, Cho was an isolated loner whose belonging to his demon was very far advanced. He had no friends to speak of, no significant associates or relationships and certainly no religious practice.
Second, with time and permission, the demon totally perverts all the person’s mental processes in order to translate them into demon-think. Cho’s writings leading up to the crime, and Cho’s now-famous video manifesto, all exhibited signs that the process of demonic perversion of mind and values was complete. He was verbally fantasizing in front of his classmates and teachers about killing people in the most horrible ways. In the end he even blasphemously claimed to be dying like Jesus Christ for the sins of others: this is perverse thinking in the extreme.
Third, a crime of this immensity cannot be accomplished without a person’s total emotional commitment. After reprogramming a person’s thought patterns, the demon excites his passions to do what he wants. Others have very credibly explained how Cho’s pathetic video images imitating the Korean flick, Old Boy, were evidence of his heightened emotions influenced by violent images. He even ranted in imitation of the Columbine killers Harris and Klebold in solidarity for the deed he was about to commit. In other words, it’s very difficult to sustain such an emotional intensity about the evil he planned and carried out without some direct force multiplier. Graphic images provided it.
Finally, he plotted—like all demons from Satan to the perpetrators of the World Trade Center attacks. He bought guns and ammo, he planned the date and times and places of the murder, and he even went regularly at night to work out at the campus gym in order to look the part of a mass murderer. The devil must have been very happy to witness his prey blast his brains out after perpetrating the bloody murders of 32 innocents. That is the ultimate victory for the devil.
As sad as the physical deaths of innocent people are, perhaps the saddest element of the story is the likely loss of Cho Seung-Hui’s immortal soul by this demonic action. The rabbis used to say that the angels weep at the loss of a soul that God created to share in His eternal blessedness; I am sure the angels are weeping now. Let us all commend the innocent victims of this crime, their families and the possessed perpetrator to the Mercy of God and then re-commit ourselves to proclaiming Christ and His victory over evil so that none of God’s children will ever be lost.
From Father Tom Euteneuer at Spirit & Life:
Well, first let me say that, as a Catholic priest, I have seen and worked with my share of possessed and obsessed individuals. It’s entirely possible for someone to be at once responsible for his own acts and totally under the influence of the devil in committing them. In this case, Cho pulled the trigger, but the devil was the author of the deed. Does not Jesus call him “a murderer from the beginning”? The devil is the prime mover of all evil in the world, but human beings freely cooperate with him in their evil decisions. No one gets off the hook of responsibility by blaming the devil, but we can’t say that the devil is a detached observer to crimes like this.
The evil work that Cho perpetrated bears the classic marks of a possession that he cooperated in. Four clear signs of serious demonic influence were evident in his life and virtually assured that he would commit some kind of heinous crime against humanity in time. These are the devil’s tactics for the destruction of body and soul: isolate, distort, excite, plot—and then kill.
First, it is not always clear how a demon enters someone, but it is sure that once a demon enters a person, that demon bends all his efforts of mind and will to overtake his host’s life and make it his own. Isolation is the best technique. By all accounts, Cho was an isolated loner whose belonging to his demon was very far advanced. He had no friends to speak of, no significant associates or relationships and certainly no religious practice.
Second, with time and permission, the demon totally perverts all the person’s mental processes in order to translate them into demon-think. Cho’s writings leading up to the crime, and Cho’s now-famous video manifesto, all exhibited signs that the process of demonic perversion of mind and values was complete. He was verbally fantasizing in front of his classmates and teachers about killing people in the most horrible ways. In the end he even blasphemously claimed to be dying like Jesus Christ for the sins of others: this is perverse thinking in the extreme.
Third, a crime of this immensity cannot be accomplished without a person’s total emotional commitment. After reprogramming a person’s thought patterns, the demon excites his passions to do what he wants. Others have very credibly explained how Cho’s pathetic video images imitating the Korean flick, Old Boy, were evidence of his heightened emotions influenced by violent images. He even ranted in imitation of the Columbine killers Harris and Klebold in solidarity for the deed he was about to commit. In other words, it’s very difficult to sustain such an emotional intensity about the evil he planned and carried out without some direct force multiplier. Graphic images provided it.
Finally, he plotted—like all demons from Satan to the perpetrators of the World Trade Center attacks. He bought guns and ammo, he planned the date and times and places of the murder, and he even went regularly at night to work out at the campus gym in order to look the part of a mass murderer. The devil must have been very happy to witness his prey blast his brains out after perpetrating the bloody murders of 32 innocents. That is the ultimate victory for the devil.
As sad as the physical deaths of innocent people are, perhaps the saddest element of the story is the likely loss of Cho Seung-Hui’s immortal soul by this demonic action. The rabbis used to say that the angels weep at the loss of a soul that God created to share in His eternal blessedness; I am sure the angels are weeping now. Let us all commend the innocent victims of this crime, their families and the possessed perpetrator to the Mercy of God and then re-commit ourselves to proclaiming Christ and His victory over evil so that none of God’s children will ever be lost.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Soon to be Ordained Priest Jeff Kirby's Website
With a blog and other interesting stuff included http://www.jeffrey-kirby.com/ Currently Deacon Jeff is the contributor is this two-volume offering:
Rediscovering Jesus
From Asia News Italy:
Christianity is not a theory but an encounter with a person. This principle, which Benedict XVI restated so often, is at the origin of Jesus of Nazareth, the book in which he describes “my personal search for the ‘face of the Lord,” in order to “favour the development of an intense relationship between the reader and Him.”
Which Jesus does the Pope present us with?
Since the 1950s “advances in critical research in history led to increasingly subtler distinctions between the various strata of the tradition,” blurring the image on which the faith stands. Various views of Jesus emerged ranging from the “anti-Roman revolutionary” to the “soft-hearted moralist.” But for Ratzinger the theologian, they reflect more the “views and ideals of their authors than any revelation about an icon, however faded it might have been.”
The “historical facts” about Jesus’ life and the unforeseeable growth of Christianity just a few years after his death show how extraordinary He was. And He cannot be understood without starting from “truly historical” facts, i.e. Jesus’ relationship to God and His union with Him.” “My book is based on this, i.e. on the fact that Jesus is in communion with the Father. This is the core of His personality. Without this communion one cannot understand anything and it is from that that He becomes real to us even today.”
The Gospel Jesus is the Jesus of ‘History’
Since we are talking about an actual living human being, we must rely on the historical method to know him. For Benedict XVII, “faith is based on history as it unfolded on the surface of this earth.” Otherwise, “the Christian faith is eliminated and becomes another religion.” For this reason, the Jesus of the book is necessarily the Jesus of the Gospels: “the ‘historical Jesus’ in its truest sense.”
“I am convinced,” writes Benedict XVI, “and I hope readers realise that this is more logical and more understandable from an historical point of view than any of the reconstructions” offered in the last few decades.
This Jesus is also the “last prophet” as announced in the Old Testament, the “New Moses” to be more precise, who leads His people to “true liberation.” More than Moses who “as a friend spoke face to face with God” but without the power to see Him, Jesus “lives in the presence of God, not only as friend but also as son. He lives in profound unity with the Father.” It is from this that come the answer to questions like “Where did Jesus get His doctrine? Where does the key that explains his behaviour lie.” The Beatitudes are confirmation of this. From the “Sermon on the Mount,” Benedict draws many a detail like the “Mount” itself, whose location is not given in the Gospels, but which is simply the “mount,” the “New Sinai” to the crowd that came from the Galilee to hear Him, i.e. “a strip of land still viewed as half pagan,” but which “is in fact proof of His divine mission” to all the peoples; or the address “the New Torah brought by Jesus,” which “starts again from the commandments on the second tablet and goes deeper into the text without abolishing it.” Indeed, the “paradoxes” that Jesus presents in the Beatitudes—‘Blessed are the poor, those who mourn, those who are persecuted, those who are reviled’—express “what discipleship means.” The Beatitudes’ meaning “cannot be explained by theory alone; they must be proclaimed in the life, suffering and mysterious joy that the disciple experiences when he has fully donated his life to the Lord.”
Christianity is not a theory but an encounter with a person. This principle, which Benedict XVI restated so often, is at the origin of Jesus of Nazareth, the book in which he describes “my personal search for the ‘face of the Lord,” in order to “favour the development of an intense relationship between the reader and Him.”
Which Jesus does the Pope present us with?
Since the 1950s “advances in critical research in history led to increasingly subtler distinctions between the various strata of the tradition,” blurring the image on which the faith stands. Various views of Jesus emerged ranging from the “anti-Roman revolutionary” to the “soft-hearted moralist.” But for Ratzinger the theologian, they reflect more the “views and ideals of their authors than any revelation about an icon, however faded it might have been.”
The “historical facts” about Jesus’ life and the unforeseeable growth of Christianity just a few years after his death show how extraordinary He was. And He cannot be understood without starting from “truly historical” facts, i.e. Jesus’ relationship to God and His union with Him.” “My book is based on this, i.e. on the fact that Jesus is in communion with the Father. This is the core of His personality. Without this communion one cannot understand anything and it is from that that He becomes real to us even today.”
The Gospel Jesus is the Jesus of ‘History’
Since we are talking about an actual living human being, we must rely on the historical method to know him. For Benedict XVII, “faith is based on history as it unfolded on the surface of this earth.” Otherwise, “the Christian faith is eliminated and becomes another religion.” For this reason, the Jesus of the book is necessarily the Jesus of the Gospels: “the ‘historical Jesus’ in its truest sense.”
“I am convinced,” writes Benedict XVI, “and I hope readers realise that this is more logical and more understandable from an historical point of view than any of the reconstructions” offered in the last few decades.
This Jesus is also the “last prophet” as announced in the Old Testament, the “New Moses” to be more precise, who leads His people to “true liberation.” More than Moses who “as a friend spoke face to face with God” but without the power to see Him, Jesus “lives in the presence of God, not only as friend but also as son. He lives in profound unity with the Father.” It is from this that come the answer to questions like “Where did Jesus get His doctrine? Where does the key that explains his behaviour lie.” The Beatitudes are confirmation of this. From the “Sermon on the Mount,” Benedict draws many a detail like the “Mount” itself, whose location is not given in the Gospels, but which is simply the “mount,” the “New Sinai” to the crowd that came from the Galilee to hear Him, i.e. “a strip of land still viewed as half pagan,” but which “is in fact proof of His divine mission” to all the peoples; or the address “the New Torah brought by Jesus,” which “starts again from the commandments on the second tablet and goes deeper into the text without abolishing it.” Indeed, the “paradoxes” that Jesus presents in the Beatitudes—‘Blessed are the poor, those who mourn, those who are persecuted, those who are reviled’—express “what discipleship means.” The Beatitudes’ meaning “cannot be explained by theory alone; they must be proclaimed in the life, suffering and mysterious joy that the disciple experiences when he has fully donated his life to the Lord.”
Torre Loses Job
Sister Torre that is, Joe's sister and a Catholic nun...
From the NY Daily News:
Say it ain't so, Joe - a Torre is about to get a pink slip, but it's not who you think.
Sister Marguerite Torre will soon be out of work after 26 years as the beloved principal of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School in Ozone Park, Queens.
Her elementary school is being merged with another school - and the sister of Yankees skipper Joe Torre was passed over for the top job overseeing the new school, according to the Diocese of Brooklyn.
From the NY Daily News:
Say it ain't so, Joe - a Torre is about to get a pink slip, but it's not who you think.
Sister Marguerite Torre will soon be out of work after 26 years as the beloved principal of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School in Ozone Park, Queens.
Her elementary school is being merged with another school - and the sister of Yankees skipper Joe Torre was passed over for the top job overseeing the new school, according to the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
The May 5th Date
From the original Motu Proprio of Pope John Paul II:
a Commission is instituted whose task it will be to collaborate with the bishops, with the Departments of the Roman Curia and with the circles concerned, for the purpose of facilitating full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, religious communities or individuals until now linked in various ways to the Fraternity founded by Mons. Lefebvre, who may wish to remain united to the Successor Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions, in the light of the Protocol signed on 5 May last by Cardinal Ratzinger and Mons. Lefebvre;
a Commission is instituted whose task it will be to collaborate with the bishops, with the Departments of the Roman Curia and with the circles concerned, for the purpose of facilitating full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, religious communities or individuals until now linked in various ways to the Fraternity founded by Mons. Lefebvre, who may wish to remain united to the Successor Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions, in the light of the Protocol signed on 5 May last by Cardinal Ratzinger and Mons. Lefebvre;
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
