Tag: Benedict XVI
5 Surprising Revelations of the Third Secret of Fatima
In 2000, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger clarified the signs and symbols found in the Marian apparitions Aleteia: May 13, 2016 marks the 99th anniversary of the Marian apparitions at Fatima, Portugal. For the past century individuals around the world have developed theories meant to decipher the hidden message of the three “secrets” of Fatima. Yet, Sister Lucia… Read More ›
Aquinas on Islam
It is no secret that secularists generally react to Christianity with hostility, but to Islam with obsequiousness – or silence in the face of belligerence and even of atrocities such as the Ft. Hood massacre. The most elementary explanation for this curious phenomenon, aside from cowardice, might simply come from that old adage: the enemy… Read More ›
Psalm 110(109) God himself enthrones the king of glory
Today I would like to end my catechesis on the prayer of the Book of Psalms by meditating on one of the most famous of the “royal Psalms”, a Psalm that Jesus himself cited and that the New Testament authors referred to extensively and interpreted as referring to the Messiah, to Christ. It is Psalm… Read More ›
In rare new letter, Benedict XVI seeks shepherds for the whole world
Vatican City, May 12, 2015 / 06:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking from retirement, Benedict XVI has underscored the need for the Church to extend its pastoral care to non-believers and to share “the questions of the times” in its continuing efforts to announce the gospel to the world. Benedict XVI’s new reflections came in an… Read More ›
The Necessity of Contemplative Monasticism for the New Evangelization
When we discuss the “New Evangelization,” we tend to think of the many active ways in which the Church seeks to engage the world and to share the Gospel with it. From large-scale special events such as World Youth Day and the recently completed Year of Faith; to the everyday work at the diocesan and… Read More ›
St. John Climacus
After 20 Catecheses dedicated to the Apostle Paul, today I would like to return to presenting the great writers of the Church of the East and of the West in the Middle Ages. And I am proposing the figure of John known as Climacus, a Latin transliteration of the Greek termklimakos, which means of the… Read More ›
The Ladder of Divine Ascent: Is it still relevant to us?
Can the Ladder, a work written by a hermit monk who lived 1,400 years ago, say something to us today? Can the existential journey of a man who lived his entire life on Mount Sinai in such a distant time be relevant to us? At first glance it would seem that the answer must be… Read More ›
St. Anthony the Great, Father of Monasticism
. . . Aware of the historical period in which he lived and of the change that was taking place – from pagan Rome to Christian Rome – in a period of profound crisis, Leo the Great knew how to make himself close to the people and the faithful with his pastoral action and his… Read More ›
St. Basil the Great
Let us remember today one of the great Fathers of the Church, St Basil, described by Byzantine liturgical texts as “a luminary of the Church”. He was an important Bishop in the fourth century to whom the entire Church of the East, and likewise the Church of the West, looks with admiration because of the… Read More ›
The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God
John Damascene was able serenely to deduce: “God, who is good, and greater than any goodness, was not content with the contemplation of himself, but desired that there should be beings benefited by him, who might share in his goodness: therefore he created from nothing all things, visible and invisible, including man, a reality visible… Read More ›