Tag: John Paul II
Triumph of Christ and the Cross
Moses prayed and received the following order from the Lord: “Make a fiery serpent and put it on a standard. If anyone is bitten and looks at it, he shall live” (Ibid. 21, 8). Moses obeyed the order. The bronze serpent set upon the standard became salvation from death for anyone who was bitten by… Read More ›
Vatican council calls planned Koran burning ceremony ‘outrageous’
Vatican City, Sep 8, 2010 / 10:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Although the charismatic Christian church planning a Koran burning on Sept. 11 only has around 50 members, the spectre of the impact on Muslim relations led the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue to issue a statement today expressing its “great concern” over the plan… Read More ›
A Sign of Sure Hope
8. The Holy Spirit invites Mary to reproduce her own virtues in the elect, extending in them the roots of her “invincible faith” and “firm hope” (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, n. 34). The Second Vatican Council recalled this: “The Mother of Jesus in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven… Read More ›
Mother Theresa of Calcutta
3. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant” (Mk 10: 43). With particular emotion we remember today Mother Teresa, a great servant of the poor, of the Church and of the whole world. Her life is a testimony to the dignity and the privilege of humble service. She had chosen to be… Read More ›
The “Pilgrimage of Faith’
7. I wrote in Novo Millennio Ineunte: “One can never really reach Jesus except by the path of faith” (n. 19). This was the path that Mary followed throughout her earthly life and it is the path of the pilgrim Church until the end of time. The Second Vatican Council placed great emphasis on Mary’s… Read More ›
Holiness, the perfection of charity
6. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium states: “But while in the Most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5: 27), the faithful still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who… Read More ›
Universal Church to honor life and witness of St. Thomas More
CNA STAFF, Jun 20, 2010 / 05:08 am (CNA).- (Today) marks the feast day of St. Thomas More – husband, father, lawyer, politician and the first layman to serve as Lord Chancellor of England. St. Thomas is best known for being a devout and faithful Catholic whose staunch defense of the rights of conscience and… Read More ›
The Service of Fatherhood
8. St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in this way that, as the Church’s Liturgy teaches, he “cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation” and is truly a “minister of salvation.”(21) His… Read More ›
Mary, an eminent member of the Mystical Body and Mother of the Church
5. According to the words of the Second Vatican Council, Mary “is hailed as pre-eminent and as a wholly unique member of the Church, and as her type and outstanding model in faith and charity” (Lumen Gentium, n. 53). The Mother of the Redeemer is also uniquely redeemed by him in her Immaculate Conception and… Read More ›
Fairest Love
The contemporary family, like families in every age, is searching for “fairest love”. A love which is not “fairest”, but reduced only to the satisfaction of concupiscence (cf. 1 Jn 2:16), or to a man’s and a woman’s mutual “use” of each other, makes persons slaves to their weaknesses. Do not certain modern “cultural agendas”… Read More ›