Thursday, 15 October 2015
What does the Church itself say about the Eucharist
"The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. These convictions have pastoral consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness. Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems" (Evangelii Gaudium, 47).
Sunday, 11 October 2015
Feast day of Pope St John XXIII - a post for those on both sides depressed about the Synod.
Credit to Fr James Martin SJ for finding this quote.
St. John's Feast is celebrated on the anniversary of the opening day of the Second Vatican Council, in 1962.
"In the daily exercise of our pastoral office, we sometimes have to listen, much to our regret, to voices of persons who, though burning with zeal, are not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure. In these modern times they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin. They say that our era, in comparison with past eras, is getting worse and they behave as though they had learned nothing from history, which is, none the less, the teacher of life. They behave as though at the time of former councils everything was a full triumph for the Christian idea and life and for proper religious liberty.
"We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world was at hand.
"In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by men’s own efforts and even beyond their very expectations, are directed toward the fulfillment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church."
--Mother Church Rejoices, Opening Address of Vatican II.
St. John's Feast is celebrated on the anniversary of the opening day of the Second Vatican Council, in 1962.
"In the daily exercise of our pastoral office, we sometimes have to listen, much to our regret, to voices of persons who, though burning with zeal, are not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure. In these modern times they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin. They say that our era, in comparison with past eras, is getting worse and they behave as though they had learned nothing from history, which is, none the less, the teacher of life. They behave as though at the time of former councils everything was a full triumph for the Christian idea and life and for proper religious liberty.
"We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world was at hand.
"In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by men’s own efforts and even beyond their very expectations, are directed toward the fulfillment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church."
--Mother Church Rejoices, Opening Address of Vatican II.
Friday, 3 July 2015
Saturday, 25 April 2015
Ten quotes from Pope Francis
Credit goes to Paul at peopleforothers.loyolapress.com for this lot.
10. “Jesus did not come to teach a philosophy, an ideology, but rather ‘a way,’ a journey to be undertaken with him, and we learn the way as we go by walking.”
9. “Throughout history, one baptizes another, another, and another… it is a chain, a chain of grace. I cannot baptize myself: I must ask another for baptism. It is an act of brotherhood, an act of filiation with the Church.”
8. “And wisdom is precisely this: to see the world, to see situations, circumstances, problem, everything through God’s eyes.”
7. “The Lord speaks to us not only in the intimacy of the heart – yes, he speaks to us, but not only there – but also through the voice and witness of our brothers and sisters.”
6. “Faith is necessarily ecclesial; it is professed from within the Body of Christ as a concrete communion of believers.”
5. “It is through an unbroken chain of witnesses that we come to see the face of Jesus.”
4. “…there is only one real kind of poverty: not living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ.”
3. “We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves. We need to love and be loved. We need tenderness.”
2. “Take note: if the Church is alive, she must always surprise. It is incumbent upon the living Church to astound.”
1. “Where was Jesus most often, where could he most easily be found? On the road.”
10. “Jesus did not come to teach a philosophy, an ideology, but rather ‘a way,’ a journey to be undertaken with him, and we learn the way as we go by walking.”
9. “Throughout history, one baptizes another, another, and another… it is a chain, a chain of grace. I cannot baptize myself: I must ask another for baptism. It is an act of brotherhood, an act of filiation with the Church.”
8. “And wisdom is precisely this: to see the world, to see situations, circumstances, problem, everything through God’s eyes.”
7. “The Lord speaks to us not only in the intimacy of the heart – yes, he speaks to us, but not only there – but also through the voice and witness of our brothers and sisters.”
6. “Faith is necessarily ecclesial; it is professed from within the Body of Christ as a concrete communion of believers.”
5. “It is through an unbroken chain of witnesses that we come to see the face of Jesus.”
4. “…there is only one real kind of poverty: not living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ.”
3. “We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves. We need to love and be loved. We need tenderness.”
2. “Take note: if the Church is alive, she must always surprise. It is incumbent upon the living Church to astound.”
1. “Where was Jesus most often, where could he most easily be found? On the road.”
Sunday, 5 April 2015
He is risen
| Easter Sequence |
|---|
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
offer sacrifice and praise.
The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;
and Christ, the undefiled,
hath sinners to his Father reconciled.
Death with life contended:
combat strangely ended!
Life’s own Champion, slain,
yet lives to reign.
Tell us, Mary:
say what thou didst see
upon the way.
The tomb the Living did enclose;
I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!
The angels there attesting;
shroud with grave-clothes resting.
Christ, my hope, has risen:
he goes before you into Galilee.
That Christ is truly risen
from the dead we know.
Victorious king, thy mercy show!
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Hunger
Just found this today from the site "Speaking My Truth" - the poems there are magnificent, but this one caught at the heart.
To read the rest, go to http://apoetman.blogspot.co.uk/
To read the rest, go to http://apoetman.blogspot.co.uk/
Hunger
Somehow I have to make sure that each day
I am Hungry,
that there's room inside of me for another presence.
When I am filled with
my own opinions, ideas, righteousness, superiority, or sufficiency,
I am a world unto myself and there is no room for "another."
When I can empty myself,
create a vacuum within me,
God fills it,
for God, as nature, abhors a vacuum.
Despite Church attempts to define who is and who is not worthy
to receive communion,
the only ticket or true prerequisite for coming to Eucharist is
Hunger.
And most often, sinners like me
are hungrier than the "saints" who would exclude us.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Rest in peace, Terry Pratchett
RIP Terry Pratchett.
“ALL THINGS THAT ARE, ARE OURS. BUT WE MUST CARE.
FOR IF WE DO NOT CARE, WE DO NOT EXIST. IF WE DO NOT EXIST, THEN THERE
IS NOTHING BUT BLIND OBLIVION. AND EVEN OBLIVION MUST END SOMEDAY. LORD,
WILL YOU GRANT ME JUST A LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS.
TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF
BIRDS.
“ALL THINGS THAT ARE, ARE OURS. BUT WE MUST CARE.
FOR IF WE DO NOT CARE, WE DO NOT EXIST. IF WE DO NOT EXIST, THEN THERE
IS NOTHING BUT BLIND OBLIVION. AND EVEN OBLIVION MUST END SOMEDAY. LORD,
WILL YOU GRANT ME JUST A LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS.
TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF
BIRDS.
Death took a step backwards.
It was impossible to read expression in Azrael's features.
Death glanced sideways at the servants.
LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?”
From "Reaper Man" - Terry Pratchett
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