Religion
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Quotes and news
The Pope will present to Church leaders the apostolic exhortation based on the deliberations of the special synod of Middle Easter Bishops held in 2009. The Pope will do this during his visit to Lebanon between September 14 and 16. Pope Benedict...
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Minister to the world
Today’s readings: Wisdom 1, 13-15; 2, 23-24; 2 Cor. 8, 7.9.13-15; Mk 5, 21-43. Affirmations from the Book of Wisdom today that “God created everything so that it might continue to exist, and everything he created is wholesome and good”, coupled with...
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Diversity – a friend or foe?
Glory be to Godfor dappled things…All things counter,original, spare, strange;Whatever is fickle, freckled(who knows how?)With swift, slow; sweet, sour;adazzle, dim;He fathers-forth whose beautyis past change:Praise Him. The Jesuit poet, G.M.
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Quotes and news
US Catholics are being encouraged to text the word ‘Freedom’ or ‘Libertad’ (in Spanish) to 377377. Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said “across America, our right to live out our...
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Silence and speech
Today’s readings: Isaiah 49, 1-6; Acts 13, 22-26; Luke 1, 57-66.80. It may be a happy coincidence for the Church in the times we are in to celebrate the birth of John the Baptist on a Sunday. The Baptist came at a very particular point in time in...
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Ruthless money making
A recent TV programme tackled the subject of usury – the illegal practice of charging excessive, unreasonably high interest rates on loans. Various reports in local newspapers, coupled with the painful experiences of victims of usury, spurred the...
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Quotes and news
The working document that will guide the discussions during the Synod of Bishops from October 7 to 28 has been published by the Vatican. The Synod will discuss ‘The New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith’. The document says...
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Agents of change
Today’s readings: Ezekiel 17, 22-24; 2 Corinthians 5, 6-10; Mark 4, 26-34. Mark’s version of the parable of the sower highlights a basic truth about Christianity, that it was not meant to be by nature a religion of the masses. Actually the aspect of...
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Sanctifying daily life
One of Malta’s intellectual giants, Oliver Friggieri, forcefully argued the case for putting Our Lord back at the centre of Maltese culture and, more specifically, of literature (The Sunday Times, May 20). In his view, we cannot appreciate our...
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Quotes and news
After the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that a 2006 book by Sr Margaret Farley called Just Love was in contradiction of Catholic teaching, the board of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America came to...
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Today’s Passover
Today’s readings: Exodus 24, 3-8; Heb. 9, 11-15; Mark 14, 12-16.22-26. In the context we live in today, pressured as we are on one side by the consumerist craze and on the other side by the obligation to hold back, it is pertinent to ask what the...
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The Eucharist to shape our whole life
The feast of Corpus Christi, which the Catholic Church celebrates today, is meant to combine reverent participation in the Eucharist with the transposition of the Eucharist into daily life. The two are inextricably bound together. Through Baptism,...
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Quotes and news
Pope Benedict described the family as humanity’s “principle patrimony”, adding that there is no future for humanity without a future for the family. The Pope was speaking during the 7th World Meeting of Families organised last weekend in Milan. “It...
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Beauty and holiness
Today’s readings: Deuteronomy 4, 32-34; 39-40; Romans 8, 14-17; Matthew 28, 16-20. The worst opposite to belief in God is not atheism but idolatry. The temptation of idolatry is inherent to religion and I would say connatural to it. From religion it...
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Losing our direction
“The first effect of not believing in God is that you lose your common sense.” These words of wisdom by G. K. Chesterton deserve serious reflection. Few will deny that many of us have a sinking feeling that our society is losing its common sense...
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Quotes and news
During the 64th plenary assembly of Italian bishops, Pope Benedict described Europe as “wounded” by a flight from faith, and said “a rich soil risks becoming an inhospitable desert”. He remarked that “many of the baptised have lost their identity...
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In conversation
Today’s readings: Acts 2. 1-11; 1 Cor. 12, 3-7.12-13; John 20, 19-23. One of the major problems facing our pluralist culture today is the issue of a common discourse which we lack on all levels and aspects of our life. It is an issue that concerns...
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Uncanonised saints of everyday life
Saints are part and parcel of the Catholic faith. Our churches are full of them. Most are the classic ones like St Joseph, the apostles, some well-known martyrs, the founders of the most known religious orders. Many Catholics have great devotion to...
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Quotes and news
“The family founded on faithful marriage between a man and a woman, and open to life, over and above all the cultural developments that have affected it, still imposes itself as the best way to generate and raise children,” said Cardinal Angelo...
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Vatican condemns ‘criminal’ leaks
The Vatican has denounced as “criminal” a new book of leaked internal documents that shed light on power struggles inside the Holy See and the thinking of its embattled top banker, and warned that it would take legal action against those...
