Summary for Pope Benedict’s third Encyclical: Charity in Truth

You can find the summary written by Jeff Mirus at this page:
Benedict’s Third Encyclical: A Summary

The Solution to Poverty is Poverty

The Pope says that the solution to overcome the poverty that God does not want is Evangelical Poverty! The solution is not getting more wealth but sobriety and solidarity, the fruits of evangelical poverty.

read the complete article at: http://www.zenit.org/article-24692?l=english

Say No to Theology of Prosperity

by Bishop Victor Hugo Palma Paul of Escuintla, Guatemala for the Synod on the Word of God (October 2008)

Despite their good will, many Christians today fall prey to a false reading of the Bible. Amongst many Christians, an authentic understanding of the Word of God has long been crippled by the sole reliance on Scripture alone and the rejection of Tradition, as advocated since the Protestant Reformation. In this vacuum, amidst our modern culture of materialism, consumerism, and individualism, elements foreign to Christianity have slowly and insidiously been introduced to encourage a false reading of the Bible.

In their fundamentalism, certain pseudo-Christian sects and groups endorse a ‘prosperity gospel’, which in itself is grounded upon a superficial and subjective view of the human individual as the only point of reference. This has led to the use and abuse of the Word of God to promote modern forms of idolatry – money, pleasure, goods, and freedoms are pursued as ends in themselves.

Especially in developing communities where material poverty is widespread, proponents of this ‘prosperity gospel’ sow the seeds of heresy by promoting a false God who appears to be rooted in the Bible but is otherwise anything but Christian. By condemning poverty as a ‘curse’ to be avoided and extolling riches as a ‘blessing’ to be pursued, the ‘prosperity gospel’ misreads and misrepresents the Word of God.

While the need to improve the lives of the poor necessitates the alleviation of poverty and the promotion of social justice, this does not justify the corruption of the Word of God to propagate a particular view of economic prosperity. To remain true to the Word of God, the reading of Scripture must be guided by Tradition to ground our encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, who points the way towards solidarity, conversion, and communion.

quoted from http://www.stmary.sg/images/Offices/AFFO/001 Kairos 07 Dec 08 S.pdf

Money crisis: Material things will pass away

This is the Pope address on the synod on the Word of God

http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-23830

Seek first the Kingdom of God

I wrote an email to my maillist about desiring to be rich. I wrote that we should first seek the Kingdom of God. It is not that I condemn the rich, of course not, the Lord does not do that. It is just that I have never heard the God’s message asking us to “desire” riches. I have never read in the Scripture, and I have never heard in the teaching of the Church.

It turns out that some people reply, and of course, some didn’t agree with it. I promised to the Lord that I will always listen to Him, instead of myself or my pride. So I listen to them. I love the truth more than I love my pride. Yet, I am still not convinced that the Lord wants us to “desire” riches.

Today we are having an intercessory for the Alpha programme. We invited some people to come, even from those who never come to our prayer meeting. What struck me was that during the prophecy time, there was this girl gave a prophecy through a song

seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness. And all of this thing shall be added unto you, alleluia!

Even when you are wealthy, you will still feel empty….[...]

I don’t think she is in our maillist. I don’t think she knows what is happening. And it’s not related to the Alpha programme that we are praying for either. haha

But It truly affirms me. I felt the Lord is affirming the message that I am telling to my members. I remember the last paragraph of my email i wrote:

Brothers and sisters, seek first the kingdom of God, and everything else will be added unto you. Come to Jesus, and you will find Life. Don’t live for riches or money. It’s not worth the Life we will obtain with Jesus Christ. If the Lord bless you with riches, thank Him, and give it to the poor. St. Ambrose said our money never belongs to us… It belongs to the poor.

Thank you Lord. Not for affirming my message, but your message. Thank you for helping me in my strugle to seek the truth. Thank you for speaking to me.