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

Christmas and On the meaning of our existence

Pope Benedict’s homily on Christmas
http://zenit.org/article-24594?l=english

Pope’s Homily for 1st Advent

You can read it here:

http://www.zenit.org/article-24419?l=english

How to be Realistic

just want to share a reflection by Pope on the Word of God, wonderful. Since my background is engineering/science, there is always a tendency to see reality as what I can see and touch, something visible and tangible. Is this not we all experience? the Pope has something to say for our world today He invited us to build our lives not on sand (you will be surprised with what he says when he refer to building on sand), but build our lives on solid ROCK, which is the Word of God. This is what he said to be “realist”ic. Enjoy

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Dear Brothers in the Episcopacy,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

At the beginning of our Synod the Liturgy of the Hours proposes a passage from Psalm 18 on the Word of God: praise for His Word, expression of the joy of Israel in learning it and, in it, to learn about His will and His face. I would like to meditate on a few verses of this Psalm with you.

It begins like this: “In aeternum, Domine, verbum tuum constitutum est in caelo… firmasti terram, et permanet”. This refers to the solidity of the Word. It is solid, it is the true reality on which we must base our life. Let us remember the words of Jesus who continues the words of this Psalm: “Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”. Humanly speaking, the word, my human word, is almost nothing in reality, but a breath. As soon as it is pronounced, it disappears. It seems like nothing. But already the human word has incredible force. It is words that create history, it is words that form thoughts, the thoughts that create the word. It is the word that forms history, reality.

Even more, the Word of God is the foundation of everything, it is the true reality. And to be realistic, we must rely upon this reality. We must change our notion that matter, solid things, things we can touch, is the most solid, the most certain reality. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord speaks to us about the two possible foundations for building the house of one’s life: sand and rock. He who builds on sand only builds on visible and tangible things, on success, on career, on money. Apparently these are the true realities. But all this one day will vanish. We can see this now with the fall of two large banks: this money disappears, it is nothing. And thus all things, which seem to be the true realities we can count on, are only realities of a secondary order. Who builds his life on these realities, on matter, on success, on appearances, builds upon sand. Only the Word of God is the foundation of all reality, it is as stable as the heavens and more than the heavens, it is reality. Therefore, we must change our concept of realism. The realist is he who recognizes the Word of God, in this apparently weak reality, as the foundation of all things. Realist is he who builds his life on this foundation, which is permanent. Thus the first verses of the Psalm invite us to discover what reality is and how to find the foundation of our life, how to build life.

[...continued  at: http://www.zenit.org/article-23835?l=english ]

ps. the whole reflection is beautiful, don’t missed it.

When God speaks, he always seeks a response

I have been waiting for this synod since its announcement last year. You can read the wonderful homily by Pope on the Word of God.

http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-23825

Benedict XVI: Let us rediscover the beauty of being baptized in the Holy Spirit

In his Sunday greetings, the pope urges us to rediscover the beauty of being baptized in the Holy Spirit!

Let us rediscover, dear brothers and sisters, the beauty of being baptized in the Holy Spirit; let us be aware again of our baptism and of our confirmation, sources of grace that are always present.
“Let us ask the Virgin Mary to obtain a renewed Pentecost for the Church again today, a Pentecost that will spread in everyone the joy of living and witnessing to the Gospel.”

You can read the full article here.

And if you want to read the Pope’s homily for Pentecost, you can find it in this page.

Benedict XVI and the Pentecost

In his Wednesday Audience, the Pope again prepare the Church for the solemnity of Pentecost. He teaches us about the Holy Spirit:

The Holy Spirit is “a power for the forgiveness of sins, for the renewal of our hearts and our lives. It renews the earth and creates unity where before there was division”. When it descended upon the Apostles they spoke in tongues, a sign that “the Babylonian dispersion, fruit of the pride which divides mankind, was overcome in the Spirit, which is charity and gives us unity in diversity”.

Moreover, he also spoke about the Church that is always in a state of Pentecost. Last SACCRE core leaders meeting, we met and discussed about the culture of Pentecost. So what is this “state of Pentecost” that the Church is experiencing all the time?

the Church is always, so to say, in a state of Pentecost. Gathered in the Cenacle, she prays incessantly to obtain ever new effusions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, … and is not afraid to announce the Gospel to the furthest confines of the earth.

I felt these two things came up from the words of the pope: 1) pray incessantly for an ever new effusion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and 2) to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

The Church doesn’t preach using human wisdom, or mere human eloquence. She preaches with the Holy Spirit, the power that bridges all languages and nations. It is the power to forgive from God (only God forgives sins), it is the power that can renew people’s heart and lives (only God changes people’s lives).

It is the power that Jesus spoke when he was about to ascend to Heaven:

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Sama’ria and to the end of the earth.” ( Acts 1:8 )

Many people thought that the power is just about healing and miracles. But St. Thomas Aquinas said that the greatest miracle is the conversion of the world.

Prefer Nothing to the Love of Christ

A wonderful reflection by Pope Benedict XVI on St. Benedict of Nursia. You can find the full article in this page.

One thing that caught my heart is this:

There is a particular aspect of his spirituality, which today I would particularly like to underline. Benedict did not found a monastic institution oriented primarily to the evangelization of barbarian peoples, as other great missionary monks of the time, but indicated to his followers that the fundamental, and even more, the sole objective of existence is the search for God: “Quaerere Deum.”

He knew, however, that when the believer enters into a profound relationship with God he cannot be content with living in a mediocre way, with a minimalist ethic and superficial religiosity. In this light, one understands better the expression that Benedict took from St. Cyprian and that is summarized in his Rule (IV, 21) — the monks’ program of life: “Nihil amori Christi praeponere.” “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.”

Youth Ministry to Family Ministry

Uuuh, my heart is beating when I read what the Pope said. I think about a year ago I felt that the way to minister to youths is through their family as well. All this time, we simply minister “only youth”, or even worse, sometimes we take the youths from their family!

This is what the pope said to the Salesian:

Since the family should have an active role in the education of youth, it is necessary to expand youth ministry to family ministry.

full article:
http://www.zenit.org/article-22163?l=english

btw, St. John Bosco, the founder of Salesian, is one of the patron saints for youth.

What can we do then?

Pope Benedict’s homily during Easter

Wonderful reflection, check these two homilies:

• Easter Vigil homily
• Easter homily