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Jesus (and You) in the Light of the Transfiguration…
Catholics encounter the miracle of the Transfiguration every year on the Second Sunday of Lent. That Sunday’s Gospel early in Lent already points Christians — as Jesus pointed Peter, James and John — to the Resurrection. The Church actually celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration on Aug. 6 and, every few years, Aug. 6 falls on a Sunday, preempting the usual Sunday (in this case, the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time). Why do we celebrate the Transfiguration? We celebrate it because of what it tells us about Jesus and what it tells us about ourselves. Let’s consider each in turn. What it says about Jesus: that he is God, the Messiah, the One whom Israel has been expecting for all these centuries. The Transfiguration reveals Jesus’ identity. That he is God: “His face shown l...
With SCV visitation underway, suppression seems unlikely…
With SCV visitation underway, suppression seems unlikely Skip to content When a senior Vatican official arrived in Peru last month to look into the affairs of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, journalists in Latin America and Rome began speculating that the controversial institute might soon be dissolved, closing years of allegations against the group’s founder and other ranking leaders, and more than five years of Vatican-appointed oversight of the institute. Archbishop Charles Scicluna, apostolic visitor to the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. Credit: Archdiocese of Malta. Indeed, the late July arrival of Archbishop Charles Scicluna in Lima has triggered speculation about the future of the Sodalitium, as the archbishop — head of the canonical disciplinary section of the Dicastery for ...
‘Stone in the shoe’: Why Pope Francis’ real revolution lies outside the Church…
ROME — A broad consensus regards Pope Francis, who today wraps up a five-day trip to Lisbon for World Youth Day, as a revolutionary figure. His ambitious change agenda over the last decade has aroused both delight and division, both inside and outside the Catholic Church. However, the pontiff’s most recent blockbuster media interview – and the preponderance of such interviews is, itself, part of what makes him such an earthquake – offers a reminder that the real Francis revolution is ad extra, meaning outside the Church. In a wide-ranging conversation with the Spanish platform Vida Nueva, perhaps the most telling line comes when the 86-year-old pontiff says candidly, “I know I’m a stone in the shoe for more than one [critic] … so they have to somehow drive away the pain of the stone.” RELA...
Pope at Closing WYD Mass: ‘The Church and World Need Young People Like the Earth Needs Rain’…
In his homily for the concluding Mass for World Youth Day in Lisbon, Pope Francis calls on young people to shine, to listen, and to be unafraid. By Christopher Wells At the concluding Mass for this year’s World Youth Day, Pope Francis echoed the words of the Apostles who witnessed the Transfiguration of Christ on the Mount: “It is good for us to be here!” At the same time, he challenged the young people to ask themselves, “What will we take back with us to the valley of our daily lives?” Drawing on the day’s Gospel, the Holy Father proposed three verbs: to shine, to listen, and to be unafraid. Pope Francis greets young people To shine The Gospel reading recounts the event of the Transfiguration, where Jesus appeared to His three closest disciples with His face shining like the ...
Is the Vatican a den of spies?
Is the Vatican a den of spies? Skip to content The Vatican financial trial in its final recess, before defense attorneys make their closing arguments after the August break and the judges adjourn to consider their verdict. While the judges and lawyers are (and should be) concerned with the evidence directly related to the sprawling indictment against the 10 accused, the trial has also thrown up testimony which paints the Vatican as a kind of hotbed of spying. Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra. With senior officials, Vatican City police, and a litany of shadowy private contractors all apparently engaged in surveillance and counter surveillance of each other, apparently without remorse, what does that tell us about the state of the rule of law in the Vatican? Share — The Holy See, like...
Are You a Joyful Sinner?
He was pretty content with his life that he never gave it a second thought that his actions would have consequences for himself and others. His worldview encompassed a need to satisfy his urges for fame, food, and the physical pleasures of the world. It was an afterthought that he would share his life with his ex-girlfriend or, even worse, marry her. If the premise of his life was to embrace the world’s pleasures, he was on his way to fulfilling his human desires. The man I just described is a real person I encountered many years ago and was quite vocal in telling me that he enjoyed the sinful pleasures of life. He was not cavalier when he spoke to me about his lifestyle but rather a matter of fact. As we continued our conversation, I discussed proposing an alternative way of living. He wa...
When we were young, when you’re not married, and when you know what’s coming…
When we were young, when you’re not married, and when you know what’s coming Skip to content Happy Friday friends, World Youth Day is in full swing in Lisbon and while pretty much my whole family is over there, JD and I spent much of the week at a canon law conference, catching up with colleagues, classmates, and old friends. I don’t mind telling you, getting to spend two days swapping tribunal stories and arguing in the bar over the finer points of procedural law is my idea of a vacation — or the closest I’m coming to one this summer, anyway. That said, I do wish I’d been able to make it to Lisbon. As a younger man, I remember World Youth Days in places like Toronto as moments of great gift for my life in the faith, and the chance to hear the pope(s) speak to us as young people was format...
From Westerplatte to Lisbon … and everywhere else…
Westerplatte, a narrow peninsula framing the Bay of Gdańsk, was the scene of one of the first battles of World War II in Europe. On Sept. 1, 1939, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the small Polish garrison at Westerplatte, expecting that the vastly outnumbered and outgunned Poles would run up a white flag. That was a misimpression. The Poles — mostly youngsters with no combat experience — not only resisted the offshore bombardment but repelled amphibious assaults by German marines, taking serious casualties as a result. Finally, on Sept. 7, the Polish garrison surrendered; but they had so impressed the aggressors that the German commander allowed the Polish officer leading the Westerplatte garrison to keep his ceremonial sword. Celebrating a Liturgy of the Word with ...
The Polish Roots of World Youth Day…
When did World Youth Day (WYD) begin? A good answer is 40 years ago at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Jasna Gora, the shrine in Częstochowa, the spiritual capital of Poland. As Pope Francis includes the Marian shrine of Fatima in his WYD visit to Portugal — a shrine profoundly linked to the life and mission of St. John Paul II, founder of WYD — it is opportune to reflect on the 1983 visit of John Paul to Częstochowa. The Polish roots of WYD can be traced even farther back, perhaps to the 1950s, when Father Karol Wojtyła began his work with students and young adults in Kraków. Or perhaps the origin can be found in the nine-year program of processions and pilgrimages that the indomitable primate of Poland, Blessed Stefan Wyszynski, orchestrated in preparation for the 1966 millennium of P...
‘Mary Comes to Our Aid in Haste’: Pope Leads Rosary at Chapel of Apparitions in Fatima, Portugal…
Pope Francis prays the Rosary in the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima, Portugal, with young people who are sick and several prison inmates, and reminds pilgrims that Mary always reaches out to us and shows us the way. By Lisa Zengarini Mary always comes to our aid “in haste” and shows us the way forward for our lives. Pope Francis offered this reminder on Saturday as he addressed some 200,000 pilgrims gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, where he travelled from Lisbon to pray for peace in the world and for young people on the fourth day of his Apostolic Journey to Portugal. The Pope led the recitation of the Rosary with a group of around 100 young sick people and several prison inmates in the Chapel of the Apparitions and prayed silently in front of Our Lady of Fatima, pl...
You Have the Words of Eternal Life…
In John 6, we encounter Jesus’ direct teaching on the Eucharist. If anyone would question whether the Church’s teaching accurately represents Jesus’ own teaching, look no further than this chapter where Jesus says: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh…Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”Jn 6:51, 53-56 Jesus is emphatic in his teaching and consistent in his claims. It is difficult to understand how a believer reading this pas...
This Sunday, the Transfiguration Scares Us — C.S. Lewis Helps…
On Sunday, Aug. 6, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which is a prime example of one of the two kinds of problems we 21st century Catholics face in grappling with Gospel stories. One problem is, we can’t stand it when stories sound wild and crazy and counter-rational. The Transfiguration story is like that: It seems like a fantastical story stripped from mythology rather than the kind of sober, rational demonstration of Jesus’s wisdom that we prefer. What’s the second problem we face? Ironically, it’s that Gospel stories are too rational. We say, “If God became man, you’d expect something spectacular and astounding. You’d expect lightning to come out of his fingers like Zeus or you’d expect him to have super-powers like a Marvel hero.” While these two prob...
