The holiness of the Samaritan
by Angelo Sceppacerca
On the eve of the Jubilee of 2000, in the Message for Vocations Day, John Paul II wrote: «In our time, secularized and yet fascinated by the search for the sacred, there is a particular need for saints who, intensely living the primacy of God in their existence, make their loving and provident presence perceptible. Holiness, a gift to be implored incessantly, constitutes the most precious and effective response to the contemporary world's hunger for hope and life. Humanity needs holy priests and consecrated souls who daily live the total gift of themselves to God and others; of fathers and mothers capable of bearing witness to the grace of the sacrament of marriage within the home, reawakening in those who approach them the desire to realize the Creator's plan for the family; of young people who have personally discovered Christ and been fascinated by him so as to inspire their peers to the cause of the Gospel".
Holiness is the fruit of courage
"Do not be afraid!". It is one of the expressions that characterized the pontificate of John Paul II.
In the Bible this invitation not to let fear grip you is repeated 365 times: a daily dose for the courage to live. The angel Gabriel began in Nazareth when he said to Mary: "Do not be afraid". The angel repeats it again in the dream to Joseph: «Do not be afraid to take Mary as your bride». Jesus said this to his disciples on a boat in the throes of a storm in the night. Don Guanella also heard it many times when faced with the difficulty of doing good: "Don't be afraid, charity always pushes you further, towards the beach of the poor."
Daily beauty in family relationships
by Luigi Crimella
An enhanced and renewed website by the Pontifical Council for the Family (www.familia.va), a second specific website for the world event in Milan (www.family2012.com), print and online distribution of a volume of about one hundred pages ("The family: work and celebration") with preparatory catecheses in seven languages to be used throughout the world, as well as countless advertising and sponsorship initiatives at a national and international level: these are the "ingredients" of the preparatory journey illustrated on May 24th in the Vatican, in view of the VII world meeting of families scheduled in Milan from May 30th to June 3rd 2012.
The family work gym and party space
by Angelo Forti
The "universal" Church bets its future on the "domestic" church, the family born from the sacrament of marriage, as a perennial source of strength and divine grace. The VII World Meeting of Families will take place in Milan from 30 May to 3 June 2012. The first stage of this long preparatory itinerary starts from Nazareth, the cradle of the first Christian family. That family has become a school of humanity, faith, relationships, work and celebration. In Nazareth there has always been an atmosphere of "family, work and celebration", three themes that will intertwine in a dance of joy and life itineraries.
In these months of preparation we will have the task of staying in the heart of this exemplary family. Our eyes will become curious, greedy for light to grasp in the feelings of this "earthly trinity", those seeds of hope to make our family life leaven with the same sap that fueled their existence.
Stealing is always killing the joy of living
by Ottavio De Bertolis
15/* The commandments: ten words to stay free. Do not steal
Let's continue our reflection on the ten words that make us free. The seventh commandment says: "thou shalt not steal", and with this each of us feels exempt from any guilt. In fact, none of us has ever gone to rob a bank, or pickpocket old ladies on the bus. But it is clear that the commandment, or rather the word, has a much more significant meaning.
First of all, I would like to note that there is quite little talk about it. In fact, while the sixth commandment, the one on chastity, is felt to be truly obligatory, a sort of bugaboo on which whether or not being in a state of grace depends, the seventh is quite overlooked, as if the Lord did not like the virtues “public”, but only “private” ones.
In the school of divine service
of Mother Anna Maria Cánopi
God in Jesus reveals himself to be unique and true
by Gianni Gennari
7*/ Thinking about faith
Let's continue the discussion. After having searched for the specific meaning of "belief" expressed in actual "faith", we began to talk about that reality that we call "God", the God of Jewish-Christian Revelation who is not that of the "myths", invented by the imagination human as an explanation of incomprehensible natural phenomena, nor that of "rites", conceived by the human need for protection and strength in the face of the needs of personal and community life. The Jewish-Christian faith does not "explain" nature, which is the task of human intelligence through knowledge and science, nor does it "bend" it to the needs of man, which is the task of technology, which uses knowledge of nature to try to dominate it and provide for the concrete needs of men and peoples.
Commitment to offering quality of life to the years
by Graziella Fons
You don't die because you have lost your memory, but you die when you feel alone, orphaned of loved ones, without friends, without a purpose for living
Today, many of us, in too many sectors of public life, are navigating by sight: school, unemployment, young people and, last but not least, the elderly. We think about them by playing everything on the pension platform, on the ever-increasing number of elderly people and the financial repercussions for healthcare costs, but we don't worry about the fact that for elderly people there is a dramatic reduction in the quality of life .
It is not enough to give years to life, thus prolonging old age, but it is urgent to worry about giving life to years.
Schedule rest to regenerate
by Don Mario Carrera
«The years of our life are seventy, eighty for the most robust, but almost all of them are fatigue, pain; they soon pass and we disappear." With these words from Psalm 90 John Paul II opened his letter to the elderly.
At the end of the Second Millennium the Pope, now entering old age, felt the desire to enter into dialogue with people of his own age to express first of all his gratitude to God "for the gifts and opportunities that he has abundantly bestowed on him".
Intention of the month of July 2011
Offer prayer
Divine Heart of Jesus,
I offer you by means
of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, Mother
of the Church, in union
to the Eucharistic Sacrifice,
prayers and actions,
the joys and sufferings
of this day:
under repair
of sins,
for the salvation of all
men, in grace
of the Holy Spirit,
to the glory of the divine Father.
Pope's intention
Christians
contribute
to relieve
the suffering
study material
and spiritual.
Missionary intention
The religious
in mission territories
let them be a living sign
of God's love.
Intention of the Bishops
The spirit
Holy
support those
who dedicate themselves
to volunteering
Christian.
Prayer from a priest's mother
God love, I thank you for making me the mother of a priest.
Like Mary, the mother of your Son Jesus, I sing my hymn of thanksgiving to your paternal mercy for having placed your gaze of love on our family, calling our son to continue the same mission of Jesus in history: minister of mercy, herald of hope and ring of communion between You and the faithful.
Alongside the gratitude of every mother for the gift of life, I will not hide from you the concern for the mission of my son called to live his priestly ministry in a time of profound and rapid changes.
Let him keep a strong desire for holiness in his soul to be able to radiate it.
May he, in imitation of Jesus, be a good Samaritan for those wounded in life.
Let his heart be open to all, a path that everyone can travel and on which everyone will be able to encounter the very face of Jesus.
Let his generosity not know tiredness, but be like a fountain that quenches the thirst of those who are tired and offers words of hope in a world orphaned of hopes.