Opinion
In June I spent two weeks in Rome for the Ad Limina Apostolorum which means Threshold of the Apostles, referring to Saints Peter and Paul, both martyred and interred in Rome.
Opinion
The time of Pentecost is upon us. ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle within us the fire of your divine love’. It is a good word enkindle. It means to set something alight, to create a new reality, to produce light and warmth.
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Train loads of events fill our daily lives. If we don’t reflect on our experiences, we will never pick out what our experience of the major events is telling us, how the finger of God is tracing its patterns through our lives. So what has our experience of the major Seasons of Lent and Easter taught us?
On Ash Wednesday one year ago a school shooting massacre occurred at the Parkland High School in Florida, resulting in 17 deaths and a large number of wounded. Displayed prominently was a photo of anguished mothers arriving at the school to find out whether or not their child was a victim.
Pope Francis has asked us to look at life issues in a holistic way, as a total perspective. It comes out of Our Lord’s words: ‘I have come that you may have life and have it to the full’. Pope Francis says that the Christian attitude to life must embrace everything from conception to natural death. And so it covers actions like abortion; it covers actions like capital punishment. It’s odd to be opposed to abortion and yet support capital punishment; there’s a contradiction there.
To be authentic Church, the Christian community must exercise and live the corporal works of mercy. The care of the young is an integral work of mercy, a sign of the Church being Church.
Reflect how much we need the annual feast of Christmas. It comes and acts like a recharging of the soul.
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