Present at a Martyrdom
Posted by DariaSockey in Faith on Monday, February 06, 2012 2:59 PM
Today’s Liturgy of the Hours includes this eyewitness account of the martyrdom of St. Paul Miki and companions, which took place in 1597
The crosses were set in place. Father Pasio and Father Rodriguez took turns encouraging the victims. Their steadfast behavior was wonderful to see. The Father Bursar stood motionless, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin gave thanks to God’s goodness by singing... READ MORE
Listen to Robyn Lee!
Posted by Danielle Bean in Faith on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 6:09 PM
I was thrilled when I heard that my good friend, colleague, and Faith & Family blogger, the rockin’ Robyn Lee was a recent guest on the awesome Pat Gohn’s awesomely amazing podcast, Among Women.
Did that sentence sound enthusiastic enough? Because I really do love these two women and I really got a lot out of their conversation as well.
Since the Faith & Family podcast is on a bit of a hiatus while Lisa Hendey is busy globe-trotting, I thought I should highlight this little gem for our podcast-hungry readers.
Take some time to enjoy this thoughtful conversation (also on iTunes—episode 122). I was so impressed with what these two women shared about encountering Christ in everyday living. I promise you will come away blessed for having listened!
On Becoming a Pilgrim
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Faith on Monday, January 30, 2012 10:31 PM
Hi friends, just a few quick words from the Holy Land where I am having the time of my life. Our internet connection here in Jerusalem is sketchy at best—to use my iPad I must do some gymnastics that are inconvenient at best… so I will keep this short and share the bulk of my stories over the next few weeks when I return home to the land of abundant and free wifi.
Although I have been able share so... READ MORE
Anything but Ordinary
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Faith on Thursday, January 26, 2012 12:00 PM
Recently, I was chatting with a friend who told me that she was headed home to take down her Christmas tree. She hated doing it, she shared. I congratulated her on truly understanding and appreciating our liturgical calendar, chiding myself for the fact that my tree was down and put away shortly after New Years.
But the truth of the matter is this: the older I get, the more I find myself appreciating... READ MORE
New Evangelizers
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Faith on Thursday, January 12, 2012 10:00 AM
One of the happiest circumstances of my life was the day I decided to take a road trip to Southern California to attend the “Podcast Expo”. I made the decision on a whim after hearing two of my favorite podcast hosts, Greg and Jennifer Willits (then of The Rosary Army, now of The Catholics Next Door), speaking about the event on their podcast. I swallowed the fear I felt inside and took the road trip... READ MORE
Happy Epiphany!
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Sunday, January 08, 2012 9:00 AM
Those figures who came from the East were not the last but the first of a great procession of those who, throughout the epochs of history, are able to recognize the message of the Star, who know how to walk on the paths indicated by Sacred Scripture.
Thus they also know how to find the One who seems weak and fragile but instead has the power to grant the greatest and most profound joy to the heart of man.
In him, indeed, is made manifest the stupendous reality that God knows us and is close to us, that his greatness and power are not expressed according to the world’s logic, but to the logic of a helpless baby whose strength is only that of the love which he entrusts to us.
In the journey of history, there are always people who are enlightened by the light of the Star, who find the way and reach him. They all live, each in his or her own way, the experience of the Magi.
—Benedict XVI, Solemnity of Epiphany 2010
The Restless Heart of God
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Friday, January 06, 2012 11:40 AM
You must read the Holy Father’s homily for Epiphany this year.
The whole thing is quotable, but I’ll whet your whistle with this:
The restless heart of which we spoke earlier, echoing Saint Augustine, is the heart that is ultimately satisfied with nothing less than God, and in this way becomes a loving heart. Our heart is restless for God and remains so, even if every effort is made today, by means of most effective anaesthetizing methods, to deliver people from this unrest. But not only are we restless for God: God’s heart is restless for us. God is waiting for us. He is looking for us. He knows no rest either, until he finds us. God’s heart is restless, and that is why he set out on the path towards us – to Bethlehem, to Calvary, from Jerusalem to Galilee and on to the very ends of the earth.
Merry Christmas, Day 12
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Thursday, January 05, 2012 9:00 AM
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, The Family of John the Baptist Visiting Christ
Thank God, this negative detail [“no room in the inn”—mankind too preoccupied with itself to make space for God] is not the only one, nor the last one that we find in the Gospel.
Just as in Luke we encounter the maternal love of Mary and the fidelity of Saint Joseph, the vigilance of the shepherds and their great joy, just as in Matthew we encounter the visit of the wise men, come from afar, so too John says to us: “To all who received him, he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12).
There are those who receive him, and thus, beginning with the stable, with the outside, there grows silently the new house, the new city, the new world.
The message of Christmas makes us recognize the darkness of a closed world, and thereby no doubt illustrates a reality that we see daily.
Yet it also tells us that God does not allow himself to be shut out. He finds a space, even if it means entering through the stable; there are people who see his light and pass it on.
—Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass 2007
Merry Christmas, Day 11
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 9:00 AM
The first thing we are told about the shepherds is that they were on the watch – they could hear the message precisely because they were awake. We must be awake, so that we can hear the message. We must become truly vigilant people.
What does this mean?
The principal difference between someone dreaming and someone awake is that the dreamer is in a world of his own. His “self” is locked into this dreamworld that is his alone and does not connect him with others. To wake up means to leave that private world of one’s own and to enter the common reality, the truth that alone can unite all people….
Awake, the Gospel tells us. Step outside, so as to enter the great communal truth, the communion of the one God. To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence.
There are people who describe themselves as “religiously tone deaf.” The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some. And indeed – our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today’s world, the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for God, to make us “tone deaf” towards him. And yet in every soul, the desire for God, the capacity to encounter him, is present, whether in a hidden way or overtly. In order to arrive at this vigilance, this awakening to what is essential, we should pray for ourselves and for others, for those who appear “tone deaf” and yet in whom there is a keen desire for God to manifest himself.
Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass, 2009
Merry Christmas, Day 10
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Tuesday, January 03, 2012 11:02 AM
See more of Sheila Diemert’s work at SheilaDiemert.com
In the Bethlehem Grotto human loneliness is overcome, our existence is no longer left to the impersonal forces of natural and historical processes, our house can be built on the rock: we can plan our history, the history of humanity, not in Utopia but in the certainty that the God of Jesus Christ is present and goes with us.
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let us run joyfully towards Bethlehem, let us welcome in our arms the Child that Mary and Joseph will present to us. Let us start out from him and with him, facing all the difficulties. The Lord asks each one of you to cooperate in building the city of man, seriously and enthusiastically conjugating faith and culture. For this reason I invite you to seek always, with patient perseverance, the true Face of God…. Seeking the Face of God is the profound aspiration of our heart and is also the answer to the fundamental question that continues to surface ever anew in contemporary society.
—Vespers for the University Students of Rome, December 15, 2011
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