Such a simple commandment Jesus puts before the Pharisees and ourselves today. We ask their question too: what is the greatest commandment of God, what single law is of the greatest consequence? However do we really understand the unintended consequences of what Jesus actually says? In plain speech it seems simple enough: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Over the years, the world has been moving from one crisis to the other and from war to another because there is a prevailing virus called "sin and corruption" that dominates the world and wreaks havoc.
This virus has brought crises to the entire world leading to the death of hundreds of thousands of people as well as causing economic and social devastation.
The anniversary of John Paul II's election to the papacy falls this year on the centenary of his birth: two events celebrated by Churches around the world. The Vatican Publishing House and the Osservatore Romano preserve the memorable moments of that unforgettable evening of 16 October 1978.
October 16, 1978, 42 years ago, was a Monday. It was already dark when, at 6.18 p.m., white smoke billowed out from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, after black smoke had risen seven times before.
On October 4, Pope Francis issued his third encyclical and his second social encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, calling on the world to come together in fraternal love in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and global social, economic and political fragmentation.
Carlo Acutis, a contemporary of ours, was 15 when he gave his soul to God, having left to the world a backpack full of blessings obtained by his daily surrender. Prayer, the Eucharist, love of the Virgin . . . and profound eagerness to take the faith through the Internet — the instrument he had at hand, working with it intelligently and ably. He achieved his objective, moving innumerable people, who no doubt were unaware of the existence of Eucharistic miracles, as well as many who knew about them.
Any new papal encyclical is noteworthy, and it can’t be denied that when it comes to Pope Francis’s latest, “Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship,” attention must be paid. Having read the work — as opposed to studied it — I want to offer some initial impressions over the next weeks that, I hope, will put it into a theological and historical context.
In a document focused on today’s socio-economic problems, the Holy Father proposes an ideal of fraternity where all countries can be part of a “larger human family.”
Pope Francis has called for a “better kind of politics,” a more “open world,” and paths of renewed encounter and dialogue in his latest social encyclical, a letter that he hopes will promote a “rebirth of a universal aspiration” toward “fraternity and social friendship.”
Martyrdom is the occasion of the most powerful experience of the Spirit's help.
As Saint Peter says…If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you…1 Pt 4:14).
In it, he condemned the western intelligentsia's faiblesse, which was at the same time dishonest, posturing, stupid, and evil, for Stalinist-style dictatorships.
