A Treasure To Be Shared

Sigurd Image | edited Fr. Juan Velez Newman exhorts us: “All who obey the Truth are on the side of the Truth, and the Truth will prevail. Few in number but strong in the Spirit, despised by the world, yet making way while they suffered, the twelve Apostles overturned the power of darkness, and established the Christian Church.” He invites us to live as witnesses to the Resurrection, spiritual witnesses. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Truth bears witness by itself to its Divine Author. He who obeys God conscientiously, and lives holily, forces all about him to believe and tremble before the unseen power of Christ.” In 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, Saint Paul reminds us that everything, even death itself, is under the authority of Jesus. Public officials, especially, would do well to reflect on the responsible use of power and stewardship (or lack thereof) and charity (or lack thereof). The Nuremburg Defense will be no defense before the throne of God. But in...

[ Estimated Read Time: 8 minutes ] "Nothing unclean shall enter [heaven]," according to the Book of Revelation. (Revelation 21:27), which explains that only the pure are allowed to approach God's presence. We have faith that God, in his mercy, offers timely opportunity for that purification. “At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed” (CCC 1042). “Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world, ‘new heavens and a new earth’” (CCC 1043). “The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just, sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ” (CCC 1047). “We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man, nor...

Originally posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, the following post conveys something of the intelligent witness that Catholics give to the art and practice of science. We are not into scientism nor materialism, the religion of shallow thinkers who pretend to know how things are and who are outraged and who often resort to violence when their baseless theories are challenged. Catholics are into understanding "manifestation(s) of God’s creative genius." The Catholic perspective is focused on reality, truth, what really is, not on some pious imagining or incomplete notion tethered to pride and fashioned in our own image, an idol to which we cling in defiance of evidence to the contrary. We need real proof, and we trust that faith informs and illuminates or elevates reason in a way that allows us to discover the essence of things. The Catholic mind seeks the mind of God in order to be conformed to the will of God, to work with God rather than against the designs God has for man. Wo...

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? - St. John 11:25-26 O tu bone omnipotens, qui sic curas unumquemque nostrum tamquam solum cures, et sic omnes tamquam singulos. O thou Omnipotent Good, thou carest for every one of us as if thou didst care for him only, and so for all as if they were but one!  - St. Augustine, Confessions, 3.11.19 (Tr. Albert C. Outler) We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery – the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!” We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects ...

If you haven't read it already, go to the Catholic Herald and read the following article. What’s more astonishing than the Big Bang? Ask the man who proposed it Fr Julian Large, Cong Orat, Provost of the London Oratory 18 April, 2019 The Catholic Herald On Easter Sunday, we contemplate with wonder the empty tomb, and the circumstances of the Resurrection transport us all the way back to Genesis. That tomb is situated in a garden, just as the history of the human race began in a garden. Mary Magdalene mistakes Our Risen Lord for the gardener. Adam’s task had been to tend the garden which God entrusted to his care. Where Adam’s disobedience brought expulsion from that first garden, Our Lord defeats Satan on the Cross and, in the garden close by, reverses the consequences of Adam’s rebellion, the most terrible of which is death. All of this makes Christ the New Adam, whose Resurrection marks a New Creation which promises us an eternity infinitely more wonderful than...

Rembrandt van Rijn: Christ and St Mary Magdalene at the Tomb (1638) CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELUIA! HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA! Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn) II, The Royal Collection, London http://rembrandt.louvre.fr/en/html/r12.html The day after the Crucifixion, Mary Magdalene found Christ’s tomb empty. Two angels spoke to her as she wept, and when she turned she saw a man she thought was a gardener. Rembrandt sticks closely to the passage in the Gospel of John, which poses the question of the risen Christ’s appearance, because Mary Magdalene recognizes neither his face nor his voice. The figure of Christ eludes understanding, and the rising sun symbolizes the dawn of a new era for mankind (Louvre). Witnesses of the Resurrection Blessed John Henry Newman Sermon XXII of Parochial and Plain Sermons https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/apologetics/witnesses-of-the-resurrection.html Why did not our Sa...