Papa, Call Home!

Speaking of the Pope ....: "From THE ASSOCIATED PRESS : Pope Benedict XVI will be in satellite contact with two Italian astronauts aboard the International Space Station in what would be the first papal call to space. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported Friday that the hookup will happen on May 4 after shuttle Endeavour docks with the station. Liftoff is set for next Friday."

Grace and Freedom Meet

Upon reading the Pope's Homily for Christmas Eve, I understand the correct interpretation for 'Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards men " and "Peace to men of Goodwill' are to be both taken together .

You can't have one interpretation without the other, cause it's BOTH. There is a slight difference .

That was one question I asked the priest at my parish . Which one is the correct interpretation? Cause I heard the protestant mostly say "Peace on Earth goodwill to men' and I've always heard it the other way.

To quote from the sermon of Pope Benedict XVI the part relating to this :

 The Latin translation of the angels’ song that we use in the liturgy, taken from Saint Jerome, is slightly different: “peace to men of good will”. The expression “men of good will” has become an important part of the Church’s vocabulary in recent decades. But which is the correct translation? We must read both texts together; only in this way do we truly understand the angels’ song. It would be a false interpretation to see this exclusively as the action of God, as if he had not called man to a free response of love. But it would be equally mistaken to adopt a moralizing interpretation as if man were so to speak able to redeem himself by his good will. Both elements belong together: grace and freedom, God’s prior love for us, without which we could not love him, and the response that he awaits from us, the response that he asks for so palpably through the birth of his son. We cannot divide up into independent entities the interplay of grace and freedom, or the interplay of call and response. The two are inseparably woven together. So this part of the angels’ message is both promise and call at the same time. God has anticipated us with the gift of his Son. God anticipates us again and again in unexpected ways. He does not cease to search for us, to raise us up as often as we might need. He does not abandon the lost sheep in the wilderness into which it had strayed. God does not allow himself to be confounded by our sin. Again and again he begins afresh with us. But he is still waiting for us to join him in love. He loves us, so that we too may become people who love, so that there may be peace on earth.

The media never fails to lambast the church's position

The Pope in the News!

The Pope isn’t saying that the use of condoms is justified but that they can display a particular intent, such as a moral responsible step , and that this intent is a step in the right direction.

Here's a helpful analogy:

If someone was going to rob a bank and was determined to use a gun, it would be better for that person to use a gun that had no bullets in it. It would reduce the likelihood of fatal injuries. But it is not the task of the Church to instruct potential bank robbers how to rob banks more safely and certainly not the task of the Church to support programs of providing potential bank robbers with guns that could not use bullets. Nonetheless, the intent of a bank robber to rob a bank in a way that is safer for the employees and customers of the bank may indicate an element of moral responsibility that could be a step towards eventual understanding of the immorality of bank robbing.

It is clear that the Pope’s remarks must be read carefully and that they do not constitute the kind of license for condom use that the media would wish.

Haiku

Popes words confounding

media's lambast of Church

Condoms not Okay

for more haikus please visit Aggie Catholics blog

We Are Ourselves Nothing

Origins

This is mouthful to digest and ponder and it is a quote from Pope Benedict's Homily for the dedication of the Church of the Holy Family 'Sagrada Familia' in Barcelona Spain yesterday.

Read his homily online

"Let each man take care how he builds. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 3:10-11).

The Church of herself is nothing; she is called to be the sign and instrument of Christ, in pure docility to his authority and in total service to his mandate. The one Christ is the foundation of the one Church. He is the rock on which our faith is built.

Building on this faith, let us strive together to show the world the face of God who is love and the only one who can respond to our yearning for fulfilment.

(We are nothing without Christ)
(His mouthpiece)
(Total effacement)
(One One One)
(Amen)
(The faith of Christ)
(If indeed it will save a few)

I think I get the spiritual connection at least I hope so .

"Do you not know that you are God's temple?... God's temple is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Cor 3:16-17).

The Pope Has Arrived

...On an Alitalia jet plane and from here he will be going to visit Queen Elizabeth at the Palace of Holyrood House. Watch the live broadcast online.







Dumb computer. I am having troubles . Please be patient cause I have no idea why I am getting a warning message . If you got a warning that this site is unsafe, I am terribly sorry . Hopefully it will disappear . I switched to IE 9 and the warning message doesn't seem to appear now but my blogger posts are all screwy . I can't insert images or links so you just have to settle for the url's :).

Pope in the Shadows of Newman

Photo credits :The Tablet

Britains Prime Minister Tony Blair says "Pope is in complete harmony with the spirit and ideas of Newman". He goes on quoting Newman to say "The man of conscience is he who never succumbs to indulgence, well-being, success, public prestige and the approval of public opinion at the expense of the truth," 

RealCatholicTV - The Shadow Priest

The 'then' Cardinal Ratzinger himself said "It was from Newman that we learned to understand the primacy of the Pope."



'I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men [and women] who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity - I wish...to enlarge [their] knowledge, to cultivate [their] reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism...'
John Henry Newman