In St. Peter's Square an inhuman nativity scene completely consistent with an increasingly dehumanized society

- the guest specialists of Patmos Island -

IN PIAZZA SAN PIETRO AN INHUMAN CRIB THAT IS COMPLETELY COHERENT WITH AN INCREASINGLY INHUMANIZED SOCIETY

.

This crib seems to have wanted to prophesy what remains of our society, now devoid of any "human form" frozen in technology, in cold selfishness, in the absence of affection and in the total upheaval of the family which at present is dispersed in the ether.

.

Author
Licia Oddo *

.

.

PDF print format article
.

.

.

Nativity scene 2020 – square of the Papal Archbasilica of San Pietro

In this period of resilience and restrictions, the question is soon asked. What is expected of such an atypical Christmas whose spirit of Christian tradition seems to have been affected by the torpor of pandemic distancing? One wonders how the Church reacts and what it plans to attract and involve its faithful in the Mystery of the Nativity?

.

The answer comes from tradition centuries-old boasted by the majolica of Castelli, small town in Abruzzo, in the province of Teramo, cataloged in the eponymous Museum, located at the Convent of the Friars Minor Observant of the sixteenth century. which has become of current interest for the crib exhibition of the Monumental Greppia, in the Vatican. The invoice was made in a period of time between 1965 e 1975 by the young students of the F.A.. Crane [1], who dedicated the teaching activity to the Christmas theme, to establish itself on the art scene of the time, for the monumentality of the larger than life-sized ceramic figures.

.

All too free and rather bizarre interpretation in the representation of the Christmas icon par excellence, which inspired the creators and executors of ceramists, seems to have upset the Christian symbols of the nativity scene by aggregating them with a mixture of radically different elements and characters, which affected the whole of humanity in that decade, such as the "landing on the moon", talmente estranei alla tradizionale rappresentazione cristiana dell’Avvento, to offer a global vision of the latter which is purely nonconformist.

.

Croissants (Skirts of Anavyssos), 550-520 a.C. that. Marble, height 1,94 m. Athens, National archeologic museum.

Although the Castellana ceramic tradition, is perfectly in line with the lively colors of all the major Italian majolica, however, it is not enough by itself, to make it equally alive, the entire "sacred" ceramic installation wanted this year to celebrate Christmas in St. Peter's Square is intelligible and welcoming.

.

The sculptural-ceramic group made following a modular ring type, that, superimposed, they form cylindrical busts, it appears admittedly rigid, immobile, cold and expressionless, so that the same will of those who wanted to praise the invoice, comparing it to ancient Greek art, with greater reference to the Templar architecture of the Doric columns made of rocchi, certainly, it cannot be understood positively, when compared to completely inert elements, devoid of human form because they are structural and belong precisely to the field of architecture, therefore unable to convey any emotion that is inherent in human gestures. If in fact it is the human figures who are the protagonists, the term of comparison should in any case refer to the sculptural field and certainly not to the architectural one. But even here the most fitting example concerning the Greek sculptural world is not as commendable in the transmission of the "Good News" of Christmas, full of a sense of human warmth and family values.

.

In the technical execution, the period considered could only be the orientalizing-archaic one (from VII to VI a.C) the κοῦρος (Kouros) (2) by Anavyssos, locality of Attica in Greece, whose peculiar characteristics are, the absolute stasis or absence of movement, la rigidità, the front position, but that since they are sculptures depicting man, obviously, they differ from the castellan crib ceramics, precisely because the latter are devoid of human form, almost frozen blocks devoid of energy, and if we can talk about something in common, it is relative to the monumental dimensions. From the iconological point of view of the symbolic message, then, the forcing is even more evident i κοῦροι (kouroi) harbingers of grandeur and totally inexpressive, they were the custodians of a heroic commemorative memory.

.

Koùros by Lentini is a work that dates back to the 6th-5th century BC., it is historically placed in the late Archaic period, 530-490 a.C. and is kept in the Paolo Orsi Museum in Syracuse.

At this point we tried to identify positive peculiarities in the very specific symbolic meanings in some of the characters, taking into consideration the angel, whose wings deliberately spread to protect the Holy Family, it seems to have the claim, Today more than ever, to represent the coveted protection invoked by all humanity against the terrible pandemic event. The latter would seem to praise, given the size, at the opening of the arms covered by the majestic and wide cloak of the monumental Virgin of Mercy by Piero della Francesca, to protect his children (citizens), but still fails to convey that warm hope, precisely because of its rigid inexpressiveness. And how to still be able to exempt oneself from the totally sterile vision of a child Jesus, almost mummified, which has nothing to do with the celebration of the Nativity. And so in the modest opinion of the vast majority of professionals and the public, the "castellano" ceramic group, beyond a non-existent harmonious, delicate and gestural aesthetic, precisely in the absence of the bodily form, and dynamism, affectionate gestures such as genuflection, a hug, una carezza, a simple handshake, the same colloquial contact between the characters, typical of domestic familiarity, it certainly doesn't convey that familiar warmth, the feeling of universal salvation typical of the crib tradition.

.

Said this, what in this brief analysis is to be understood and more distinct than any other criticism of the work in and of itself, which in its substance is still a work of art, che piaccia o meno, fruit of a culture and society that gave it its birth; è piuttosto la natura del messaggio di umiltà, charity and strength of spirit of those who do not give up, which embody all the values ​​of the Christian family, that should be grasped, to be passed on to the people, sole protagonist and recipient of sacred propaganda, on the occasion of Holy Christmas.

.

The bold choice of the Holy See that falls right on this unusual work, to break tradition, seems to support that primitivist line followed by the beginnings of the pontificate of Francis I, who, if we remember well, he chose as the logo for the celebration of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the work depicting the Good Shepherd of the Jesuit Father Marco I. Rupnik, in a totally more than avant-garde way, but that has little to do with the canonical iconographic tradition [see WHO]. If the choice of the work as a manifesto of the jubilee year fell exclusively on the genuineness of the iconological message that replaces the lost sheep with man, loading humanity upon itself, to date in the desire to encourage hope in the transmission of family values, of human warmth, of gladness, there is undoubtedly a certain reluctance to accept the installation of a ceramic nativity scene with a predominantly pagan totemic aspect as a bulwark of Christianity.

.

The Koùros di Milo is a marble sculpture datable to 540 a.C. about and kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens

It has been known since ancient times that the spread of epidemics has upset the entire corporate structure, undermining the political balance, cheap, also insinuating strong fragility in the religious management of the countries. The preference of Pope Francis placed on the Castelli crib, for many it is incomprehensible and even more paradoxical, especially if you think that the Bishop of Rome chose the name of Francis, per guidare la Chiesa, the Saint who was the first to elaborate the crib composition known all over the world, as a catechetical and pedagogical tool to make everyone understand, down to the simplest, the mystery and then dogma of the birth of Jesus man and son of God.

.

Once again it is art to be the interpreter of historical identity, but this time more than attracting the usual jubilation it seems to split public opinion all the way to scandalize it. And the message that could be forcibly grasped can be with some difficulty and with a look of benevolence, a warning to the reconstruction of lost values, because observing the work one becomes more and more convinced that beyond what the Church and the Roman Pontiff wanted to transmit to us, even if the installation of the monumental Greppia, it was conceived over forty years ago, nella sua globalità, in reality, it seems he wanted to prophesy what remains of our society, now devoid of any "human form" frozen in technology, in cold selfishness, in the absence of affection and in the total upheaval of the family which at present is dispersed in the ether.

.

Syracuse, 23 December 2020

.

* Historian and art critic. Already a critical signpost of the Catalog of modern art (C.A.M.) Editorial Giorgio Mondadori - Cairo

_______________

NOTE

[1] Founded in 1906 by the will of two illustrious castellans, Beniamino Olivieri and Felice Barnabei, then respectively Mayor of the country and first Director General of Fine Arts. Today it is the art school, housed in a modern structure built next to the ancient former convent which has become the seat of the museum.

[2] Il κοῦρος è una scultura di grandi dimensioni che raffigura un young naked man(think for example of the famous Riace bronzes) standing position and represents, indifferently, una divinità o un eroe con destinazione devozionale o funebre.

.

.

 

.

«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:









or you can use the bank account:

payable to Editions The island of Patmos

Rome, No agency. 59.
Iban code:
IT 74R0503403259000000301118
For international bank transfers:
Codice SWIFT: BAPPIT21D21

in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

.

.

.

Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci
Of the Order of Preachers
Presbyter and Theologian

( Click on the name to read all its articles )
Father Gabriele

The supercazzolari internet theologians attack at Christmas: “Vaccines produced with aborted fetuses. The Church opens the way for the recognition of abortion "

- Church news -

SUPERCZZULAR INTERNET THEOLOGIES IN THE ATTACK UNDER CHRISTMAS: «VACCINES PRODUCED WITH ABORTED FETUS. THE CHURCH OPENS THE WAY FOR THE RECOGNITION OF ABORTION "

If he Internet theologian graduated in moral theology and bioethics at the paleoastronautics university had read the document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, instead of proceeding with the timely sowing of supercazzole, he would have acknowledged that the Church neither expresses nor grants this at all, on the contrary, he declares the opposite and explains it with a clarity that is not liable to any misunderstanding.

.

Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

.

.

PDF print format article

 

.

.

.

The last book of the Fathers of the Island of Patmos, see WHO (on the cover: La ghigliottina dei social media, work of the Roman painter Anna Boschini - Vitarte Studio)

The document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith just released about the lawfulness of the use of some anticovid-19 vaccines has generated a heated debate on social media, where along with right questions, questions, willingness to understand the text, completely impertinent considerations were also mixed with the subject matter.

.

The interventions of the bar theologians could be missing, graduates from the paleoastronautics university, who ruled with ineffable supercazzolismo that in this way would open up to the lawfulness of abortion in itself? Nothing more false could they spread, but they did. And in these days we Fathers de The Island of Patmos we have been overwhelmed by messages containing, not so much requests for clarification, that we are always happy to give, because this constitutes the very essence of our apostolate as priests and theologians, but condemnations without appeal directed to the … "New satanic" and "antichristic" Church.

.

The document issued by the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith it is very clear and takes up the previous documents on the same theme, published under the pontificates of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI. But as is well known, there is no worse deaf than someone who does not want to hear, or to take up the concept expressed in our recent book: there is no worse supercazzolaro than those who do not want to stop believing themselves an expert in Bioethics and Sacred Sciences without having even read a line of those documents, having limited himself only to jumping from one blog to another or drawing knowledge from the famous Facebook academy of sciences.

.

The issue of abortion, on the other hand, is central to our morality: absolutely not to be forgotten or put in the attic. However, the fear of offending people who have had a voluntary abortion, if not worse, those who believe they have done so by taking a just and completely legitimate action, today the important work of denouncing and condemning this terrible act also seems to dominate. An act that the reigning Pontiff branded with severe words and terms that St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI would never have used: "Abortion is like hiring a hitman to kill a person" [cf.. Future, 18.10.2018, WHO].

.

The person who has an abortion is not condemned, always welcomed with great delicacy and kindness by us confessors, but the act itself and all the ideological and philosophical dynamics that favor abortion are condemned as “inalienable right”. This is why I have received with great joy the recent publication of the book: A defense of life without compromise - To undermine the pro-death ideology at its foundations [cf.. WHO] written by the Universitari per la Vita, Fabio Fuiano, Chiara Chiessi e Florio Scifo, a text given to the press by courageous young people who for some years have been working to fight the throwaway culture, which promotes abortion and euthanasia.

.

Abortion is an evil act in itself that must always be condemned because it is the violent suppression of an innocent in the womb of the mother. Yup, even if you are afraid to say it is a murder, the most serious of all murders. The reason is simple and logical: if we try to kill an adult, he may try to react in some way, it might even escape death or, in an attempt to defend themselves, kill him the aggressor who attacks his life, but a creature in the womb of the mother is not, cannot defend himself in any way. This is why the act is so serious that people who cooperate directly and formally in this act fall into excommunication automatic. Yet it is precisely for these people that we need to pray a lot, so that they convert and understand their sin. Who has sinned the most, he needs more mercy. For this reason Catholic morality does not condemn the person, that must be recovered and to whom the love of God must be shown, explaining that the abortion act, it remains in itself completely and for everything radically evil.

.

To this I would also like to add my considerations. Abortion, like euthanasia, they have a solid ideological basis behind them: a culture of death, as Saint John Paul II called it, which I will summarily call necroculture. Playing with words until their meaning is emptied and relying on non-scientific evidence, necroculture has laid the foundation for the idea that abortion is a right, whose denial would constitute an affront to the freedom of women and of society. And here I open an aside, infatti continuo a non capire qual è la differenza fra una voluntary termination of pregnancy it's a voluntary abortion, which for many today is an absolutely acceptable distinction (!?). De facto, these words indicate the exact same reality: the killing of a fetus in the womb of the mother. The necroculture has therefore generated a system of silence: if you try to touch on the subject of abortion, telling an abortionist that you are not in favor, most of the time it is filled with insults, without there being a healthy comparison. The necroculture wants to impose that when it comes to abortion, it must necessarily be considered a right, otherwise it is legitimate to verbally attack anyone who does not share this idea. The necroculture built on an idealist anthropology and without foundation with reality, claiming to free man from the reins of devotional Catholic morality, it has then in fact generated another indisputable dogma which proclaims that abortion is a freedom, a right, an unassailable conquest of civilization.

.

I believe that the necroculture has within it the seeds of its destruction. Indeed, relying only on the mass media, only on the personal ideas of its ideologues, in some time it will collapse before the evidence.

.

Il Natale, in this sense, it is a universal holiday, also because it emphasizes the beauty and sacredness of women and motherhood: welcoming a child is written in a woman's biological chords, that so it becomes, in her being a mother, model of true welcome towards all. Just as a mother was Mary who welcomes the tenderness of her child, Jesus. And later he learned from this son the welcome of his son's friends, disciples, women and apostles. Like this, a pregnancy, a motherhood becomes a cradle and an opening for the whole world: for the poor, abandoned, forgotten, stigmatizzati.

.

Necroculture denies all of this and in doing so he denies the whole man in all his sociality and giving to the world.

.

In these days, those Catholics who educate themselves on the Internet, or "Catholics as a hobby", as they are called instead by Fathers Ivano Liguori and Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, drawing pearls of wisdom from the gurus of ignorance and limiting himself to reading the title, or perhaps to better understand even the subtitle of the newspapers, but no more than this, having to frantically jump to nibble from one blog to another, they began to inveigh against the "apostatic" and "anti-Christ" Church which allegedly declared the use of aborted fetuses to prepare anti-covid vaccines lawful, something that - they say in delirium - "will soon open the recognition of abortion by the heretical Church". If the internet theologian with a degree in moral theology and bioethics at the paleoastronautics university had read the document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, instead of proceeding with the timely sowing of supercazzole, he would have acknowledged that the Church neither expresses nor grants this at all, on the contrary, he declares the exact opposite and explains it with a clarity that cannot be misunderstood:

.

"The fundamental reason for considering the use of these vaccines morally legitimate is that the type of cooperation is evil (passive material cooperation) procured abortion from which the same cell lines come, by those who use the resulting vaccines, And remote. The moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation is not binding if there is a grave danger, like diffusion, otherwise irrepressible, of a serious pathogen: in this case, the pandemic spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2 which causes Covid-19. è perciò da ritenere che in tale caso si possano usare tutte le vaccinazioni riconosciute come clinicamente sicure ed efficaci con coscienza certa che il ricorso a tali vaccini non significhi una cooperazione formale all’aborto from which the cells with which the vaccines were produced derive. However, it should be emphasized that the morally lawful use of these types of vaccines, for the particular conditions that make it so, it cannot in itself constitute legitimacy, even indirect, of the practice of abortion, and presupposes the opposition to this practice by those who make use of it " [the complete official document of the Holy See can be found WHO].

.

Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation, the victory over sin and the culture of abortion and death, The triumph of man with God, this is also written between the lines on the document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which we invite you to read, avoiding drinking from the dangerous supercazzole of the internet theologians who work at the Academy of Social Media Sciences, alias: the dangerous supercazzolari.

.

Rome, 23 December 2020

.

.

Staff Blog

Father Gabriele

.

.

Visit the pages of our book shop WHO and support our editions by purchasing and distributing our books.

.

News from the Dominican Province Roman: visit the official website of the Dominicans, WHO

.

.

«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure system PayPal :

 

 









or you can use the bank account:

Rome, No agency. 59.
Iban code:
IT 74R0503403259000000301118
For international bank transfers:
Code SWIFT: BAPPIT21D21

in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

..

.

.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS - Two new novels in the fiction series of The Island of Patmos: "The new land" and "Nonna did not tell fairy tales"

- shop book editions of The Island of Patmos -

CHRISTMAS BOOKS - TWO NEW NOVELS IN THE NARRATIVA DE NARRATIVE NECKLACE THE ISLAND OF PATMOS: "THE NEW EARTH" AND "GRANDMA DID NOT TELL THE TALES"

At the gates of Christmas, the Editions The Island of Patmos offer readers two valuable and uplifting works of fiction by Emilio Biagini and Maria Antonietta Novara.

.

Author:
Jorge Facio Lynx
President of Editions The island of Patmos

.

.

Emilio Biagini (Genoa 1941), former professor of geography at the Faculty of Languages ​​of the University of Cagliari, he is the author of numerous non-fiction works and over one hundred scientific articles. He spent long periods of study in the United States, in India, in South Africa, in Great Britain and Ireland. But his vocation has always been the literary one. He has published three novels: The light (2006), Dark labyrinth (2008), The rain of fire (2012, with his wife Marie Antoinette co-author), The high lawn. Fictional history of Austria (2019-2020, also with his wife Marie Antoinette co-author), two volumes of short stories The man listeningO (2008), Montallegro and other stories (2013) and various volumes of rooms satirical theatricals.

At the threshold of Christmas the Editions The island of Patmos they offer readers two valuable works of fiction.

.

The New Earth, novel by Emilio Biagini, is a journey full of charm that begins in South Africa and takes shape with the masterful narration of the life and history of the two key characters, moving from the ancient African continent to the old and not always welcoming European continent.

Between these lines the drama of’apartheid it is not narrated by an essayist or a socio-political scientist, but from the lived life and faith of two figures destined to leave a tender indelible mark on the Reader.

… Beyond time, true reality exists, where the ridiculous and cursed prince of this world, that the better he is able to operate the more fools believe that he does not exist, it no longer has any power. Since all the things of the past no longer exist, where the new earth begins. There all the tears are dried and all doubts and miseries erased forever.

.

.

Grandma didn't tell fairy tales, novel by Maria Antonietta Novara Biagini, it starts from late nineteenth and early twentieth century scenarios and then leads the reader into the contemporary world. The Author, with simple and direct language, with compelling storytelling skills, traces in the memory a detailed and articulated succession of family paintings lived in old Genoa and in the nearby coastal towns, to the point of making them grasp their lively atmospheres, its old alleys and the feelings of its people. A century of memories, in fact, of occasional encounters, of happy circumstances and tragic episodes that have affected the numerous members of the family over the years - joys, sufferings and pains of which the grandmother was the protagonist and witness -- personal and family vicissitudes that are strongly intertwined with the Italian historical events of the twentieth century.

.

.

Maria Antonietta Novara Biagini, genovese, after graduating from classical high school at the Institute of the Assumption Sisters, she enrolled in the Faculty of Law, without achieving the degree, preferring to take care of his family, instead of leaving it in the hands of "mercenary troops". This allowed her to be able to devote herself to many cultural interests, traveling to various parts of the world and at the same time deepening a solid and counter-current Catholic formation. She is married to Prof. Emilio Biagini, author of several publications. He has published the volume of short stories The sacred tree (2010), together with her husband the novel The rain of fire (2012) and a volume of clerical satire (2014), made up of stories and one-off acts and illustrated by the painter Elena Pongiglione [Cover: oil on canvas, Roman work of painter Anna Boschini – Vitarte Studio].

A grandmother, the one narrated by the Author, who did not tell fairy tales, as one might believe.

.

.

.

.

.

The books are being distributed, you can buy them directly at our shop and receive them at your home within 72 hours without any postage by clicking below:

.

LIBRARY STORE, WHO

.

or request it directly from the L’Isola di Patmos Editions: isoladipatmos@gmail.com

and receive it in 5 working days without any postal charges

.

Upcoming publications coming out:

.

narrative:

THE WAY OF THE THREE KEYS, Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

non-fiction:

ACTS AND MISDEEDS apostates, Ester Maria Ledda

 

 

.

 

.

.

«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:









or you can use the bank account:

payable to Editions The island of Patmos

IBAN IT 74R0503403259000000301118
in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]




Almost certainly useless lesson for some self-taught Catholics on the secularism of the state: the concept of Natural Law of the revived neo-scholastics, besides not serving God and the truth, it is in radical conflict with the two foundations of the creation of man: freedom and free will

— Theologica —

LESSON ALMOST CERTAINLY USELESS FOR CERTAIN SELF-TEACHED CATHOLICS ON THE LAICITY OF THE STATE: THE CONCEPT OF NATURAL LAW OF THE REVIVING NEOSCHOLASTICS, IN ADDITION TO NOT SERVING GOD AND THE TRUTH, IT IS IN RADICAL CONFLICT WITH THE TWO FOUNDATIONS OF THE CREATION OF MAN, FREEDOM AND FREE WILL

.

For us men of faith, reason and science is unquestionable that God has instilled in the heart of man the natural sense of good and evil, hence the foundations of those laws which perhaps improperly, but correct, they are defined as Natural Law. The problem occurs when you try to change the Natural Law or Divine Law into Positive Law, in Laws of the State that bind all the associates. Because at that point the sin becomes a crime, with devastating and absolutely undesirable consequences.

.

Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

.

.

 

To enter the bookshop click on the cover

.

How to help our work:

«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:

.

or you can use the bank account:

payable to Editions The island of Patmos

WERE GOING: IT 74R0503403259000000301118

CODICE SWIFT: BAPPIT21D21
in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

.

.

.

.

.

 

Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci
Of the Order of Preachers
Presbyter and Theologian

( Click on the name to read all its articles )
Father Gabriele

Being born and reborn on a special Christmas, we who are no longer used to the unexpected of the specialty

- Church news -

BORN AND REBORN IN A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS, WE WHO ARE NO LONGER USED TO THE UNEXPECTED SPECIALTIES

This Christmas is special because we will not have the dinner like all the other years. With relatives and friends, relegated to the various colored areas of Italy. So let's try not to forget this: it is God that we must put at the center. In him the distances are reduced, they almost disappear, in a spiritual communion. The real dinner we will have this year is the Good par excellence, not to be forgotten for all future dinners, even when the pandemic is over.

.

Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

.

.

PDF print format article

.

.

.

the cartoons by Simone Togneri

In the Gospel of the Evangelist Luke is written:

.

“She gave birth to her firstborn son, She wrapped in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the hotel ".

.

I will try to enter on this holy Christmas day [cf.. my reflections, WHO], to imagine the nativity scene with you. So let's try to put ourselves in the place of one of those pastors. We can feel the freezing cold of the Israeli night, to be out of breath for the ride we did, after being warned by the Angels of this wonder. If we were really there we will observe a very tender scene: a child, with his dad and mom. With the Angels singing Glory to Dio while this baby is pampered by his parents. If we were really there, we will realize that we have a miracle before us. And, because on Christmas night, at least for us, two births occurred. It seems strange to say such a thing, whereas for us Catholics there is no reincarnation.

.

So let's see in what sense, there is a double birth. But to do this, let's try to read the wonderful words of St. Leo the Great, the small man in stature, but gigantic in temper, enough to stop Attila at the gates of Rome. So wrote this Holy Pontiff the Great in one of his dogmatic letters:

.

«The Son is coeternal with the Father, […] Jesus Christ is God of God, omnipotent from omnipotent, who was born coeternal from eternity; […]. The only begotten Son of the eternal Father, even eternal, was born by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. Such a birth, occurred over time, he took nothing away from the divine and eternal birth (that he has from the Father), nothing has added to him, but it is all aimed at making man again, who had been deceived ".

.

Let's now try to focus on these words: Jesus was born in eternity and was born in time. The Swiss theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar writes: They, in Eternity, he received life from the Father, the knowledge, the spirit, the word, action and doctrine For us, little witnesses of the evangelical page, this eternal birth is completely dark.

.

Indeed the state of Eternity in which there is the one God in three Persons does not coincide with our being rooted in time. Our corporeality, together with the soul and spirit, dictates and marks the moments of our life, our knowing, intuit and also be happy and joyful. In this division enters a subdivision in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, year old, centuries, hundreds, millennia. We enter the world at a certain time and die at another time. This is very special but radically linked to our identity.

.

So we really know very little, given to us by faith, of the eternal birth of Logos. But precisely because we are temporary, instead we can enjoy birth over time. Why the Logos Christ took human nature and human flesh. He has entered time, together with us, at a very specific time. From this doctrinal fact we are aware of a great joy. In his Eternity, Greatness and Majesty God decided to be born as a small child eager for care. Because first of all he wanted to be very close to us. God therefore takes human nature, so that we can have full communion with him. Jesus was true God and true man in a portion of time together closely with us.

.

According to the Russian writer A. Chekov:

.

«In birth certificates it is written where and when a man comes into the world, but the reason and purpose are not specified ".

.

Jesus, on the other hand, is clear right away: He was born with the purpose of hugging us and getting close to us. E, after this event, Christmas, every day men have a purpose too: convey this embrace, this affectionate closeness to all those who feel abandoned and alone. A hug in the Truth: this is what he asks us to give the Child God.

.

This Christmas is special because we will not have the dinner like all the other years. With relatives and friends, relegated to the various colored areas of Italy. So let's try not to forget this: it is God that we must put at the center. In him the distances are reduced, they almost disappear, in a spiritual communion. The real dinner we will have this year is the Good par excellence, not to be forgotten for all future dinners, even when the pandemic is over. The dinners exist to generate communion between us, but above all to remember that it is God who continues to make himself communion with the world. Let's make this evening very special in a special year: because the celebrated is very special!

.

Have a good Advent journey towards the mystery of Christmas.

.

"Sweet Jesus, Jesus 'love' [St. Caterina da Siena]

.

Rome, 12 December 2020

.

.

Staff Blog

Father Gabriele

.

.

Visit the pages of our book shop WHO and support our editions by purchasing and distributing our books.

.

News from the Dominican Province Roman: visit the official website of the Dominicans, WHO

.

.

«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:









or you can use the bank account:

payable to Editions The island of Patmos

IBAN IT 74R0503403259000000301118
in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

..

.

.

A sad Christmas carol among the police cars: perspectives and analysis of today

- ecclesial news -

A SAD CHRISTMAS CAROL AMONG THE CARABINIERI WHEELS: PERSPECTIVES AND ANALYSIS TODAY

.

We can understand and perhaps charitably justify this deferential behavior of the ecclesiastics towards the government, since for a long time there has been the risk of seeing phantasms the support of the clergy, which will lead to the merciless closure of many small dioceses and parishes, finally realizing the project of a poor Church, not for the poor, but of the poor. So in summary it is better to keep the housekeeper good, even if satanasso, as long as it allows us to live.

.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

.

.

PDF print format article

 

.

.

.

 

to enter our book shop click on the image of the book

The last chapter present in the book The Church and the coronavirus - published by us fathers of the island of Patmos in October of this year - is called this: A Christmas Carol: a tragic Christmas song.

.

The fundamental reference from whom I drew the inspiration is Charles Dickens, English novelist of the Victorian age known above all for his novels of a social nature which have the merit of describing English society with all its hypocrisies and contradictions, far from the vulgar regime propaganda that usually glorifies the successes of the ruling class, while minimizing its flaws.

.

In the novel A Christmas Carol Dickens introduces the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, a cheap old man worried about his wealth in a maniacal way, enough to trample on the most sacred rights of his humble accountant Bob Cratchit - family, faith, salute, work - and have a poorly concealed tolerance for all humanity.

.

Not even the arrival of Christmas it seems to soften Ebenezer's heart, on the contrary, this holiday seems to exacerbate even more personal dissatisfaction and concern for a lower profit, given the attenuation of the profitable days for the gain. Only a supernatural intervention will be able to overturn the fortunes and lead the old stingy old man's life back to milder advice, obtaining justice where justice and mercy have been violated and despised and bringing back a light of humanity and understanding in the old sinner.

.

Between the lines of the novel, an attentive reader can well glimpse the human and psychological essence of the old Scrooge: he is a poor wounded and unhappy man, he is aged in evil as the prophet Daniel would utter [cf. Dn 13].

.

His passion for money it has distorted and perverted it, away from the noblest sentiments of man such as charity, The pity, solidarity and empathy. Scrooge is - at the time of Dickens - the representation of that modern anti-human cynicism present in many areas of our society which, claiming the right at any cost, ends up trampling and denying the most sacred rights of others.

.

I chose to be inspired by Dickens because in October, inside the sacred palaces of worldly and religious power, the idea of ​​a possible new was cherished lockdown Christmas. A well-oriented partnership between throne and altar that would have dealt a definitive blow not only to the whole country but above all to that Catholic faith which in Italy no longer has a defined identity but which lives a dualism of pauperistic sentimentality in an immigrationist sauce and backdated traditionalism, salottiero and zitellesco.

.

Expenses, so, better than Dickens it could have summarized the embezzlement of civil and religious society in which we are living, proposing again with the novel Christmas carol, the bogey of a visitor ghost, not of the past, not of the present or even of the future but of the confinement of the human who dehumanizes, in defiance of the slogan everything will be fine?

.

With the Covid-19 contagion of the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Gualtiero Bassetti and his consequent hospitalization, our pastors did not consider that the proposal to suspend Masses at Christmas time in agreement with the Viminale was more viable, that the newspaper Il Messaggero - in the edition of 10 October 2020 - he promptly pointed out [see article, WHO].

.

A risky step certainly, that perhaps in order not to bypass the sick Cardinal President of the CEI he was no longer prosecuted. But maybe, more likely, the path of chameleon-like transformation was chosen ecclesial-chic in which the truths are never objective but functional and are understood according to opportunity and need.

.

We can understand - and perhaps charitably justify - this deferential behavior of the ecclesiastics towards the government, since for a long time there has been the risk of seeing phantasms the support of the clergy, which will lead to the merciless closure of many small dioceses and parishes, finally realizing the project of a poor Church, not for the poor, but made up of poor people. So in summary it is better to keep the housekeeper good, even if satanasso, as long as it allows us to live.

.

This speech is more understandable today in which, completed the turning point of Advent with the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, still debates on how to celebrate Christmas consistent with the curfew of DCPM. There is no lack of suggestions for caution, in which the ranks of the observers, dissidents and divergents will compete for the battlefield this Christmas 2020.

.

However everything is already prepared, to respect the DPCM we opted for the Fantozzian model in which the new Count Cobram has already instructed Maestro Canello to play midnight of the new year in advance and to some choirmaster of Villa Nazareth to anticipate the Glory to God in the highest announcing the birth of the Savior.

.

However, we are calm, as we have already been able to experiment with the post recovery lockdown in June there will be those who, while not celebrating Christmas since 1980, they will feel gravely defrauded and offended by the absence of the Midnight Mass, in which they have not participated for some decades. Just as there will be those who from the height of their ecclesial maturity will say that all these things are preconceived conventions, that one can very well celebrate the birth of the Redeemer from one's own living room and that at the end of the time of the shepherds there were no recorders and Gopro and therefore in all probability there was never a Christian Christmas and a Virgin betrothed to a man of the house of David named Maria. But above all there has never been a redemption because, above all, there is the consciousness that is there suprema lex to which everyone must obey because it is so convenient… as long as it is convenient, but above all as long as freedom of conscience does not express different or contrary things towards those who manipulate consciences, in the name of freedom of conscience, obviously!

.

To all of you, my most sincere wishes for a Merry Christmas ... dickensianamente speaking.

.

.Laconi, 9 December 2020

.

.

.

«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:

PayPal - The quick method, reliable and innovative way to pay and get paid.

or you can use the bank account:

payable to Editions The island of Patmos

WERE GOING: IT 74R0503403259000000301118

CODICE SWIFT: BAPPIT21D21
in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

The unbearable lightness of being. An unmissable comic article on “The New Compass Daily” about the birth of Jesus Christ the 25 December

- ecclesial news -

THE UNBEATABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING. AN UNMISSABLE COMIC ARTICLE ABOUT THE NEW DAILY COMPASS ABOUT THE BIRTH OF JESUS ​​CHRIST THE 25 DECEMBER

.

On this journey of Advent, the Fathers of the Island of Patmos wish they could reach the mystery of a profoundly meditative Christmas, in this very difficult historical-social moment, leaving to others all the limitations that could instead lead to a political-polemic birth. The problem is that unfortunately - and it's not the first time - The New Compass Daily risks confusing the Holy Sepulcher of Christ with the tomb of Giulio Andreotti, this is their real underlying problem!

.

Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

.

.

PDF print format article
..

.

From the Jesus Christ Superstar the 1973 here we are at the androgynous Jesus Christ Photoshop the 2020, with blue eye, luscious full lips, feminine traits and so on. Jesus Christ was "the most beautiful of the children of man" (Shall 44, 3), not the most effeminate among the children of man, as some blasphemous fideists and certain languid pinzochere exalted portray him today.

As it happens cyclically, our editorial team was busy working on the new books coming out a few days before Christmas, to offer our readers three works of valuable fiction. After a period of silence, today we resume our full advertising activity starting from something "light", so to speak! To follow in the coming days with articles of a very different caliber, already written by the Fathers de The Island of Patmos.

.

The fact: an editorialist from The New Compass Daily today he tries to explain that the date of the birth of the Word of God fixed at 25 December is real [see article, WHO]. Unfortunately losing sight of that for us Catholics, the historical datum combined with the datum of faith, it does not consist of a “traditional date” but from the incarnation of the Word of God made Man: «And the Word became flesh and came to live among us " [GV 1, 14].

.

Let's expect a second episode in which it is explained, in the light of the popular-iconographic tradition, that Jesus was six feet tall, blond with blue eyes and that his mother, the ever virgin Mary, she had the features of a girl from Hanover, just as if it was born in the far north of Europe. But above all that at the age of just 16 about years old - so many more or less she was at the time of giving birth - a man stands by her side, the venerated Patriarch Joseph, who was more or less years old 80, as iconography and popular tradition have documented for centuries. Without postponing another irrefutable historical fact: in that area of ​​ancient Judea, when Jesus Christ was born from heaven, snow fell, in a scenario similar to what we can find in December in Madonna di Campiglio or in Courmayeur. It is in fact known that the shepherds came on sleds pulled by husky dogs and that a few days later the Magi, who were well-known and experienced cross-country skiers, they arrived precisely by skiing at the snow-covered nativity grotto. What to say: not even that obsessed novelist of Maria Valtorta manages to write such nonsense - which is saying something! - when it narrates the real presence of the ox and the donkey in the cave, with Jesus placed in the manger on hay and straw. In short: try placing a newborn on hay and straw, then we'll talk about it shortly, how the flesh of that poor newborn creature will end up reduced.

.

The date set at 25 December it is partly linked to popular tradition and partly to fideism. We have always known that the calendar that starts from the time after Christ is busted for several years due to various calculation errors. The undeniable fact supported by history is the birth of Jesus Christ, that no one can deny, because it is widely documented by the sources, as are his trial and his death sentence, imprinted in the Jewish and Roman chronicles. And in this second case, yes, that we have a certain historical date of his passion and death, because everything coincides with Passover, Passover, and it is documented by the most authoritative historical sources: and Santi Vangeli.

.

The exact date of the birth of Christ God is completely irrelevant: that child was truly born and is the Word of God made Man who died, risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. If his life and death are certainly proven by history, the same certain proof obviously cannot be provided for the great mystery of his resurrection and ascension to heaven, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews explains it to us coherently: "Faith is the foundation of the things that are hoped for and the proof of those that are not seen" (EB 11, 1-3).

.

To these explanations, a person so dear and rich in praiseworthy faith answers me: «I blindly believe what the Saints themselves received on the matter from Jesus in person and from Mary in person, also confirming that this date of 25 December was not only symbolic ". I replied that if the subject is complex in one way, it is simple with regards to the discourse of the Saints, of their visions or phrases, that we remember are not part of the deposit of faith and above all do not bind the faithful to adhere to faith. Like this, to better clarify, I gave the example of the stigmata. The stigmatized had the stigmata imprinted in the center of the palm of the hand, although to Christ the nails were not driven in that place but on the wrists. And our Capuchin theologian Ivano Liguori in his capacity as a Franciscan would have a lot to tell us about this, since it was the Seraphic Father Francis of Assisi the first to receive this painful divine gift of the stigmata. Because, so, on the palms of the hands? Simple, because God is the supreme and divine pedagogue. For centuries the crucifix was depicted with nails driven into the palms of the hands and God, donating the stigmata of your son to some chosen souls, he kept to that image known by the faithful people.

.

… the Christmas we are risking in 2020

Speaking seriously to each other, our Dominican theologian Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci pointed out that there are historical studies, of hypothetical-speculative value, however carried out with scientific rigor. Starting from some ancient scrolls it has been studied, during the sixties, than by calculating the class of Abia in which Zacharias, husband of Elizabeth and father of John the Baptist, exercises and officiates worship, it could also be assumed that Jesus Christ was born in the last ten days of December. But, contrary to the article published on The New Compass Daily, where things are historically taken for granted, these scholars use a hypothetical formulary, stating that starting from these data it could be possible to hypothesize this date of 25 December. This is much more honest on a scientific level [See. The Calendar Reckoning of the Sect from the Judean Desert. Aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls, in written Jerusalem, vol. IV, Jerusalem 1958, pp. 162-199].

.

On this journey of Advent, Fathers de The Island of Patmos they wish they could reach the mystery of a profoundly meditative Christmas, in this very difficult historical-social moment, leaving to others all the limitations that could instead lead to a political-polemic birth. The problem is that unfortunately - and it's not the first time - The New Compass Daily risks confusing the Holy Sepulcher of Christ with the tomb of Giulio Andreotti, this is their real underlying problem!

.

the Island of Patmos, 9 December 2020

.

.

SUPPORT THE ISLAND OF PATMOS BY PURCHASING THE BOOKS OF OUR EDITIONS, WHO

.

How to help our work:

«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:

.

or you can use the bank account:

payable to Editions The island of Patmos

WERE GOING: IT 74R0503403259000000301118

CODICE SWIFT: BAPPIT21D21
in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

.

.

.

.

.

Read more