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

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Father Gabriele

The Mystery of Pentecost: «Beauty is nothing but the unveiling of a fallen darkness and the light that came out of it»

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

- homiletics -

THE MYSTERY OF PENTECOST: «BEAUTY IS JUST THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FALLEN DARKNESS AND THE LIGHT THAT HAS COME OUT OF IT»

«While the day of Pentecost was taking place, they were all together in the same place. A thunder suddenly came from heaven, almost a wind that blows impetuously, and filled the whole house where they were " [At 2,1].

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

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AUDIO READING OF THE ARTICLE

The Fathers de The Island of Patmos they have included in all the articles the audio-reading for the use of the readers affected by those disabilities that prevent the reading, at the same time providing a useful service also to those who, traveling and unable to read, can easily take advantage of the audio-reading

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Dear brothers and sisters,

stained glass window of the eighteenth century: The Holy Spirit

we close the long Easter period and the Marian month with the Pentecost feast. It is the descent of the Holy Spirit, as we know, on the Apostles and Disciples, therefore on all of us as Church. Of this beautiful bond between the Spirit and the Church, mother of all saints, Alessandro Manzoni wrote in his hymn The Pentecost:

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'Mother of ’Santi, image of the supernal city / of the incorruptible eternal conservative blood / You who, for many centuries / You suffer, fight and pray / that your tents unfold / from one to the other "

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These eternal verses by Manzoni they introduce us to a meditation on today's readings, of Pentecost as a life-giving mystery of prayer, communion and mission. Starting from the first reading where we read:

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«While the day of Pentecost was taking place, they were all together in the same place. A thunder suddenly came from heaven, almost a wind that blows impetuously, and filled the whole house where they were " [At 2,1].

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This being closed inside recalls our experience of quarantine lived in the period March-April last. If we imagine the scene, we see that the apostles are praying - during the Jewish Pentecost - closed in and the Spirit breaks out in the form of tongues of fire. Enter the hearts of the apostles who begin to speak all the languages ​​then known. The Holy Spirit / Love enters their hearts through prayer and this allows them to speak the universal language, world of love that knows no ethnic and cultural distinctions. Here, then, also for us the importance of prayer as an opening to a different gaze capable of re-reading the daily events that happen to us from a high and contemplative perspective.

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From the Pentecost prayer, then communion with God and neighbor comes. Indeed, St. Paul writes:

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«Nobody can say« Jesus is Lord!», if not under the action of the Holy Spirit. There are several charisms, but only one is the Spirit; there are several ministries, but only one is the Lord » [1 Color 12, 3-4].

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The Holy Spirit comes to Pentecost and gives us communion, as a unity in distinction. In fact, we all have a call to holiness, in which the Spirit helps to make us saints. This being united, does not remove the distinction in one's identity, to one's vocation and charismatic gifts; indeed it also indicates that the Lord created us unique and unrepeatable, with our talents, virtuosity and specialties and that we put them at the service of others, they become a moment of human and spiritual growth. At the same time, in being in communion with each other we recognize that Jesus is God in the profession of faith in the exercise of works of mercy, where we see Jesus in the poor needy. From this then it indicates that Pentecost is prayer and communion in view of a mission. Jesus says:

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"Peace be with you."! As the Father sent me, I send you too ". Said this, he blew and said to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. To those to whom you will forgive sins, will be forgiven; to those you won't forgive, they will not be forgiven "» [GV 20,21].

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That blew in the Greek original would be "begotten the Spirit in them". So how the Eternal Father sends the Son and today the Holy Spirit, also send us grafted into them to continue this mission of propagation of the Truth and Forgiveness of sins. On one side, this forgiveness of sins recalls the Sacrament of Penance, entrusted to bishops and priests. On the other, It is important to note that God sends all the people of God to announce that forgiveness of sins is regeneration from a deep darkness, an exit from a state of isolation and distance from God.

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The poet Alda Merini wrote: «Beauty is nothing but the unveiling of a fallen darkness and the light that came out of it».

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We ask the Lord to be sent to Pentecost to show how great the embrace of the Trinitarian God is, to be ourselves that gift of beauty that spreads the light of the Risen Jesus.

So be it.

Rome, 31 May 2020

Solemnity of Pentecost

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Staff Blog

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Seeing divine punishment in the coronavirus? Reflections on the end of times: fear or hope? But of that day and at that hour …

- the Church and the serious emergency coronavirus -

SEE IN THE CORONAVIRUS A DIVINE CASTIGO? REFLECTIONS ON THE END OF TIMES: FEAR OR HOPE? AS FOR THAT DAY AND A that hour

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It is not appropriate and respectful to God the Father to see divine punishment in temporal calamities, intimately consuming a veiled sense of revenge and satisfaction towards all those who have not yet converted and who oppose God. Those days are mysterious and must remain so.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Masaccio, Brancacci chapel (Florence), Expulsion of Adam and Eve from earthly Paradise

In a passage from the Gospel of San Matteo we read an apparently enigmatic sentence pronounced by Christ the Lord: But of that day and at that hour, But, nobody knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father [cf. Mt 24, 36].

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In the climate of fear and uncertainty like what we experienced during the quarantine because of Covid-19, someone particularly sensitive began to caress the idea that this viral infection was actually a sign of the times. This idea takes shape on the profiles social of many people, some of them believers, which is why a little clarity is needed. Instead of entertaining us with the various messages of visionaries, mystics and prophets on duty it is right to give priority to the message of the Gospel as authentic and definitive revelation.

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The expression "sign of the times" it should not arouse any fear and anguish in the believer's soul, nor much less be used as a synonym of end of the world, precisely because it is attributable to the teaching of Jesus and his evangelizing work. In Matthew's Gospel in chap. 16 verse 3 we find these words: «You don't know how to distinguish - Jesus asks the Pharisees and the Sadducees - the signs of the times?».

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In front of his listeners who demanded a sign that would confirm his divine identity and authority - something that the devil in the desert had already demanded - The Lord asks a question that directs their attention to the Father's work of salvation through the mediation of the Son.

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The message is clear. It is not necessary to produce external signs to know that God inhabits time, Jesus is the definitive sign of the Father with which it is possible to read the times. It is curious - but if we go to analyze the Gospel episode well - we realize how the Pharisees and Sadducees are more concerned with pulling Jesus by the jacket and associating him with the reliable club, instead of acknowledging that the Kingdom of God has already begun to reveal itself among them in the power and freedom of the Holy Spirit.

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The messianic hour has come but the teachers of Israel are unable to recognize it and - even more embarrassing - the hour of salvation has come precisely in times where the freedom of a people is challenged by the occupying Roman Empire. An authentic blasphemy for every pious Israelite!

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Today we have not lost freedom because of an invading people, we found ourselves losing it to a virus. Speak about signs of the times it means referring to the work of Jesus in the midst of his people, it means to say that Jesus is saving me now, in this time of epidemic, while we were at home sad and disconsolate, while we worried about the future of our loved ones.

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It gave, in these Coronavirus times, he speaks to us through the eloquent sign of his risen Son, not through other languages ​​or through vindictive punishments. I say this precisely to reassure all those who are listening to me and who risk exchanging this epidemic as a divine punishment.

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I borrow the words of Pope John XXIII to arouse hope within our Christian life during these days of forced exile from the world:

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«We like to place a very firm trust in the divine Savior […] that urges us to recognize the signs of the times ", so that "we see numerous clues among dark darkness, which seem to herald better times for the Church and for mankind " [cf. A.A.S. 1962, p. 6].

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Jesus does not push men to have morbid curiosities on the date of his return to earth or the expiry of the time available to us. It is not appropriate and respectful to God the Father to see divine punishment in temporal calamities, intimately consuming a veiled sense of revenge and satisfaction towards all those who have not yet converted and who oppose God. Those days are mysterious and must remain so. "It is not for you to know the times and moments that the Father has reserved for his choice ..." [cf. At 1,7]. Comment on this passage from the Acts of the Apostles St. Jerome explains: «By this he shows that he [Jesus] knows, but it is not fitting that the Apostles know, so that, always uncertain about the coming of the judge, live every day as if they were to be judged on that day ».

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We see the sign that it is Christ, in this time when it seems that a virus has the upper hand on our lives, on our faith, about our religious traditions, we see Christ, today that the days of the first major emergency seem to have passed, we all lived sadly in fear and bewilderment; we throw away the old water, but looking for new water, that is, the living water of the Gospel, of the encounter with Christ that assures us: «Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass " [CF. Mt 24, 35].

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But of that day and at that hour … let's not be upset, we see Jesus, only in the judgmental encounter with his love can everything acquire meaning, everything will finally be fine.

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Laconi, 27 May 2020

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

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

Teolock down: «Locked in with God». What the quarantine weeks taught us?

- ecclesial news -

TEOLOCK DOWN: «CLOSE INSIDE WITH GOD». WHAT THE QUARANTINE WEEKS TEACHED US?

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The Eucharistic fast to which we have been subjected in these two months, it is not so unusual for the history of the Church. Indeed, the monks, during Lent they used to fast from the Eucharist, and then live it to the full on Easter. Frequent and daily communion and that of children has entered our life of faith today, to which we are all used to: but originally and in the past it was not so, it was in fact the Holy Pontiff Pius X to introduce this frequency in recent times, to be exact in 1905 [San Pio X, James Trent].

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

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THESE ISSUES HAVE BEEN COVERED IN THE BOOK YOU CAN BUY: WHO

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Clerical pornocracy and ordinations of homosexual priests, who have long since made a coup within the Church, generating an irreversible decline

- 1 video della lessons teachers -

CLERICAL PORNOCRACY AND THE ORDINATIONS OF HOMOSEXUAL PRIESTS, WHO HAVE BEEN GOLPE INSIDE THE CHURCH FOR A LONG TIME, GENERATING AN IRREVERSIBLE DECADENCE

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Today the government of the Church is in the hands of homosexual clergymen: «It is not an exaggeration of mine, but only pure realism, to affirm that the Church is now a homosexualized structure and that today, the first of the world's states with the highest percentage of homosexuals, it's Vatican City State ».

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Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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In this video lesson I go back to documenting that there is no aggregation in the world in which, as in the Catholic Church, the presence of homosexuals is so high; nor does aggregation exist where, as in the Catholic Church, homosexuals have made a real “blow”, by entering all the "command rooms".

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Today the government of the Church is in the hands of these people: «It is not an exaggeration of mine, but only pure realism, to affirm that the Church is now a homosexualized structure and that today, the first of the world's states with the highest percentage of homosexuals, it's Vatican City State ».

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This problem, which is decidedly devastating for the Church, I began to study it in 2008 e, at the beginning of 2011, printed my book "And Satan made himself triune" [Editions The island of Patmos, II and. 2019], in which I wrote and explained the current situation ten years in advance. I suggest you read it, because many will find answers to the many questions that arise.

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THEMATIC INDEX OF THIS VIDEO-LESSON

I – THE ORIGIN LESSON. THE VIRILITY OF mAN approved IT IS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT FOR THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD minute 04:30

(II) – THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SIMONIAN ORDINATIONS AND THOSE THAT MADE FOR EXCHANGES OF PERVERTED SEXUAL FAVORS AND FOR CONSEQUENT BLACKMAILS minute 17:30

III – THE DRAMA OF SIN OF ACCIDIA AND OMISSION, IN A CHURCH WHERE EVERYONE aspires to BECOME CARDINALS, BUT WHERE NO ONE IS WILLING TO ASSUME EVEN MINIMAL LIABILITY minute 26:58

IV – MANY HOMOSEXUALS LACK OF THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS REQUIRED FOR THE VALIDITY OF THE SACRAMENT OF ORDER minute 31:52

V – THE "BANDA DELLA MAGLIANA" CLERICAL GAY IT HITS THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF THE SAINTS minute 37:30

WE – THE MYSTERY OF THE GRACE OF GOD, THE SUPPLIES GRACE AND THE SUPPLY THE CHURCH, THEY ARE NEITHER A ESCAPE NOR A PANACEA minute 52:08

VII – APPEAL TO THE LAITY: DON'T BE COWFUL LIKE SOME BISHOPS AND PRIESTS minute 01:00:25

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CORRECTION AND CLARIFICATION: At the minute 21:30 Ariel quotes H.E.. Mons. Mauro Parmeggiani as Bishop of Albano Laziale. It is a fallen branches, this prelate is in fact Bishop of the Diocese of Tivoli.

 

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From the island of Patmos, 18 May 2020

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From Holy Mass to the marshal's bidet: that thin border often crossed in which children teach their father the art of generating

- the Church and the serious emergency coronavirus -

FROM THE HOLY MASS TO BIDET OF THE MARESCIALLO: THAT THIN BORDER OFTEN CROSSED IN WHICH CHILDREN TEACH THE FATHER'S ART OF GENERATING.

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Honestly, there is to smile bitterly in learning of the obsessive care with which the Ordinaries advocated the scrupulous observance of the ministerial protocol to their priests, when in the not too distant past it was difficult even to observe the General Order of the Roman Missal with the corresponding headings, so much so that it must be considered necessary to produce education Sacramentum to correct the many priests, religious and lay people from frequent errors and fantasies that related to the homage due to the Holy Eucharist and the sacred liturgy. Definitely, the editor - or the editors of the protocol - did like the marshal of the carabinieri of the famous joke, who after noticing the parish priest of the town with his arm in a plaster cast and learned by the latter that the accident had occurred due to the collision on the bidet, the respondent's question answered candidly that he did not know the bidet because his hiding from the church was thirty years old.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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THESE ISSUES HAVE BEEN COVERED IN THE BOOK YOU CAN BUY: WHO

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That superficial mediocrity and indolent lukewarmness that prevents us from reaching the road, to truth and life

The angle dell'omiletica of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THAT SURFACE MEDIOCRITY AND INDOLENT SLOWNESS THAT PREVENTS US FROM GETTING TO THE WAY, TRUTH AND LIFE

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We need so much he sees men who stand in the breach as defenders of a people now unable to find God, lost as an orphaned child. The current health emergency has unearthed the most hidden human miseries, even those miseries of the Christian people and his ministers both forgetful of the only life-giving relationship with Christ in favor of virtual relationships and alternative solutions not without noble intentions.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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The Gospel of St. John: 14, 6

Last Sunday Jesus presents himself to us as the door of the sheep and the good shepherd, as the one who is the sure guide to achieving true life [see previous homily, WHO]. In this Easter season, marked by the annoying Covid-19 pandemic, life can only yearn for truth, without capitulating to the lying fatalism of the world, so that it acquires more and more sensibility and value even in infirmity [Liturgy of the Word of this fifth Easter Sunday, WHO]. This high expectation of earthly existence can only come true in collaboration with grace, reaffirming the radical choice of the Risen Lord: in him the cornerstone every life grows in an orderly and well-organized and connected way to build itself as a holy place inhabited by the Spirit of God [cf. Ef 2,21; 4,16].

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And inside the Church, risen bride, the Holy Spirit never ceases to make that question of the Psalm sound firmly 34 which constitutes one of the cornerstones of every interior renewal and of every sure vocational action:

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"There is someone who wants life and longs for days to taste the good?» [cf. Shall 34, 13].

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Let's ask ourselves really, there is still someone who wants to live fully or you want to settle only on the superficial mediocrity and indolent lukewarmness? Our Christian communities are still able to respond to God's invitation to the prophet:

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«I sought among them a man who built a wall and stood on the breach in front of me, to defend the country so that I wouldn't devastate it, but I haven't found it» [cf. This 22,30].

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We need so much he sees men who stand in the breach as defenders of a people now unable to find God, lost as an orphaned child. The current health emergency has unearthed the most hidden human miseries, even those miseries of the Christian people and his ministers both forgetful of the only life-giving relationship with Christ in favor of virtual relationships and alternative solutions not without noble intentions.

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In our hypocrisy, which is sometimes colored with disbelief and sometimes with bigotry, we forgot that we were created exclusively to get to know, love and enjoy God. The life of man on earth, even the most sinful and distant one, it serves no other purpose than to express this awareness: God loves me and I love him. And the measure of this love is the glorious Cross of the Risen One that never shines like this in this time of tribulation to the world as often unique.

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God is looking for lovers, of men who want to live without discounts, without alibi, without compromises, without interference with the world. God makes himself - through the humanity of his Son - a beggar of love, so that man finds the richness of life in him. In this search for love and new life it is urgent to remove the personal self and graft the ego of Christ:

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«I am the way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me " [cf. GV 14,6].

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The three predicates that we find in this Gospel verse are introduced by the solemn divine formula of theI am eimi, of the I Am, formula that leaves no possibility of appeal and misunderstanding but seals the essentiality of the disciples' vocational following. Christ is truly the face of the visible and knowable God who is the Way, Truth and Life. And whoever chooses Christ knows he has to go a different way, make an uncomfortable truth your own, take on a life that demands perfection beyond measure.

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The Way that guides existence it is the Word of Christ, it is the new Torah that has brought the ancient Mosaic Law to perfection and fullness [cf. Mt 5,17], his Gospel is now rule and orientation without gloss.

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The Truth that liberates it is no longer given by that subtle and malicious human wisdom, finally there is an embodied wisdom, pretty who reveals himself and communicates himself in the Word of God who became the son of Joseph and Mary, revealing the man to himself in his true face [cf. GV 19,5]. Life reminds us of the profound bond with God because he is the giver of all life through his Spirit, accepting life means unquestionably accepting God's signature on the created world. In the Gospel of John, Christ is the custodian of the Father's life, it is he who gives it to whoever he wants [cf. GV 5,21; 11,25-26].

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Faith in the Risen One Via, Truth and Life allows us to reach God, this is the goal of every profession of faith so much so that the evangelist John tends to underline it very well in the end of his Gospel:

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«Many other signs made Jesus in the presence of his disciples, but they were not written in this book. These were written, because you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and why, believing, have life in its name» [cf. GV 20,30-31].

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Faith in him leads us to the breach, has us atHere I am, it makes it possible for us to embrace the Father in a time when hugs are denied us. Let's not waste time, we want life, we always want it, let's wish it now!

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Laconi, 10 May 2020

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To stay as close as possible to the faithful in this time of crisis and emergency, the editorial staff of The Island of Patmos informs readers that our author Father Ivano LIGUORI, Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, Care on Facebook the heading 'THE WORD NETWORK ", offering of three times a week meditations. You can access the edited page from our Father clicking on the logo below:

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Visit the pages of our book shop WHO. Following the coronavirus emergency, the Amazon company that prints and distributes our books had to prioritize the distribution of basic necessities. Printing and distribution of books will then resume after 4 May.

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«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
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It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
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Art and death in the face of an invisible and insidious virus that in the course of this pandemic has brought man to reflect on life and death

- the guest specialists of Patmos Island -

ART AND DEATH BEFORE AN INVISIBLE AND INSIDIOUS VIRUS THAT IN THE COURSE OF THIS PANDEMY REPORTED MAN TO REFLECT ON LIFE AND DEATH

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From culture to culture, burial and funeral rites marked the passage of man's death, all until the emergence of Christianity in which, the deposition of the dead Christ from the cross becomes a fundamental stereotype for the care of body and soul. Through the artistic Christian iconographies of all centuries we are aware of how much man is almost endemically linked to his own existence.

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Author
Licia Oddo *

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Raphael Sanzio, Deposition of the Christ, oil on the table, Borghese Gallery, Rome

Among the side effects of the pandemic da covid19, the moment of meditation regains its physiognomy, in a society addicted to the lack of time in the daily frenzy. So today we return to recover the time in the various vital aspects, including the artistic one of an art intended as a noble expression of human activity. Indeed, art in itself is a great act of resistance to death [G. Vangi cfr. (C). Casadei in Shows, culture and society].

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If the man was forced to limit and arrest its existence, the death, it doesn't stop in front of anything or anyone, indeed it is the most tragic of consequences, but it is tinged with darker tones because of this pandemic form, denying man the dignity of his own cult. Like this, if nature rumbles in the silence of the emergency and takes back its place, the pandemic ousted men in the cult of the dead, to the point of preventing their extreme greeting, at the vigil of the corpse before the burial and its pitiful burial.

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In all civilizations and yes At that time, attention to the deceased is a priority in the tradition of giving the right burial of the functional body to the well-being of the soul. Literary tradition and art bear witness to all civilizations in the history of funeral worship starting from the Greek world, from the Homeric poems in the famous claim of Priam of the body of the son by the Achaeans, all tragedy, in which Antigone's desperation for the death of his brother Polinice, breaks the burial ban. If that of the γέρας θανόντων was an obligation of the survivors towards the warrior, at the same time it was necessary to protect his body from the attack of nature and from the outrage of the enemy by providing for his burial. In the same way as Greek culture, the West becomes heir and bearer of a system of values, ideals capable of resisting the corrosive action of time, and to guarantee immortality to man thanks to the memory of his relatives.

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Catacombs of Santa Lucia, Syracuse: funerary fresco

From culture to culture, burial and funeral rite marked the passage of man's death, until the spread of Christianity in which the deposition of the dead Christ from the cross becomes a fundamental symbol of body and soul care. Through the artistic Christian iconographies of all centuries we are aware of how much man is almost endemically linked to his own existence.

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For about two months at this part, tens of thousands of men, because of the morbid covid19, they were forced to renounce funeral rites, but even before the last farewell to their relatives. The scenarios that open before our eyes are worthy of a catastrophe: corpses piled one on top of the other in the corridors of nosocomes, deprived of the simplest social dignity. With amazement, we witnessed a row of military trucks loaded with coffins brought from Bergamo to various crematoria in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, because the crematoriums of the city could not carry out all those cremations. Images that brought to mind the well-known pestilences that have afflicted humanity through the ages. Bodies burnt or thrown into mass graves covered with quicklime due to the lack of cemetery places, sadly obliged to proceed quickly to get rid of it to sanitize the environment avoiding further contagion.

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Genuflected statue in the heart of Times Square with the hands turned to the sky and titled Covid Hero monument, work by the artist Sergio Furnari, which has become a symbol of the fight against the pandemic.

Same procedure today it concerns some of the countries on earth so as not to run into as many dangerous infections that have stunned and horrified the most common consciences. Thus we witness the most painful humiliation and mortification in post-contemporary society that nothing could have done against a catastrophic event, higher than any forecast. And if history seems to repeat itself even after a century, when in the 1920s there was the great epidemic known as “Spanish fever”, punctuating our life in stages pending normal daily recovery, the instinct for conservation predominates above all. Primordial instinct that distinguishes human nature, whose reaction is visible today in the work of doctors and in artistic representations, which collect material evidence of human work to guarantee total physical and identity survival of our species, formed by men who often feel invincible; men who maybe, May, they would have imagined how an invisible and insidious virus, It would lead them to reflect on life and death again.

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Syracuse, 9 May 2020

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

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«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
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Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio on the Tridentine Mass should be abolished, revealed to the facts: unhappy, inappropriate and harmful

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THE ABOVE IS ABOLISHED MOTU PROPRIO OF BENEDICT XVI ON THE TRIDENTINE MASS, REVEALED TO THE EVIDENCE OF THE FACTS: UNHAPPY, INAPPORTANT AND HARMFUL

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A thirty year old priest who starts doing the Tridentine traditionalist, from where he brings out the formation and culture indispensable to celebrate with the Missal of St. Pius V? Simply said,: a priest who wished to celebrate worthily with the Missal of St. Pius V should study the structure of the rite for years and years, its theological sense and its evolution over the centuries; because that rite takes place in an ecclesial and pastoral dimension that no longer exists today. Otherwise it will fall into a grotesque worse than that of some priests who make buffoonery celebrating with the Missal of St. Paul VI.

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Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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In this Lectio I explain why I hope that the use of the Missal of St. Pius V granted in 2007 col Proper Motu of the Sovereign Pontiffs on the Roman Liturgy by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI.

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Moving on rigorous historical-theological criteria, I explain first of all what the limits of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council were. A reform that the Church needed, but on the results of which, today, there is a lot to discuss.

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In impartial and without prejudice, I analyze and explain how it is not possible to hypothesize a return to a past that some people should not pass through. At the same time, But, I explain how urgent it is to get corrective, proceeding to one reform of the reform of a sacred liturgy that for decades has become the theater of the subjective and extravagant personalisms of the celebrants, until it becomes unstable and bent to a particular whim, instead of being a prayerful expression of the universal dimension of the Church through the Sacrifice of Christ the Lord which is renewed in the Holy Mass.

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From the island of Patmos, 7 May 2020

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«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
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The Bel Pastore is not a devotional iconography, but the possible and achievable model to pursue that Divine Christ Master offers us

The angle dell'omiletica of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THE BEAUTIFUL SHEPHERD IS NOT A DEVOTIONAL ICONOGRAPHY, BUT THE POSSIBLE AND REALIZABLE MODEL TO PURSUE THAT CHRIST DIVINE MASTER OFFERS US

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Whether we are shepherds or sheep it is necessary to go through the Risen Christ because it is the only rule for finding life. We repudiate all other useless doors, all other deceptive shepherds, let's not get confused and end our disappointed days, sick and hungry. Whoever does not go through Jesus is either a thief who wants to use faith to get rich illegally or is a brigand who wants to use faith with violence and aggression.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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File picture: the Supreme Pontiff Francis

On this 4th Sunday of Easter our reflection on the Gospel of John focuses on the figure of the risen Christ presented as the good Shepherd, title that in the Greek original is rendered as the handsome shepherd that is, the exemplary model for all those who are called to be shepherds. This observation leads us today to carry all our shepherds in our hearts: from the Bishop of Rome to the last ordained priest. All of them are vicar shepherds insofar as their life follows that of the only and authentic Shepherd who is the Risen Christ.

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I will be sincere, I have never liked that the judgment on a priest is made up of what he can do or what he can give. Worse still when the priest - or bishop - is identified through his academic qualifications, as new blazons to be exhibited in the plethora of clerical climbers towards career climbing. The only essential title for a priest is given by his being of Christ, inside that undeserved and burdensome mystery of which we will never understand enough the value is enclosed everything necessary to open wide the doors of paradise. For this - I said - I suffer a lot when a priest is deemed worthy or not based on his physical skills, intellectuals, academics, social, organizational, ecclesiastical. It is enough for me to be a priest: convinced of it, happy to be, responsible for it.

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We parish priests know this well when we feel brought to a measure of comparison by the faithful: «That priest organizes many trips and pilgrimages for the parishioners, put numerous aggregation activities in the parish, has equipped the oratory in a magnificent way, can speak to young people, has endowed the Church with all comforts etc .. ». Sorry, but I can only think how in front of all these wonders - certainly useful and right - many super-equipped communities still remain empty, the boys abandon the faith after confirmation, the hunger for the Eucharist and the Word is not filled, the difficulty in remaining faithful to the Gospel represents the norm to get used to in order not to be labeled as rigid.

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Here then is why the Gospel of this Sunday it is extremely important not only for the lay faithful but above all for us ministers, constituted shepherds of the flock of God entrusted to us. Christ in his incarnation takes charge of our human nature and in the events of Easter he elevates it to the glory of God. Our final condition, from a theological point of view, it is decidedly more superior and sublime than what our ancestors experienced in Earthly Paradise.

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Dear Christian friends, this is the work done by the Risen One, from the one who is the Lord, and this work of raising the faithful to the glory of the Father through their daily sanctification is an eminent task of the priests, this is, and it should be the only worry that made us leave everything to follow Christ.

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I can't be satisfied of a flock of faithful satisfied if this is not even holy, satisfaction pertains to immanence, holiness embraces the eternal today of God in a continuous movement of conversion:

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"If anyone wants to come after me, disown yourself, take up his cross every day and follow me. Who will want to save their life, will lose it, but who will lose their life for me, will save her » (cf. LC 9,23-24).

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For this reason the evangelist John tells us today that Jesus is the only door through which the sheep can pass to be holy and full of God. Words that want to indicate the mediation of the One who allows us access to the Father, within a life totally filled with God and that speaks of Him in all the most minute facets.

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This prospect of perfection should not surprise us, because in this month of May we have before us the example of Mary Most Holy, she who is called holy and full of grace, precisely because - through the Son and in view of him - he obtained from God that completeness of life which is the goal of every baptized person. Mary is the first Christian who has fully enjoyed the fruits of the resurrection of the Son.

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Therefore, whether we are shepherds or sheep it is necessary to go through the Risen Christ because it is the only rule for finding life. We repudiate all other useless doors, all other deceptive shepherds, let's not get confused and end our disappointed days, sick and hungry. Whoever does not go through Jesus is either a thief who wants to use faith to get rich illegally or is a brigand who wants to use faith with violence and aggression.

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We pray every day so that our shepherds do not turn into thieves or robbers, this is the task of the whole Church, community that intercedes so that those who are called to sanctify are the first saints to whom we must give thanks to God.

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Jesus is the door of our life, a resurrected life which - if accepted freely and joyfully - is capable of saving from the depths of death and constituting authentic witnesses of life. This is the only message that I wish to meet today in the eyes of the priests, this alone is sufficient, this alone is enough.

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Laconi, 3 May 2020

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To stay as close as possible to the faithful in this time of crisis and emergency, the editorial staff of The Island of Patmos informs readers that our author Father Ivano LIGUORI, Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, Care on Facebook the heading 'THE WORD NETWORK ", offering of three times a week meditations. You can access the edited page from our Father clicking on the logo below:

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Visit the pages of our book shop WHO. Following the coronavirus emergency, the Amazon company that prints and distributes our books had to prioritize the distribution of basic necessities. Printing and distribution of books will then resume after 4 May.

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«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:
 









 

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thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

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In the face of the mystery of the Risen Christ we cannot renounce living and reduce ourselves to survive

The angle dell'omiletica of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

BEFORE THE MYSTERY OF THE RISEN CHRIST WE CANNOT GIVE UP LIVING AND REDUCE SURVIVING

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My conscience as a man, of Catholic, of priest and Italian citizen therefore requires me to make the following decision: this is the last time I celebrate Holy Mass live on television, because I don't want to become an accomplice in an absurd and mortifying way of doing. Others will decide differently, but I can not, I don't have to and I don't want to do otherwise, because I want to live and not just survive, I want to be a responsible witness of the risen Christ, the only one who frees us from the terror of evil and death.

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John Zanchi

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PDF print format article

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Siblings,

the effigy of Santa Maria del Conforto, venerated in the Diocese of Arezzo

let's celebrate this Holy Mass to the glory of God and in honor of Santa Maria in the resurrection of the Lord (cf Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary 15). Saturday is particularly consecrated to Marian devotion, because on Holy Saturday the Madonna was alone on the face of the earth to believe and hope in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; on Holy Saturday the whole faith of the Church was "enclosed" in the Most Holy Mary, always united in faith obedient to his Divine Son. Because of this, just resurrected, Jesus first appeared to his Holy Mother; about this, I re-read part of what St. John Paul II taught during the General Audience of 21 May 1997:

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«The Gospels report a small number of apparitions of the risen Jesus and certainly not the complete account of what happened in the forty days after Easter. The Virgin, present in the first community of disciples (cf At 1, 14), how it could have been excluded from the number of those who met his divine Son raised from the dead? Indeed, it is legitimate to think that the Mother was probably the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared. Mary's absence from the group of women who go to the tomb at dawn (CF. Mc 16, 1; Mt 28, 1), it could not perhaps be an indication that she had already met Jesus? This deduction would also be confirmed by the fact that the first witnesses of the resurrection, at the behest of Jesus, it was the women, who remained faithful at the foot of the Cross and therefore more firm in faith. IThe unique and special character of the presence of the Virgin on Calvary and her perfect union with the Son in the suffering of the Cross, they seem to postulate his very particular participation in the mystery of the resurrection. Present on Calvary during Good Friday (CF Jn. 19, 25) and in the Upper Room at Pentecost (cf At 1, 14), the Blessed Virgin was probably also a privileged witness of the resurrection of Christ, thus completing his participation in all the essential moments of the Paschal Mystery ».

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Saint John Paul II therefore teaches that, among the singular supernatural privileges that Our Lady had from God, there was also the appearance of the Son just risen from the dead. For us now the encounter with the risen Jesus takes place first of all in the sacrament of the Eucharist, celebrated in Holy Mass and received in Holy Communion; under the appearances of the consecrated bread and wine it is indeed present, really and substantially the risen Jesus, in body, blood, soul and divinity; that same and same risen Christ that the blessed already enjoy in Paradise, that same and same risen Christ that Our Lady and the first disciples contemplated here on earth in the 40 days of the first Easter, that same and same risen Christ is now communicated to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar; the only difference between the blessed in heaven, Our Lady and the first disciples and we are that they contemplate him and contemplated him in vision, for now only in faith under the veil of the Sacrament.

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In Holy Mass and in sacramental communion we therefore enjoy the presence of the risen Jesus who assimilates us to himself and communicates his glorious life to us. But because of the ongoing pandemic, the vast majority of the faithful have for too long been deprived of the grace of participating in the Holy Mass and receiving Holy Communion. In the beginning our bishops justified this very serious deprivation as a painful sacrifice and an act of responsibility on the part of the Church, to foster the common struggle against the spread of the disease e, in the emergence of the emergency, this could also be entirely acceptable, waiting to be able to organize safely. But now, continue to deny participation in the Holy Mass and the reception of the sacraments for an indefinite time, exposes our people to serious spiritual risks, more dangerous than physical ones; I list some of them: first of all the danger of believing that faith can be reduced to a simple subjective opinion to be lived only in private, without public and social form and that indeed a religious practice without public rites and manifestations and reduced to the fulfillment of solitary prayers and philanthropic acts would be more pure and mature; then the danger that the Church will be totally enslaved to the state, without any freedom of preaching and action, neither internally nor socially, as happens for example in communist China, origin of this pandemic that afflicts us; therefore the danger that our churches are falsely considered the most dangerous places for public health and our Liturgies main source of spread of the viral infection - while the churches are the places where it is easier to observe the norms of prophylaxis and the celebration of the Sacraments are the least dangerous acts for health -; finally the danger that people mistakenly convince themselves of the uselessness of the Christian faith and of the very existence of the Church.

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It is now clear that many politicians and their self-styled experts, many journalists, many - too many - ordinary people want to exploit the pandemic to annihilate the presence and work of the Church in Italy, forcing Catholics to practice faith even in churches, but the priests in the closed of the sacristies and the faithful in the closed of their own home, isolated from each other.

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So far we have adapted to many spiritual sacrifices with great suffering even in very important things, but now the situation has changed - thanks to God and the sacrifice of many - and it is no longer possible to continue living like this, that is: for fear of physical death, to survive and give up living; die of unemployment so as not to die of viral contagion; die as a Church to continue to survive as single believers barely tolerated by the unbelieving world. Those who do not believe in Christ risen from the dead always and inevitably end up surviving rather than living: «If the dead are not raised, we eat and drink, because tomorrow we will die » (1Color 15, 32), so atheists think and live; but we Christians are the witnesses of Christ risen from the dead and we cannot give up living to reduce ourselves to survive, neither as men nor as Christians.

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This also means that Masses are only televised they have had their time and it is no longer necessary or appropriate to continue celebrating in deserted churches with all our people reduced to a shapeless mass of viewers more or less involved; in many other countries afflicted by the pandemic, they continued to celebrate Holy Mass with the people, certainly with due precautions; now it is possible to start doing it also in Italy, without any permission from anyone - least of all the civil authorities, who have no power to forbid us or allow us what we have to do in churches -; now it is possible to start again to celebrate the sacraments with the people in church, without endangering anyone's physical health, certainly by doing it with that responsibility that we Christians have always abundantly shown and taught to others in times of calamity. Therefore, the live broadcast of the Holy Mass must return as soon as possible to be an exceptional and sporadic fact in the spiritual service only of those who, due to illness or old age, are prevented from participating personally; all the other faithful must be able to return to church as soon as possible to celebrate and receive the sacraments.

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Jesus says: «I am the living bread, down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he will live forever ... Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day ". (GV 6, 51. 54). Jesus says "Do this in memory of me" (LC 22, 19); Jesus doesn't say: «You were holed up in the house each on his own for fear of dying because he does the same; each for himself and God for all ".

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My conscience as a man, of Catholic, of priest and Italian citizen therefore requires me to make the following decision: this is the last time I celebrate Holy Mass live on television, because I don't want to become an accomplice in an absurd and mortifying way of doing. Others will decide differently, but I can not, I don't have to and I don't want to do otherwise, because I want to live and not just survive, I want to be a responsible witness of the risen Christ, the only one who frees us from the terror of evil and death.

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Santa Maria, cheered by your Divine Son just risen from the dead at dawn of Easter, intercede for us and obtain from the glorious Lord the liberation from the pandemic and the courage to profess our faith always and in every place and circumstance (safe or dangerous) and above all get us freedom from the tyranny of worldly power and from reducing us to survive, prisoners and paralyzed by fear of death.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

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Cathedral Church of Arezzo, 2 May 2020

Lady Mass on Saturdays

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The video meditations of the Presbyter Mons. Giovanni Zanchi are available on our page

VIDEO

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Visit the pages of our book shop WHO. Following the coronavirus emergency, the Amazon company that prints and distributes our books had to prioritize the distribution of basic necessities. Printing and distribution of books will then resume after 4 May.

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«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:

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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 ]

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