— catechesis & pastoral -

"MOM I MISSED THE PLANE". THE HOLY FAMILY IN JOURNEY TO GLORY THE STORY OF GOSPEL LUCANO

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«Because you were looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father?"This is a lost opportunity for Jesus to show his personality. The episode reminds me of an old Christmas movies, Mom I missed the plane the 1990. A young Macaulay Culkin plays the little Kevin, accidentally left at home by parents before a trip to Paris […]

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Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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the then small Macaulay Culkin

In these days who led us in the mystery of Christmas to that of Epiphany, we can stop some’ on historical narratives that Luke's Gospel offers us the Holy Family.

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The parents of Jesus They went every year to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. When he was twelve years, they went up according to the custom of the feast. Ma, elapsed days, as they resumed their way back, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Believing that he was in the company, they journeyed for a day, then they sought him among their relatives and acquaintances; I did not find, They came back looking for him in Jerusalem [cf. LC 2, 41 – 45].

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After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the masters, He is listening to them and asking them questions;. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers [ cf. LC 2, 47]. When they saw him they were amazed, and his mother said:

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""Son, why have you done this? there, Your father and I, distressed, We are looking for you ". And he answered them: “Because you were looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father "? But they did not understand what he had told them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient. His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, age and grace before God and man " [cf. LC 2, 48-52].

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So let us clarify this trip: honoring Jewish traditions, holy family goes to journey to Jerusalem. Jesus was twelve years old. The Holy Family, then made two trips: from Nazareth to Jerusalem. From Jerusalem Nazareth. Here is a feature also applies to the family today.

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The two travel show us how the family is a dynamic reality. It is not fixed in its sights, in his habits, in its arid certainties. The family is the place of the dynamism: a dynamism in the tradition, according to our faith. This link between tradition and family, It allows us to see how the conjugal nucleus is a place where it is possible to feed the amazement of the faith: a faith to a time so ancient and so new. Where traditions are the place to be rooted and start to build their own identity.

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For this Jesus, It can respond calmly: «Because you were looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father?» [LC 2, 49]. This is a lost opportunity for Jesus to show his personality. The episode reminds me of an old Christmas movies, Mom I missed the plane the 1990. A young Macaulay Culkin plays the little Kevin, accidentally left at home by parents before a trip to Paris. between laughter, unexpected and gag comic, Kevin will defend with tooth and nail their homes by the attempted theft of two bumbling thieves. Kevin has therefore realized that in his small had an important role: defend his affections and his most intimate memories to those who wanted sottrarglieli and put violence on them.

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Jesus, It is among the teachers and the teachers of the Law, in a full questioned and discussed with them with a keen intelligence and the clarity of the answers. I would dare to say, Jesus can give succinct answers to questions of the doctors and their questions about the Torah and the Talmud. Synthetic implies brevity and conciseness capacity, but at the same time is not superficial: The short answer is intelligent when it is able to express all in a fragment. He can say the depth of the divine mysteries in a few clear words. Jesus answers, then, that takes care of things of his Father: takes care of its mission bearer of God's truth and thus prepares the equivalent mission of redemption will happen years later.

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Inside of of his family, Jesus has gained its identity and mission. That's why his journey with the Holy Family was a trip to glory. From Christmas Eve recently celebrated, until the Passion and Resurrection which we celebrate at Easter, Jesus walks always with the family community in a growing age, wisdom and grace.

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That's why for us, our families I am the first cell of our human and personal development: that place where we discover our identity, our faults and virtues. Where we learn to honor the Holy Scriptures, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church as the development aid of our staff sacred turmoil: ie of ourselves in the discovery of our vocation, priestly, religious or double.

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These days between Christmas and Epiphany in which we also celebrated the feast of the Holy Family, Thank the Lord for the gifts they wanted us to bear by our parents; and by all those who have made the pedagogues in the existential service development, human and spiritual of our vocations.

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Rome, 6 January 2019

Epiphany of the Lord Jesus

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«sweet Jesus, Jesus love» [St. Caterina da Siena]

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Preparation of ’ island of Patmos

We point out to the readers from The Island of Patmos an interesting article of our Dominican author Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci published these days of celebration on the site of the Dominican Roman Province of St. Catherine of Siena and dedicated to "The prophets: sowers of God's mysteries " [see text, WHO]

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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
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DEAR READERS, THE REAL HELP REFUGEES: THOSE WHO LIVE ON THE ISLAND OF PATMOS, John's PLACE LAST REVELATION, WHERE THE TRUTH THERE WILL FREE

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If once a month, a good number of players decided to offer us a pizza, a cappuccino and a croissant, or even just a coffee and, our work could proceed peacefully without having to live with the anxiety of the often … "We hope to do it!».

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Dear Readers,

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Father Ariel snow, that sooner or later "unsealed" …

our faith teaches us that appeared in the dark night a star that guided the shepherds to the mystery of the Incarnate Word [cf. Mt 2, 9]. We also know that the snow is likely to melt in the sun, before which the frost gives way to the warmth. He writes Dante Alighieri in Canto XXXIII of Paradise opens with the prayer of St Bernard to the Blessed Virgin Mary:

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So the snow is in the sun unsealed;
so in the wind the leaves rise
It perdea of ​​the Sibyl.

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In the language of Dante, that while in fabling “the vernacular” It remains adherent to the Latin etymology, The term "unsealing" does not mean dissolving, but it means: lose its shape.

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Following the star of God like the shepherds, in this cold, dark night enveloping the Church, we walk towards that bright sun which is Christ, before which this snow will finally disigillata and its unnatural and harmful form dispersed.

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With the new year The Island of Patmos He enters its fifth year of life, which will be fulfilled 20 October 2019. Taking stock, we can say that the results have been nothing short of amazing: over the past three years we totaled nearly thirty million visits. Our average oscillates between 800.000 and the 900.000 visits per month to an average of about 30.000 daily visits. We have never known a time of downturn, the graph only marks a progressive increase. If we could call the whole thing happened, But we like to call it the grace of God.

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At the beginning of the new year, after the holidays some modifications will be made to the home-page and inserted a page bearing the words 'legal and administrative notes', within which will contain all the relevant data. Indeed, the 30 November 2018 we have constituted the Editions The island of Patmos through the legal form of pious association. At the same time The Island of Patmos has become a magazine with regular registration with the Order of Journalists and the press register of the Court.

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This has led to considerable expenses which implied the dues of the notary and the commercial adviser, plus a whole series of related fees paid to the Revenue, Order of Journalists, the Court, etc …

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Not having the means, all these expenses were incurred by my mother and my brother, who wanted to contribute to this our apostolic work, I remember that there is certainly not for their benefit, but all of you that more and more we followed and that you can benefit from the fruits of our labor, or if you prefer: of our life we ​​spent entirely for the People of God and for the dissemination of the Catholic faith.

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Repeatedly, numerous people, in front of some of our writings we have asked: "Who gives you the courage?». Not a few others have asked us: "Do not fear that you will pay the?». Well, courage is nothing but help that comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth [cf. Shall 120], while, regarding the tribute that has often been made amply pay, perhaps it is better to draw a veil over and proceed …

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The Island of Patmos It can express themselves with complete freedom and the legitimate freedom of God's children, inviting those who follow us to know the truth, in the full knowledge that the truth will set us free [cf. GV 8, 32], simply because it is not employed by any potentate, but only employed by Christ and His Holy Church. And the freedom of God's children, in order to be truly exercised, undertakes not to be entered on pay book of any overbearing censorship. Indeed, we do not take money or Knights of Columbus, nor by the Prince of Liechtenstein, lovingly encouraged by the State Secretariat to pour generous amounts of money to people who are not reputed loyal servants of the truth, but only reputed welcome humorally, if not rewarded for the way hidden or adulterate the truth. O, said in other words: could ever, St. John the Baptist protect the conduct of Herod Antipas life, in exchange for its generous subsidies lavished on his preaching work? In conclusion, This tyrant was just living with the wife of his brother and had a totally unhealthy erotic passion for her granddaughter Salomé. If you wish you could make it do, merciful spirit of love and joy, also a bland path penitential then readmitting to the sacraments together with its concubine and its delicious granddaughter, as they would not hesitate to affirm those blindside money from the Knights of Columbus and the Prince of Liechtenstein behind loving urging of Secretary of State, to which they are industrious the arrotini sharpening the blade required to cut the head of the Baptist.

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But we know what the Baptist does not think so, He ended with the severed head placed on a tray, because his sense of mercy was holding everything on truth and justice.

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This is why we have always walked a tightrope, with all the economic hardships of the case, while avendocela sin made today, albeit always for the so-called Broken headphone, benefiting only the offerings of readers and offers the same to me dates for celebration of the Mass in suffrage for the dead, entirely used for the expenses of The Island of Patmos, always with rigorous public indication of the tenders received and the financial statements prepared on what was received at the end of each year [cf. WHO].

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We used this account: if only they were paying fifty players at the beginning of the year 2019 the amount of 120 Euro, corresponding to 10 € per month, the costs would be entirely covered by about 6.000 EUR necessary to maintaining the site hosting this magazine. Unfortunately instead, those who in 2018 have made this subscription are only 12 Readers, for a total amount raised totaled 2.520 Euro, of which 1.200 paid by a single Reader that predispose a monthly payment of 100 Euro.

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At the gates of this Holy Christmas, We invite especially those who write to us to show appreciation for our work and our loyalty to the Church of Christ and the the Catholic faith, to make this real appreciation by offering their financial support. Indeed, if only those who contact us to thank us, to show appreciation and stimulate, They were paying only a few Euros, we should not rush, and sometimes even with some fear, on the razor's edge, nor should I have recourse to the generosity of my family to have the money necessary to work free the amor Dei for the benefit of the many who tell us and write us «good!». Because with a thousand "good" does not pay the site's subscription services and other expenses - which amounted to repeat 6.000 euro a year -, while, with one euro gave a thousand people, something instead you pay, If the thousands who tell us' good!"There would send only a euro offer in support of our work.

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We invite the most loyal and willing to want to have a monthly payment according to one's generous possibilities through the effective and safe system PayPal which is located in the bottom of the page, Those who prefer can also do so via bank account. For if once a month, a good number of players decided to offer us a pizza, a cappuccino and a croissant, or even just a coffee and, our work could proceed peacefully without having to live with the anxiety of the often … "We hope to do it!».

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All while John the Baptist screams in the desert, while the erotic Salomé dance for obscuring the tyrant and while the waiters Herod shine tray on which to lay his head, already abundantly cut with generous financial support of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the Knights of Columbus, all the praise and glory of Christ God!

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May God have mercy for all who, on the basis of money and power-sharing, assist, or worse, actively participate in promoting the degradation of the Holy Bride of Christ thrown on the sidewalk.

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"He says the sinner: "God's mercy". This is a common trick of the devil to sinners, why many are likely to be damned. He writes a learned author: “It sends the Hell God's mercy, that its not justice”. Indeed, these miserable, recklessly trusting in the mercy not cease from sin, so you lose. God is mercy, who denies? And, it is merciful, But it is also fair, for that punishes those who continue to offend. He shows mercy, But for those who fear ' [Sant'Alfonso Maria’ Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, in Alphonsian Pages on Mercy, n. 105: The paradox of mercy].

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To all of you, a happy Christmas.

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Isle of Partmos, 21 December 2018

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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:
They were IT 08 (J) 02008 32974 001436620930
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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— catechesis & pastoral -

RAPSODY OF FAITH. A MEDITATION ON MUSIC, CORNER AND THEOLOGY: THE HUMAN BEING AS A SOUND OF GLORY.

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As the beautiful Platonic image in the dialogue teaches Ione : cultivating the liturgical musical tradition means being the rhapsodies of divine love incarnated and alive on earth. It means becoming more and more the voice of God for man.

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Author
Gabriele Giordano Scardocci, o.p.

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PDF print format article

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the Gradual Triplex, Week of Advent

Singing and music they are a spontaneously human and natural expression. From the simple daily experience we notice how our days are enlivened by the presence of songs that become soundtracks of the daily routine. The radio, televisions, mp3 music players and even cell phones Samsung ed Iphone, today they are vehicles of this music that accompanies us; that expresses our feelings, our joys, fears and even desires. The French scholar Marcel Proust wrote:

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"Music is the only example of what could have been said - had it not been for the invention of language, the formation of words, the analysis of ideas - the communication of souls " [The prisoner].

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I frankly admit that I have never learned the art of music except when I entered the convent, because since I started the convent life, there was a new experience that I had never experienced in my life. We know and practice many ways of praying, yet for me, the whole new way of praying, entering the Order of Preachers, it was the prayer expressed in the song, especially in Gregorian chant. Not that I had never sung before. On the contrary, when I was in my parish I would rehearse the chants of the mass between guitars, bongos, cymbals and also wanting a little’ organ. But there, my voice, it thinned to hide behind the "professional" singers.

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A mid-winter Saturday, we postulants were in church. Silence, loneliness and a lot of concentration. After the rehearsals of the various antiphons and some sequences, the voice begins to fade. We are a bit tired. At this point, however,, before leaving, we approach the statue of the Madonna del Rosario, who with her serene and maternal gaze welcomes pilgrims from the weary daily gait. At that point one of us proposed:

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“Why don't we greet you properly?».

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Gabriele Giordano Scardocci, o.p. with the tuning fork

That was how they hugged each other, lonely heart and lonely soul, looking at Mary with such affection we sang the ode Hail the queen of the heavens. And I think it was the first time inside me that I was not afraid to be out of tune. It was the first time that I thought like Bach inside myself: Glory to God alone! Until someone commented on someone else smiling:

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«He will have appreciated!»

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Singing and music, they are therefore a purely human phenomenon; a beautiful and fascinating phenomenon. The Lord, having redeemed all humanity and raised it to a state of grace, he also elevated man's song and music to be a vehicle for prayer; they then become a very special instrument of relationship and intimacy with God. Let's see how …

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Since the liturgies of Ancient Israel, the Jewish people celebrate their covenant with God through inspired songs and hymns, an example above all:

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"Here are those to whom David entrusted the direction of the chanting in the temple after the ark had found a place. They exercised the office of singers before the Tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting until Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. In the service they followed the rule set for them " [1].

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The first biblical datum is the presence of song also in the Jewish people. This passage emphasizes the presence of official cantors wanted by God while waiting for Solomon to finish the temple in Jerusalem. And from this we therefore propose a first source of reflection: the role of singers fulfills not only a typical instance of man as a thinking and romantic living being. Being a "cantor" is part of the same Ancient Covenant of the Lord in which a circle of good performers of liturgical pieces is foreseen. The celebration of the mystery of God requires, so, an elevation of the soul that burns with the mysterious presence of God. This elevation, it is possible thanks to the medium of music and singing. Here is the first role of singing: to be a vehicle of elevation in the presence of God.

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the Gradual Triplex

Already by now we are sure that singing it is that transcendent glider that allows us to unite with God in an outburst of pure love. This is an analysis on which a speech given by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI in July seems to agree 2015:

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"What is music actually? Where does it come from and what it tends towards? I think we can locate three "places" from which the music originates. One of its first sources is the experience of love. When men were seized by love, another dimension of being opened to them, a new magnitude and breadth of reality. And it also prompted us to express ourselves in a new way. Poetry, singing and music in general were born from this being affected, from this opening up of a new dimension of life " [CF. text, WHO].

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Let us now consider two New Testament biblical concordances. At the end of the Last Supper, two evangelists focus on a not secondary detail:

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"And after singing the hymn, they went out towards the Mount of Olives " [2].

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The song that the Apostles and Jesus perform - a typical hymn of the Jewish tradition - here is the prelude to the dramatic events of the Passion of Jesus Christ. But at the same time, the hymn cited by the synoptic Gospels is inserted within the New and Eternal Eucharistic Covenant that God works through the glorious work of Christ, with humanity. The music link, suffering and glory of God, it gets so strong: right in the moment of deep suffering, Jesus sings with the apostles.

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We will notice again together with the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI:

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"A second origin of music is the experience of sadness, being touched by death, from the pain and from the abysses of existence. Again they hatch, in the opposite direction, new dimensions of reality that can no longer find an answer in speeches alone ". [CF. text, WHO]

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Dominican friars in the convent choir

The song performed here it is thus a special sign that he wants to show, with its language composed of sounds, harmonies and melodies, the glory of the God Christ who, suffering, he offers his life for redemption [3].

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Here is the second role of singing: it is therefore a means of showing glory to God, tell him a joyful thank you for giving us redemption. It is in this sense that the Supreme Pontiff Francis also recently underlined this role in his recent one Address to the participants in the III international meeting of choirs in the Vatican the 24 November 2018, proposing the theme in a Eucharistic nuance:

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"Your music and your song are a true instrument of evangelization to the extent that you are witnesses to the depth of the Word of God that touches people's hearts, and allow a celebration of the sacraments, in particular of the Holy Eucharist, that makes you perceive the beauty of Paradise " [CF. text, WHO].

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One last thought that I propose, instead he pushes himself to focus not only on the moment and the redemptive place in which the hymn is performed, but also on who performs it. We said: Jesus together with the apostles. Each apostle performed that hymn with its own key and melody, and at the same time he performed it with all of himself, giving his best to God and thus uniting himself with God. So, with post-Pentecostal language, we will say that the apostles sanctified themselves through singing. And so do we, when we do the same.

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The third role of singing, that of being a sign of our sanctification and union with God, leads us to conclude with these words of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI :

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"In the end, the third place of origin of music is the encounter with the divine, which from the beginning is part of what defines the human. Even more so that is where there is the totally different and totally great that arouses man new ways to express themselves. Perhaps you can say that actually in the other two areas - love and death - touches us and the divine mystery, in this sense, It is being touched by God that altogether constitute the origin of music ' [CF. text, WHO].

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a group of Dominican friars in the Roman basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva

In our Dominican tradition we must never devalue or forget the importance of choral singing. Suffice it to recall the reason why the song of the Hi Regina - and the contemporary procession - by Blessed Jordan of Saxony, who succeeded the leadership of the Order of Preachers after St. Dominic of Guzmàn. Indeed, the Devil continued to torment the friars, and then they joined in the chorus Marian par excellence for themselves under the protective mantle of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is why today more than ever necessary to resume our musical and liturgical tradition. That our hearts like those who cherish the Holy Father Dominic and, from future preachers, we might as well burn the whole world with the Word of God, Celestial Harmony of parallel scenes that form the choir of the Catholic Church.

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The singing is stronger and vivid expression of the soul strings, than like a masterfully strummed guitar, he raises his agreements of love to the Lord. The symphony has its key in the Yes we say at the beginning of each of our vocational choices, while the rest of the pentagram suggests it to us Jesus himself. We, which we do instead, for our part we are out of tune instruments and out of tune voices, we do nothing but let ourselves be harpened by him. The elevation of the song then brings us to Heights of Love that until now we had never even thought of touching. When we then go back to earth, we have thus received an inestimable treasure. The higher we go with the singing voice towards God, the more we can penetrate the hearts of men with the preaching voice. It is now that we realize, with our operational charity, the mystery of the Congregating Church. The reverb, which is created when we cross the voices with two different chords as in a song for parallel fifths, it generates a sound effect that literally makes the hearts of those present at Holy Mass explode. It is the reverberation of Glory, the reverberation as a profusion of very strong affection. With the Holy Father Francis I feel instead of concluding:

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"The music, so, be an instrument of unity to make the Gospel effective in today's world, through the beauty that still fascinates and makes it possible to believe by trusting in the love of the Father " [CF. text, WHO].

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Therefore, as the beautiful Platonic image teaches present in the dialogue Ione : cultivating the liturgical musical tradition means being the rhapsodies of divine love incarnated and alive on earth. It means becoming more and more the voice of God for man.

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«sweet Jesus, Jesus love» [St. Caterina da Siena]

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Rome, 18 December 2018

III Week of Advent

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[1] Cr: 6, 16-17

[2] Mt 26:30; MC 14: 26.

[3] Catechism of the Catholic Church 1156 "The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, that excels among other art expressions, especially the fact that the sacred song, united to the words, It is necessary and integral part of the solemn liturgy " [Conc. ecum. Vat. (II), Holy Council, 112]. The composition and singing of inspired psalms, often accompanied by musical instruments, They are already closely linked to the liturgical celebrations of the Alliance. The Church continues and develops this tradition: Spend some time "to one another in psalms, inside, spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart " (Ef 5,19) [Cf Col 3,16-17]. "He who sings prays twice" [CF. St. Augustine, Commentary on Psalm, 72, 1]. We recall two other documents of the papal magisterium on the subject of music: Musicae Sacred Discipline, Pius XII - encyclical 25 December 1955. Holy music St Paul VI - Education 5 March 1967

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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:
They were IT 08 (J) 02008 32974 001436620930
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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