L'Angolo di Girolamo Savonarola: Catholic homiletics in lean times

- homiletics -

BY HANG painful CROSS-DRESS THE POLITICALLY CORRECT, TO THE SALVIFIC MYSTERY OF THE VERB OF GOD MADE MAN FOR THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD THAT TODAY RETURNS TO THE ABYSS

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… and today, this terrible worldly vanity that aims to please the World, emptied the mystery of the Word of God made man, to fill it with another: of Boat Migrants, rescue donuts, or life jackets attached to the cross of Christ. It is the emblem of the worst sloppiness of contemporary visible Church: the reduced cross-dress to hang, before jubilant chorus of people who do not even enter our churches for Christmas and for Easter, but applaud revelers before our self-destruction, while the poor bride of Christ is drowning, not in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, He is drowning in ridicule, the grotesque of sloppiness, no one cares to throw even a miserable lifeline, perhaps because guilty of not being Muslim, so that it can also easily drown, under the applause of a world that hates more and more all that is truly and authentically Christian.

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Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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The boy is born, Alleluia !

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For centuries, on the cross, the only thing that the Christian tradition has hung, it was only the shroud of Christ God

The light shines in the darkness. The light shines in the darkness, is the light of the Incarnate Word narrated in the poetics of this monumental prologue to the Gospel of John [see text of the Liturgy of the Word, WHO]. We are wishing we could add: The light shines in darkness, especially in this world of ours in which we must be animated by the Christian and active hope, while we are subjected to the greatest, difficult and fearsome of all tests: the great test of faith.

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For several years we viewers silent and powerless protagonists of radical changes generated by a condition of great crisis that invests worldwide morals, ethics, politics, the economy, the ecclesiastical and ecclesial communities of the moral and ethical crisis is likely to be a paradigm. And in this situation of crisis and decay, we should welcome the light that breaks into the darkness through the incarnation of God's Word, welcome it as our principle and ultimate end.

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The Word has been announced in times of pain by words, love and hope of the prophets; by the voice of John the Baptist, the dawn of His intervention in human history raised his voice from the wilderness to break the human spirit deserts. The Word is living and enduring word, but it is also silent, because in our worldly noise that devours everything indifference to better swallow us in the Great Nothing, the Word is silent to the extent that man does not grant her eternal love no room to dwell among us, even a makeshift hotel; even a manger in which lie inside a barn.

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To prove the Word It needs that sweet spot that is silence, in order to manifest and communicate to the man who is the object of his love and loved his subject.

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The ancient Israelites They were so intimidated by the Hebrew tetragrammaton which composed the name of God, that no one should dare to pronounce it, only the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, closed in Holy of Holies the Temple of Jerusalem, head bowed his head covered, after long purified pronounced it softly once a year for Yom Kippur, For the great day of atonement.

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We learn to regard Christmas as the ineffable name of God, because during this festival the Word of God incarnate in a man and comes to live among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, opening our horizons to the mystery of the true God and true man. So Let us flee from the great curse of Christmas profaned, the Word emptied and filled with another, in a proliferation of cribs constructed by Supreme Politically Correct on barges and rescue donuts, with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Blessed Patriarch Joseph put on a lifebelt. Riappropriamoci the Mystery of Christmas, as the irruption of God in the flesh in human history, through this Jesus whom we adore in the manger in Bethlehem where all of humanity has been reborn and is called to be reborn, to reach its peak with the torn stone of the empty tomb of Christ, by which all mankind is resurrected and is called to rise again. Let us adore the Eucharist, his memorial holy and living, gift of his real presence among us, our support and our food of eternal life. Let us adore, because he alone is the beginning, the Centre and the ultimate goal of our entire humanism. Only then can we open the doors of the heart to express in a relevant and coherent: Merry Christmas ... Christmas of God who became like us to invite us to make us like Him, in Him and for Him.

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In moments of silence of this sacred liturgy, prostrating during the Eucharistic Prayer on the words of the Last Supper that will make the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ alive, we try to grasp the mystery and intimate become Parties, aware that silent incarnates the Word and silence the Word speaks. Prostrate on the ground with knees, because "in the name of Jesus every knee should bow" [Fil 2, 10]. We do not mourn as those before the Body and Blood of Christ alive have hip problems, but it works wonders to kneel with athletic shooting before the new "truth of faith", or the new "dogma of the migrant" to which rinse your feet before the regime journalists who applaud the "new church" of the "epoch-making revolution", imprinted on the "mercy" which grants the grace of the guillotine to anyone who dares to utter a legitimate, respectful and quiet sigh of disapproval of everything that can be objectively wrong and misleading.

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The Jesus of history, that with Christmas enters our human experience in the flesh, it is not even a tender symbol to use and human and commercial consumption of different traditions or family, is the supreme mystery of God made man in Jesus through the mystery begins his earthly path laid in the manger in a stable and laid terminating it on the wood of a cross, to explode shortly after as the Christ of faith spilling the stone from the tomb, making us all by vocation in his resurrection.

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To this we are called through the Christian experience: to incarnate, to live, to die and rise again in Christ, for God has come to be like us so that we, projected in the mystery of His grace, There we did like him.

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This is the deposit of our faith, the rest is just modern paganism, new idolatry targeted at will and please the world's increasingly anti-Christ-to which we should try in every way not to please. And we, called to serve and assist the people of God as priests, we have to fight both the new paganism is the world increasingly anti-Christic, bringing in a loving and decided the true ad through the gospel ministry true, which is certainly not the neurotic-obsessive ministry today poor or refugee real or perceived, but Christological reality of life lived. We can not postpone, nor worse justify certain deviations as expressions of faith, indeed we are supposed to call them by their real name: poison the faith.

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In any page of the Gospel is it written that you have to please the whims and vices of the world, or worse remain silent on the serious sins, because the Word of God became incarnate to become a sacrificial lamb then washing with the blood of his sacrifice on the cross the sin of the world, but especially after having notified:

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"If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you " [GV 15, 18-19].

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What terrible judgment and deserved punishment, many of us pastors in charge of souls will receive from the Divine Judge, to have left in the meal paganites the people that God has entrusted to us, to be gone hand in hand with Démoni, to have invited and welcomed the wolf into the sheepfold and beaten at the same time the sheep who dared shout: "Beware of the Wolf!». Because even in this we were advised:

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"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter
the sheep of my pasture!!», says the Lord.
Therefore thus speaks the Lord, God of Israel,
concerning the shepherds who feed my people:
"You have scattered my flock, and you are driven them away,
and you have not visited them care;
there, I will punish, for the evil of your doings »,
says the Lord.
"I will gather the remnant of my flock
from all countries whither I have driven,
I will bring them back to their folds,
they shall be fruitful and multiply.
I will set up over them shepherds who shall feed the flock,
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed,
I shall not lack any ", says the Lord [Gives 23, 1-4].

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It's still:

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"Prophet and priest are profane,
in my house I have found their wickedness ",
says the Lord .
"Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness;
they shall be driven and fall;
for I will bring upon them a calamity,
the year of their visitation ", says the Lord [Gives 23, 11-12].

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All it sealed by the words of Christ that God warns:

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"To whom much is given, much will be asked for; to whom men have committed much, It will ask the more " [LC 12, 48].

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Needless to remember, although the face: us his priests, God has entrusted what was most precious: He has entrusted us to care, custody and pastoral care of his flock, His Holy People.

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The Gospel of the Blessed Luca Evangelista proclaimed a few days ago at the Mass of the Holy Night, recounts in a few words with the event of the birth the way chosen by God to be the Jesus of history. Following the words of this passage we could speak of the divine modesty of God that comes to light and which manifests itself to men who were waiting for the Messiah, the Saviour, almost as if he wanted to hide in the very act in which manifested itself. It is an aspect that leads us to reflect on the increasingly open challenges of his divine intentions, of his divine pedagogy.

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Perhaps the Lord, in front of his visible revelation, physical body and, He wanted to invite people to not feel exempt from having to search for it, like the shepherds who come, like the Magi who follow the light of a star come to bring precious gifts, without any fear of offending the future “Idolatry of the poor”. Perhaps, the Sir, the Savior born in a stable, He wanted this our pursuit of his eternal being and his becoming among us, We oblige us to bend our self-centeredness on the way of humility, which it is certainly not a neck twisted pose, but the true dignity of being true Christians.

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To contemplate the humility of God Incarnate lying in bands inside the manger in a stable is an invitation to penetrate the true and profound sense of Christian virtue which is the authentic humility, Our road to fix the main obstacle that stands in the way to our true encounter with Christ the Savior: pride that keeps us from a relationship with him and a relationship with others. And pride can be cured only by starting from the divine humility of the baby Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem, to follow him along the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha, Finally rise with the Christ of faith that made him say in Sao Paulo: "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" [Gal 2, 20].

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God is born hidden and sometimes hides so that man can look through the free and liberating instinct to love that when it is perfect casts out all fear, as he taught by the Blessed John the Apostle in another passage of his Gospel [CF. GV 4, 18]. Because God never hides behind the great things that so often fascinate us, but behind the small details that often leave us totally indifferent; God do not find it and not meet him, in what the world like, but in all that the world hates and rejects.

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The way in which we can seek and find God hidden in a barn, reminds one of the greatest converts in the history, that with his experience he invites us all to conversion. This teacher is Aurelio Thagaste, better known as St. Augustine Bishop of Hippo, who later became a saint and Doctor of the Church: «Love petitur, love quaèritur, love pulsàtur, love revelàtur …"With love wonders, with love trying, with love knocks, with love is revealed.

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Only in this way we can get into real stable in Bethlehem, which it is the stable of the faith and the divine mystery; then understand something of Christmas; for living Christmas in faith in Jesus Christ our God, Lord and Savior. The rest - as he said back in the sixteenth century the great teacher of St. Philip Blacks taking inspiration from the Book of Ecclesiastes - it's just vanity, nothing but vanity of vanities [cf. q 1,2]. And today, this terrible worldly vanity that aims to please the World, emptied the mystery of the Word of God made man, to fill it with another: of Boat Migrants, rescue donuts, or life jackets attached to the cross of Christ. It is the emblem of the worst sloppiness of contemporary visible Church: the reduced cross-dress to hang, before jubilant chorus of people who do not even enter our churches for Christmas and for Easter, but applaud revelers to our self-destruction, while the poor bride of Christ is drowning, not in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, He is drowning in ridicule, the grotesque of sloppiness, no one cares to throw even a miserable lifeline, perhaps because guilty of not being Muslim, so that it can also easily drown, under the applause of a world that hates more and more all that is truly and authentically Christian. And we, unworthy priests, Today we are genuflecting to the world as miserable prostitutes before the customer, of this we are drowning makers. And what we will have to give an account to the Word of God that severe remind us:

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"To whom much is given, much will be asked for; to whom men have committed much, It will ask the more " [LC 12, 48].

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The man made, alleluia!

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the Island of Patmos, 25 December 2019

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Dear Readers,

in December he joined distributing my new book Nada s security, a work of spirituality on the martyrdom written in the form of the historical novel set in an era of fierce persecution of the Church. I think that might edify and help many people, especially at this time. I therefore invite you to buy at our store [see WHO] but above all to read.

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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

- homiletics -

THE KING OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND THE KING OF THE CROSS CHRIST KING OF THE UNIVERSE

Just because he gave himself totally, Jesus can bring the thief in Paradise, in his kingdom. And so, event of the crucifixion, can lead each of us to Heaven; we reflect that originally we received our life for an act of free donation and free of God. And even the freedom from sin there is always freely given and freely on the cross. So from now on we can also partake of Jesus' kingship.

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

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Dear brothers and sisters,

The Lord of the Rings: "The Return of the King"

recently it has been translated again the splendid work of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. For us younger, between the various stories he is impressed The Return of the King, third book of the trilogy in which the intrepid Aragorn Strider, After the stunning final victory against Sauron - ring destruction by Frodo - he is crowned King of Gondor. The story of Aragorn reminds us of an enchanted kingdom, but where the good has definitely won over evil and death. So there is this king who, after a series of adventures is finally crowned and glorified.

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The Feast of Christ the King of the Universe Today the universal Church celebrates, It is first and foremost the Lord, then it affects all of us. We read in the first reading from the Old Testament Book of II Samuel:

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"And it went all the elders of Israel to the king to Hebron, King David a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king of Israel! ".

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The people of Israel formed an alliance with the Lord, earlier, He had told David to shepherd his people. From historical books we know that King David is an important time, but with many weaknesses and falls, even very serious. This is reminiscent of how well we are weak, despite the great faith we have in the Lord. But this should not make us sad or hopeless. In fact, the Lord Jesus Himself, It takes our strength, weakness and fragility and unites Him. In doing so elevates. He therefore added to his throne, which it is the cross, tell us how the words of the Gospel of St. Luke:

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"The thief said: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom ". She answered him: "Verily I say unto thee: Today will be with me in Paradise ' ".

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The repentant thief recognizes the royalty of Jesus. The kingship was just to sit on the tree, and from there it was made king: because it lowered, while remaining God, in a total gift to us.

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Just because he gave himself totally, Jesus can bring the thief in Paradise, in his kingdom. And so, event of the crucifixion, can lead each of us to Heaven. We reflect: originally we received our life for an act of free donation and free of God. And even the freedom from sin there is always freely given and freely on the cross. So from now on we can also partake of Jesus' kingship.

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We are already baptized with the children in the Son, ie children of God. Now we can become rulers in the only King. St. Paul the Apostle tells us something about this in the hymn of Colossians:

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"Brothers, give thanks to the Father who has made you able to share in the inheritance of the saints in light ".

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This the inheritance of the saints, It implies that in Christ we become kings with Him. This happens every time we give ourselves totally to God and neighbor. When I say I think next donation to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. It is a donation merciful, which does not claim a gain monetary or moral. We accomplish work towards a poor in spirit, and the Lord gives us his joy and his love as only reward. And then really we enjoy God's kingdom.

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He wrote the French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion:

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"Love is not given if not abandoning, continually transgressing the limits of his gift, until transplanted beside himself ".

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Lord help us to get out of the selfish ego sores and trapiantarci in your tender and loving neglect to give you to you, high eternal Trinity.

Amen.

Rome, 24 November 2019

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«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

- homiletics -

SURVIVORS FROM THE CATASTROPHIC CINEMA IN CHRIST WILL NOT END UNITED

do not fidget, or let's take it from various anxieties, we are not Preppers O Survivalisti, are believers of Christ. We live so serenely our work and our daily lives, firm and steadfast in the faith, and really even the greatest difficulty we will face them certain of the presence of Jesus.

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

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Dear brothers and sisters,

The survivors (Survivors) British television series of post-apocalyptic setting produced by the BBC in 1975. The plot is based on a scenario in which the whole world has been hit by an epidemic caused by a deadly virus, which it is just escaped the 1% of the world population.

in the last century it has emerged in the United States the movement of Preppers O Survivalisti. This movement brings together people firmly convinced of an imminent irreversible catastrophe economic, war or environmental: so they are prepared to survive the worst living conditions; They are preparing for the "end of the" known world, for example anti building atomic shelters at home, making a perpetual collection of foodstuffs or imposing a regime of frugality. I preppers prepare for the worst, to a time of the end according to a human mentality.

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We must prepare all at a time when this period will end: but we must do it with the joy of the beginning. We have to prepare the final encounter with Jesus, knowing that he is the beginning of the meeting.

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The readings for this Sunday XXXIII Ordinary Time [see Liturgy of the Word, WHO] today offer us this perspective, from the Book of Malachi in which we read:

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"He's coming, burning like an oven. All the proud and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble:; that day, coming, burn them until they left them neither root nor branch. For you, you have fear of my name, it will rise with healing rays the sun of justice ".

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The prophet Malachi stands proud and arrogant by God-fearing, that is, those who live with a devout faith and true. For the first, when the day of the Lord, there will be more chances of conversion and return back. This is to Malachy is a call to the unjust to the review of their lives. God takes seriously our conduct: if we turn away from Him by sinning, do not force anyone to repent; freely instead it helps us get back on our friendship with him. So let's think about what are the sins that often repeat, and that they have become so routine that not even realize that we make.

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To come therefore with a living faith and true, this attention is needed. In fact we will be trying times of our faith and our life. In today's Gospel we read:

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"They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, […] because of my name. You will then have opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to prepare your defense; I will give you a mouth and wisdom, so that all your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict ".

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The consistency until the end the Catholic faith requires, for the same teaching of Jesus, persecution and slander. But the Lord will not leave us alone, quite the opposite: give us a word - stoma - a language that is able to respond to false accusations. At the same time it gives us the gift of wisdom, with which we will grasp where the error is being proposed as absolute truth by our persecutors. So with the word and wisdom of Jesus, we can reach the Meeting with Him with great strength and personality.

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St. Paul offers us one last tip on how to live this time of waiting:

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"We hear that some among you are living a disorderly life, without doing anything and always in turmoil. Such people, urge in the Lord Jesus Christ, we order to earn their living by working quietly ".

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So we do not fidget, or let's take it from various anxieties, we are not Preppers O Survivalisti, are believers of Christ. We live so serenely our work and our daily lives, firm and steadfast in the faith, and really even the greatest difficulty we will face them certain of the presence of Jesus.

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He wrote W. Goethe:

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"How to reach a goal? Without haste, but without pause ".

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May the Lord grant us the tenacity to walk without stopping toward the ultimate goal, and so, together with those who love find ourselves in Paradise, to live the Sunday without end in the embrace Trinitarian.

Amen.

Rome, 17 November 2019

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Visit our store page WHO. Support our editions by purchasing our books

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News from the Dominican Province Roman: visit the official website of the Dominicans, 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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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

FROM JUSTICE TO YIELD Betrothed, RIGHT TO REVOLT PRAYER TO GOD THE FATHER

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"The publican smote upon his breast, saying,: "Hate, have mercy on me a sinner ". I tell you: these, unlike the other [Pharisee], He went down to his house justified, For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, those who humble themselves will be exalted " [LC 18,14].

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

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Dear brothers and sisters,

The unforgettable and lamented Anna Marchesini [1953-2016] with the companions of trio Solenghi-Marchesini-Lopez, In a famous edition of satirical The Betrothed from the 1980s [click on image to open the video]

I remember with great affection and joy of one of the secondary characters The Betrothed. Agnese, Lucia's mother Mondella, which encourages Lucia and Renzo want to tie the wedding through the expedient of surprise wedding. With this humble advice and, in spite of everything, full of wisdom, Agnes tries to do justice to the betrothed and to God's plan, acting in this sense an example of humility and devotion.

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We now try to grasp the humility of prayer in the readings of this XXX Sunday of Ordinary Time [see Liturgy of the Word, WHO]. In the first reading from the Old Testament we read:

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"The Lord is judge, and there is no respect of persons for him. There is partial to the detriment of the poor and listen to the plea of ​​' [SR 35,15].

The author of the book of wisdom He turns to the Jewish People, trying to break a mindset and religious formalism of an era in which some thought that the poor and oppressed will be reduced in this state for some misconduct, for example pride. The concept that if one is poor, Because of this it is for itself, we find him in some thought Calvinist, especially that he developed in the liberalist society of the United States of America in the seventeenth century. An entirely different view Siracide that says the opposite: the poor are heard instead. Just because he is unable to raise to God a word of fidelity with a great poverty of heart. So you know how to pray in the most authentic way.

Let's also think about the way we pray. If we are too formal or repeat unenthusiastically, We ask the Lord to help us instead to live prayer with greater depth and authenticity.

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In the second reading we find the nearness of the Lord for those who pray in a more authentic and with an act of abandonment to him:

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"In my first defense no one took my; all deserted me […] But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength " [2TM 4, 16].

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St. Paul reminds the strength and closeness of God in the hardest moments, and more depressive of his Christian and preacher of Jesus Christ. Put on trial for blasphemy by the Jews and then by the Romans for having disobeyed the command not to proclaim the mystery of the Risen Jesus, Paul reminds Timothy that the abandonment to God was the case with an act of humility. This humility allowed him to feel the proximity and strength of the Lord. Of this it gives us the greatest teaching Jesus in the Gospel of St. Luke where we read:

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"The publican smote upon his breast, saying,: "Hate, have mercy on me a sinner ". I tell you: these, unlike the other [Pharisee], He went down to his house justified, For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, those who humble themselves will be exalted " [LC 18,14].

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If you compare the two prayers, both they turn to God. In the case of the Pharisee, he performs a ritual prayer and perfect liturgically, thanking God not to be like the publican. There is a kind of contempt that is expressed, so not so hidden, towards the publish. This prayer, stylistically perfect, It is absolute useless from the point of view of content. Because the Pharisee does not know how to get those seeds of good that the Lord has put in publishing, beyond the injustices they may have actually done. But the tax is a sinner. It does not compare to others; It does not offer a perfect ritual prayer. Only small words, lowly, but full of meaning. That's why, says Jesus, the tax will be exalted. Because it offers the little that has, his being fragile and sinful man, to the Sir. And in this true and authentic offer the Lord can do great things.

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This is an invitation for us not too much focus on ourselves: to thank the Lord for the talents and the gifts received, but how humus fertile, We humbly offer them to God. And in this offer us, God will exalt. We make its sacred ferment where blossoming of joy.

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He wrote the Italian writer and patriot Niccolò Tommaseo:

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"Who wants to look at himself in clear water, It agrees that is bent. Without humility do not know the pure souls ».

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May the Lord grant the humility to bend down on his mysteries and the people who sent us, to be clear mirrors of his Trinitarian love.

Amen.

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Rome, 27 October 2019

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It is being distributed Arianism. The new book of Editions The island of Patmos. visit our shop page WHO. Support our editions by purchasing our books

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News from the Dominican Province Roman: visit the official website of the Dominicans, 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
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:

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
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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

GOLDEN CALVES OF OUR MODERN SOCIETY, FROM THE TIME regressed Neopaganism

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The media and fashions They tend to build the image of people without flaws, impeccable. The error? It happens simply an oversight, an incident in the person "perfect". Just listen to a newscast But back to reality, for example listening to the news of the crime, before which, this purity and perfection, It ends overturned.

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

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Dear brothers and sisters,

Marc Chagall, etching: The Golden Calf

we all make mistakes and sins. The abstract ideal of absolute perfection achieved on this earth is unreal and we can snatch it from head, It would be enough to remind ourselves that we have inherited a corrupt nature by original sin.

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The media The mode They tend to create images of people without flaws, impeccable. The error? It's just an oversight, an accident in the person "perfect". But just listen to a newscast back to reality, for example, reports of crime; and this image of purity and perfection, It ends overturned.

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In today's readings [see Liturgy of the word, This XXIV Sunday in Ordinary Time, WHO] we can have a Catholic perspective on our sinfulness, repented and forgiven by God, Eternal Father through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Starting from reading the Old Testament that contains the admonition:

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"We ', get off, for your people, […] They have made them a molten calf, then they have worshiped, they offered sacrifices " [Is, 32,7-11.13-14].

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Prostrate in front of a statue of molten metal it is very significant, because for the People of Israel it is tantamount to giving enormous importance to material things. At the same time this also implies the hide under a metal protection: ie seek protection in their beliefs, in human certainties. It is a typical error even nowadays, a sin by which we prevent that God is more important, unable to perceive and welcome the Eternal God and transcendent as it offers us protection.

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As a totally opposite experience instead San Paolo, when he writes to his beloved disciple Timothy:

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"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, the first of which I am " [1 TM 1,12-17]

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St. Paul acknowledges that he needs Jesus: He recognizes fragile sinner, no other defense but God Himself. Symbolically, we could say that prostrates himself before gold: It is placed under the maximum protection that is God. Moreover, He is having received mercy for his sins, It is able to transmit this mercy.

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Let's also think about this: when we get mercy, then we become instruments of mercy truthful, because we have pioneered a great love.

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In the long version of the Lucan Gospel, this great love there is described by the parable of the prodigal son. The final step, that of the return home of the young reckless, shows this scene:

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"Suo father Vide, had compassion, He ran to meet, and he fell on his neck and kissed him " [LC 15,1-32].

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A parable describing images with what happens every time we present ourselves to the confessional to ask forgiveness of our sins. The Eternal Father has indeed compassion, tenderness [the greek viscera] the human condition of lost children, but eager to so much love. For this meeting the running and throwing the neck are images that recall the idea of ​​the cancellation of our sins absolution: when in fact we absolved, Jesus the Priest runs towards us and frees us from the burden of sin, a kind of yoke on the neck. So we are ready to resume the life of holiness: the Holy Spirit puts us like a kiss on the heart, When we comply penance we are asked to do, as a small satisfaction for sins committed and who gives us spiritual healing.

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For us, the staff and the other salvation, it happens every time we confess to God and let all our sins, it is a journey we make with the whole Church. A community path, which it has the most beautiful expression of communion with God and with each other. The human feeling that accompanies us in our moments of redemption, It is the joy. A real encounter with Jesus rarely does not lead to joy. He wrote Jerome David Salinger:

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"The most striking difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy is a liquid" (Nine stories, 1953).

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We ask the Lord to grant us happiness in the solidity of his Bread of eternal life and joy in the liquid of the Salvation Wine.

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Amen.

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Rome, 14 September 2019

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