| |
| |
|
TRÁI TIM
MẸ: NƠI CON NƯƠNG NÁU - ĐƯỜNG ĐẾN VỚI CHÚA |
|
"Chúa Giêsu muốn dùng con để làm
cho Mẹ được nhận biết và yêu mến" |
|
November 13/2009 - Friday of 32nd Week
of Ordinary Time
LITURGICAL/THEME MEDITATION:
"One will be taken and the other left"
UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENT(S):
Disciple of Secularism Turns
Catholic, Part 1
SAINT OF THE DAY
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
GENERAL
MARIOLOGY
The
birth of Mary the Holy Mother of God,
and very
glorious Mother of Jesus Christ
DIVINE MERCY
Divine Mercy in My Soul
NOTEBOOK VI
TEACHING/TESTIMONY/CONVICTION:
Got A
Minute?
|
|
DAILY LITURGICAL MEDITATION |
|
Friday (11/13): "One will be taken and the
other left"
Scripture: Luke 17:26-37
26 As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the
Son of man. 27 They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in
marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came
and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise as it was in the days of Lot --
they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built,
29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom fire and sulphur rained
from heaven and destroyed them all -- 30 so will it be on the day when
the Son of man is revealed. 31 On that day, let him who is on the
housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away;
and likewise let him who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember
Lot's wife. 33 Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will
be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 There will
be two women grinding together; one will be taken and the other left."
37 And they said to him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the body
is, there the eagles will be gathered together."
Meditation: What can nature teach us about the return of the
Lord Jesus on the day of final judgment at the end of the world? Jesus
quoted a familiar proverb to his audience: Where the body is, there
the eagles (or vultures) will be gathered together. Eagles, like
vultures, are attracted to carrion – the carcass of dying or dead
animals. The Book of Job describes the eagle spying out its prey from
afar (Job 39:29). What's the point of this analogy? It's inevitable
that a thing will happen when the necessary conditions are fulfilled.
The return of the Lord is certain, but the time is unknown. The Lord's
judgment comes swiftly and sometimes unexpectedly. Jesus warns his
listeners to not be caught off guard when that day arrives. It will
surely come in God's good time!
What does Jesus mean when he says that one person will be taken and
another left? God judges each person individually on how they have
responded to his mercy and gracious invitation to live as citizens of
his kingdom. We cannot pass off personal responsibility to someone else,
such as a close friend, spouse, or family member. No one can discharge
his or her duty by proxy or by association with someone else. The good
news is that God gives grace and help to all who seek him with faith.
The Lord Jesus gives us his Holy Spirit so that we may have the wisdom,
help, and strength we need to turn away from sin and to embrace his way
of love and holiness. The Lord's warning of judgment is a cause for
dismay for those who are unprepared, but it brings joyful hope to those
who eagerly anticipate the Lord's return in glory.
God's judgment is good news for those who are ready to meet him.
Their reward is God himself, the source of all truth, beauty, goodness,
love and everlasting life. The people in Noah's time ignored the Lord's
warning of judgment. They missed the boat, literally! Whose boat are you
taking – the world's boat to short-lived success and happiness or God's
boat to an eternal kingdom and bliss with him? Those whose hope is
firmly anchored in heaven will not be disappointed when God's judgment
comes. They rejoice even now that they will see the Lord in his glory!
Is your hope firmly placed in God and his kingdom?
"Lord Jesus Christ, I place all my hope in you because you have
redeemed the world by your death on the cross and by your victory over
the grave. Help me to never lose sight of the goal of heaven that I may
live each day in joyful anticipation of your return in glory."
Psalm 19:1-5
1 The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament
proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;
4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the
end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a
strong man runs its course with joy.
www.dailyscripture.net
RETURN
TO TOP
|
|
UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENTS |
|
Disciple of Secularism Turns Catholic, Part 1
Vittorio Messori Speaks About His Own Conversion
By Nicolas de Cardenas ROME, NOV. 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In his latest book, the author who interviewed many people, including the last two Popes, himself becomes the subject of an inquiry, leading him to reveal his story of conversion.
Vittorio Messori, author of "The Jesus Hypothesis" (1976), is the first journalist in history to publish a book-length interview with a Pope, the best-selling "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (1994).
He also published "The Ratzinger Report" (1987), based on an interview with then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
In this interview with ZENIT, Messori talks about his latest book, "Por qué creo" [Why I Believe] (published by LibrosLibres in Spain), in which he is interviewed by Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli.
Part 2 of this interview will be published Friday.
ZENIT: At the beginning of the book, you seem very reticent to open your soul, although you have already accepted the challenge of addressing Tornielli's questions. Was it as hard as it seems for you to take on the systematic recounting of your conversion experience?
Messori: I have waited many years before responding. First, because I have written 23 books, all of religious research, but I always refused to recount my conversion.
My readers know that in my life there is a before and after. They know I wasn't born a Catholic and that I had a very anti-clerical and anti-religious education.
And they know that now I am a "Papist," an orthodox Catholic, and they are very curious to know how this happened. Why? What happened in my life?
I have passed from being anti-clerical to being a rigorous Catholic in thought, though not so much in life. Because I don't present myself as devout. I am like everyone else, a sinner who does many inconsistent things.
I have been very guarded about my inner life; I have not had the courage to talk about it.
Actually, conversion is a mystery and it is very difficult to talk about a mystery. My work is in words, I am a journalist and writer, I work with words. But it was very difficult for me to find the necessary words to talk about this mystery.
Finally, I decided to respond not only to the request of readers, but to that of this journalist, this colleague, Andrea Tornielli, who in my opinion is the best Italian Vatican expert, in addition to being a great journalist and writer.
Now I have decided for the first time to talk about it because my life is divided into two stages, passing from unbelief to faith.
ZENIT: The Spanish edition of the book "Why I Believe" has more than 350 pages, yet even with such an impressive exposition of your experience, a doubt remains. Can one truly encompass a person's mystical experience with the printed word? Is it possible to verbalize all the intellectual and moral change that a convert experiences?
Messori: This is one of the reasons why I always said no. I repeat, it is difficult to talk about mystery.
I'm not a mystic, I am not a visionary. I have always been a very pragmatic person, very concrete, very rational. However, there was a period in my life, of some two months in the summer, I don't know why, when I discovered a new dimension in which truth, which I thought did not exist in capital letters, became evident to me. It is in the Gospel.
I was a good student, I loved to study and I prepared myself not only to be a journalist but also a university professor. I had read very many books, but I had not read that small book that is the Gospel. I did not suspect that the Truth was in it.
Now I have continued to use my reason as before, but it is open to mystery. My teachers taught me to use pure reason, but I have discovered that by using it, at the end of reason one always comes to mystery.
In all my books I have sought to reason. I have not worked at preaching, spirituality, homilies. I try to help the reader to reason on faith and, at the end, to bet on the veracity of faith.
ZENIT: Although your conversion seems to be linked also to an "extraordinary event," you do not refer to it as a process of rational argumentation, or the seeking of objective reasons and historical principles for the credibility of the Church. What is your opinion of apologetics based not so much on the rationality of the faith as on individual experiences?
Messori: There is no contradiction between the two. The truth of the faith is understood by reasoning and living.
It is 40 years since my "fracture" and in that time I have reasoned and studied a lot, but above all I have lived and have found that the fruit of my reasoning made sense in a complete life.
The Gospel recounts that the disciples asked Jesus who he was. He did not give them sermons, did not offer them reasoning, he said to them: "Come, and follow me." Come with me, live with me and you will see that I am the Messiah.
Christianity is not a philosophy, it isn't an ideology. It is a meeting of two persons.
ZENIT: In the book one perceives a certain regret because of the abandonment of your former teachers, those who introduced you to the path of agnosticism. Did you feel betrayed by those who defended reason as the only possible basis, when that same rationality is the pivot of your coming to the faith?
Messori: For me faith was a surprise. I was not seeking it, I was fine. I had no religious worry.
I was satisfied with the secular and rationalist culture of my teachers. I did not wish to be a Catholic. The faith did not resolve the problems of life. On the contrary, it complicated life, because I come from a non-believing family.
I studied in a school that was more than secular, it was based in laicism. I prepared myself to be a journalist; I always had a great vocation, but [as] a journalist of political, social and economic affairs.
In my last year of university I had my life planned and I had to change the plan completely. My parents thought I had gone mad and my professors were afflicted and disappointed. They thought that "my thing" was related to a nervous depression.
How can a disciple of our secularism become a Catholic! It was very hard, because one can think at first that faith resolves all problems.
Of course I am very happy and glad to have problems, but in fact it was quite a rupture. In any case, I have had the good fortune to work for important newspapers such as "La Stampa," FIAT's newspaper, and also with "Il Corriere della Sera," always, however, writing about religious affairs, which is the opposite of what I planned in the beginning. In the end I found my place, but it was hard to change my plans completely.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[Part 2 of this interview, with a look at current events and the rationality of faith, will be published Friday.]
TURN TO TOP
|
|
DAILY LITURGICAL SAINT |
|
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay
RETURN TO TOP
|
|
GENERAL
MARIOLOGY |
|
The
birth of Mary the Holy Mother of God,
and very
glorious Mother of Jesus Christ
The Protoevangelium of James
Apocrypha
| 19. And I saw a
woman coming down from the hill-country, and she
said to me: O man, whither art thou going? And I
said: I am seeking an Hebrew midwife. And she
answered and said unto me: Art thou of Israel?
And I said to her: Yes. And she said: And who is
it that is bringing forth in the cave? And I
said: A woman betrothed to me. And she said to
me: Is she not thy wife? And I said to her: It
is Mary that was reared in the temple of the
Lord, and I obtained her by lot as my wife. And
yet she is not my wife, but has conceived of the
Holy Spirit.
And the midwife said to him: Is this true?
And Joseph said to her: Come and see. And the
midwife went away with him. And they stood in
the place of the cave, and behold a luminous
cloud overshadowed the cave. And the midwife
said: My soul has been magnified this day,
because mine eyes have seen strange things --
because salvation has been brought forth to
lsrael.
And immediately the
cloud disappeared out of the cave, and a great
light shone in the cave, so that the eyes could
not bear it. And in a little that light
gradually decreased, until the infant appeared,
and went and took the breast from His mother
Mary. And the midwife cried out, and said: This
is a great day to me, because I have seen this
strange sight. And the midwife went forth out of
the cave, and Salome met her. And she said to
her: Salome, Salome, I have a strange sight to
relate to thee: a virgin has brought forth -- a
thing which her nature admits not of. Then said
Salome: As the Lord my God liveth, unless I
thrust in my finger, and search the parts, I
will not believe that a virgin has brought
forth.
20. And the midwife
went in, and said to Mary: Show thyself; for no
small controversy has arisen about thee. And
Salome put in her finger, and cried out, and
said: Woe is me for mine iniquity and mine
unbelief, because I have tempted the living God;
and, behold, my hand is dropping off as if
burned with fire. And she bent her knees before
the Lord, saying: O God of my fathers, remember
that I am the seed of Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob; do not make a show of me to the sons of
Israel, but restore me to the poor; for Thou
knowest, O Lord, that in Thy name I have
performed my services, and that I have received
my reward at Thy hand. And, behold, an angel of
the Lord stood by her, saying to her: Salome,
Salome, the Lord hath heard thee. Put thy hand
to the infant, and carry it, and thou wilt have
safety and joy. And Salome went and carried it,
saying: I will worship Him, because a great King
has been born to lsrael. And, behold, Salome was
immediately cured, and she went forth out of the
cave justified. And behold a voice saying:
Salome, Salome, tell not the strange things thou
hast seen, until the child has come into
Jerusalem.
21. And, behold,
Joseph was ready to go into Judaea. And there
was a great commotion in Bethlehem of Judaea,
for Magi came, saying: Where is he that is born
king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in
the east, and have come to worship him. And when
Herod heard, he was much disturbed, and sent
officers to the Magi. And he sent for the
priests, and examined them, saying: How is it
written about the Christ? where is He to be
born? And they said: In Bethlehem of Judaea, for
so it is written. (1) And he sent them away. And
he examined the Magi, saying to them: What sign
have you seen in reference to the king that has
been born? And the Magi said: We have seen a
star of great size shining among these stars,
and obscuring their light, so that the stars did
not appear; and we thus knew that a king has
been born to Israel, and we have come to worship
him. And Herod said: Go and seek him; and if you
find him, let me know, in order that I also may
go and worship him. And the Magi went out. And,
behold, the star which they had seen in the east
went before them until they came to the cave,
and it stood over the top of the cave. And the
Magi saw the infant with His mother Mary; and
they brought forth from their bag gold, and
frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned
by the angel not to go into Judaea, they went
into their own country by another road. (2) |
|
RETURN TO TOP
|
|
DIVINE MERCY
|
Divine Mercy In my soul
The Mercy of the Lord I will sing Forever.
Divine Mercy in my soul.
Sr. Faustina, Diary
NOTEBOOK V I
J.M.J.
First Friday after
Corpus Christi. June 17, 1938.
Right away, on the Friday after Corpus Christi, I felt so unwell that I
thought the longed for moment, was approaching. I had a high fever and spat
up much blood during the night. Yet, I did go to receive the Lord Jesus in
the morning, but I could not stay for the Holy Mass. In the afternoon, my
temperature dropped suddenly to 35.8 C. I felt so weak that it was as if
everything inside me were dying. But when I steeped myself in profound
prayer, I understood that it was not yet the moment of deliverance, but only
a closer call from my Bridegroom.
When I met with the Lord, I said to Him, “You are fooling me, Jesus; You
show me the open gate of heaven, and again You leave me on earth.” The Lord
said to me, When, in heaven, you see these
present days, you will rejoice and will want to see as many of them as
possible. I am not surprised, My daughter, that you cannot understand this
now, because your heart is overflowing with pain and longing for Me. Your
vigilance pleases Me. Let my word be enough for you; it will not be long
now.
And my soul found itself one again in exile. I
lovingly united myself to the will of God, submitting myself to His gracious
decrees.
The conversations that I hear in this place about worldly matters make me so
tired that I nearly faint. The sisters who nurse me have noticed this,
because it shows outwardly.
Today, I saw the glory of God which flows from the image. Many souls are
receiving graces, although they do not speak of it openly. Even though it
has met up with all sorts of vicissitudes, God is receiving glory because of
it; and the efforts of satan and of evil men are shattered and come to
naught. In spite of satan’s anger, the Divine Mercy will triumph over the
whole world and will be worshipped by all souls.
I have come to know that, in order for God to act in a soul, it must give up
acting on its own; otherwise, God will not carry out His will in it.
When a great storm was approaching, I began to say the chaplet. Suddenly I
heard the voice of an angel: “I cannot
approach in this storm, because the light which comes from her mouth drives
both me and the storm.” Such was the angel’s
complaint to God. I then recognized how much havoc he was to have made
through this storm; but I also recognized that this prayer was pleasing to
God, and that this chaplet was most powerful.
I learned that a certain soul was very pleasing to God and that, in spite of
all sorts of persecutions, God was clothing this person in a new and higher
dignity. My heart greatly rejoiced in this.
The moments which are most pleasant to me are those when I converse with the
Lord within the center of my being. I try my very best not to leave Him
alone. He likes to be always with us…
O Jesus, eternal God, thank You for Your countless graces and blessings. Let
every beat of my heart be a new hymn of thanksgiving to You, O God. Let
every drop of my blood circulate for You, Lord. My soul is one hymn in
adoration of Your mercy. I love You, God, for Yourself alone.
My God, although my sufferings are great and protracted, I accept them from
Your hands as magnificent gifts. I accept them all, even the ones that other
souls have refused to accept. You can come to me with everything, my Jesus,
I will refuse You nothing. I ask You for only one thing: give me the
strength to endure them and grant that they may be meritorious. Here is my
whole being; do with me as You please.
Today, I saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the sky, in the midst of a great
brilliance. The rays were issuing from the Wound in His side, and spreading
out over the entire world.
Today, the Lord came to me and said, My daughter, help Me to save souls. You
will go to a dying sinner, and you will continue to recite the chaplet, and
in this way you will obtain for him trust in My mercy, for he is already in
despair.
Suddenly, I found myself in a strange cottage where an elderly man was dying
amidst great torments. All about the bed was a multitude of demons and the
family, who were crying. When I began to pray, the spirits of darkness fled,
with hissing and threats directed at me. The soul became calm and, filled
with trust, rested in the Lord. At the same moment, I found myself again in
my own room. How this happens… I do not know.
RETURN TO TOP
|
|
CATHOLIC TEACHING/CONVICTION/TESTIMONY |
|
| Fr. DaoKim Nguyen
Here are interesting facts:
God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So if you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
If you can't trace His hand, trust His heart
Would you consider abortion in the following 4
situations:
1. There's a preacher and wife who are very, very,
poor. They already have 14 kids. Now she finds out she's
pregnant with 15th. They're living in tremendous
poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive
world population, would you consider recommending she
get an abortion?
2. The father is sick with sniffles, the mother has
TB. They have 4 children. 1st is blind, 2nd is dead, 3rd
is deaf, 4th has TB. She finds she's pregnant again.
Given the extreme situation, would you consider
recommending abortion?
3. A white man raped a 13 year old black girl and she
go pregnant. If you were her parents, would you consider
recommending abortion?
4. A teenage girl is pregnant, She's not married. Her
fiance is not the father of the baby, and he's very
upset. Would you consider recommending abortion?
If you do recommend abortion in any of these cases:
1. In the first situation, you just killed John
Wesley. One of the great evangelists in the 19th
century.
2. In the second case, you killed Beethoven.
3. In the third case, you killed Ethel Waters, the
great black gospel singer.
4. And in the fourth, you just killed Jesus Christ.
Miracles do happen! And they do your body good...
|
|
RETURN TO TOP
|
|
Monthly Index
General Archive
2008
General Archive
2007
General Archive
2006
General Archive 2005
General Archive 2004 |
|
|
|
Hits since 3/16/2004
Màn điện
toán toàn cầu của Thiếu Nhi Fatima được bắt đầu với trang Main từ ngày
9/12/1999,
nhưng
mãi tới Mùa Hè 2001 mới tạm xong,
cuối
cùng đã được chỉnh trang về cả hình thức lẫn nội dung từ mùa hè năm
2002,
để rồi
chính thức tái ra mắt vào ngày 25/3/2003 cho đến nay.
TNFatima.org
do
Thiếu Nhi Fatima
chủ trương và thực hiện
Mọi ý kiến
đóng góp xin gửi về
Webmaster
|
|
|
|
|