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TRÁI TIM
MẸ: NƠI CON NƯƠNG NÁU - ĐƯỜNG ĐẾN VỚI CHÚA |
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"Chúa Giêsu muốn dùng con để làm
cho Mẹ được nhận biết và yêu mến" |
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October 25/2009 - 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
LITURGICAL/THEME MEDITATION:
"Your faith has made you well"
UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENT(S):
Orthodox-Catholic Commission
Studies Primacy of Peter
SAINT OF THE DAY
St. Antônio de Sant’Anna Galvão
GENERAL
MARIOLOGY
Book Six - Chapter V
JESUS BROUGHT BEFORE ANNAS AND
CAIPHAS
DIVINE MERCY
Divine Mercy in My Soul
NOTEBOOK VI
TEACHING/TESTIMONY/CONVICTION:
A Letter of
A "Pro-Choice" Mother
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DAILY LITURGICAL MEDITATION |
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Sunday (10/25): "Your faith has made you well"
Scripture: Mark 10:46-52
46 And they came to Jericho; and as he was leaving Jericho with his
disciples and a great multitude, Bartimae'us, a blind beggar, the son of
Timae'us, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David,
have mercy on me!" 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent;
but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49 And
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man,
saying to him, "Take heart; rise, he is calling you." 50 And throwing
off his mantle he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him,
"What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him,
"Master, let me receive my sight." 52 And Jesus said to him, "Go your
way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his
sight and followed him on the way.
Meditation: Have you ever encountered a once in a life-time
opportunity you knew you could not pass up? Such a moment came for a
blind and destitute man, named Bartimaeus. He was determined to get near
the one person who could meet his need. He knew who Jesus was and had
heard of his fame for healing, but until now had no means of making
contact with the Son of David, a clear reference and title for
the Messiah. It took a lot of "guts" and persistence for Bartimaeus to
get the attention of Jesus over the din of a noisy throng who crowded
around Jesus as he made his way out of town. Why was the crowd annoyed
with the blind man's persistent shouts? He was disturbing their peace
and interrupting Jesus' discourse. It was common for a rabbi to teach as
he walked with others. Jesus was on his way to celebrate the Passover in
Jerusalem and a band of pilgrims followed him. When the crowd tried to
silence the blind man he overpowered them with his emotional outburst
and thus caught the attention of Jesus.
This incident reveals something important about how God interacts
with us. The blind man was determined to get Jesus' attention and he was
persistent in the face of opposition. Jesus could have ignored or
rebuffed him because he was disturbing his talk and his audience. Jesus
showed that acting was more important than talking. This man was in
desperate need and Jesus was ready, not only to empathize with his
suffering, but to relieve it as well. A great speaker can command
attention and respect, but a man or woman with a helping hand and a big
heart is loved more. Jesus commends Bartimaeus for recognizing who he is
with the eyes of faith and grants him physical sight as well.
Clement of Alexandria, a 5th century church father, comments on
Bartimaeus' faith with an exhortation that we, too, should put our faith
in the light of Christ's word:
The commandment of the Lord shines clearly, enlightening the eyes.
Receive Christ, receive power to see, receive your light, that you
may plainly recognize both God and man. More delightful than gold
and precious stones, more desirable than honey and the honeycomb is
the Word that has enlightened us.[Cf. Psalm 19:10) How could he not
be desirable, who illumined minds buried in darkness, and endowed
with clear vision “the light-bearing eyes” of the soul? … Sing his
praises, then, Lord, and make known to me your Father, who is God.
Your Word will save me, your song instruct me. I have gone astray in
my search for God; but now that you light my path, Lord, I find God
through you, and receive the Father from you, I become co-heir with
you, since you were not ashamed to own me as your brother. Let us,
then, shake off forgetfulness of truth, shake off the mist of
ignorance and darkness that dims our eyes, and contemplate the true
God, after first raising this song of praise to him: “All hail, O
light!” For upon us buried in darkness, imprisoned in the shadow of
death, a heavenly light has shone, a light of a clarity surpassing
the sun’s, and of a sweetness exceeding any this earthly life can
offer. [Exhortation to the Greeks 11]
Do you recognize your need for God's healing grace and light, and do you
seek Jesus out, like Bartimaeus did, with persistent faith and trust in
his goodness and mercy?
"Lord Jesus, remove from me the darkness of sin and unbelief and give
me eyes of faith to recognize the truth of your word and your saving
presence in my life."
Psalm 126:1-6
1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who
dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of
joy; then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things
for them."
3 The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad.
4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb!
5 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy!
6 He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come
home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
www.dailyscripture.net
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UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENTS |
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Orthodox-Catholic Commission Studies Primacy of Peter
Concludes 11th Plenary Session in Paphos
By Jesús Colina
PAPHOS, Cyprus, OCT. 23, 2009 ( Zenit.org).- The International Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church has progressed in its reflection on the role of the bishop of Rome.
The commission issued a joint communiqué reporting on its progress at the end of its 11th plenary session, ended today in Paphos. The document in question is titled "The Role of the Bishop of Rome in the Communion of the Church in the First Millennium."
The document is based on a draft prepared by an Orthodox-Catholic committee, which met in Crete last year. At present, the commission is reflecting on the role of the Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church in the first millennium -- before the Great Schism of 1054.
The current work of the commission responds to the appeal made by Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical "Ut Unum Sint" on the "ecumenical commitment," in which he proposed "finding a way to exercise the primacy that, without giving up in any way what is essential to its mission, opens to a new situation."
This is possible, he added, as "for a millennium Christians were united by the fraternal communion of faith and sacramental life, the See of Rome being, by common consent, the moderator when disagreements arose among them on matters of faith or discipline."
John Paul II himself invited both sides to seek "naturally together, the ways with which this ministry can carry out a service of faith and love recognized by one another."
Still working
"During this plenary meeting, the Commission analyzed with great care and amended the draft of the Mixed Coordination Committee, and decided to complete its work on the text next year, calling a new meeting of the Mixed Commission," the communiqué reported.
The meeting was attended by 20 Catholic members; all Orthodox Churches were represented, with the exception of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria.
The commission worked under the guidance of two co-presidents: the Catholic representative was Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; and the Orthodox representative was Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas of Pergamum.
On Saturday, the co-presidents and other participants, among whom was Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, were received in the presidential palace by Demitris Christofias, president of Cyprus, who placed his hope "in this important dialogue for a world still divided."
The president "expressed his best wishes for progress in communion between the two Churches in the future," the communiqué reported.
Protests of radical Orthodox opposed to dialogue with the Catholic Church interrupted the work of the weeklong meeting. The country's police arrested four citizens and two monks of the monastery of Stavrovunio, confirmed Amen.gr.
The Orthodox representatives called the protests "totally unjustifiable and unacceptable, as they present false information which creates confusion," the communiqué stated. "All the Orthodox members of the commission re-affirmed that the dialogue continues with the decision of all the Orthodox Churches and advances with fidelity to the truth and to the Tradition of the Church."
The mixed commission was established by John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in Istanbul on Nov. 30, 1979, on the feast of St. Andrew (Patron of the Church of Constantinople).
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DAILY LITURGICAL SAINT |
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http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay
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GENERAL
MARIOLOGY |
THE DIVINE HISTORY AND
LIFE
OF THE
VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD
BOOK SIX
The Marriage
at Cana; How Most Holy Mary Accompanied the Re-
deemer of the
World in His Preaching: the Humility shown by the
Heavenly Queen
in regard to the Miracles Wrought by Her
Divine Son;The
Transfiguration of the Lord;His Entrance
into
Jerusalem; His Passion and Death; His Triumph
over Lucifer
and his Demons by His Death on
the Cross; the
Most Sacred Resurrection
of the Savior
and His Wonderful As-
cension into
Heaven
CHAPTER V.
JESUS BROUGHT BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN.
My daughter, to great deeds art thou called and on
account of the divine enlightenment thou receivest concerning the
mysteries of the sufferings of my most holy Son and of myself for the
human race, and on account of the knowledge which thou hast obtained
concerning the small return made by heartless and ungrateful men for all
our pains. Thou livest yet in mortal flesh and art thyself subject to
this ignorance and weakness; but by the force of truth thou art now
roused to great wonder, sorrow and compassion at the want of attention
displayed by mortals toward these great sacraments and at the losses
sustained by them through their lukewarmness and negligence. What then
are the thoughts of the angels and saints, and what are my thoughts in
beholding this world and all the faithful in such a dangerous and
dreadful state of carelessness, when they have the Passion and Death of
my divine Son before their eyes, and when they have me, for their Mother
and Intercessor and his most pure life and mine for an example? I tell
thee truly, my dearest, only my intercession and the merits of his Son,
which I offer to the eternal Father, can delay the punishment and
placate his wrath, can retard the destruction of the world and the
severe chastisement of the children of the Church, who know his will and
fail to fulfill it (John 15, 15). But I am much incensed to find so few
who condole with me and try to console my Son in his sorrows, as David
says (Ps. 68, 21). This hardness of heart will cause great confusion to
them on the day of judgment; since they will then see with irreparable
sorrow, not only that they were ungrateful, but inhuman and cruel toward
my divine Son, toward me and toward themselves.
Consider then thy duty, my dearest, and raise thyself
above all earthly things and above thyself; for I am calling thee
and choose thee to imitate and follow me into the solitude, in which I
am left by creatures, whom my Son and I have pursued with so many
blessings and favors. Weigh in thy heart, how much it cost my Lord to
reconcile mankind to the eternal Father (Colos. 1, 22) and regain for
them his friendship. Weep and afflict thyself that so many should live
in such forgetfulness and that so many should labor with all their might
at destroying and losing what was bought by the blood of God itself and
all that I from the first moment of my Conception have sought to procure
and am procuring for their salvation. Awaken in thy heart the deepest
grief, that in his holy Church there should be many followers of the
hypocritical and sacrilegious priests who, under cover of a false piety,
still condemn Christ; that pride and sumptuousness with other grave
vices should be raised to authority and exalted, while humility, truth,
justice and all virtues be so oppressed and debased and avarice and
vanity should prevail. Few know the poverty of Christ, and fewer embrace
it. Holy faith is hindered and is not spread among the nations on
account of the boundless ambition of the mighty of this earth; in many
Catholics it is inactive and dead; and whatever should be living, is
near to death and to eternal perdition. The counsels of the Gospel are
forgotten, its precepts trodden under foot, charity almost extinct. My
son and true God offers his cheeks in patience and meekness to be
buffeted and wounded (Thren. 3, 30). Who pardons an insult for the sake
of imitating Him? Just the contrary is set up as law in this world, not
only by the infidels, but by the very children of the faith and of
light.
In recognizing these sins I desire that thou
imitate me in what I did during the Passion and during my whole life,
namely practice the virtues opposed to these vices. As a recompense for
their blasphemies, I blessed God; for their oaths, I praised Him; for
their unbelief, I excited acts of faith, and so for all the rest of the
sins committed. This is what I desire thee to do while living in this
world. Fly also the dangerous intercourse with creatures, taught by the
example of Peter, for thou art not stronger than he, the Apostle of
Christ; and if thou fall in thy weakness, weep over thy fault and
immediately seek my intercession. Make up for thy ordinary faults and
weaknesses by thy patience in adversities, accept them with a joyous
mien and without disturbance, no matter what they may be, whether they
be sickness or the molestations coming from creatures, or whether they
arise from the opposition of the flesh to the spirit, or from the
conflicts with visible or invisible enemies. In all these things canst
thou suffer and must thou bear in faith, hope and magnanimous sentiment.
I remind thee that there is no exercise more profitable and useful for
the soul than to suffer: for suffering gives light, undeceives, detaches
the heart from visible things and raises it up to the Lord. He will come
to meet those in suffering, because He is with the afflicted and sends
to them his protection and help (Ps. 40,15).
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DIVINE MERCY
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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.
Solitude – my favorite moments,
Solitude – but always with You, Jesus and Lord,
Close to Your Heart, time passes pleasantly for me,
And, close to Him, my soul finds its repose.
When the heart is filled with You and overflowing with love,
And the soul burns with pure fire,
Then, amidst the utmost desolation, the soul will not experience loneliness,
Because it rests on Your bosom.
O solitude – moments of supreme companionship,
Though I be abandoned by all creatures,
I immerse myself totally in the ocean of Your Godhead,
And You listen sweetly to my confidences.
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CATHOLIC TEACHING/CONVICTION/TESTIMONY |
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A Letter of A "Pro-Choice" Mother
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| by Linda Oatman
en years ago yesterday, I carried you beneath my
heart.
Ten years ago today, I stopped the beating of your
heart.
I, your mother, the one who gave you life, also gave
you death.
It's been a decade and still my blood runs cold and I
catch my breath whenever I hear the word "abortion."
There's an emptiness inside of me that can never be
filled, a chill that has never quite been warmed, a
grief that will never end. To me you will forever remain
an unfinished song, a flower that never bloomed, a
sunrise clouded by rain.
Even during your last fragile moments of life, I
wondered, "Is my baby a boy or a girl?" The question ran
through my mind again and again as I tried to block out
the sickening sounds of you being suctioned from my womb
and from my life. I seemed to have a burning need to
know whether I would have had a son or a daughter, yet
somehow I couldn't bear to ask such an indelicate
question of the doctor who stood smiling above me.
Instead, I simply nodded in defeat and sadness as this
man in white patted my trembling hand and said, "Now --
aren't you glad it's all over?"
As I lay there drowning in my own blood, tears and
sweat, I could hear the nurses chattering about the
co-workers, new cars and clothes.
To these people, the extermination of your life was
simply a job -- "making a living by destroying the
living." To those gathered in the sunny room in
Philadelphia 10 years ago, it was just another day. To
me, it was the darkest day I had ever known.
"The Abortion" - the most heart-wrenching, terrible
experience I had suffered through in my 18 years;
certainly the most painful experience suffered by you in
your three short months. It has taken me all these years
to get over it.
Now -- as my eyes fill with tears, I realize that
this is something I will never "get over." That fateful
April day has replayed itself over and over in my mind
like a horror movie one forces oneself to watch, then
can never forget....
Even in my distraught state of mind, I knew that
there were choices. I was simply too scared to consider
the alternative. Still a child myself, I "wasn't ready"
to be a mother.
What I didn't realize then was that I already was a
mother. You became my child at the moment of conception;
my love for you began when your life began, and although
your life ended, that love has never died.
Your silent screams have awakened me from sleep many
times over the years, and I have lain in the dark and
mourned the loss of the baby I killed. There have even
been times when I've contemplated ending my own life as
I ended yours.
It's been 10 years and still I haven't forgiven
myself. Have you forgiven me? Has God forgiven me for
destroying a being created by Him?
I've had many nightmares through the years. Scenes of
a tiny fetus in a trash bag haunt my subconscious. I've
awakened in a cold sweat, again feeling the excruciating
pain of that long-ago day. I recall the intense physical
pain of the abortion -- but those 10 minutes of hurt
were nothing compared to the 10 years of pain I've lived
with since.
For years my heart has ached to write you this
letter, but whenever I attempted to put my feelings into
words, I found the blank pages covered with tears rather
than with ink. For some reason, though, tonight was
different....
Perhaps this letter was meant to be written in order
to help other young girls "in trouble," as I was 10
years ago, to realize that there are alternatives to
abortion... If this letter prevents even one abortion,
it will have served a purpose. But, Baby, my purpose in
sending this letter to you is to let you know that I
love you -- whoever you are. And I'm sorry.
Love, Mommy.
Silent Screams
I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I
considered myself a Christian. I attended church since I
was a small boy. We heard stories of what was happening
to the Jews, but like most people in this country today,
we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what
was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop
it?
A railroad track ran behind our small church, and
each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a
distance. Then one Sunday we heard cries coming from the
train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train
was carrying Jews. They were like cattle in those cars!
They were on their way to the death campus!
Week after week, that train whistle would blow. We
would dread to hear the sound of those wheels because we
knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they
passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing! We
could do nothing to help those poor, miserable people;
yet their screams tormented us.
We knew exactly what time that whistle would blow,
and we decided the only way to keep from being so
disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns.
By the time that train came rumbling past the church
yard, we were singing at the top of our voices. If some
of the screams reached our ears, we'd just sing a little
louder until we could hear them no more.
Years have passed, and no one talks about it much
anymore. But I still hear that train whistle in my
sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. God
forgive me. God forgive all of us who call ourselves
Christians, yet did nothing to intervene.
Now, so many years later, I see it happening all over
again in America. God forgive us as Americans, for we
have blocked out the screams of millions of our own
children. The Holocaust is here. The response is the
same as it was in my country --silence!
- From a Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation
solicitation letter
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