Jesus and Riches

Jesus in his discourse (Mt 6:24) speaks much more often of wealth and the wealthy than of poverty and the poor. One of the reasons for the ever contemporary relevance of the Gospel is the fact that it does not conform to the dominant tendencies of “public opinion” or of statistics. Paradoxically,...

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The Samaritano

“The Samaritan was a brother to the wounded one, not by reason of his religion (the priest, the Levite, and the Jew had the same religion: the Samaritan was a heretic), nor by his race, nationality, or ideology (it was precisely he who was the only one who had nothing common with the Jew), but rather...

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Christological Message

"When we try to determine the human image of Jesus and His Christological message, we find ourselves faced with a task that does not really admit of any definite solution. At least, the personality given us in the Gospels is impossible to understand and to penetrate. It is so radically paradoxical...

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Authenticity of Christian Spirituality

“The originality and authenticity of Christian spirituality consists in this: that we follow a God who took upon himself our human condition. One who had a history like ours, who lived our experiences, who made choices, who devoted himself to a cause for which he suffered, who had successes, joys,...

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Conversion

“All Christians know what conversion is: to conform ourselves to the values the Christ taught, which brings us out of our egoism, injustice and pride. We also know that conversion is the foundation of all Christian fidelity in our personal lives, in the apostolate, or in social, professional and political...

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Following Jesus

by Segundo Galilea The central theme of Galilea’s book is following Jesus. This is the root of Christianity and ought to be the basis of any movements of spiritual renewal. This is the challenge to the faith in our generation: to find Jesus Christ in the depths of the disconcerting reality that surrounds...

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Mary and the Prophecy

(Lk 2:32-40) Our previous Bible text ended by telling us that Mary and Joseph marveled at the wonderful things that were being said about Jesus (2:33). In the continuation of the text we have just reflected on, they are certainly brought down to earth with a bump! Simeon blesses then and turns to...

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Mary with the Child Jesus in the Temple

(Luke 2: 22-33) “Mary and Joseph were struck by everything that was being said about Jesus when they took him to the Temple in Jerusalem for the first time. Churches are hopefully sacred spaces where the communication with God is encouraged, but God is not confined to places of worship. When we enter...

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Mary and the Birth of Jesus

Luke 2:1-20 “God’s ways are not our ways. Mary thought deeply about everything that took place in order to discover what God was saying. When we are seeking God’s will we must not ignore the obvious. We have the commandments, and the teaching and example of Jesus. However, there are times when things...

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The Magnificat

(Lk 1:46-54) (PP 78-79 )The ‘false self’ is the name given by many to the way human beings seek happiness in ways that can never fully satisfy. We all want to be happy, and we are programmed to seek happiness. Human beings are made for God and only God can fill “the deep caverns of feeling.” (John...

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The Kings and The Holy Innocents

This Bit of Wisdom is the first of ten selections from Let It Be: Praying the Scriptures in Company with Mary, the Mother of God by Father Joseph Chalmers, O. Carm. former Provincial General of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance. In the text, Fr. Chalmers presents a Lectio Divina of all the passages...

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The desert and garden

“Any struggle with addiction is a desert because it involves deprivation. If our motivations are primarily utilitarian, this deprivation may consist only of the denial of one specific object of attachment: trying to do without so much food, trying to give up tobacco, and so on. With major addiction...

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Faith demands risks

“Our choices of freedom are always pure, and in this purity faith is always an act of will. But God is not absent; God’s grace is more radiant than ever at such times. Its preservation of our freedom becomes most clear when all our other props are taken away. We can even say some inspiration of grace...

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Grace makes Freedom Posible

“The Beatitudes of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount are an unparalleled testimony to the glory of freedom from attachment. The blessedness they promise comes not just from heroic battles with one’s addictions, but from being unwillingly deprived of their gratification. The poor, the grief-stricken and the...

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We have three Choices

“The choices that are open to us in response to our experiences of God’s loving, threatening call may sometimes be excruciatingly difficult to execute, but they are quite simple to understand. There are really only three options; we have already touched on them all in our discussion, and most of us...

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Freedom is Always Possible

“We are dependent upon grace for liberation from our addictions, but those very addictions impair our receptivity to grace. The message may not sound like good news. Yet God creates and cares for us in such a way that our addictions can never completely vanquish our freedom. Addiction may oppress our...

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To Stand in Need of Grace

“We are created for love and freedom, addiction hinders us, and grace is necessary for salvation. For Christians, grace is the dynamic outpouring of God’s loving nature that flows into and through creation in an endless self-offering of healing, love, illumination, and reconciliation. It is a gift...

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Grce is present in both Winning and Losing

“I can honestly say, then, that it was my work with addicted people, and the consequent realization of my own addictive behavior, that brought me to my knees. I am glad. Grace was there. If my attachments had not caused me to fail miserably at controlling my life and work, I doubt I ever would have...

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Desire - addiction and human Freedom

“After twenty years of listening to the yearnings of people’s hearts, I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure. It gives us meaning. Some of us have repressed this...

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The uniform of love

Ultimately, our yearning for God is the most important aspect of our humanity, our most precious treasure; it gives our existence meaning and direction. There has been considerable debate about whether this “human religious impulse” really is universal, whether it represents a true primary drive,...

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