John Converset, “Creation remains for me the original Word of God”
From my early childhood I loved to be outdoors, especially at first light in the morning. There was something very attractive and fascinating, whatever the weather or the time of year. Later on I realized that somehow God was present and speaking to me in a very personal way through nature
Alberto Degan, “Momenti di Trasfigurazione”
Tra i diritti umani fondamentali, bisognerebbe aggiungere anche la trasfigurazione. Invece, il sistema in cui viviamo non prevede momenti di trasfigurazione: non sa neanche cosa siano o li considera una perdita di tempo, momenti “improduttivi”.
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
Today’s Gospel is made up of three parts. First of all, with a quotation from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus’ activity in Galilee is introduced (vv. 12-17). Then there is the vocation story of the first four disciples (vv. 18-22). Finally, the activity of Jesus is summed up in one sentence (v. 23).
David Glenday, “Dio parla, nasce la missione”
In questa serie di riflessioni dei confratelli sulla missione e la Parola di Dio, P. David Glenday condivide, sotto forma epistolare, i suoi pensieri su come la Parola di Dio l’abbia plasmato come missionario.
Manuel João, “La Parola di Dio nella mia vita”
In preparazione alla prossima Domenica della Parola di Dio vi offriamo dei testi di alcuni comboniani che condividono la loro esperienza sul tema: “La Parola di Dio nel nostro essere e fare missionario”, in occasione dell’anno di spiritualità sulla Parola di Dio, nel 2012. Potete trovare qui il testo in diverse lingue.
Living with Frustration and Tension
Our generation has some wonderful emotional and moral qualities, but patience, chastity, contentment with the limits of circumstance, and the capacity to nobly live out tension are not our strengths.
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
There’s something that comes first and is more decisive: tell the story of the person Jesus in the communities, help believers to put themselves in direct contact with the Gospel, teach how to know and love Jesus, learn together to live his way of life and his spirit.
Baptism of the Lord (A)
After this original introduction, Matthew, like Mark and Luke, describes the next scene with three images: the opening of the heavens, the dove, and the voice from heaven. He is not recalling remarkable facts he personally witnessed. He uses images well known to his readers, and the meaning is not difficult for us to grasp.
Oral Literature: The tortoise and the drum
One day, the tortoise was walking along a forest path when he came across a palm tree that had plenty of palm kernel fruits.
The Christ-Child of the Year
Every year Time magazine recognizes someone as “Person of the Year”. The recognition isn’t necessarily an honor; it’s given to the person whom Time judges to have been the newsmaker of the year – for good or for bad.
2nd Sunday of Christmas and Epiphany
«The Word of God became flesh». God isn’t mute. God hasn’t stayed silent, enclosed forever in Mystery. God has desired to communicate Self with us. God wants to speak with us, tell us of God’s love, explain God’s project. Jesus is simply the Project of God made flesh.
Mary, Mother of God
The council taught us to look upon Mary as a “figure” of the Church, that is, as the Church’s perfect exemplar, as the first fruits of the Church. But can Mary be a model of the Church even as “Mother of God,” the title with which she is honored this day? Can we become mothers of Christ?
Feast of the Holy Family (A)
Forsome, today’s family is on its way to destruction because it has lost the traditional ideal of «Christian family». For others, any novelty is progress toward a new society. But how is a family open to the humanizing project of God? What features could we identify?
The Meaning of Christmas – Connecting the Dots Between the Crib and the Cross
May the joy of the angels, the humility of the shepherds, the perseverance of the wisemen, and the love of the Christ child be among God’s gifts to you this Christmas.
Christmas – The birth of the Lord (A)
An ancient custom for the feast of Christmas foresees three Masses, called respectively “at night,” “at dawn,” “during the day.” In each Mass, through readings that vary, a different aspect of the mystery is presented, in such a way that we get, so to speak, a three-dimensional vision.
Incarnation – God is with Us
“The incarnation does not provide us with a ladder by which to escape from the ambiguities of life and scale the heights of heaven. Rather, it enables us to burrow deep into the heart of planet earth and find it shimmering with divinity.”
Traffic jams, Christmas trees and banana beer: December in Kinshasa
For us Congolese Christians – and African Christians more widely – Christmas is a celebration of our ubuntu, or the humanity that binds us collectively together. And that is what Christmas is all about. That is the rich Christmas theology embedded within African culture.
God’s Closeness
Once while speaking at conference, a woman approached me with this story.
4th Sunday of Advent (A)
The liturgy for today, the Fourth and last Sunday of Advent, is characterized by the theme of closeness, God’s closeness to humanity. The Gospel passage (cf. Mt 1:18-24) shows us two people, the two people who, more than anyone else, were involved in this mystery of love.
Uganda: Akigat, the prayer to the God
The people from Tapac are referred to as the tapeth. They live in the mountain ranges of mountain Moroto in the northeast part of Uganda. We look at the intercession prayer known as Akigat
Christmas – Its Checkered Origins and Its Checkered Sequence
The story of Jesus and the meaning of Christmas can only really be understood by looking at where Jesus came from, his family tree, and by looking at how his story has continued in history.
3rd Sunday of Advent (A)
The Baptist is the figure of a true believer. He flounders in many perplexities, asks questions, but does not deny the Messiah because he does not match his own criteria. He calls into question his own beliefs.
Staying Awake
All of us know how difficult it is for us to be inside the present moment, to not be asleep to the real riches inside our own lives.
The Hiddenness of God and The Darkness of Faith
When I first began teaching theology, I fantasized about writing a book about the hiddenness of God. Why does God remain hidden and invisible? Why doesn’t God just show himself plainly in a way that nobody can dispute?
First Advent Sermon 2019
The wake left on the surface of the water by a lovely ship gradually spreads until it disappears altogether and merges with the horizon, but it started with the point of the ship itself. The same is true of the wake of believers who make up the Church. It begins at a certain point, and this point is Mary’s faith, her fiat.
Oral Literature: How the dogs came
A long time ago there were no domestic animals, all were wild, and all were the enemy of man. They feared him, and he feared them, unless they were too small to do him any harm.
Advent: Curing Fire by Fire
The German poet, Goethe speaks of something he calls “holy longing”. He defines it as “a desire for higher love-making”, a longing to embrace the world and make love to it as God does this.
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary made her life beautiful. Not appearances, not what is fleeting, but the heart directed toward God makes life beautiful. Today let us look joyfully at her, full of grace. Let us ask her to help us to remain youthful, by saying ‘no’ to sin, and to live a beautiful life, by saying ‘yes’ to God.
Chastity’s Challenge
Chastity is not first and foremost a sexual concept. In essence, chastity is proper reverence and respect. To be chaste is to stand before reality, everything and everybody, and fully respect the proper contours and rhythm of things.
The Way of Surrender
What God wants from us is not a million acts of virtue, but a million acts of surrender, culminating in one massive surrender of soul, mind, and body.
Africa: Pioneering the Fight against Plastic Waste
While Europe is only tentatively taking action against the flood of plastic articles, countries in Africa have taken drastic measures against disposable plastic bags, the most widespread form of plastic waste. Plastic waste pollution has since been recognised as one of the global most dangerous pollutants.
1st Sunday of Advent (A)
The horizon of hope! This is the horizon that makes for a good journey. The season of Advent, which we begin again today, restores this horizon of hope, a hope which does not disappoint for it is founded on God’s Word.
Non-discriminating embrace that still speaks its truth
That’s a stunning truth: God loves us when we are good, and God loves us when we are bad. God loves the saints in heaven and God loves the devils in hell equally. They just respond differently.
Mining Resources in Africa: Curse and Opportunity
Mining operations and global consumption of natural resources continue to increase annually. However, while developed countries protect their natural resources with sustainable development policies and high social and labour standards to protect the environment, the economies of developing countries are increasingly becoming dependent on export of its natural resources.
Oral Literature: The Blacksmith’s Dilemma
There was once a blacksmith called Walukaga, who was very skilled at all kinds of metal-work. Every day a small crowd of people would gather at his smithy and watch him at work making hoes for the farmers, knives and spears for the hunters, or armlets and bracelets to decorate the young men and maidens.
OGF 7/2019 Advent Reflection
There are two ways in which we can prepare and celebrate Christmas. One way is to live it as a circular time, meaning something that is repeated and commemorated (ok, Christmas again… cool). The other way is to live it as a horizontal or linear time meaning, a time in which every year something absolutely new is happening.
The Cross as Revealing Christ’s Descent into Hell
There’s a curious line in our creed which says that, immediately following his death, Jesus “descended into hell”. What possibly can that mean?
Pope Francis’ 32nd Apostolic Journey: Full texts and more
The entire programme and full texts of Pope Francis’ 32nd Apostolic Journey to Thailand and Japan. By clicking on each element listed below, you will be able to find all … Continua a leggere
Solemnity of Christ the King (C)
We try in every way to conform the image of Christ the King to that of the kings of this world. We do not want to believe that he wins in the moment in which he loses, in the moment he gives his life. This ruler who reigns from a cross disturbs us because he requires a radical change of the choices in our lives.
Eve, source of the world’s misfortunes?
Is Eve, the one who let herself be seduced by the snake, who picked the fruit of the tree of knowledge and gave to Adam, the reason for all the misfortunes of the world?
DR. Congo: What it means to be a doctor and a missionary
Comboni Brother Juan Carlos Salgado, a medical doctor, has the joy of serving the poor and needy at Bondo hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Our Need to Share Our Riches With The Poor
We need to give away some of our own possessions in order to be healthy. Wealth that is hoarded always corrupts those who possess it. Any gift that is not shared turns sour. If we are not generous with our gifts we will be bitterly envied and will eventually turn bitter and envious ourselves.
Feeding off Life’s Sacred Fire
A healthy spirituality needs to be predicated on a proper understanding of God, ourselves, the world, and the energies that drive our world. These are the non-negotiable Christian principles within which we need to understand ourselves, the world, and the use of our energies.
Top 5 takeaways from the Amazon synod
The three-week Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region, on the theme, “Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for Integral Ecology,” concluded on Oct. 27 in Rome. Here are five key takeaways from the synod.
Fear Masking Itself as Piety
It is easy to mistake piety for the genuine response that God wants of us, that is, to enter into a relationship of intimacy with Him and then try to help others have that same experience.
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Luke wrote his Gospel around the year 85 A.D. In the fifty years that passed since the death and resurrection of Jesus, tremendous events occurred. There were wars, political revolutions, catastrophes and the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed. Christians became victims of injustices and persecutions. How to explain these dramatic events?
Always in a Hurry
Haste is our enemy. It puts us under stress, raises our blood pressure, makes us impatient, renders us more vulnerable to accidents and, most seriously of all, blinds us to the needs of others. Haste is normally not a virtue, irrespective of the goodness of the thing towards which we are hurrying.
Oral literature: The Hare and the Hyena
One day, a long time ago when there was a famine in a certain part of Africa, Hare met Hyena. “How thin you are looking,” said Hare. “You look as though you would not say No to a good meal either,’ replied Hyena.
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
The feature that is most disturbing about our age is the crisis of hope. We have lost sight of the horizon of a final Future, and the small hopes of this life end up not consoling us. This vacuum of hope is generating the loss of trust in this life for all too many people. Nothing is worth it.
African Witness: South Sudan, Father Barnaba Deng
The soldiers grabbed him. Fr. Barnaba did not resist. He asked to be allowed to take his cassock and pray. He put it on, made the sign of the cross, and recollected himself in prayer while the soldiers released the safety catch on their rifles. “I am ready”
