Jesus Christ “divided all human history into two, into “B.C.” and “A.D.”"



Philosophy of Jesus, The

Kreeft, Peter

Amazingly, no one ever seems to have looked at Jesus as a philosopher, or his teaching as philosophy. Yet no one in history has ever had a more radically new philosophy, or made more of a difference to philosophy, than Jesus. He divided all human history into two, into "B.C." and "A.D."; and the history of philosophy is crucial to human history, since philosophy is crucial to man; so how could He not also divide philosophy?

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Taken from: http://www.staugustine.net/our-books/books/the-philosophy-of-jesus/

Jesus Christ at the Centre of History



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"Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."

Consider a few passages by John Paul II and one by Guardini:

Passage 1 -- by Blessed John Paul II From ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA §20. "A significant consequence of the eschatological tension inherent in the Eucharist is also the fact that it spurs us on our journey through history and plants a seed of living hope in our daily commitment to the work before us."

Passage 2 - by Blessed John Paul II, MANE NOBISCUM DOMINE §6 "Jesus Christ stands at the centre not just of the history of the Church, but also the history of humanity. In him, all things are drawn together. How could we forget the enthusiasm with which the Second Vatican Council, quoting Pope Paul VI, proclaimed that Christ is “the goal of human history, the focal point of the desires of history and civilization, the centre of mankind, the joy of all hearts, and the fulfilment of all aspirations”?(Gaudium et spes 45) The Council's teaching gave added depth to our understanding of the nature of the Church, and gave believers a clearer insight not only into the mysteries of faith but also into earthly realities, seen in the light of Christ. In the Incarnate Word, both the mystery of God and the mystery of man are revealed.(GS 24) In him, humanity finds redemption and fulfilment."

Passage 3 - by Romano Guardini, from The rosary of Our Lady

"When the Lord lifted himself from the earth, there began the wait 'until He comes.' Ever since Christ's Ascension, on earth there has been a single confident expectation; and faith means to persevere in expectation. For him who has no faith, events take place as though their meaning lay in themselves. The ordinary and the exceptional, the high and the low, the frightful and the beautiful -- everything that makes history -- all are regarded as if each was by itself and there was nothing besides. In truth, the Lord's departure was like the striking of a mighty chord that is now suspended in the air waiting to float away and come to rest. But only with Christ's return will all things be fulfilled."

 

What Guardini's passage helps me to better understand is the oft asserted remark by John Paul II that Christ is at the center of history. This could be taken to mean that Christ enters history as a point on a time line -- there is life before Christ and life after Christ. Events prior provide signs and point to his coming; and events after refer back to his life and take their rise from the new possibilities he established through his teaching, death and resurrection. Or in addition, Christ is at the center of history insofar as every field of meaning, and therefore any action can be related to the life of Christ. These are no doubt true. But Guardini locates the "center of history" through "expectation." We stand between his coming many years ago in the town of Bethlehem and his coming again at the end of time. So the center of history is to be found, not by looking on a time grid, nor by finding an abstract point of reference, but concretely, existentially, simply by looking up, once and a while, to ponder Christ's Ascension into Heaven. And then perhaps looking down on the ground at cemeteries of old wherein many lie sleeping, waiting to wake at the sound of the trumpet. We can then hear the mighty chord "now suspended in the air." Then the high and low, the ordinary and the exceptional, the frightful and the beautiful, all vibrate in attunement to that mighty chord of dying and rising, and truth triumphs at last. And we can just quietly hum an alleluia or two. Or better yet exclaim with the apostle -- "to me, to live is Jesus, and to die is gain."

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Taken from: http://jp2forum.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-mighty-chord-and-mystery-of-faith.html

Satan's fruits are "destruction, division, hatred and calumny."



Vatican City: Is Pope Francis an exorcist?

The question has bubbled up ever since Francis laid his hands on the head of a young man in a wheelchair after celebrating Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square. The young man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, then slumped in his wheelchair as Francis prayed over him.

"When you witness something like that - for me it was shocking - I could feel the power of prayer," said Reverend Giulio Maspero, a Rome-based systematic theologian.

The television station of the Italian bishops' conference reported on Monday that it had surveyed exorcists, who agreed there was "no doubt" that Francis either performed an exorcism or a prayer to free the man from the devil.

Pope Francis lays his hands on the head of a young man on Sunday, May 19, 2013, after celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Square. The young man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, convulsed and shook, and then slumped in his wheelchair as Francis prayed over him. Photo: AP

The Vatican was more cautious. In a statement on Tuesday, it said Francis "didn't intend to perform any exorcism. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intended to pray for someone who was suffering who was presented to him."

Fuelling the speculation is Francis' obsession with Satan, a frequent subject of his homilies, and an apparent surge in demand for exorcisms among the faithful despite the irreverent treatment the rite often receives from Hollywood.

Who can forget the green vomit and the spinning head of the possessed girl in the 1973 cult classic The Exorcist?
In his very first homily as pope on March 14, Francis warned cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel the day after he was elected that "he who doesn't pray to the Lord prays to the devil."
He has since mentioned the devil on a handful of occasions, most recently in a May 4 homily when in his morning Mass in the Vatican hotel chapel he spoke of the need for dialogue - except with Satan.
"With the prince of this world you can't have dialogue: Let this be clear!" he warned.
Experts said Francis' frequent invocation of the devil is a reflection both of his Jesuit spirituality and his Latin American roots, as well as a reflection of a Catholic Church weakened by secularisation.
"The devil's influence and presence in the world seems to fluctuate in quantity inversely proportionate to the presence of Christian faith," said the Reverend Robert Gahl, a moral theologian at Rome's Pontifical Holy Cross University. "So, one would expect an upswing in his malicious activity in the wake of de-Christianisation and secularisation" in the world and a surge in things like drug use, pornography and superstition.
In recent years, Rome's pontifical universities have hosted several courses for would-be exorcists on the rite, updated in 1998 and contained in a little red leather-bound booklet. The rite is relatively brief, consisting of blessings with holy water, prayers and an interrogation of the devil in which the exorcist demands to know the devil's name and when it will leave the possessed person.
Only a priest authorised by a bishop can perform an exorcism, and canon law specifies that the exorcist must be "endowed with piety, knowledge, prudence and integrity of life."
While belief in the devil is consistent with church teaching, the Holy See does urge prudence, particularly to ensure that the afflicted person isn't merely psychologically ill.
The Reverend Giulio Maspero, a Rome-based systematic theologian who has witnessed or participated in more than a dozen exorcisms, says he's fairly certain that Francis' prayer on Sunday was either a full-fledged exorcism or a more simple prayer to "liberate" the young man from demonic possession.
He noted that the placement of the pope's hands on the man's head was the "typical position" for an exorcist to use.
"When you witness something like that - for me it was shocking - I could feel the power of prayer," he said in a phone interview, speaking of his own previous experiences.
Sunday also happened to be the Pentacost, when the faithful believe Jesus' apostles received the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and Reverend Maspero noted the symbolism.
"The Holy Spirit is connected to the exorcism because ... it is the manifestation of how God is present among us and in our world," he said.
The Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi, sought to tamper speculation that what occurred was a full-fledged exorcism. While he didn't deny it outright - he said Francis hadn't "intended" to perform one - he stressed that the intention of the person praying is quite important.
Late Tuesday, the director of TV2000, the television of the Italian bishops' conference, went on the air to apologise for the earlier report.
"I don't want to attribute to him a gesture that he didn't intend to perform," said the director, Dino Boffo.
That said, Francis' actions and attitude toward the devil are not new: As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio frequently spoke about the devil in our midst. In the book "Heaven and Earth," Bergoglio devoted the second chapter to "The Devil" and said in no uncertain terms that he believes in the devil and that Satan's fruits are "destruction, division, hatred and calumny."
"Perhaps its greatest success in these times has been to make us think that it doesn't exist, that everything can be traced to a purely human plan," he wrote.
Italian newspapers noted that the late Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism in 1982 - near the same spot where Francis prayed over the young disabled man Sunday.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/did-pope-francis-perform-an-exorcism-20130522-2jzn1.html#ixzz2TyNwOnyx

Pope rails against 'dictatorship of the economy'



Rome: Pope Francis has attacked the ''dictatorship'' of the global financial system and warned that the ''cult of money'' is making life a misery for millions.
He said free market capitalism had created a ''tyranny'' and that people were being judged purely by their ability to consume goods.
Money should be made to ''serve'' people, not to ''rule'' them, he said on Thursday, calling for a more ethical banking system and curbs on financial speculation. Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow ''absolute autonomy'', in order to provide ''for the common good''.

Gift of flight: Pope Francis frees a dove at the Vatican. Photo: Reuters

The gap between rich and poor was growing and the ''joy of life'' was diminishing in many developed countries, the Pope said. ''While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling,'' said the pontiff who, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, visited slums, opted to lived in a modest flat rather than an opulent church residence and went to work by bus. In poorer countries, people's lives were becoming ''undignified'' and marked by violence and desperation, he said.

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The Pope, who was elected two months ago, made the remarks in his first substantial speech on finance and the economy, during an address to foreign ambassadors in the Vatican. It underlined his reputation for showing deep concern for the plight of the poor and vulnerable.

''The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal,'' he told the ambassadors.
As the Catholic leader in Argentina, he often spoke out about the plight of the poor during the country's economic crisis. Unchecked capitalism had created ''a new, invisible, and at times virtual, tyranny'', he said.
''The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, in Christ's name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them,'' he said.
Pope Francis will make the first foreign trip of his papacy to Brazil in July. He will visit a Rio de Janeiro slum, meet young prison inmates and attend World Youth Day, a week-long event expected to attract more than 2 million people.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/pope-blames-tyranny-of-capitalism-for-making-people-miserable-20130517-2jru9.html#ixzz2Tms9WZsi

"Our Science is God's Science": Sir John Houghton.



John Lennox Gods Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

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John Lennox has recently written an excellent book entitled “God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?” It is a highly readable book that seeks to explore the relationship between Science and Faith. In recent days Richard Dawkins, a prominent Scientist and avowed opponent of all religion, has asserted that Science and Faith have been at war for centuries and that Science has been winning.

Lennox, a highly respected scientist, suggests that “(even though there) are scientists who appear to be at war with God (it) is not quite the same thing that science itself being at war with God”. Sir John Houghton, another eminent scientist, wrote “Our Science is God’s Science. He holds the responsibility for the whole scientific story ... The remarkable order, consistency, reliability and fascinating complexity found in the scientific description of the universe are reflections of the order, consistency, reliability and complexity of God’s activity”.

Here is a clear picture of the powerful influence of an underlying view of the world shaping the scientific endeavour. Part of the task at Covenant is to age appropriately explore the way in which our “worldview” shapes the way in which different people see the same thing. We try to show children clearly how to view the world through Christian eyes, and to encourage them to respond to it accordingly.

It is critical that we do not pretend that Science, or any other academic endeavour, is free from a worldview bias. This is in part the challenge that lies at the heart of Christian schooling.

 

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Taken from: http://www.covenant.nsw.edu.au/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=2854&PostID=38710

"... fulfillment of St. John Bosco’s famous dream"

 



Our Lady of Fatima, Pope Francis and Us

Fatima Is More Important Than Ever

• by Joseph Pronechen Monday, May 13, 2013 4:27 PM ….

As we honor Our Lady of Fatima today, the 96th anniversary of her first appearance to the three children in Portugal, one new and one little-known but major fact should give us a real boost to listen to her.

The new?

Pope Francis requested that Cardinal José Policarpo, the archbishop of Lisbon, consecrate his pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima, which the cardinal was going to do at the shrine along with the Portuguese bishops at the end of the Mass of the International Anniversary Pilgrimage.
This act of Pope Francis should make us take notice because he’s showing us how important to him the significance of Our Lady of Fatima and her message is in these dire times for peace in the world.
The little-known, major fact?
This first apparition on May 13 took place on a day celebrated liturgically back then as the feast of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
That title was given to Our Lady by St. Peter Julian Eymard, known as “The Priest of the Eucharist,” who founded the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament on May 13, 1856.
What does Franciscan Father Andrew Apostoli of the Friars of the Renewal have to say about this?
In his book Fatima for Today (Ignatius 2010), Father Apostoli tells us: “Since heaven’s choices are never made randomly, we must assume that Jesus was sending his mother with a message of his love and peace on a feast day that reminds us of the awesome gift he had already given us: his precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist.”
At that same first apparition on May 13, our Lady stressed to the children: Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.
It is the request — the directive — she gave to us through them in each of her six apparitions at Fatima. She even went on to identify herself, saying, I am the Lady of the Rosary.
Put Our Lady’s two titles together at Fatima and she puts together for us the Eucharist and Marian devotion as the answer to all the world’s woes.
“The Mother of God herself came from heaven with a message of hope and a plan for victory,” says Father Apostoli.
He reminds that even before our Lady appeared she sent a powerful lesson in Eucharistic devotion given by the Angel of Peace’s third apparition to the children to prepare them for our Lady and her messages.
“This apparition would instill in the young children a very ardent devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament,” says Father Apostoli.
So what happened?
The Angel held a chalice with a host suspended in the air over it. Drops of blood fell from the host into the chalice. The Angel left the chalice and host suspended in the air, knelt, repeated three times:
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.
Then the angel rose and gave the host to Lucia and the Precious Blood to Jacinta and Francisco as he said, Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ terribly outraged by the ingratitude of men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.
Father Apostoli explains that from this apparition we learn the importance of Catholic Eucharistic devotion. The angel was teaching the children how Eucharist adoration, receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, “are the essential elements of our Catholic devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
Then at our Lady’s May 13 apparition, she opened her hands bathing the children in a heavenly light that the children knew was the light of God, and Lucia described that “By an interior impulse of grace we fell to our knees, repeating in our hearts: ‘Oh, Holy Trinity, we adore You. My God, my God, I love You in the Blessed Sacrament.’”
After that, our Lady gave that first of the repeated directives: Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.
Then in her July 13 apparition, our Lady puts both together by telling the children of the Communion of Reparation, which, as Father Apostoli explains, is “an essential part of her request for the Five First Saturdays devotion. Our Lady wants us to stay close to her Divine Son in the Eucharist.”
And look what Blessed John Paul II had to say in his encyclical Ecclesia De Eucharistia (On The Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church): “Mary is a ‘woman of the Eucharist’ in her whole life.”
And again, “If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist.”
And we know also how much John Paul II urged us to pray the Rosary, and how he credited Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life from the assassin’s bullet.
Seems like what John Paul said, and what Benedict would also say, and what Pope Francis is now doing at Fatima on May 13, 2013, is a fulfillment of St. John Bosco’s famous dream of the turbulent waters being calmed by the Holy Father firmly anchoring the ship of the Church to the pillars of the Eucharist and Marian devotion.
So, beginning on this feast of Our Lady of Fatima, also once celebrated liturgically as Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, we need to heed her message to have a profound reverence for the Body and Blood of her son in the Blessed Sacrament to make reparation for the outages and sacrileges committed against the Eucharist, and to pray the Rosary daily to bring that peace she promised.
As Father Apostoli affirms, “We, too, need to put into practice our Lady’s requests to pray the Rosary daily for peace in our times and an end to the culture of death so prevalent today.”
By the way, Archbishop Orani João Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro said he intends during this pilgrimage to consecrate to Our Lady of Fatima the work of World Youth Day to be held at Rio de Janeiro on July 23-28.
 

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Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/joseph-pronechen/our-lady-of-fatima-pope-francis-and-us#ixzz2TDccpP8A