L’enciclica di Pio XI Quas primas compie 100 anni, essendo stata pubblicata l’11 dicembre 1925. In essa viene definita la Dottrina della Regalità sociale di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo e fissata la Festa liturgica di Cristo Re.
Continua a leggere “Quas primas. Sulla Regalità sociale di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo”
Where are you, dear fathers? Where are you, O man?
Continua a leggere “The Silent Witness of Nazareth: St. Joseph: Spouse of Mary, Powerful Intercessor, Guardian of the Church”
What is the Holy Mass? If a survey were to be conducted, an astonishingly large proportion of those surveyed would undoubtedly give voice to a cacophony of conflicting responses. Never before has the Holy Mass been so widely misconstrued by Catholics. The aim of this book, written in a simple, straightforward style, is to set the record straight, so that the faithful may come to understand what the Mass truly is: the living sacrifice of the new and eternal covenant. Neither is the Mass merely a meal, nor is it the extension in time of the Jewish Pasch celebrated in the context of a ritual meal. Jesus’ Last Supper was unique. Bread and wine, turned into His Body and Blood, proclaim what He did for us on the Cross, until it will be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God (cf. Lk 22:16). The banquet element is important but is dependent upon the sacrifice. If Christ had not died as a sacrificed Lamb, He would not be risen; we would still be mired in our sins, while our Mass would only be an empty memorial. Perhaps, as is often the case, it would be the celebration of ourselves. True and active participation in the liturgy depends upon the concept of what the Mass is, and not upon what one may do or not do.
« La foi en la vérité de la virginité perpétuelle de Marie est en péril. Tel est le cri d’alarme que lance ce livre écrit pour éclairer le lecteur et l’aider à mieux comprendre ce dogme de la foi dans toute sa pureté. » « Contre le “minimalisme marial” qui prévaut de nos jours, cette étude concise et dense s’avère nécessaire pour retracer la foi de l’Église dans la virginité perpétuelle de Marie à travers l’histoire. Les attentes du lecteur seront plus que comblées étant donné la solide base dogmatique, biblique, patristique, morale, spirituelle et mariale qui soutient cette enquête. » « Aidés par ce livre et par la foi ardente et inébranlable dans la divine Mère toujours vierge que contiennent ces pages, où retentit la révélation évangélique qui nous la présente comme vierge toujours miraculeusement intacte, avant, pendant, et après l’accouchement du Verbe incarné, puissions-nous louer toujours plus ardemment la très sainte Mère de Dieu, notre mère : la Mère toujours vierge ! » P. Stefano Manelli. AUTEUR Le Père Serafino Maria Lanzetta, franciscain marial résidant à Portsmouth, au Royaume-Uni, est professeur de théologie systématique à l’Université Sainte-Marie de Twickenham (Londres) et à la Faculté de théologie de Lugano (Suisse). Il est l’auteur de nombreux livres couvrant différents domaines théologiques et chroniqueur.
C.S. Lewis wrote in his preface to The Screwtape Letters that there are two similar although complementary pitfalls into which one can fall when it comes to devils: either doubting their very existence or believing in them, but with an excessive interest – almost an obsession. The devils themselves delight in both and welcome a materialist as wholeheartedly as they do a magician. Their technique consists in convincing someone to be one or the other and then separating him from everyone else forever. Is it not true that the arts of the materialist and of the magician are back in fashion? Thus the devil’s existence is denied by portraying him as a mere symbol of evil, or else, by attributing all man’s misfortunes to him – including those of the Church – to the point of clouding the responsibility of men and of pastors. As St Augustine brilliantly said in one of his discourses (163B):
“The devil must not be blamed in every instance; sometimes, in fact, man himself is a devil towards himself. So why must we beware of the devil? Precisely for this reason: so as not to deceive ourselves.”
Nonetheless, one thing prompted me to pay close attention to this correspondence and to ensure that it was not lost. Above all, the devil and the priest do the same job: they go in search of souls. And both of them could, without difficulty, make their own the motto of St John Bosco: Da mihi animas, cetera tolle – “Give me souls and take away all the rest”.
And so the time has come to take a look at this correspondence and to get to know that ancient craft, of which the practitioners have a predilection for the soul above all else: the soul, the real man as he is himself, who will be forever himself and cannot be confused with anyone else.
One last word to the wise reader. The names chosen do not correspond to any particular person. They are rather the free expression of a way of thinking which, by some strange coincidence, brings the world of mortals closer to that of the hereafter.
