Philosophers stress the rationale for angels. “A perfect God would necessarily create the best of all possible worlds. So He created angels who do not belong to man’s concept of matter, time and space.”

Who can fathom the love of God for men? He created a perfect world for man’s first parents, Adam and Eve, endowed them with wisdom of immensely high order and freedom from suffering and death. But, they still committed the “pride of life” and wanted to be gods.

After 40 years as the second king of Israel, David’s second son with Bathseba, Solomon, succeeded David.

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

Saint Catherine of Ricci, a stigmatic, unfolds the Passion of Christ in 17 scenes that lasts 28 hours, “conversed aloud as if enacting a drama.” 

There were 162 statues of saints in Saint Peter’s Square but not one image of Our Lady. This was Msgr. Josemaria Escriva’s side remark to Pope John Paul II during gathering of university students from different part of the world in Rome in 1980.

An epitome of courage, she followed Jesus to Calvary, unmindful of indignant Jews, high-strung Roman soldiers, edgy crowds with volatile emotions that can crush her to death.

BEveryday there is news of men and women who express concern about violence to children, sex trafficking, sexual assaults on helpless kids, children dying of hunger, capital punishment for the young and even bullying. These while life is considered sacred and should be valued.

“Jesus cried out in a loud voice. Father into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). “The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mark 15:38).

The French Revolution targeted the nobility and the Catholic Church.  Considered as a Reign of Terror, anti-Catholic Church provisions outlawed public and private worship and religious education, closed churches, forced abjuration of priests of their religious vows and even forced the clergy to marry.  

In a mundane world, money is one of the most coveted possession. The World Inequality Report 2018 declared that the rich becomes richer, the poor poorer. 

Margaret was alarmed when Arsenio of Montepulciano did not come home from his visit to one of his estates. Her anxiety worsened when his dog arrived the next day, alone, and tugged her to follow. 

When the Lady opened her hands, light from it penetrated the earth. Lucia de Jesus dos Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, saw a sea of fire.

He wore a colorful poncho with a sombrero, the attire worn by cattle herders. He rode his mule Malacara to oversee his poor parishioners around Sierra Grandes.

Jesus, the Truth, the Life and the Way is Mary’s Son. She willed to be the Mother of the Redeemer, knew what it meant from the beginning and kept it all in her heart.

John pleaded that his severed right hand that was hanged in the market place be returned. The caliph granted the request.

When both mind and body assert that you are dying, rejoice if you are in the state of grace. The time to live forever joyfully is at hand.

O Lord my God…

Conclusion

Mother of Penitent Sinners

“You sinners, when you want my help, call me Mother of Mercy, yet at the same time, do not cease by your sins to make me a Mother of sorrows and anguish” (Saint Alphonsius de Liguori in the Glories of Mary).

First of two parts

Saint Pope Pius V declared October 7 as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory. He later changed it to Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary after the Holy League defeated the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto, off the coast of Greece, in a place now called Naupactos.

“I need to love You more and more, but I don’t have any more love in my heart. I have given all my love to You. If You want more, fill my heart with Your love, and then oblige me to love You more and more and I will not refuse you.”

Hildegard of Bingen, “one of the few prominent woman in medieval church,” was declared saint by Pope Benedict XVI on May 10, 2012, in equipolente, or equivalent canonization. The pope signed a decree to make it official.

The celebration of the queenship of Mary is significantly related to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

SAINT Mary Major is a fifth- century basilica in Liberiana 27 in the upper town of Bergamo, Northern Italy. It is dedicated to the Blessed Mother of God.

Pope Sixtus V bestowed on Saint Bonaventure the title “Angelic and Seraphic Doctor of the Church” in recognition of his unfathomable love for God and outstanding theological writings.

“Lord, who can grasp all of the wealth of just one of Your words? What we understand is much less than we leave behind, like thirsty people who drink from a fountain. For Your word, Lord, has many shades of meaning, just as those who study have many different points of view.

Magdalene is an “ecstatic saint.” She desired a “hidden life,” but her mystical experiences or religious ecstasies lasted for years.

After Saint Dymphna’s death, some lunatics wandered in the countryside of Gheel in Belgium. They slept there and woke up cured. Since then she was called the “patron saint of people afflicted with mental and spiritual afflictions” (Saint Dymphna, www.saint-mike.org). Many miracles were recorded at her shrine in Gheel.

One October morning, passing through Borgo Alto, Mary saw a large building with a courtyard. Many children were playing.

‘IN this city one finds many very important pious and charitable works. However, there is one great need, and that is a hospital or a house where the innocent, the poor and the mad can be cared for. There are many such people wandering this city.”

The sheep is an animal that cannot survive on its own. It is a species with an “intelligence quotient close to the bottom of the scale,” said David Murray in HeadHeartHand.

On April 16, 1783, a Holy Wednesday, Benedict Joseph Labre dragged himself to Saint Maria dei Monte, the cardinalatial titular church in Rome, where he heard Mass every morning.

Today is the Feast of the Divine Mercy. It was instituted in obedience to the Lord’s instruction to Saint Faustina Kowalska.

EASTER is derived from the word Eostre, the pagan goddess of the season of the sun and rebirth during Ostarum, a pagan spring festival. It was a spring of the nomad Jews, who coated their tent poles with blood of animals to frighten hostile spirits.

At early morning on the first day of the week while still dark, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb of Jesus. She carried burial clothes and spices so Jesus can be buried properly in accordance with Jewish custom.

Ash Wednesday is a ritual of truth. The priest makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of everyone on the queue. He tells each one: “For you are dirt and to dirt you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Simply said: Man is a corruptible being.

The beautiful Lady of Lourdes, Bernadette Soubirous, the hallowed cave on a huge cliff of Massabielle at the foothills of Pyrenees mountain range, which separate France and Spain—these will forever be associated with the celebrated appearances of the Blessed Mother in 1858.

There are children with faces only a mother can love for beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, according to Margaret Hungerford. Too, true beauty consists in purity of heart, Mahatma Gandhi said.

Tabula rasa is a theory of knowledge and psychology that compare the mind to a blank writing tablet which “responds to ideas and convert them to knowledge.”  Akin to a white paper full of awareness, it receives ideas from senses and responds to experiences.

New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25 in the Early Medieval period in Christian Europe.  The feast, called Lady Day in England, is the start of the Legal Year until 1752.

On October 25, 1970, Pope Paul VI canonized 40 saints of England and Wales. During the November 1969 deliberations, Dr. Michael Ramsey, archbishop of Canterbury, said the proposed canonization might rekindle animosity, which is detrimental to ecumenism efforts.

Christ is a Greek word, which means Messiah in the Jewish language. The Jews believe He is the Anointed One, the King who would deliver Israel from the Romans.

Orthodox is derived from the Greek word Orthodoxia, which means the right opinion or adherence to correct or accepted creeds. The Orthodox Church, founded by Jesus Christ and his apostles on Pentecost Sunday of 33 AD, witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit. For decades the Church has been divided between the Latin-speaking West with Rome as its center, and the Greek-speaking East with Constantinople as its seat.

Zechariah is dumb. So, when asked what name he would give his son, he wrote on the tablet—John. His tongue was loosened and he burst into a “prophetic exhortation” about the greatness of God.

Seemingly, the togetherness of Saints Simon the Zealot and Jude Thaddeus had been destined. Both apostles preached the words of God in Persia.

Saint John Paul II died in 2005, the year he had earlier proclaimed as Year of the Eucharist—“the source and summit of life and mission of the church.”