Friday, March 31, 2023

CHRIST: ORIGIN AND BEGINNING


“The greatest of all misfortunes is never to have known Jesus Christ: yet such a state is free from the sin of obstinacy and ingratitude. But first to have known Him, and afterwards to deny or forget Him, is a crime so foul and so insane that it seems impossible for any man to be guilty of it. For Christ is the fountain - head of all good. Mankind can no more be saved without His power, than it could be redeemed without His mercy.”

Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Tametsi Futura

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

THE HOLY SCRIPTURE CALLS THEM DUMB DOGS


“The Church is dying because her pastors are afraid to speak in all truth and clarity. We are afraid of the media, afraid of public opinion, afraid of our own brethren! The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep."

Cardinal Sarah


Tuesday, March 14, 2023

THE PELICAN, IMAGE OF JESUS


Lord Jesus, Good Pelican,

clean me, the unclean, with Your Blood,

One drop of which can heal

the entire world of all its sins.


Adoro te devote hymn


Since the early years, the pelican has been one of the symbols used by the first Christians to refer to Jesus. One of the reasons, and perhaps the most relevant, was the belief that adult pelicans, if they had not managed to catch any fish, they would sacrifice themselves or at least tore their skin and gave their own meat and their own blood to feed their young.

In a similar way, Jesus allows himself to be caught and crucified for the Redemption of all of us. Saint Isidore of Seville, in his work "Etymologies” states the wide dissemination of this belief at that time.

The fact of feeding his children with his own flesh and his own blood, also linked the pelican with the Eucharist itself. The bread and wine, through transubstantiation, really and truly become the Body and Blood of Jesus, food for the soul of Christians.

Just as baby pelicans could not survive without the food their mother gives them, so Christians must worthily eat and drink (that is, in SANCTIFYING grace, after going to Confession) the Body and Blood of Christ present, together with his Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist.


Wednesday, March 8, 2023

DUMB SHEPHERDS ARE LIKE HIRELINGS: WHEN THE WOLF COMES, THEY HIDE THEMSELVES UNDER SILENCE


 

"The ruler should be discreet in keeping silence, profitable in speech; lest he either utter what ought to be suppressed or suppress what he ought to utter. For, as incautious speaking leads into error, so indiscreet silence leaves in error those who might have been instructed. For often improvident rulers, fearing to lose human favour, shrink timidly from speaking freely the things that are right; and, according to the voice of the Truth, serve unto the custody of the flock by no means with the zeal of shepherds, but in the way of hirelings; since they fly when the wolf comes if they hide themselves under silence."


Saint Gregory the Great

Thursday, March 2, 2023

WHAT DO I DESIRE, MY JESUS?


 

What do I desire, my Jesus? I want to love you.

With all that is in me, I want give myself to you,

With no other joy than pleasing you,

With no other fear than offending you.


I want to forget everything and recognize you,

I want to leave everything behind to search for you,

I want to lose everything in order to find you,

I want to not know anything in order to know you.


I want, dear Jesus, to go deep into your sweet wound,

And be consumed in your divine flames,

In the end, I desire to be transformed in you.

Die to myself to live your life.

Lose myself in you, Jesus, and not find myself again.


Pedro Calderón de la Barca