Creatures in the image of God

108. The fundamental message of Sacred Scripture proclaims that the human person is a creature of God (cf. Ps 139:14-18), and sees in his being in the image of God the element that characterizes and distinguishes him: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). God places the human creature at the centre and summit of the created order. Man (in Hebrew, “adam”) is formed from the earth (“adamah”) and God blows into his nostrils the breath of life (cf. Gen 2:7). Therefore, “being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. Further, he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead”[204].

-Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Going small and quiet

I am readjusting my blog. The new designation is inspired by the great work of Dr. Scott Hahn on covenant theology. Thanks to his recordings I have a new perspective on the world and on life. I have a better understanding of God, Man, Salvation, Life, Love, etc. And recently I think I found a way I can deepen this understanding. I am going to use this blog to organize my thoughts on this subject. There is no better way to illustrate the building of a civilization of love than to live it personally. With this blog I will now be sharing quotes which I am going to label systematically with covenant related words. It is a way of organizing thoughts in an ordered way. I will be quoting from Holy Scriptures, the CCC, the CSDC, and some great works of saints.
I will also be quoting some secular source once in a while whenever the particular quote fits into the covenant picture.

Actually everything should be able to fit in because the world as we see it is governed by a covenant relationship. For example, the whole book of Revelation shows how everything in the world is in relation to the New Covenant (the Lamb of the New Covenant). So anything whether good or bad fit somewhere in the picture. This is going to be very exciting and enriching to me as I try to organize and match quotes with proper labels. I hope that it will help me grow in Faith. I also hope that any visitor will get a better idea of why the Church teaches what it teaches, a better organic understanding of life.

So I will be writing less if not nothing. I will only be quoting and labelling. This is good for me because I am a quiet type of person. It will also get me to read more and more which is something I really need to do:)

Last, I would like to make a small comment on closing of the WYD. It was great, the next one is in Madrid, Spain. I should be able to attend this one for so many reason that I can't begin to enumerate. For now, I pray that the fruits from Sydney endure in all of us forever.

God bless

Feast of Our Lady Of Sorrows

One of the reasons I started this blog was so I can collect most basic useful information about life for me and those who visit this blog. It occured to me that the Church is alive and that it is working seriously for a clear and noble purpose than the average person realize. The Church is building a civilization of love. People in the Church are working in millions of ways to make the Father's Kingdom come. I figure I could participate by making their noble actions known to me and those about me.

Today (pacific time - sorry I was too late in posting this post)is the Feast Our Lady of Sorrows. Someone made a YouTube video about a rosary of the Seven Sorrows. Here it is. This is just the first part, the other parts will show up in small windows after the movie is over.

The Eucharistic Kingdom

(Edited Sept 14)

Today we are remembering 9/11! The world and especially America experienced the evil in a very unique way. It is said that many people returned to God in those days. People generally remember that God exists when they recognize the reality of the Evil One. Other people ask why would a good God allow such a thing to happen. Saints would tell us that He only allow it when He can bring a greater good out of it. Now, every 9/11 people remember..., they ask question about good and evil, why would people cultivate such a hatred?, how about God?

Even though sometimes we don't understand everything involved, Christians know that every things work for good for those who love God. God is all good and everything that happens it is for good. The greatest evil that ever happened was the Crucifixion of God's own Son Jesus Christ. If God is more loving, more perfect and perfectionist than we are, how can he make sens of what happened to his Son? How can He allow it to happen? Where is the power of God? How does He used it and in what direction?

Man makes war to protect himself, he is willing to 'kill and crucify' in order to save his temporal life and his temporal possessions. But Jesus has taught us a different way of making war against the evil one. His general commandment was "Love one an other as I have loved you". He loved us by taking risks one after an other. He came into the world as a fragile baby at our mercy, we sent him to exile, we persecuted him, and we eventually killed him. But He who is Truth can not stay in the dead, Truth is always victorious, He rose from the dead and He is alive with the Father.

He is the Way. He showed us the way to make true war against evil. We need to go to the School of the Eucharist (this link is a rap song by Fr. Stan Fortuna...see video...quite interesting:) )in order to know how to built a 'civilization of love' and bring peace in the World.




"You have to make your life essentially, totally eucharistic."
St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #826

This picture caught my attention few months ago. I made it my desktop picture. It helps me to meditate on the mysteries of the Cross, the Eucharist, and the Sacred Heart and our human heart. This is our King and this is how He conquers. It reminds me of the importance of the Crucifix in the Church or in our homes. It pains me when I realize where/when/how I failed, but it is also comforting because it shows the great Mercy of God. It reminds me be merciful to others, to make efforts to do God's will in all things everyday. Eucharistic life is about everyday sanctity. EWTN has an interesting show about this: Eucharistic Journey.

By looking at it I realize what true love is. How true love conquers. It reminds me that Eucharist I receive is the heart of Jesus. It reminds me to check my heart to see if I can feel any fire. The fire that Jesus brought into the world. The fire that Christians are supposed to spread around the world. Of course this is only possible when one is in a state of grace.


When Peter attempted to defend Jesus with a sword, Jesus stopped him. Pope John Paul II has asked forgiveness for sins of the crusaders. True love conquers by the cross; by sacrifice. I like to call our great saints Generals of God. They have conquered by offering their lives as sacrifices for their brothers and sisters. They did not do it their ways, but the way of Jesus. They conquered like Jesus and in Jesus. Now many Holy Orders are like armies aligned behind the Cross of Christ. It is in those Holy Orders or Movements that we are at/become our best in being Christians.

In those spiritual organization we learn more about Reality. We grow to know what real evil is. There is a very very interesting topic on CAF about spiritual warfare. Some times we seem not to be aware of the fact that we are constantly at war.

The Eucharistic Kingdom is built on self-sacrifices. It is not at all easy to sacrifice ourselves. We need to pray unceasingly in order to be able to 'believe' and to follow Jesus until the end. We need the help of each other, the help of the Church and of Angels.

Too many times we wonder why things go wrong, why even simple things seem harder to be done. We have to remember the disciples falling asleep failing to pray with Jesus at the critical point of his life.

I think demons put all their weight in preventing even a simple act from being done if it is to be done with love and in the name of Christ. He knows that that simple act can turn out to be the mustard seed. Think of how much resistance Jesus accountered. Think of his experience in the Garden of sorrow. But we know that He has conquered the world, this should be the reason for our joy, our courage, and our hope.

With the help of our allies (angels, saints,...) we should engage in a proper holy war against the right enemy: the one who is the Liar, the Murderer, and the Accuser from the Beginning!

Christus vincit,
Christus regnat,
Christus, Christus ímperat.

Christ is the victor, Christ is King,Christ is the ruler of the world.

May good times come,

May the peace of Christ come,

May the kingdom of Christ come.

.

Our Lady's Birthday

Today the Church celebrates the Blessed Mother's Bday. She is so wonderful to the Church, to the World, to each one of us. What Present are we giving her? what flower do we give to her?

Everyone in the World, especially every christian should give her something...at least for her big eternal 'YES'. Every christian should say together with the Church: 'I love you Mom!'. St. Gemma used to do contests with her guardian angel to see who say 'I love you' to Jesus most lovingly. May be we can enter our hearts and search for all the ways/reasons we should celebrate our Mother's day.

“Pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience..."

Today I rearranged the links on the right side for a better classification. Some people don't like the way the Church is organized, they feel a sens of dictatorship and authority which should not exist for an organization which is meant to teach how to love. But one thing we forgot very often is that 'love' is a decision, therefore true love is a response to a commandment to love. Jesus illustrated it when he said: John 13:34. A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. The words of the last judgement also remind us of our duties to others. However, we can very easily forget that we ought to love as He loved us. Learning and obeying the Will of the Father. He did not negotiate with the Father, He obeyed until the end and in all things.

So we should not be surprised that his Kingdom is an absolute monarchy. In our Faith we should not pick what is convenient to our temporal opinions, but accept the fullness of eternal Truth. We have to be in full communion with the Church if we want to be in full communion with Christ; If we listen to the successors of apostles we also listen to Him, if we reject them we also reject Him. Love seems to be something so simple. We don't realize that so easily but Jesus had to invite us into an attitude of a soldier in order to make us understand how serious the matter is. Not that love is complicated by nature, but because of our powerful enemy, life became so complicated. St. Paul reminds us of this military attitude through his writings. But an Army of love is a different kind of army and the battle a different kind of battle.

St. Josemaria Escriva says that Jesus summarized his teachings in a last sermon which he gave on the podium of the Cross. He illustrated the way a Christian is supposed to love. I liked the picture. It illustrates how God's love conquers the World. From a heart burning with love on the Cross Mary was consecrated Our Mother and the Church was born. It was also by sharing in this Eucharistic heart through centuries that men and women have become generals in the great armies of God. Some of us are part of their holy orders and movements and try to follow their steps toward the house of perfect love: the House of the Father.

But we are not always the Christians we are called to be. In the Word of Life for this month, Chira Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement gives us an advice:

“Pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and
gentleness.”

The experience lived out by the initial group of young women who
gave life to the Focolare Movement in Trent, back in 1944, provides us with an
insight into how we can live this Word of Life, especially the part about “love,
patience, and gentleness.”It was not always easy to live the radicality of love,
especially at the beginning. Even among ourselves, in our relationships with
each other, sometimes some dust would settle in and our unity would become less
strong. This happened, for example, when we looked at the defects and faults of
the others and we judged them, for then the current of love among us turned
cold. In order to remedy this situation, one day we thought of making a
pact together and we called it “the pact of mercy.” Every morning we made a
decision to look at all the neighbors that we would meet that day—in the
focolare, at school, at work, and other places—as if they were new, totally new,
no longer remembering their defects at all and covering everything with love.
This meant approaching each person with this total amnesty in our hearts, with
this universal forgiveness. It was a demanding commitment and all of us
took it on together. It helped us to be—as far as possible—the first to love
always, to live in imitation of our merciful God, who forgives and forgets.

by Chiara Lubich

Salt + Light TV

That's the Canadian Catholic TV Network - Salt + Light. Unfortunately, we don't have it on cable. But the good thing is we can watch separate shows on Internet. It is one of many fruits of WYD2002 in Toronto. You can tell by its name. And it seems to have more young journalists!
Here is one of the show(In Your Faith).

Assumption of Our Lady

I interrupt my 'break' to get my blog to celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady:)

The pope gave a great homily today about how Mary is closer to us than ever, now that she is one and in heaven with her divine son.



Nous te saluons,
Ô toi Notre Dame,
Marie,vierge sainte que drape le soleil.
Couronnée d'étoiles, la lune est sous tes pas.
En toi nous est donnée
L'aurore du salut
1. Marie Eve nouvelle et joie de ton Seigneur
Tu as donné naissance à Jésus le Sauveur.
Par toi nous sont ouvertes les portes du jardin
Guide-nous en chemin, Etoile du Matin

2. Tu es restée fidèle, mère au pied de la croix.
Soutiens notre espérance et garde notre foi.
Du côté de ton fils, tu as puisé pour nous
L'eau et le sang versés qui sauvent du péché.

3. Quelle fut la joie d'Eve lorsque tu es montée,
Plus haut que tous les anges, plus haut que les nuées,
Et quelle est notre joie, douce Vierge Marie
De contempler en Toi la promesse de vie.

4. Ô Vierge immaculée, préservée du péché,
En ton âme, en ton corps, tu entres dans les cieux.
Emportée dans la gloire, Sainte reine des cieux,
Tu nous accueilleras un jour auprès de Dieu.

Please pray for Schoenstatt here in Canada

Last time I forgot to ask for your prayers for Schoenstatt here in Canada.

In Vancouver, we are currently going through some legal actions in order to introduce the Schoenstatt movement in canadian parishes. Please pray for us, for those who have already been introduced to Schoenstatt, and for those who will be. Pray that our Mother be victorious. That Christ increase in us and that we decrease!

Child of God, what have you done up to now to help the souls around you? You
cannot be content with that passiveness, with that idleness of yours. He wants
to reach others through your example, through your words, through your
friendship, through your service.
– St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #880

Fire up your heart for WYD 2008

August is approching, as wyd2008.org metre indicates already, only 360 days left. One Year left. Here are some videos to help you taste the fire of the Spirit. Don't let it cool down. And pray that we may all make it to Sydney. Yes, please pray!

Theme Song RECEIVE THE POWER (International version)



Cross and Icon of WYD:
They have been almost everywhere in the world. In my home countries Burundi and Rwanda. On the war between the two Corea, and many other areas where Christ is deepley needed.





WYD 2008 - Sydney - Austraria



Dare you to move



Testimonies from previous WYD-2008

Salvation Outside the Church!

Salvation is linked to Love, because Sin is anything that goes against Love. This explains in part why I draw fromt the Church while meditating on Love. But also, you may have noticed that this blog is very catholic. You are probably wondering whether I am not forgetting or being unfair to non-catholics or non-christians who also, since there are human, do love.
I am not using catholicism simply because I am catholic, but also because it is hard or impossible for me to try to illustrate this 'civilization' without using catholicism. I hope I could explain it better. I guess I will be explaining at any given occasion.

For now. Here is an article which explains how we, catholic see God, Love, Christ, and the Church and Salvation . It concludes like this:

Catholics do not say, and never have said, that they are the sole
possessors of revelation. Indeed, the Church does not “possess” revelation at
all. Revelation possesses her; and that revelation, who is Christ, has, she
teaches, committed Himself fully to her. “God,” said the great Protestant writer
George MacDonald, “is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.” On the one hand, God
is delighted when the most miserable sinner takes the smallest serious step
toward the love of God and neighbor. On the other hand, He will not be
completely happy until every last person He came to save is completely perfected
in the image of Christ and overflowing with perfect love for God and neighbor.
This same pattern is supremely evident in the Catholic Church’s understanding of
her relationship with her members, whether in full or very imperfect communion.
For the Church is happy to recognize even the smallest commonalities she may
share, not only with other Christians, but even with non-Christian religious
traditions and the great philosophical traditions of paganism. The Church can
even find things to affirm in virtuous atheists. But at the same time, the
Church is acutely aware that there is a real difference between imperfect and
perfect unity and so she, too—easy to please, but hard to satisfy—labors toward
that day when all the members of the Body of Christ will be perfected in faith,
hope, and love.
Till that day, we know where the Church is; we do not know
where she is not.

Pope and Ex Iranian President

Pope Benedict XVI and Ex-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami





Reuters Photo







Eux.Tv commented:

Khatami is regarded as one of the most senior Muslim figures to have met the
pontiff since his controversial remarks on Islam last year. In a speech in
Germany last September, Benedict infuriated Muslims across the world by
appearing to equate their religion with violence. Benedict has since sought to
make amends and pleased many Muslims last December with a highly-symbolic visit
to Istanbul's Blue Mosque.

From an other CWN article we read:

Khatami had originally planned to visit the Vatican in October 2006, but he
postponed his visit because of the angry reaction among Islamic leaders to the
Pope's lecture at Regensburg in September. Prior to his meeting with the Pontiff
today, Khatami told reporters that the tensions between Christians and Muslims
remain "very deep."

In speaking with the Iranian leader, the Pope called
attention to the severe difficulties that Christians face in the Islamic
countries of the Middle East, and specifically in Iran. The Vatican statement
did not mention Khatami's response to the Pope on that point.

The Pope
and the Iranian ex-president spent some time discussing the prospects for
international peacemaking efforts in the Middle East, and the initiatives under
discussion at this week's meetings in Sharm al Sheikh, Egypt.

Videos in different languages

For anyone who speak Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, Lingala, or any other african language:
Welcome. I won't be writing too much in those language, but videos in those language will be indicated to google so they can reach you. If you don't see it when you visit this page, reflesh couple times and you should be able to enjoy few songs from Makoma, Kidumu, and other gospel, raggae, or other good songs from Africa, india, etc.

Thanks for people who provide those songs to youtube.

God bless