News.com.au is apparently an Australian popular and secular news web site. Generally all media of the concerned country do some extensive coverage of the WYD, it is doing a great job covering this one in Sydney. Here is one of the interesting articles about the remarkable well behaved catholic youth in the street of Sydney:
CATHOLIC World Youth Day pilgrims are one of the most well-behaved groups of young people police have seen.
"I've never seen a crowd like this, it's even better than an Olympic crowd," New South Wales police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said today.
"Hundreds of thousands of young people moving through the city not affected by drugs and alcohol has been such a wonderful experience.
"It just shows what can happen when you have people who aren't affected by alcohol."
Mr Scipione said he hoped local young people would follow the example set by the "joyous" Catholic pilgrims.
"There are many lessons to come out of World Youth Day, and if that's one of them then we'll be very pleased."
-Click the link for more.
Showing posts with label Feasts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Feasts. Show all posts
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Virtually in Sydney
Having failed to make it in Sydney for the WYD 2008, it looks that all arrangements were made for people like me to be there virtually.
I can watch events live on Salt+Light or EWTN, or watch recorded events on video on a site specifically created for this purpose: http://video.wyd2008.org/
To those who are joining...enjoy and God bless
Alain
I can watch events live on Salt+Light or EWTN, or watch recorded events on video on a site specifically created for this purpose: http://video.wyd2008.org/
To those who are joining...enjoy and God bless
Alain
Thursday, June 19, 2008
WYD Social Network launched in Sydney.
"Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat! "
WYD 2002 left Canada with a new catholic television, Salt+Light.
WYD 2005 must have come with new great initiatives, one of them being the schoenstattyouth web site.
WYD 2008 brings XT3 already even before the official start date of WYD which is on July 15.
XT3 stands for 'Christ in the Third Millenium'. And it is a social network for WYD2008 and beyond as it states on its website. Here are descriptive videos.
God bless
WYD 2002 left Canada with a new catholic television, Salt+Light.
WYD 2005 must have come with new great initiatives, one of them being the schoenstattyouth web site.
WYD 2008 brings XT3 already even before the official start date of WYD which is on July 15.
XT3 stands for 'Christ in the Third Millenium'. And it is a social network for WYD2008 and beyond as it states on its website. Here are descriptive videos.
God bless
Friday, May 30, 2008
Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Happy Feast of the Sacred Heart to everyone!
Or I hope everyone had a great one!
Ever since I was a child there was the well known picture of the Sacred Heart around. But I never really stopped and think about it until recently.
Have you ever stopped and looked closer?
We see the fire he has come to set on earth.
We see the thorns and blood of his suffering...
I think it was this 'hurting' aspect which had caused me unconsciously for a long time not to set my eyes on it for a long time. The picture looked odd.
Yet we feel it often or causes others to feel it without realising it. How many time we hear or see people 'hurt'. I find that it can help us to realise that every hurt is represented by at least one of those thorns. Didn't Jesus say that whatever we do to one of our neighbor we do it to him?
It also help to remember this picture when we are hurt ourselves. And suffer in communion with the Lord.
I find that whenever I unite my heart with Jesus I share in the real Reality. The reality of God's love for us. Remembering that our heart is a sacred Temple where the Lord reside. And that he is in us since we received him in the Holy Eucharist. Is good to remember that whenever they have been a Eucharistic miracle when the Lord shows his flesh to his people, he often show a 'beating heart' or a tissue of flesh of a human heart.
So if you lower your head into your heart, and see yourself as in a little Temple, you are not imagining things. It is real. That's how we are fully the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Temple of God. Tabernacles of the living God. As we stay in grace, we share the heart of Jesus, so we can share in that sacred fire of love which endure all things, believe all things, last forever...
Someone asked about the meaning on this site of 'civilization of love'. I would say that it is the civilization that springs from this fire that the Lord has come to set on Earth. A fire which has been burning on Earth for 2000+ years and is still being spread around the globe. But we often quench it when we sin.
Let's us love one another, and pray for one another that "we may keep his commandments and so be able to abide in his love" in his heart.
God bless
Or I hope everyone had a great one!
Ever since I was a child there was the well known picture of the Sacred Heart around. But I never really stopped and think about it until recently.
Have you ever stopped and looked closer?
We see the fire he has come to set on earth.
We see the thorns and blood of his suffering...
I think it was this 'hurting' aspect which had caused me unconsciously for a long time not to set my eyes on it for a long time. The picture looked odd.
Yet we feel it often or causes others to feel it without realising it. How many time we hear or see people 'hurt'. I find that it can help us to realise that every hurt is represented by at least one of those thorns. Didn't Jesus say that whatever we do to one of our neighbor we do it to him?
It also help to remember this picture when we are hurt ourselves. And suffer in communion with the Lord.
I find that whenever I unite my heart with Jesus I share in the real Reality. The reality of God's love for us. Remembering that our heart is a sacred Temple where the Lord reside. And that he is in us since we received him in the Holy Eucharist. Is good to remember that whenever they have been a Eucharistic miracle when the Lord shows his flesh to his people, he often show a 'beating heart' or a tissue of flesh of a human heart.
So if you lower your head into your heart, and see yourself as in a little Temple, you are not imagining things. It is real. That's how we are fully the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Temple of God. Tabernacles of the living God. As we stay in grace, we share the heart of Jesus, so we can share in that sacred fire of love which endure all things, believe all things, last forever...
Someone asked about the meaning on this site of 'civilization of love'. I would say that it is the civilization that springs from this fire that the Lord has come to set on Earth. A fire which has been burning on Earth for 2000+ years and is still being spread around the globe. But we often quench it when we sin.
Let's us love one another, and pray for one another that "we may keep his commandments and so be able to abide in his love" in his heart.
God bless
Monday, May 19, 2008
Feast of the Most Holy Trinity: God is love.
I can't believe it has been more than a month since my last post!
Many things distracted me which includes participating in some interfaith forums. It can be good for evangelising but it is not that good when one start to forget home. So I am trying to take a break for them. My friends knows that I take this kinds of break often, well, this is an other one:)
Few days ago, Christians from other denominations were discussing the Holy Trinity. As you are aware of this, many have different views which include a view that Jesus is the Holy Spirit :(.... All this started in a topic which was about trying to prove that our Holy Mother Mary is not the Mother of God.
I think I have to ask prayers for our Faith, for us, and for the separate brothers.
Below is a copy of my contribution. For me as I indicated at the beginning this blog, my basis of understanding the mystery of the Holy Trinity is the basic idea that God is love.
Few hours ago it was the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Hope every one got relevant blessings
John.15:
[12]"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. [13] Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
1John.3
[16] By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Many things distracted me which includes participating in some interfaith forums. It can be good for evangelising but it is not that good when one start to forget home. So I am trying to take a break for them. My friends knows that I take this kinds of break often, well, this is an other one:)
Few days ago, Christians from other denominations were discussing the Holy Trinity. As you are aware of this, many have different views which include a view that Jesus is the Holy Spirit :(.... All this started in a topic which was about trying to prove that our Holy Mother Mary is not the Mother of God.
I think I have to ask prayers for our Faith, for us, and for the separate brothers.
Below is a copy of my contribution. For me as I indicated at the beginning this blog, my basis of understanding the mystery of the Holy Trinity is the basic idea that God is love.
Few hours ago it was the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Hope every one got relevant blessings
[8] He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.
A deep meditation on this fundamental christian belief lead us to see that God is not lonely. And for a Christian Jesus has revealed that God is not lonely but a unity of three divine persons.
And men have been themselves called into this unity in Christ by following his commandment of love.
Love is incompatible with loneliness. A non-Christian may say, that well, that's why God created...so he does not be lonely. But this is a false notion of God. Because God is completely satisfied with himself. So he did not create out of necessity, but out of love.
Jesus revealed to us the deeper mystery when he invited us in the household of God.
Paul put it beautifully:
Eph.2
[19] So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
1Tim.3
[15] if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.
We enter the Church through baptism and the formula of valid baptism as indicated by the Lord Jesus is:
"in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".
To me this look like a person inviting you into his house, and introducing you to his family. And telling us (as we are adopted children) how from now on, as long as we live in this household we have to live according to their lifestyle.
John 14:
15] "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. [16] And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, [17] even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. [18] "I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. [19] Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also. [20] In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. [21] He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." [22] Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" [23] Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
(Columbia.edu)
The only distinction between the persons of the Trinity is their mutual relations. None of the persons exists in respect to himself alone, but each exists relatively to the other two:
...the ``three persons'' who exist in God are the reality of word and love in their attachment to each other. They are not substances, personalities in the modern sense, but the relatedness whose pure actuality... does not impair unity of the highest being but fills it out. St Augustine once enshrined this idea in the following formula: ``He is not called Father with reference to himself but only in relation to the Son; seen by himself he is simply God.'' Here the decisive point comes beautifully to light. ``Father'' is purely a concept of relationship. Only in being-for the other is he Father; in his own being-in-himself he is simply God. Person is the pure relation of being related, nothing else. Relationship is not something extra added to the person, as it is with us; it only exists at all as relatedness.
....the First Person [the Father] does not beget the Son in the sense of the act of begetting coming on top of the finished Person; it is the act of begetting, of giving oneself, of streaming forth. It is identical with the act of giving. (Joseph Ratzinger Introduction to Christianity, pp. 131-132; cf. Augustine, Enarationes in Psalmos 68; De Trinitate VII, 1, 2.)
Each of the persons of the Trinity lives completely for the others; each is a complete gift of self to the others. The complete self-giving not only constitutes the individual persons of the Trinity, but also their inseparable oneness.
Thus, for Christians the very basis of all reality is the loving communion of persons that is the Holy Trinity.
This is the how I understand the oneness in the Trinity, and also the oneness that Jesus prayed for. By living as Jesus commanded us, we achieve, we also, the oneness the Lord prayed for. If we live the way of of the Trinity, the way Jesus commanded us to live:
A deep meditation on this fundamental christian belief lead us to see that God is not lonely. And for a Christian Jesus has revealed that God is not lonely but a unity of three divine persons.
And men have been themselves called into this unity in Christ by following his commandment of love.
Love is incompatible with loneliness. A non-Christian may say, that well, that's why God created...so he does not be lonely. But this is a false notion of God. Because God is completely satisfied with himself. So he did not create out of necessity, but out of love.
Jesus revealed to us the deeper mystery when he invited us in the household of God.
Paul put it beautifully:
Eph.2
[19] So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
1Tim.3
[15] if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.
We enter the Church through baptism and the formula of valid baptism as indicated by the Lord Jesus is:
"in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".
To me this look like a person inviting you into his house, and introducing you to his family. And telling us (as we are adopted children) how from now on, as long as we live in this household we have to live according to their lifestyle.
John 14:
15] "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. [16] And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, [17] even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. [18] "I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. [19] Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also. [20] In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. [21] He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." [22] Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" [23] Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
(Columbia.edu)
The only distinction between the persons of the Trinity is their mutual relations. None of the persons exists in respect to himself alone, but each exists relatively to the other two:
...the ``three persons'' who exist in God are the reality of word and love in their attachment to each other. They are not substances, personalities in the modern sense, but the relatedness whose pure actuality... does not impair unity of the highest being but fills it out. St Augustine once enshrined this idea in the following formula: ``He is not called Father with reference to himself but only in relation to the Son; seen by himself he is simply God.'' Here the decisive point comes beautifully to light. ``Father'' is purely a concept of relationship. Only in being-for the other is he Father; in his own being-in-himself he is simply God. Person is the pure relation of being related, nothing else. Relationship is not something extra added to the person, as it is with us; it only exists at all as relatedness.
....the First Person [the Father] does not beget the Son in the sense of the act of begetting coming on top of the finished Person; it is the act of begetting, of giving oneself, of streaming forth. It is identical with the act of giving. (Joseph Ratzinger Introduction to Christianity, pp. 131-132; cf. Augustine, Enarationes in Psalmos 68; De Trinitate VII, 1, 2.)
Each of the persons of the Trinity lives completely for the others; each is a complete gift of self to the others. The complete self-giving not only constitutes the individual persons of the Trinity, but also their inseparable oneness.
Thus, for Christians the very basis of all reality is the loving communion of persons that is the Holy Trinity.
This is the how I understand the oneness in the Trinity, and also the oneness that Jesus prayed for. By living as Jesus commanded us, we achieve, we also, the oneness the Lord prayed for. If we live the way of of the Trinity, the way Jesus commanded us to live:
John.15:
[12]"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. [13] Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
1John.3
[16] By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
"Let there be Light"
Christmas is already here!!!
The season of love. A time to thing really seriously about others, family and friends. A time to be together. I am still not really ready as I should. I am not even feeling ready to blog even thought I want to very much. And I think I have time since I am not working next week. But again I have many things to do with some friends and phone calls to make all over.
Well, I have been meditating on different ways people are preparing for Christmas. One thing which was very interesting was listening to different local stations at work. It is amazing how we have lost the sense of Christmas. I am really blessed to have found a good christian radio to listen to for the past few months and especially this Christmas season. The following videos are illustrations of the songs that were mostly prayed on different stations (I picked three here: Praise106.5, 103.5QMFM, and The Beat 94.5). This stations are really like a two extremes and the middle one in function of what is more religious or more secular.
The song were sung mostly on Friday on the corresponding station. I should indicate that I have arranged the stations from less popular to most popular
Praise 106.5FM.
This is my favorite
Great song and interesting illustration made by someone on youtube.
103.5QM FM (2)
You may not believe it but the following song prayed about five times before noon (that is in five hours: 0700-1200) on The Beat 94.5 FM, I really wondered what going on in the minds and hearts who are asking for it at this Christmas time.
The Child that is born for us is the Light of the world. He teaches us to forgives always, because our Father forgive us always. No one should feel that it is too late to forgive or to be forgiven or to apologize. How far have we gone from Christ!!!
As you came down you have notice that many people seem to be having a depressed Christmas. Too sad. We seem to be at the point of worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. And when our god crash us down we go depressed. Let's focus our attention on the child of God. The real object of our admiration and adoration. The one we should worship and look at for forgiveness and peace in our hearts. The Light that came to us to shine in our darkness, and let's try to make this season a season of love. Joseph and Mary had all reason to be depressed considering that everyone had turned them away to the point of having no other option than the manger. But still they had great reason to rejoice. They had nothing but they had God with him. And all angels, stars and other creatures were around to celebrate. Let's pray for each other so that the command of God may be done in our hearts. That the Light of the world may come in us, incarnate in our heart and pierce all darkness.
The season of love. A time to thing really seriously about others, family and friends. A time to be together. I am still not really ready as I should. I am not even feeling ready to blog even thought I want to very much. And I think I have time since I am not working next week. But again I have many things to do with some friends and phone calls to make all over.
Well, I have been meditating on different ways people are preparing for Christmas. One thing which was very interesting was listening to different local stations at work. It is amazing how we have lost the sense of Christmas. I am really blessed to have found a good christian radio to listen to for the past few months and especially this Christmas season. The following videos are illustrations of the songs that were mostly prayed on different stations (I picked three here: Praise106.5, 103.5QMFM, and The Beat 94.5). This stations are really like a two extremes and the middle one in function of what is more religious or more secular.
The song were sung mostly on Friday on the corresponding station. I should indicate that I have arranged the stations from less popular to most popular
Praise 106.5FM.
This is my favorite
Great song and interesting illustration made by someone on youtube.
103.5QM FM (2)
You may not believe it but the following song prayed about five times before noon (that is in five hours: 0700-1200) on The Beat 94.5 FM, I really wondered what going on in the minds and hearts who are asking for it at this Christmas time.
The Child that is born for us is the Light of the world. He teaches us to forgives always, because our Father forgive us always. No one should feel that it is too late to forgive or to be forgiven or to apologize. How far have we gone from Christ!!!
As you came down you have notice that many people seem to be having a depressed Christmas. Too sad. We seem to be at the point of worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. And when our god crash us down we go depressed. Let's focus our attention on the child of God. The real object of our admiration and adoration. The one we should worship and look at for forgiveness and peace in our hearts. The Light that came to us to shine in our darkness, and let's try to make this season a season of love. Joseph and Mary had all reason to be depressed considering that everyone had turned them away to the point of having no other option than the manger. But still they had great reason to rejoice. They had nothing but they had God with him. And all angels, stars and other creatures were around to celebrate. Let's pray for each other so that the command of God may be done in our hearts. That the Light of the world may come in us, incarnate in our heart and pierce all darkness.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist
~ Today Mass Readings and suggested Reflections
~ Verse of the day
~ Quote from the saint of the day
~ From EWTN Inspirational Daily Quotes
~ Verse of the day
Ephesians 2:4-7But God, being rich in mercy, because of the
great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us
up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so
that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus
~ Quote from the saint of the day
Our Lord summoned Matthew by speaking to him in words. By an invisible, interior
impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, he instructed him to walk in
his footsteps. In this way Matthew could understand that Christ, who was
summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of
heaven in his gift.
– St. Bede the Venerable
~ From EWTN Inspirational Daily Quotes
Alas, what about you poor children! Being your spiritual father, I give you
this advice: When you see your parents, who miss religious services, who work on
Sunday, who eat meat on forbidden days, who do not go to the Sacraments anymore,
who do not improve their minds on religious matters--do the very opposite before
them, so that your good example may save them, and if you are wise and good
enough to do this, you will have gained everything. That is what I most desire
for you.
-- St. John Vianney
Saturday, September 15, 2007
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
