Suffering & Resurrection Archives - Page 2 of 3

Italy

Ricci is Model for Dialogue and Mission in Globalized World

Italian Father Matteo Ricci, the 16th-century Jesuit known for his positive relations with the Chinese, is a model for dialogue and evangelization in the 21st-century globalized society, underlined speakers at a conference in Rome. Father Ricci’s experience and writings remind people “that there are basic similarities in all human beings, in human nature: hope, suffering, questioning the meaning of life. We all share those whether we are Westerners or Chinese,” said Jesuit Father Augustine Tsang Hing-to.

Cindy Wooden

Africa/Asia

Sant’Egidio Hails Decline in Executioner Nations

Abolitionists have welcomed data that show an increasing number of countries are taking the death penalty off their statute books. A three-day World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Geneva was told that roughly four countries a year, especially in Africa and Central Asia, have done away with the death penalty recently. A South Korean court ruled the death penalty as constitutional, although there has not been an execution for 12 years. Many others are taking steps to restrict it, the international lay Catholic association, the Sant’Egidio Community, vigorous campaigners against the death penalty, told the Conference.

www.ucanews.com

Frontiers

We are Made of One Soul Only. Only One

A very good friend, of my young ages from the time of the Lycée Français, had an operation last week. When I visited her, I could not avoid the tears for the deep feelings of love and compassion for her in her suffering. I had come from the Jamat Khana; it was Friday and I really felt like praying. Among those remembered, Teresinha’s health was part of the humble request to God’s infinite mercy and generosity. I normally take the tasbih (the rosary for remembering the most beautiful names of God). She is Catholic, however, after all the years of shared experiences – some happier than others. I asked her to hold on to my tasbih. She tightened it in her cold hand. While I was leaving the room, I asked God one more time, that her suffering was lessened. Yes, because life is pain, and pain is part of living; the only thing we can ask for from Allah is that it is lessened, minimized.

Faranaz Keshavjee

Fatima

From the Olympics to the Convent

Twelve years ago, at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, a 17-year-old speedskating prodigy named Kirstin Holum was tapped for future greatness. When Holum placed sixth in the 3,000 meters – one of the most grueling disciplines in the women’s program, a lung-scraping four-minute bust of lactic acid torture – speedskating insiders predicted a golden future and speculated she may not even reach her peak for another decade. Like many of the longer distances, the 3,000 is regularly dominated by older athletes, as it can take years to build up the requisite reserves of aerobic capacity and deep-tissue resilience. At Nagano, 32-year-old Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann of Germany claimed the gold.

Martin Rogers

World Report

Looking for Christ’s Face

The mysterious and controversial Shroud of Turin that, according to tradition, preserves the death mask of the Crucified Jesus, and the less-known but perhaps more dramatic Veronica’s Veil that, to some, shows the Face of the Resurrected Christ, inspire the faithful and even the Pope. Whatever is the truth about these images, the underlying fact is that they bring us back to the Face of the Lord. He Himself told us to find It on the face of those near us – the least of His brethren. This is the face we should seek.

Robert Moynihan | Journalist

WM Special

A Personal and Cosmic Way of the Cross

There is a personal and cosmic way of the cross to reach the Resurrection. The old language of suffering being the ‘price’ of redemption, which makes the salvation of the world sound like a commercial transaction, a bargain between us (in Christ) and God the Father is definitely over. Christ’s suffering, or yours, or mine, or the suffering of an innocent child, is not a weight to be thrown into one side of a divine merchant’s scales to counterbalance the weight of sin on the other.

Fr. Francesco Pierli, MCCJ | Theologian

WM Special

The Silence of God

Faith has a reason and vision that neither the mind nor the heart can understand. Faith, despite the darkness of our times and the silence of God, helps us to see beyond the haze. The goodness of God does not imply that He has to spare us all from suffering. God has created us as participants and protagonists – indeed, co-creators with Him – in the complex, fascinating process of life and growth in the world. It is a process that entails hard work and suffering of every kind.

Fr. Renato Kizito Sesana | Comboni Missionary

In Focus

Jerusalem Must be the Mother of all Believers

The Latin Patriarch in the Holy Land, Fouad Twal, regrets that Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ suffered, was crucified and resurrected, became a factor of division, contention and pain for the followers of the three biggest monotheistic religions. But, at the same time, he laments that the Christian community is dwindling; he still hopes that the future of the city is to be “the mother of churches, mother for all believers.”

www.zenit.org

Frontline

A Spirituality of Encounter and Visitation

Without the encounter with Islam, the Church will not be able to sing her hymn of praise to God freely and fully; without the visitation of other religions, the Church cannot celebrate the Eucharist fully ‘for you and for the many.” This is the basis of the ‘theology of hope’ developed by Christian de Chergé, the Trappist monk who was killed in May 1996 in Algeria, but whose spiritual legacy of interreligious dialogue remains alive.

Fr. Fons Eppink | Mill Hill Missionary

Missionary Vocation

Lessons from the Vulnerable

Jean Vanier, great modern prophet, turned 80 two years ago among the disabled in Kolkata, India, where he was sent off into “retirement” by a brass band and a parade of nine elephants. Son of a Canadian ambassador, he became an officer in the Royal Navy, then, a professor of theology. He left everything to live with the handicapped. He is the founder of L’Arche (Noah’s Ark), the movement in favor of the disabled that continues in 130 communities in 30 different countries. The central insight of L’Arche is that society can ultimately be healed only by those whom it rejects.Tall and stooped, Vanier radiates the strength of a man who has fought his own inner battles and surfaced with peace. He has traveled worldwide giving retreats and now lives at Trosly, in France, in the same small house where he started his first community.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

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Series: Suffering & Resurrection