Open Reflections

The People most honoured

για Ελληνικά πατήστε εδώ

No people is as horoured like the Christian People.

God came to us and became man and ever since He lives among us. Not only doe He live among us, but he also entrusts us, His People, with the continuation of His work, i.e. the spread of the Gospel!

The Christian People are the yeast which causes the dough to rise in order to feed the hungry; they are the light which illumines the world’s darkness in order to show the way to those struggling with ignorance and lies; they are the salt which adds taste to a bland world; they are the heritage of everything good and of everything beautiful which enrich our daily life and points to the future.

The Christian People are a people consisting of innumerable races and speaking all languages under the sun with various cultural roots and traditions up to the far ends of the planet. Scattered in five continents they labour and work with patience and perseverance praying incessantly: “Let your kingdom come”,”let your will be done”.

During the holy days of the Christmas season they ardently worshipped the Holy Infant in his Mother’s arms and their joy overflowed from their hearts and their homes, from the market-place and the churches, from the countryside and the cities bursting into hymns and song, as an invitation and a call to all: “Come and see, taste and see, and, live”.

Glory to God in the highest and peace to the people of good will!

Enter into the truth

The first thing we are told about the shepherds is that they were on the watch – they could hear the message precisely because they were awake. We must be awake, so that we can hear the message. We must become truly vigilant people. What does this mean? The principal difference between someone dreaming and someone awake is that the dreamer is in a world of his own. His “self” is locked into this dreamworld that is his alone and does not connect him with others. To wake up means to leave that private world of one’s own and to enter the common reality, the truth that alone can unite all people. 

To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence. 

(Benedict XVI, Christmas 2009)

When the Faith inspires the art

…the art inspires the Faith.

The Cathedral of The Sacred Family in Barcelona is well known; it is the work of Gaudi, a genius artist, architect and sculptor and a fervent Catholic.

in November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI officially dedicated the church, although there is work still pending for the completion of the whole project of the Cathedral. Its foundation stone was laid in 1882!

In 1978 the Japanese sculptor Etsuro Soto’o was hired to work at the Cathedral. One day Etsuro noticed there a sculpture depicting the Virgin Mary holding the Infant Jesus in her arms and the scene powerfully impressed him: “what immense love is there?” he wandered.

That was the beginning of a spiritual quest which finally led him to the Faith and to Baptism. Now Mr. Soto’o considers himself as happy as can be because he is not a “stranger” to that immense love, the love of God Incarnate whose glimpse so dazzled him in that very expressive artistic representation at the Cathedral.

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