News in Spirituality

Sadness: Precious Teachings from this Emotion

Sadness is certainly not a desired or attractive feeling with its dense cluster of synonyms that are difficult to separate with any precision (boredom, angst, depression). It never has been, even if it has had a certain consideration in literary and philosophical circles (think of Spleen, the meditative or melancholic sadness, of Romanticism and decadence, or of the angst of Heidegger as the cipher of human existence) and has, in general, influenced the entire history of culture and medical research in the West.

Sadness: Precious Teachings from this Emotion

Sadness is certainly not a desired or attractive feeling with its dense cluster of synonyms that are difficult to separate with any precision (boredom, angst, depression). It never has been, even if it has had a certain consideration in literary and philosophical circles (think of Spleen, the meditative or melancholic sadness, of Romanticism and decadence, or of the angst of Heidegger as the cipher of human existence) and has, in general, influenced the entire history of culture and medical research in the West.

‘In the case of Clare and Francis, it seems there was a fair bit of yin and yang in the relationship’

 Behind every great man there’s a great woman, often one with even more potential than her male partner. That certainly seems to have been true of St Clare of Assisi: on a trip to her home town I was struck by how slight her legacy is, in comparison with her friend St Francis. Yet when you unpick her story, there’s as much to commend the woman they called “the poor lady of San Damiano” as there is to salute the founder of the Franciscans.

For a Theology of the Discernment of Spirits

 The Spiritual Exercises (SE) are St. Ignatius’ kerygmatic legacy, his “Gospel.” The practice of the Exercises – in various modes suited to the needs of each exercitant, always respecting the integrity of the steps involved in the process – is ordered to the choice of one’s state of life or its reform. Therefore, at the heart of the thematic structure of the Exercises is a set of norms and practices that are an essential part of the kerygma.

Popular Religiosity in the Dialogue Between Faith and Culture

 Some time ago, a Jesuit, who at that time was working with a parish in a working-class neighborhood, confided to us his concern about the drastic decrease in the number of faithful attending celebrations, catechesis and parish activities. In contrast, he noted the enormous number of people who, gathered by the confraternity of the neighborhood, filled the parish on the occasion of its celebrations and, above all, flocked en masse whenever it carried its images in procession through the streets.

Power in the Bible

 What does the Bible say about “power”? The subject is current and of great interest, but not at all simple. Anyone searching for the word “power” in the Old Testament would be disappointed: it does not exist in Hebrew. Is that because Sacred Scripture does not provide any cause for reflection about power? Far from it. However, we do not find any theoretical statement about it since the biblical tradition is a livedxperience that becomes clearer over the course of the narration.

Mysticism Without God

The Spiritual Exercises in a Secular Age

The ‘Weakness’ of Christ. An argument for His truth

The Heart of Christ in the Liturgy

The new edition of the Roman Missal, has been adopted by all the Italian dioceses, with the exception of  Milan, which follows its own rite. It contains numerous prayer texts on the theme of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Above all is the Mass for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Friday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost.

The Spiritual Masters of Pope Francis: Hugo Rahner, Miguel Ángel Fiorito, Gaston Fessard

 Spirituality occupies a primary role in the project of missionary reform promoted by Pope Francis. As early as in his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, in which he set out his priorities, he called attention to the urgent task of our time, namely, that the entire people of God prepare to undertake “in  the Spirit” a new stage of evangelization.

What's the future for Jesuits in India?

For four centuries at least, the Society Ignatius founded, dominated the post-Tridentine Church, as a big fish in a rather small pond. But not just the Church, their myriad activities impinged upon the world at large.Their schools and methods of teaching were a template for the education of the young. Their missionary techniques — Ricci, De Nobili, Ruiz de Montoya — were so far ahead of their time that they invited censure and closure from the stodgy dicasteries in Rome.

French Fécamp 'precious blood' relics recovered after abbey theft

Why do we pray to saints?

The Bible teaches that “God created humans in his image” (Genesis 1:27). Commenting on this, Voltaire (1694-1778) said, “If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.” Our ability and propensity to create, our capacity to love and accept love, our ability to forgive and to transcend self-centeredness — sin-marred though they be — all point to some affinity to divinity in us.

Charles de Foucauld: Prophet of Universal Fraternity

“In the desert we are never alone.” This affirmation comes from someone who loved the Sahara, Little Brother Charles of Jesus, Charles de Foucauld, and it embodies the essence of his life in the desert, where he lived in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, his own “treasure.” It embodied the presence and humility of God, but was also the sacrament of love. He had chosen to “take his place as close as possible to Jesus of Nazareth, among the least, even if it meant being hidden and ‘useless’ in the immensity of the desert.”

The Bible as a Cultural Gift: Four words for today

This is our primary task as a believing community: to keep alive the cultural dimension of the Christian faith, and, in particular, the decisive value that biblical instruction has for some of the grave problems of our time. It is not by chance that Sacred Scripture has been studied and commented upon for centuries by the generations that preceded us, and has had a profound impact on every aspect of European history.

Nature and God, Feminine or Masculine? A New Vision

There is an urge to «return home», return to the vision that was our spiritual home, a anthropotheocosmic vision that allowed us to live for millennia as the beloved children of Mother Earth, incarnate body of the divine. As was said by EATWOT (The Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians): we will cease degrading nature only when we understand its divine character and our authentic natural character.

The Prosperity Gospel: Dangerous and Different

The “prosperity gospel” is a well-known theological current emerging from the neo-Pentecostal evangelical movements. At its heart is the belief that God wants his followers to have a prosperous life, that is, to be rich, healthy and happy. 

The Spiritual Aftermath of Covid-19

A catastrophe can shape the way a generation thinks, as can be testified by children who are born after a war, mothers who see their children fleeing poverty, and the millions of refugees in the world today. In the history of humanity, wars, pandemics and famines, as recurring phenomena, require an adequate understanding of their causes and consequences, otherwise there is a high risk of repeating mistakes, losing our way and becoming shipwrecked again.

Mysticism Without God

 “Mysticism presents itself as the space where a speculative study of religious facts meets the need to live religious experience in the milieu of the advanced secularism of western society.”This does not mean that this culture of formal rationality, typical of the Enlightenment, is not today undermined by the return of the irrational and of individualism, or by the natural tendency of man toward the magic sense of things and to symbolic function. This is how secular analysts explain the current interest in mysticism.