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Today is: Thursday 09.09.2010
The main topic
The pontificate of John Paul II changed the course of world history. Quite simply, he transformed the minds and hearts of hundreds of millions of people. This makes his pontificate one of the most important in the two-thousand-year-period of Christian history.
A great number of the faithful already consider Pope John Paul II a saint. We saw this during his funeral in the banner slogans and shouts calling for his immediate canonization (“Santo Subito!”).
Padre Pio was born in Pietrelcina on 25 May 1887 and died in San Giovanni Rotondo on 22 September 1968. He is certainly one of the world’s most well known and best loved saints. Since his death in 1968, about 9.5 million people visit Padre Pio’s grave each year.
Jesus Christ revealed supernatural reality to us, teaching and performing wonders and miracles. He said “If you do not see wonders and miracles you will not believe” (Jn 4: 48). Wonders and miracles have a very important place in the formation and maturation of our faith.
Examples of bilocation have been recorded in the lives of many mystic saints i.e. that state in which a given person is present in two different places at once, sometimes many thousands of miles apart. This is one of the most mysterious phenomena in the lives of mystics
Padre Pio longed to fully realize his vocation as a priest and religious. For this reason he imitated Christ’s love and humility with all his strength. And yet it was Christ Himself who made him a living image of His love, granting him the gift of the stigmata. For fifty years Padre Pio carried the visible wounds of Christ’s passion and death on his body. The stigmata remained untouched throughout this period, were always fresh and bleeding and gave off a wonderful fragrance. At the moment of death they disappeared completely, leaving behind no scars.
Democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism ...
Mel Gibson’s film on the final 12 hours in the life of Jesus is more than a masterpiece of cinematographic art. The movie — as the director tells us — simply seeks to tell the truth. I wanted it to be as real as possible.
But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).
The gospels tell us that hatred was the main reason for Christ’s crucifixion (cf. Mk 15:10) – a hatred prompted by the fact that Jesus behaved and taught as one who partook of the power and authority of God Himself (cf. Mk 15:10).
