HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Saint Peter's Basilica
The Solemn Easter Vigil, 7 April 2012
 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Easter is the feast of the new creation. Jesus is risen and dies no more. He has opened the door to a new life, one that no longer knows illness and death. He has taken mankind up into God himself. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”, as Saint Paul says in the First Letter to the Corinthians (15:50). On the subject of Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection, the Church writer Tertullian in the third century was bold enough to write: “Rest assured, flesh and blood, through Christ you have gained your place in heaven and in the Kingdom of God” (CCL II, 994). A new dimension has opened up for mankind. Creation has become greater and broader. Easter Day ushers in a new creation, but that is precisely why the Church starts the liturgy on this day with the old creation, so that we can learn to understand the new one aright. At the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word on Easter night, then, comes the account of the creation of the world. Two things are particularly important here in connection with this liturgy. On the one hand, creation is presented as a whole that includes the phenomenon of time. The seven days are an image of completeness, unfolding in time. They are ordered towards the seventh day, the day of the freedom of all creatures for God and for one another. Creation is therefore directed towards the coming together of God and his creatures; it exists so as to open up a space for the response to God’s great glory, an encounter between love and freedom. On the other hand, what the Church hears on Easter night is above all the first element of the creation account: “God said, ‘let there be light!’” (Gen 1:3). The creation account begins symbolically with the creation of light. The sun and the moon are created only on the fourth day. The creation account calls them lights, set by God in the firmament of heaven. In this way he deliberately takes away the divine character that the great religions had assigned to them. No, they are not gods. They are shining bodies created by the one God. But they are preceded by the light through which God’s glory is reflected in the essence of the created being.  Full Text of Homily
 

Holy Trinity Catholic High School names New Principal, Dr. Veronica Alonzo, Ed.D

TEMPLE, TEXAS - HOLY TRINITY CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL has announced that they have hired a new principal.  Dr. Veronica Alonzo, Ed. D of Grand Prairie, Texas has accepted the position and will begin work in Temple, effective July 1, 2012. 

Bruce A. Matous, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and leader of the Principal Search Committee, is excited that Dr. Alonzo has accepted the position.  According to Matous, “We approached our job as one with much prayer and discernment. We felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as we moved through the process. We believe Dr. Alonzo will provide positive and encouraging leadership as our school continues to grow in building Christian Leaders”.
Read Full Article
 

For Greater Glory

For Greater Glory: The Movie to depict the True Story of the Cristiada; unveils a time when Mexican Christians, in the pursuit of religious freedom, had to choose between their faith and their lives.

 Cristero soldiers — Mexican freedom fighters who rose up against the anti-Catholic laws — ride with the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Christ the King.

Just five years after the first Knights of Columbus council was established in Mexico in 1905, the country was catapulted into a long period of armed conflict, now called the Mexican Revolution. But what started as a fight against the established autocratic order evolved into a multi-sided civil war, with each competing faction claiming legitimacy.

Although Catholicism had been a part of Mexico’s history for nearly 400 years, the Catholic Church was perceived as hostile toward the revolution, resulting in an unstable and anti-religious social and political environment. A new constitution, which included several anti-clerical articles, was drafted in 1917, setting the stage for an era of persecution that lasted more than two decades.
Read Full Story


 

    Thoughts in  Christ's Kingdom     

Thanksgiving
Christmas
Baptism of the Lord
Point to the Lord,Ordinary Time II
Salt & Light, Ordinary Time V
Why follow the commandments? Ordinary time VI 
 Love Your Neighbor as Yourself, Ordinary time VII
Divine Mercy, 2011
Easter III, "Emmaus"
Easter VI, God in the Calamities of Life
Ascension, 2011
Pentecost, 2011
Most Holy Trinity, 2011
Corpus Christi, 2011
Parable of the Sower
Parable of God's Grace
Matthew's Loaves & Fishes
Faith in the Storms
Canaanite Woman
Peter & Benedict XVI
Monks in Abbeys and in Cities
The Brothers Yes
Breathing
Mary, Mother of God
Fishers of Men
Troubled Hearts
Job
Paralysis
Ash Wednesday 2012
I really like Lent