by Deacon James Toner | Nov 30, 2020
“He that walketh with the wise, shall be wise: a friend of fools shall become like to them”
(Proverbs 13:20 DRB).
There are, I know, exceptions to this “rule,” but let’s stipulate that men who enter the priesthood are good guys: They like people, generally interact well with people, expect good things from other people, and are surprised and disappointed when others let them down. Customarily, priests expect the best of people, not the worst; they expect that people will do the intentional right thing, not the deliberate wrong one; and that apologies will follow if and after people recognize their errors. If sin is a fact of our fallen lives, our priests give full credit to the people they know for apparently trying to fight the good spiritual fight. Priests are optimists fond of saying things such as they have read the last page of the Bible, and God wins!
Read the Whole Article at https://onepeterfive.com/
by Massimo Scapin | Nov 28, 2020
On November 28, 1680, 340 years ago, under the reign of Pope Innocent XI, the eleventh pope he served, the genius symbol of Roman Baroque art died in Rome at the age of 81: the architect, sculptor, painter, and set designer, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Naples 1598 – Rome 1680).
Pope Urban VIII (1568-1644), with whom he was already a friend, supported him and thus enabled his period of great success in the Eternal City; as soon as he was elected to the papal throne he told him: “It is your great luck, Cavaliere, to see Cardinal Maffeo Barberini Pope, but We are even luckier that the Cavaliere Bernini lives at the time of our pontificate” (F. Baldinucci, Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernini, scultore, architetto e pittore, Firenze, Vangelisti, 1682, p. 10). After a period of distancing from pontifical court, not enjoying the favor of Urban VIII’s successor, Pope Innocent X (1574-1655), our artist was called by Pope Alexander VII (1599-1667) for very important works, including his architectural masterpiece: the two grandiose and harmonious colonnades of St. Peter’s Square, effective evocation of the solemn embrace of the mater Ecclesia, which complete Michelangelo’s project for the Vatican basilica and enhance the mighty Maderno’s facade.
Among Bernini’s works — churches, palaces, fountains, statues — we want to remember the masterpiece of his maturity: the Transverberation of St. Teresa, better known as the Ecstasy, a famous sculptural group placed in the left transept of the Roman church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, located in a few hundred meters from Termini train station, which he created between 1647 and 1651 on commission from the Venetian cardinal Federico Cornaro, there buried since 1653. “In the judgment of everyone, he did not produce by his hands marble worked with greater tenderness and design than this […]. Bernini said that this was the least bad work he had ever done” (D. Bernini, Vita del cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernini: descritta da Domenico Bernino, suo figlio, Roma 1713, p. 83).
Read the Whole Article at https://onepeterfive.com/
by Eric Sammons | Nov 27, 2020
Holy relics are a distinctive feature of Catholicism. Would you expect to see the bones of some ancient martyr on display at your local Evangelical church? To most non-Catholics, holy relics are just plain weird. Sadly, veneration of holy relics even among Catholics has also been a practice often relegated to “old-fashioned” Catholics—a quasi-superstitious holdover from the “dark ages.”
Yet holy relics have been part of the Faith since the beginning. Relics are physical connections to the sacred. They include the body and bones of saints, as well as physical items they owned or just touched. Holy relics allow us to connect to those holy men and women who came before us, to enter more deeply into the mystery of their Christ-like lives.
One woman who did more to promote the veneration of holy relics than perhaps anyone is St. Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine. Helen’s son conquered the Roman Empire under the sign of the Cross, and he wanted his mother to find the True Cross—the greatest holy relic of the Christian Faith—so it could be adored and venerated by the whole Church. So Helen traveled to Jerusalem in her quest to find the most precious relic of all.
Read the Whole Article at https://onepeterfive.com/
