Teachings

The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ and Saint Yves

In 1264, Pope Urban IV instituted the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, as a reply to the heresy of Berenger of Tours’ that denied Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. In his Bull Transiturus, he wrote: “It is right, in order to reply to some heretics’ madness, to remind ourselves of the presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament.” Normally, this feast takes place sixty days after Easter, which is on the Thursday that comes after the solemnity of the Holy Trinity, as it is the case...

    During Lent, the liturgy invites us to contemplate resurrected Christ’s apparitions to his disciples. Thinking about what an apparition means is very interesting for our faith, especially regarding what we are really hoping for and believing in our own resurrection. Actually, Christ’s body presents, after His resurrection, some very surprising characteristics. He is able to appear almost at the same moment in two places that are twelve kilometers away from one another; while...

Lent and fast

This Lent offers us an opportunity to think about the traditional three means of asceticism which almost all religions teach to their followers: fasting, prayer and the giving of alms. It is also interesting to remembering that, during his entire life, Saint Yves practiced them all with equal rigor and with impressive achievement. What, then, does his example teach us? And, what traps should we avoid in these matters? After all, saints are canonized in order to offer us examples of lives that are...

Lent and prayer

Fasting, Christians must remember that Humankind cannot accept its Beloved’s absence. This frantic loving quest for Him should lead us to seek Him where we can recognize His presence: first, within prayer, where we can converse with Him; second, within our neighbor, where we can contemplate His face. Of course, there are many forms of prayers. Saint Theresa of Avila taught that there was not a single method for praying. Saint Dominic or Saint Francis invited their brothers to praise the Lord...

Lent and sharing

The third of the traditional means to obtain sanctification that not only the Church recommends but also most of the other important religions is giving alms. Saint Vincent of Paul used to say that before trying to save the soul of the poor, we should help them to realize they have one, which means that we should help to help them live decent enough lives, because, without it they will have to consecrate their entire energies to simply survive. However, not only material goods can be shared:...

Letter of Pope Francis

From the Letter of Pope Francis to participants in the 19th International Congress of the International Association of Penal Law end of the 3rd Congress of the Latin-American Association of Penal Law and Crmiminology.  (Vatican, May 30th 2014) “The Lord has gradually taught his people that there is a necessary asymmetry between crime and punishment, that one cannot apply the remedy: an eye for an eye or a tooth for a broken tooth, by breaking that of another. Justice is to be rendered...