Reformáció napja/Reformation Day/Reformationstag

Nagy Szent II. János Pál pápa

Pope St. John Paul the Great

Papst Hl. Johannes Paulus II der Große

Papa Giovanni Paolo II. il Grande

Święty Jan Paweł II Wielki

(Szt./ St./Hl./ S./ Św. Karol Józef Wojtyła)

/1920-2005/

Kép forrása:

https://www.facebook.com/PCross83/

„Bocsássunk meg és kérjünk bocsánatot! Miközben dicsőítjük Istent, aki irgalmas szeretetében az életszentség, a missziós buzgóság és a Krisztus iránti teljes odaadás teljesen csodálatos termését ajándékozta, nem mulaszthatjuk el annak beismerését, hogy bizonyos testvéreink hűtlenné lettek az Evangéliumhoz, különösen a második évezredben. Bocsánatot kérünk a keresztények között létrejött megoszlásokért; az erőszakért, mellyel egyes keresztények az igazság szolgálatában alkalmaztak; a bizalmatlanságért és ellenségeskedésért, amit olykor más vallások követőivel szemben tanúsítottak.”

(2000. március 12.)

“Let us forgive and ask forgiveness! While we praise God who, in his merciful love, has produced in the Church a wonderful harvest of holiness, missionary zeal, total dedication to Christ and neighbor, we cannot fail to recognize the infidelities to the Gospel committed by some of our brethren, especially during the second millennium. Let us ask pardon for the divisions which have occurred among Christians, for the violence some have used in the service of the truth and for the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards the followers of other religions.”

(March 12, 2000)

„Wir vergeben und bitten um Vergebung! Während wir Gott loben, der in seiner barmherzigen Liebe einen wunderbaren Reichtum an Heiligkeit, missionarischem Eifer, vollkommener Hingabe an Christus und den Nächsten in der Kirche hervorgerufen hat, können wir nicht umhin, die Untreue gegenüber dem Evangelium anzuerkennen, deren sich einige unserer Brüder besonders während des zweiten Jahrtausends schuldig gemacht haben. Wir bitten um Vergebung für die Spaltungen, die unter den Christen entstanden sind, für den Gebrauch der Gewalt, zu dem einige von ihnen im Dienst an der Wahrheit geschritten sind, und für die bisweilen eingenommenen Haltungen des Mißtrauens und der Feindseligkeit gegenüber den Anhängern anderer Religionen.”

(Den 12-ten März 2000)

„Perdoniamo e chiediamo perdono! Mentre lodiamo Dio che, nel suo amore misericordioso, ha suscitato nella Chiesa una messe meravigliosa di santità, di ardore missionario, di totale dedizione a Cristo ed al prossimo, non possiamo non riconoscere le infedeltà al Vangelo in cui sono incorsi certi nostri fratelli, specialmente durante il secondo millennio. Chiediamo perdono per le divisioni che sono intervenute tra i cristiani, per l'uso della violenza che alcuni di essi hanno fatto nel servizio alla verità, e per gli atteggiamenti di diffidenza e di ostilità assunti talora nei confronti dei seguaci di altre religioni.”

(12 marzo 2000)

Martha Medeiros: You start dying slowly

You start dying slowly

if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.
You start dying slowly
When you kill your self-esteem;
When you do not let others help you.
You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.
You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.
You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice...

Text's source: http://www.middlewaysociety.org/poetry-108-you-start-dying-slowly-by-pablo-neruda/

Article on the autorship: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=325275&CategoryId=14094

Visit to the John Paul II Center, Vienna

Last week I visited the John Paul II Center (Zentrum Johannes Paulus II.) in Vienna. The institution is located in Landstraße, the third district (close to the homonymous subway station) and since the beginning of summer it has been under renovation. The Center was founded in 2011 and on the official internet page (http://www.zentrum-johannes-paul-ii.at/) you can find the following description: “Das Zentrum Johannes Paul II. ist ein Ort der Begegnung, des Austausches, des gemeinsamen Gebets und der Glaubensvertiefung.” (The John Paul II Center is a place of meeting, of exchange, of shared prayer and of faith deepening.) It is led by Father George Elsbett LC who, unfortunately, wasn’t in Austria the day I visited the institution.

The JP2 Center’s chapel (1)

Upon my arrival I was warmly welcomed by Father Joachim Richter LC, who has been serving in Vienna since 2015. Father Joachim is in charge of the youth organization ECyD (Experiences, Convictions and your Decisions) and he showed me the institution.

The JP2 Center’s chapel (2)

The chapel is being enlarged and will double its size. Furthermore the electric system is going to be replaced and there will be the possibility to regularly broadcast on the internet masses held in the chapel.

The Viennese JP2 Center,
under renovation (1)

The Viennese JP2 Center,
under renovation (2)

The renovation will last until this autumn.
I’m looking forward to return to the newly renovated Center! :)

José “Pepe” Mujica

“And tomorrow, like everyone, I’ll be a pile of worms and disappear.”

“Either you’re happy with very little, free of all that extra luggage, because you have happiness inside, or you don’t get anywhere! I am not advocating poverty. I am advocating sobriety.”

“We have invented a mountain of superfluous needs. Shopping for new, discarding the old. That’s a waste of our lives! When I buy something, or you buy something, you’re not paying money for it. Your paying with the hours of life you had to spend earning that money. The difference is life is one thing money can’t buy. Life only gets shorter. And it is pitiful to waste one’s life and freedom that way.”

“What I do recommend is that we stop wasting resources on useless things, on luxuries houses that require six servants to maintain. What good is all that? What good is it? None of that is necessary. We can live much more modestly. We can spend our resources on things that are really important for everyone.”

José “Pepe” Mujica
former President of Uruguay
Photo’s source:
http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/02/150227_uruguay_mujica_10_frases_irm

“Man may very well be the only animal capable of self-destruction.”

“Human nature is constructed in such a way that you end up learning much more from suffering than form a life of ease. That does not mean that I recommend a quest for suffering, or anything like that. But this is what I want to make people understand: You can always pick yourself up again. It’s always worth it starting from zero again, once, or a thousand times, as long as you’re still alive. That’s the biggest lesson in life. In other word, you are not defeated until you give up the fight. You give up the fight by giving up the dream. Fighting, dreaming, being down on the ground, confronting reality that’s what gives meaning to existence, to the lives we lead.”

“You can’t live life when you nurse a grudge. And you can’t live going in circles.”

“You have to learn to pack up your scars and keep going, headed for the future. If I spend my time licking my wounds, I’m not moving forward. I see life as the road that lies ahead. What counts is tomorrow.”

Way of the Cross - Seventh station

Mario Girotti alias Terence Hill as Pietro (Un passo dal cielo),
on his character's personal Way of the Cross (S01 E12-  La lacrima del gigante)
Source of the photo: https://www.facebook.com/TerenceHilltelefilm2000oggi/

Seventh station: Jesus falls for the second time

“The tradition that Jesus fell three times beneath the weight of the Cross evokes the fall of Adam – the state of fallen humanity – and the mystery of Jesus’ own sharing in our fall. Throughout history the fall of man constantly takes on new forms. In his First Letter, Saint John speaks of a threefold fall: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. He thus interprets the fall of man and humanity against the backdrop of the vices of his own time, with all its excesses and perversions. But we can also think, in more recent times, of how a Christianity which has grown weary of faith has abandoned the Lord: the great ideologies, and the banal existence of those who, no longer believing in anything, simply drift through life, have built a new and worse paganism, which in its attempt to do away with God once and for all, have ended up doing away with man. And so man lies fallen in the dust. The Lord bears this burden and falls, over and over again, in order to meet us. He gazes on us, he touches our hearts; he falls in order to raise us up.”

(Joseph Ratzinger’s Way of the Cross meditation, Colosseum, 2005)

Source of the text:
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2005/documents/ns_lit_doc_20050325_via-crucis_en.html

Dalai Lama XIV: The paradox of our times

Is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints

Dalai Lama XIV
(Tenzin Gyatso)
Source of the photo:
https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendzin_Gyaco

We spend more, but we have less.

We have bigger houses, but smaller families
More conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees, but less sense
More knowledge, but less judgement
More experts, but more problems
More medicines, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often
We have learnt how to make a living, but not a life.
We have added years to life, but not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.
We have conquered outer space, but not inner space.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted our soul.
We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.
We've higher incomes, but lower morals.
We've become long on quantity but short on quality.

These are the times of tall men, and short character;
Steep profits, and shallow relationships.
These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare,
More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces;
Of fancier houses, but broken homes.
It is a time when there is much in the show window, and nothing in the stockroom.

A time when technology can bring this letter to you,

And a time when you can choose,

Either to make a difference.... or just hit, delete.

Source: http://www.swaraj.org/paradoxdalai.htm

Tony Meléndez

Tony Meléndez,
Nicaraguan-born armless American singer-songwriter.
Pictured with Saint Karol Józef Wojtyła (JP2 the Great)
on the Pope’s visit to the United States of America (USA) in 1987.
Source of the photo:
http://jceworld.blogspot.ro/2014/01/wow-man-without-arms-plays-guitar-for.html

„Mert nem a félelemnek lelkét adta nekünk az Isten, hanem az erő, a szeretet, és a józanság lelkét.” (2Tim 1, 7)

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of strength and of love and of temperance.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

„Căci Dumnezeu nu ne-a dat un duh de frică, ci de putere, de dragoste și de chibzuință.” (2 Timotei 1: 7)

„Denn Gott hat uns nicht gegeben den Geist der Furcht, sondern der Kraft und der Liebe und der Zucht.” (2. Timotheus 1: 7)