Mary is the New Eve
According to the book of Genesis, Adam is not the only human being created by God and placed in the Garden of Eden. Moreover, Adam does not bring sin and death into the world alone. As Adam’s partner, Eve plays an essential role in bringing about the fall of humankind.
In Genesis Adam declares: “She shall be called Woman (Hebrew ’ishah), because she was taken out of Man (Hebrew ’ish)”
Jesus’ use of that word represents an echo of Genesis. Jesus addresses Mary as Eve to the New Adam — which heightens the significance of the wedding feast they are attending, whose historical bride and groom are never named. “Woman” redefines not only Mary’s relationship with Jesus, but also with all believers. When Jesus from the cross gave her over to His “beloved disciple,” in effect He gave her to all His beloved disciples of all time.
Part 1: from Mary’s Conception to the Nativity. Part 2: from the Circumcision to the Transfiguration. Part 3 from Mary Magdalen’s annointing of Christ’s feet to the Assumption of Our Lady
Based on “The Fathers of the Church” by Hubertus Drobner
The first five Christian centuries yielded multiple works of the four literary genres (Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Letters and Apocalypses) of the New Testament; all of them with the initial intention of providing a literary record of the authentic teaching of Christ.
Not all writings demonstrated the same quality and reliability, with the result that individual communities with local variations admitted only a portion of these writings for publication in the liturgy and acknowledge them as Holy Scripture.
The Church Fathers were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity.
For them prayer was as natural as breathing. They said, “birds fly, fishes swim and man prays.” and the last breath of the dying person together make up and proclaim the divine name.
Saint Thomas Aquinas is one of the greatest philosophers, who ever lived. His writings combine clarity and profundity. He is the master of common sense. His major work the Summa Theologica is timeless, but particularly important today, because of his synthesis of faith and reason, revelation and philosophy, and the Biblical and the classical Greco-Roman heritages.
Pope Paul VI declared Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Catherine of Siena the first female Doctors of the Church in 1970.
Saint John Paul II declared Saint Therese of Lisieux a Doctor of the Church in 1997, and Pope Benedict XVI declared Saint Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor in 2012.
At the beginning of the famous encounter between St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, as Diego ascends Tepetac Hill, he is suddenly surrounded by beautiful music and wondrous sights, whereupon he asked himself, “Where am I? Could this be the place that our ancestors spoke of – the Flower World Paradise in the land of heaven?”
With these words Diego ties his encounter to an ancient indigenous belief system – a spiritual floral domain named “Flower World”. This startling history was recently uncovered by anthropologists and archaeologists. In referencing this flowery paradise San Diego opens up a fascinating link dating back to the very cradle of American civilisation.
Soldier and Hermit, 1858 – 1916
When he was killed by bandits in 1916 the French aristocrat turned monk was virtually unknown. Over the course of a century however the radiance of his hidden life has spread more and more, and the Church now recognises him as a saint.
John C.H. Wu (born 28 March 1899, Ningbo – 6 February 1986) was a Chinese jurist and author. He wrote works in Chinese, English, French, and German on Christian spirituality, Chinese literature (including a translation of the Tao Te Ching) and on legal topics.
On his Tao Te Ching translation, Thomas Merton said Wu’s work was “absolutely necessary for us not only to progress but even to survive.
He wrote the Chinese Constitution for Chiang Kai-shek
When his spiritual autobiography was published in 1951 it became an instant Catholic best-seller and was compared to Thomas Merton’s The Seven Story Mountain. It was also hailed as the new Confessions of Augustine.
Nguyen van Thuan (1928 – 2002) was a Vietnamese cardinal. He was a nephew of South Vietnam’s first president, Ngô Đình Diệm, and of Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục. The Communist government imprisoned him for 13 years, nine in solitary confinement. Pope Francis named him as venerable in 2017, a step on the road towards canonization.
Today there are about 7 million Catholics in Vietnam, representing 7.4% of the total population. The first Catholic missionaries in the middle of the sixteenth century were Portuguese. They were followed in 1627 by the French Jesuit, Father Alexandre de Rhodes who converted and baptized several thousand Vietnamese.
Jews who become Catholics
1 . often have a very dramatic, almost Pauline, conversion
2. often claim they have become “fulfilled Jews”
These converts have come from secular, liberal or even atheistic backgrounds; while others come from Orthodox Judaism or even Hasidism.
Some were well trained Jews, others unschooled in Judaism, some rich and wildly successful, others down and out. Their common link was that they all had a profound longing for God, which gave them no peace until they found God in the Catholic Church.
