Forty days after Christmas, we celebrate the Lord who enters the Temple and comes to encounter his people. In the Christian East, this feast is called the “Feast of Encounter”: it is the encounter between God, who became a child to bring newness to our world, and an expectant humanity, represented by the elderly man and woman in the Temple.

In the Temple, there is also an encounter between two couples: the young Mary and Joseph, and the elderly Simeon and Anna. Continue reading →

This February 2, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Church celebrates the World Day of Consecrated Life. This will be a day of thanksgiving and prayer for the gift of vocations. On that day, at 5.30 p.m., the Holy Father will preside the Eucharistic Celebration in St Peter’s Basilica.

In all parts of the world, there are thousands of consecrated men and women who welcome the gift of vocation with joy and willingness Continue reading →

When the parents of Jesus brought the Child in fulfilment of the prescriptions of the law, Simeon, “guided by the Spirit” (Lk 2:27), took the Child in his arms and broke out in a hymn of blessing and praise. “My eyes”, he said, “have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Lk 2:30-32). Simeon not only saw, but was privileged to hold in his arms the long-awaited hope, Continue reading →

TVC – CLARETIANUM (PUL) XLII

For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Continue reading →