Advent Resources:

Tribulation Times

Week of December 8, 2013  

(Rev 12:1) And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

ADVENT RESOURCE: God Still Comes: A Meditative Journey Through Advent by Rev. Johann G. Roten, SM

TERRA SANTA NEWS: Christians in the Holy Land and the Church

ADVENT MEDITATIONS

ARCHBISHOP CHARLES J. CHAPUT, O.F.M. CAP.: A listening heart and ‘The Joy of the Gospel’
RON ROLHEISER, OMI: The God Who Is Revealed In Christmas
RON ROLHEISER, OMI: Awakening the Christ-child

POPE FRANCIS: "The Immaculate Conception was inscribed in God’s plan; it was the fruit of God’s love whereby the world was saved".

PAPAL ENCYCLICALS: THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Ineffabilis Deus Apostolic Constitution issued by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854

Mary, mother of Jesus, as the Immaculate Conception. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Museo del Prado. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful...."

CNA ARCHIVE EXCERPT: Historian reveals how Pius IX decided to proclaim dogma of Immaculate Conception

French historian and professor Louis Baunard said that while gazing upon the Mediterranean from the city, “the Pope mediated on remarks made to him by Cardinal Luigi Lambruschini: Holy Father, you will not be able to heal the world unless you proclaim the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Only this dogmatic definition will reestablish the meaning of the Christian truths and bring minds back from the paths of naturalism upon which they have become lost.”

According to Guglietta, naturalism, which rejected all supernatural truth, could be considered the “backdrop” for the Pope’s proclamation of the dogma. “The affirmation of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin laid a strong foundation for affirming and strengthening the certainty of the primacy of grace and the work of Providence in the lives of men.”

GUADALUPE: Our Lady of Guadalupe 'completely beyond' scientific explanation

MORE: Science Sees What Mary Saw From Juan Diego’s Tilma

Engineer José Aste Tonsmann of the Mexican Center of Guadalupan Studies began his study in 1979. He magnified the iris of the Virgin's eyes 2,500 times and, through mathematical and optical procedures, was able to identify all the people imprinted in the eyes.

The eyes reflect the witnesses of the Guadalupan miracle the moment Juan Diego unfurled his tilma before the bishop, according to Tonsmann.

In the eyes, Tonsmann believes, it is possible to discern a seated Indian, who is looking up to the heavens; the profile of a balding, elderly man with a white beard, much like the portrait of Bishop Zumárraga painted by Miguel Cabrera to depict the miracle; and a younger man, in all probability interpreter Juan González.

Also present is an Indian, likely Juan Diego, of striking features with a beard and mustache, who unfolds his own tilma before the bishop; a woman of dark complexion, possibly a Negro slave who was in the bishop's service; and a man with Spanish features who looks on pensively, stroking his beard with his hand.

In summary, the Virgin's eyes bear a kind of instant picture of what occurred at the moment the image was unveiled in front of the bishop, Tonsmann says.

The Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Self-Control

51. He also said, 'It is better to eat meat and drink wine than to eat the flesh of the brothers by disparaging them.'

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