Still time of discernment. Nothing in your life must be left ouside the sight of the Lord, nothing. Whatever difficulty or trial the life is offering you.

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It's time to recover energies, relax a little and medidate.
A couple of points to share with you, dear readers:
1. Plan of God and will of man.
I was thinking the expression as referred to what God does for/in people who look for Him as a person in every specific situation, rather than a predefined path in time.
I was asking myself what happens to people who refuse to search God in their lives. Certainly the Lord will make his presence clear in their life at some point, however, His plans for them do change as effect of their choice.
2. Marriage as making the Kingdom of God effective in the language of body (gesture).
Thinking about the specific charisma of the matrimony, and I was thinking to the cathegories of language and gesture to describe the immersion into the Holy Spirit as effect of this important sacrament. Any suggestion?

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This film contains sexual references. It is about sexuality as expressed in human relationships nowadays.
Unfortunately my skills in Eglish language must recover some quality since I came back from Italy, so I have to wait the DVD to study it better.
In case any of you, dear readers, decide to watch it, I submit some points on which you could focus:

1. Always think to the relationship small town / big city.
2. What rules / boundaries are defined or trespassed in every decision and action the characters take, scene by scene?
3. What are the motives and/or the desires of the character, scene by scene? What's her/his response?
4. What are the consequences of a specific behaviour in short/long term?

It is a well thought film, ideal to start a reflection on the subject.

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It is such a pleasure to speak to intelligent women. I really hope I'll marry one, one day.
Definitely a different species compared to the individuals for whom I worked so loyally, so loyally, and for all that time.
It is difficult to summarize the whole talk in few lines, it certainly was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
I asked the excellent Margaret Atkins the difference between applying the rules in the New and in the Old Testament.
She pointed out that given that the rule of the New Testament is love, as such it requires a referent to be defined, usually a community.
Thank to the Dominicans for the relevant activities they are organising.

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Yesterday Georgette Forney, co-founder of the awareness campaing, spoke about the consequences of abortion on the psyche of women at the Old College, at an event sponsored by SPUC Scotland and proposed to me by Living Scotland.
From a man's point of view the talk was a surprise: you don't even imagine that an event completely extern to the man's world can destroy the relationship a woman has with herself.
She arrives to despise her own sexuality, and from there to hate her own personality, because "Having an abortion is going against the fundamental vocation of a woman".
The campaing has no direct political purposes, they mean to help women who had an abortion to find healing, and I was happy to hear that the dedicated Ms. Forney, who is president of NOEL, thinks that the best way to act against abortion is through cultural change, by means of persuasion and eventually by a consistent legislation.

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This painting is in a small shrine built in 1611 in the village in which my parents where born and lived for part of their lives.
I am not able to provide further information on the painting.
Saint Antony is the patron saint of the village, and clearly there is a special devotion to him, there.
They call him: "The Saint of the impossible causes".
I think I should ask the protection of Saint Antony right now, and, please don't be malicious, dear readers: I would like to ask Saint Antony to help me finding the wisdom, courage and strenght to bear testimony to the Lord in this difficult moment of my life.

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Well, I am called to love. Suffering is the other face of love. There is no love without it and if you don't accept to suffer you will never love.
You end up having to bear suffering caused by other people, but at least you know you are in the right garden.

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When things are difficult and you are on the right path, you don't change it. The help of God will arrive at due time.

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According to BBC News last Saturday, after having checked overseas ballots, an appeal court has confirmed the victory of Romano Prodi.
The current president, however, refuses to concede defeat, remaining defiant.
While last Thursday the US followed Britain, France, Germany in recognising Prodi's Victory, that person said that he had no intention of making any formal telephone call to Prodi, conceding defeat, as he believes the new centre left coalition will quickly become unglued.

Clearly, given the way italian politics works, it will take some time to appoint the new President.

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I have to apologise, but I cannot provide much information about the painting, given that all tourist information points were closed when I visited the Cathedral.
As you know, dear readers, Saint George is the patron saint of England, and, along with Our Lady of Consolation, is the patron saint of the city in which I was born too.

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After having read the article on BBC News.
Here from the interview on l'Espresso, what Card. Martini really said:

C'è poi la situazione particolare di sposi uno dei quali è affetto da Aids. Costui è obbligato a proteggere l'altro partner e questi pure deve potersi proteggere. Ma la questione è piuttosto se convenga che siano le autorità religiose a propagandare un tale mezzo di difesa, quasi ritenendo che gli altri mezzi moralmente sostenibili, compresa l'astinenza, vengano messi in secondo piano, mentre si rischia di promuovere un atteggiamento irresponsabile. Altro è dunque il principio del male minore, applicabile in tutti i casi previsti dalla dottrina etica, altro è il soggetto cui tocca esprimere tali cose pubblicamente. Credo che la prudenza e la considerazione delle diverse situazioni locali permetterà a ciascuno di contribuire efficacemente alla lotta contro l'Aids senza con questo favorire i comportamenti non responsabili

Which I would render with:

There is, then, the specific situation in which one of the spouses is affected by AIDS. Such individual must protect the other and the other must, also, be able to protect (him/her)self.
However, the point is whether religious authorities should promote such means of defense, as if other means which are morally sustainable, including abstinence, should be accounted as secondary, and (so doing) there is the risk to promote an irresponsible attitude. So the principle of the lesser evil, which can be applied according to the ethical doctrine, and the subject who has to publicly express such (means), are two different things. I think that caution and careful consideration of the various local situations will give to everyone the possibility to effectively contribute to the fight against AIDS without encouraging irresponsible behaviour.

I did my best to make the translation clear and faithful to the original. Sorry for (any) mistakes.

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Happy birthday to the Queen.
I have to apologise with my readers, but I don't have any other original photo to post.

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Currently, there are four links in my 'Fellow Bloggers' menu: CatholicUK, Laodicea, The Shrine of the Holy Whapping, Zadok Romanus.
If you think my blog is worth reading, why don't you blogroll it?

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As you know, dear readers, I am Catholic and Italian. The dynamics of this Country are unfamiliar and difficult to understand to me, especially in the way relationship with religion is lived.
Things have changed in Italy, in the last few years: sadly and visibly, people don't go to the Church anymore and have started thinking only to accumulate wealth.
In Britain, it is the fragmentation of Christianity which strikes most, and still appears puzzling to me.
Leonforte, the place in Sicily where Card. Newman had his fever, means 'strong lion'. Here a link to the Wikipedia article on card. Newman and another link with historical information about Leonforte (in English, scrolling down).

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...where people, myself included, drive on the left. I am getting too used to it and this makes driving in Italy a dangerous change.
Hello dear readers, I hope you all had a happy Easter. I had a good holiday with my parents, more posts and pictures from the south of Italy will follow.

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... to everybody in the peace of the Lord. And happy birthday to Pope Benedict XVI.

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Dear readers, I have not disappeared: in a time in which family is attacked and, sadly, divorce advances even here in the south of Italy, I am with my parents, having a break.
Unfortunately I can only use an old PC.
So, please don't expect any pictures for now, and no more than few posts.

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The references to 'gall ' in the Bible are many. It is quite strange that in Tobit it is used with curative effects. The verses in Job are particularly evocative.

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As I already said, I consider last encyclic a masterpiece of clarity.
For instance, as a lay faithful, I greatly appreciate par. 29.

We can now determine more precisely, in the life of the Church, the relationship between commitment to the just ordering of the State and society on the one hand, and organized charitable activity on the other. We have seen that the formation of just structures is not directly the duty of the Church, but belongs to the world of politics, the sphere of the autonomous use of reason. The Church has an indirect duty here, in that she is called to contribute to the purification of reason and to the reawakening of those moral forces without which just structures are neither established nor prove effective in the long run.

The direct duty to work for a just ordering of society, on the other hand, is proper to the lay faithful. As citizens of the State, they are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity. So they cannot relinquish their participation “in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good.” [21] The mission of the lay faithful is therefore to configure social life correctly, respecting its legitimate autonomy and cooperating with other citizens according to their respective competences and fulfilling their own responsibility.[22] Even if the specific expressions of ecclesial charity can never be confused with the activity of the State, it still remains true that charity must animate the entire lives of the lay faithful and therefore also their political activity, lived as “social charity”.[23]

The Church's charitable organizations, on the other hand, constitute an opus proprium, a task agreeable to her, in which she does not cooperate collaterally, but acts as a subject with direct responsibility, doing what corresponds to her nature. The Church can never be exempted from practising charity as an organized activity of believers, and on the other hand, there will never be a situation where the charity of each individual Christian is unnecessary, because in addition to justice man needs, and will always need, love.

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Dear readers, I apologise but I am really busy at the moment, so do not expect many posts. Here a crucifix which is in the diocese museum in Trento, so beautiful that you risk to forget that originally was a symbol of social rejection.

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For several reasons I shall temporarily suspend my blog activity. My future, unknown, is in the hands of the Lord; good hands, certainly. Please pray for me.

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On Sunday it's the 21st World Youth Day.
I don't mean to annoy you, dear readers.
The lamp is in the Vatican Museums.

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It looks like something is happening in the direction I would like to go.
Please pray for me, dear readers.

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Pope Benedict XVI, today, asked to fast for 2 days from tomorrow, the 3rd and the 4th of April.
The invitation comes from the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church of Babylon, Mar Emanuel III Dally and the bishops of Iraq, and it is meant to obtain the gift of "peace and concord" in Iraq and in the entire world.

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Today is a joyful day. There will certainly be the time in which we will have to offer our sufferings and even our own death to the Lord. However, today is a joyful day: we remember John Paul II.
Here my humble contribution to his memory.

One day of several years ago, I was watching one of his discourses on TV. There was the usual crowd in Saint Peter's square, continually interrupting with enthusiastic rounds of applause.
At a specific point he clearly emphasised the following sentence:

Lasciate parlare Cristo!

and stopped, looking at the crowd. There was no response. Just silence. And he continued with his discourse.

I think that repeating the exhortation again today is important, dear readers. It is addressed to each of us:

Let Christ speak!

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