Spiritual

An unbelievable story that leaves one marveling as to how God does not allow himself to be overcome in creativity in order to seek his children. One example is the story of Wilhelm Buntz. Bluntz, a tormented and cruel man, full of violence and acts worthy of maximum security prison. Yet God meets him slowly, in the Word — valuing the pages of that Bible that Wilhelm uses to make DIY cigarettes in his cell. Today Wilhelm Buntz is 67 years old, happily married and the father of two children. For 38 years he has been reading The Bible every…

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Witnessing to faith in Christ by also treasuring the knowledge of stories, legends and tales passed down from generation to generation by popular cultures: this is the bet of Fr Silvano Galli, who recently held a meeting in Lomé together with a group of storytellers and local cultural workers. “Faith must be proclaimed, then told.” And to bear witness to the faith, familiarity with the narrative forms used in local folk tales can also help. This was the testimony offered during the meeting in Lomé by the priest from the Society for African Missions, which has been collecting folk tales…

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The last chapters of Genesis, from 37 to 50, tell the story of Joseph, son of Jacob: it is one of the most fascinating and engaging stories in the entire Bible. This is the starting point for Sardinia Bible Week to touch on the different nuances of a difficult brotherhood, which spans the whole of salvation history, to the very life and ministry of Jesus. The week will run from July 3-7 with the title: “Seeking My Brothers. Difficult fraternity: from the story of Joseph (Gen 37-50) to the brothers of Jesus.” The speakers will be biblical scholars Rosario Pistone…

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The one hundred and forty-one delegates representing seven regions of the Catholic Biblical Federation from fifty-three countries, gathered in Mar del Plata, Argentina, for the Tenth Plenary Assembly (April 15-21, 2023), have defined the priorities and specific objectives of the worldwide biblical apostolate, identifying seven general and common priorities and recommendations to be implemented by its members: 1. To develop biblical pastoral departments in Episcopal Conferences and dioceses where such structures do not exist, in order to establish Scripture as a fundamental and indispensable aspect of all Christian formation. 2. To make the faithful aware of their responsibility and co-responsibility…

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 It was in the Word of God that the head of the sermig.org discovered the seed of change for a more fraternal world: “Prayer gave me courage… Two years ago Ernesto Olivero resigned, he could have chosen his successor as per statute. Instead, he decided that the Fraternity would vote and choose without interfering in any way.” Thus speaks Rosanna Tabasso, the woman who the Fraternity of Hope has chosen to succeed the founder of the Sermig, the Missionary Service of Turin. The Sermig, with its history starting from 1964, has long been an acquired heritage for the entire Turin…

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The Protestant roots of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which now number some eight million adherents worldwide, dictate the use of the Bible as the only authoritative source of theology. But how is it possible that a group that calls itself “Christian” and is so firmly anchored in the sacred text does not believe in the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the immortality of the soul, the existence of the Holy Spirit, thus the very foundation of all Christian denominations? To answer this question, we suggest reading Valerio Polidori’s book, published by EDB types: the author goes through the rigorous philological analysis of…

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He spreads the Gospel via tik tok, the social network of the very young. Video after video, in a concise, ironic and direct style, he recounts the lives of the Saints, “men like us who have done things as extraordinary as they are normal, to be taken as an example.” He answers questions, the most disparate, about faith and Christianity with the aim of making people think, ready joke and free spirit, provoking just enough to provoke a direct and possibly even constructive confrontation. In doing so, he has accumulated in just over a year over 350 thousand followers, supporters…

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In the “aftermath” of Pentecost it may be useful to retrace one by one the different nuances of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Accompanied by the biblical and spiritual catechesis by Fr Fabio Rosini, held on Vatican Radio some years ago, let us explore these nuances . The individual interventions, which lasts for about 20 minutes each, are all available for free on a Christian youtube channel. Led by Monia Parente, the program “The fruits of the Spirit” is a great way to internalize what in these days we have celebrated and lived. Good listening!

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Teddy Howell, a 9 year old third grader in Michigan emulates the popular media priest, Fr. Mike Schmitz’ Bible in a Year Podcast. Totally inspired by Fr. Mike, young Teddy, also wants to be a podcasting priest like Schmitz when he grows up. With the help of his parents, Stephani and Sean, Teddy launched his “Kid’s Bible in a Year with Teddy” podcast last March 12. New episodes are released every Sunday and Wednesday. Each session, Teddy leads a prayer and then reads a passage from the Great Adventure Kids Catholic Bible Chronicles, a book from publisher Ascension that provides…

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New and extraordinary experiences often flourish around the Word of God. One of these involved the Eudist father Rafael García Herreros. On February 8, 1950, he suggested to the state television of Cartagena (Colombia) that he could hold a short radio program entitled El Minuto de Dios (The Minute of God). Remembering those times, he said in an interview with the newspaper EL TIEMPO: “It came to my mind one day, and it was an intuition, that there had to be a minute on earth of Divinity so that there would be peace , silence, faith and joy in this…

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Venice will host the event “The Bible in the city” from May 4 to 14, an ecumenical initiative of reading the Bible in different places of the historic center and the mainland. The unprecedented initiative was organized by the Local Council of Christian Churches of Venice to celebrate the XXX years of its establishment: in different places of the city (historic center and mainland), there will be held the full reading of the Bible according to the calendar presented in the reference site: referenciabibbiaincitta.it. The proposal is intended to recall that all Scripture is inspired by God, that the Bible…

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Is it possible to read the liturgy in everyday life?  Can we, as Christians, make it speak to us outside of ritual? These are the questions that author Fr.  Alessandro Dehò proposes for each of us in his recently published book, Desire. For a liturgy of life. For Fr. Alessandro “celebrating the Word, making it a liturgy, is letting it penetrate like a blade, and letting itself be opened by a cut that will not allow it to remain the same as before, is accepting to penetrate into the deepest abyss of oneself, is getting to put our eyes in…

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The Word on Fire harnesses beauty, goodness, and truth to draw people into or back to the Catholic faith. The ministry was founded by Bishop Robert Barron who started proclaiming Christ to the culture by airing his homilies on a radio station in Chicago. Thanks to a friend’s request, he started housing all his homilies on a website so that people could access the homilies anytime, anywhere. It was a simple but powerful idea: spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through multiple media platforms, engaging people with the goodness, truth, and beauty of Catholicism. Thus, the ministry of the…

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Founded a thousand years ago by St. Romuald, Camaldoli is a community of Benedictine monks. Its two houses, the Sacred Hermitage and the Monastery, immersed in the peace of the forest, represent two fundamental dimensions of the monastic experience, solitude and communion. The monastic community lives in the search for God, in prayer and in work, and is open to sharing with the men and women of our time especially through hospitality. For years, the Foresteria has offered a space open to all, of biblical, spiritual and cultural deepening, of dialogue and encounter. In recent days, the program of the…

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Launched in 1999, the InterBible is an online platform, in French, supported by the diocese of Montreal (Quebec, Canada). Its goal is to contribute to popular biblical formation so that the Word becomes for its readers an inspiring source in their daily lives. The collaborators of the site share a passion for the Bible and for the historical, religious and social universe that generated it. The site offers insights into biblical books, archaeological findings, as well as different materials to accompany the liturgical reading of the Bible or its enhancement in catechesis: texts, video, audio, photos, articles, quizzes. Obviously, all…

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A website that offers an everyday illustration and comics that reinterpret, in a creative key, the Gospel proposed by the liturgy! Fumetti Cristiani (Christian comics) was born in 2018 when Cristian Nencioni began to draw illustrations of the Gospel on his own, following what he felt in his heart. In 2019 his illustrations became the images for Mass tickets for the children of the parish of S. Giovanni in Avezzano (AQ). In 2020, he began his collaboration with  Cristiani Today, where illustrations are digitized, colored and enter the column “Gospel of Sunday”. In 2022 everything becomes an illustrated Gospel proposed…

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PRIXM is a project born of the Dominican Fathers of the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Française of Jerusalem, curators of the famous Jerusalem Bible. Under their leadership, 300 researchers from around the world portray and annotate the Scriptures on an online platform, The Bible in its Traditions, with the ambitious project of collecting 3000 years of Judaeo-Christian biblical traditions. Amazed by such great treasures, six young people – Augustin, Thomas, Mathilde, Nicolas, Leo and Édouard – felt motivated by the desire to share them. Hence the establishment of a scientific committee composed of the fathers of the École Biblique, the…

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The 12th chapter of the Letter to the Romans of the Apostle Paul is considered, from its first two verses, as the condensed of the Christian life: a life moved by the experience of the mercies of God, sprinkled with the grace of Christ, capable of enveloping all dimensions of being, arousing in the Spirit a new and renewed relationality. Fruit of discernment (of what is good, pleasing to God and perfect), the new life frees us from worldly schematics to introduce us into a dynamic that transfigures, step by step, everything. With his unmistakable style, Fr. Fabio Rosini accompanies…

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