It is such a sad commentary on the state of affairs in our society that mass killings happen with a certain frequency and we keep returning to our normal lives. However, for those affected these senseless acts of violence the days ahead become unbearable. In those times of tremendous anguish family support is always crucial. Without the solace of faith or the support of family and friends, we cannot survive such horrible losses in our lives. In these moments we need to retire to that safe haven that we call home. It is our family that sustains us in difficult times and nurtures us in ordinary times.
Christmas is just a week away. As we look around, people are rushing from one mall to another in a frantic effort to buy the perfect gift for a loved one. Even though Christmas is near, some do not seem genuinely happy. They seem to agree with Malvolio’s take on life as expressed in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “Life is a tale, full of sound and fury, told by an idiot, signifying nothing.” As David Thoreau wrote, “Many people live lives of quiet desperation.”
Five years ago Pope Francis was in Turkey, a country that is predominantly Muslim even though it is deeply connected to Christianity over the last two thousand years. One of the historic gestures that the pope extended on his visit was to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the head of 300 million Orthodox Christians. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church have been separated for a thousand years and the split came about over the authority of the papacy. Against such a historical background, the pope asked the Patriarch for his blessing. There was a time when patriarchs had to kiss popes' feet. At the end of a joint prayer service, Francis bowed to Bartholomew and asked for his blessing "for me and the Church of Rome," a remarkable display of papal deference to an Orthodox patriarch that expressed the Holy Father’s hope to end the schism. The papal gesture was an attempt at reconciliation between two major Churches.
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Born in India to deeply-committed Catholic parents, Fr Britto is one of seven children. He joined the Salesians of Don Bosco as a young man and was ordained a priest in 1981.
After he completed his priestly formation and his early education in India, he came to the US for his graduate degree in Journalism at...Read more...
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