Gaudium et Spes: The Right Reading of Vatican II

Fr. Robert BarronIn a 55 minute presentation Father Robert Barron takes a keen review and analysis of Gaudium et Spes for the 5oth anniversary of Vatican II.

The Benedictine monks of Saint Procopius Abbey (Lisle, IL) and Benedictine University have  offered several presentations to help us understand the importance of the key documents promulgated at the Second Vatican Council.

Father Barron is the author and host of the critically acclaimed Catholicism series. Barron is trained in theology. His full time ministry as a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago is to serve at the President/Rector of Mundelein Seminary.

Giussani helps us to understand the struggle for meaning, purpose and beauty

In a recent article for the Our Sunday Visitor newspaper, Father Robert takes up the concept of the religious sense that Father Giussani taught, and that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio –now Pope Francis spoke about. Shortly after the papal election I posted the chapter that Father Barron references in his article noted below, from A Generative Thought: An Introduction to the Works of Luigi Giussani (2003), where Bergoglio writes about our need to educate our religious sense and how Giussani influenced him in his method of dealing with ultimate questions.

You may read that chapter here that’s noted in a previous post on Communio.

Here is a paragraph of Barron’s OSV article. The full text is accessed here.

Part of Msgr. Giussani’s genius, Cardinal Bergoglio argued, was that he did not often commence his discourse with explicitly dogmatic or doctrinal language, but rather with an awakening of the often implicit religious sensibility that every person possesses. This sensibility expresses itself in terms of the most fundamental questions: What is my ultimate origin? What is my final destiny? Is there a meaning or logic that runs through the universe? Why, precisely, is there something rather than nothing? These interrogations lead ineluctably to God, for God alone can answer them.

Father Robert Barron
OSV Newsweekly, 5 May 2013

What will Benedict XVIs legacy be in the years ahead?

Português: Cerimônia de canonização do frade b...

The answer to this question will not be in its final form for a long time. The papacy only ended a few weeks ago. Historians will have to look at several things before they will be able to reflect back with greater precision that a video or a blog commentary can provide in 2013. There are several things that Pope Benedict’s 8 year reign that give good indicators as to what we engage with in the years ahead. Many more intelligent than I have thought this question through, but Father Robert Barron of the Archdiocese of Chicago has made a good first attempt when he posits that Benedict will be remembered for:

1. being able to give a more authentic interpretative key to the Second Vatican Council; that is, naming the true mission of the Church;
2. being able to present the objective truth of the faith as taught by the Church these 2 thousand years with the clear awareness that the truth is about the Divine Love lived in joy; this is often called affirmative orthodoxy: the big ‘yes’ vs. the fat ‘no’;
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Brimming over with the Father’s love

One of the blogs I read with some frequency is the blog, Domine, da mihi hanc aqua!, written by a Dominican Friar of the Province of Saint Martin de Porres, Father Philip Neri Powell. I recommend it, after reading the Communio blog. His blog post for today provides a good examination for. Tonight, people came to the parish to watch the second video of Father Robert Barron’s “Catholicism” project. In many ways what the friar says below and what Father Baron did in the video cohere. Read Father Philip wrote (in part) and watch “Catholicism.”


The Catechism teaches us that “the Word became flesh for us in order to [1] save us by reconciling us with God. . .[2] so that thus we might know God’s love. . .[3] to be our model of holiness. . .[4] to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature'”(457-60). Let’s break this down even further. Since we are alienated from God by our sin and God wills that we be reconciled with Him, our sins must be expunged, washed away. With the birth, death, and resurrection of the Christ, our sins are forgiven. For God’s forgiveness to take hold in our lives, we must receive His forgiveness as a gift–an unmerited grace, freely given. When we receive His forgiveness as a gift, we come to know the Father’s love; that is, His love is made manifest, given another body and soul–our own. With a body and soul brimming with the Father’s love, we begin a life of holiness, a life set apart from the world while living in the world. A life of holiness looks, sounds, and feels like the life that Jesus himself led: a life of mercy, sacrifice, love, perseverance, and courage. Living such a life–steeping ourselves in God’s enduring love–trains us to participate more fully in His divine nature, making us both human and divine, and perfectly so in His presence.

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CATHOLICSM: The New York Premier


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Catholicism NYC.jpg

You are invited to a screening of CATHOLICISM with ArchbishopTimothy Dolan’s introduction and a presentation by project’s creator
Father Robert Barron, and Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete.


A reception and book signing following the event.


Presented by Crossroads
Cultural Center
 
and Word on Fire

Wednesday, December 14, 2011
6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
The Times Center
242 West 41st Street
New York, NY  map

Click here to
RSVP

Dolan.jpgArchbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York

President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

Albacete.jpgMonsignor Lorenzo Albacete

Author, theologian, columnist

Barron.jpgFather Robert Barron

Author, speaker, theologian Founder of Word On Fire.





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INFORMATION

This event is open to the public and
free of charge, but seating is limited.

Tickets must be obtained online
through www.catholicism.eventbrite.com

Continue reading CATHOLICSM: The New York Premier