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This article, with the title Henri de Lubac – A witness of Christ and the Church, concentrates on the theology of Cardinal Henri de Lubac. The reader is invited to consider his attendance on Christ and his mystical body – the Church. De Lubac’s is a great testimony of love for the Church, despite the suffering that he quietly lived. The Church is continuously reborn and renewed in the sacrifice of the Eucharist, which is the basis of her communion and the source of holiness. Finis omnium Ecclesia: the Church is as great as the Divine plan of creation; it is the inner basis of that plan. Therefore we realize the meaning of faith in God for an appropriate understanding of the Church and the mission of Christians within it.
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Kako bi crkva mogla preokrenuti tijek povijesti, iznova osvojiti ljudsko srce i duh i izdići se nad društvom, ako ne i njime opet zavladati? Michel Houellebecq i Geoffrey Lejeune raspravljaju o liturgiji i njezinu mjestu, o ulozi koju u našem duhu ima pakao, o velikim doktrinalnim opcijama, o seksualnosti u crkvenom nauku, o društvenoj ulozi crkve ... Obrnuto od dominantna, defenzivna katoličkog diskursa koji je interiorizirao svoju buduću marginalnost, oni skiciraju konture neke moguće kontraofenzive. [...]
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The article presents a study of Karol Wojtyla's drama entitled Radiation of Fatherhood. It is an attempt to penetrate and describe the inner experiences of the main hero Adam and other literary characters in accordance with the phenomeno- logical method used by the author himself. This method consists in accessing the protagonist's thoughts and the state of his consciousness and self-awareness in order to present the reflections he has made while getting to know himself and others as well as to show how the speaking subject internalises the content that he learns. The statement of the mystery's protagonist: ‘For many years I have lived like a man exiled from my deeper personality yet condemned to probe it' is the starting point of the action outlined in the literary text. This statement allows of the thesis that Wojtyla meditates on how the hero is slowly becoming aware of the transcendent dimension of humanity lost from the field of view, the objective truth about the human person.
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The article concerns the short text The Sister by Karol Wojtyła. In doc- uments of the Archives of the Metropolitan Curia in Cracow it was attached to the first version of the poem Redemption Seeking Your Form to Enter Man's Anxiety. The aim of the article is to present this work, to describe the author's emendations in the manuscript and to determine the status of the text. Finally, The Sister turns out to be not a version of the poem about Weronica, but rather a separate text, a draft on the same subject as the later poem Redemption Seeking Your Form.
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Up to Vatican II, the main goal of the mission was the salvation of people who did not believe in Christ. The Council’s recognition of the presence of elements of truth, good and authentic holiness in religions posed a question about the sense of mission in a new light. The result was modern departure from salvific ecclesiocentricism and return to christocentrism in theology. In the light of modern theology of religion, no formal membership of the Church is necessary for salvation. The mission’s purpose, however, is first and foremost plantatio Ecclesiae. The Church’s presence as a trader of revelation and mediator of saving grace is necessary for the full salvation of the world. Role of the Church is analogous to the role of Christ himself and is exhausted in being a universal sacrament of salvation for all humanity, i.e. in uniting people with God and among themselves.
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Christianity has its source in the fact of God’s love for Man. „For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3,16-17). This „Good News” about the salvation accomplished in the Person of Jesus Christ is addressed to every human being to restore his original perspective. The Good News reaches people through its preaching to those who have not yet received it, but also to those who, for whatever reason, have departed from it. In Europe, starting from the Enlightenment, slow de-Christianization of societies began. Rationalism slowly began to supplant religious attitudes, and pragmatism moved towards the organization of the earthly kingdom, excluding the eschatological perspective. Two atheistic ideologies worked in the same direction: Marxism and Nazism. As a consequence, European societies began to move away from Christianity, adopting a way of life without God. A new perspective of postmodernism has been included in this lifestyle, the essence of which is the epistemological crisis and the crisis of values. These recent changes pose new, previously unknown challenges to Christianity. As a result, a need arises for new forms of preaching the Gospel to these people.
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A human being needs to meet witnesses of faith on the way to achieving holiness. One of them can be Bishop Konstantyn Dominik (1870-1942) – the Bishop of Chełmno. The figure of Bishop, who is a candidate for canonisation, was shown in the article in the context of his relations with Swarzewo, Pelplin, Chełmno and Gdańsk. The difficult time of the Second World War during which the Bishop served, present him as a real witness of faith. Christological and Marian aspects of Konstantyn’s pristly and episcopal service, his simplicity and commonness, as well as his path to sanctification, create a beautiful testimony that can be achieved by living one’s life according to God’s vision.
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The crisis of the consecrated life is tightly connected with the crisis of the contemporary human being and with the crisis of the Church. Weakening of the faith and lack of faithfulness to the chosen calling results with lack of witnessing and consequently with lower number of vocations. Both the Word of God and the modern teaching of the Magisterium of the Church give clues, which could become the source of the renewal of the consecrated life. It gives hope that the religious again will become a clear sign of the presence of God in the world.
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This paper highlights the task of the Spiritual Director, who walks alongside the seminarian, aiding him in the art of discernment. I will begin with the fact that, in order to accompany someone in spiritual growth it is necessary to engage well in a period of discernment. In the first part, I will discuss the problems related to this in order to begin a discussion in the second part regarding the discernment of priestly vocation for those who want to enter in Seminary. The discernment bear fruit under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and it is for this reason the article is entitled Guided by the Spirit of God.
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Music and singing are inseparable, the text being on the first place. The singing of words, their living, works wonderfully on the soul, the Christian truths deeply penetrating the heart of the believer, as the Blessed Augustine says. The appearance of the Byzantine music in Romania is closely related to the appearance and spread of Christianity on the territory of our country. The liturgical song of the Orthodox Church has holy sources, being filtered by the experiences of the Romanian soul. The result of this selection was the appearance of a traditional melos performed by national church music heroes, Macarie Ieromonahul and Anton Pann. The old church singers worked and enriched the old music of the Eastern Church according to the musical genius and the practical Romanian genius, we having the duty to preserve, cultivate and develop this singing, identified with the “Romanian and religious taste and sense” as Bishop Melchisedec Ștefănescu said.
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Good Friday is one of the most important days of the year for Christianity. It is the day on which we honour the Passion and the death of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Why is this day so important for the process of redemption? Because from this moment on, the moment of our Saviour’s death on the cross, the redemption of humankind becomes certainty. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross on Good Friday is the most important step towards Resurrection. The praise of the burial of our Lord Jesus Christ begins on Ash Thursday, when our Saviour was captured. On this occasion, Ash Friday Service is held, or as it is commonly known, the Vigil of the Twelve Gospels.
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Iconography stands out among the various forms of medieval catechesis. It illustrated the basic truths of the faith and encouraged people to live in accord with this teaching. One of the popular iconographic themes from this period was the Last Judgment. It was usually placed on the back wall of a church in order to remind people leaving the church of their final fate. Eschatological issues have always enjoyed great popularity because they personally relate to every man. In addition to the faithful's interest in eschatological contents, the reason for the creation of Last Judgment iconography was its visual form, accessible to everyone, even the least educated. One of these types of works is the fresco located in the city of Sant'Agata dei Goti in Italy, which is the subject of our analysis in this study. The main contents of the fresco and their form are discussed. The theological significance of individual iconographic elements and their compliance with the official teachings of the Church are pointed out. Summing up the analysis of the fresco, it can be stated that it was an important type of catechesis at that time, theologically correct and having significant pedagogical meaning.
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Many theologians and sociologists claim that in order to restore the social and postmodern man’s original image and resemblance to God, turning him into a “complete person,” with spiritual, religious, or cultural needs, it is needed a complex theological approach. This approach, known as Social Theology, includes both a social dimension and a theological one in a Chalcedonian unity and morally regulates the relationship between man and society, between Church and modern and postmodern secular society. By means of this term, the Orthodox Church and Theology want to recover the social, just as “secularized culture experiences the recovery of religion, which it has transferred to the private sphere of people’s life;” it summons the social to dialogue, collaboration and mutual responsibility, in order to recover the “contemporary individual.”
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The cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is glorification of the Incarnated Person of the Son of God. Jesus Christ is a personification of Love, He is someone, who is exclusively love. The bond of love between Sacred Heart and a human’s heart leads to personal fulfilment. It introduces one into extraordinary space of interpersonal love, also in redeemed community, which creates the Mystical Body of Christ, which is animated by one heart (cf. Acts 4,32), to glorify God’s Majesty (cf. Eph 1,12.14), in Communion of Uncreated Persons. Sacred Heart of Jesus is the mirror which reflects the dazzle of God’s love, dignity and magnitude of vocation of people created as an image of God’s Son (cf. Rom 8,29), and also significance of a new world (cf. Rev 21,5), which has begun here, on earth.
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Every Christian cult has liturgical and existential dimension. Cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus significantly affects one’s moral conduct. Honoring Sacred Heart leads to knowing and following the moral attitude of Jesus Christ. Among the most characteristic elements of such attitude are for example self-sacrifice and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and contemplative adoration. Following Jesus Christ human being finds in Him not only the ideal and model of theological and moral virtues but also source and encouragement to its fulfillment.
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The term „sanctification” in theology practically always appears in the liturgical context. According to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the liturgy is the most perfect, though not the only, place to sanctify human life. Among other forms, a special place of devotion of the Christian people should be mentioned, which, although having the characteristics of particularism, can have a huge impact on the universal Church. In this context, the relationship between the piety of the Christian people and the process of sanctification, which is most precisely expressed in the liturgy, has been shown. In the text, the author analyzes the worship of the Heart of Jesus in the light of two liturgically significant features: worship of God and apostolic work, which is the fruit of the sanctifying power of the liturgy. An additional element remains to show the worship of the Heart of Jesus in the historical context and the impact of popular piety on the official approval of texts and liturgical feasts.
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Cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is full of various spiritual expressions and forms of piety. Among them particularly worthy of underlining is act of offering to the Heart of Jesus, which in its essence and form touches the very core of that cult. Self-offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, both in its internal and external dimension, directs one towards the love of God and leads one towards the subornation to God’s will, the will of the Creator. The external expressions of these and at the same time the fruits of the act of offering are the deeds of love aimed at God and the neighbor, both in the personal and social dimension, or in other words our concern for building of the civilization of love.
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The year 2020 includes jubilee of two events, namely centenary of the canonisation of Margaret Mary Alacoque and dedication of the Polish nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus done by the Polish Bishops conference. Both occasions provide the opportunity to present the figure and charism of the holy nun of the visitation and additionally zoom in the identity and mission of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the article the author undertook the historic and spiritual reflection on the role of Margaret Mary in the growth and propagation within the Church of the devotion to the Sacred Heart and portrayed the apostolic zeal of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Polish soil. The Congregation arrived to Poland in 1928 and started the pastoral work based on the charism of Fr. Leon John Dehon and in the spirit of personal revelations that Margaret Mary Alacoque received from Jesus Christ.
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