“A light for revelation to the Gentiles,” are the words that resound today in the Church which remembers the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. The entrance procession, with lighted candles and the words of the Gospel, introduce the mystery of that Child who is the true light that illuminates […]
In 1823, Saint Paul Outside the Walls basilica, Rome, was destroyed in a terrible fire. During the reconstruction works in 1838, a splendid sarcophagus from the 4th century AD was found near St Paul’s tomb. The beauty and the profound nature of the Biblical scenes that were sculpted on the face of the tomb, has […]
A city like Rome, with its abundance of history and art, can, at times, produce sentiments of inadequacy and disorientation. Here we can find places that open our minds to the possibility of a recuperation of our Christian identity and roots. For a moment, let us abandon the noisy hub-bub of the streets and try […]
St Joseph’s fountain, realised in 2010 by architects Giuseppe Facchini and Barbara Bellano in collaboration with artist Franco Murer, brings the number of fountains in the Vatican city to 100. The fountain was commissioned because the Vatican Gardens, so rich in artistic patrimony from every epoch, was not blessed with a monument in honour of […]
Tota Pulchra Tota pulchra es Maria, et macula originalis non es in te. Tu gloria Ierusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri, tu advocata peccatorum. O Maria! O Maria! Virgo prudentissima, Mater clementissima, ora pro nobis, intercede pro nobis, ad Dominum Iesum Christum. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the stain of original sin […]
Tota Pulchra Tota pulchra es Maria et macula originalis non es in te. Tu gloria Ierusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri, tu advocata peccatorum. O Maria! O Maria! Virgo prudentissima, Mater clementissima, ora pro nobis, intercede pro nobis, ad Dominum Iesum Christum. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the stain of original sin […]
Tota Pulchra Tota pulchra es Maria, et macula originalis non es in te. Tu gloria Ierusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri, tu advocata peccatorum. O Maria! O Maria! Virgo prudentissima, Mater clementissima, ora pro nobis, intercede pro nobis, ad Dominum Iesum Christum. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the stain of original sin […]
Each year, on the 1st Sunday of Advent, the Church heralds the start of a new year. A new year is often a time of ‘resolutions’, ‘new start’ or even renewal. The Church’s year is no different! As the Lord prepared Israel for the coming of the Messiah over the course of 4,000 years, it […]
21 November – Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary In The Temple A prayer to Our Lady to celebrate the Feast of her Presentation in the Temple, by St Alphonsus Liguori from ‘the Glories of Mary’: Oh holy Lady know that already through thy prayers the Son of God is hastening to come and redeem […]
On the last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast in 1925 with the Encyclical Quas Primas so that the Church may honour Christ’s kingship and meditate on what it means to be subject to His ‘sweet’ rule. Indeed, the feast is […]