Consolidate the offer of life for the Church is the Pope’s watchword for the Shalom Community,
Consolidate the offer of life for the Church is the Pope’s watchword for the Shalom Community, said Moyses Azevedo. The founder of Shalom Catholic Community, Moysés Azevedo, made his presence at the Shalom Youth Congress 2016 held in Brasilia. He shared with more than 3,500 young people from 176 cities in Brazil and Latin America about the conversation he had with Pope Francis in an audience at the Vatican on last September 5. The main topics of this audience were the Jubilee of Mercy and evangelization of young people. Moysés said that the whole Shalom Community and Work were received by the Holy Father in this meeting: “Actually it wasn’t just me and the others who were there, but all ...

Shalom Youth Congress in Italia moved the participants to a deeper meeting with Jesus
A deeper meeting with Jesus! The second day of Shalom Youth Congress, on Saturday, December 3rd, opened with the intervention of Moyses Azevedo, who preached to the Italian youth about the friendship with God and how to go “farther than where our feet can get” the central theme of the Congress. The founder of Shalom Catholic Community started to talk about his own story of his encounter with Jesus and how he discovered God’s plan for his life. “God has a plan of love for each of us. Because He loves us. But who is God? What is God’s name? The name of God is mercy. God does not want to condemn anybody. Jesus gave his life for all, He ...

From Depression to Joy: echo of WYD 2016
My name is Pawel, I work in a hospital in Warsaw. I grew up in a Catholic family, but I always felt that there was something missing in my faith. For years I thought that my faith was weak, without a deep relationship with God. I wasn’t happy in what I was doing, even though I used to help in the liturgy service, first as an altar boy and later as lector. After coming to Warsaw to study, I hoped that I would find a community that would help me to find happiness in my faith. I tried different communities, but I didn’t find what I was looking for. I lost my joy, I fell into depression. I was hoping ...

The worst sinners who became saints
Ask any Catholic to name a sinner who became a great saint and most will answer, “St. Augustine.” As a teenager, Augustine abandoned the Catholic faith for the pagan Manicheans sect, and took a mistress; they lived together for 17 years and had a son. Without meaning to diminish in any way the seriousness of Augustine’s actions, compared to other saints on the calendar, St. Augustine’s sins are pretty tame.   Let’s look at a few I like to call, “The depravity all-stars.” St. Mary of Egypt At age 12 Mary (c.344-c.421) ran away from home to Alexandria, the most exciting city in the Roman Empire. She became an accomplished seductress, who took special pleasure in corrupting innocent young men. ...

What is it that drives Simone Biles to be the best?
To answer that question, Us magazine recently asked Biles to empty her gymnastics bag in hopes of finding a secret formula to her success. While most of the contents of her bag were no surprise, the reporter noticed a white rosary that fell out. Biles explained, “My mom, Nellie, got me a rosary at church. I don’t use it to pray before a competition. I’ll just pray normally to myself, but I have it there in case.”   Faith has been one of the only constants in her rather difficult life. Biles was born in Ohio to a mother who was battling drug and alcohol abuse and at the age of three she was taken away from her mother. A ...

For Michael Phelps, all that gold couldn’t glitter until he found God
Medals and media accolades proved empty, and couldn’t fill a void that was turning his thoughts to suicide                                                                                                                                                                                Superstar swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, nearly committed suicide ...

All faiths must be ‘workers for peace’, says sister of Fr Jacques Hamel at funeral
An estimated 1,700 people gathered in Rouen cathedral for the funeral Mass of the murdered priest The sister of the French priest slain by Islamist extremists appealed at his funeral on Tuesday for all faiths to work together for peace. “Let’s learn to live together, let’s be workers for peace,” Roselyne Hamel told an estimated 1,700 people gathered in Rouen cathedral in western France for the funeral Mass for her brother, Fr Jacques Hamel. The 85-year-old priest was murdered last week at a church in the nearby town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was among those attending the Mass in the Gothic cathedral, which dates from the 12th century. Hundreds of people watched the ceremony on a big screen ...

There can be no doubt that Fr Jacques Hamel died a martyr’s death
The Church today is living in a time of saints, and of martyrs, and I suspect we shall see rather more of both in the coming weeks and years   Fr Jacques Hamel died a martyr’s death. Of this there can be no question. The 85-year-old priest was at the altar offering the sacrifice of Mass, the moment in which the Church makes present the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood for the salvation of the world, and his blood was literally mingled with that of Christ. The savagery of the attack has left the secular world, and many in the Church, stunned. While there is a natural human revulsion to such crazed brutality, the Church was founded on such ...