The last days before the Acamps
The clock’s ticking, an amazing experience is coming up.
WYD Panama 2019 – Panamanian Beauty and Faith
The next WYD in Panama next January is coming soon and comshalom.org/en wish to give you an opportunity to know more about this great event through an young shalom life missionary who is already there working as a volunteer: Barbara Freitas. She is going to send us a monthly logbook to tell us what God is preparing for us in this amazing country.
Acamps Festival – History, Holiday and Concerts
Still almost two months till the big event, plenty of time to get ready, to learn about the place, the people and all the things we’ll do there at Acamps.
What I learned about holiness through Shalom and the Pope
An exhortation to today’s call to holiness made me reflect on this word: Holiness. “My modest goal is to repropose the call to holiness”, says the Pope in Gaudete et Exsultate. It may seem simple, but I remember perfectly the day when I felt for the first time that that holiness was also for me: this has changed my life! In my story I have always admired the saints, but sincerely towards them my relationship was never emulation but pure devotion. Since childhood I have learned to relate with the saints as intercessors rather than as models of life to be imitated. I admired them – he placed the tau of San Francisco in his neck and read the “Prayer ...
The power of the empty Cross
How frightening it must have been to watch the passion of Christ. To see him carry the cross, beaten and bloody. To watch him die, and with his death everything his disciples believed in was shaken to its foundation. For only a moment the thought creeping in: were the promises, the glimpses of God all true? Then suddenly He was there again. He came through the shut door, ate with them, showed them his wounds. Risen from death. And how wonderful it must have been to be there at that moment. To see him with our own eyes, to touch his wounds and rejoice in the moment and in the promise: He is not dead and neither will be those ...
Young People of The Church – Free, Brave And Joyful
Imagine that during the rush hour you have to pass different groups talking about some topics, trying to get your attention on your way to the subway. Which one would you notice? Those that are standing next to a stand and just hand you a piece of paper, or the one where the people sing, start chatting with you and above all, look happy? The latter is what young people are in the Church nowadays. Full of energy and new ideas, enthusiasm and a fire that is typical in young people. They are not jaded yet, and can see colors in a world where others can’t anymore. A lot of people are disillusioned, have some bad experience or they simply ...
Two different choices from two close friends of Jesus
This year, two people that have been part of the Passion of Jesus caught my attention when I was reading the Gospel. They were probably very close friends to Jesus because they were among those who Jesus had spent his last days with. I’m talking about Mary of Bethany and Judas Iscariot who had relevant participation in Jesus’ passion. According to Mark, two days before the Passover, Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Lazarus, who he had raised from the dead, when his sister Mary came in with an alabaster jar of very costly perfumed oil, pure nard. She broke the jar and poured it on Jesus’ feet. Some of those who were at table with him were ...
The Pope’s fight against Satan
In the first five years of his pontificate, Francis has cited the devil many times, insisting not only on his existence but also on his dangerousness
How can I invite someone back to church at Christmas?
Bells are ringing. The trees are glistening. Everything is covered in snow. All seems right with the world during the Christmas season. But what if your friend or family member is missing out on the best part of Christmas – Christ? Here are a few ideas to help bring them back to church during this special time.
Feast of the Holy Innocents: 2,000 years later we still remember the pain their mothers felt
Thirty-four years ago I sat beside a hospital bed with its tubes dangling, pumps silent, all attempts at life support shut down, as I held my child, my 22-month-old son, cradling him in my arms as I watched the last flicker of his life ebb away. He died from drowning. But you, you mothers of the Holy Innocents, you whose babies, your young sons, perhaps your 22-month-olds, there you were cradling your children, bloody from the stab wounds inflicted by the soldiers. I think of you and I wonder.
