1. 12. Fun…
but God in the dock
Who has the wealth of young people want to enjoy everything at maximum. This arrangement makes the
young good fair game for deception. The fanatical desire to live leads to destruction. What is sought in the
drug, but the experience of infinity? God sit on bench, get it out of the way so do not limit the fun ... lays the
foundation for a culture of death. This is not a hypothesis but an experience at the sight of any observer.
Benedict XVI encouraged to enjoy life, live it with intensity. That the failures of others fear not put us in the
body. Dare to love you fall in love, live music and sports ... but, above all, discover that the happiness we
desire taste has a face: Jesus of Nazareth.

2. 1.12 Why am I going to give up something?
I think that, naturally, the vast majority of men have the same concept of life as the prodigal son of the gospel. He had achieved his share of
the inheritance and then felt free, he wanted to finally live and without the burden of homework, he wanted only to live, receive all that life
can offer; fully enjoy life; live, just live, drink plenty of life without giving up anything good to offer. He ended up caring for pigs and even
envying those animals. How empty and futile had been his life! And his freedom had been futile. Is it not true also today?
When you just want to own life, this is becoming emptier and poorer; easy to end up seeking refuge in drugs, in the great deception. And the
question arises if we really live is ultimately good. No. This would not find life. 'Nobody takes my life, I on my own "(cf. Jn 10, 18). Is only giving
life, she is barely trying to seize it. This is what we must learn from Christ, and this is what the Holy Spirit teaches us, that is pure gift that God
the gift of himself. The more one gives one's life for others, for its own sake, the more abundantly flowing river of life.
Saint Peter´s Square, Saturday June 3, 2006
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2.12 There are diversions that are runaways
In our time we need to say "no" to the culture of death widely prevalent. An "anti-culture" manifested, for example, in drugs, in flight from
reality to illusion, to a false happiness expressed in the lie, fraud, injustice, contempt of others, of solidarity, of responsibility for the poor and
suffering, which is expressed in a sexuality that becomes sheer irresponsible enjoyment responsibility, that into a "thing", so to speak, of man,
which has already person is not considered worthy of a personal love which requires fidelity, but it becomes a commodity, a mere object. This
apparent promise of happiness, this "bubble" of an apparent life which in reality is only an instrument of death, this "anti-culture" we say "no"
to cultivate the culture of life. Therefore, the "yes" Christian, from ancient times until today, is a big "yes" to life. This is our "yes" to Christ, the
"yes" to the victor over death and the "yes" to life in time and in eternity.
Sistine Chapel, Sunday January 8, 2006.
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3.12 Entertainment tragedies that feed
What about the man, the pinnacle of God's creation? Each day we see the achievements of human ingenuity. The quality and life satisfaction
of people is growing steadily in many ways, both because of the progress of medical science and the skillful application of technology and
creativity embodied in art. Also among you are an attentive availability to accommodate the numerous opportunities that you offer. Some of
you excel in studies, sport, music, dancing and theater, while others have a keen sense of social justice and ethics, and many make
commitments of service and volunteerism. All of us, young and old, have moments when the innate goodness of the human-perceptible
perhaps in the gesture of a young child or the availability of an adult to forgive, "fills us with profound joy and gratitude.
However, these moments do not last long. Therefore, we must reflect something else. And so we discovered that not only the natural
environment, but also the social-the habitat that we create ourselves, has its scars; wounds indicating that something is in place. Also in our
personal lives and in our communities can sometimes find dangerous hostilities, a poison which threatens to corrode what is good, change
what we are and divert the purpose for which we were created. Examples abound, as you know. Among the most obvious are the abuse of
alcohol and drugs, the exaltation of violence and sexual degradation, often presented on television and the internet as a diversion. I wonder
how one that was face to face with people who are actually suffering violence and sexual exploitation could explain that these tragedies,
portrayed in virtual way, should be regarded simply as "fun."
WYD, SYDNEY, Thursday, July 17, 2008
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4.12 It is not prohibited
This is not the man to take away the taste for life, or prohibitions alibi and denial. This is simply driving to the truth and thereby sanctify it. The
man can be holy when it is really him, when it ceases to relegate and destroy the truth. [...] The Holy Spirit convicts the world and we also
convinces us of sin, but not to lower ourselves to make us true and healthy, to save us.
Sin and Salvation, p. 90 (3.4 PRAY with B16)
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5.12 Let us not deceive
Forbidden joys lose their splendor at the time that are no longer prohibited. Those joys should and must be radical and expanded increasingly,
finally appearing insipid, because they all are limited, whereas the flame of hunger for the infinite always stays on. And so today we often see
in the faces of young people with a strange bitterness, a rather distant conformist youth thrust into the unknown. The deepest root of this
sadness is the lack of great hope and failure to achieve the great love. Everything you would expect is already known and all love ends in
disappointment for the finiteness of a world whose enormous substitutes are nothing but a paltry coverage of abysmal despair. And so the
truth that the sorrow of the world leads to death is becoming increasingly real. Now only flirting with death, the cruel game of violence, is
exciting enough to create an appearance of satisfaction. "If you eat it you die": a long time that these words were no longer mythological (Gen.
3, 17).
Look to Christ, pp. 76-77
5.12.a
Dear friends, life is not governed by chance, not accidental. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed by him and a goal that has
been given (cf. Gen 1:28). Life is not just a succession of events and experiences, however useful they might be. It is a search for the true, good
and beautiful. Precisely to achieve this we make our choices, we exercise our freedom and in this, that is, in truth, goodness and beauty, find
happiness and joy. Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice
itself becomes the good, novelty posing as beauty and subjective experience supersedes the truth.
WYD, Sydney, Thursday July 17, 2008
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3. 6.12 Verbality and curiosity: symptoms of sadness
"No man can live in sorrow." But if the substance of the soul is sad, we are necessarily led to a continuous flight of the soul itself, a serious
concern. The man is afraid of being alone with himself, loses its center, it becomes an intellectual vagabond, who is always away from himself.
Symptoms of this concern wandering of the spirit are the verbiage and curiosity. The man thought about fleeing. And since he has taken his
vision to the Infinite, insatiably seeking substitutes.
Look to Christ, p. 81 (33.1 pray with B16)
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7.12 One sad
In one of his works, a famous French writer has given us a phrase that I want to share with you today: "There is only sadness, not saints" (Léon
Bloy, La femme pauvre, II, 27). Dear young people, dare to commit your life in courageous choices, of course, not alone but with the Lord. Give
this city the momentum and excitement arising from your lived experience of faith, an experience that does not mortify the expectations of
human life but exalts them to participate in the same experience of Christ.
Savona, Saturday May 17, 2008
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8.12 How to enjoy life?
"You're going to be the first protagonists of the third millennium. (...) Is you young, you are going to trace the paths of this new phase of
humanity." Today, I feel compelled to make that same conclusion. It's the same the young man who came out to meet Jesus: "What should I
do to inherit eternal life?". I would further with you on this question. This is life, life in you, is lush and beautiful. What to do about it? How can
you live with? Already in the wording of the question we understand immediately that not enough "here" and "now", ie we do not we limit our
lives to space and time, however much we might try to broaden their horizons. Life transcends them. In other words, we want to live and not
die. We feel that something telling us that life is eternal and that we must commit ourselves to make this happen. In other words, is in our
hands and depends, somehow, of our decision. The question of the Gospel does not only concern the future. Concerns not only what happens
after death. On the contrary, we have a commitment to the present, here and now, which must guarantee authenticity and consequently the
future. In short, the question raises the question of the meaning of life. Therefore, it can be stated as: what must I do to make my life
meaningful? That is: how should I live to reap the full fruits of life? Or: what do I get my life is not wasted? Jesus alone can give us an answer,
because he alone can guarantee us eternal life. So also is the only one who is able to portray the meaning of the present life and give it
fullness.
Brazil, Thursday May 10, 2007
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9.12 Live it with enthusiasm, not squander
However, before giving his response, Jesus asks the young man a very important question: "Why call me good." This question is the key to the
answer. This young man perceives that Jesus is good and who is a teacher. A teacher who does not cheat. We are here because we have this
conviction: Jesus is good. Perhaps we did not fully explain the reason for this perception, but certainly gets us closer to him and opens us up to
his teaching: a good teacher. To recognize the good means to love and who loves, in the felicitous phrase of John, known to God (cf. 1 Jn 4, 7).
The young man acknowledged God Gospel in Jesus Christ. Jesus assures us that only God is good. Be open to goodness means to receive God.
This invites us to see God in all things and in all events, even where most only see the absence of God. Seeing the beauty of creation and to
confirm the goodness that exists in all, it is impossible not to believe in God and experience his saving and reassuring presence. If we can see
all the good that exists in the world and, indeed, experience the good that comes from God himself, would never cease to approach him,
praise him and thank him. He continually fills us with joy and good things. His joy is our strength.
Brazil, Thursday May 10, 2007
9.12.a
But we know only in part. To understand what is good, we need aid, which the Church offers us on many occasions, especially in catechesis.
Jesus himself shows what is good for us, giving us his first catechesis: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Mt 19, 17). Part of
the knowledge that the young man and was certainly due to his family and the Synagogue: in fact, know the commandments, which leads to
life, which is to say that they guarantee authenticity. They are the great signs that tell us the right path. Whoever keeps the commandments is
God's way.
However, it is not enough. The testimony is worth more than science, or science is applied. We are not imposed from outside, nor diminish our
freedom. On the contrary, are strong inner impulses that lead us to act in a certain direction. At its base are the grace and nature, that keep us
immobile. We must walk. We are motivated to do something to fulfill our potential. In fact, the action is done by becoming real. Since our
youth are, in large part, we want to be. So to speak, we are the work of our hands.
Brazil Thursday May 10, 2007
9.12.b
3

4. At this point, I turn back to you, young people, because I also hear from your lips the response of the young of the Gospel: "All these I have
kept from my youth." The young of the Gospel was good kept the commandments, walking in the way of God. So Jesus looked at him with
love. By recognizing that Jesus was good, he showed that he too was good. His experience of goodness and therefore, God. And you ... have
you discovered and what is good? "Seize the commandments of the Lord? Have you discovered that this is the one true path to happiness?
These years of your life are the years that prepare your future. The "tomorrow" depends much on how you are living the "today" of youth. My
dear young people, you have a life ahead, we want to be long, but is one, is unique: do not let it pass in vain, do not squander it. Live it with
enthusiasm and with joy, but above all a sense of responsibility.
Brazil, Thursday May 10, 2007
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10.12 The union of death
The fanatical desire of life that we find today in all continents has led to an anti-death that is becoming the face of our time: the sexual
debauchery, drugs and arms trafficking has become an unholy trinity whose network mortal spans continents. Abortion, suicide and communal
violence are the specific ways in which the union operates death.
Jesus Christ today, pp. 36-37
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At the same time, AIDS has become the intimate portrait of the disease of our culture. [...] Medical research seeks to mobilize all its
possibilities, injectable substances against the dissolution of the body immunization forces, and it is their duty, in spite of this, just move the
area of destruction, without stopping the campaign triumph of the anti-culture of death, but we recognize that the body's immune weakness
is a cry of the human being mistreated, an image that expresses the real disease: the helplessness of the soul in a culture that declares void the
true values, God and the soul.
Jesus Christ Today, pp. 36-37
10.12.b
11.12 The softness does not help
We know that often spoiled children, who have been pampered all in the end fail to succeed in life, because it treats them differently and have
not learned to discipline themselves to be at the track. Or, for example, if want to be kind to a drug addict, I will provide drug craving rather
than away from them (which would be very hard for him), that would not be a true act of love.
Put another way: True love is not simply cede always, be soft in the simple sweetness. In this sense, a Jesus or a God softened, saying yes to
everything, which is always nice, is nothing but a caricature of true love. Because he loves us because he wants to move forward on the path of
truth, God must also require us and correct us. God has to put into practice what we symbolically call the "wrath of God", ie to oppose us want
to stay comfortable in myself.
God and the world, p. 173
11.12.a
12.12 Face of happiness
The happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have right to enjoy has a name and a face: Jesus of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist. Only
he gives the fullness of life to humanity. Say, with Mary, your "yes" to God who wants to give himself to you.
August 18, 2005
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13.12 Who knows what, smile!
If we understand the announcement of the resurrection, then we recognize that the sky is not fully enclosed above the earth. Then some of
the light of God, albeit in a shy but strong-enters our life. Then come up in us the joy that would otherwise expect in vain, and every person
that has penetrated some of this joy can be, in its way, an opening through which the sky looks at the ground and reaches us. So what can
happen provided the revelation of John, all the creatures of heaven and earth, on land and at sea, all things in the world are filled with the joy
of the saved. To the extent that we recognize, is fulfilled the word that Jesus spoke on the bounce, which heralds a new arrival: "Your sorrow
will turn into joy." And, as Sara, men who believe in the Easter claim under "Reason for cheerful smile God has given me: anyone who knows
me smile!"
Images of Hope, Encuentro Editions, Madrid, 1998
13.12.a
Dear friends, at home, at school, college, places of work and fun, remember that you are new creatures. As Christians, you are in this world
knowing that God has a human face, Jesus Christ, the "way" that fills all human longing and the "life" of which we are called to witness,
walking always illuminated by his light (cf. v. ., 100).
WYD, Sydney, Thursday July 17, 2008
13.12.b
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5. 14.12 No shadow will darken
No shade, no matter how dense it is, you can dim the light of Christ. Therefore, those who believe in Christ always maintain hope, even today,
given the great social and economic crisis afflicting humanity to the destructive hatred and violence that continue to bloody many regions of
the earth, before the selfishness and pretension of man to establish itself as a god of himself, which sometimes leads to dangerous changes in
the divine plan for life and human dignity, the family and the harmony of creation. "Christ as the culmination of creation and history"
"Christ as the culmination of creation and history"
14.12.a
15.12 The always fresh and new
It is also true that in our modern Western society there are many false positives that lead us away from Christianity, faith appears as
something far away, so also God appears distant [...] But life seems full of possibilities and [...] goals and tends the desire of young people is to
be the architects of their own lives, to live to their fullest potential [...] I think of the prodigal son saw his father's life at home bored "I want to
live life fully, gozármela until the end." And then he realizes that his life is empty and it was really free and great when I lived in the house of
his father. I think young people is spreading the feeling that all the diversions available to them, the whole market built on free time,
everything that is done, you can do, you can buy and sell, in the end it can be [...] For the whole must be somewhere better. Here we find the
big question: what is so essential? It can not be all that we have and we can buy. Here is the call market of religions that somehow offers
religion as a commodity and therefore degrades. But we face a question, it is necessary to recognize and not ignore this doubt, do not consider
Christianity as something completed and experienced enough, but to contribute in order to be recognized as that possibility is always fresh,
precisely because it originates in God, keeping and reveals itself ever new dimensions ... In fact, the Lord tells us: "The Holy Spirit will enter in
things that today I can tell you no." Christianity is full of dimensions not yet revealed and shown always fresh and new.
Vatican Radio Aug. 15, 2005
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16.12 When he "left on the bench"
Witness The task is not easy. Today many argue that God is to be "left on the bench," and that religion and faith, but convenient for individuals
to be excluded from public life, or considered only for limited pragmatic goals. This secularized view attempts to explain human life and shape
society with little or no reference to the Creator. Force is presented as a neutral, impartial and respectful of each. In reality, like every
ideology, secularism imposes a global vision. If God is irrelevant in public life, the company may take the form as a godless perspective.
However, experience shows that the absence of God's plan provokes a disorder creator has inevitable repercussions on the rest of creation.
When God is eclipsed, our ability to recognize the natural order, purpose and 'good' begins to fade. What was ostensibly promoted as human
ingenuity has manifested soon as folly, greed and selfish exploitation. And we realize more and more of the need for humility before the
delicate complexity of God's world.
16.12.a
And what of our social environment? Are we sufficiently aware of the signs that we are giving back to the moral structure with which God has
endowed humanity? Do we recognize that the innate dignity of every individual rests in her deepest identity-image of the Creator, and
therefore human rights are universal, based on natural law, and not something dependent upon negotiation or concessions result of a
straightforward commitment? Which brings us to reflect on the place they occupy in our society the poor, the elderly, immigrants and the
voiceless. How is it possible that domestic violence torments so many mothers and children? How is it possible that the mother's womb, the
human most wondrous and sacred, has become a place of unutterable violence?
WYD, Sydney, Thursday July 17, 2008
16.12.b
Dear friends, God's creation is unique and good. The concerns for nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and peace, caring for our
environment are of vital importance for humanity. But all this can not be understood apart from a profound reflection upon the innate dignity
of every human life from conception to natural death: a dignity conferred by God himself and thus inviolable. Our world is tired of greed,
exploitation and division, the tedium of false idols and partial responses, and the pain of false promises. Our hearts and our minds yearn for a
vision of life where love reigns, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom has its own meaning in truth and where identity is
found in respectful communion. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is the hope that the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You have been recreated in
Baptism and strengthened through the gifts of the Spirit in Confirmation precisely to bear witness to this reality. Let this be the message that
you bring to the world ...
WYD, Sydney, Thursday July 17, 2008
16.12.c
5

6. 17.12 Live without fear
Many times we feel our hearts tremble pastors, noting the situation of our time. We hear about the fears of today's youth, which reveal an
enormous lack of hope: a fear of dying, at a time when life is blossoming and looking to find their own path of realization, fear of failure, not to
discover the meaning of life, and fear of being taken aback by the breathtaking speed of events and communications. We note the high death
rate among young people, the threat of violence, the deplorable proliferation of drugs, which strike at the deepest roots of youth today. So
often speaks of a lost youth.
Be apostles of youth. Invite them to walk with you, to make the same experience of faith, hope and love to meet Jesus, to feel truly loved,
accepted, with full self-realization. They also discover the sure ways of the commandments and routes come to God.
Brazil, Thursday May 10, 2007
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18.12The drug scam
Here I am reminded of a third memory. In Brazil I was in the "Fazenda da Esperança", a reality where drug addicts heal and regain hope, regain
the joy of living. Drug addicts testified that just discovering that God is meant to cure them of despair. Just realized that his life has meaning
and regained the joy of being in this world, the joy of dealing with problems of human life.
Therefore, in every human heart, despite the problems that exist, there is a thirst for God and where God disappears, disappears also the sun
which gives light and joy. This thirst for the infinite that is in our heart is also demonstrated in the reality of the drug: the man wants to expand
their life, want more of life, wants to reach infinity, but the drug is a lie, a scam, because broadens life, but destroys it.
Loreto, Saturday, September 1, 2007
18.12.a
Forgiveness is the participation in the pain of drug passage from sin to the truth of love. It is a precedent and a walk with serious step in this
journey from death to rebirth. Only this company can go in helping drug addicts (and sin is always a "drug" lie of false happiness) to be led
along the dark line of pain. Only a prior decision to enter the pain and the death of the path of transformation that makes it bearable narrow
gauge is visible in the light of hope for a new life.
Look to Christh, p. 99
18.12.b
The "weeping and gnashing of teeth" actually represents the threat, danger, even, ultimately, the failure of human beings. It is a situation that
describes the world of people fall into drugs and the orgiastic ecstasy, who, when out of his daze, perceive with clarity the complete
contradiction of his life.
Hell is usually represented by fire, with flames. The gnashing of teeth, however, arises when you feel really cold. Here, the person fall, with
their cries and moans and cries of protest, evokes the image of being exposed to cold for refusing to love. In a world totally away from God,
and therefore love, it feels cold to the point of causing the gnashing of teeth.
God and the world, p. 188
18.12.c
19.12 When you give away
Among the many gifts that we buy and receive not forget the true gift: to give each other something of ourselves. Give each other our time.
Open our time to God. So the turmoil subsides. Thus was born the joy, the feast is created. And meals these holidays remember the Lord's
words: "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite those who correspond inviting, but whom no one invites and can not invite" (cf. Lk
14:12-14 .) Indeed, this also means: when you make gifts for Christmas, giving away something you did not just those who, in turn, they give
you, but also that no one gives gifts can not give you anything in return. So what God has done: he invites us to his wedding feast, we can not
reciprocate, but can only receive with joy. Let us imitate him! Let us love God and, through him, to man, we can then rediscover a new way to
God through men.
2.2 N
19.12.a
20.12 Respect yourselves in courtship
Be especially great respect for the institution of the sacrament of marriage. There can be no true happiness in the home if at the same time,
there is fidelity between spouses. Marriage is an institution of natural law, which was raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament, is a great
gift that God has done to humanity. Respect it and honor. At the same time, God calls you to respect also falling in love and become engaged,
since conjugal life, which is bound by divine ordinance to married couples, but will be a source of happiness and peace to the extent that you
are able to chastity, both within and outside marriage, a stronghold of your future hopes.
Brazil, Thursday May 10, 2007
20.12.a
I repeat here to all of you that "eros tends to rise (...) towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves, but that's why you need to follow a
path of ascent, renunciation, purification and recovery" (Deus Caritas Est, 5). In short, it requires a spirit of sacrifice and renunciation for a
greater good, namely the love of God above all things. Seek to resist forcefully the snares of evil that exists in many environments, which leads
you to a dissolute life, paradoxically empty, to make lose the precious gift of your freedom and your true happiness. The true love "increasingly
seeks the happiness of others more, is concerned, bestows itself and wants to" be for "the other" (ibid., 7) and, therefore, will be increasingly
true, inseparable and fruitful.
Brazil, Thursday May 10, 2007
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7. 21.12 Fear of marriage
In the innermost heart, every boy and every girl that opens to life cultivated the dream of a love that gives full meaning to their future. For
many this dream is realized in the choice of marriage and family formation, where the love between a man and a woman living as a reciprocal
and faithful gift as finally issued, sealed by the "yes" to God pronounced wedding day, a "yes" to life.
I know that this dream is now becoming increasingly difficult. Many failures of love around you behold! Many couples nod, surrendering, and
separate! Many families are broken! Many boys, even among you, have seen separation and divorce of their parents!
For those who are in such delicate and complex situations I would say this afternoon: the Mother of God, the community of believers, the
Pope is close to you and pray that the crisis that affects families of our time does not become irreversible failure. I hope that Christian families,
with the help of divine grace, remain faithful to the solemn commitment of love happily taken to the priest and the Christian community
before the solemn day of marriage.
21.12.a
Faced with such failures often ask this question: "Am I better than my friends and my relatives, who have tried and failed? Why me, just me,
should succeed where so many others give up?". The human fear can stop even the bravest hearts, but on this night that awaits us at the foot
of His Holy House, Mary will be repeated for each of you, dear young friends, the words the angel spoke to her "Fear not: Do not be afraid! The
Holy Spirit is with you and do not ever leave. Nothing is impossible for those who trust in God."
21.12.b
22.12 Football
When you browse the press and listening to the radio, we find immediately that there is a dominant theme: soccer and football league. This
sport has become a universal event that unites people around the world over national boundaries, with one mind, with the same hopes, fears,
passions and joys. All this tells us that we are confronted by something genuinely human.
The question naturally arises as to why the fascination of this game. The pessimistic answer is another repetition of what has already been
piloted in ancient Rome: bread and circuses, panem et circus.
But even if we accept this answer, we should ask: and what should such a fascination, which leads to put the game along with bread, and give
the same importance? Going back to ancient Rome, we could answer this question by saying that the cry which called "bread and games" was
the desire for a life of paradise. In this sense, the game is presented as a sort of homecoming first to paradise, as an escape from everyday
existence, with its slavish hardness. But the game has, especially in children, a different sense: it is a training for life.
In my view, the fascination with football is, essentially, that a convincing case can unite these two senses: it helps to discipline the man and
teaches him to collaborate with others within a team, showing how you can deal with the other a noble way.
As I gazed, men identify with that game, making him the spirit of loyal cooperation and confrontation with others. Of course, the grim
seriousness of the money, coupled with commercial interests, can take all this to lose. By thinking through all of this raises the possibility of
learning to live with the spirit of the game, because human freedom is also fed and self-discipline rules. In any case, the vision of a world that
vibrates with the game should help us to do more than entertain, because if we go to the merits, the game might show a new way of
understanding life.
Mitarbeiter der arheit (Ratzinger)
22.12.a
23.12 Beauty
Beauty is the splendor of truth, says Thomas Aquinas, and the offense could add to the beauty is lost self-mockery of the truth.
Why am I still a Christian?, P. 111
23.12.a
24.12 Artists
The artists do not invent what might be beautiful and worthy of God. The human being is unable to invent their own. God communicates to
Moses the detailed shape of the Sanctuary. Artistic creation copy what God showed as a model. This insight presupposes creation of the
prototype, is the transfer of an intuition to a figure. Artistic creation, as seen by the Old Testament, is radically different from what it means by
creative modern thought. Today creativity is called for the manufacture of the never done or thought by another, the invention of the totally
personal and completely new. Artistic creation within the meaning of the Exodus is, however, one part on the intuition of God, participate in
his creative work, one to show the hidden beauty that beats and in creation. This does not diminish the dignity of the artist, but the bases.
Thus we read that the Lord called his name "to Besalel, the artist director of the construction of the sanctuary (Ex. 35, 30). For the artist applies
the same formula as for the prophet. Exodus also features artists as persons endowed by God with skill and ability to implement the various
works that he had ordered (36, 1). The third element is the willingness, the "heart that drives" to such persons (36, 2).
Sing to God with mastery, pp. 122-123
24.12.a
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8. 25.12 The supreme service of music
Gregory said: "If the singing of the psalms out of the depths of our heart, through the Lord Almighty is his access to the heart, to pour on the
senses alert the mysteries of wisdom or grace of contrition. As it is written: "The song of praise I am honored, and this is the way to show man
God's salvation" (Ps. 50, 23). Where Latin salutare says, salvation, Jesus says in Hebrew. Therefore, the opening song of praise access where
the Lord can manifest itself, for when the chant breaks contrition, born in us an avenue to the heart, at the end of which we come to Jesus ...
"This is the supreme service music, so that does not lose its artistic grandeur but the fills, the music clears the blocked path of the heart, the
center of our being, where we are with being the Creator and Redeemer.
Sing to God with mastery, p. 130
25.12.a
The liturgy and music from the beginning were twinned. When man praises God, not just mere words. Talking to God is something that goes
beyond the limits of human language, so always and has sought the help of the essence of music: the song and the voices of creation in the
sound of the instruments. Because the praise of God is not something unique to humans. To worship God is to join all things proclaim.
The image of the world and man in the liturgy..., p. 131
24.12.b
A Church that makes music only "ordinary" falls into the ineptitude and makes itself inept. The Church has the duty to be too "city of glory", an
area in which they collect and rise to God the deepest voices of humanity.
Report about the faith, p. 142
25.12.c
26.12 Faith creates culture
There is no indefinite culturally faith can then culturalize at will. The choice of faith behaves as such a cultural choice, she shapes the man as a
paradigm and excludes other forms of culture. Faith creates culture and is not limited to carry it like an outer garment. This cultural premise,
which is not manipulated at the discretion and set its subsequent inculturations norm, is not rigid nor closed. The range of a culture is known
precisely in their capacity to assimilate [...]. Being eternal means, however, be synchronous with all time and before all time.
Sing to God with mastery, p. 120
26.12.a
The word made music is awareness, the incarnation, the attraction of pre-and super-rational forces, capturing the hidden ring of creation,
discovery of the song that rests on the bottom of things. But this conversion in music is at once the opposite trend: not only incarnation of the
word, but spiritualize the flesh. Wood and metal become sound, the sound becomes unconscious and unresolved orderly and meaningful.
There is an embodiment which is spiritualized, and spiritual-that is embodiment. The embodiment Christian is at once spiritualized and made
spiritual Christian is one embodiment in the body of the incarnate Logos.
The image of the world and man in the liturgy ...p. 143
26.12.b
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