John the Baptist and Mary are the two great personages typyfying our existence in Advent. They, therefore, dominate the liturgy of Advent. Let us first gaze on John the Baptist. Challenging and active he stands before us, a “type” of the manly vocation. In harsh terms he demands metanoia, a radical transformation of attitudes. ...
The determination with which nowadays Jesus’ birth “of the Virgin” is rejected cannot be explained by pointing to the historical problems. The real and sustaining reason inspiring the historical questions lies elsewhere: in the difference between our world view and the biblical account, and in the notion that the latter has no place in...
The proper Marian devotion assures our faith of the simultaneous presence of indispensable reason and equally indispensable “reasons of the heart”, as Pascal would say. For the Church, man is neither reason alone nor feeling alone; he is the unity of both these dimensions. The head’s task is to think clearly, while the heart...
