De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

Reached a point this evening where I really needed to hear what Fr. Richard Rohr ofm is saying in the below extract from one of his audiobooks that I had been sent as a text in a cirucular newsletter containing extracts of his talks + writings. But what he says is at times so tough to observe (like tonight)… It is the only way forward, however. The Welcoming Prayer Earlier this week, I wrote about how Francis entered pain and suffering rather than trying to avoid it. This wasn't an act of moral achievement or heroic obedience. It didn't feel like winning, but more like losing, dying, and letting go. The religious word for letting go is forgiveness. Forgiveness is giving up your investment in and identification with your own painful story. This comes from a deep place of inner freedom and awareness of goodness--God's, your own, and the goodness of the person you choose to forgive. I'd like to offer you a form of prayer--a practice of letting go and forgiving--calle...

Here’s an interesting article from the Franciscan spiritual writer Fr. Richard Rohr that manages to summarise in a few paragraphs important developments in early Church history and the impact they had on the subsequent centuries. The Early Christian Church From Bottom to Top Tuesday, April 28, 2015 The last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ended in AD 303. Ten years later, Christianity was legalized by Constantine I. After this structural change, Christianity increasingly accepted, and even defended, the dominant social order, especially concerning war and money. Morality became individualized and largely sexual. The Church slowly lost its free and alternative vantage point. Texts written in the hundred years preceding 313 show it was unthinkable that a Christian would fight in the army, as the army was killing Christians. By the year 400, the entire army had become Christian, and they were now killing the pagans. Before AD 313, the Church was on th...