On the Cross, Stigmatists, and Mary's Role in Salvation History

Introduction

Since the 13th of September, one of the themes expressed in the
Sunday gospels is the impending suffering of Christ. Jesus talks
about how He was to be handed over, crucified, put to death but
rise again after three days. The gospel theme on the cross of
Christ is one of the pillars of Catholic spirituality. It is
foundational to the truth of our faith that some saints in the
history of our Church were given the gift to actually bear the
physical wounds of Christ in their bodies (stigmatists). They
shared in the sufferings of Christ Crucified on the cross.

Besides these stigmatists, a very special person who also shared
in the suffering of Jesus is His mother Mary. From the time that
Simeon prophesied that a sword shall pierce through her heart, up
to the time that she saw her Son at the foot of the Cross, Mary
suffered also the pains her Son had to endure for the sake of
His mission.

Sunday Gospel Reflections

There are many themes that are embedded in the Sunday gospels
from September 13 to this coming September 27. One thread that
tieds these gospels together is the theme of a self-sacrificing
service to God: by denying ourselves for others, focusing on a
full trust in God's will, and avoiding evil and choosing the
good. This themes resound well in the gospels and remind us to
reflect on how our personal sufferings can be seen as a sharing
in the suffering of Jesus on the Cross. To know more about these
themes, the links to the gospel reflections are given below:
24th Sunday of the Year (Sep 13)
25th Sunday of the Year (Sep 20)
26th Sunday of the Year (Sep 27)

Mary's role in her Son's mission

In Catholic spirituality, Mary has a special role in the faith.
She is intimately linked by God to the earthly ministry and
mission of her Son Jesus. Many images and symbols abound in
Catholic literature and the classics which deeply and profoundly
express this truth. An example of this special bond between
Mary and her Son's mission is a poem from an anonymous author
which was edited by the Dominican sisters of Summit in 1972. In
this poem, one image that expresses this mystical bond between
Mary and Jesus is: "Mary the cup, Christ the Saving Blood".
learn more about Mary and Christ

The 'signs of the times'

Ever since St. Paul expressed in Romans 8:22-23, 26-27, that,
"even now, the whole creation is still groaning in travail - and
not only it, but we too", we continue to experience critical
times in our life and in the world. It makes us stop and think:
how are we to judge the crises we experience in ourselves and all
around us? Vatican II coined a theologically rich phrase that
expresses this in a positive way and invites us to creatively
reflect what God intends for our times. This theological phrase
is termed as the "signs of the times". In view of this, a blog
post has been published to make us aware of how we can discern
God's will in the 'signs' He gives through our local situation
and the global context in which it is related to.
learn more about 'signs of the times'

Visionaries, stigmatists, and the incorrupt

There is a series of blog posts now being published to help us
learn many things on Catholic spirituality through the witness
of: visionaries (those who saw Christ and Mary in a private or
public apparition); stigmatists (those who bore the wounds of
our Crucified Lord in their physical bodies); and the incorrupt
(those whose remains are still intact and untouched by physical
decay up to the present day). This series of blog posts are not
meant to detract us from seeing the divine in the ordinariness
of daily life. It only points us to the truth that God sometimes
chooses a select few of His humble servants to bring a stronger
message of repentance and conversion not only to the Church, but
to the rest of the world as well.
learn more about visionaries

For Catholic bloggers and web developers

Parsing and the FriendFeed widget

Parsing .xml files to .html is a very complex process. The coding
involves using special PHP functions so that all the data from
an xml file is translated to html format. The PHP code is quite
intricate and often embedded in a html page. For the purposes of
small Catholic web site development and blogging, an easier
process to follow is to register an account with FriendFeed and
get the widget which you can embed in one of your web pages. This
FriendFeed widget will enable you to "parse" the rss feed of your
small Catholic web site and also the atom.xml feed of your blog
with Blogger.com.
learn more about FriendFeed