Benin: For Oblate Catechists of the Little Servants to the Poor, being a Catechist is a way of life - Vatican news

 Benin: For Oblate Catechists of the Little Servants to the Poor, being a Catechist is a way of life - Vatican News https://www.vaticannews.va/en/africa/news/2025-09/for-oblate-catechists-of-the-little-servants-to-the-poor-in-ben.html

There's No Business Like Show Business - Annie Get Your Gun (Karaoke Ver...

Make Satan Illegal Again

 Make Satan Illegal Again https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/make-satan-illegal-again?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=novashare

Saint Matthew, Apostle and Martyr - September 21st

St. Mattew, Apostle and Evangelist -

 St. Mattew, Apostle and Evangelist - Information on the Saint of the Day - Vatican News https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/09/21/st---mattew--apostle-and-evangelist.html

Lake Tiberias sparkled and, as usual, Matthew was there, sitting at the custom desk at Capernaum, to collect the taxes that the Jews had to pay to the Romans. He was a publican, despised by the people because he was considered in league with the oppressors. Probably, Matthew had become accustomed to it, but that day he heard a different voice. A man told him, “Follow me,” and Matthew got up and followed the man ever after. That man was Jesus, and Matthew’s life was no longer as before. A sinner who meets Jesus Levi organized a great banquet for Jesus, who went with his disciples, stirring up the scorn of scribes and Pharisees because there were in attendance publicans and sinners. Jesus’ answer greatly touched Matthew. “They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick,” said the Nazarene, adding, “For I came not to call the just, but sinners.” Matthew, who was a sinner, left everything and followed Jesus, becoming one of the Twelve. He is also named a few times in the Acts of the Apostles. The proclamation of Christ would be his mission. According to some sources, he would die of natural causes. Other traditions, considered untrustworthy, have it that his earthly life ended in Ethiopia. In the description of the four beings of the Apocalypse (eagle, ox, lion, man) Saint Matthew is associated with that of man. His relics are located in the crypt of the Cathedral of Salerno, where his feast day is marked with a solemn procession. Author of the Gospel for Jews He is the author of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, which was almost certainly written not in Greek but Aramaic. The Gospel of Matthew is written with an audience of Christians of Jewish origin in mind: the text emphasizes that Jesus is the Messiah who fulfills the promises of the Old Testament. From Matthew to Pope Francis, passing through Caravaggio His figure is dear to iconography. Particularly known is the “Calling of St. Matthew” painted by Caravaggio between 1599 and 1600, kept in the Church of St. Louis of the French in Rome. An evocative painting in which light plays a fundamental role, a symbol of grace, which does not come from the window but from Jesus. A scene that draws the viewer into the dramatic action: Jesus’ finger points to Matthew, who in turn indicates himself, to ask for confirmation of the call. The story of St. Matthew and the painting of Caravaggio marked the life of Pope Francis, who told of it in his interview with Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ, in La Civiltà Cattolica in 2013, in which, in relation to the figure of St. Matthew, the Holy Father defines himself as “a sinner to whom the Lord turned his eyes.”

 

Q&A with Sr. Chioma Ahanihu, whose past led her toward research of 'global migrant sisters'

Q https://www.globalsistersreport.org/node/311176

‘Christ Is Worth Life!’: 24-Year-Old Carmelite Nun Urges Young People to Be Fearless in Their Vocation

 ‘Christ Is Worth Life!’: 24-Year-Old Carmelite Nun Urges Young People to Be Fearless in Their Vocation https://www.churchpop.com/christ-is-worth-life-24-year-old-carmelite-nun-urges-young-people-to-be-fearless-in-their-vocation/

St. Peter Claver, Jesuit, Apostle of Slaves - Information on the Saint of the Day - Vatican News

 St. Peter Claver, Jesuit, Apostle of Slaves - Information on the Saint of the Day - Vatican News https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/09/09/st--peter-claver--jesuit--apostle-of--slaves-.html

St. Peter Claver, Jesuit, Apostle of Slaves St. Peter Claver, Jesuit, Apostle of Slaves - Information on the Saint of the Day - Vatican News https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/09/09/st--peter-claver--jesuit--apostle-of--slaves-.html An unlikely friendship At the University of Barcelona, Peter Claver studied and prayed. The young man, born in 1580 in the Catalan region of Spain, came to understand: “I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death.” He felt a call. Its clearer contours were still hidden from him, but he knew that he had to follow it. So at 20, Peter joined the Society of Jesus. His superiors sent him to study philosophy in Mallorca, where he made an unlikely friend: Alphonsus Rodriguez, the elderly, uneducated lay brother who was the porter at the Jesuit college. Alphonsus may not have had much book-learning, but a life of suffering had taught him to listen to God. Peter noticed his holiness. “How can I love the Lord?” he asked the old man. “He gives me a great desire to follow him, but I don’t know how.” Alphonsus prayed, and the answer came to him: this young man with a great heart was destined for a suffering people far away. At Alphonsus’ urging, Peter told his superiors of his desire to go to the missions. In 1610, he left for Cartagena in present-day Colombia, a center of the Spanish slave trade, where ships sailing from West Africa brought 10,000 new slaves yearly. “Slave of the slaves” Peter finished seminary in Cartagena, learning from the Jesuit missionary Alonso de Sandoval, who had ministered to the slaves. He was horrified by what he learned about their plight. When Peter, ordained in 1616, made his final profession as a Jesuit in 1622, he signed his vows, “Peter Claver, the slave of the Africans forever.” He had found his calling. Before the slave ships entered port, Fr. Peter begged for bread, medicine, anything he could bring with him into those ships packed tightly with captives chained for so long that a third of the “cargo” died. He assembled a team of interpreters. As soon as a ship docked, this “slave of the slaves” descended into the dark holds. He brought food, but more importantly, he brought kindness to men and women driven mad with terror and suffering. He looked at them as if they were human beings, tended their wounds and lent his cloak to the shivering. “We must speak with our hands,” he said, “before we speak to them with our lips.” His hands spoke, and so when he assured these people that God loved them despite the cruelty that men had inflicted on them, they listened. Using simple pictures, he taught them the Christian faith. In small groups, he baptized them – which not only made them members of Christ’s body, but enabled Peter to call upon the slave masters to treat their fellow Christians more humanely. The apostle of Cartagena For forty years, Peter descended into the slave ships. He preached, too: to slave traders, criminals and the well-to-do, inviting all to a conversion of heart. Though irritated at his work on behalf of the slaves, the wealthy grudgingly came to admit that this priest was a force to be reckoned with. While at first they came to listen to the holy priest but refused to enter the same churches as the slaves, decades of preaching began to effect a slow, difficult opening of the heart. But preaching alone could not complete it. In 1650, Fr. Peter caught the plague. He survived, but his body was broken. For four years, he lay in bed, half-starved by the servant charged with caring for him. No one paid him much mind. It seemed as if the “apostle of Cartagena” had been forgotten. He prayed, accepting his sufferings as a penance for his sins. Yet in 1654, when word got out that Fr. Peter had received last rites, the city suddenly remembered the man who had been its conscience. A flood of visitors came to pay their respects. When he died on September 8, Cartagena buried him at pubic expense. Only then did they realize what they had had in their midst: this man, whose hands spoke the language of God’s compassion, had baptized 300,000 slaves and heard over 5,000 slaves’ confessions a year. In 1888, Peter Claver was canonized together with Alphonsus Rodriguez, his friend who had helped him to follow his Lord.

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