RELIGION

Allocution, Sunday, October 25, 2020

In his speech this Sunday, October 25, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of Havana, thanked God for the work of consecrated religious working in homes for the elderly and disabled. Among the communities whose hospitable charism is an obvious reality in the Haban archdiocese, the cardinal mentioned the Daughters of Charity, the Little Sisters of the Homeless Elders, the Handmaids of St. Joseph, the Religious of Mary Immaculate, the Brothers of St. John of God and the Congregation Martha and Mary. He also thanked the youth and adults for helping them care for those in these holy places.

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Palabra de Hoy
RELIGION

XXX Sunday of Ordinary Time

God has created us out of love and to love. Our essence is also to love, to love God, to others and to ourselves, to love as God loves us, to love because God loves us. God’s love we have known him in Jesus Christ. His new mandate reminds us to love one another as He has loved us, or better, as He continues to love us. And his love consists in the surrender of one’s life. His mandate, rather than a law or a standard to be fulfilled, is to live what we are and for what we have been created by Him, which is infinite, total, compassionate, and merciful love, eternal.

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RELIGION

Start of the catechetical year 2020-2021

The Archdiocesan Catechesis Commission has reported that next Saturday, November 7, the Catechetical Year 2020-2021 will begin in Havana. In a letter to the parish priests, leaders of Christian communities, catechesis coordinators and catechists, they are reminded that by this beginning, which was impossible to resume on the usual date (after the Feast of Our Lady of Charity of Copper), the hygienic health measures established by the competent authorities must be fulfilled.

In addition, the misiva urges catechesis sessions to shorten the duration of meetings and conduct them in open, spacious and ventilated spaces, maintaining physical distance and the use of masks as main safety measures. It also recommends reducing the number of children per group (no more than eight) where possible and, if necessary, expanding the number of catechists.

“This would be an opportunity to invite young people, because we know that many of our catechists are elderly people, people at risk in the face of this pandemic, so we thought it would be highly advisable to ask for their cooperation,” the letter states.

Next we share the full message, signed by Father Eloy Ricardo Dominguez, Archdiocesan coordinator of Catechesis,

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SOCIETY

Love frees you from fear

According to The Cuban writer Eric Adrián Pérez González or Yitzjaq Aharon, a Sephardic Jew, selfishness has spawned humanity’s worst monsters. For the author of “La Vuelta”, an acute work that says truths that touch many nations, selfishness manifests itself in its most horrible form when it assumes power, for it completely loses its sanity and shatters human dignity. For this author, a Miami resident, the only liberating force is true love. “When you really love everything starts to make sense, you connect with that eternal energy and you feel complete, because you understand what your part is in that great puzzle of life,” he says.

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SOCIETY

Again, José Lezama Lima and the contents of the Catholic faith

With regard to the celebration of Cuban Culture Day this October 20th, the magazine Palabra Nueva proposes reading a text by Msgr. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who was, until his death, a member of our editorial board. About the writer José Lezama Lima and his Catholic being, goes the following article. With the conviction that the Lezamian theme will never be exhausted, for it is an inexhaustible mine, the author does not seek to canonize Lezama, but he does not demonize it either. He considered him as a person and admired him as the multifaceted writer he was. “And I do not exclude him from ecclesial communion, which lived with truth, but… in his own way!” he says.

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RELIGION

Allocution, Sunday, October 18, 2020

“Mission is a free and conscious response to God’s call, but we can perceive it only when we live a personal relationship of love with Jesus alive in his Church.” With this expression of Pope Francis, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of Havana, recalled in his Sunday speech, the celebration on October 18 of World Mission Day. Over the centuries, and today, our Church continues to go everywhere, however difficult, announcing, teaching, baptizing, celebrating the sacraments, and practicing works of charity. The Habanero Archbishop insisted that we, as baptized, must also proclaim the gospel, but our mission is to make it present in our house. “Your husband’s best missionary is the wife, his wife’s best missionary, is the husband. The best missionary of his children is the father and also the mother. The mom and dad’s best missionaries are the children,” he said.

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RELIGION

XXIX Sunday of Ordinary Time

To give God what is god’s is to realize the essence of life. That He has created us as beings open to transcendence and fraternity, which He has created for us to love and be loved, and only by loving as He loves us, we are paying off the debt, we are fulfilling the righteousness of giving him back what He has given us first; divine and human love, towards Him and to our brothers and sisters, love incarnate and committed particularly to the less kind or loved.

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SOCIETY

From the dark path to the clear faith

This is the story of a man who walked through life under a dangerous amount of vices, sleepovers and alcohol in his blood, without knowing days or nights, and without any attention to the advice of his mother and friends, Christians a good part of them. He finally heard them. Today he is an ambulance driver, a job he appreciates, because he feels that from his post he helps the needy. And even if ambulances are missing and the guards are tense, it takes encouragement to many in need, whether it’s a sick child, a physical impeded or an old man.

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