Advent in the East and West

By Artur Suski, S.J.

Credit: http://www.familylifeministry.atlanta.goarch.org

In an address to the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic bishops in 2001, Pope John Paul II said that “the Church breathes with the two lungs of the Eastern and Western traditions.” A few years earlier, in Ut unum sint, we hear the same call: “The Church must breathe with her two lungs!” (# 54) But how are we to understand the Pope’s words? Are we all to become bi-ritual? I don’t think that is what the Pope had in mind. The Pope spoke of the whole Church. Given this context, the Pope wanted to point out that the Catholic Church has been dominated primarily by the Latin tradition. A balance must be restored. Both the East and the West ought to learn about the other and they ought to be faithful to their own respective traditions.

La Guadalupana: Witness to the Mystery of the Incarnation

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

Earlier this year, I visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast we celebrate today. At that time, I was in Mexico City, participating in a conference on migration. The Basilica is located at the foot of the Tepeyac Hill where our Lady first appeared to Saint Juan Diego. There is a big sign on top of the main doors of the church: “Am I not here who am your mother?” From the very beginning of my visit, Mother Mary was inviting me to turn to her son. Mama Mary’s motherhood became very evident to me. Just as Mary gave us Jesus through God’s grace, so Jesus in turn gave Mary to the Church when he said to the beloved disciple, “Behold, your mother” (Jn 19:27).