Next Friday, it is hoped that the Message of the Synod will be made known. While we await the final document, Zenit and ScriptureSynod continue to publish updates on the ongoing providing us with the Inside Stuff as it were of matters relevant to the Synod on the Word of God. Here are some of the articles that I found interesting.

The first draft of the Synodal Message on the Word of God has been presented. Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi, famous italian exegete, is the president of the commission charged with producing the Message. Below is an excerpt of a report about the draft and some other first hand observations about the Synod.

Certain issues have emerged in the Synod on the Word of God currently underway in Rome. These are: (a) the relationship between the historico-critical exegesis learned in the seminaries and (b) the art of preaching. Related to this latter is the intervention of Bishop Tagle of Imus, Cavite regarding the need for listening. The idea behind the need for listening is quite obvious given the requirements of preaching. Let me discuss all three in reverse order...

I just came back from our group's yearly retreat. This time it was held in the new Spirituality Center being constructed at ToloTolo, Concepcion, Cebu. The retreat was handled by Fr. Robert Dueweke, OSA of the Chicago Province.

August 27 and 28 are the feast days of St. Monica and St. Augustine, perhaps the two most well-known mother and son saints in the Catholic Church.  The image above is a depiction of a scene from the Confessions where Augustine describes a moment with his mom as they wait for the boat that will bring them back to North Africa from his Italian sojourn.  He has just been baptized and she is just content that her prayers for her son have been granted.  The painter’s brush captures them at the moment when — as Augustine narrates — they have a foretaste of the blessed life.  The description of the experience is found in the Confessions IX, 10.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption. Catholics have become so used to the idea that when fundamentalists confront them with a question about the feast itself and the dogma of Pius XII declared in 1950, they are led to believe that their celebration in August 15 is due to the whimsy of a Pope. Thing is, the feast of the Assumption is much much older than the dogma of the Assumption, and the belief that Mary did not die but was preserved from corruption is a belief that is connected to her Immaculate Conception which in turn is directly linked to her Divine Motherhood. This latter, a dogma defined in Ephesus, is linked to the belief that Jesus is God (Jn. 1:1-18). This "chain" which shows how the different dogmas are linked together is what Catholics refer to as analogia fidei. Thus, if one does not accept the Assumption, one also does not accept the Divinity of Christ and therefore, as Pius XII puts it, "let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith", and for that matter, from the Christian faith.

Someone has called him "The First Modern Man." Both Catholics and Non-Catholic Mainline Churches claim him as their own. Eastern Catholics number him among their "fathers" prompting a scholar to suggest that he be named "Common Father of the East and West." Descartes was flattered when he was told that his "Cogito ergo sum" echoes this man's "Dubito ergo sum."

I am referring to Augustine of Hippo (354-430). And this is a short retelling of his life: