According to Vatican.va there are 117 cardinal electors. 107 countries have only one cardinal and 10 countries have more than one cardinal: Both Canada and Mexico have 3; Poland and France have four each. India, Spain and Brazil have five each. Germany has six cardinals and the United States has eleven.
Italy has 28.
Let me repeat that – Italy has 28. Actually, Italy has 49 cardinals, except that only 28 of them are under 80 years old.
Now, I know that for many centuries the Church was Italy and there is much historic importance to many dioceses in Italy, but seriously, why are there so many Italian cardinals?
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A reflection for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-2; 3-8
2nd Reading 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Gospel: Luke 5:1-11
Everyone gets THE Call. Isaiah got the call. So did Paul. Peter got the call. Haven’t you? I think the problem is that, either we don’t think we’re going to get called- we think that it’s only for prophets and apostles and saints – and so we’re not expecting the call. Or, even if we think that we may get the call, we don’t know how to recognise it, ‘cause we’re looking for something else; expecting something else. But these three “call” stories from today give us a few clues that will help us recognise the call when it comes.
First, the call doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It doesn’t happen out of context. We have to first have an encounter with God. Isaiah has a vision of God. He sees God in the temple, sitting on a throne in his majesty. There are angles flying around – seraphs, singing “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (that’s what we try to re-create every Sunday). Then an angel touches Isaiah’s mouth with a burning coal. That’s an experience of the divine. Isaiah has an experience of the divine, before he is called.
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A few weeks ago, during a homily, I suggested that we should take the opportunity of this Year of Faith to do what the Holy Father has proposed: That we learn about our Faith; that we live our Faith and that we share our Faith. Soon after, I thought, ‘why don’t we make this a challenge?’ And so began the Great Year of Faith Challenge (#faithchallenge). Every week starting this week I will be posting a new challenge, to help us learn about, live and share our faith. You can visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter to learn more and to check out the weekly challenges.
The first challenge has to do with finding a quote from a Saint and using it to pray with every day. And so I have spent the week with a keen awareness of what a Saint may have said – but with a new sensitivity. It is no longer, “that’s a nice quote,” but “these are truly words to live by.”
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Reflexión para el tercer domingo de tiempo ordinario, año C
Lecturas: Nehemías 8:2-4, 5-6, 8-10; Salmo 18; Corintios 12:12-30 y Lucas 1:1-4, 14-21
Dicen que Sta. Teresa de Ávila estaba tan unida a Jesús, que podía conversar con Él, así como yo estoy conversando con Uds. Y dicen que en una ocasión, Jesús le pregunta a Sta. Teresa cual era su nombre: “¿Cual es tu nombre?” Y Sta. Teresa le contesta con su nombre de religiosa: “Teresa de Jesús.” Y entonces, como Sta. Teresa era bien hecha’a pa’ lante, ella le pregunta a Él: “¿y cual es tu nombre?” Jesús le contesta, “Yo soy Jesús de Teresa.”
No sé si el cuento sea verídico o no, pero recalca no solamente la unidad que Sta. Teresa tenía con Jesús, sino la unidad que Jesús quiere tener con nosotros. Jesús es Jesús de nosotros. Y esa unidad es santidad. Pero no es solo para los “santos.” Bueno, sí es para los santos, pero es para todos nosotros porque todos somos santos. Lo que pasa es que no nos comportamos como santos.
De eso creo que se tratan las tres lecturas de hoy: La santidad.
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deacon pedro 