Text: Beatiful meditation by Pope Benedict XVI

This meditation of Pope Benedict from yesterday's Holy Trinity Sunday warmed my heart:

"The Name of the Holy Trinity is Engraved in the Universe"

... "Three Persons Who are one God", the Pope added, "because the Father is love, the Son is love and the Spirit is love. God is entirely and only love, pure love, infinite and eternal. He does not live in splendid solitude, rather He is the never-ending source of life Who incessantly gives and communicates Himself. We may get some idea of this by observing both the macro universe (our earth, the planets, the stars and galaxies) and the micro universe (cells, atoms, elementary particles). In a certain way the 'name' of the Holy Trinity is engraved on everything that exists, because all being, down to the smallest particle, exists in relation to others". Thus we see the "God of relation", thus in the final instance we see "creative Love. Everything comes from love, tends towards love and moves impelled by love, though naturally with differing degrees of awareness and freedom".

"The strongest proof that we are made in the image and likeness of the Trinity is this: only love can make us happy, because we live in relation to others, we live to love and to be loved. Using an analogy taken from biology we could say that the human beings carry in their 'genomes' the profound traces of the Trinity, of God-Love", the Holy Father concluded.

Fr. Thomas Berg on "Digital Decadence"

As someone who spends a large amount of time in the "digital world", I found this thought-provoking:

This year, our Thanksgiving was interrupted by unsettling blips on our (plasma) screens, Blackberries or smartphones: A young man webcasts his own suicide. One hundred-ninety plus people are massacred in Mumbai by Islamic terrorists. A Walmart employee is trampled to death by a mob of shoppers on Black Friday.

Beyond the disturbing nature of these tragedies in themselves, I find myself disturbed about something else: about what becomes of these incidents in the information age. What cultural perils beset us as we digitalize and informationalize human tragedy?

[Read the full article.]

This Sunday's Gospel Reading as a Gateway to a Fruitful Lent

Today's Sunday Gospel Reading (Mt. 4:1-11), I would submit, offers in the quotations of Jesus when rebuking Satan, three starting points for fruitful Lenten meditation. The following brief comments on these passages are simply my own meditations, and hold no independent authority:

• "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Deut 8:3)

In Lent we are encouraged to give up our attachment to physical pleasures and sustenance (bread) in order to better pursue the spiritual goods of faith in God and his saving message (every word...).

• "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." (Deut 6:16)

Putting God "to the test" is roughly equivalent to demanding that he reveal himself dramatically. True faith, however, does not demand signs from God but rather accepts the tests and trials he gives to us.

• "'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only." (Deut 6:13)

The fulfillment of our Lenten penance and devotion is a contrite and pure heart prepared to worship God at Easter. Serving God represents our full flourishing as human persons, and is a foretaste of heaven.

A close reading of Deuteronomy chapters 7-9 might also be a good way to prepare for this Gospel text.

Meditational video, "The Price of Salvation: The Life of Christ"

Forwarded to me by reader Gabrielle: