Jeanie Hannaman

By Msgr. Charles Pope - The Gospel passage this Sunday is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. Being paradoxical, they are difficult to understand. We do not usually refer to the poor as blessed, but rather the well off; we do not typically call those who mourn blessed, but rather the joyful. The word “beatitude” itself means “supreme blessedness.”... Each beatitude could easily be translated to begin in this way: “O, the blessedness of ….” Such a translation emphasizes that something is being described and experienced rather than prescribed.

By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky, The Catholic Thing - Subservience is ever ancient, ever new. In that respect, the hierarchy of the Church is not much different than the hierarchies of business and government. But servile obedience can foster a culture of self-destructive tyranny even within the institutional Church... By God’s design, the Church is a hierarchy, not a democracy. The successor of Saint Peter is at the top of the pyramid – or, from another point of view, at the bottom of an inverted pyramid. The office of the papacy identifies the pope as the “servant of the servants.”