I have stumble a good post for reflection on this Holy week this is an excerpt from the book God and the World:A Conversation with Peter Seewald (Ignatius Press,2002), by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, pages 332-36,333.
It is about the question of suffering. Here is the excerpt:

Seewald: We are used to thinking of suffering as something we try to avoid at all costs. And there is nothing that many societies get more angry about than the Christian idea that one should bear with pain, should endure suffering, should even sometimes give oneself up to it, in order thereby to overcome it. "Suffering", John Paul II believes, "is a part of the mystery of being human." Why is this?

Cardinal Ratzinger: Today what people have in view is eliminating suffering from the world. For the individual, that means avoiding pain and suffering in whatever way. Yet we must also see that it is in this very way that the world becomes very hard and very cold. Pain is part of being human. Anyone who really wanted to get rid of suffering would have to get rid of love before anything else, because there can be no love without suffering, because it always demands an element of self-sacrifice, because, given temperamental differences and the drama of situations, it will always bring with it renunciation and pain.

When we know that the way of love–this exodus, this going out of oneself–is the true way by which man becomes human, then we also understand that suffering is the process through which we mature.

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Technorati Tags: Cross, Christ, Religion, Christianity, pain, love

I am very much eager to post this events here in my blog. This is about the consecration of the new Catholic Church building that has been erected here in the State of Qatar. The consecration rite is held last Saturday 15 of March. It is presided by His Eminence Ivan Cardinal Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. It is a great day for all of us here for we now have a permanent edifice for celebrating the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Here are some of the photos that I have taken though I wasn't able to follow it through since I am busy attending to the medical needs of the faithful there present. This is the best I can post here.

This is the inside view of the Church. This is the main sanctuary of the Church and it can accommodate 2,000 people. At the back of the main sanctuary there are seven small chapels for use in ordinary times by other Catholic rites here present in Qatar, we have here Maronites, Syrian Catholics, Syro-Malabar, Armenian Catholic, Greek Catholic,Chaldean,Coptic and Syro-Malankara rites aside from the Roman Rite. The stained glass panels in the main altar is from an old French church made possible by the former French Ambassador Bertrand Besancenot.


This is the view of the main entrance of the Church. The design of the whole Church has many frame of reference. It is reminiscent of the mantle of our Lady, the large beams inside represents the folds, the chimney at the center of the roof is the collar. This is made so because cross here is still not allowed to be mounted outside in public.

This is the opening rite of consecration the handing of the key of the new Church to the Cardinal celebrant by the Parish Priest.

This is inside as the Rite of Consecration is unfolding which is presided by His Eminence Ivan Cardinal Dias. Indeed I could say "this is the day the Lord has made I rejoice and am glad." Alleluia!