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 How did Paul, the “servant of the persecution,» become Paul, the servant of the Gospel? This is how he began to change, surprisingly, thanks to a fascinating encounter with the resurrected Lord on the way to Damascus. Jesus told Paul, who hastened to imprison Christians, that he would become his “chosen tool’ to spread the Gospel among the Gentiles – and at no small personal cost! This encounter changed Paul’s life dramatically. And precisely what Jesus promised happened – Paul focused all his energy on spreading the good news about Christ to everyone around him. Would you also be able to repeat Paul’s words and talk about the Gospel as something that you also serve? Sure knew. It is the vocation of every Christian, not only a priest, missionary, or religious. Jesus wants each of us to become a herald of his glad tidings. He wants each of us to tell a story about God’s love for man. Paul himself provides us with some support points on how to do it as effectively as possible. See Chapters 22 and 26 in the Acts of the Apostles, where Paul, this great theologian, discusses his conversion. This is not speculative theology. Paul briefly summarizes how he met the Lord Jesus and how this meeting changed his life. Simply, directly, convincingly. Anyone can do this! What’s more, each of us is called to do so. Try to write down what you could talk about first. For example, it could be about how prayer brings you God’s peace. Or about how you get closer and closer to Jesus with each Holy Mass and how it fills you with gratitude for saving you from sin. Then pray with faith, expecting God to open the door for you. And finally, be careful about every opportunity that Jesus gives you to share your faith experience with someone you may invite to pray with you. Harvest is near! Let us ask the Lord for the grace and courage to become workers in his harvest.

 Apart from wonder, what else can Paul’s words about Jesus evoke in our hearts? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the firstborn of all creation. Everything in heaven and on earth was created for him. He himself is the perfect image of the invisible God, and nothing in the entire universe can be compared to him.

Paul did not portray Jesus as a distant, inaccessible deity who is not interested in us mere mortals. No, Paul spoke of the magnificence of Jesus to be sure of the life we received in him. If Jesus is really the one in whom God’s fullness dwells, then he can give us without any doubt “participation in the share of the saints in the light” (Kol 1, 12). When we recognize Jesus as the Son of God, we can have security and peace in every situation we find ourselves in.

What do you see when you imagine Jesus? Do you imagine the eternal Son of God, filled with power, who paved the way for you with His death on the cross? Do you see him through whom all things were created, who sacrifices himself to the Father for covenantal love for you? Everything is kept in Christ, and he is always with you when you need him. For example, the person you love is seriously ill or has died. Go to Jesus, knowing that he has you both hidden in his hands. The one who first defeats death will give you the strength and peace you need. Even if you are experiencing a complicated relationship with a family member or a colleague, follow Jesus, through whom God reconciled all things to himself, to lead you to pity and reconciliation. If you feel abandoned by God or distant from him, follow Jesus. Remember that God gave you peace through his blood on the cross. He will answer you!

As a result of a forced agreement between the Catholic bishops and the communist government, the Church came under complete state control.

Archbishop József Grősz. Photo: wikipedia.org

In Hungary, even decades after the fall of communism in 1989, the Catholic Church suffers from the consequences of more than 40 years of ideological oppression. The pressure exerted by the party at the harshest stage of Stalinism was enormous. Exactly 75 years ago, the Church experienced an extremely black day.

The course was set by the general secretary of the Communist Party, Mátyás Rákosi, in October 1948: “We end the tactic of lenient treatment of traitors – even if they are wrapped in the robes of priests and cardinals. ” 

Actions soon followed the words. And so on August 30, 1950, 75 years ago, Salinization in Hungary reached a new peak, and the Church survived the black day. By a forced agreement between the Catholic bishops and the communist government, the Church in Hungary came under complete state control for decades.

The destruction of church independence began immediately after the arrival of the Red Army in the fall of 1944. As a result of the land reform following the Soviet model, the Catholic Church lost all its land holdings – five percent of Hungary’s total cultivated area in March 1945. A strict separation of Church and state was enshrined in the constitution of August 1949.

The secret police managed to recruit priests and thus infiltrate church offices. The gradual improvement of this system of informants created an atmosphere of constant mistrust. The internal division was further deepened by the so-called peace movement of priests, which the state forced in August 1950. The movement was supposed to ensure “active cooperation of churches on building socialism “and gradually infiltrated all church structures.

Symbolic figure of resistance

Those who resisted often had to pay a high price for it. Among the mass arrests of priests, religious and lay people, the staged trials of Cardinal József Mindszenty and Archbishop József Grősz stand out. Primate Mindszenty, a symbolic figure in the resistance against Nazism and Communism, was arrested and tortured after a series of closely watched lecture tours to the West in 1948. In February 1949, the communists sentenced him to life imprisonment for treason, espionage, and foreign exchange offenses.

The totalitarian regime actually wanted to silence the critic who said about Hungary: “Lack of truth has become a system. “The Kaloc archbishop and chairman of the episcopal conference, Grősz, opposed the priestly oath of loyalty to the “people’s democracy, which was introduced in 1949. After the arrest of Mindszenty, Grősz was the head of the Hungarian Church. When Grősz was also convicted in 1951, all still vacant bishops took the oath of office.

According to the statement of church historian Gabriel Adriányi, who died in 2024, the entire Stalinist control of the churches was “aimed at their liquidation “. When nationalized in June 1948, the Church lost more than 3,300 schools, resulting in the loss of around 600,000 pupils – nearly half of all educational institutions in the country. Compulsory religious education became voluntary in 1950.

Massive pressure on parents

As a result of the massive pressure on parents, until 1965, only one in seven primary school students participated in religious education, and even only one in 300 in secondary schools. With the introduction of the numerous clausus and state authorization before ordination, the number of future priests was reduced from 1,779 in 1948 to 300. All religious orders and monasteries with more than 11,500 members were abolished.

After the arrest of more than 3,800 religious in the summer of 1950, the bishops had to back down and agreed to negotiations. The tone of the representatives of the communist government was getting sharper. Resistance was futile. 

On August 30, 1950, Archbishop Grősz and Minister of Culture József Darvas signed an agreement that, like the agreement of the Polish bishops four months earlier, was essentially a dictation and adaptation. She obliged the clergy to help in “building socialism “.

As a reward, the state guaranteed, as already stipulated in the 1949 constitution, freedom of religion, and again permitted eight church gymnasiums as a consolation. However, nothing was written about the religious education or fate of the spiritual there. As compensation for the nationalization of church property, only gradually decreasing support was guaranteed to the Church for 18 years. Maladaptive priests were denied a state salary supplement without giving a reason.

Church and Propaganda

Due to its significantly limited scope in the field of worship and religious education, the Church submitted to full state control. In the 1950s, she was even involved in communist propaganda. The collectivization of agriculture and five-year plans were supported in the pastoral letters of the bishops, which were created at the State Office for Churches.

Bishops and vicars general were regularly summoned, interrogated, and humiliated. “A complex and elaborate network of countless regulations, informants and collaborators ensured the maintenance of supervision “, writes historian Adriányi. In reality, however, this agreement helped the Church little: the Catholic Church, the Vatican, and Pope Pius XII. They were increasingly attacked and labeled as “imperialist “on the radio and in the press.

It was only after the regime change that the new Law on Religion in 1990 opened the way to a new regulation of relations between the State and the Church. Cardinal Primate László Paskai and then Prime Minister Miklós Németh canceled the agreement of August 30, 1950.

Position: Pope and teacher of the Church.

Deaths: 604

Patron: down; singers, musicians, choral and choral singing students, masons; invoked against the bottom and against the plague

Attributes: dove, poor, book, Christ (z at whose side a stream of blood rises into the chalice), liturgy, pen, veil, tiara; also depicted with a figure emerging from purgatory

BIOGRAPHY

He came from a Roman patrician family. He became a prefect, but gave up the advantageous office and great possessions to follow Christ as a monk. However, he was called to the See of Peter, and from it, he very successfully managed the Church despite numerous difficulties. Plague, hunger, Lombard troops raged, discipline fell, the Gospel had to be spread to new missions, and his body was plagued by disease. With all this Gregory I, servant of the servants, and above all the Holy Spirit, with whose help he fought and won. He left many letters and writings, including numerous liturgical texts that featured a reform of church singing, of which the most famous is the “Gregorian chant.” His most important work is for priests, “Pastoral Rules. “

POPE OF GREAT HEART

He was born around 540 in Rome to the important patrician family of Gordian, of the House of Alicia and Sylvia, who owned a large estate in Sicily. However, this family is a testimony that even the rich have a difficult path to God’s kingdom (see Mt 19:23), but it is possible for them too. The martyrology mentions the memory of Sylvia, mother of Gregory I, on November 3.

Gregory had extraordinary talents and unusual abilities. After his university studies, which also included law, he was offered a promising future. Education, although it was Christian, led him down a worldly path. He worked in the civil administration and, at about 30 years of age, became prefect of the city of Rome (“prefects Urbis “), holding the highest civic position. In this regard, as well as in worldly pleasures, he did not revel, and already in 573-4 (after his father’s death), he exchanged his office for the path of spiritual life, as prescribed in the Gospel.

He transformed his father’s house on Monte Coelia into a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew. He founded seven monasteries, including one devoted to St. Andrew, on his extensive Sicilian estates. Likewise, he sold and gave away many of the inherited properties to people experiencing poverty. Two of my father’s sisters had previously lived a rigorous life in their own house, and even Gregory’s mother, Sylvie, chose a monastic life after her husband’s death.

It is assumed that Gregory became a Benedictine monk, although there are only indirect documents, such as information on the adoption of Benedictine principles and cooperation with the Benedictines. After a relatively short monastic life, under the leadership of Abbot Hilario and Valentin, Gregory was called by the Pope to serve as his assistant. He was ordained as a deacon by him. Pope Pelagius II, as his apocrisiary (ambassador), was sent (already in 580) to Constantinople, where he remained in service until. 586. He established many friendships, met the emperor’s family and numerous bishops, and gained experience. After returning to Rome, he also lived in his monastery as the Pope’s secretary. Although it took a three-year truce with the Lombards, Rome howled. After a terrible flood, a famine ensued, and subsequently, a plague broke out, similar to the spotted typhus (luesinguinária). Among the first victims was Pope Pelagius II, born in 590. They say that everyone immediately thought about Řehoř as his successor, but he didn’t. To be sure, he wrote to the emperor not to confirm his choice. However, the city prefect seized the letter and altered its contents, thereby securing imperial confirmation of the election. Gregory also attempted to escape, but eventually recognized his place.

We can already see how much the good of the Church and the country lay at Gregory’s heart from the fact that, at the end of August 590, he organized supplication processions to avert the plague and issued regulations in connection with them, which fell exclusively within the Pope’s competence. At the same time, during the interregnum, such decision-making was the responsibility of the Roman archpriest, along with two other representatives. Gregory issued guidelines for individual districts, of which under the leadership of parish priests, groups of designated estates (opaths with religious, abbess with religious women, men with young men, widows with virgins, all children..) in processions singing penitent psalms and calling “Kyrie Ellison” came from the designated churches in seven streams to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Snows. During the procession that turned on the bridge in front of Hadrian’s monument to St. Peter, the archangel Michael was allegedly seen hiding a sword as a sign of the end of the plague. The name Angel Castle was created as a memorial. The second monument was the annual holding of supplication processions on the feast of St. Mark.

Another amicable act, which, after St. Gregory, has survived, is the so-called Gregorian masses. Gregory, when he learned that several ducats had been found in the possession of a Monk Just of his monastery, making the monk gravely guilty of violating the vow of poverty and the principles of the monastery, he had thirty Masses of St. celebrated for him for thirty consecutive days. For the last time, the soul of Just, who could not be buried in a sacred place for wrongdoing, appeared in the heavenly glow. By doing so, he allegedly announced his release from purgatory to his native brother Kapis. The way to help the soul in purgatory during the 30 days of sacrifices, involving the same number of Holy Masses, was later recognized by the Church (S. congr. Indulge. Of March 15, 1884). Gregorian masses can only be for one soul without including another intention for another.

In the final session with Christ, it is necessary to strengthen them with gentle exaltation through good words and good deeds, rather than empty tricks. The vortex that is one of the final settings with Christ is more powerful than doubt and the daily joy that lies in the idle arrangement, but in the exaltation, to whom you give gifts in Jesus, shaken by skill. The Thessalonians Municipality, as can be seen from today’s liturgical reading (1 Thess 5,1-6.9-11) was unclimbable. It was a community that asked itself questions and inquired of the apostle when and how Christ’s return would take place and what the resurrection of the dead would be like. And she thus earned even the apostle’s words: „Who does not work and does not eat.“

St Paul declares that »one day of the Lord« will pass unexpectedly » as a thief«, but he also adds that Jesus will come to bring salvation to the one who winds in Him, and says: And so encourage one another and help another, just as you are now doing. Rightfully so, this encouragement adds to this talent. It’s advice: » Please visit«. To talk about this. But I ask you: are we talking about the fact that the Lord will come, and we will be with Him? Or do we talk about a lot of things, also about theology, about church affairs, about priests, sisters, and all that? Will this talent encourage us? »I’m interested in enjoying«. Do we talk in our communities, parishioners, about waiting for the Lord, who will come? Or are they talking about this or that, about this or that, so that time passes a little, and you know, we are not bored?

In the responsories Psalm (l 27,1.4.13-14) we repeated: »I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living«, but do you have the certainty that you will see the Lord?“ A job worthy of follow-up is one that, despite its troubles, proclaimed vigorously: I know that God lives and I will see Her eyes (. Job 19,25-27). That’s true. He goes through the audience. If we step into the Sistine Chapel, we see a beautiful scene of the Last Judgment. That’s true. But let’s also think that He will come to me so that I can see Her eyes, embrace Her, and be with Him forever. This is the hope that the apostle Peter is trying to convey through his life, to enlighten others. That is proper exaltation, that is true certainty: I am sure that I will see prosperity from the Lord.

St Paul said, „I am interested in rejoicing, and you will be spiritually beneficial for each other“. Let’s ask the Lord for this love, so that this gift, which he put in our hearts, germinates and grows until the definitive meeting with Him. »I know I will see Lord«. I am sure that the Lord lives. I am sure that the Lord will reach me. This is the horizon of our life. Let us ask for this grace of the Lord, and let us encourage ourselves on this path with good deeds and good words.

However, our universe was created and has existed for an unspecified length of time; one thing is sure: it was all begun by God. He created everything from nothing and maintains everything by the power of his love. Isn’t that amazing? Not even the most talented scientist could create life out of nothing – let alone create life out of an inanimate substance like clay that God used to create Adam (see Gn 2, 7).

Scientists cannot fully explain how the first life arose on our planet. Although science clarifies many essential facts, it was God who created the universe and directed its creation. And since God intended to create us as the pinnacle of His beautiful creation, He made sure that all our needs were met. He took care not only of our bodily needs, i.e., food, water, and sunlight, but also of our inner needs, related to beauty and order. We see it in the Book of Genesis, which describes the Garden of Eden: the trees in it were look beautiful “, but also “tasty to eat “( Gn 2, 9).

Take a moment to thank God for placing you on this beautiful planet, right where you are, at this very moment. Not only did he create the sun, stars, seas, and mountains, but he gave being to you, too! You are unique, wonderfully made in God’s image, and God loves you deeply. But with this great blessing comes responsibility. God commissioned Adam to “machine and guard “the Garden of Eden (Gn 2, 15). And that is the task of all of us. God wants us to take care of this world, of its various creatures, so that he can continue to feed us and so that we can be a reflection of his glory. When you care for this creature with all your might, you enhance this gift and preserve it for future generations. And not only that. Because when you carefully devote yourself to the creation that God loves and sustains, you yourself become an expression of God’s love for the world.

The labourer building the cathedral keeps laying stone on stone or filling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow until it becomes a monotonous routine. If he does not step back a little and observe how the building slowly takes shape, he may miss the significance of his work. Similarly, it is easy to forget how God cares about each of our little deeds. Each of us plays a vital role in God’s grand and intricate plan for His creation. This is what St. Paul wants to say in today’s first reading, when he urges the Thessalonians to grow more and more„“ (1 Sol 4, 10). As if to say: „ Look at it as a whole to see what you have already done and what still needs to be done and be inspired to do more.“ Then he offers them some practical suggestions – including an order to work with their own hands. What impact can the work of our hands have on building God’s kingdom? Aren’t we building it with prayer and spiritual sacrifices?

Already, partly yes. However, through our work, we join God in building a just and peaceful society on earth. As taught by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, „by work one participates in the work of creation“ (2460). Even in the most inferior work, great dignity is hidden: through it, we become the Lord’s co-creators. Who would have thought that work has such downright cosmic dimensions? Sometimes we are not very enthusiastic about our work; it feels like a burden. So, we must remember that Jesus is with us. He takes ordinary bread and makes it his body. He brings wine – „fruit of vines and the work of human hands“ – and transforms it into his saving blood. So he can definitely take our work and transform it! In his hands, a pile of laundry can become a confession of love to our family. In his hands, our work can become a path on which we can improve our talents and cultivate the heart of a servant. Making progress in faith does not necessarily mean adding spiritual actions. Often, this means doing only what we already do – small, ordinary things – with the love of Christ in our hearts.