Pentecost

Pope Francis complains at Pentecost “spiritual illiteracy”

In his Pentecost sermon, Pope Francis has called on Christians to consider themselves again as children of God. In Germany, the two churches also called for more openness among the people.

On Pentecost, Pope Francis has called on Christians around the world to Overcome a “spiritual illiteracy”. Many people are in the Situation of the orphans, because they conceived of themselves as children of God, he said in a solemn service in St. Peter’s Basilica. This spiritual illiteracy’m unable to pray. Mark an inner loneliness, which could be of existential sadness, and the feeling of a “supposed independence from God”. From this orphan-existence only of the Holy spirit and Jesus Christ could liberate the people.

Call for more openness, warning against dominant culture

EKD Council President Heinrich Bedford-Strohm

In Germany, leaders of the Catholic and Protestant churches also called for more openness among the people. The President of the Council of the Evangelical Church, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, called on to more real communication. Social media is only a dump of one’s own sensitivities and the Frustration often takes place, said Bedford-Strohm.

Also, the Chairman of the German bishops ‘ conference, cardinal Reinhard Marx, the interaction between the people in the view. Christians should not “live behind closed doors and in a hostile demarcation to other religions”, claimed Marx in Munich. This applies also with regard to the “complex reality of Islam in our country”. He criticized the tendencies of the “new walls to build, and so-called defining cultures by law, determine”.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Chairman Of The German Bishops ‘ Conference

Karl Lehman: No talks with the AfD

The former Chairman of the German bishops ‘ conference, cardinal Karl Lehmann, in an Interview with German radio station Deutschlandfunk on the recent electoral successes of the right-wing populist “Alternative for Germany” (AfD). He does not reject talks with the AfD currently. The basic pattern of the party and the nationalist “Gerüchlein” be too big for him, said the 79-Year-old. He no longer use the expression of the “Christian Occident”, because the Wrong used this word, said Lehmann. He’d rather talk of Europe.

The Holy spirit and the spring festival

Pentecost is for Christians the Feast of the Holy spirit and is regarded as the birth of the Church. Thus, the 50-day Easter time ends. The word Pentecost derives from “Pentekoste”, the Greek word for “fifty”. The acts of the apostles tells how the Disciples of Jesus were fulfilled by the miracle of Pentecost “with the Holy spirit and began to speak with other tongues”. The so-called language of miracle want to point out that the proclamation of the message of Jesus Christ cross-cutting importance for the whole world language.

In the historical origin of the feast of Pentecost is a feast of spring

Historically, the feast of Pentecost is the festival of spring. Customs that have to do with Grow, Bloom and Re-awakening of nature, to dive in front of the approaching summer once again. Processions to bring in the new seeds of blessing.

cw/hf (epd, kna, dpa)