the peripheries

Sep 11, 2014

I have a great respect and love for a Monsignor from Puerto Rico, Lorenzo Albacete. By chance a dozen years ago I heard him speak and was deeply moved by his love for Christ, and his passion for everything that is truly human. I have been privileged in the years since to attend several retreats in which Lorenzo assisted the Holy Spirit by sharing his passion for the full human experience of Christian freedom in relationship with Christ.

Early this year Lorenzo and his friend Cardinal Sean O’Malley spent an hour in conversation at the New York Encounter. Their conversation on the theme of Pope Francis’ challenge to venture to the existential peripheries explores the implications of the pope’s invitation to consider the poverty that the human spirit experiences when attempting to live without Christ.

If you can find an hour you might like to savour this conversation of friends seeking to live a culture of encounter.

6 Comments

  1. Thanks, but no thanks. I ain’t going nowhere with anybody who uses phrases like “existential peripheries”. I certainly ain’t gonna go anywhere near those peripheries.
    I’m going to stick at home in my little cottage in the Valley of Tears and get on with what
    the Blessed Mother is telling her visionaries all over the internet. She doesn’t seem to find any need to use phrases like “existential peripheries”.

    Reply
    • yes, “existential peripheries” has a kind of “immaculate conception” ring about it do you think?

      Reply
      • In reply to John O’Connor’s posting: Yes, the Church often uses terms such as “Immaculate Conception” and “transubstantiation” and other ecclesiastic phrases not to be obscure or preoccupied with inflated jargon but rather, to be specific, precise, articulate, so there is no mistaking, no twisting, of the exact meaning of what is being said – whereas the world in its philosophies, psychology and science prefers long-winded ostentation to simplicity.

        Reply
  2. Women tend to live in the peripheries. Feminine lay spirituality is all about relationship and that’s where we meet Jesus and the love that has no boundaries. In this video, Lorenzo Albecete is at the stage of life where his body is going into labour to give birth to his soul, but sacred energy and laughter are still a bright light in him. He is an example to us all.

    Reply
  3. One David L Gray in his blog has serious misgivings about recorded statements from Cardinal Seana O’Malley about homosexuality. I was not aware of this when in a previous comment on this site I criticised the specific phrase “existential peripheries’, which I regard as gobbledegook, singularly lacking in pronouncements from Mary Queen of Prophets.
    In recent years I have become aware that many of our leaders are imperfect in their treatment of the magisterium of the Church, their treatment of the deposit of faith
    (which they often short-change). This concern of mine is increasing. There is confusion if not actual heresy abounding.
    Twenty years ago I became totally convinced that Mary Queen of Prophets was alive and conveying not only just at Garabandal or Medjugorje. Since I acquired my first computer, I am aware of how much is coming forth on the inteternet that claims to be inspired by Mary. In all these messages, the teaching and the terminology are immaculate. Our Lady speaks with an unmistakeably womanly and motherly touch, and does not employ gobbledegook.
    David L. Gray makes no such claims, but speaks as do a number of Catholics on-line who believe they are conveying the authentic teaching of the Church as against what is being said my many professional theologians. I am so concerned that I am giving people who consult the internet information for them to consider and decide about.
    The times are extremely serious and we cannot muck about.

    Reply
  4. A little extra thought. Mary did tell Bernadette at Lourdes: “Je suis l’Immaculee Conception” (though she said it in the local dialect); she did not add “et mes peripheries existentielles sont tres explorables” (even in dialect).

    Reply

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