Racism in football, stories of waffle
Uruguayan international footballer Edinson Cavani has been forced to defend himself against a slanderous accusation of racism after thanking a friend with 'gracias negrito', a Spanish term of endearment. What is really behind anti-racist militancy?
Holy Land, cradle of vine cultivation
The land of Jesus is a land of wines. The biblical roots of wine-growing date back three thousand years before Christ, and ancient Canaan became a place where vines were grown a good two millennia before wine culture reached Europe. The wine and the chalice also highlight the dimension of sacrifice. This is why Jesus chose this drink for the institution of the Holy Eucharist.
- THE RECIPE: MULLED WINE
Milk, mankind’s first nourishment
For every latitude and religion, mother's milk is an extension of the special relationship between the child and the mother. In the Holy Scriptures, milk is mentioned several times, as in the theophany at the Oaks of Mamre, where Abraham serves the Lord milk and meat together, implicitly giving an answer on the Jewish dispute between what is allowed (kosher) and forbidden (terefah) to eat. In reality, food prohibitions are primarily cultural.
- THE RECIPE: CRÈME CARAMEL
Bread, symbol of life
Today we begin a long journey into food in biblical times. Food in general and meals in particular play an important role in human history and thus in biblical history. We will start with bread, food par excellence: it is mentioned 361 times in the Bible, and Jesus himself self-identifies with bread.
- THE RECIPE: CHEESE-FILLED BREAD
Barluzzi, an architect-mystic. The Gaudí of the Holy Land
Antonio Barluzzi, who passed away sixty years ago today, was the mind and hand behind some of the most renowned churches constructed by the custodian Franciscans in the Holy Land. During the course of forty years lasting until 1958, his designs and plans became more than a dozen churches built in the Holy Sites, and these included the ones of the Transfiguration, the Flagellation, the Beatitudes, and the Basilica of All Nations.
Tour of chocolate-producing monasteries
In the 19th century, once the ecclesiastical diatribes on the legitimacy of drinking chocolate during the Lenten period had subsided, the monasteries began to produce it. Handcrafted and on a small scale, but of great quality. From the Abbey of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, in Frattocchie, Lazio, to the Bridgettine monastery of Amity, Oregon, we discover some of the most sought-after products, the fruit of a world that combines work with prayer.
"Certain that it will arrive, we await the birth of light"
In Piero della Francesca's “Madonna del Parto” we find the meaning of Advent: Mary is certain of the baby she is expecting, the Son of God. There is no-one better than the Virgin Mary to personally accompany us in this period of waiting which focuses on the unique, indestructible -and also previously unavailable- link between life and death, between time and eternity.
The Church’s love-hate disputes over chocolate
Pius V’s terse judgement on the “drink of the gods”; the arguments on the prohibition or acceptance of this food during fasting; the idea that it is an all-Catholic food (coffee is supposed to be Protestant); the Jesuit missionaries’ taste for it; and the debate at the Council of Trent. Finally, the chocolate eggs and cribs of our days.
- THE RECIPE: CHOCOLATE AND CANDIED ORANGE CAKE
