Leandro de Santa Maria @leleou

“Faith grows in the soil of freedom; it cannot be forced.” — Life of the Beloved

“The mystery of forgiveness is that it is not based on the goodness of the other, but on the goodness of the one who forgives.” — The Return of the Prodigal Son

"You do not have to change yourself before God can love you; God loves you just as you are." — The Inner Voice of Love

“The first response to our brokenness is to face it squarely and befriend it.” — Life of the Beloved

“El verdadero amor es ayudar a alguien a encontrar el Camino”. - Benedicto XVI

“When we judge others, we dismiss the mystery of their journeys and the pain they carry. Compassion begins when we make space in our hearts for their stories.” — Life of the Beloved

“Faith is lived in the choices we make every day, not just in what we believe.” — Lifesigns

Saudades do Márcio Canuto

At times we experience the night of faith, the weariness of believing, the fatigue of the spirit, a sense of inadequacy in the face of the Gospel’s call, the bitterness of our failures. These nights are a time of blessing and a place for rebirth. #ApostolicJourney

Por ocasião do aniversário da morte de Sebastião Salgado (1944-2025), ocorrida em 23 de maio de 2025, tuitamos 10 belas fotos publicadas então pela BBC Brasil (tinyurl.com/yaripo). A matéria divulgava o livro e a exposição resultantes do projeto "Amazônia". Sigam o fio! 🧵

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Why does Mary look younger than Jesus in Michelangelo's Pietà? The answer is one of the most beautiful in art history... Mary is holding the body of her 33 year old son, but she looks 20. Critics noticed it the moment the sculpture was unveiled in 1499. The mother of a man who has just been crucified would have been in her late forties or early fifties. Michelangelo had carved her as a girl. His own biographer, Ascanio Condivi, was the one who finally asked him why. The answer Michelangelo gave is preserved in Condivi's Life of Michelangelo and has been repeated for centuries: "Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste? How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious desire that might change her body?" Most modern critics treat this answer as a half-serious deflection. Michelangelo was famous for his sharp tongue and refused to explain himself to people he considered beneath his intellect. The deeper answer is older, and it lies inside one of the greatest poems ever written. In the final canto of Dante's Paradiso, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux begins his prayer to the Virgin with one of the most extraordinary lines in Italian literature: "Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio." "Virgin mother, daughter of your own son." Michelangelo, who knew Dante by heart, was carving that line into stone. Mary is younger than Jesus because Jesus is older than the universe... because she gave birth to her own creator. But there is another reading, simpler than either of those, and it is the one I find myself thinking of today. Every mother who has held her child has held them at every age at once. The infant is still inside the toddler. The toddler is still inside the teenager. The young man on her lap, even dead, is also the boy she nursed and the baby she first carried home. And maybe that's why Michelangelo did not carve Mary as the years had aged her. He carved her as love had kept her: outside of time, outside of grief, holding her son the way she had always held him... Happy Mother's Day. -- -- -- If you enjoyed this, I write a weekly newsletter read by over 50,000 people who love rediscovering the beauty of the past. You can join us here: James-lucas.com/welcome I write about beauty in all its forms. If you'd like to support my work, a paid subscription is what makes it possible.

One year ago today 💔 Pope Francis' last ride in the Popemobile.

When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.

Viva a Mãe de Deus e Nossa!🙏🌹 Qual a sua intenção para a Novena Perpétua desta noite?

À luz do Ressuscitado, recordemos hoje com especial carinho o Papa Francisco, que na segunda-feira de Páscoa do ano passado entregou a sua vida ao Senhor.

Easter Sunday last year 💔

Cristo ressuscitou da morte e, com Ele, também nós ressuscitamos para uma vida nova! Este anúncio pascal abraça o mistério da nossa vida e o destino da história, alcançando-nos nas profundezas dos abismos da morte. #Páscoa

Todo homem e toda mulher, em especial o cristão, é chamado a voltar o olhar para quem sofre, para a dor das pessoas solitárias, para aqueles que, por diversos motivos, são marginalizados, pois sem eles não poderemos construir sociedades justas. Somente juntos poderemos construir comunidades solidárias e capazes de cuidar de cada um, nas quais se desenvolvam o bem-estar e a paz, em benefício de todos. Cuidar da humanidade do outro ajuda a viver a própria.

“Marx e Brecht são os responsáveis pela cretinização de toda uma geração de cinema e teatro.” Nelson Rodrigues, 1977