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This paper presents the question of the dynamics of the sacrament of marriage arising from the wedding vows according to the rite celebrated in the Catholic liturgy. The aim of the paper is to explain what it means to celebrate the sacrament of marriage every day, not only on the wedding day. The theme is developed based on the concept of ritual as a phenomenon involving the activities of introducing a person to a new state of life in society. According to researchers, ritual perpetuates certain values in culture and human consciousness. In the light of theological sources, in Christian rituals, marriage is a theological reality. This means that the sacrament of marriage involves the rite of a man and a woman making four promises concerning their future life together and including their relationship with God. These pledges are a promise of fidelity, love, honesty and accompanying the other person for the rest of their lives, which means ‘dialogue of life’. Sacramentality, on the other hand, signifies a guarantee of access to God’s grace, which is necessary to build a family community according to the Gospel. The sacrament of marriage appears here as a Christian ritual celebrated that commemorates every moment of life together, with references to the grace given by God. Looking at the sacrament of marriage as a ritual makes it possible to see two dimensions of the dynamics of the marital relationship: a horizontal relationship, involving the dialogue between the spouses, and a vertical relationship, involving the dialogue of the spouses with God. Viewed in this way, Christian marriage is a reality unfolding in the individual lives of persons, as well as socially and ecclesiastically.

This paper is an attempt to depict the main preconditions of business, and honest business in particular. The author claims that in a free-market economy business is a kind of encounter between people. If such an encounter is to be effective, there must be provided some legal conditions and the human being must be integrated. By integration it is meant here a coalescence of the intellectual and moral dimensions. Thus, business is not only an economic phenomenon, but it is also humanistic and spiritual. If a dishonest person decides to do business, he will ruin all the contracts involved. Therefore contrary to what some authors claim, especially those who naively believe in the sufficient power of formal procedures, the paper holds that any person must be both intellectually and spiritually prepared for economic activity.

The article is called Sacrament of Eucharist according to “Expositio Symboli Apostolorum” by Johannes Marienwerder. The subject of the analysis is late medieval work of Johannes Marienwerder (Jan z Kwidzyna) (1342–1417) Expositio Symboli Apostolorum (1399–1401). The theme of the Eucharist is interesting for at least two reasons. The late 14th century is the time of extremities: intensification of the postulates of Eucharistic revival and emergence of views which negated Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. References to a discussion on the subject can be found in Expositio. Second, discussing the views of Johannes Marienwerder on the Eucharist presented in Expositio can provide a supplement for studies of the eucharistic piety of blessed Dorothea of Montau. The following issues are dealt with in this paper. The first section presents the state of debate on the Eucharist in Prague circles in the late 14th century. Postulates of frequent Holy Communion appeared. There were currents negating the Catholic teachings on Eucharist in Prague at the time. The second section discusses the theology of the Eucharist as presented in Expositio.It can be described as a form of apology of the Catholic teachings on the Eucharist. Moreover, the Prologue to Johannes Marienwerder’s work contains a series of brief practical guidelines mainly concerning the celebration of the mass. One should hope that this study will be useful both to theologians and to other scholars who deal with the literary circles of the late Mediaeval Pomesania and also the pre-Hussite period.

Saint Martin is a very popular character in the Christian tradition. His life and deeds have had a considerable impact on successive generations of Christians, beginning with the Middle Ages and he is still present in the minds of believers. The popularity of this saint in Poland and Europe is reflected in many names of churches, parishes, chapels, altars as well as in art, names and heraldry. This paper presents selected local self-government coats of arms displaying an image of St. Martin or attributes associated with him. The full figure of St. Martin in Polish local self-government heraldry can be found on the coats of arms of five rural communes (the communes of Biskupice, Drużbice, Granowo, Mochowo and Wiśniowa), the coats of arms of two urban communes (the commune of Jawor, the town and commune of Pacanów) and the coat of arms of an urban quarter (Słocina – currently a quarter of Rzeszów, earlier – until 1954 – a commune). Only one of these, i.e. the coat of arms of the commune of Poświętne, refers to St. Martin by objects associated with him. Heraldic representations of Martin of Tours can be found, for example, in Germany, especially in Hesse, Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate, Mainz, but also in Czechia, Austria, Slovakia, Finland and Ukraine.

Post-modernity, also referred to as postmodernism or late modernity, is a keyword used to describe contemporary social, cultural and religious changes. The first part of the paper presents the socio-cultural and religious context in which Christian education is provided. A fundamental question was put: can the character of St. Joseph still be an effective role model for the contemporary world in such an adverse context. Papal teachings were used when seeking the answer to this question, with particular focus placed on two documents: Redemptoris custos by John Paul II and Patris corde by Pope Francis. It was pointed out that particularly the latter, owing to its fresh approach and existential sense of its author, can provide guidance on where one should seek the answer to this question. There are no ready solutions concerning the way of talking about St. Joseph, so that Christian education does not become an empty, contentless general moral topos, with no consequence. Christian education, inspired by the character of St. Joseph, is a task to be performed by tutors at all times, especially those who try to present him as a living role model for their pupils.

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the threat that secularization poses with respect to the education process. The modern age is characterized by a secular shift in social relations and in the very concept of the human person. The paper points explicitly to the consequences of the materialization and technologization of life and proposes an integral education model as an alternative for the increasingly secularized society. Every human being is endowed with personal dignity and inalienable rights whose complete justification can only be uncovered within the context of revealed knowledge. Personality formation, which outlines the general purpose of education, includes not only corporeal and spiritual factors but also factors of a religious nature that encourage transformation in the sense of achieving ever higher levels of perfection. It is argued that the integral education model can be applied in the areas of learning and work. The touchstone of any human development that takes into account religious factors is humanization, which is defined as making the world more humane in a constant relationship with God.

From the Past to the Present, Taiwan, as part of the Chinese cultural circle, has experienced distinct changes in family reality. Politics, economy, migration, and globalization have been or are the crucial factors influencing families. Polygamy, extended family, nuclear family, transnational family, same-sex marriage and diversified family construct the contexts of families in Taiwan. These multi-family forms seem to ingratiate themselves with the popular concept of ‘diversity’, which has been articulated since the 21st century. Many people think that ‘diversity’ could eliminate conflicts, because not any part will be ignored; ‘diversity’ shows tolerance and social progress. In fact, there are at the same time, increasing conflicts and problems occurring because of diversity. What would be the potential causes of problems? And how could these problems and conflicts in the families be dealt with? The core solutions seem not easy to find. Since the 1960s, Chiara Lubich’s concepts: ‘unity’, ‘mutual love’, and ‘the model of the new family’ have spread into Taiwan. Her concepts have influenced many families to live in a new way. In this paper, several historical and current family models in Taiwan as well as the relationship between Chiara Lubich’s concept of ‘unity’ and families will be explored to see whether her concepts could be a possible path to reconcile the conflicts of families, and how it could be possibly put into practice.

The primary objective of this paper is to identify and characterize the diplomatic communication of Pope Francis in speeches addressed to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See from 2013 to 2021. The formulated research objective can be presented in the form of the following questions: What is diplomatic communication? What are the characteristics of diplomatic communication of the Holy See? What are its objectives? How is it distinguished from other forms of communication? What issues does Pope Francis address in his speeches to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See? What are the characteristics of these speeches? What language and symbolism does Pope Francis use in this diplomatic message? The answers to these questions will be determined by analyzing the media content of Pope Francis’ speeches addressed to the Vatican diplomatic corps from 2013–2021, available on the Holy See’s official website: vatican.va. The article has an overview and research character. Its indirect purpose is to draw attention to the issue of diplomatic communication in the Roman Catholic Church.

The main purpose of this study is to present the history of the Ulma family from Markowa against the background of the biblical vision of redeemed in Rev 7:9-17. On 24 March 1944, Wiktoria and Józef Ulma and their seven children were murdered by German soldiers for giving shelter to eight Jews. The beatification process of the family from the Subcarpathia region began several years ago and has an unique character. It lies in that the beatification process concerns not only the parents, but all their children: Stanisława, Barbara, Władysław, Franciszek, Antoni and Maria aged from 8 to 1.5 years, and the Unborn child, still in Wiktoria’s womb. This article consists of two parts: exegetical and biographical. The first part contains an exegetic and theological analysis of the text of Rev 7:9-17, which provides a biblical context for the second part of the paper, describing the heroic story of the family.

Creating Laterculus, Polemus Silvius, a 5th-century author, was the first to attempt to integrate the traditional Roman Julian calendar containing the pagan celebrations and various anniversaries with new Christian feasts. Laterculus, as it should be remembered, is a work that bears the features of a liturgical calendar. In addition to dates and anniversaries related to religion and the state, the calendar contains several other lists and inventories, including a list of Roman provinces, names of animals, a list of buildings and topographical features of Rome, a breviary of Roman history, a register of animal sounds and a list of weights and sizes. Therefore, Laterculus, just like a traditional Roman calendar, was also used for didactic purposes. This paper aims to refer in detail to the zoological vocabulary, specifically the register of animal names and sounds included in this source. Laterculus contains in total over 450 words divided into six groups, including 108 words in the four-legged animal section, 131 in the bird section, 11 crustaceans, 26 words for snakes, 62 words for insects and 148 for fish. The sounds of animals, which are also included in one of the lists added to this calendar and titled Voces variae animancium, are also worth mentioning. A brief discussion on the history of the Roman calendar and the liturgical calendar certainly helps to present the issue referred to in the title to its fullest extent.

This article focuses on two main issues. In the first part, the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at La Salette is briefly recounted. This is a necessary ground to foster in the second part of the article the main investigation on the relevance of the La Salette apparition for the contemporary world. The methodological procedure applied in the paper aims to demonstrate how the vital theological motives in the narrative circumstances of the La Salette event and in the content of Our Lady’s message are rooted in God’s revelation bequeathed in the Old and New Testaments.

This paper presents a theological analysis of the content of the Fatima message, carried out according to hagiological assumptions. The analysis of Fatima sources, taking into account the aspect of hagiological research, made it possible to claim that holiness granted by Divine grace grows in a human being at the stage of his or her earthly life. Human history should develop the salvific course through cooperation between the human being and God upon the principle of dialogical relations. In the dialogue of salvation, God gives His grace to a human being, which is necessary to create a culture favouring the development of humanity, i.e. humanizing. Dialogical activity means acting in accordance with the theological hierarchy of values. The effects of dialogical cooperation are perceived in humanism favouring the improvement of humanity in the human person, humanity modelled on the humanity of Jesus Christ. The Marian aspect in the hagiological perspective is seen as a guideline showing the right direction of required historico-salvific changes.

Recent years have witnessed an abundance of statements by many Christian Churches aimed at addressing environmental issues, most recently the Catholic Encyclical Laudato si’. These documents invite theological engagement, especially after becoming aware of the criticism that such proposals might raise in different social and intellectual settings. This paper tries to expose such criticism and the reasons that could discourage the Church’s environmental engagement, to stimulate a critical and dialogical stance able to move into the ongoing discussion and to answer the most pressing questions.