Pope Francis visited his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on Monday to exchange Christmas greetings.

"An authentic faith - which is never comfortable or completely personal - always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better than we found it."
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, N.183

VATICAN CITY, December 20, 2013 (Zenit.org) - At a meeting with a group of young people from Italian Catholic Action, Pope Francis called on young people to help those in need during the Christmas season.

The youth met with the Holy Father to present their annual Christmas greeting to the Holy Father.

After thanking the youth for their greeting, the Pope encouraged the Catholic Action Youth to be “living stones in the Church, united in Jesus.” Christmas, he said, is the celebration of God’s presence who came to save us.

“Jesus’ birth isn’t a fable!,” the Pope exclaimed. “It is a story that really happened, at Bethlehem, two thousand years ago. Faith makes us recognize in that Child, born of the Virgin Mary, the true Son of God, who for love of us became man.”

The Pope added that God chose to reveal his strength not through power, but rather, through the “weakness and fragility of a newborn.” The Christmas season is a call to remember the “little ones: the sick, the poor.”

In a moment of dialogue with the youth, the Holy Father confirmed to the youth that Jesus wishes to be their friend while calling on them to transmit the joy of this friendship everywhere.

“And with the enemies, with those that do not wish us well? What should be done? Who can tell me? What should be done? Should we make war?” the Pope asked.

Pray for them,” a young man replied.

“Exactly: pray for them!” the Holy Father said. “So that Jesus may be near them; to be good to them. This should be done: closeness, to be close. And you will be able to give witness by behaving like true Christians: ready to give a hand to anyone in need. And if that person that does not wish you well needs something, will you give them a hand? You are not sure, no? Yes! Yes! Without judging others, without speak ill. It is awful when people speak ill of others. Is gossip Christian or no? No! Is gossip a prayer? Is gossiping like praying or no? No! Gossiping is a bad thing. Gossiping is a bad thing. It should never be done. And we should begin from now: never gossip; without speaking ill. Go forward this way!”

Concluding his address, Pope Francis entrusted the youth and their families to the Blessed Mother and prayed a Hail Mary before imparting his blessing to them.

 

Pope Francis: Sad Christians Are Afraid of the Freedom of the Holy Spirit

Vatican City,  2013 (Zenit.org) |

During his homily at Casa Santa Marta this morning, Pope Francis said that Christians who seem “allergic” to preaching are, in fact, afraid of opening the door to the Holy Spirit.

 

The Holy Father drew his homily from today’s Gospel where Jesus compares the generation to unhappy children who always refuse the invitation of others to sing or dance.

“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’  The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners,’” the Gospel says.

These people, the Pope explained are “not open to the Word of God” and use the excuse that it is not the message but the messenger that is the problem.

“And they, the people of that time, preferred to find refuge in a more elaborate religion: in moral precepts, like that group of Pharisees; in political compromise, like the Sadducees; in social revolution, like the zealots; in gnostic spirituality like the Essenes. They were with their well cleaned system, well-done. But the preacher, no!” he said.

“Even Jesus reminds them: ‘Your fathers did the same to the prophets’. The people of God have a certain allergy to preachers of the Word: the prophets, they persecuted them, killed them.”

Comparing to today’s world, the Holy Father said that there are Christians who are like the ones spoken of by Jesus and are “afraid of the freedom of the Holy Spirit that comes through preaching.” The scandal of preaching, he continued, “that ends in the scandal of the Cross.”

“It is scandalizing that God speaks through men with limitations, sinful men: it scandalizes! And even more scandalizing that God speaks to us and saves us through a man that says that He is the Son of God but ends up like a criminal. That scandalizes,” the Pope said.

Preaching comes to warn you, to teach and even to correct you, he went on to say, and that is precisely the freedom that comes from it. Sad Christians who dismiss preaching, are in fact afraid of opening the door to the Holy Spirit.

Concluding his homily, Pope Francis prayed for them as well as for all so “that we may not become sad Christians.

 

St. John of the Cross

St. John of the Cross

Feastday: December 14
Born: 1542

Born in Spain in 1542, John learned the importance of self-sacrificing love from his parents. His father gave up wealth, status, and comfort when he married a weaver's daughter and was disowned by his noble family. After his father died, his mother kept the destitute family together as they wandered homeless in search of work. These were the examples of sacrifice that John followed with his own great love -- God.

When the family finally found work, John still went hungry in the middle of the wealthiest city in Spain. At fourteen, John took a job caring for hospital patients who suffered from incurable diseases and madness. It was out of this poverty and suffering, that John learned to search for beauty and happiness not in the world, but in God.

After John joined the Carmelite order, Saint Teresa of Avila asked him to help her reform movement. John supported her belief that the order should return to its life of prayer. But many Carmelites felt threatened by this reform, and some members of John's own order kidnapped him. He was locked in a cell six feet by ten feet and beaten three times a week by the monks. There was only one tiny window high up near the ceiling. Yet in that unbearable dark, cold, and desolation, his love and faith were like fire and light. He had nothing left but God -- and God brought John his greatest joys in that tiny cell.

After nine months, John escaped by unscrewing the lock on his door and creeping past the guard. Taking only the mystical poetry he had written in his cell, he climbed out a window using a rope made of stirps of blankets. With no idea where he was, he followed a dog to civilization. He hid from pursuers in a convent infirmary where he read his poetry to the nuns. From then on his life was devoted to sharing and explaining his experience of God's love.

His life of poverty and persecution could have produced a bitter cynic. Instead it gave birth to a compassionate mystic, who lived by the beliefs that "Who has ever seen people persuaded to love God by harshness?" and "Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love."

John left us many books of practical advice on spiritual growth and prayer that are just as relevant today as they were then. These books include:

Ascent of Mount Carmel

Dark Night of the Soul

and A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ

Since joy comes only from God, John believed that someone who seeks happiness in the world is like "a famished person who opens his mouth to satisfy himself with air." He taught that only by breaking the rope of our desires could we fly up to God. Above all, he was concerned for those who suffered dryness or depression in their spiritual life and offered encouragement that God loved them and was leading them deeper into faith.

"What more do you want, o soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfaction and kingdom -- your beloved whom you desire and seek? Desire him there, adore him there. Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and you won't find him, or enjoy him more than by seeking him within you." -- Saint John of the Cross

In His Footsteps:

John of the Cross believed it was just as dangerous to get attached to spiritual delights as worldly pleasures. Do you expect to get something -- a good feeling, a sense of God -- from prayer or worship? Do you continue to pray and worship when you feel alone or dry?

Prayer:

Saint John of the Cross, in the darkness of your worst moments, when you were alone and persecuted, you found God. Help me to have faith that God is there especially in the times when God seems absent and far away. Amen

 

Pope: The Christmas Tree is a Reminder of the Light and Joy of Christ

Vatican City, December 13, 2013 (Zenit.org) |

The Christmas tree is a sign which recalls that divine light that dispels the darkness of sin and brings joy to humanity. With these words, Pope Francis thanked a group of Bavarian pilgrims who were in Rome for the lighting of the Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square.

 

The tree, which arrived last week, was donated to the Vatican by the town of Bavaria. The massive fir tree is 82 feet tall (25 meters) and weighs over 7 tons.

The Holy Father began his address by thanking the delegation for their gift which he said was an expression of their closeness to the Holy See.

With these gifts, he said, “you wished to manifest your spiritual closeness and friendship that bishops all of Germany, and in particular Bavaria, with the Holy See, in the wake of the Christian tradition that has enriched the culture, literature and art of your nation and the whole of Europe.”

Speaking on the Christmas season, the Holy Father invited them to celebrate it with serenity and to received the good news like the shepherds of Bethlehem. Those shepherds, he said, were surrounded by a great light.

“Even today Jesus continues to dispel the darkness of error and sin, to bring humanity the joy of the blazing light of God, of which the Christmas tree is a sign and reminder. Let us be wrapped by the light of His truth , because ‘the joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and the lives of all who encounter Jesus’”.

Concluding his address, Pope Francis wished the Bavarian pilgrims a Merry Christmas, while asking them for their prayers.

The Christmas Tree Light Ceremony will take place this afternoon in St. Peter’s Square.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
- Nelson Mandela

The Immaculate Conception: Mother to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Fr. William Clark, OMI(Monday, December 9, we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In honor of a day so special to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Fr. William Clark, OMI offers this brief reflection on how the founder, St. Eugene de Mazernod, came to name his congregation) It seems the founder's original intention was to name the congregation in honor of St. Charles.  Upon learning there was already a congregation honoring St. Charles, the founder followed the suggestion to name the congregation in honor of the Blessed Virgin under the title of Mary Immaculate.  Reportedly he was pleased with that idea and considered it providential rather than fortuitous and inserted in the rule that Oblates should always look upon Mary as their mother.Bishop de Mazenod Many years later in 1854 the Founder as Bishop of Marseilles participated in the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Currently, the Oblates relate to the Immaculate Conception in a special way.  An international community of Oblates is stationed at Lourdes where Mary appeared to Bernadette and identified herself as the Immaculate Conception.  Thus Oblates minister to pilgrims and participate in fostering devotion to the Immaculate Conception. Immaculate Conception at the OMI General House in RomeThe Immaculate Conception, like the Assumption, is not an isolated privilege but a mystery filled with meaning for the whole Church.  It has a special meaning for Oblates since they are dedicated to the Blessed Mother under that title.  The Immaculate Conception is a powerful symbol.  A symbol is a sign but not just any sign.  A symbol is a sign that "works mysteriously on our consciousness so as to suggest more than it can clearly describe or define."  Or as someone else put it a symbol is "pregnant with meaning which is evoked rather than explicitly stated.  The Immaculate Conception functions as an especially powerful symbol for the Oblates.

Thanks to Catholic online

FRANCIS XAVIER, ST. (1506-1552). Born in the family castle of Xavier, near Pamplona in the Basque area of Spanish Navarre on Apr. 7, he was sent to the University of Paris 1525, secured his licentiate in 1528, met Ignatius Loyola and became one of the seven who in 1534, at Montmartre founded the Society of Jesus. In 1536 he left Paris to join Ignatius in Venice, from whence they all in tended to go as missionaries to Palestine (a trip which never materialized), was ordained there in 1537, went to Rome in 1538, and in 1540, when the pope formally recognized the Society, was ordered, with Fr. Simon Rodriguez, to the Far East as the first Jesuit missionaries. King John III kept Fr. Simon in Lisbon, but Francis, after a year's voyage, six months of which were spent at Mozambique where he preached and gave aid to the sick eventually arrived in Goa, India in 1542 with Fr. Paul of Camerino an Italian, and Francis Mansihas, a Portuguese. There he began preaching to the natives and attempted to reform his fellow Europeans, living among the natives and adopting their customs on his travels. During the next decade he converted tens of thousands to Christianity. He visited the Paravas at the tip of India. near Cape Comorin, Tuticorin (1542), Malacca (1545), the Moluccas near New Guinea and Morotai near the Philippines (1546-47), and Japan (1549- 51). In 1551, India and the East were set up as a separate province and Ignatius made Francis its first provincial. In 1552 he set out for China, landed on the island of Sancian within sight of his goal, but died before he reached the mainland. Working against great difficulties, language problems ( contrary to legend, he had no proficiency in foreign tongues ), inadequate funds, and lack of cooperation, often actual resistance, from European officials, he left the mark of his missionary zeal and energy on areas which clung to Christianity for centuries. He was canonized in 1622 and proclaimed patron of all foreign missions by Pope Pius X. F. D. Dec. 3.

Vatican City, December 02, 2013 (Zenit.org) |

In preparing for the Christmas season, Pope Francis has called on the faithful to open their hearts and let the Lord encounter them.

During his homily today at Casa Santa Marta this morning, the first week of Advent, the Holy Father reflected on the Gospel reading. The passage was about the centurion’s faith when asking Jesus to heal his servant.

Christmas, the Pope said, is not a temporary occurrence or a reminder of something beautiful that happened in the past, but rather, an encounter with the Lord.

Christmas, he stressed, is an encounter, a meeting with the Lord in faith. “It is not easy to live with faith,” the Pope said. “The Lord, in the word that we have heard, marvelled at this centurion; He marvelled at the faith that he had. He had made a path to meet the Lord, but he did it with faith.”

“For this he not only encountered the Lord, but he felt the joy of being found by the Lord. And this is exactly the encounter we want: the encounter of faith!”

However, the Holy Father said that it is more important to also let oneself be found by the Lord. The coming of Christ means allowing Him to making everything new again.

“We are on a path of faith, with the faith of this centurion, to encounter the Lord and above all to let ourselves be met by Him!” the Pope exclaimed.

For this encounter to happen, the Holy Father told the faithful that one must have an open heart that allows one to be found by the Lord.

“He is the Lord and He will tell me what he has for me, because the Lord does not look at us all together, as one mass. No, no! He looks at each one of our faces, in the eyes, because love is not a love like that, abstract: it is a concrete love,” he said.

“To let yourselves be found by the Lord is precisely this: to let yourselves be loved by the Lord!”

Concluding his homily, Pope Francis urged perseverance in prayer, charity and praise during this path towards Christmas so that Christ may find us with an open heart.

Vatican City, December 01, 2013 (Zenit.org) |
Here is the translation of the Holy Father's address before and after the recitation of the Angelus today to the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Dear brothers and sisters, hello!
Today, the first  Sunday of Advent, we begin a new liturgical year, that is, a new journey of the People of God with Jesus, our Shepherd, who guides us through history toward the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. Thus, this day has a special appeal. Through it we experience a profound sense of the meaning of history. We rediscover the beauty of all being on a journey: the Church, with her vocation and mission, and the whole of humanity, nations, civilizations, cultures, all on a journey along the paths of time.
But where is this journey headed? Is there a common goal? And what is this goal? The Lord answers us through the prophet Isaiah and says: “At the end of days the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills.  All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: ‘Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths’” (Isaiah 2:2-3). This is what Isaiah says about where we are going. It is a universal pilgrimage toward a common goal, which in the Old Testament is Jerusalem, where the Lord’s temple stands, because from there, from Jerusalem, comes the revelation of the face of God and his law. Revelation found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and he himself is the “Lord’s temple,” the Word made flesh: he is both the leader and the goal of our pilgrimage, of the pilgrimage of the whole People of God; and in its light other peoples too can journey toward the Kingdom of justice, toward the Kingdom of peace. The prophet says further: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again” (2:4). Let me repeat what the prophet says. Listen well: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” But when will this happen? What a beautiful day it will be when weapons are destroyed to be transformed into tools for work! What a beautiful day that will be! And this is possible! Let us bet on hope, on the hope of peace, and it will be possible!
This journey is never finished. Just as in the life of each one of us there is always a need to start again, to get back up, to rediscover the meaning of our existence, so for the great human family it is necessary always to redirect ourselves toward the common horizon that is the goal of our journey. It is the horizon of hope! This is the horizon of a good journey. The season of Advent that today we begin once again, restores the horizon of hope for us, a hope that does not disappoint because it is founded on the Word of God. It is a hope that does not disappoint simply because the Lord never disappoints! He is faithful! He does not disappoint! Let us think about and fell this beauty.
The model of this spiritual attitude, of this way of being and of this journey of life, is the Virgin Mary. A simple village girl, who carries all the hope of God in her heart! In her womb the hope of God took flesh, became man, became history: Jesus Christ. Her Magnificat is the song of the People of God on its journey, and of all men and women who hope in God, in the power of his mercy. Let us be guided by her, who is a mother, a mamma, and knows how to guide us. Let us be guided by her during this time of waiting and active vigilance.
[Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted those gathered in St. Peter’s Square:]
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today is the World Day for the fight against HIV/AIDS. Let us express our nearness to persons who are affected, especially children; a nearness that is very concrete for the silent work of many missionaries and workers. Let us pray for everyone, for doctors and for researchers. May every sick person, without exception, find the cure that he needs.
I greet with affection all the pilgrims who are gathered here: families, parishes, associations. I especially greet the faithful from Madrid, the Florilège Choir from Belgium, the Family Together group of Solofra and the Artistic Work Association of Rome.
I greet the faithful from Bari, Sant’Elpidio a Mare, Pollenza and Grumo Nevano.
I wish everyone a good beginning of Advent. Have a good lunch and goodbye!
[Translation by Joseph Trabbic]