Pray with Unfailing Trust in God’s Merciful Love

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI said at the General Audience in Saint Peter’s Square on May 18, 2011 :

“... We now turn to Sacred Scripture and its witness to the dialogue between God and man in history, a dialogue culminating in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. We can begin with the prayer with which Abraham, the father of all believers (cf. Romans 4), implores God not to destroy the sinful city of Sodom (cf. Genesis 18). Abraham’s prayer of intercession appeals to God’s justice, begging him not to destroy the innocent with the guilty. But it also appeals to God’s mercy, which is capable of transforming evil into good through forgiveness and reconciliation. God does not desire the death of the sinner but his conversion and liberation from sin. In reply to Abraham’s prayer, God is willing to spare Sodom if ten righteous men can be found there. Later, through the prophet Jeremiah, he promises to pardon Jerusalem if one just man can be found (cf. Jeremiah 5:1). In the end, God himself becomes that Just Man, in the mystery of the Incarnation. Christ’s prayer of intercession on the Cross brings salvation to the world. Through him, let us pray with unfailing trust in God’s merciful love for all mankind, conscious that our prayers will be heard and answered.”

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110518_en.

  

Let us pray for the conversion of hearts, freedom from sin, and God's abundant mercy for all humanity.  May the evil which abounds in our world be transformed into good.  May our Risen Lord intercede for all who "know not what they do." 

Pray for the Salvation of Humanity Daily

VATICAN CITY, 18 MAY 2011 (VIS)

Addressing the pilgrims present at today's general audience in St. Peter's Square, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI explained that "Abraham, the great patriarch, father of all believers", offers us the first example of a prayer of intercession when God told him of His plan to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, "because of the wickedness of its inhabitants".

The Patriarch, the Pope said, "did not limit himself to asking for the salvation of the innocent but also implored forgiveness for the entire city, appealing to God's justice", a divine justice that "seeks the good and creates it by means of a forgiveness that transforms the sinners, converting and saving them".

"Abraham's thought, that seems almost paradoxical, can be summarized thus: of course the innocent cannot be treated like the guilty, that would be unjust; instead the guilty need to be treated as the innocent, applying a 'higher' justice, offering them the possibility of salvation because, if the evildoers accept God's forgiveness and confess their blame, letting themselves be saved, they will not continue doing evil but will also become just, no longer needing to be punished".

Emphasizing that "forgiveness breaks the spiral of sin", the Pope noted that "Abraham, in his dialogue with God, asks exactly for that ... through his intercession, his prayer to God for the salvation of the others, he demonstrates and expresses the desire for salvation that God always nurtures for the sinner. Evil cannot be accepted. It must be pointed out and destroyed through punishment.  The destruction of Sodom had precisely this function. The Lord, however, did not wish the death of the wicked but that they convert and live: His desire is always to forgive, to save, to give life, and to transform evil into good".

Pope Benedict XVI ended by asking that "the prayer of Abraham, our father in the faith, teach us to open our hearts more and more to God's overabundant mercy, so that in our daily prayer we might know how to desire the salvation of humanity and to ask for it with perseverance and with confidence in the Lord who is great in love".

For more information please visit:  http://www.visnews-en.blogspot.com/

Feminine Values Modeled by Mary

Let’s return to the 2004 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World, wherein then-Cardinal Ratzinger reflected on the importance of feminine values in the life of the Church.

15…Mary is a mirror placed before the Church, in which the Church is invited to recognize her own identity as well as the dispositions of the heart, the attitudes and the actions which God expects from her.

The existence of Mary is an invitation to the Church to root her very being in listening and receiving the Word of God, because faith is not so much the search for God on the part of human beings, as the recognition by men and women that God comes to us; he visits us and speaks to us. This faith, which believes that “nothing is impossible for God” (cf. Gn 18:14; Lk 1:37), lives and becomes deeper through the humble and loving obedience by which the Church can say to the Father: “Let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Faith continually makes reference to Jesus: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5) and accompanies Jesus on his way, even to the foot of the Cross. Mary, in the hour of darkness, perseveres courageously in faithfulness, with the sole certainty of trust in the Word of God.

It is from Mary that the Church always learns the intimacy of Christ. Mary, who carried the small child of Bethlehem in her arms, teaches us to recognize the infinite humility of God. She who received the broken body of Jesus from the Cross shows the Church how to receive all those in this world whose lives have been wounded by violence and sin. From Mary, the Church learns the meaning of the power of love, as revealed by God in the life of his beloved Son: “he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their heart... he has lifted up the lowly” (Lk 1:51-52). From Mary, the disciples of Christ continually receive the sense and the delight of praise for the work of God's hands: “The Almighty has done great things for me” (Lk1:49). They learn that they are in the world to preserve the memory of those “great things”, and to keep vigil in expectation of the day of the Lord.

16. To look at Mary and imitate her does not mean, however, that the Church should adopt a passivity inspired by an outdated conception of femininity. Nor does it condemn the Church to a dangerous vulnerability in a world where what count above all are domination and power. In reality, the way of Christ is neither one of domination (cf. Phil 2:6) nor of power as understood by the world (cf. Jn18:36). From the Son of God one learns that this “passivity” is in reality the way of love; it is a royal power which vanquishes all violence; it is “passion” which saves the world from sin and death and recreates humanity. In entrusting his mother to the Apostle John, Jesus on the Cross invites his Church to learn from Mary the secret of the love that is victorious.

Far from giving the Church an identity based on an historically conditioned model of femininity, the reference to Mary, with her dispositions of listening, welcoming, humility, faithfulness, praise and waiting, places the Church in continuity with the spiritual history of Israel. In Jesus and through him, these attributes become the vocation of every baptized Christian. Regardless of conditions, states of life, different vocations with or without public responsibilities, they are an essential aspect of Christian life. While these traits should be characteristic of every baptized person, women in fact live them with particular intensity and naturalness. In this way, women play a role of maximum importance in the Church's life by recalling these dispositions to all the baptized and contributing in a unique way to showing the true face of the Church, spouse of Christ and mother of believers.

In this perspective one understands how the reservation of priestly ordination solely to men does not hamper in any way women's access to the heart of Christian life. Women are called to be unique examples and witnesses for all Christians of how the Bride is to respond in love to the love of the Bridegroom.

To read the entire text please visit:  http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_collaboration_en.html

Encouraged by these words, let’s take some time to look at Mary as if looking in a mirror placed before us.  Can we see the ways in which God comes to us?  Do we say “yes” to God’s will for our life?  Do we recognize Mary’s love and care in our own attitudes and actions?  How do we—individually and collectively-- contribute to the life of the Church and show the true face of the Church to the world?

In charity and in truth we must be witnesses of our faith in a society which increasingly rejects natural moral law.  We are called to share our God-given gifts through lives of loving service.  May our Blessed Mother Mary show us how to love, in and through Jesus, “the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)



Prayer Responds to Human Beings’ Desire for God

VATICAN CITY, 11 MAY 2011 (VIS) - In this Wednesday's general audience celebrated in St. Peter's Square, the Pope continued with the reflection on "how prayer and religious feeling are a part of humans throughout their lives".

The Holy Father said:  "In prayer, ... human beings experience themselves as creatures in need of help, incapable of attaining the fulfillment of their existence or their hopes alone. ... In the experience of prayer we orient our very souls to that Mystery from which we look for the fulfillment of our deepest desires and help to overcome the poverty of our lives. In looking to the Other, in directing ourselves 'beyond', is found the essence of prayer, the experience of a reality that goes beyond the apparent and the contingent".

Pope Benedict XVI affirmed that "even though human beings are forgetful of their Creator, the true and living God never stops calling humanity first to the mysterious encounter of prayer".

 "We must learn to spend more time in front of God, before the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ; we must learn to recognize in silence, within our very selves, his voice that calls us and leads us to the depth of our existence, to the fount of life and the source of salvation, so that we might overcome the limit of our lives and open ourselves to the measure of God, the relationship with He who is Infinite Love".

Mother’s Day

During this Easter Season we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection and the new life we share in Him.  The month of May is traditionally a time to especially honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Everyday is a day to give thanks to God for the women who, like our Blessed Mother Mary, said “yes” to God’s will so that each of us received the gift of life.  We thank our mothers and grandmothers, aunts and godmothers, sisters and friends who have nurtured us and taught us to know, love and serve God. 

Whether called by God to be biological and/or spiritual mothers, the role of women is irreplaceable in all aspects of family and social life involving human relationships and caring for others.   Women must be significantly and actively present in the family in the leadership role of teachers.  Children learn to love inasmuch as they are unconditionally loved, they learn respect for others inasmuch as they are respected, they learn to know the face of God inasmuch as they see it in a father and a mother fully attentive to them.  Likewise women must be significantly and actively present in the world of work and in the organization of society, and should have access to leadership positions which allow them to inspire the policies of nations and to promote innovative solutions to economic and social problems.

In the United States of America, Australia, Canada, many European and other countries throughout the world, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May.  The United Kingdom, Ireland, Nigeria and others celebrate Mothering Sunday on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent.  In the Holy Land and other Middle Eastern countries the first day of Spring, March 21, is celebrated as Mother’s Day.  International celebrations honoring motherhood are held on other dates important to those cultures.

Thanks be to God for all our dear Mothers!

Pope Benedict XVI Begins Series of Catecheses on Christian Prayer

At the General Audience on May 4, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI began a series of catecheses that will focus on the theme of Christian prayer.  His Holiness said:

The new series of catecheses which we begin today are devoted to prayer and, in particular, the prayer proper to Christians. Christian prayer is grounded in the gift of new life brought by Christ; it is an “art” in which Christ, the Son of God, is our supreme teacher. At the same time, prayer is a part of the human experience, as we see from the ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. There we find eloquent expressions of a desire to see God, to experience his mercy and forgiveness, to grow in virtue and to experience divine help in all that we do. In these cultures there is also a recognition that prayer opens man to a deeper understanding of our dependence on God and life’s ultimate meaning. The pagan religions, however, remain a plea for divine help, an expression of that profound human yearning for God which finds its highest expression and fulfilment in the Old and New Testaments. Divine revelation, in fact, purifies and fulfils man’s innate desire for God and offers us, through prayer, the possibility of a deeper relationship with our heavenly Father. With the disciples, then, let us ask the Lord: “Teach us to pray” (cf. Lk 11:1).

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110504_en.html#

Blessed John Paul II

Today the Church celebrates the Beatification of Venerable John Paul II.

Thanks be to God for the witness of his faith, hope and love.

I had the privilege to meet and speak with Pope John Paul II many times through my service to the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO).  But the first time--my first trip to Rome in 1996--was an incredible experience. 

What a thrill to receive a ticket to the General Audience in Saint Peter’s Square and be directed by the Swiss Guard to the prima fila seating from where I would be able to greet His Holiness at the conclusion of the Audience.  The joyful anticipation was felt throughout the Square with the sound of music playing, people singing and chanting.  The energy, as well as the sense of peace, was palpable when our Holy Father rode in on the popemobile.  It was the peace which stayed with me throughout the greetings, remarks, Benediction, and throughout my brief personal time with Pope John Paul II. 

His Holiness looked at me and listened to me as if I was the only person in the world—as if there was nothing more important to demand his attention than our exchange of words.  Surely this ministry of presence is just a glimmer of God’s presence to us and care for each one of us.  He reached out and made the Sign of the Cross on my forehead.  It was the most natural, relaxed encounter.  Not until later as I walked through the Square did my knees start to shake as my mind raced:  I had just talked with the Pope! 

I was invited to Mass the next morning at the Holy Father’s private chapel in Castel Gandalfo.   At the appointed time, the Swiss Guard allowed me to enter the Apostolic Palace along with other invitees.  As we entered the chapel, Pope John Paul II was kneeling in prayer before the altar.  His head was bowed, his hands were over his ears almost as if he were blocking out all of the sounds and demands of the world in order to listen only to God speaking to him.  You could feel the intensity of his communion with the Lord.  After the beautiful liturgy I was again able to personally greet Pope John Paul II.

I am humbled by these and other privileged encounters with now Blessed John Paul II. 

Deo gratias.

For more information regarding the Beatification, please visit:

http://www.vatican.va/special/anniversario_gpii/documents/index_en.htm