Mary's Faith

The faith of Mary in the light of the mystery of the Annunciation was the theme of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's catechesis during the last general audience of 2012.

In the annunciation the angel greets Mary with the words "Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you". "This greeting is an invitation to rejoice, and announces the end of the sadness of the world…. It is a greeting that marks the beginning of the Gospel, the Good News", explained the Pope.

The reason for the invitation to rejoice offered to the Virgin is in the second part of the phrase: "The Lord is with you".... Mary is the being who has, in a singular way, opened the door to the Creator, who has placed herself in His hands, without limits" and lives with "care to recognise the signs of God in the journey of His people; she enters into a story of faith and hope in God's promises, which constitute the very fabric of her existence....  Mary entrusts herself entirely to the word announced by God's messenger, and becomes the model and mother of all believers".

"We encounter moments of light but also periods in which God seems to be absent, his silence weighs heavily in our hearts and his will does not correspond to our own", commented the Holy Father. "The more we open ourselves to God ... like Mary, the more He renders us able, through His presence, to live every moment in life in the peace and certainty of His loyalty and His love. However, this means leaving behind ourselves and our own plans, so that the Word of God might be the guiding light for our thoughts and actions".

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/marys-faith-in-the-light-of-the-mystery-of-the-ann

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How Gaza Prepares for Christmas

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Fouad Twal, who went to Gaza on the Third Sunday of Advent, explained in his homily that “Christmas is a gift from Heaven, but also is needed the good will of men so that there may be peace”. He also invited Christians “to live a strong faith” in order to continue living in this Holy Land where the Holy Family passed during its flight into Egypt and to remember that “even Jesus suffered injustice”.

The little Catholic parish of the Holy Family holds exactly 185 faithful.

For more information, please visit:

http://en.lpj.org/2012/12/18/how-gaza-prepares-for-christmas/

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Let us pray to live a strong faith like that of our Blessed Mother Mary.  Please remember our brothers and sisters who strive to live in the Holy Land.

 

Your light will come Jerusalem; the Lord will dawn on you in radiant beauty.

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