We Must Go Back to God

During the General Audience on 17 October 2012, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI began a new series of catecheses which will cover the period of the Year of Faith. The Year, he said, is intended "to renew our enthusiasm at believing in Jesus Christ, ... to revive the joy of walking along the path He showed us, and to bear concrete witness to the transforming power of the faith".

 

With his catecheses over coming months our Holy Father hopes to help people understand that the faith "is not something extraneous and distant from real life, but the very heart thereof. Faith in a God Who is love and Who came close to mankind by taking human flesh and giving Himself on the cross to save us and open the doors of heaven for us, is a luminous sign that only in love does man's true fullness lie", he said.

 

The essential formula of the faith, the Pope explained, is to be found in the Creed, in the Profession of the Faith, whence develops "the moral life of Christians, which there has its foundation and its justification. ... It is the Church’s duty to transmit the faith, to communicate the Gospel, so that Christian truths may become a light guiding the new cultural transformations, and Christians may be able to give reasons for the hope that is in them.

 

Pope Benedict XVI went on: "We must go back to God, to the God of Jesus Christ, we must rediscover the message of the Gospel and cause it to enter more deeply into our minds and our daily lives.

 

"In these catecheses during the Year of Faith I would like to help people make this journey, in order to regain and understand the central truths of faith about God, man, the Church, and all social and cosmic reality, by reflecting upon the affirmations contained in the Creed. And I hope to make it clear that these contents or truths of the faith are directly related to our life experience. They require a conversion of existence capable of giving rise to a new way of believing in God".

For more information, please visit: http://www.news.va/en/news/a-new-series-of-catecheses-on-the-subject-of-faith http://www.news.va/en/news/audience-the-creed-healing-the-rupture-between-fai   + Glory in his holy name; let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice. Turn to the Lord and his strength; remember the wonders he has done.        Mass for the New Evangelization      Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 105 (104): 3-4, 5   +

 

Making the Truth and Beauty of the Faith Shine Out in Our Time

"Today, fifty years from the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, we begin with great joy the Year of Faith", said His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI during the course of a Mass celebrated this morning in St. Peter's Square.

Extracts from Pope Benedict XVI's homily are given below.

"The Year of Faith which we launch today is linked harmoniously with the Church’s whole path over the last fifty years: from the Council, through the Magisterium of the Servant of God Paul VI, who proclaimed a Year of Faith in 1967, up to the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, with which Blessed John Paul II re-proposed to all humanity Jesus Christ as the one Saviour, yesterday, today and forever…. Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith. The Christian believes in God Whose face was revealed by Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and their definitive interpreter".

"Vatican Council II did not wish to deal with the theme of faith in one specific document. It was, however, animated by a desire, as it were, to immerse itself anew in the Christian mystery so as to re-propose it fruitfully to contemporary man. ... In his opening speech Blessed John XXIII presented the principal purpose of the Council in this way: “What above all concerns the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine be safeguarded and taught more effectively. … Therefore, the principal purpose of this Council is not the discussion of this or that doctrinal theme, a Council is not required for that, ... [but] this certain and immutable doctrine, which is to be faithfully respected, needs to be explored and presented in a way which responds to the needs of our time”.

"In the light of these words, we can understand what I myself felt at the time: during the Council there was an emotional tension as we faced the common task of making the truth and beauty of the faith shine out in our time, without sacrificing it to the demands of the present or leaving it tied to the past: the eternal presence of God resounds in the faith, transcending time, yet it can only be welcomed by us in our own unrepeatable today. Therefore I believe that the most important thing ... is to revive in the whole Church that positive tension, that yearning to announce Christ again to contemporary man. But, so that this interior thrust towards the new evangelisation neither remain just an idea nor be lost in confusion, ... I have often insisted on the need to return, as it were, to the “letter” of the Council - that is to its texts - also to draw from them its authentic spirit, and why I have repeated that the true legacy of Vatican II is to be found in them".

"The Council did not formulate anything new in matters of faith, nor did it wish to replace what was ancient. Rather, it concerned itself with seeing that the same faith might continue to be lived in the present day, that it might remain a living faith in a world of change. ... The Council Fathers wished to present the faith in a meaningful way; and if they opened themselves trustingly to dialogue with the modern world it is because they were certain of their faith, of the solid rock on which they stood….”

"Recent decades have seen the advance of a spiritual “desertification”.... But it is in starting from the experience of this desert ... that we can again discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us".

"In the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living; thus in today’s world there are innumerable signs, often expressed implicitly or negatively, of the thirst for God, for the ultimate meaning of life. And in the desert people of faith are needed who, with their own lives, point out the way to the Promised Land and keep hope alive. Living faith opens the heart to the grace of God which frees us from pessimism. Today, more than ever, evangelising means witnessing to the new life, transformed by God, and thus showing the path".

"The journey is a metaphor for life, and the wise wayfarer is one who has learned the art of living, and can share it with his brethren…. This, then, is how we can picture the Year of Faith: a pilgrimage in the deserts of today’s world, taking with us only what is necessary: ... the Gospel and the faith of the Church, of which the Council documents are a luminous expression, as is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published twenty years ago.

"May the Virgin Mary always shine out as a star along the way of the new evangelisation".

 

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/the-holy-father-inaugurates-the-year-of-faith

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-benedict-calls-for-re-evangelisation-in-the-s

 

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A Compass Guiding the Ship of the Church

 

"We have reached the eve of the day on which we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican Council II and the beginning of the Year of Faith", said His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI at the start of his catechesis during this morning's general audience in St. Peter's Square. "And it is about the great ecclesial event of the Council that I wish to speak", he explained.

"The documents of Vatican Council II are, even in our own time, a compass guiding the ship of the Church as she sails on the open seas, amidst tempests or peaceful waves, to reach her destination". Vatican II, in which Pope Benedict participated as a young professor of fundamental theology at the University of Bonn, was, he said, "a unique experience" during which "I was able to witness the living Church ... which places herself at the school of the Holy Spirit, the true driving force behind the Council. Rarely in history has it been possible, as it was then, to touch almost physically the universality of the Church at a moment of peak fulfilment of her mission to carry the Gospel into all ages and unto the ends of the earth".

"The age in which we live continues to be marked by forgetfulness and deafness towards God. I believe, then, that we must learn the simplest and most fundamental lesson of the Council: that the essence of Christianity consists in faith in God, ... and in the individual and community encounter with Christ Who guides our lives. ... The important thing today, as was the desire of the Council Fathers, is for us to see - clearly and anew - that God is present, that He concerns us and responds to us. And when faith in God is lacking our essential foundations give way because man loses his dignity. ... The Council reminds us that the Church ... has the mandate to transmit God's salvific word of love, so that the divine call which contains our eternal beatitude may be heard and accepted".

The Pope then went on to mention the four conciliar Constitutions, describing them as "the four cardinal points of our guiding compass": "Sacrosanctum Concilium" on the sacred liturgy, which speaks of the centrality of the mystery of Christ's presence in the Church; "Lumen Gentium" which highlights the Church's fundamental duty to glorify God; "Dei Verbum" on Divine Revelation, which speaks of the living Word of God that unites and animates the Church throughout history, and finally "Gaudium et Spes" which deals with the way the Church transmits to the world the light it received from God.

"Vatican Council II", Benedict XVI concluded, "is a powerful appeal to us to make a daily rediscovery of the beauty of our faith, to understand it deeply through a more intense relationship with the Lord, and to live out our Christian vocation to the full".

 

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/conciliar-documents-a-compass-to-guide-the-ship-of

http://www.news.va/en/news/audience-popes-personal-memories-of-vatican-ii

http://www.news.va/en/news/it-was-a-splendid-day-benedict-xvi-recalls

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On Wednesday, 10 October 2012, the eve of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, published a special edition. It opens with an article written by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on his personal memories of the great ecumenical gathering. Penned this past summer in Castel Gandolfo, the article is in fact the preface to a collection of writings by the young Professor Joseph Ratzinger at the time of the Council, which, however, have never been published.

For more information, please visit:

http://en.radiovaticana.va/articolo.asp?c=628717

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CREDO, DOMINE

 Hymn for the Year of Faith

 

1. Pilgrims we, full of expectation,

 searching in the darkness.
 Lord, you come, revealing the Father,
 You for us are Son of the Most High.
 Credo Domine, credo!
 With the saints who are walking with us,
 O Lord, we ask:
 Adauge, adauge nobis fidem!
 Credo Domine, adauge nobis fidem!
 

2. Pilgrims we, lost and despairing,

 what bread for our journey?
 Lord, your Birth feeds us with your light,
 You for us are the Morning Star.
 Credo Domine, credo!
 With Mary, the first of all believers,
 O Lord, we pray:
 Adauge, adauge nobis fidem!
 Credo Domine, adauge nobis fidem!
 

3. Pilgrims we, broken and exhausted,

 our wounds open still.
 Lord, you heal those who seek you in the desert
 You for us are the hand that heals.
 Credo Domine, credo!
 With the poor who are yearning for help,
 O Lord, we implore:
 Adauge, adauge nobis fidem!
 Credo Domine, adauge nobis fidem!
 

4. Pilgrims we, your cross on our shoulders,

 we follow in your footsteps.
 You arise in the morning of Easter,
 You for us are life everlasting.
 Credo Domine, credo!
 With the humble who wish to be born anew,
 O Lord, we plead:
 Adauge, adauge nobis fidem!
 Credo Domine, adauge nobis fidem!
 

5. Pilgrims we, gathered by your call

 for each new Pentecost.
 You recreate the breath of the Spirit,
 You for us are the Word of the future.
 Credo Domine, credo!
 With the Church which proclaims your Gospel,
 O Lord, we invoke:
 Adauge, adauge nobis fidem!
 Credo Domine, adauge nobis fidem!
 

6. Pilgrims we, thankful and united

 each day that you give.
 Lord, you guide us on the pathway of life
 You for us are the hope of salvation.
 Credo Domine, credo!
 With the world where your kingdom is among us,
 O Lord, we cry:
 Adauge, adauge nobis fidem!
 Credo Domine, adauge nobis fidem!
 

For more information, please visit:

http://www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en/annus-fidei/inno-musicale.html

 

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Immersed in the Prayers of the Church

The time dedicated to liturgical prayer in the life of Christians, especially during Mass, was the central theme of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's catechesis during his general audience, held October 3, 2012 in St. Peter's Square.

Prayer, the Pope explained, "is the living relationship of the children of God with their immeasurably good Father, with His Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit…."

For Christians prayer means "constantly gazing at Christ in ways that are ever new", said the Holy Father. "Yet we must not forget that we discover Christ and know Him as a living Person in the Church. She is 'His Body'.... Praying means raising oneself to the heights of God, by means of a necessary and gradual transformation of our being".

By participating in the liturgy "we make the language of mother Church our own, we learn to speak in her and for her. Of course this comes about gradually, little by little. I must progressively immerse myself into the words of the Church with my prayers, life and suffering, with my joy and my thoughts. This is a journey which transforms us", the Pope said.

The Church becomes fully visible in the liturgy, the Holy Father concluded, "the act by which we believe that God enters our lives and we can encounter Him. The act in which ... He comes to us and we are illuminated by Him".

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/the-church-becomes-fully-visible-in-the-liturgy

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Holy Father’s Prayer Request for Year of Faith and Synod of Bishops

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI asked everyone to join his prayers "entrusting to the Mother of God the main ecclesial events we are preparing to experience: the Year of Faith, and the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation. May the Blessed Virgin accompany the Church on her mission to announce the Gospel to the men and women of our time".

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-asks-faithful-to-pray-for-year-of-faith-synod

 

Visit the Vatican’s Year of Faith website often for ongoing updates:

http://www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en.html

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Saint Francis with the Sultan
 

Saint Francis’ Presence in the Holy Land

Drawn by love of the poor and crucified Christ, Saint Francis of Assisi went to the Middle East at the beginning of the 13th century, in order to “touch” the places which, up to today, offer an irreplaceable testimony to God’s revelation and to God’s love for the human person.

During his pilgrimage, and despite the Crusades, Saint Francis encountered and dialogued with the sultan Melek al-Kamel, who was governing the Holy Land at the time.  It was a peaceful encounter, which marked the beginning of the Franciscans’ presence in the Holy Land and also influenced the way in which they have been present over the centuries.

Saint Francis and the Franciscans always had at heart the love of the Incarnation of Jesus, and that is why they have loved the Holy Land since the beginning. For there is no Incarnation without a place. Loving this land means to love Jesus. And we cannot think of Jesus without loving His land.

In 1342 Pope Clement VI mandated the Franciscans to become the official custodians of the Holy Sites of Christendom, that is, to help maintain and preserve them, while at the same time, ministering to the faithful of the Holy Land.

There are concrete ways of watching over the holy places: animating the holy places for the pilgrims and the local Churches by means of the liturgy, welcoming the pilgrims who come from every part of the world in order to pray and to become recollected, and preserving the structures of these places.

Local Christian communities live alongside the holy places. The local communities are made up of parishes of different Catholic rites and traditions (Western and Eastern). The Franciscans have the responsibility for various parishes whose heart and whose seat are in the holy places.

Loving the stones that preserve the memory of Jesus also means to love the living stones, the Christian communities who, throughout the centuries, live here. The Custody has many formative and social activities, which aim at supporting the Christian presence in the Holy Land: running schools, constructing housing, helping people who suffer from various forms of poverty.

Today the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land is a constant in the life of the Christian community.  The friars are obliged to give peace, love, pardon, faith and hope to suffering Christians in the Holy Land who now find themselves in a great dilemma and are reluctantly leaving their homes and land to live in other parts of the world.  As the late Archbishop Pietro Sambi stated, “We don’t want the Holy Sites of Christendom to become empty religious monuments and museums.  We need a living and worshipping community.”

Christians now comprise less than two percent (2%) of the population of the Holy Land.  The focus of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land is to keep a Christian presence, the “Living Stones” of our faith, in the Holy Land by providing education, employment, and housing.

For more information, please visit these websites:

http://www.custodia.org/default.asp?id=307

http://ffhl.org/default.aspx

http://www.myfranciscan.org/

If the Lord is calling you to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the Year of Faith, please contact k.m.hurley1@gmail.com.

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Most high, all powerful, all good Lord!

All praise is yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing….

Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks,

and serve him with great humility.

-           Saint Francis of Assisi

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Surrounded by Their Watchful Care

The Lord is ever close and active in humanity’s history and accompanies us with the unique presence of his Angels, whom today the Church venerates as “Guardian Angels”, that is, ministers of the divine care for every human being. From the beginning until the hour of death, human life is surrounded by their constant protection…

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Angelus, 2 October 2011

For more information, please visit:  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/angelus/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ang_20111002_en.html

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The existence of angels - a truth of faith

328 The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls "angels" is a truth of faith. the witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition.

Who are they?

329 St. Augustine says: "'Angel' is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is 'spirit'; if you seek the name of their office, it is 'angel': from what they are, 'spirit', from what they do, 'angel.'"¹⁸⁸ With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word".¹⁸⁹

330 As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendour of their glory bears witness.¹⁹⁰

Christ "with all his angels"

331 Christ is the centre of the angelic world. They are his angels: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him. . "¹⁹¹ They belong to him because they were created through and for him: "for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through him and for him."¹⁹² They belong to him still more because he has made them messengers of his saving plan: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?"¹⁹³

332 Angels have been present since creation and throughout the history of salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham's hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples.¹⁹⁴ Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus himself.¹⁹⁵

333 From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God "brings the firstborn into the world, he says: 'Let all God's angels worship him.'"¹⁹⁶ Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the Church's praise: "Glory to God in the highest!"¹⁹⁷ They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been.¹⁹⁸ Again, it is the angels who "evangelize" by proclaiming the Good News of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection.¹⁹⁹ They will be present at Christ's return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgement.²⁰⁰

The angels in the life of the Church

334 In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels.²⁰¹

335 In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the Roman Canon's Supplices te rogamus. . .["Almighty God, we pray that your angel..."]; in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .["May the angels lead you into Paradise. . ."]). Moreover, in the "Cherubic Hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels).

336 From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.²⁰² "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life."²⁰³ Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.

 

For more information, please visit the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1A.HTM
 

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Santa Maria degli Angeli et dei Martiri
Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs
The painting for which the Basilica in Rome was built

 

Sanctuary of the Basilica

 His Eminence Willliam Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore,
 at his Titular Church in Rome in 2005,
receiving WUCWO Executive Committee members:
Amelita Dayrit Go, Vice President General; Gillian Badcock, Secretary General;
Karen Hurley, Vice President for North American Region,
Maria Eugenia Dia de Pfennich, President General

 

Please visit the website of The Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli et dei Martiri (Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs):

http://www.santamariadegliangeliroma.it/index.htm?lingua=INGLESE&cambialingua=SI#

http://www.santamariadegliangeliroma.it/paginamastersing.html?codice_url=picture&ramo_home=Basilica&lingua=INGLESE

Marble angel holding shell of holy water

 

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Social Networks:

Portals of Truth and Faith; New Spaces for Evangelisation

Vatican City, 29 September 2012 (VIS) - "One of the most important challenges facing the task of evangelisation today is that which is emerging from the digital environment. Pope Benedict XVI calls attention to this particular topic, in the context of the Year of Faith, in his choice of theme for the forty-seventh World Communications Day: 'Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelisation'", reads a communique released today by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

"The theme suggests a series of important points for reflection. During a time in which technology has emerged as part of the fabric of connectivity of human experiences, such as relationships and knowledge, we need to ask: can it help men and women meet Christ in faith? It is not enough to find an adequate language, but rather, it is necessary to learn how to present the Gospel as the answer to that basic human yearning for meaning and faith, which has already found expression online", the English-language communique says….

"World Communications Day, the only worldwide celebration called for by Vatican Council II (Inter Mirifica, 1963), is celebrated in most countries, on the recommendation of the bishops of the world, on the Sunday before Pentecost (12 May in 2013).

"The Holy Father’s message for World Communications Day is traditionally published in conjunction with the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, patron of writers (January 24)".

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/social-networks-portals-of-truth-and-faith-new-spa

 

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