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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Rejoice

Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice in the Lord always.
I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all.
The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:  4-7

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On 16 December 2012 His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, as bishop of Rome, visited the parish of San Patrizio al Colle Prenestino. On the third Sunday of Advent, called "Gaudete" Sunday as it invites us to be glad, the Holy Father observed that Advent is not only a time for conversion but also for joy, because "it is the time in which the anticipation of the Saviour is awakened in the hearts of believers, and awaiting the arrival of a loved one always brings joy".

"In just a few days' time we will celebrate Christmas, the feast of the coming of God, who came among us as a child and as our brother to be with us and to share in our human condition. We must rejoice for His closeness and His presence, and always to seek to understand that He is truly near, so that the goodness of God and the joy of Christ might enter into us. ... St. Paul expressed emphatically in one of his letters that nothing can separate us from God's love as manifested in Christ. Only sin can lead us astray from Him, but this is an element that we ourselves bring to our relationship with Him. However, even when we turn away from Him, He never ceases to love us and to remain close to us with His mercy, His willingness to forgive and to welcome us anew in His love".

"The joy that the Lord communicates to us must find grateful love in us. Indeed, we achieve full joy when we recognise His mercy, when we become aware of the signs of His goodness..." concluded the Pope.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/the-joy-of-advent

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-gaudete-mass-at-roman-parish

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… No one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord. The great joy announced by the angel on Christmas night is truly for all the people, both for the people of Israel then anxiously awaiting a Savior, and for the numberless people made up of all those who, in time to come, would receive its message and strive to live by it. The Blessed Virgin Mary was the first to have received its announcement, from the angel Gabriel, and her Magnificat was already the exultant hymn of all the humble. Whenever we say the rosary, the joyful mysteries thus place us once more before the inexpressible event which is the center and summit of history: the coming on earth of Emmanuel, God with us….

Pope Paul VI, Gaudete in Domino

For the complete text, please visit: 

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19750509_gaudete-in-domino_en.html

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Advent Reminds Us of God's Presence

During the 12 December 2012 general audience, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI renewed his invitation to read the Bible more frequently and to pay closer attention to the readings at Sunday Mass, to provide "valuable nourishment for our faith".

The Pope observed that "reading the Old Testament, we see how God's interventions in the history of the chosen people with whom He established an alliance were not passing events forgotten over time, but rather become living 'memory', together constituting the 'story of salvation' that resides in the consciousness of the people of Israel through the celebration of salvific events", such as Easter. "For all the people of Israel, to recall God's work becomes a sort of constant imperative, in order that the passage of time be marked by the living memory of past events which thus create history anew, day by day, remaining ever present. ... Faith is nurtured by the discovery and the memory of God who is always faithful, who guides history and is the sound and stable foundation upon which life should be built".

The Pope turned his attention to the liturgical time of Advent, which prepares us for Christmas. "As we all know, the word 'Advent' means 'coming' or 'presence', and historically indicated the arrival of the king or the emperor in a province. For us as Christians it has the wonderful and awe-inspiring meaning that God Himself has crossed over from Heaven and inclined towards man; he has made a covenant with man, entering into the history of His people. He is the king who enters into the poor province of earth, offering us the gift of His visit, taking on human flesh and becoming one of us. Advent invites us to retrace this path and reminds us again the God has not left this world, He is not absent and has not abandoned us to our own devices, but instead draws towards us in various ways that we must learn to recognise. And we too, with our faith, hope and charity, are called upon every day to perceive and witness this presence, in a world so often superficial and led astray, and to make the light that illuminated the stable in Bethlehem shine anew in our lives".

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/advent-reminds-us-of-gods-presence-in-the-world

http://www.news.va/en/news/audience-discerning-gods-presence-in-a-distracted

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Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City

Litany of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God our Heavenly Father, Creator through whom we live,
have mercy on us.
God the Son, the One who owns what is near and beyond,
have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,
have mercy of us.
Holy Mary of Guadalupe,
pray for us.*
Holy Mary, Mother of America,
Holy Mary, Star of the New Evangelization,
Holy Mary, Perfect and Ever Virgin,
Holy Mary, Mother of the True God,
Holy Mary, Mother worthy of honor and veneration,
Holy Mary, Mother most merciful,
Holy Mary, Mother of those who love you and have confidence in you,
Holy Mary, Mother of those who cry to you and search for you,
Holy Mary, Mother who cures all our pains, miseries, and sorrows,
Holy Mary, Mother who remedies and alleviates our sufferings,
Holy Mary, Mother who keeps us within her compassionate and merciful gaze,
Holy Mary, Mother who shows us her help, love and compassion,
Holy Mary, Mother who chooses those who are humble and simple,
Holy Mary, Mother who graciously repays all who serve her,
Holy Mary, Mother who has us under her shadow and protection,
Holy Mary, Mother who carries us in her embrace,
Holy Mary, Fountain of our joy,
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray

Almighty and Eternal God, your message of mercy, entrusted to Our Lady of Guadalupe, invites all your children to place all their trust in you. Through the intercession of the mother of your Son, may your message of Merciful Love inflame our hearts that we may be faithful heralds and instruments of this Divine Mercy to the world.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

Ecclesiastical Approval for Private Use Only by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

For more information, please visit:

http://www.guadalupeshrine.org/

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During these days of Advent and always let us place our trust in Our Lady of Guadalupe, our loving Mother Mary, who always shows us the way to do God's will... with a serene smile.

At the office of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations (WUCWO)
Piazza San Calisto, Rome, 2009

 

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Women in the Church

“A great deal has been written and said in the fifty years since the Council on the role of women in the Church, some even speak of doors which were opened in order to be closed again. However, this is not what is found on reading the Conciliar documents. The renewal which has taken place through the greater presence of the laity and a fuller awareness of their vocation and mission (and that includes us women!) is not always taken account of sufficiently. It does not cease to be a paradox that the greatest women in the history of the Church, holy mystics, founders, saints of charity, doctors… did not sit around waiting until they were given a role, nor did they postpone their labours until a ministry was instituted for them. They knew their place: together with Christ, children of the Father, daughters of the Church, full members of the Church, capable of enriching her with their gifts. And they set to work responding to the urgent needs of their times. Should we not also give ourselves and strive, each in the place to which God has called her, to carry forward that New Evangelisation to which Benedict XVI untiringly exhorts us?”

Ana Cristina Villa Betancourt, Responsible for the Women’s Section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, has just posted an article about laywomen auditors at Vatican Council II.  She  encourages women of today to fulfill our God-given mission by sharing our unique gifts. 

Please follow the links for more information and to read this inspiring article:         

http://www.laici.va/content/laici/en/sezioni/donna/tema-del-mese.html
http://www.laici.va/content/laici/en/sezioni/donna.html
http://www.laici.va/content/laici/en/sezioni/donna/profilo.html

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To what urgent need(s) is the Lord asking you to respond? 

What gifts is God calling you to share with the Church and the world?

Let us pray for and with each other as we faithfully strive to do God’s will and prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord and Saviour.

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Speaking About God

"How do we speak to God in our times? How can we communicate the Gospel to open the way to its salvific truth?" His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI offered an answer to these questions in his catechesis during the 28 November 2012 general audience, held in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.

"In Jesus of Nazareth", the Pope said, "we encounter the face of God, descended from Heaven to immerse Himself in the world of mankind and to teach 'the art of living', the road to happiness; to free us from sin and to make us true children of God".

He continued, "speaking about God means, first and foremost, being clear about what we must bring to the men and women of our time. God has spoken to us, … not an abstract or hypothetical God, but a real God, a God Who exists, Who entered history and remains present in history: the God of Jesus Christ ... as a response to the fundamental question of why and how to live. Therefore, speaking about God requires a continual growth in faith, familiarity with Jesus and His Gospel, a profound knowledge of God and strong passion for His plan for salvation, without giving in to the temptations of success. … We must not fear the humility of taking small steps, trusting in the leaven that makes the dough rise slowly and mysteriously. In speaking about God, in the work of evangelisation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we must return to the simplicity and essential nature of proclamation: the concrete Good News of God Who cares about us, the love of God which Jesus Christ brought close to us, even unto the Cross, and which in the Resurrection opens us to life without end, to eternal life".

"Speaking about God means communicating, with power and simplicity, through words and the life we lead, that which is essential: the God of Jesus Christ, the God Who showed us a love so great that He took on human flesh, died and rose again for us; the God Who asks us to follow Him and to allow ourselves to be transformed by His immense love in order to renew our lives and our relationships; the God Who gave us the Church, to allow us to journey together and, through the Word and the Sacraments, to renew the entire City of Man so that it might become the City of God", concluded the Pope.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/speaking-about-god-in-our-times

http://www.news.va/en/news/speaking-of-god-our-time

http://www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en/news/2012-11-27.html

 

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It is Rational to Believe

"As the Year of Faith progresses we carry in our hearts the hope of rediscovering our joy at believing and our enthusiasm for communicating the truth of faith to all. … This leads us to discover that our encounter with God brings value to, perfects and elevates that which is true, good and beautiful in mankind", said His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in his catechesis during the November 21, 2012 General Audience, held in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.

 

Faith, the Pope explained, "means knowing God as Love, thanks to His own love. The love of God … opens our eyes and allows us to know all reality beyond the limited horizons of individualism and subjectivism which distort our awareness".

 

"…God, with His grace, illuminates reason and opens up new horizons, immeasurable and infinite. Therefore, faith is a continuous stimulus to seek, never to cease or acquiesce in the inexhaustible search for truth and reality. … In the irresistible desire for truth, only a harmonious relationship between faith and reason can show the correct path to God and to self-fulfilment".

 

Our Holy Father concluded, "It is rational to believe, as it is our very existence that is at stake".

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/benedict-xvi-it-is-rational-to-believe

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 Pray for Peace in Gaza

"I am following with grave concern the escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip", said His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI during his greetings following today's general audience. "Along with my prayers for the victims and for those who suffer, it is my duty to emphasise once again that hatred and violence are not the solutions to these problems. Furthermore, I endorse the initiatives and efforts of those who are working to promote a ceasefire and negotiations. I also encourage the authorities of both parties to make courageous decisions in favour of peace and to bring an end to a dispute which has negative repercussions throughout the whole of the Middle East, a region riven by excessive conflict and in need of peace and reconciliation".

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-appeal-for-peace-in-gaza-full-text

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“Let us all pray to the Lord to give us peace that men cannot take away from us.”

-        His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

For more information, please visit:

http://en.lpj.org/2012/11/21/patriarch-reacts-to-instability-in-the-region-affecting-latin-patriarchate-in-gaza-and-jordan/

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Three Ways to Know God

Three ways to knowing God (the world, the human being, and the faith) provided the theme for His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's catechesis during his general audience, held 14 November 2012 in the Paul VI Hall.

The Holy Father began by explaining that "God's initiative always precedes any initiative on the part of man, and, even on our journey towards Him, it is He Who first illuminates and guides us, while always respecting our freedom. ... God never tires of seeking us, He is faithful to the man He created and redeemed, and He remains close to us because He loves us. This is a certainty which must accompany us every day"….

"Our own times have seen the emergence of a phenomenon which is particularly dangerous for the faith. There exists, in fact, a form of atheism, which we define as 'practical', in which the truths of faith and religious ritual are not denied but are simply held to be irrelevant to daily existence, detached from life, useless. Often, then, people believe in God superficially but live as if He did not exist. In the final analysis, however, such a lifestyle turns out to be even more destructive, because it leads to indifference towards the faith and towards the question of God”.

Faced with this situation the Church, "faithful to Christ's mandate, never ceases to affirm the truth about man and his destiny", said the Pope. Yet, he asked, "what responses is the faith called to give… so that the men and women of our time may continue to question themselves about the existence of God, and follow the paths that lead to Him?"

Referring to the first of these paths - the world - the Pope expressed the view that "we must recover and restore to modern man the chance to contemplate the creation, its beauty and structure".

To explain the second path - the human being - Benedict XVI quoted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, saying: 'With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence'".

Turning finally to consider the faith, the Pope noted how "believers are united to God, open to His grace and to the force of charity. ... Their faith is not afraid to show itself in daily life, it is open to a dialogue which expresses profound friendship for all men and women, and is able to bring the light of hope to our need for redemption, happiness and future life. Faith means meeting God Who speaks and works in history."

"In reality, at the basis of all doctrine and values is the encounter between man and God in Jesus Christ. Christianity, rather than a moral or ethical code, is first and foremost the experience of love in welcoming Christ", Pope Benedict XVI concluded.

 

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/three-ways-to-know-god-the-world-man-and-faith

http://www.news.va/en/news/audience-pathways-to-god-the-world-man-faith

 

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