(Vatican Radio) At sunset on Sunday, Pope Francis descended into the grottoes beneath the high altar of St Peter’s basilica to pray, as is tradition on the Feast of All Souls, before the tombs of his predecessors. The moment of prayer began at 6pm Rome time with a reading from Scripture and the recitation of…
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(Vatican Radio) Rivalry and vainglory are two worms that weaken the Church; instead we must act in a spirit of humility and harmony, without seeking our own interests said Pope Francis Monday morning at Mass in Casa Santa Marta.
Taking a cue from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, the Pope noted that a bishop’s joy lies in seeing love, unity and harmony in his Church. “This harmony – he said – is a grace, which the Holy Spirit creates, but we must do our part, we must do everything to help the Holy Spirit to create this harmony in the Church”. This is why St. Paul calls the Philippians to do nothing “out of selfishness or out of vainglory” or “fight against each other, just to be seen, to give themselves the air of being better than others”. “You see – he noted – this is not just something new to today”, but “goes way back”.
” And how often in our institutions, in the Church, in the parish, for example, in schools, do we find that, no? Rivalry; the need to be seen; vainglory. We see that there are two worms that eat the fabric of the Church, weakening her. Rivalry and vainglory go against this harmony, this agreement. Instead of rivalry and vainglory, what does Paul recommend? ‘ Rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves’ . He felt this himself. He qualifies himself as ‘not worthy to be called an apostle,’ the least [among others]. He even strongly humbles himself there. This was his sentiment: He thought others were superior to him “.
The Pope then quoted St. Martin de Porres, a “humble Dominican friar,” whom the Church remembers today: “His spirituality was in service, because he felt that all the others, even the greatest sinners, were superior to him. He really felt this”. St. Paul then urges everyone not to look out for his own interests:
” Look for the good of others. Serving others. But this is the joy of a bishop, when he sees his Church like this: the same sentiment, the same charity, being in unanimous accord. This is the air that Jesus wants in the Church. You can have a different opinion, that’s fine, but always within this air, this atmosphere: humility, charity, without despising anyone”.
Referring to the Gospel of the day, Pope Francis added:
“It’s bad, when we find people who seek their own interests not service, not love, in Church institutions, in dioceses, in parishes. And this is what Jesus says in the Gospel: Do not seek your own interests; do not take the road of seeking repayment. ‘Look, I have done this for you, but you have to do this for me’. And, with this parable, of inviting to dinner those who cannot repay you with anything. This is gratuity. When there is harmony in a Church, there is unity, no one seeks his or her own interests, and there is an attitude of gratitude. I do good; I don’t strike a deal with good “.
In conclusion, the Pope invited everyone to examine their conscience, “what is my parish like … my community? Does it have this spirit? What is my institution like? Is this spirit, this sentiment of love, unanimity, concord, without selfishness or vainglory, of humility, is this vision that others are superior to us, in our parish, in our community … and perhaps we will find that there is something to improve. Now, how can I help to improve this?
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On the Feast of All Souls, Pope Francis has asked people to pray for the world’s forgotten dead, “those who no one remembers”, the “victims of war and violence; the many “little ones” of the world crushed by hunger and poverty” and “the anonymous who rest in common graves”.
Above all he has asked people to offer prays of suffrage and the celebration of the Eucharist for those “our brothers and sisters killed because they are Christians; and those who sacrificed their lives to serve others. We especially entrust to the Lord, those who have left over the last year”.
Emer McCarthy reports, Listen:
Below a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s Angelus address:
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good day!
Yesterday we celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints, and today the liturgy invites us to commemorate the faithful departed. These two occurrences are intimately linked to each other, just as joy and tears find a synthesis in Jesus Christ, that is the foundation of our faith and our hope. On the one hand, in fact, the Church, a pilgrim in history, rejoices through the intercession of the saints and blessed who support her in the mission of proclaiming the Gospel; on the other, she, like Jesus, shares the tears of those who suffer the separation from loved ones, and like Him and through Him echoes thanks to the Father who has delivered us from the dominion of sin and death.
Yesterday and today many people visit the cemetery, which, as the word itself implies, is the “place of rest”, as we wait for the final awakening. It is lovely to think that it will be Jesus who will awaken us. Jesus himself revealed that the death of the body is like a sleep from which he awakens us. With this faith we stop – even spiritually – at the graves of our loved ones, those who have loved us and have done good deeds for us. But today we are called to remember everyone, to remember everyone, even those who no one remembers. We remember the victims of war and violence; the many “little ones” of the world crushed by hunger and poverty. We remember the anonymous who rest in common graves. We remember our brothers and sisters killed because they are Christians; and those who sacrificed their lives to serve others. We especially entrust to the Lord, those who have left over the last year.
Church tradition has always urged prayer for the dead, in particular by offering the celebration of the Eucharist for them: it is the best spiritual help that we can give to their souls, particularly to the most abandoned ones. The foundation of prayers in suffrage of souls is in the communion of the Mystical Body. As the Second Vatican Council reiterates, “fully conscious of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the pilgrim Church from the very first ages of the Christian religion has cultivated with great piety the memory of the dead” (Lumen Gentium, 50 ).
Remembering the dead, caring for their graves and prayers of suffrage, are witness of confident hope, rooted in the certainty that death is not the last word on human fate, death is not the last word, because man is destined to a life without limits, which has its roots and its fulfillment in God. Let us raise this prayer to God:
God of infinite mercy,
we entrust to Your immense goodness all those who have left this world for eternity, where you await all humanity, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ Your Son, who died to save us from our sins.
Look not Lord, at our poverty, misery and human weaknesses when we present ourselves before You to be judged in happiness or condemned.
Gaze upon us with pity, born of Your tender heart and help us to walk the path of purification.
May none of your children be lost to the eternal fires of hell, where repentance is no more.
We entrust to You Lord, the souls of our beloved departed, of those who died without the comfort of the Sacraments or who did not have the opportunity to repent, not even at the end of their life.
May no one fear the encounter with You at the end of their earthly pilgrimage, in the hope of being welcomed within the embrace of your infinite mercy. May sister death find us in prayerful vigilance, and full of all the good we have done during our existence, be it long or short.
Lord, may nothing distance us from you on this earth, may everything and everyone support us in our ardent hope to serenely and eternally rest in You.
Amen
With this faith in man’s supreme destiny, we now turn to the Virgin Mary, who suffered the drama of Christ’s death under the Cross and participated in the joy of His resurrection. May she, Gate of Heaven, help us to understand more and more the value of prayers for the dead. They are close to us. May she support us in our daily pilgrimage on earth and help us not to lose sight of the ultimate goal of life which is Heaven. And we with this hope that never disappoints we move forward!
AFTER ANGELUS
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I greet all the families, church groups, associations and pilgrims who have come from Rome, Italy, from many parts of the world. In particular, I greet the faithful of the Diocese of Sevilla (Spain), those from the Casa Finali in Cesena and volunteers of Oppeano and Granzette who offer clown therapy in hospitals.
I hope you all have a good Sunday, in the Christian memory of our deceased loved ones. Do not forget to pray for me.
Buon pranzo e arrivederci!
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On the Feast of All Souls, Pope Francis has asked people to pray for the world’s forgotten dead, “those who no one remembers”, the “victims of war and violence; the many “little ones” of the world crushed by hunger and poverty” and “the anonymous who rest in common graves”. Above all he has…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis marked the Feast of All Saints with Mass at Rome’s monumental Verano cemetery during which he hailed the world’s refugees and homeless as unknown saints and slammed the pervading ‘industry of destruction’ that excludes God and destroys the earth. Below please find the Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s unscripted homily: When in the First Reading we heard this voice of the Angel who cried out loud o the Four Angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees” (Rev 7:3), this brought to mind a phrase that is not here but in everyone’s heart: men are capable of doing this better than you. We are capable of devastating the Earth far better than the Angels. And this is exactly what we are doing, this is what we do: we destroy creation, we devastate lives, we devastate cultures, we devastate values, we ravage hope. How greatly we need the Lord’s strength to seal us with His love and His power to stop this mad race of destruction! Destroying what He has given us, the most beautiful things that He has done for us, for us to carry forward, to nurture, to bear fruit … When I looked at the pictures in the sacristy of 71 years ago [depicting the WWII bombing of the area of San Lorenzo where the cemetery is situated], I thought, ‘This is so grave, so painful. This is nothing in comparison to what is happening today. Man takes possession of everything, believes he is god, believes he is the king. And wars, the wars that continue raging, not exactly helping to sow the seed of life but to destroy. It is an industry of destruction. It is also a system of life, that when things can’t be fixed they are discarded: we discard children, we discard the old, the young are discarded without a job … This devastation that is the result of the culture of waste. We discard people. This is the image that came to my mind as I listened to the First Reading”. The second image, in the same Reading: “This great multitude which no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language (7:9) … The nations, the people … It’s starting to get cold: these poor people, who have to flee for their lives, their homes, their people, their villages, in the desert … and they live in tents, they feel the cold, without medicine, hungry … because the “god-man” has taken control of Creation, of all that good that God has done for us. But who pays for this party? They do! The young, the poor, those who are discarded. And this is not ancient history: it is happening today. ‘But Father, it is far away …’ – It’s here too! Everywhere. It is happening today. I will say more: it seems that these people, these children who are hungry, sick, do not seem to count, it’s as if they were of a different species, as if they were not even human. And this multitude is before God and begs, ‘Please, salvation! Please, peace! Please bread! Please work! Please, children and grandparents! Please, young people with the dignity of being able to work! ‘”. Among these are also those who are persecuted for their faith, those “robed in white” in the passage from Revelation: “‘They are the ones who come from great distress, and their robes are made white by the blood of the Lamb.'” “And today, without exaggeration, today on the Feast of All Saints I would like us to think of all these, the unknown saints. Sinners like us, worse off than us, destroyed. Of this multitude of people who are in great distress: most of the world is in distress. And the Lord sanctifies this people, sinners like us, but He sanctifies these people in distress”. Finally, there is a third image, “God. The first, the devastation; the second, the victims; the third, God. God:’ Beloved, we are God’s children now,’ we heard in the second reading. what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’, that is: hope. And this is the blessing of the Lord that we still have: hope. Hope He will have pity on His people, mercy on those who are in the great distress and compassion for the destroyers that they will convert. And so, the holiness of the Church goes on: with these people, with us, that we will see God as He is. And what should our attitude be if we want to be part of this multitude walking to the Father, in this world of devastation, in this world of war, in this world of distress? Our attitude, as we heard in the Gospel, is the attitude of the Beatitudes. That path alone will lead us to the encounter with God. That path alone will save us from destruction, from destroying the Earth, creation, morality, history, family, everything. That path alone. But it too will bring us through bad things. It will bring us trouble. Persecution. But that path alone will take us forward. And so, these people who are suffering so much today because of the selfishness of destroyers, destroyers of our brothers and sisters, these people struggle onwards with the Beatitudes, hoping to find God, to find themselves face to face with the Lord in the hope of becoming saints, at the moment of our final encounter with Him. ”
“May the Lord help us and give us the grace of this hope, but also the grace of courage to emerge from all this destruction, devastation, relativism of life, the exclusion of others, exclusion of values, exclusion of all that the Lord has given us: the exclusion of peace. Deliver us from this, and give us the grace to walk in the hope of finding ourselves one day face to-face with Him. And this hope, brothers and sisters, does not disappoint”. (from Vatican Radio)…