(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent his condolences upon learning of the death of the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Dinkha IV. “The Christian world has lost an important spiritual leader, a courageous and wise pastor who faithfully served his community in extremely challenging times,” Pope Francis writes. “His Holiness Mar…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said the life of St Teresa of Avila, characterized by “total self-giving to God,” is a “great treasure” that can help to renew consecrated life today.
The pope spoke of the witness of St Teresa in a letter, issued Saturday, to the Superior General of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Fr Xavier Cannistrà, to mark the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the saint’s birth.
Listen to the report by Laura Ieraci:
St Teresa of Avila, a Spanish nun and mystic and a reformer of the Carmelite Order, was born 28 March 1515.
Also known as St Teresa of Jesus, her writings are among the classics of Christian spirituality and mysticism. Her most known spiritual work is The Interior Castle . Pope Paul VI named her a Doctor of the Church in 1970.
In his letter to the Carmelite Superior General, the Pope said St Teresa left “a great treasure to renew consecrated life today, full of concrete proposals, ways and methods to pray” that always lead one back to Jesus and “constitute a genuine school to grow in love for God and neighbour.”
The Pope described St Teresa as “primarily a teacher of prayer.”
“Teresa’s prayer was not reserved only to one space or to one time of day; it arose spontaneously in the most diverse occasions,” he said. “She was convinced of the value of continuous prayer, even if it was not always perfect.”
“The saint asks us to be steadfast, faithful, even in times of dryness, personal difficulties or urgent needs that call us,” he continued.
The Pope added that St Teresa knew the importance of authentic community life and that “neither prayer nor mission” can be sustained without it.
Consequently, she built monasteries characterized by fraternity and warned her sisters of the danger of individualism, as well as gossip, jealousy and criticism “which severely damage relationships with others,” the Pope said.
“With these noble roots, Teresian communities are called to become houses of communion,” said the pope, “capable of witnessing to fraternal love and to the motherhood of the Church, presenting to the Lord the needs of the world, torn by divisions and wars.”
Below is the Vatican Radio translation of the Pope’s letter to Carmelite Father Xavier Cannistrà:
Dear Brother,
On the 500th anniversary of the birth of St Teresa of Jesus, I wish, together with the whole Church, to give thanks to the great family of Discalced Carmelites—religious men and women and secular members—for the charism of this remarkable woman.
I consider it a providential grace that this anniversary coincides with the Year of Consecrated Life, in which the saint of Avila shines as a sure and attractive model of total self-giving to God. It is one more reason to look to the past with gratitude and to rediscover “the inspiring spark” that gave impetus to the founders and to the first communities (cf. Letter to all consecrated people, 21 November 2014).
How much goodness does the testimony of her consecration—born directly from the encounter with Christ, her experience of prayer as continuous dialogue with God, and her community life, rooted in the motherhood of the Church—do for us!
1. St Teresa is primarily a teacher of prayer. The discovery of Christ’s humanity was central to her experience. Moved by the desire to share this personal experience with others, she describes it in a vivid and simple way, accessible to everyone, because it consists simply in “a relationship of friendship … with he who we know loves us” (Life, 8, 5 ). Many times this same narrative becomes prayer, as if she had wanted to introduce the reader into her interior dialogue with Christ. Teresa’s prayer was not reserved only to one space or to one time of day; it arose spontaneously in the most diverse occasions: “It would be extremely difficult if you could only pray in secluded places” (Foundations, 5, 16). She was convinced of the value of continuous prayer, even if it was not always perfect. The saint asks us to be steadfast, faithful, even in times of dryness, personal difficulties or urgent needs that call us.
Teresa left us a great treasure to renew consecrated life today, full of concrete proposals, ways and methods to pray, that, far from closing us in on ourselves or leading us only to inner balance, always make us start again from Jesus and constitute a genuine school to grow in love for God and neighbour.
2. Since her encounter with Jesus, St Teresa lived “another life”; she become a tireless communicator of the Gospel (cf. Life, 23, 1). Eager to serve the Church, and in the face of serious problems of her time, she did not limit herself to being a spectator of the reality around her. In her position as a woman and with her health difficulties, she decided, she said, “to do what little depended on me … that is to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as possible and to ensure that these few nuns who are here do the same” (The Way, 1, 2). Thus began the Teresian reform, in which she asked her sisters not to lose time negotiating with God “interests of little importance,” while “the world is in flames” (ibid., 1, 5). This missionary and ecclesial dimension has always marked the Carmelites and Discalced Carmelites.
As she did then, even today the saint opens new horizons for us, she calls us to a great undertaking, to see the world with the eyes of Christ, to seek what He seeks and to love what He loves.
3. St Teresa knew that neither prayer nor mission can be sustained without authentic community life. Therefore, the foundation that she laid in her monasteries was fraternity: “Here everyone must love one another, care for each other and help one another” (ibid., 4, 7). And she was very careful to warn her sisters about the danger of individualism in fraternal life, which consists “all or almost all in the denial of ourselves and of our own comforts” (ibid., 12, 2) and to place ourselves at the service of others. To avoid this risk, the saint of Avila recommended to her sisters, first of all, the virtue of humility, which is neither outward neglect nor inner shyness of the soul, but each knowing their own abilities and what God can do in us (cf. Relations, 28). The opposite is what she calls “false point of honour” (Life, 31, 23), a source of gossip, jealousy and criticism, which severely damage relationships with others. Teresian humility consists of self-acceptance, awareness of one’s own dignity, missionary courage, gratitude and trust in God.
With these noble roots, Teresian communities are called to become houses of communion, capable of witnessing to fraternal love and to the motherhood of the Church, presenting to the Lord the needs of the world, torn by divisions and wars.
Dear Brother, I do not want to end without thanking the Teresian Carmelite communities that entrust the Pope, with special tenderness, to the protection of the Virgin of Carmel, and accompany, with their prayers, the great trials and challenges of the Church. I ask the Lord that your witness of life, like that of St Teresa, allows the joy and beauty of living the Gospel to shine and attracts many young people to follow Christ closely.
To the whole Teresian family, I warmly impart my Apostolic Blessing.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said the life of St Teresa of Avila, characterized by “total self-giving to God,” is a “great treasure” that can help to renew consecrated life today. The pope spoke of the witness of St Teresa in a letter, issued Saturday, to the Superior General of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Fr…
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(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Friday told the United Nations Security Council that Christians are facing an “existential fear” in the Middle East.
The Security Council was hosting an open debate on “The victims of attacks and abuses on ethnic or religious grounds in the Middle East”.
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN, said urged the international community to do all it can to prevent further victims of attacks and abuses for ethnic and/or religious grounds.
“Faced with the unbearable situation of living in a conflict zone controlled by terrorist and extremist organizations who constantly threaten them with death, and with a deep sense of feeling abandoned to their fate, by the legitimate authorities and the International Community, entire communities of Christians, especially from Northern Iraq, have been brutally forced to flee their homes and they have sought refuge in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and in the neighbouring countries of the region,” said Archbishop Auza.
He called on all “leaders and people of goodwill in the region and throughout the world to act before it’s too late” to prevent genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing and their incitement.
Archbishop Auza reminded the Security Council “when a State is unable or unwilling to uphold this primary responsibility [to protect its population from these crimes], the International Community must be prepared to take action to protect populations in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.”
The full text of the intervention by Archbishop Auza is below
Intervention of H.E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza,
Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN
United Nations Security Council Open Debate on
“The victims of attacks and abuses on ethnic or religious grounds in the Middle East”
New York, 27 March 2015
Mr. President,
At the very outset, the Holy See wishes to express its sincere gratitude to your Presidency for having convened today’s Open Debate on “the victims of attacks and abuses on ethnic or religious ground in the Middle East”. This debate is not only timely but it is most urgent, especially when we call to mind those who have already lost their lives, for whom this Open Debate has come too late. Their fate urges us to do all that we can to prevent further victims of attacks and abuses for ethnic and/or religious grounds. Christians and other religious minorities of the Middle East seek to be heard by this Council and other International fora, not in some abstract form, but in a manner that is truly conscious of their pain and suffering and their existential fear for their survival in the Middle East and beyond.
We must acknowledge that the problem exists and that the hour is grave. Ethnic and religious communities — including Turkmen, Shabaks, Yazidi, Sabaeans, Kaka’e, Faili Kurds, Shi’ite Arabs and even Sunni Arabs and Kurds — face extreme pressures, abuses of human rights, torture, killing and all forms of persecution purely for the faith they profess or for the ethnic group to which they belong.
The Christians in the Middle East have been specifically targeted, killed or forced to flee from their homes and countries. We have helplessly watched Assyrian Christians kidnapped in Iraq by the so-called “Islamic State” group, Egyptian Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIL-affiliated organizations in Libya, and the near elimination of Christians in Mosul. Only 25 years ago, there were nearly two million Christians living in Iraq; while the most recent estimates are less than a quarter of this figure. Faced with the unbearable situation of living in a conflict zone controlled by terrorist and extremist organizations who constantly threaten them with death, and with a deep sense of feeling abandoned to their fate, by the legitimate authorities and the International Community, entire communities of Christians, especially from Northern Iraq, have been brutally forced to flee their homes and they have sought refuge in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and in the neighbouring countries of the region.
The Holy See expresses profound gratitude to countries and leaders in the region who openly defend the Christians as an integral part of the religious, historical and cultural fabric of the region. For 2,000 years, Christians have called the Middle East ho me; indeed, as we all know, the Middle East is the cradle of Christianity.
Thus, it pains us so deeply that these ancient Christian communities in the region — many of whom still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ — are among those threatened with extinction. Their uninterrupted existence in the region is testimony of many centuries of coexistence, side by side, with Muslims and other religious and ethnic communities. These communities are an integral part of the cultural religious identity of the Middle East, thus their disappearance from the Middle East would not only be a religious tragedy but a loss of a rich cultural-religious patrimony that contributes so much to the societies to which they belong, and which the whole world has much interest to preserve.
The Holy See, therefore, calls on all the leaders and people of goodwill in the region and throughout the world to act before it’s too late. In 2005, at the United Nations World Summit, the entire International Community agreed that every State has the primary responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing and their incitement. Moreover, the International Community recognizes its responsibility to assist States in fulfilling their primary responsibility. However, when a State is unable or unwilling to uphold this primary responsibility, the International Community must be prepared to take action to protect populations in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
As Pope Benedict XVI underlined in his Address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2008, this responsibility to protect is not a novel creation in international law, but rather is rooted in the ancient ius gentium as the foundation of every action taken by those in government with regard to the governed.
Building on this ancient tradition and its reiterations in the international humanitarian law and in today’s United Nations fora, Pope Francis has repeatedly called upon the International Community “to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities.”
The Holy See avails of this opportunity to convey its deep appreciation to countries in the region and to all those who work tirelessly, even risking their lives, to provide assistance to some two and a half million internally displaced persons in Iraq, to 12 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance, of which four million are living as refugees and seven and a half million are internally displaced. Let us help these neighbourly countries as they care for and welcome the refugees.
Mr. President,
Delay in action will only mean more people will die, be displaced or persecuted. Pope Francis exhorts us all to join our efforts to support a Middle East that will continue to be a welcoming home for all its ethnic and religious groups.
Thank you, Mr. President.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Friday told the United Nations Security Council that Christians are facing an “existential fear” in the Middle East. The Security Council was hosting an open debate on “The victims of attacks and abuses on ethnic or religious grounds in the Middle East”. Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Permanent Observer of the…
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