(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis focused on the Feast of Pentecost during his remarks before the Regina Coeli prayer on Sunday.
Listen to Christopher Wells’ report:
The day’s liturgy, Pope Francis said, “invites us to open our minds and our hearts to the gift of the Holy Spirit . . . the first and principle gift that He has obtained with His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven.”
In the Gospel, Jesus says to His disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete to be with you always.” These words, the Pope said, “remind us above all that love for a person, and also for the Lord, is shown not with words but with facts.” The command to keep and observe the commandments must likewise be understood in such a way that they affect our whole life. In fact, the Pope said, “being Christians does not primarily mean pertaining to a certain culture or adhering to a certain doctrine, but rather, joining one’s very life, in every aspect, to the person of Jesus, and, through Him, to the Father.” It is precisely for this reason that Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit: it is through the gift of the Spirit, “the love which unites the Father and the Son, and proceeds from them,” that we are able to live the very life of Jesus.
But “the Holy Spirit also exercises a function of teaching and memory.” Pope Francis explained that the Holy Spirit does not bring a teaching different from that of Jesus, but helps make Jesus’ teaching present and active in our lives.
The Holy Father concluded his remarks with the prayer that the Blessed Virgin Mary “might obtain for us the grace of being strongly animated by the Holy Spirit, that we might bear witness to Christ with evangelical frankness, and open ourselves more and more to the fullness of His love.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pentecost Sunday provided Pope Francis with the occasion to release his annual Message for World Mission Sunday, set to take place later this year, on the third Sunday of October.
In his Message, the Holy Father said the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy invites us “to consider the missio ad gentes – the mission to the world – as a great, immense work of mercy, both spiritual and material.” World Mission Sunday, he continued, calls us “to ‘go out’ as missionary disciples, each generously offering their talents, creativity, wisdom and experience in order to bring the message of God’s tenderness and compassion to the entire human family.” He reminded us that “By virtue of the missionary mandate, the Church cares for those who do not know the Gospel, because she wants everyone to be saved and to experience the Lord’s love.”
Pope Francis emphasized the role of women in missionary work, noting the “considerable and growing presence of women in the missionary world” which he described as “a significant sign of God’s maternal love.”
He spoke, too, of the importance of education, adding, “I hope, therefore, that the holy people of God will continue to exercise this maternal service of mercy, which helps those who do not yet know the Lord to encounter and love Him.”
Pope Francis said, “All peoples and cultures have the right to receive the message of salvation which is God’s gift to every person.” Jesus’ command to preach the Gospel to all nations has not ceased, he concluded: “rather this command commits all of us, in the current landscape with all its challenges, to hear the call to a renewed missionary ‘impulse’.”
You can find the full text of Pope Francis’ Message for World Mission Sunday 2016 here .
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis preached on the passage “I will not leave you orphans” (Jn 14:18) during his homily at the Mass for Pentecost Sunday in St Peter’s.
Listen to Christoher Wells’ report:
Beginning with the first reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the Pope said, “Here we see our relationship renewed: the paternity of God is re-established in us thanks to the redemptive work of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.” He continued, “The Spirit is given to us by the Father and leads us back to the Father. The entire work of salvation is one of ‘re-generation’, in which the fatherhood of God, through the gift of the Son and the Holy Spirit, frees us from the condition of being orphans into which we had fallen.”
Too often in this world we see “the signs of being orphans,” such as loneliness, the desire to be “free of God,” or the difficulty in seeing others as brothers and sisters.
But, the Pope said, “being children of God runs contrary to this, and is our primordial vocation – we were made to be God’s children, it is in our DNA.” This relationship, though, was ruined by sin, and it is only through death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s only-begotten Son, that that relationship can be reborn. It is precisely on account of Jesus’ death on the Cross that the Holy Spirit “has been poured out upon humanity like a vast torrent of grace.”
Jesus’ promise that He will not leave us orphans also reminds us of “the maternal presence” of Mary at Pentecost, the Pope said. “The Mother of Jesus is with the community of disciples gathered in prayer: she is the living remembrance of the Son and the living invocation of the Holy Spirit. She is the Mother of the Church.”
The Pope concluded his homily by saying that the gift of the Spirit allows us “to enter into a new experience of fraternity, allowing us to see one another “as brothers ansd sisters whose differences can only increase our joy and wonder at sharing in this unique fatherhood and brotherhood.”
You can find the full text of Pope Francis’ homily for Mass on Pentecost here .
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has released a Message for World Mission Sunday 2016, which takes place each year on the third Sunday of October.
Below please find the full text of Pope Francis’ Message
Missionary Church, Witness of Mercy
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which the Church is celebrating, casts a distinct light on World Mission Sunday 2016: it invites us to consider the missio ad gentes as a great, immense work of mercy, both spiritual and material. On this World Mission Sunday, all of us are invited to “go out” as missionary disciples, each generously offering their talents, creativity, wisdom and experience in order to bring the message of God’s tenderness and compassion to the entire human family. By virtue of the missionary mandate, the Church cares for those who do not know the Gospel, because she wants everyone to be saved and to experience the Lord’s love. She “is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel” (Misericordiae Vultus, 12) and to proclaim mercy in every corner of the world, reaching every person, young or old.
When mercy encounters a person, it brings deep joy to the Father’s heart; for from the beginning the Father has lovingly turned towards the most vulnerable, because his greatness and power are revealed precisely in his capacity to identify with the young, the marginalized and the oppressed (cf. Deut 4:31; Ps 86:15; 103:8; 111:4). He is a kind, caring and faithful God who is close to those in need, especially the poor; he involves himself tenderly in human reality just as a father and mother do in the lives of their children (cf. Jer 31:20). When speaking of the womb, the Bible uses the word that signifies mercy: therefore it refers to the love of a mother for her children, whom she will always love, in every circumstance and regardless of what happens, because they are the fruit of her womb. This is also an essential aspect of the love that God has for all his children, whom he created and whom he wants to raise and educate; in the face of their weaknesses and infidelity, his heart is overcome with compassion (cf. Hos 11:8). He is merciful towards all; his love is for all people and his compassion extends to all creatures (cf. Ps 144:8-9).
Mercy finds its most noble and complete expression in the Incarnate Word. Jesus reveals the face of the Father who is rich in mercy; he “speaks of [mercy] and explains it by the use of comparisons and parables, but above all he himself makes it incarnate and personifies it” (JOHN PAUL II, Dives in Misericordia, 2). When we welcome and follow Jesus by means of the Gospel and sacraments, we can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, become merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful; we can learn to love as he loves us and make of our lives a free gift, a sign of his goodness (cf. Misericordiae Vultus, 3). The Church, in the midst of humanity, is first of all the community that lives by the mercy of Christ: she senses his gaze and feels he has chosen her with his merciful love. It is through this love that the Church discovers its mandate, lives it and makes it known to all peoples through a respectful dialogue with every culture and religious belief.
This merciful love, as in the early days of the Church, is witnessed to by many men and women of every age and condition. The considerable and growing presence of women in the missionary world, working alongside their male counterparts, is a significant sign of God’s maternal love. Women, lay and religious, and today even many families, carry out their missionary vocation in various forms: from announcing the Gospel to charitable service. Together with the evangelizing and sacramental work of missionaries, women and families often more adequately understand people’s problems and know how to deal with them in an appropriate and, at times, fresh way: in caring for life, with a strong focus on people rather than structures, and by allocating human and spiritual resources towards the building of good relations, harmony, peace, solidarity, dialogue, cooperation and fraternity, both among individuals and in social and cultural life, in particular through care for the poor.
In many places evangelization begins with education, to which missionary work dedicates much time and effort, like the merciful vine-dresser of the Gospel (cf. Lk 13:7-9; Jn 15:1), patiently waiting for fruit after years of slow cultivation; in this way they bring forth a new people able to evangelize, who will take the Gospel to those places where it otherwise would not have been thought possible. The Church can also be defined as “mother” for those who will one day have faith in Christ. I hope, therefore, that the holy people of God will continue to exercise this maternal service of mercy, which helps those who do not yet know the Lord to encounter and love him. Faith is God’s gift and not the result of proselytizing; rather it grows thanks to the faith and charity of evangelizers who witness to Christ. As they travel through the streets of the world, the disciples of Jesus need to have a love without limits, the same measure of love that our Lord has for all people. We proclaim the most beautiful and greatest gifts that he has given us: his life and his love.
All peoples and cultures have the right to receive the message of salvation which is God’s gift to every person. This is all the more necessary when we consider how many injustices, wars, and humanitarian crises still need resolution. Missionaries know from experience that the Gospel of forgiveness and mercy can bring joy and reconciliation, justice and peace. The mandate of the Gospel to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20) has not ceased; rather this command commits all of us, in the current landscape with all its challenges, to hear the call to a renewed missionary “impulse”, as I noted in my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: “Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel” (20).
This Jubilee year marks the 90th anniversary of World Missionary Day, first approved by Pope Pius XI in 1926 and organized by the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith. It is appropriate then to recall the wise instructions of my Predecessors who ordered that to this Society be destined all the offerings collected in every diocese, parish, religious community, association and ecclesial movement throughout the world for the care of Christian communities in need and for supporting the proclamation of the Gospel even to the ends of the earth. Today too we believe in this sign of missionary ecclesial communion. Let us not close our hearts within our own particular concerns, but let us open them to all of humanity.
May Holy Mary, sublime icon of redeemed humanity, model of missionaries for the Church, teach all men, women and families, to foster and safeguard the living and mysterious presence of the Risen Lord in every place, he who renews personal relationships, cultures and peoples, and who fills all with joyful mercy.
From the Vatican, 15 May 2016, Solemnity of Pentecost
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Here is the full text of Pope Francis’ homily for Pentecost Sunday 2016:
Pope Francis
Homily during Mass for Pentecost Sunday
“I will not leave you orphans” (Jn 14:18).
The central purpose of Jesus’ mission, which culminated in the gift of the Holy Spirit, was to renew our relationship with the Father, a relationship severed by sin, to take us from our state of being orphaned children and to restore us as his sons and daughters.
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Christians in Rome, says: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship, which enables us to cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Rom 8:14-15). Here we see our relationship renewed: the paternity of God is re-established in us thanks to the redemptive work of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is given to us by the Father and leads us back to the Father. The entire work of salvation is one of “re-generation”, in which the fatherhood of God, through the gift of the Son and the Holy Spirit, frees us from the condition of being orphans into which we had fallen. In our own day also, we see various signs of our being orphans: in the interior loneliness which we feel even when we are surrounded by people, a loneliness which can become an existential sadness; in the attempt to be free of God, even if accompanied by a desire for his presence; in the all-too-common spiritual illiteracy which renders us incapable of prayer; in the difficulty in grasping the truth and reality of eternal life as that fullness of communion which begins on earth and reaches full flower after death; in the effort to see others as “brothers” and “sisters”, since we are children of the same Father; and other such signs.
Being children of God runs contrary to all this and is our primordial vocation. We were made to be God’s children, it is in our DNA. But this filial relationship was ruined and required the sacrifice of God’s only-begotten Son in order to be restored. From the immense gift of love which is Jesus’ death on the cross, the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon humanity like a vast torrent of grace. Those who by faith are immersed into this mystery of regeneration are reborn to the fullness of filial life.
“I will not leave you orphans”. Today, on the feast of Pentecost, Jesus’ words remind us also of the maternal presence of Mary in the Upper Room. The Mother of Jesus is with the community of disciples gathered in prayer: she is the living remembrance of the Son and the living invocation of the Holy Spirit. She is the Mother of the Church. We entrust to her intercession, in a particular way, all Christians, families and communities that at this moment are most in need of the Spirit, the Paraclete, the Defender and Comforter, the Spirit of truth, freedom and peace.
The Spirit, as Saint Paul says, unites us to Christ: “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom 8:9). Strengthening our relationship of belonging to the Lord Jesus, the Spirit enables us to enter into a new experience of fraternity. By means of our universal Brother – Jesus – we can relate to one another in a new way; no longer as orphans, but rather as children of the same good and merciful Father. And this changes everything! We can see each other as brothers and sisters whose differences can only increase our joy and wonder at sharing in this unique fatherhood and brotherhood.
(from Vatican Radio)…