(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged two orders of nuns to renew their commitment in passing on the love of God to others.
During his Wednesday General Audience, the Pope greeted Italian communities from the Montfort Missionaries of the Company of Mary and the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, who are both in Rome for their General Chapters.
Greeting the nuns at the end of the audience, Pope Francis said: “I urge them to renew their adhesion to their respective charisms of foundation to transmit the love and mercy of God in today’s ecclesial context.”
The Montfort Missionaries follow the example of Saint Louis de Montfort and are dedicated to spreading the Gospel through missions and parish pastoral work. The Perpetual Adorers are devoted to prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament where they offer their lives to God the Father for the Church and the world.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis continued his catechesis on “Christian Hope” at his General Audience on Wednesday, focusing this week on the figure of St Mary Magdalene.
The Holy Father’s reflections were based on a passage from the Gospel of St John, which relates how St Mary Magdalene was the first to see Jesus after His Resurrection. Her visit to Jesus’s tomb, the Pope said, mirrored “the fidelity of so many women” who visit cemeteries to keep alive the memory of those who have passed away. “The most authentic bonds,” he said, “are not broken even by death.”
Pope Francis noted that Mary Magdalene’s first visit to the tomb was a disappointment: Seeing the empty tomb, she went to the place the disciples were hiding and told them that someone had stolen the body of Jesus.
But although she was sorrowful, she returned to the sepulchre. The Pope continued, “It was while she was standing near the tomb, with eyes filled with tears, that God surprised her in a most unexpected way.” She hardly noticed the two angels who spoke to her, and at first she did not even recognise Jesus, whom she took to be a gardener. Instead, Pope Francis said, “she discovers the most shocking event in human history” only when Jesus “calls her by name.”
“How beautiful it is to think that the first apparition of the Risen One – according to the Gospels – should occur in such a personal way!” the Pope said. How beautiful it is “that there is someone who recognizes us, who sees our suffering and disappointment, and is moved for our sake, and calls us by name.” Although many people seek God, he said, the “wonderful reality” is that God has sought us first, and sought each of us personally. “Each one of us,” Pope Francis said, “is a story of the love of God. God calls each of us by name.”
When Jesus said Mary’s name, her life was changed. “The Gospels describe Mary’s happiness for us,” the Holy Father said. “The Resurrection of Jesus is not a joy given with an eyedropper, but a cascade, a waterfall that fills our whole life.” Pope Francis called for everyone to reflect on that fact that, even with all the “disappointments and defeats” in our life, “there is a God who is close to us and who calls us by name, who says to us, ‘Arise, don’t cry, because I have come to set you free.’”
God, he continued, “is a dreamer: He dreams of the transformation of the world, and has realised it in the mystery of the Resurrection.”
Saint Mary Magdalene, who, before she met Jesus, was at the mercy of the evil one, became “the apostle of the new and greatest hope.” Her life was changed because she had “seen the Lord.” Mary’s experience is an example for us, too, whose lives are changed because we have seen the Lord. This, Pope Francis said, “is our strength, and our hope.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) At the General Audience on Wednesday, Pope continued his catechesis on Christian Hope, speaking this week on “Mary Magdalene, Apostle of Hope.”
He was reflecting on the reading from the Gospel of St John, chapter 20, verses 15-18a:
15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.
17 Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,”
Below please find the English-language summary of Pope Francis’ catechesis for the General Audience on Wednesday, 17 May 2017:
Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our catechesis on Christian hope, we now reflect on Mary Magdalen as an apostle of the hope brought by the Gospel. Saint John tells us on Easter morning Mary had gone to the tomb of Jesus; she saw that it was empty, and returned to tell this news to Peter and the other disciples. Returning to the tomb, yet still not understanding what had happened, Mary encounters the Risen Lord, but does not recognize him until he calls her by name. This first appearance of Jesus after rising from the dead is thus something intensely personal. We know that just as he did with Mary Magdalen, so too Jesus calls each of us by name and fills us with joy at his presence. Our encounter with him brings freedom and opens up new vistas of life; it transforms our world and brings undying hope. The risen Lord tells Mary not to cling to him, but to go and tell the good news of his resurrection to the others. Mary Magdalen thus becomes the apostle of Christian hope. By her prayers, may we be encounter anew the risen Lord, who calls us by name, turns our sorrow into joy, and sends us forth to proclaim by our lives that he is truly risen.
Greetings
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from England, Ireland, Swaziland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Canada and the United States of America. In the joy of the Risen Christ, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all!
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged football champions to be models of loyalty, honesty, harmony and humanity.
Speaking to football players, coaches and staff of the Italian football teams, Juventus and Lazio , who are about to dispute the final game of the national “Italy Cup” tournament, the Pope reminded the football stars of their responsibility as public figures towards their fans, especially the young ones.
To the teams that he received in the Vatican, the Pope said: “I would like to reflect, briefly, on the importance of sport and consider the fascination it exerts and the impact of professional football on people, especially young people, towards whom you have a responsibility.” .
Pointing out that “champions” are role models for many young fans, the Pope said every match is a test in which they must show balance, self-control, and respect for rules and regulations.
“He, who through his behavior, puts all of this into practice, provides a good example for his followers, and this is what I wish for each of you: to be witnesses of loyalty, honesty, harmony and humanity” he said.
Unfortunately, the Pope said, episodes of violence do take place at imes in football stadiums, disrupting games and spoiling the healthy enjoyment of spectators.
My hope, Pope Francis said to the football champions, is that you may always play a part in keeping sport – sport – and thanks to the commitment of all, be promoters of harmony and cohesion between athletes and the rest of society.
Pope Francis concluded the audience wishing those present a “great match”.
Juventus and Lazio play the “Italy Cup” Final at Rome’s Olympic Stadium on Wednesday 17 May at 9pm local time.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) True peace is not man-made but a gift of the Holy Spirit. “A peace without a cross is not the peace of Jesus” for it is only the Lord who can give us peace amidst tribulations. This was the central message of the homily of Pope Francis at Mass, Tuesday morning, in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican.
Developing his homily on the words of Jesus at the Supper in John’s Gospel, “I leave you peace, my peace I give you,” the Holy Father focused on the meaning of the peace given by the Lord. The day’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, he noted, speaks of the many tribulations that Paul and Barnabas experienced in their journeys to proclaim the Gospel. “Is this the peace that Jesus gives us?” the Pope asked, and immediately answered saying Jesus emphasizes that the peace He gives is not the one given by the world.
The world wants anesthetized peace to prevent us from seeing the Cross
“The peace that the world offers us,” the Pope said, “is a peace without tribulations. It offers us an artificial peace “reduced to “tranquility”. It is a peace “that is only concerned about one’s affairs and one’s security, lacking in nothing,” a bit like the peace of the rich Dives in the parable of Lazarus, a tranquility that “shuts” oneself without seeing “beyond”:
“The world teaches us the way to anesthetized peace: it anesthetizes us from seeing another reality of life: the Cross. This is why Paul says that one must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven on the road with many tribulations. But is it possible to obtain peace amidst tribulation? From our side, no; we are unable to make peace that is tranquility, a psychological peace, our peace, because tribulations are there, whether pain, illness or death. But the peace that Jesus gives is a gift: it is a gift of the Holy Spirit; and this peace lasts through tribulations and beyond. It’s not a sort of stoicism of the ‘fakir’. No. it’s something else.”
God’s peace cannot be bought, without Cross is not real peace
According to Pope Francis, God’s peace is “a gift that keeps us going.” After granting peace to His disciples, Jesus suffers in the Garden of Olives and there “He offers everything to the will of the Father and suffers, but He does not lack God’s consolation”. In fact, the Gospel, says that “an angel appeared to him from heaven to console him”:
“God’s peace is real peace, that enters the reality of life, that does not deny life; that is life. There is suffering, there are the sick people, there are many bad things, there are wars … but that peace within, which is a gift, is not lost, but goes ahead bearing the Cross and suffering. Peace without the Cross is not the peace of Jesus: it is a peace that can be bought, that can make. But it does not last; it comes to an end. ”
Let’s ask for the grace of inner peace, a gift of the Holy Spirit
When I get angry, the Pope said, “I lose peace.” When my heart is “troubled,” “it is because I am not open to the peace of Jesus,” because I am unable to “bear life as it comes, with its crosses and sorrows that accompany it.” Rather, we must be able to ask for the grace to ask the Lord for his peace:
“‘We must enter the Kingdom of God through many tribulations’. The grace of peace – of not losing that inner peace. Regarding this a saint said, ‘The life of the Christian is a journey between the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God’ (St. Augustine). May the Lord make us understand well what this peace is which He gives us with the Holy Spirit. ”
(from Vatican Radio)…