Dear Brothers and Sisters, In
this Vigil we have pondered the fundamental moments of the life of Jesus in
company with Mary. In mind and heart, we
have returned to the time of the fulfilment of Christ’s mission in the
world. The Resurrection , as a sign of the extreme love of the Father who
restores everything to life and as a foreshadowing of our future state. The Ascension ,
as a sharing in the Father’s glory, where even our humanity finds a privileged
place. Pentecost , as the expression of the Church’s mission in history
until the end of time, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the last two mysteries, we have also
contemplated the Virgin Mary in the glory
of heaven . From the earliest
centuries, Mary has been invoked as Mother of Mercy. The
prayer of the rosary is, in many ways, the synthesis of the history of God’s
mercy, which becomes a history of salvation for all who let themselves be
shaped by grace. The mysteries we have
contemplated are concrete events by which God’s intervention on our behalf
develops. Through prayer and meditation
on the life of Jesus Christ, we see once more his merciful countenance, which
he shows to everyone in all the many needs of life. Mary accompanies us along this journey,
pointing to her Son who radiates the very mercy of the Father. She is truly Hodegetria , the Mother who points to the path we are called to take
in order to be true disciples of Jesus.
In each mystery of the rosary, we feel her closeness and we contemplate
her as the first disciple of her Son, for she does the Father’s will (cf. Lk 8:19-21). Praying
the rosary does not remove us from the problems of life. On the contrary, it demands that we immerse
ourselves in the history of each day, so as to grasp the signs of Christ’s
presence in our midst. Whenever we
contemplate an event, a mystery of the life of Christ, we are asked to reflect
on how God comes into our own lives, so as to be able to welcome him and follow
him. In this way, we discover how we can
follow Christ by serving our brothers and sisters. By accepting and making our own certain
outstanding events in the life of Jesus, we share in his work of
evangelization, so that God’s Kingdom can increase and spread in the
world. We are disciples, but also
missionaries, bringing Christ wherever he asks us to be present. So we cannot keep the gift of his presence
within us. On the contrary, we are
called to share with everyone his love, his tenderness, his goodness and his
mercy. It is the joy of sharing that
stops at nothing, for it brings a message of freedom and salvation. Mary
helps us to understand what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Eternally chosen to be his Mother, she
learned to become his disciple. Her
first act was to listen to God. She obeyed the message of the Angel and
opened her heart to receive the mystery of divine motherhood. She followed Jesus, listening to every word
that issued from his lips (cf. Mk 3:31-35). She kept all those things in her heart (cf. Lk 2:19) and became the living memory of
the signs worked by God’s Son to awaken our faith. But is not enough simply to listen. That is certainly the first step, but
listening then needs to be translated into concrete action. The disciple truly puts his life at the
service of the Gospel. So
it is that the Virgin Mary went immediately to Elizabeth to help her in her pregnancy (cf. Lk 1:39-56). In Bethlehem
she gave birth to the Son of God (cf. Lk 2:1-7). In Cana she
showed her concern for two young spouses (cf. Jn 2:1-11). At Golgotha she did not flee pain but stood beneath the
cross of Jesus and, by his will, became the Mother of the Church (cf. Jn 19:25-27). After the resurrection, she encouraged the
apostles assembled in the Upper Room as they awaited the Holy Spirit who would
make them fearless heralds of the Gospel (cf. Acts 1:14). Throughout her
life, Mary did everything that the Church is asked to do in perennial memory of
Christ. In her faith, we learn to open
our hearts to obey God; in her self-denial, we see the importance of tending to
the needs of others; in her tears, we find the strength to console those
experiencing pain. In each of these
moments, Mary expresses the wealth of divine mercy that reaches out to all in
their daily needs. This
evening let us invoke our loving heavenly Mother with the oldest prayer that
Christians have addressed to her, especially at times of trouble and
martyrdom. Let us invoke her, in the
certainty of being aided by her maternal mercy, so that she, “glorious and
blessed”, can be a protection, help and blessing for us all the days of our
life: “We fly to your protection, holy Mother of
God. Scorn not our petitions in the hour
of need. O glorious and blessed Virgin,
deliver us always from every peril”….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a video-message to the participants of the “Manos Abiertas” [Open Hands] Encounter taking place in Santa Fe, Argentina.
The voluntary association was founded in 1992 by Father Ángel Rossi, SJ, with the motto “To love and to serve.” The theme of this year’s meeting is “Mercy: A journey from the heart to the hands.”
In his video-message, Pope Francis brought up two stories from the New Testament: The parable of the Good Samaritan, and the story of the raising of the son of the Widow of Nain.
“The heart, which in the Good Samaritan is like that of Jesus, was touched by misery: The misery he saw there, the misery of that widowed mother whom Jesus saw, that misery of pain and the misery of the beaten man who was seen by the Samaritan,” – Pope Francis said – “The heart is united with the misery of another and that’s mercy.”
The Pope said mercy is not the same thing as having pity.
“When the misery of the other comes into my heart, I feel mercy; which is not the same as to have pity, pity is another feeling,” – the Holy Father said – “I can feel pity when I see a wounded animal or such a situation, but mercy is another feeling: It is when the misery of another, or a situation of pain or misery, gets into my heart, and I permit the situation to touch my heart. I say this: It is an outward journey, the journey of misery to the heart. And this is the path: It is not mercy if it is not of the heart, a heart wounded by the misery of another.”
He also said mercy is not mere philanthropy.
“It is distinct from having good feelings; this is not mercy, it is having good feelings,” – Pope Francis explained – “It is distinct from hands-on philanthropy, which is not mercy: It is good, it is good, philanthropy is not a bad thing, but it is not mercy, which is another thing. Mercy is the journey of misery to my heart, taken up by my heart, that moves my heart; and sometimes it moves so much that the heart becomes like a compass at the North Pole, and does not know where to stop, because of what it feels.”
The Pope then explained how to tell the difference between mercy and pity.
“First you must ask for the grace to have mercy; it is a grace, and we must ask it of the Lord,” he said.
“The only way to have mercy is to yourself recognize your own sin, and be forgiven by the Lord; through recognizing sin and forgiveness,” – Pope Francis continued. – “You can be merciful only if you truly feel that you have received the mercy of the Lord, otherwise you cannot be merciful … and having received mercy, you will be merciful.”
The Holy Father said this is the return journey, “from the heart to the hands.”
“Stop torturing yourself over what wounded your heart, both by others and yourself,” Pope Francis said. “Let yourself receive mercy and begin the return trip, and with your hands give mercy to others, spreading mercy and love.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
Bulletin for 10/09/2016
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis told the participants in the General Chapter of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) to ‘love Jesus with passion and the Church without conditions’. His exhortation came in a private audience in the Vatican’ Clementine Hall on Friday, as the religious Institute celebrates the 200th anniversary of its founding. The Chapter reelected Fr. Louis Lougen on 30 Sept as Superior General for a second six-year term. Recalling the order’s founder, St. Eugene de Mazenod, Pope Francis said he was a ‘man of Advent’ who ‘loved Jesus with passion and the Church without conditions’, telling the Oblates to follow his example of ‘docility to the Spirit’. The Holy Father said their missionary work, though difficult, should make them ‘joyous witnesses’ of the Gospel. Recognizing their work at the 63rd General Chapter, the Pope said the ‘fraternal experience of prayer, confrontation, and communitarian discernment be a stimulus for a new missionary drive’ towards the poor and most abandoned. ‘Look to the past with gratitude, live the present with passion, and embrace the future with hope, without becoming discouraged by the difficulties you encounter in the mission but rather be strengthened by faithfulness to your religious and missionary vocation,’ he said. Below is a Vatican Radio English translation of the Pope’s address: Dear brothers, It is with particular joy that I welcome you, who represent a missionary religious Family dedicated to evangelization in the Church. I greet you all with affection, beginning with the newly-elected Superior General and his Council. You are here for the General Chapter, in the year in which you celebrate the bicentennial of your foundation through the work of St. Eugene de Mazenod, a young priest eager to respond to the call of the Spirit. At the beginning of its history, your Congregation labored to reignite the faith, which the French Revolution was extinguishing in the hearts of the poor in rural Provence, overwhelming also many ministers of the Church. In the space of a few decades, it expanded throughout the five continents, continuing on the path begun by the Founder, a man who loved Jesus with passion and the Church without conditions. Today you are called to renew this twofold love, remembering the two hundred year lifespan of your religious Institutes. Your jubilee, for a fortuitous and providential coincidence, occurs in the Jubilee of Mercy. Indeed, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were born from an experience of mercy, lived by the young Eugene one Good Friday in the presence of Jesus crucified. May mercy be ever at the heart of your mission, of your efforts of evangelization in the world today. On the day of his canonization, St. John Paul II defined Father de Mazenod a ‘man of Advent’, docile to the Holy Spirit in reading the signs of the times and aiding the work of God in the story of the Church. May these characteristics be present in you, his children. May you also be ‘men of Advent’, capable of discerning the signs of the new times and guiding your brothers on the paths which God opens in the Church and in the world. The Church is living, together with the entire world, an epoch of great transformation in the most diverse areas. She needs men who carry in their hearts the love of Jesus Christ, which permeated the heart of the young Eugene de Mazenod, and the same unconditional love for the Church, which seeks to be a house ever more open. It is important to toil for a Church for all, ready to welcome and accompany! The work necessary to realize all this is vast; and you also have your specific contribution to make. Your missionary history is the history of many consecrated persons, who offered and sacrificed their lives for the mission, for the poor, to reach distant lands whose people were still ‘without a pastor’. Today, every land is a ‘missionary land’, every human dimension is a missionary land, which awaits the proclamation of the Gospel. Pope Pius XI defined you ‘specialists in difficult missions’. The scope of the mission today seems to expand every day, embracing ever new poor people – men and women with the face of Christ who plead for help, consolation, and hope in the most desperate situations of life. Therefore, you are needed: your missionary daring and your availability to bring to all the Good News, which frees and consoles. May the joy of the Gospel shine above all on your faces and make you joyous witnesses. Following the example of the Founder, may ‘among yourselves practice charity’ be your first rule of life and the premise of every apostolic action; and may ‘zeal for the salvation of souls’ be the natural consequence of your fraternal charity. During these days of work at the Chapter, you have expanded your vision and hearts to envelope the expanse of the world. May this fraternal experience of prayer, confrontation, and communitarian discernment be a stimulus for a new missionary drive – a point-of-departure for new horizons – to reach new poor people and bring them together with you to encounter Christ the Redeemer. Adequate, evangelical, and courageous responses to the questioning of the men and women of our time must be sought. For this reason, look to the past with gratitude, live the present with passion, and embrace the future with hope, without becoming discouraged by the difficulties you encounter in the mission but rather be strengthened by faithfulness to your religious and missionary vocation. As your religious Family enters its third century of life, may the Lord allow you to write new and evangelically fruitful pages, like those of your brothers who throughout these 200 years have testified – at times with blood – to a great love of Christ and the Church. You are Oblates of Mary Immaculate. May this name, defined by St. Eugene as ‘a passport to Heaven’, be for you a constant commitment to the mission. May Our Lady sustain your steps, especially in moments of trial. I ask you, please, to pray to her also for me. May my Blessing, which I wholeheartedly impart upon you and your entire Congregation, accompany your path. (from Vatican Radio)…
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin has sent a telegram on behalf of the Holy Father to Cardinal Chibly Langlois, president of the Episcopal Conference of Haiti, in which he expresses the Pope’s sorrow upon learning of the devastation wrought in the island by the passage of Hurricane Matthew, which has claimed many lives and caused considerable damage.
“His Holiness Pope Francis wishes to express his sorrow and to join in prayer in the suffering of all those who have lost loved ones. He conveys to them his sincerest condolences and assures them of his deep sympathy in these painful circumstances. He entrusts the departed to the mercy of God, that He welcome them in His light. He assures them of his spiritual closeness and his affection for the injured, and for all those who have lost their homes and possessions in the disaster. Welcoming and encouraging solidarity in this new hardship the country must face, the Holy Father entrusts all Haitians to the maternal protection of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and imparts to them, as a sign of consolation and hope, a special apostolic blessing”….