Click to download Bulletin for April 3, 2016
Pope Francis requested a collective
‘Hail Mary’ along with silent prayer “for the victims, for the injured, for the
families and for all the people of Belgium”, a day after the terrorist attacks
of Tuesday, 22 March. At the General Audience in St Peter’s Square the
following day, all the faithful present joined the Pontiff in witnessing
closeness to the population, the victims’ relatives and to all those who are
hospitalized due to the “cruel abominations that only cause death, dread or
horror”, as Francis defined such acts. Addressing
a new “appeal to all people of good will to join in the unanimous condemnation”
of the events of the previous day, the Pope asked everyone to “to persevere in
prayer and in asking the Lord, in this Holy Week, to comfort suffering hearts
and to convert the hearts of these people blinded by cruel fundamentalism”. The
following is a translation of the Holy Father’s catechesis which he gave in
Italian. Dear Bothers and Sisters, Good morning, Our reflection on the mercy of God
introduces us today to the Easter Triduum. We will live Holy Thursday, Good
Friday and Holy Saturday as powerful moments that allow us to enter ever
further into the great mystery of our faith: the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything in these three days speaks of mercy, because it makes
visible how far the love of God can reach. We will listen to the account of the
final days of Jesus’ life. John the Evangelist offers us the key to
understanding its profound meaning: “having loved his own who were in the
world, he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). The love of God has no bounds. As
St Augustine often repeated, it is a love that goes “to the end without end”.
God truly offers all of himself for each of us and holds nothing back. The
Mystery which we adore in this Holy Week is a great history of love which knows
no obstacles. The Passion of Jesus lasts until the end of the world, because it
is a story of sharing in the suffering of all humanity and a permanent presence
in the events of the private life of each of us. Indeed, the Easter Triduum is
the commemoration of a drama of love which gives us the certainty that we will
never be abandoned in life’s trials. On
Holy Thursday Jesus institutes the Eucharist, anticipating in the Passover
banquet his sacrifice on Golgotha. In order to make the Apostles understand the
love which enlivens him he washes their feet, offering once again in the first
person the example of how they must act. The Eucharist is the love which
becomes service. It is the sublime presence of Christ who wishes to relieve
from hunger every man and woman, especially the weakest, to enable them to
undertake a journey of witnessing amid the difficulties of the world. Moreover,
in giving himself to us as food, Jesus attests that we must learn to share this
nourishment with others so that it may become a true communion of life with
those who are in need. He gives himself to us and asks us to dwell in him in
order to do likewise. Good
Friday is the culminating moment of love. The death of Jesus, who on the Cross
surrenders himself to the Father in order to offer salvation to the entire
world, expresses the love given to the end, without end. A love which seeks to
embrace everyone, excluding no one. A love that extends to all times and all
places: an inexhaustible source of salvation to which each of us, sinners, can
draw. If God has shown us his supreme love in the death of Jesus, then we too,
regenerated by the Holy Spirit, can and must love one another. Lastly,
Holy Saturday is the day of God’s silence. It must be a day of silence, and we
must do everything possible so that for us it may truly be a day of silence, as
it was in that time: the day of the silence of God. Jesus laid in the sepulchre
shares with all of humanity in the tragedy of death. It is a silence which
speaks and expresses love as solidarity with those who have always been
neglected, whom the Son of God reaches, filling the emptiness that only the
infinite mercy of God the Father can fill. God
is silent, but out of love. On this day, love — that silent love — becomes the
expectation of life in the resurrection. Let us think about Holy Saturday: it
will do us good to consider the silence of Our Lady, “the Believer”, who
awaited the Resurrection in silence. Our Lady will be, for us, the icon of that
Holy Saturday. Think hard about how Our Lady lived that Holy Saturday; in
expectation. It is love that has no doubt, but which hopes in the word of the
Lord, that it may be made manifest and resplendent on the day of Easter. It
is all a great mystery of love and mercy. Our words are poor and insufficient
to express it fully. We may find helpful the experience of a young woman, not
very well known, who wrote sublime pages about the love of Christ. Her name was
Julian of Norwich. She was illiterate, this girl who had visions of the passion
of Jesus and who then, after becoming a recluse, described, with simple but
deep and intense language, the meaning of merciful love. She said: “Then our
good Lord asked me: ‘Are you glad that I suffered for you?’. I answered him:
‘Yes, good Lord, and I am most grateful to you; yes, good Lord, may You be
blessed’. Then Jesus, our good Lord, said: ‘If you are glad, so too am I.
Having suffered the passion for you is for me joy, happiness, eternal bliss;
and if I could suffer more I would’”. This is our Jesus, who says to each of
us: “If I could suffer more for you, I would”. How
beautiful these words are! They allow us to truly understand the immense and
boundless love that the Lord has for each one of us. Let us allow ourselves to
be wrapped in this mercy which comes to meet us; and in these days, while we
keep our gaze fixed on the passion and death of the Lord, let us receive in our
heart his boundless love and, like Our Lady on Saturday, in silence, await the
Resurrection….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday said it was with an “aching heart” that he followed the news of the terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday which killed at least 34 people and injured hundreds of others.
The Holy Father was speaking during his weekly general audience.
He assured the families of the victims and all of those injured, as well as all the people of Belgium, of his prayers and spiritual closeness.
“I once again appeal to all people of good will to unite in the unanimous condemnation of these cruel abominations that are causing only death, terror and horror,” Pope Francis said.
“I ask everyone to persevere in prayer and to ask the Lord in this Holy Week to comfort the hearts afflicted and convert the hearts of these people blinded by this cruel fundamentalism,” he continued.
He ended his appeal by leading the crowd in praying a Hail Mary, and asking them to pray, in silence, for the dead, wounded, their families, and for all the Belgian people.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis spoke about the upcoming Easter Triduum during his Wednesday General Audience.
Here is the English language summary of his remarks.
Dear Brothers and Sisters: As we prepare to celebrate the Paschal Triduum in this Holy Year of Mercy, we are invited in a special way to contemplate the revelation of God’s infinite mercy in the events of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. Tomorrow, Holy Thursday, Jesus gives himself to us as food and, in the washing of feet, teaches us the need to serve others. On Good Friday, in the mystery of Christ’s death on the cross, we contemplate that undying divine love which embraces all mankind and summons us in turn to love one another in the power of the Spirit. Holy Saturday, the day of God’s silence, invites us not only to solidarity with all who are abandoned and alone, but also to trust in that faithful love which turns death into life. These, then, are days which speak to us powerfully of God’s love and mercy. In one of her visions, Julian of Norwich hears the Lord say that he rejoices eternally because he was able to suffer for our sake out of love. Let us prepare then to celebrate the coming days with gratitude for this great mystery of God’s mercy, poured out for us on the cross of our salvation.
Pope Francis then made special greetings to English-speaking pilgrims:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, including those from Ireland, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and the United States. With cordial good wishes for a blessed Easter, I invoke upon you and your fmailies the loving mercy of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!
(from Vatican Radio)…
Rome – Every year since 1993 the “Day of Prayer and Fasting in Memory of Missionary Martyrs is celebrated on 24 March, thanks to the initiative of the Youth Missionary Movement of the Italian Pontifical Mission Societies”. On March 24, 1980 Mgr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador was assassinated, he was beatified on May 23, 2015, and on this annual day of prayer and fasting we remember how many in the world shed their blood for the Gospel. This year’s celebration coincides with Holy Thursday, so the community can also celebrate it on another date which is considered more suitable. The Day is now celebrated in different Countries around the world, promoted by dioceses, religious institutions and missionary realities. In the special Jubilee of mercy that we are living, the Day 2016 has the theme “Women and men of mercy”. As Father Michael Antuoro, Director of Missio Italy writes, “they are the ones who ‘lived the richness of Jesus’ mission that resonates in the words of the Prophet: to bring a word and gesture of consolation to the poor, to proclaim liberty to those bound by new forms of slavery in modern society, to restore sight to those who can see no more because they are caught up in themselves, to restore dignity to all those from whom it has been robbed’ . Jesus is the merciful face of the Father, in Him the faces of Fr. Andrea Santoro, Mgr. Oscar Romero, Fr. Sandro Dordi … .. and many who, like pieces of a mosaic, make up and reveal the icon of a father who is rich of mercy”. The material aid prepared for the animation of the Day, downloadable from Missio Italy site, includes a theological reflection on the theme, the profiles of the four missionaries killed and the list of missionaries killed in 2015. Link correlati : Material aid for the animation of the Day…