Vatican City, 31 July 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father’s universal prayer intention for August is: “That volunteers may give themselves generously to the service of the needy”. His intention for evangelisation is: “That setting aside our very selves we may learn to be neighbours to those who find themselves on the margins of human life and society”….
A prayer vigil to “dry
the tears” of those who are suffering and in need of consoling. A visit to a
hostel and moment for penance. These are a few examples of the events which the
Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization has added to their
calendar of events for the extraordinary
Holy Year on the website www.im.va . These meetings, in which Pope Francis will participate, will
involve families, pilgrimage organizers, parish priests and rectors of shrines,
members of the Roman Curia, of the Governorate of Vatican City State and other
Holy See institutions, teenagers, deacons, catechists and inmates. In addition
to the detailed agenda of these special days, the dicastery has announced that
in order to promote pilgrimages there will be a series of jubilee audiences
with the Pope which will be held on 12 Saturdays from January to November 2016. These new additions
to the calendar of the Jubilee of Mercy were conceived of as moments of
awareness and welcome, demonstrating that no one is excluded from divine mercy.
The Jubilee — which opens on 8 December 2015, the Feast of Christ the King —
intends to show the world the abundance of divine mercy. From the opening of
the Holy Door to its closing, the Pontiff will perform several signs of the
jubilee bearing witness to corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Many of the
larger events will be held over several days in order to offer the possibility
reflection and further involvement in the path to conversion that the Gospel calls for. The
Pope will participate in moments of prayer, liturgical celebrations and
Eucharistic adoration….
Bulletin: August 9, 2015-19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization has published a calendar of “Great Events with Pope Francis” which will take place during the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy.
The Jubilee will begin Tuesday 8 December, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, with the opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica. The following Sunday, 13 December, the Third Sunday of Advent, Holy Doors will be opened at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran and in Cathedrals around the world.
Highlights of the Jubilee include the sending forth of the Missionaries of Mercy on Ash Wednesday, 10 February, and World Youth Day, which will take place in Krakow, Poland from 26-31 July. The theme of next year’s World Youth Day is “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7).
Special jubilee days throughout the year are dedicated to groups of people in the Church, including Jubilees for Consecrated Life, for young children, for the sick, and for catechists. There will also be a Marian jubilee on the Saturday and Sunday following the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The Jubilee of Mercy will conclude with the closing of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, on Sunday 20 November.
The full schedule can be found on the official website for the Jubilee of Mercy.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) “A blessing to one another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People” is the title of an exhibition showing in the Vatican’s Charlemagne Wing.
Scheduled to last until September 17, the exhibit was previously displayed in a number of state capitals in the USA where it received more than a million visitors.
“A blessing to one another” illustrates the steps Pope Saint John Paul II took to improve the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, and reflects the continuing relevance of the conciliar declaration “Nostra Aetate”, in which the Catholic Church expresses her appreciation for other religions and reaffirms the principals of universal fraternity, love and non-discrimination.
Dr William Madges, one of the exhibition curators, spoke to Vatican Radio about the event.
Listen to the interview:
Madges explains the exhibit is divided into four sections and consists of photographs, videos, recordings and other interactive sources.
The first section illustrates Karol Wojtyla’s early years in his birthplace Wadowice, what would become a lifelong friendship with the young Jew Jerzy Kluger, and the relations between Catholics and Jews in Poland during the decade 1920 to 1930.
The second section is dedicated to the Pope’s university years in Krakow, and his work not far from his friends in the Ghetto who knew the horrors of the Shoah.
The third describes his priestly and episcopal life, Vatican Council II and the change of direction it represented in relations between Jews and Christians, and the close link between the cardinal archbishop of Krakow and the Jewish community in his archdiocese.
The final section considers the figure of Wojtyla as the Successor of Peter, his visit to the Synagogue of Rome, and his trip to Israel in the year 2000 when he left a prayer in the Western Wall asking for divine forgiveness for the treatment that Jews had received in the past and reaffirming the Church’s commitment to a path of fraternal continuity with the People of the Covenant.
Visitors to “A blessing to one another” are invited to write a prayer to be placed in a reproduction of the Wall. They will be gathered and deposited in the Western Wall without being read.
For more information about the exhibition click here .
(from Vatican Radio)…