(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday received members of the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota on the occasion of the inauguration of the judicial year.
Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report:
Addressing those gathered for the opening of the judiciary year of the Sacred Roman Rota, Pope Francis focused his attention on the relationship between faith and marriage.
Love and Truth
Quoting from his predecessors including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, he noted the importance of Love and Truth.
“Love needs truth”, Pope Francis said. “Just as it is based on truth, love can last over time, overcome the ephemeral moment and stand firm to support a common path. If love has no relationship to the truth, the Holy Father explained, “it is subject to changing feelings and does not stand the test of time. True love, he added, “unifies all the elements of the person and becomes a new light towards a great and full life.
In his observations, the Pope underlined that, “the experiences of faith of those seeking Christian marriage are very different.” Faced with this situation, he said, “we need to find valid remedies.”
Prescribing the first of two remedies, the Holy Father pointed out that young people needed to be trained through an adequate process of preparation aimed at rediscovering marriage and the family according to God’s plan.
He said, it was therefore necessary that operators and organizations in charge of the pastoral care of the family had the specific skills in order to make preparation more effective for the sacrament of marriage.
In this spirit, the Pope reiterated the need for a “new catechumenate” in preparation for marriage.
The Holy Father’s second remedy involved helping newlyweds to continue the journey in faith and in the Church even after the wedding celebration.
You need, Pope Francis stressed, to identify with courage and creativity, a training project for young married couples, with initiatives aimed at increasing awareness of the sacrament received.
Legal and sacramental view of marriage preparation
The Holy Father said, that these two remedies were aimed at encouraging an appropriate context of faith in which to celebrate and live marriage.
What was needed, explained the Pope, was to move from a purely legal and formal vision of the preparation of future spouses, to a sacramental foundation.
Pope Francis said that this would require, “the generous contribution of Christian men and women, who work with priests in the pastoral care of families, in order to build a loving family according to God’s plan.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday met with the President of Paraguay, Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara.
The President subsequently met with the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.
A statement from the Holy See Press Office said the discussions “took place in a cordial atmosphere”, and highlighted the good existing relations between the Holy See and Paraguay.”
“The parties focused on themes of common interest, such as the integral development of the human person, the struggle against poverty, and social peace,” – the statement read – “From this perspective, the collaboration of the Catholic Church was noted, along with her contribution in the social and educational fields, and in aid to those most in need. The conversation continued with an exchange of views on the regional political and social situation, with special reference to the development of democratic institutions.”
President Cartes gave Pope Francis an artistic representation of the altar at which the Holy Father celebrated Mass during his visit to the South American country in 2015, as well as book with a pictorial of the visit.
Pope Francis gave the Paraguayan leader a Jubilee Medal, as well as copies of many of his writings.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has called on Christians to overcome the self-centered mindset of the doctors of the law who know only how to condemn. His words came at the morning Mass in the Casa Santa Marta.
Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:
Taking inspiration from the Letter to the Hebrews, Pope Francis said the new covenant which God makes with us in Jesus Christ renews our heart. God renews all things “from the roots, not only in appearance”, he said. “This new covenant has its own characteristics.” First, he said, “the law of the Lord is not an external way of acting”; rather, it enters the heart and “changes our mindset”, as well as causing “a change of heart, a change of feeling, of way of acting, and a different way of looking at things.”
Overcoming the egotistical mentality of the doctors of the law who know only how to condemn
The Holy Father offered the example of a work of art, which an architect can behold either with cold envy or with joy and goodness.
“The new covenant changes our heart and allows us to see the law of the Lord with this new heart, with this new mindset. Consider the doctors of the law who persecuted Jesus. These men did everything prescribed by the law. But their mindset was distanced from God. Theirs was an egotistical mindset, focused on themselves: their hearts constantly condemned [others]. The new covenant changes our hearts and minds. There is a change in mindset.”
God forgives our sins; the new covenant changes our lives
The Lord, he added, “goes ahead” and assures us that God will pardon our iniquity and remember no longer our sins. “At times, I like to think about joking with the Lord: ‘You don’t have a good memory!’ This is the weakness of God: when God forgives, He forgets.”
“He forgets, because he forgives. Before a penitent heart, He forgives and forgets: ‘I will forget, I will not remember their sins’. But this too is an invitation not to remind the Lord of our sins, that is, to not sin any more: ‘You have forgiven me, you forgot.’ A change of life, a new covenant renews me and changes my life, not only the mindset and heart, but my life. To live without sin, far from sin: this is to recreate. This is how the Lord recreates us.”
The Lord changes our hearts to change our mindset
In conclusion, the Pope spoke about the ‘change of appearance’. He said, “We belong to God, other gods do not exist… A change of mindset changes the heart, life, and appearance.” He reiterated that this “is the recreation, which the Lord makes even more glorious than the first Creation.”
He then exhorted Christians to follow through with this covenant and to be ever true to it.
“The seal of this covenant is faithfulness, to be faithful to this work which the Lord has completed to change our mindset, to change our hearts. The prophets said, ‘But the Lord will change your heart of stone into a heart of flesh’: To change one’s heart and life and to sin no more, not reminding the Lord that He has forgotten our sins.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met Thursday with organizers of an exhibition on the history of the Jubilees, which was hosted by the Italian Senate from March to June 2016. The President of the Italian Senate, Pietro Grasso, let the delegation of organizers and volunteers.
The Holy Father expressed his gratitude for the exhibition, which documented “multiple aspects” of the Jubilee Years, beginning with the first, in 1300, called by Pope Boniface VIII. Since that time, the Pope said, “each Jubilee has left its mark on the history of Rome: from architecture to the welcome of pilgrims; from the arts to caregiving and charitable activities.” But, Pope Francis continued, “there is an essential element, the heart of each Holy Year, which should never be lost sight of: in the Jubilee one encounters the goodness of God and the fragility of man, who always stands in need of the love and forgiveness of God.” God reveals His omnipotence, the Pope said, especially by showing mercy, which is a trait proper to God Himself.
Offering his gratitude to those who helped with the exhibition, and to the Italian Senate which hosted it, Pope Francis said expressed his hope that everyone might continue “to draw abundant and enduring spiritual fruits from the Jubilee experience.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday invited the faithful to let themselves be drawn by Jesus pointing out that Christian life is a daily struggle against temptation.
Speaking during the homily at morning Mass in the Casa Santa Marta , the Pope warned against the temptations that lead us down the wrong path
Referring to the Gospel reading of the day, Pope Francis said Jesus came to destroy the influence of evil on our hearts.
Recounting the passage from the Gospel of Mark that tells of how large numbers of people followed Jesus with enthusiasm, the Pope posed the question: ‘why were the crowds attracted?’
The Gospel, he said, tells us that some were sick and wanted to be healed but there were also people who liked listening to Jesus because he touched their hearts. This was because, he explained, the Father drew people to Jesus.
So much so, Francis said, Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him. And he said He too was moved because he saw these people as sheep without a shepherd, and thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit the Father was drawing them to the Lord.
And, the Pope emphasized, the reason for which so many people were attracted by Jesus Christ was nothing to do with Apologetics.
Commenting upon the end of the Gospel passage which says ‘whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God”’, Francis said that whenever we try to approach God, the unclean spirits try to prevent us from doing so, and “wage a war against us.”
Those, he said, who feel they are very Catholic and never have temptations, must pray because they are on the wrong path.
“A Christian life without temptations is not Christian, he said: it is ideological, it is Gnostic, but it is not Christian”.
When the Father draws people to Jesus, Pope Francis explained, there is an opposite force that causes conflict.
“That’s why St Paul speaks of Christian life as a struggle: a daily struggle. A fight!” he said: That’s why Jesus came: “to destroy Satan’s empire, the empire of evil”.
He came to destroy its influence in our hearts, the Pope said. So while the Father is attracting you to Jesus, the spirit of evil is seeking to destroy that attraction.
The Pope concluded with the exhortation to fight on and feel the heart that struggles for the victory of Jesus.
“May the Lord give us the grace to know how to discern what is going on in our hearts and to choose the right path upon which the Father draws us to Jesus” he said.
(from Vatican Radio)…