(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the participants in the General Chapter of the Little Sisters of Jesus on Monday in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican . The Little Sisters are a religious community founded by Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus (née Madeleine Hutin) in 1939 on the spiritual inspiration and charism of Bl. Charles de Foucauld (+1916).
Originally a missionary order of sisters ministering to nomadic peoples on the outskirts of the Sahara, the Little Sisters now have a presence in sixty-three different countries, living in small communities – often of no more than three or four members – and ministering to the poor and marginalized by sharing their day-to-day lives and living conditions.
They often stay in rented housing and take ordinary jobs in inner-city neighbourhoods and poor rural areas, as well as among nomadic people.
Their spiritual ethos calls them to live among those who are not reached by other Church ministries, or whose daily lives are marked by division, racism, poverty, or violence.
In his remarks to the General Chapter on Monday, Pope Francis said, “Do not be afraid to go forward, carrying with yourselves the little baby Jesus in your hearts, going into all the places in which the littlest of our world find themselves.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) To the extent God freely granted us the gift of life and the created world, we in turn should donate and share with others to create a better world, Pope Francis said on Monday. Faced with the ecological crisis we are going through, the perspective of donation received and given to those coming after us is indeed a reason for commitment and hope, he told some 150 members of the Italian Donation Institute (IID) in the Vatican. “We have the duty to preserve and hand down to future generations an intact planet that we have received as a free gift from God’s goodness,” he told the institute ahead of Italy’s Donation Day on October 4, that it sponsors.
God’s gift – life and creation
The Pope reminded them that the greatest gift that God has given to each one of us is life, which is part of another divine original gift which is creation. Hence, he said, “All of us must feel it a great responsibility to safeguard and care for creation , protecting it from various forms of degradation.”
Pope Francis explained that both the gift of life and the gift of creation usher from God’s love for mankind. To the extent to which we open ourselves to and welcome God’s love, we can in turn become the gift of love to our brothers. This love of God, he said, is particularly demonstrated in the Last Supper where Jesus left his disciples the “new commandment” of love . The newness of this commandment, he said, lies the donation of his life for us which translates in the service of others.
The Pope further explained that this love knows how to humble itself, refuses every form of violence, respects freedom, promotes dignity and rejects every discrimination. “An unarmed love proves stronger than hatred,” the Pope said, urging all to model themselves to the way of Jesus.
Donation – young people
Pope Francis regarded Italy’s Donation Day particularly relevant for children and youth to help them open their minds and hearts to brotherhood and sharing, and building the civilization of love. He wished that young people be able to discover that donating is freely giving a part of ourselves to others, not to lose it but to increase its value. Donating makes both the giver and the receiver happy, and creates bonds and relationships that strengthen hope in a better world.
(from Vatican Radio)…
The University of Bologna has been a laboratory of humanism for almost a thousand years said Pope Francis speaking to the students during his short visit to Bologna on Sunday.
The word Universitas which entails the idea of a ‘whole’ includes students from Italy, many European countries and even from South America, who work on two ideals that of ‘vertical’ – imbibing knowledge and ‘horizontal’ – sharing the research done for common good the Pope noted.
The Pope particularly focused on three rights:
Right to culture.
The Holy Father referred not just to the sacred right of everyone to study but also to the fact that today the ‘right to culture’ means to protect wisdom, which is human and humanizing knowledge. For Pope Francis learning serves to ask questions and to seek meaning in life. He said, one also has the right and not to be distracted in order to make strong choices through research, knowledge and sharing.
Culture he said is what nurtures and makes us grow. Today he said we do not need loud screaming but words that reach the mind and heart. He called them to devote themselves to education with passion, that is to ‘draw out’ the best from each one for the good of all. He called them to assert a culture of humanity that recognizes merits and rewards sacrifices.
Right to hope.
Many today the pope said, experience loneliness and restlessness, feeling the heavy air of abandonment. So it is necessary to provide this right to hope, which he said is not to be invaded by the daily rhetoric of fear and hatred, or be overwhelmed false news. It is the right he said for the young to grow free of the fear of future and know that there are beautiful and lasting realities in life and so it is worth getting involved. It is a right he said to believe that true love is not disposable and that our labour is not a mirage to achieve, but a promise that needs to be sustained.
He wished that the university classrooms be a haven of hope, where the students learn to be responsible for themselves and for the world. He urged them to feel the responsibility for the future of our common home.
Right to Peace.
Peace is both a right and a duty, inscribed in the heart of humanity the pope affirmed. Referring to Europe’s quest for unity, he noted how the two wars obscured the vision of peace in the continent. Denouncing war as useless massacre he called the students to pursue ways of nonviolence and paths of justice which foster peace.
The Pope invoked the right to peace as a right of all to resolve conflicts without violence. To the students who have come to study law this is a challenge he said to affirm the rights of people and peoples, the weaker ones, those rejected and the creation our common home.
In conclusion he called them not to believe those who say fighting for the right is useless and nothing will change. Instead he urged them to dream big not in their sleep but in broad daylight.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis concluded his Pastoral Visit to the cities of Cesena and Bologna with a Solemn Mass in the Dall’Ara Stadium of Bologna. In his homily, for what he called “the first Sunday of the Word ,” Pope Francis reflected on the Word of God, which makes our hearts burn within us, because it makes us feel loved and consoled by the Lord. The day’s Gospel relates Jesus’ parable of the two sons who were asked by their father to go to work in his vineyard. One son said no, but eventually went; while the other said yes, but did not go. “There is a great difference,” the Pope said “between the first son, who is lazy; and the second, who is a hypocrite.” Imagining their inner thoughts, Pope Francis said that the voice of the father resonated in the heart of the son, despite his initial no. In the second, on the other hand, the voice of the father “was buried.” Like the two sons, the Pope said, we can choose to be either sinners on the journey, who continue to listen to the Father, and repent and rise when we fall; or to be seated sinners, hypocrites always ready to justify ourselves, and willing to do only what is convenient. Jesus, he continued, was very severe to the latter, saying that the public sinners would go before them into heaven. They were not wrong, he said, about how they thought about God and religion, but they were mistaken in how one must live the Christian life. He said they were inflexible guardians of human traditions, incapable of understanding that life according to God is a journey , and requires the humility to be open, to repent, and to begin anew. The key word here, Pope Francis said, is repentance , which allows us to not be rigid, to transform the “no” to God into a “yes,” the “no” of sin into the “yes” of love of God. Ultimately, he said, “in the life of each one of us there are two paths: to be penitent sinners or hypocritical sinners . The Word of God, then, penetrates into the heart of each one of us. But it is also a word that calls us back to a relationship, the relationship between the father and his sons. As in the family, so in society, and in the Church, there is a need for encounter. “Never reject encounter , dialogue,” the Pope said. “Never give up on seeking new paths to walk together.” Concluding his homily, Pope Francis offered three Italian “P’s” to help us see where we are headed as a Church: “Parola,” the Word, the compass that points out the way of humble journeying; “Pane,” Bread, the Bread of the Eucharist, which is the starting point of everything; and “poveri,” the poor, not only those who are poor in material terms, but even more, those who are spiritually impoverished. In all of these we find Jesus, because the Lord entered the world in poverty, through an emptying of Himself, as St Paul says. “It would do us good,” the Pope said, “to always remember” these three terms: “the Word,” “Bread,” and “the poor.” He concluded his homily with the prayer that we might never forget these three basic “foods,” that sustain us on our journey. (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) During his daylong visit on Sunday to Bologna in northern Italy, Pope Francis met priests, religious, seminarians and deacons in the city cathedral. He did not deliver a discourse but fielded two questions from them.
Priestly brotherhood
The diocesan priests asked the Pope how they could grow in evangelical brotherhood with their fellow priests. The Pope said they first need to have the sense of what he described as ‘ diocesanità ’ (Italian) or a sense of belonging to the body of priests along with their bishop. When a diocesan priest lacks this he becomes a loner and runs the risk of becoming ‘infertile’. In this regard, the Pope recalled the transparency of St. Paul who talked about things clearly without misleading and had the patience and tolerance for others.
Another trait of a diocesan priest is the figure of pastor among his people . Opposed to this, is the ‘ clerical pastor ’ like the Pharisees and Saducees of Jesus’time who live in their own world of theology, thoughts and dos and donts of the law. The Pope regretted that some priests transform their service into a syndicate office with rigid visiting hours.
Careerism and gossip
To help deepen their brotherhood with their fellow priests, Pope Francis particularly urged the diocesan priests to keep clear of two vices – careerism and gossip. He described priests who make a career of their priestly service a career, as ‘climbers’. He described gossip mongers as pests who create discord in the diocesan presbyterial community, defaming their brother priests.
Poverty
The Pope also received a question from religious men and women asking him how to live the religious life with joy and hope without falling into the trap of the ‘ psychology of survival ’. The Pope said that the this pessimistic syndrome seeks security in money , contrary to the spirit of poverty. Religious life, the Pope said, gets corrupt through money, and added that security in religious life does not come from vocations or money but from the ‘other side’. Poverty, according to St. Ignatius of Loyola, is a mother that gives life, and a wall that defends us from worldliness , the Pope said. The Holy Father also told the religious of the need to touch the wounds of Christ in the suffering body of His people.
(from Vatican Radio)…