(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said on Wednesday the experience of the Magi urges us not to settle for mediocrity and not to scrape a living but instead examine with passion the great mystery of life. He also said the Magi teach us to recognize the majesty in humility and learn how to knee in front of it. The Pope’s comments came during his Angelus address to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on the feast of the Epiphany.
Pope Francis said the gospel account of the Magi who came from afar to worship the Baby Jesus gives “an air of universality” to the feast of the Epiphany. He said “the Church has always seen in herself the image of all humanity” and through this feast wishes, as it were, “to guide, with respect, every man and woman of this world towards the Child Jesus who was born to save us all.”
The Pope explained that both the Magi and the shepherds who came to pay homage to the Christ Child teach us that in order to meet Jesus “we need to raise our eyes towards the sky and not be bent over ourselves” but instead have our “hearts and our minds open to the horizon of God.”
Just as the Magi experienced a great joy when seeing the star in the sky, it is also a great consolation for us, said the Pope, to feel we are “being guided and not abandoned to our own destinies.” The experience of the Magi, he continued, “is an appeal for us not to settle for mediocrity and not to scrape a living” but instead “seek the sense of things” and “to examine with passion the great mystery of life.” Pope Francis said it also teaches us “to not to be scandalized by the smallness and poverty” but “to recognize the majesty in humility and learn how to knee in front of it.”
In further remarks after the recitation of the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis expressed his “spiritual closeness” to our “brothers and sisters of the Christian Orient,” Catholics and Orthodox many of whom celebrate Christmas on January 7th, saying he wished them peace and happiness.
The Pope noted that the Epiphany is also the Church’s World Day of Missionary Childhood and explained that this is the feast day for “children who with their prayers and sacrifice” help their more needy peers by becoming “missionaries and witnesses of brotherhood and sharing.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In his homily at Mass celebrating the solemnity of the Epiphany, Pope Francis said the Church is called to be a missionary Church and announcing Christ is not a profession and nor is it about proselytism. He said the Church cannot delude herself that she shines with her own light but instead draws her brightness from the light of Christ.
Please find below a translation in English of Pope Francis’ prepared remarks for his homily at the Mass in St Peter’s Basilica celebrating the solemnity of the Epiphany:
The words of the Prophet Isaiah – addressed to the Holy City of Jerusalem – are also meant for us. They call us to go forth, to leave behind all that keeps us self-enclosed, to go out from ourselves and to recognize the splendour of the light which illumines our lives: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (60:1). That “light” is the glory of the Lord. The Church cannot delude herself into thinking that she shines with her own light. Saint Ambrose expresses this nicely by presenting the moon as a metaphor for the Church: “The moon is in fact the Church… [she] shines not with her own light, but with the light of Christ. She draws her brightness from the Sun of Justice, and so she can say: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’” (Hexaemeron, IV, 8, 32). Christ is the true light shining in the darkness. To the extent that the Church remains anchored in him, to the extent that she lets herself be illumined by him, she is able to bring light into the lives of individuals and peoples. For this reason the Fathers of the Church saw in her the mysterium lunae.
We need this light from on high if we are to respond in a way worthy of the vocation we have received. To proclaim the Gospel of Christ is not simply one option among many, nor is it a profession. For the Church, to be missionary does not mean to proselytize: for the Church to be missionary means to give expression to her very nature, which is to receive God’s light and then to reflect it. There is no other way. Mission is her vocation. How many people look to us for this missionary commitment, because they need Christ. They need to know the face of the Father.
The Magi mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew are a living witness to the fact that the seeds of truth are present everywhere, for they are the gift of the Creator, who calls all people to acknowledge him as good and faithful Father. The Magi represent the men and woman throughout the world who are welcomed into the house of God. Before Jesus, all divisions of race, language and culture disappear: in that Child, all humanity discovers its unity. The Church has the task of seeing and showing ever more clearly the desire for God which is present in the heart of every man and woman. Like the Magi, countless people, in our own day, have a “restless heart” which continues to seek without finding sure answers. They too are looking for a star to show them the path to Bethlehem.
How many stars there are in the sky! And yet the Magi followed a new and different star, which for them shone all the more brightly. They had long peered into the great book of the heavens, seeking an answer to their questions, and at long last the light appeared. That star changed them. It made them leave their daily concerns behind and set out immediately on a journey. They listened to a voice deep within, which led them to follow that light. The star guided them, until they found the King of the Jews in a humble dwelling in Bethlehem.
All this has something to say to us today. We do well to repeat the question asked by the Magi: “Where is the child who has been born the King of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage” (Mt 2:2). We are impelled, especially in an age like our own, to seek the signs which God offers us, realizing that great effort is needed to interpret them and thus to understand his will. We are challenged to go to Bethlehem, to find the Child and his Mother. Let us follow the light which God offers us! The light which streams from the face of Christ, full of mercy and fidelity. And once we have found him, let us worship him with all our heart, and present him with our gifts: our freedom, our understanding and our love. Let us recognize that true wisdom lies concealed in the face of this Child. It is here, in the simplicity of Bethlehem, that the life of the Church is summed up. For here is the wellspring of that light which draws to itself every individual and guides the journey of the peoples along the path of peace.
(from Vatican Radio)…
From Wednesday January 6th, the traditional monthly prayer intentions of Pope Francis will be available on video, thanks to a new initiative launched by the worldwide Apostleship of Prayer.
Listen to our report:
This month the Apostleship of Prayer, set up in 1844 by a group of Jesuit seminarians in France, is also launching a new international website and app aimed at facilitating collaboration and sharing of resources between teams from the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
Click To Pray is an App launched in November 2014 by the Apostleship of Prayer in Portugal to help young people to pray. In August 2015, the app was presented to Pope Francis during a private audience and the latest version will go live in January in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
The production of a video with Pope Francis sharing his monthly prayer intentions has been been managed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Centre. The video, in 10 langauges, will be available on YouTube as well as on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, encouraging people all over the world to pray with the Pope each month.
The first video will feature the Pope’s prayer intention for January: “That sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Pope Francis made a private visit to the Italian hilltown of Greccio in the Lazio region north of Rome on Monday afternoon, where he met with the local Franciscan community.
The town is well known as the place where, in December 1223, St. Francis set up the first crib scene, using local animals and a carved image of the Christ Child in a manger to recreate the events of Our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem.
The tradition continues in the same hillside cave which has become a popular local shrine, and visitors can also see the monastic cell in the nearby convent where St Francis slept.
During the brief visit Pope Francis spent a few moments in silent prayer at the shrine, visited the adjacent Church and had lunch with the local bishop Domenico Pompili. He also greeted a group of some 70 young people who were taking part in a pilgrimage to Greccio.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) At St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis lead the faithful in the recitation of the Angelus on the first Sunday of the new year. Speaking on the day’s Gospel, the Holy Father noted the dramatic contrast between God’s gift of love in the Incarnation, and man’s failure to receive Him. The solemn opening of John’s Gospel, which was already proclaimed on Christmas day and which is read again on this Sunday, “is the invitation of Holy Mother Church to welcome this Word of salvation, this mystery of light,” the Pope said. If we welcome Jesus into our hearts, he continued, “we will grow in understanding and in the love of the Lord, we will learn to be merciful as He is. Especially in this Holy Year of Mercy, let us make sure that the Gospel becomes ever more incarnate in our own lives too.”
Following the recitation of the Marian prayer, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims from Rome and around the world. Once again, he encouraged people to read a passage from the Gospel every day in order “to know Jesus better, and to open our hearts to Jesus.”
Below, please find the full text of Pope Francis’ address for the Sunday’s Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
The liturgy of today, the second Sunday after Christmas, presents to us the Prologue of the Gospel of Saint John, in which is proclaimed that “the Word” – that is, the creative Word of God – “was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). That Word, which dwells in heaven, that is, in the dimension of God, came to earth so that we might listen and be able to know and touch with our hand the love of the Father. The Word of God is Himself the Only-begotten Son, made man, full of love and of faithfulness (cfr. Jn 1:14), Jesus Himself.
The Evangelist does not hide the dramatic nature of the Incarnation of the Son of God, emphasizing that the gift of the love of God is matched with the non-reception on the part of men. The Word is the light, and yet men have preferred the darkness; the Word came unto His own, but they did not receive Him (cfr. vv. 9-10); they closed the door in the face of the Son of God. It is the mystery of evil that insinuates [itself] into our lives, too, and that demands vigilance and care on our part so that it will not prevail. The book of Genesis says – in a good phrase that makes us understand this – it says that evil “lies in wait at our door” (cfr. Gn 4:7). Woe to us if we allow it to enter; it would then close our door to anyone else. Instead we are called to throw open the door of our heart to the Word of God, to Jesus, in order thus to become His children.
This solemn beginning of the Gospel was already proclaimed on Christmas today; today it is proposed to us once more. It is the invitation of Holy Mother Church to welcome this Word of salvation, this mystery of light. If we welcome Him, if we welcome Jesus, we will grow in understanding and in the love of the Lord, we will learn to be merciful as He is. Especially in this Holy Year of Mercy, let us make sure that the Gospel becomes ever more incarnate in our own lives too. Drawing near to the Gospel, meditating on it and incarnating it in daily life is the best way to understand Jesus and bring Him to others. This is the vocation and the joy of every baptized person: showing Jesus and giving Him to others; but to do that we have to know Him and have Him within us, as the Lord of our life. And He will defend us from evil, from the devil. He is always lying in wait by our door, and wants to enter.
With a renewed burst of filial abandonment, let us entrust ourselves once again to Mary: Let us contemplate the sweet image of the mother of Jesus and our mother in these days of the manger.
(from Vatican Radio)…