Halloween party ideas 2015
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Monday, May 02, 2016
BERDOA BERSAMA MARIA DI TAHUN 2016

Gua Maria di Sri Ningsih, Klaten, Yogyakarta 2013


Bulan Mei datang lagi tahun ini. Kita berterima kasih pada Tuhan atas anugerah bulan khusus ini. Tuhan menginginkan agar kita berdoa pada-Nya bersama Maria, bunda kita. Gereja Katolik menyediakan kesempatan khusus ini.

Hari ini 1 Mei bertepatan dengan hari Minggu. Di seluruh dunia dirayakan perayaan hari pekerja, atau hari buruh. Berbagai jenis aksi untuk menandakan hari ini pun beragam. Ada yang berdemo, berpesta, bereflkesi, dan sebagainya. Dalam tradisi Gereja Katolik Roma, hari ini juga diperingati sebagai hari raya St Yosef, pelindung para pekerja. Tradisi Hari Buruh 1 Mei ini kiranya terkait dengan tradisi Gereja Katolik ini. Tentu dunia tidak tahu tentang ini. Hari Buruh 1 Mei memang lahir berkaitan dengan aksi buruh di beberapa tempat di seluruh dunia beberapa dekade silam. Biarlah tradisi Buruh yang diperingati 1 Mei saat ini terkait dengan aksi buruh 1 Mei beberapa dekade silam.

Tradisi Gereja Katolik mengingatkan bahwa mulai hari ini sampai akhir bulan nanti, umat Katolik berdoa bersama Bunda Maria. Kami di Parma pun sudah merencanakannya. Kami berdoa rosario setiap malam kecuali hari Minggu. Maka, doa rosario pun dimulai besok malam. Jadwalnya sama yakni pukul 20.45. pemimpin doa bergilir. Hari Selasa dan Jumat diberikan kepada para frater Teologan, hari Senin Kamis kepada para pastor di rumah induk, hari Rabu Sabtu diberikan kepada para pastor dari komunitas prokur. Ada perbedaan dengan tahun lalu yang mana, para Suster Xaverian juga ikut ambil bagian. Entah karena tahun ini ada halangan.

Tempatnya juga bervariasi. Biasanya di Santuario Conforti dan Gua Maria yang terletak di bagian belakang Rumah Induk Serikat Xaverian di kota Parma. Kalau suhunya dindin, kami berdoa di dalam ruangan yakni di Santuario Conforti. Kalau agak panas, kami berdoa di depan Gua Maria.

Seperti tahun-tahun sebelumnya, selalu ada umat dair luar yang ikut ambil bagian. Kebanyakan orang tua. Kakek dan nenek. Tetapi ada beberapa orang muda. Ada pasangan muda. Dengan kami, jumlah orang muda menjadi besar. Maka, dalam doa ini ada orang tua dan juga ada orang muda.

Doa rosario ini rupanya mengakar kuat dalam tradisi orang Italia. Selain didoakan pada bulan Mei dan Oktober, orang Italia juga mendaraskan doa ini untuk orang yang mati. Sehari sebelum dikuburkan atau sebelum misa requem, ada doa rosario. Bahkan, ada yang membuat 2-3 hari berturut-turut. Ini yang saya suka dari tradisi orang Italia.

Para pastor Xaverian juga rupanya kuat meneruskan tradisi ini. Tentu tidak semua. Tetapi beberapa yang saya lihat selalu rajin setiap hari. Biasanya setelah makan malam. Ada yang berdua-dua. Ada yang bersendiri. Dengan rosario di tangan, mereka berjalan mengitari kompleks rumah induk atau di sekitar Gua Maria. Saya kadang-kadang membuat doa ini di kamar atau juga sambil jalan-jalan sendiri mengitari rumah induk dan Gua Maria.

Doa ini mudah dan tidak tergesa-gesa. Maka, bersama Maria kita berdoa pada Tuhan. Maria selalu terbuka tangan dan hatinya untuk menerima kita. Bersama Maria kita berjalan menuju Yesus.

Selamat berdoa Rosario pada bulan Mei ini.

Parma, 2/5/2016

Gordi
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Monday, May 02, 2016
Se uno mi ama, osserverà la mia parola.
 
FOTO

Questa è la parola di Gesù. Sono due elementi collegati. Amore e osservare la sua parola. Quindi, tutte e due vanno d’accordo. Non esiste l’amore senza osservare la sua parola. Non esiste l’Osservazione della sua parola senza amare.

È un dono di Gesù a tutti noi di oggi. Possiamo dire che, dobbiamo ringraziarlo perché anche nel mondo oggi abbiamo bisogno di uno che grida, che insiste, che spinge su questo aspetto cioè l’amore. Ormai il mondo sta allontanando dall’amore. Sia l’amore verso gli altri che verso Dio.

L’amore è molto importante. Non esiste la vita senza amore. Vediamo nella famiglia. Senza amore che lega il papà e la mamma non esiste la famiglia. La famiglia deve fondare sull’amore. L’amore è il fondamento importante nella famiglia. Se non c’è amore, non c’è anche la vita gioia nella famiglia.

Grazie Gesù per l’amore che ci dai oggi attraverso la bella frase. Aiutaci a viverla nella vita quotidiana.


PRM, 1/5/2016
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Monday, May 02, 2016
Andata a piedi, tornata in macchina

FOTO

Che bello il giorno di oggi. Non è il giorno come stagione, come clima, ma come il giorno dell’apostolato. Ma, prima di tutto deve dire che anche il giorno come clima è bello. Una signora ci ha detto così quando ci siamo salutati vicino alla chiesa della sacre stimate. Lei ci diceva, che bella giornata, mentre camminava con l’ombrello in mano.

Sta mattina infatti era brutta giornata. È pioveva. Siamo andati a piedi con l’ombrello nelle mani. Siamo arrivati proprio nell’inizio della messa. Il mio amico Pacifique era in ritardo alla causa della ricerca dell’ombrello. Ha trovato in portineria un ombrello. Io, ho preparato già. Ho deciso di non andare in bici con questo giorno di pioggia.

Ma, grazie a Dio, quando siamo tornati, la nostra amica, ci ha offerto di dare un passaggio nella sua macchina. Siamo contenti. Quindi, siamo tornati con lei nella sua panda bianca. Grazie amica.

Proprio come grazie di Dio. Dio ci manda la grazia attraverso questa amica.

Buona domenica.

PRM, 1/5/2016



Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Sunday, May 01, 2016
REGINA CÆLI POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Fifth Sunday of Easter, 24 April 2016


At the end of this Jubilee celebration, my thought goes in a special way to you, dear boys and girls. You have come to Italy from different parts of the world to live a moment of faith and fraternal conviviality. Thank you for your joyful and enthusiastic witness. Go forth with courage!

Yesterday in Burgos, Spain, Fr Valentín Palencia Marquina and his four companion martyrs were declared Blessed. They were killed for their faith during the Spanish Civil War. Let us praise the Lord for their courageous witness, and let us pray for their intercession to free the world from all violence.
I am always deeply concerned for the brother bishops, priests and religious, both Catholic and Orthodox, who have long been sequestered in Syria. May Merciful God touch the hearts of their abductors and allow our brothers and sisters to be set free and to return to their communities as soon as possible. For this I invite you all to pray, without forgetting other abductees in the world.
Let us entrust all our hopes and aspirations to the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy.

[After the blessing:]
Dear young people, you have celebrated the Jubilee: now return home with the joy of your Christian identity. On your feet with your heads held high, and with your identity card in your hands and in your hearts. May the Lord accompany you. And please, pray for me too. Thank you.
© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Sunday, April 24, 2016
REGINA CÆLI POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Fourth Sunday of Easter, 17 April 2016


Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
Today’s Gospel (Jn 10:27-30) offers us some of Jesus’ expressions during the feast of the dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem, which is celebrated at the end of December. He is found on the Temple grounds, and perhaps that enclosed sacred space suggested to Him the image of the sheepfold and the shepherd. Jesus is presented as “the Good Shepherd”, and says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand” (vv. 27-28). These words help us to understand that no one can call himself a follower of Jesus, if he does not listen to His voice. And this “listening” should not be understood in a superficial way, but in an engaging way, to the point of making possible a true mutual understanding, from which one can come to a generous following, expressed in the words, ‘and they follow me’ (v. 27). It is a matter of listening not only with ears, but listening with the heart!

And so, the image of the shepherd and the sheep indicates the close relationship that Jesus wants to establish with each one of us. He is our guide, our teacher, our friend, our model, but above all he is our Saviour. In fact, the following expressions from the Gospel passage affirm, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand” (v. 28). Who can say that? Only Jesus, because the “hand” of Jesus is one thing with the “hand” of the Father, and the Father is “greater than all” (cf. v. 29).

These words communicate to us a sense of absolute security and immense tenderness. Our life is fully secure in the hands of Jesus and the Father, which are a single thing: a unique love, a unique mercy, revealed once and for all in the sacrifice of the Cross. To save the lost sheep which we all are, the Shepherd became lamb, and let himself be immolated so as to take upon himself and to take away the sin of the world. In this way he has given us life, life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10)! This mystery is renewed, in an always surprising humility, on the Eucharistic table. It is there that the sheep gather to nourish themselves; it is there that they become one, among themselves and with the Good Shepherd.

Because of this we are no longer afraid: our life is now saved from perdition. Nothing and no one can take us from the hands of Jesus, because nothing and no one can overcome his love. Jesus’ love is invincible. The evil one, the great enemy of God and of his creatures, attempts in many ways to take eternal life from us. But the evil one can do nothing if we ourselves do not open the doors of our hearts to him, by following his deceitful enticements.

The Virgin Mary heard and obediently followed the voice of the Good Shepherd. May she help us to welcome with joy Jesus’ invitation to become his disciples, and to always live in the certainty of being in the paternal hands of the Father.

After the Regina Caeli:
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank those who accompanied in prayer the visit that I made yesterday to the island of Lesvos, Greece. I brought the Church’s solidarity to the refugees and to the people of Greece. With me were Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, signifying unity in the charity of all the Lord’s disciples. We visited the camps of refugees who have come from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Africa, from many countries… We greeted approximately 300 of these refugees, one by one, all three of us: Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop Ieronymos and myself. Many of them were children, some of them — these children — witnessed the death of their parents, companions, some of whom had drowned in the sea. They have seen so much pain! And I want to speak of a special individual: a man, not 40 years of age. I met him yesterday with his two children. He is Muslim and was married to a young Christian woman. They loved and respected each other. However unfortunately the young woman was beheaded by terrorists because she did not want to renounce Christ and abandon her faith. She is a martyr! And this man wept so much....

Last night a violent earthquake struck Ecuador, causing many deaths and extensive damage. Let us pray for these people and also for Japan where there have been several earthquakes in recent days. May the aid of God and of brothers give them strength and support.

Today is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. We are invited to pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. This morning I ordained 11 new priests. I renew my greeting to the newly ordained priests, to their families and friends; and I invite all priests and seminarians to participate in their Jubilee, in the first three days of June. Think, dear young people, boys and girls, in the Square, about whether the Lord is calling you to consecrate your life to his service through the priesthood or consecrated life.

I wish everyone a happy Sunday. Please do not forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch. Arrivederci!

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Sunday, April 24, 2016
ASCOLTA IL TUO CUORE


Ehi adesso come stai? 
Tradita da una storia finita 
E di fronte a te l'ennesima salita. 
Un po' ti senti sola, 
Nessuno che ti possa ascoltare, 
Che divida con te i tuoi guai. 
Mai! tu non molare mai! 

Rimani come sei, 
Insegui il tuo destino, 
Perché tutto il dolore che hai dentro 
Non potrà mai cancellare il tuo cammino 
E allora scoprirai 
Che la storia di ogni nostro minuto 
Appartiene soltanto a noi. 
Ma se ancora resterai, 
Persa senza una ragione 
In un mare di perché 

Dentro te ascolta il tuo cuore 
E nel silenzio troverai le parole. 
Chiudi gli occhi e poi tu lasciati andare, 
Prova a arrivare dentro il pianeta del cuore 

È difficile capire 
Qual è la cosa giusta da fare 
Se ti batte nella testa un'emozione. 
L'orgoglio che ti piglia, 
Le notti in cui il rimorso ti sveglia 
Per la paura di sbagliare, 
Ma se ti ritroverai 
Senza stelle da seguire 
Tu non rinunciare mai 

Credi in te! Ascolta il tuo cuore! 
Fai quel che dice anche se fa soffrire. 
Chiudi gli occhi e poi tu lasciati andare, 
Prova a volare oltre questo dolore. 

Non ti ingannerai 
Se ascolti il tuo cuore, 
Apri le braccia fino quasi a toccare 
Ogni mano, ogni speranza, ogni 
sogno che vuoi 
Perché poi ti porterà fino al cuore 
di ognuno di noi. 

Ogni volta, che non sai cosa fare, 
Prova a volare, dentro il pianeta del cuore. 

Tu tu prova a volare 
Do do do dov'è il pianeta del cuore. 

Tu tu tu dentro il pianeta del cuore 
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Sunday, April 17, 2016
REGINA CÆLI POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Third Sunday of Easter, 10 April 2016


Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
Today’s Gospel recounts the third apparition of the Risen Jesus to the disciples, with the account of the miraculous catch on the shore of the lake of Galilee (cf. Jn 21:1-19). The narrative is situated in the context of the everyday life of the disciples, who returned to their land and to their work as fishermen, after the shocking days of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. It was difficult for them to understand what had taken place. Even though everything seemed finished, Jesus “seeks” his disciples once more. It is He who goes to seek them. This time he meets them at the lake, where they have spent the night in their boats catching nothing. The nets appear empty, in a certain sense, like the tally of their experience with Jesus: they met him, they left everything to follow him, full of hope... and now? Yes, they saw he was risen, but then they were thought: “He went away and left us.... It was like a dream...”.

So it is that at sunrise Jesus presents himself on the lakeshore; however they do not recognize him (cf. v. 4). The Lord says to those tired and disappointed fishermen: “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some” (v. 6). The disciples trust in Jesus and the result is an incredibly abundant catch. At this point John turns to Peter and says: “It is the Lord!” (v. 7). Right away Peter throws himself into the water and swims to the shore, toward Jesus. In that exclamation: “It is the Lord!”, there is all the enthusiasm of the Paschal faith, full of joy and wonder, which sharply contrasts with the disappearance, the dejection, the sense of powerlessness that had accumulated in the disciples’ hearts. The presence of the Risen Jesus transforms everything: darkness has become light, futile work has again become fruitful and promising, the sense of weariness and abandonment give way to a new impetus and to the certainty that He is with us.

From that time, these same sentiments enliven the Church, the Community of the Risen One. All of us are the community of the Risen One! At first glance it might sometimes seem that the darkness of evil and the toil of daily living have got the upper hand, the Church knows with certainty that the now everlasting light of Easter shines upon those who follow the Lord Jesus. The great message of the Resurrection instills in the hearts of believers profound joy and invincible hope. Christ is truly risen! Today too, the Church continues to make this joyous message resound: joy and hope continue to flow in hearts, in faces, in gestures, in words. We Christians are all called to communicate this message of resurrection to those we meet, especially to those who suffer, to those who are alone, to those who find themselves in precarious conditions, to the sick, to refugees, to the marginalized. Let us make a ray of the light of the Risen Christ, a sign of his powerful mercy, reach everyone.

May he, the Lord, also renew in us the Paschal faith. May he render us ever more aware of our mission at the service of the Gospel and of our brothers and sisters; may he fill us with his Holy Spirit so that, sustained by the intercession of Mary, with all the Church we may proclaim the greatness of his love and the abundance of his mercy.

After the Regina Caeli:
Dear brothers and sisters, in the hope given to us by the Risen Christ, I renew my appeal for the liberation of all people who have been seized in areas of armed conflict; in particular I would like to remember the Salesian priest Tom Uzhunnalil, abducted in Aden, Yemen on 4 March.

I greet you all, people of Rome and pilgrims from Italy and from various parts of the world.

I thank the parish choirs for their presence; some of them have lent their service in recent days in St Peter’s Basilica. Thank you very much! I wish everyone a happy Sunday. Please do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch. Arrivederci!

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Sunday, April 17, 2016
EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY
JUBILEE AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Saturday, 9 April 2016

Mercy and almsgiving

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning,
The Gospel passage we have heard allows us to discover an essential aspect of mercy: almsgiving. It might seem simple to give alms, but we must be careful not to empty this gesture of its importance. Indeed, the term “alms”, derives from the Greek and actually means “mercy”. Therefore, almsgiving must carry with it all the richness of mercy. And as mercy has a thousand paths, a thousand ways, thus almsgiving is expressed in many ways, in order to alleviate the hardship of those who are in need.

The duty to give alms is as ancient as the Bible. Sacrifice and almsgiving were two duties that a devout person had to comply with. There are two important passages in the Old Testament where God demands special attention for the poor, who at times are destitute, strangers, orphans and widows. In the Bible this continuous refrain — the needy, the widow, the stranger, the sojourner, the orphan — is recurrent. Because God wants his people to watch over these brothers and sisters of ours; moreover, I would say that they are at the very centre of the message: to praise God through sacrifice and to praise God through almsgiving.




Along with the obligation to remember them, a precious direction is also given: “you shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him” (Dt 15:10). This means, first of all, that charity requires an attitude of inner joy. Offering mercy cannot be a burden or an annoyance from which to free ourselves in haste. How many people justify their not giving alms by saying: “What kind of person is this? If I give him something perhaps he will go buy wine to get drunk”. If he gets drunk, it is because he sees no alternatives! And you, what do you do in secret, that no one sees? Yet you judge that poor man who asks you for a coin for a glass of wine? I like to recall the episode of the elderly Tobit who, after receiving a large sum of money, called his son and instructed him, saying: “Give alms... to all who live uprightly [...]. Do not turn your face away from any poor man, and the face of God will not be turned away from you” (Tob 4:7-8). These are very wise words that help us understand the value of almsgiving.

Jesus, as we heard, gave us an irreplaceable lesson in this regard. In the first place, he asks us not to give alms in order to be praised and admired by people for our generosity: do so in such a way that your right hand does not know what your left hand is doing (cf. Mt 6:3). It is not appearances that count, but the capacity to stop in order to look in the face of that person asking for help. We can each ask ourselves: “Am I able to stop and look in the face, in the eye of that person who is asking me? Am I able?”. Thus, we must not identify almsgiving with the simple coin offered in haste, without looking at the person and without stopping to talk so as to understand what he or she truly needs. At the same time, we must distinguish between the poor and the various forms of begging that do not render a good service to the truly poor. Thus, almsgiving is a gesture of love that is directed at those we meet: it is a gesture of sincere attention to those who approach us and ask for our help, done in secret where God alone sees and understands the value of the act performed.

Giving alms must be for us too something that is a sacrifice. I remember a mother: she had three children, six, five and three years old, more or less. She always taught her children that one should give alms to the people who ask for it. They were at lunch: each one was eating a Milanese cutlet, as we say in my land, “breaded”. There was a knock at the door. The oldest went to open the door and returned: “Mamma, there’s a poor person asking for something to eat”. — “What should we do?”, the mother asked. “Let’s give him something”, they all said, “let’s give something to him!”. — “Okay: take half of your cutlet, you the other half, you the other half, and we’ll make two sandwiches” — “Ah, no, mamma, no!” — “No? You give him some of yours, give something that costs you”. This is involving yourself with the poor person. I deprive myself of something of my own in order to give it to you. I say to parents: raise your children to give alms in this way, to be generous with what they have.

Thus, let us make the words of the Apostle Paul our own: “In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, who said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35; cf. 2 Cor 9:7). Thank you!

Special greetings:
In this Jubilee Year, let us ask for the grace to focus a more attentive look of love on the people we help, to stop beside them, and in this way we will discover that there is more joy in giving than in receiving.

I greet the English-speaking visitors attending today’s Audience, particularly the pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Dublin. In the joy of the Risen Lord, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all!

I greet the young people, the sick and the newlyweds. May this Holy Year be lived with special intensity. Dear young people, especially you young people from the Profession of Faith of the Diocese of Tivoli, may you always be faithful to your Baptism with a consistent testimony of life; dear sick people, in particular the members of UNITALSI from Lombardy and from Campania, may the light of Easter illuminate you and comfort you in your suffering; and you, dear newlyweds, may you draw from the Paschal Mystery the courage to be leaders in the Church and in society, contributing to the construction of the culture of love.

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Sunday, April 10, 2016
REGINA CÆLI POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Second Sunday of Easter (or Divine Mercy Sunday), 3 April 2016



On this day, which is like the heart of the Holy Year of Mercy, my thought goes to all the populations who thirst for reconciliation and peace. I think in particular, here in Europe, of the tragedy of those who are suffering the consequences of violence in Ukraine: of those who remain in lands shocked by the hostilities which have already caused thousands of deaths, and of those — over a million — forced to flee from the grave situation which is ongoing. It involves above all elderly people and children. Besides accompanying them with my constant thoughts and with my prayers, I have decided to promote humanitarian support in their favour. For this purpose, a special collection will be taken up in all Catholic Churches in Europe on Sunday, 24 April. I invite the faithful to join in this initiative with a generous contribution. This act of charity, in addition to alleviating material suffering, seeks to express my personal closeness and solidarity and that of the entire Church. I sincerely hope that it may help to promote, without further delay, peace and respect for law in that land so afflicted.

As we pray for peace, let us remember that tomorrow is the International Day of Mine Awareness. Too many people continue to be killed or maimed by these terrible weapons, and brave men and women risk their lives clearing minefields. Let us please renew the commitment for a world without mines!

Lastly, I greet all of you who have taken part in this celebration, in particular the groups who cultivate the spirituality of Divine Mercy.

Let all of us together turn to Our Mother in prayer.


© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Monday, April 04, 2016
REGINA CÆLI POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Easter Monday, 28 March 2016


Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good Morning!
On this Monday after Easter, called “Monday of the Angel” our hearts are again filled with the joy of Easter. After the Lenten season, the time of penance and conversion, which the Church has lived with particular intensity during this Holy Year of Mercy; after the striking celebrations of the Holy Triduum; today too, we stand before Jesus’ empty tomb, and we meditate with wonder and gratitude on the Resurrection of the Lord.

Life has conquered death. Mercy and Love have conquered sin! We need faith and hope in order to open ourselves to this new and marvellous horizon. And we know that faith and hope are gifts from God, and we need to ask for them: “Lord, grant me faith, grant me hope! I need them so much!”. Let us be permeated by the emotions that resound in the Easter sequence: “Yes, we are sure of it: Christ indeed from death is risen”. The Lord has risen among us! This truth indelibly marked the lives of the Apostles who, after the Resurrection, again sensed the need to follow their Teacher and, having received the Holy Spirit, set out fearlessly to proclaim to all what they had seen with their own eyes and personally experienced.

In this Jubilee Year we are called to rediscover and to receive with particular intensity the comforting news of the Resurrection: “Christ my hope is arisen!”. Since Christ is resurrected, we can look with new eyes and a new heart at every event of our lives, even the most negative ones. Moments of darkness, of failure and even sin can be transformed and announce the beginning of a new path. When we have reached the lowest point of our misery and our weakness, the Risen Christ gives us the strength to rise again. If we entrust ourselves to him, his grace saves us! The Lord, Crucified and Risen, is the full revelation of mercy, present and working throughout history. This is the Paschal message that resounds again today and will resound for the whole Easter Season until Pentecost.

The silent witness to the events of Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection was Mary. She stood beside the Cross: she did not fold in the face of pain; her faith made her strong. In the broken heart of the Mother, the flame of hope was kept ever burning. Let us ask her to help us too to fully accept the Easter proclamation of the Resurrection, so as to embody it in the concreteness of our daily lives.

May the Virgin Mary give us the faithful certitude that every step suffered on our journey, illuminated by the light of Easter, will become a blessing and a joy for us and for others, especially for those suffering because of selfishness and indifference.

Let us invoke her, therefore, with faith and devotion, in the Regina Caeli, the prayer that substitutes the Angelus during the Easter tide.

After the Regina Caeli:
Dear brothers and sisters, yesterday, in central Pakistan, Holy Easter was bloodied by an abominable attack, that caused the slaughter of many innocent people, for the most part families of the Christian minority — especially women and children — gathered in a public park to celebrate in the joy of the Easter festivities. I wish to express my closeness to all those affected by this cowardly and senseless crime, and I ask you to pray to the Lord for the numerous victims and their loved ones. I appeal to the civil authorities and to all members of the society [of Pakistan] to do everything possible to restore security and peace to the population and, in particular, to the most vulnerable religious minorities. I repeat, once again, that violence and murderous hatred lead only to pain and destruction; respect and fraternity are the only way to achieve peace. May the Lord’s Paschal Mystery inspire in us, in an even more powerful way, prayers to God to stop the hands of the violent, who spread terror and death; and may love, justice and reconciliation reign in the world. Let us all pray for those who died in this attack, for their families, for Christian and ethnic minorities in that nation. Hail Mary....

In the continuing atmosphere of Easter, I cordially greet you all, pilgrims coming from Italy and other parts of the world to take part in this moment of prayer. And always remember that beautiful expression from the Liturgy: “Christ my hope is arisen!”. Let us say it three times together. Christ my hope is arisen!
I hope that each of you is joyfully and peacefully living this Week in which the joy of Christ’s Resurrection continues. In order to live this period more intensely it would do us good every day to read a passage from the Gospel which speaks of the Resurrection. You can read a Gospel passage in five minutes, no more. Remember this!

A happy and holy Easter to you all! Please, don’t forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch. Arrivederci!

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Sunday, March 27, 2016
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
CELEBRATION OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD
Saint Peter's Square
XXXI World Youth Day
Sunday, 20 March 2016



“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (cf. Lk 19:38), the crowd of Jerusalem exclaimed joyfully as they welcomed Jesus. We have made that enthusiasm our own: by waving our olive and palm branches we have expressed our praise and our joy, our desire to receive Jesus who comes to us. Just as he entered Jerusalem, so he desires to enter our cities and our lives. As he did in the Gospel, riding on a donkey, so too he comes to us in humility; he comes “in the name of the Lord”. Through the power of his divine love he forgives our sins and reconciles us to the Father and with ourselves.

Jesus is pleased with the crowd’s showing their affection for him. When the Pharisees ask him to silence the children and the others who are acclaiming him, he responds: “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Lk 19:40). Nothing could dampen their enthusiasm for Jesus’ entry. May nothing prevent us from finding in him the source of our joy, true joy, which abides and brings peace; for it is Jesus alone who saves us from the snares of sin, death, fear and sadness.

Today’s liturgy teaches us that the Lord has not saved us by his triumphal entry or by means of powerful miracles. The Apostle Paul, in the second reading, epitomizes in two verbs the path of redemption: Jesus “emptied” and “humbled” himself (Phil 2:7-8). These two verbs show the boundlessness of God’s love for us. Jesus emptied himself: he did not cling to the glory that was his as the Son of God, but became the Son of man in order to be in solidarity with us sinners in all things; yet he was without sin. Even more, he lived among us in “the condition of a servant” (v. 7); not of a king or a prince, but of a servant. Therefore he humbled himself, and the abyss of his humiliation, as Holy Week shows us, seems to be bottomless.

The first sign of this love “without end” (Jn 13:1) is the washing of the feet. “The Lord and Master” (Jn 13:14) stoops to his disciples’ feet, as only servants would have done. He shows us by example that we need to allow his love to reach us, a love which bends down to us; we cannot do any less, we cannot love without letting ourselves be loved by him first, without experiencing his surprising tenderness and without accepting that true love consists in concrete service.

But this is only the beginning. The humiliation of Jesus reaches its utmost in the Passion: he is sold for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed by the kiss of a disciple whom he had chosen and called his friend. Nearly all the others flee and abandon him; Peter denies him three times in the courtyard of the temple. Humiliated in his spirit by mockery, insults and spitting, he suffers in his body terrible brutality: the blows, the scourging and the crown of thorns make his face unrecognizable. He also experiences shame and disgraceful condemnation by religious and political authorities: he is made into sin and considered to be unjust. Pilate then sends him to Herod, who in turn sends him to the Roman governor. Even as every form of justice is denied to him, Jesus also experiences in his own flesh indifference, since no one wishes to take responsibility for his fate. And I think of the many people, so many outcasts, so many asylum seekers, so many refugees, all of those for whose fate no one wishes to take responsibility. The crowd, who just a little earlier had acclaimed him, now changes their praise into a cry of accusation, even to the point of preferring that a murderer be released in his place. And so the hour of death on the cross arrives, that most painful form of shame reserved for traitors, slaves and the worst kind of criminals. But isolation, defamation and pain are not yet the full extent of his deprivation. To be totally in solidarity with us, he also experiences on the Cross the mysterious abandonment of the Father. In his abandonment, however, he prays and entrusts himself: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46). Hanging from the wood of the cross, beside derision he now confronts the last temptation: to come down from the Cross, to conquer evil by might and to show the face of a powerful and invincible God. Jesus, however, even here at the height of his annihilation, reveals the true face of God, which is mercy. He forgives those who are crucifying him, he opens the gates of paradise to the repentant thief and he touches the heart of the centurion. If the mystery of evil is unfathomable, then the reality of Love poured out through him is infinite, reaching even to the tomb and to hell. He takes upon himself all our pain that he may redeem it, bringing light to darkness, life to death, love to hatred.

God’s way of acting may seem so far removed from our own, that he was annihilated for our sake, while it seems difficult for us to even forget ourselves a little. He comes to save us; we are called to choose his way: the way of service, of giving, of forgetfulness of ourselves. Let us walk this path, pausing in these days to gaze upon the Crucifix; it is the “royal seat of God”. I invite you during this week to gaze often upon this “royal seat of God”, to learn about the humble love which saves and gives life, so that we may give up all selfishness, and the seeking of power and fame. By humbling himself, Jesus invites us to walk on his path. Let us turn our faces to him, let us ask for the grace to understand at least something of the mystery of his obliteration for our sake; and then, in silence, let us contemplate the mystery of this Week.
© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Sunday, March 27, 2016
ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Palm Sunday, 20 March 2016
 
PHOTO: GETTYIMAGES.IT

I greet all of you who have taken part in this celebration and those who have joined us by television, radio and other means of communication.

Today we are celebrating the 31st World Youth Day, which will culminate at the end of July with the great World Meeting in Krakow. The theme is “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7). My special greeting goes to all the young people present, and to all the young people of the world. I hope that you will be able to come in great numbers to Krakow, the homeland of St John Paul ii, the author of the World Youth Days. Let us entrust to his intercession the remaining months of preparation for this pilgrimage which, within the context of the Holy Year of Mercy, will be the Jubilee of Young People at the universal level of the Church.

Many young volunteers from Krakow are here with us. On returning to Poland, they will take to their nation’s leaders the olive branches gathered in Jerusalem, Assisi and Montecassino and blessed today in this Square, as an invitation to cultivate initiatives for peace, reconciliation and fraternity. Thank you for this beautiful initiative; go forth with courage! Now let us pray to the Virgin Mary, that she help us to live Holy Week with spiritual intensity.
[Angelus Domini...].

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Donna peccatrice e Gesù
 
FOTO: qui
Bellissimo questo brano di Giov 8, 1-8 che abbiamo letto nella quinta domenica di quaresima. Il brano ci mostra l’amore di Gesù verso i poveri dello spirito. Gesù è sempre nella parte dei deboli. Donna peccatrice davanti gli uomini che vogliono lapidarla a causa del suo peccatto. La risposta di Gesù è un atteggiamento importante verso di noi stessi. Chi non ha peccato tra di noi? Tutti abbiamo. Chi non ha, diceva Gesù, sarà per prima a lapidarla. Ma nessuno. È perchè abbiamo tutti peccati.

Padre attraverso Gesù ci mostra l’amore di Dio verso tutti noi. Dio non vede i nostri peccatti per amarci. Lui stesso che per prima ad amarci. È un invito per noi di trasmettere il suo amore verso gli altri perchè Lui che amarci per prima.


Buona domenica.
Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL © 2010. All Rights Reserved. "FROM INDONESIA TO THE WORLD, ADESSO SONO IN THAILANDIA"
Powered by Blogger
Powered by Blogger.