Pope Francis!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I thought it would be awesome to share the words of our new and awesome Pope!!

Click here to see  the Excitement before the Angelus!

Pope Francis: First Angelus Message - On Forgiveness


VATICAN CITY, March 17, 2013 (Zenit.org) -

Here is the translation of Pope Francis' Angelus address given today at St. Peter's Square. * * * Brothers and sisters, hello! After the first meeting last Wednesday, today I can again offer my greeting to everyone! And I am glad to do it on Sunday, the Lords day! This is beautiful and important for us Christians: coming together on Sunday, greeting each other, talking with each other like we are doing now here in the piazza; a piazza that, thanks to the media, has the dimensions of the world. On this fifth Sunday of Lent, the Gospel presents us with the episode of the adulterous woman (cf. John 8:1-11), who Jesus saves from the death sentence. Jesus attitude is striking: we do not hear words of scorn, we do not hear words of condemnation, but only words of love, of mercy, that invite us to conversion. Neither do I condemn you: go and sin no more! (8:11). Well, brothers and sisters, the face of God is that of a merciful father, who always has patience. Have you thought about Gods patience, the patience that he has for each of us? That is his mercy. He always has patience, patience with us, he understands us, he waits for us, he does not weary of forgiving us if we know how to return to him with a contrite heart. Great is the mercy of the Lord, the Psalm says.

 These last several days I have been able to read a book by a cardinal Cardinal Kasper, a smart theologian, a good theologian on mercy. And it did me much good that book, but dont think that I am advertising the books of my cardinals! It is not that way! But it did me much good, much good... Cardinal Kasper said that hearing the word mercy, this word changes everything. It is the best word we can hear: it changes the world. A little mercy makes the world less cold and more just. We need to rightly understand this mercy of God, this merciful Father, who has a lot of patience ... Let us remember the prophet Isaiah, who says that even if our sins are bright red, Gods mercy can make them white as snow. Mercy is beautiful! I remember, when I had just become a bishop, in the year 1992, Our Lady of Fatima had just arrived in Buenos Aires and there was a big Mass for the sick. I went to hear confessions at that Mass. And near the end of the Mass I got up, because I had to administer holy oil. An old lady came to me, a humble lady, very humble, over 80 years old/ I looked at her and I said to her: Grandma, because in our country this is what we call old people: Grandma do you want to go to confession? Yes, she said to me. But if you havent sinned..., [I said]. And she said to me: We have all sinned... . But maybe the Lord does not forgive them... [I replied]. The Lord forgives everything, she told me, certain of what she was saying. But how do you know that, madam? If the Lord did not forgive everything, [she said], the world wouldnt exist. I felt like asking her, Tell me, madam, did you study at the Gregorian? because thats the wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives: interior wisdom about the mercy of God.

 Let us not forget this: God never wearies of forgiving us, never! So, father, whats the problem? Well, the problem is that we grow weary, we do not want to, we tire of asking for forgiveness. He never tires of forgiving, but we, at times, we tire of aski ng forgiveness. Let us never tire, let us never tire! He is the loving Father, who always forgives, who has that heart of mercy for all of us. And we too learn to be merciful with everyone. We invoke the intercession of Our Lady who held in her arms the Mercy of God made man. Now let us all together pray the Angelus. [Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted those present in Italian.] I offer a cordial greeting to all the pilgrims. Thanks for your welcome and for your prayers. I ask you to pray for me. I renew my embrace of the faithful of Rome and I extend it to all of you, who come from various parts of Italy and of the world, and to those who are joining through different media. I chose the name of the Patron of Italy, St. Francis of Assisi, and that reinforces my spiritual bond with this land, where as you know my family has its origins. But Jesus has called us to be part of a new family: his Church, this family of God, walking together along the way of the Gospel. May the Lord bless you, may Our Lady protect you. Do not forget this: the Lord never wearies of forgiving! We are the ones who weary of asking for forgiveness. Have a good Sunday and a good lunch! [Translation by Joseph Trabbic]

-Shared by Caitlin Mulcahy

Playing Pharisee

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the Law, is accursed.” –John 7:45-49

During the time of Jesus, Judaism was divided up into different factions or “parties,” such as the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. The Pharisees were mainly scholars and theologians who prided themselves on their knowledge of Jewish ritual Law known as the Torah, which it was their job to interpret and offer judgment. They were considered the “experts” Yet, for all their knowledge and learning, in today’s Gospel reading, the Pharisees refuse to believe in the teachings and authority of Jesus because He is not from their faction.

We can often be modern day Pharisees.

Do we confined our evangelization efforts just to people with whom we are comfortable with, or with whom we share the same interests? Have we secretly (or nor so secretly) judged other people because they aren’t coming to Bible study, or are not as involved at church or don’t understand a particular aspect of Catholic teaching and decided that they are not as “good” Catholics as we are or not dedicated enough to being a disciple of Christ?  Have we ignored what the shy person in Bible study who reads softly and slowly has to say, in favor of the guy who can quote chapter and verse and seems more “learned?”   If we can answer to yes to any one of these questions (and most of us can), we are guilty of being like the Pharisees, which we do not want to be. Not only did they completely miss who Jesus really was, in the end they handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. We do not want to miss out on something important God might be trying to tell us, because it comes from the “wrong” person or group.

Today, we celebrate the feast of Saint Patrick. (Traditionally St. Patrick’s Day is the 17^th but since it falls on Sunday in Lent, the bishop of Savannah has moved the celebration back one day.) At the age of sixteen, Patrick was taken from the coast of his native Wales by Irish raiders, who sold him as a slave to an Irish chieftain named Milchu. Patrick spent six years tending Milchu’s sheep, until he was instructed in a dream to escape from Ireland, a feat he accomplished with a substantial amount of divine help. Back home in Wales, Patrick felt the call to be ordained and return to Ireland in order to bring the message of the Gospel to the Irish people, which he did in 431 A.D. As a former slave, Patrick would have definitely been the “wrong” person to listen to. In fact, Patrick’s former master, Milchu, actually sent his house on fire with him in it, to avoid the disgrace of having his former slave preach to him! Fortunately, many of the Irish did not follow his example, and instead accepted Patrick’s evangelization efforts, so that by the saint’s death thirty years later, Ireland was well on its to becoming a staunchly Catholic country.

God often sends the “wrong” person to deliver a life-giving message. Don’t be like Milchu. Don’t be a Pharisee. Take time to listen and prayerfully consider what God might be telling you.

About the Author

Thomas McIntyre is a 2012 graduate of Georgia Southern University. He has recently returned to his alma mater to pursue a Master’s Degree in History, and is in his first semester as a graduate student. In addition to classical and ecclesiastical history, his interests include theology, philosophy, dead languages and classic rock music. 

A life less ordinary… A life extraordinary

“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;

he sets himself against our doings,

Reproaches us for transgressions of the law

and charges us with violations of our training.”

Wisdom 2:12

When we are faced with the truth, and we are in the wrong, how often is our natural reaction to lash out in anger? We do not want to be wrong. We do not want others to know we are wrong. And we certainly do not want others to tell us that we are wrong! So what do we do? We pick on, or make fun of, the “goody two shoes” who is telling us we are wrong.  Why? “Because he is obnoxious to us.” Or because he is calling us to a higher standard than we are currently calling ourselves to, and we want to rebel against that.

“To us he is the censure of our thoughts;

merely to see him is a hardship for us,

Because his life is not like that of others,

and different are his ways.”

Wisdom 2:14-15

We all have holy, virtuous, good people in our lives. You know who they are. The people who make you want to be a better person. And I am sure we have all experienced at one time or another, a time when we may have done something wrong, or said something wrong, in the presence of someone whom we admire like that. How do you feel? Ashamed. Little. Like a disappointment, maybe.

Darkness and light cannot occupy the same space. It is impossible – darkness is the absence of light. In the same way, good and evil cannot occupy the same space. When someone is living in sin, and is actively choosing that, even just to be in the presence of someone living a life of virtue is difficult. Because they know that they were made for more than that. That they are better than that.

We should strive to be this kind of person – whose “life is not like that of others.” Not in a negative way, but in the way that causes other people to want to be better. In the way that calls our friends to a higher standard. Proverbs 27:17 tells us: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” We need each other to grow in holiness and virtue. So be the kind of man or woman that helps to sharpen your friends! Live an extraordinary life. Be a saint!

-Katie DiFato

Taking the Trinity Personally since 325

“Three Persons, one Nature” – we take this formula for granted.  But such wasn’t always the case.  In the first few centuries of Christianity, this was still under contention, and the early Fathers of the Church were struggling to articulate it.

The Fathers realized that belief in the Trinity consists of realizing that somehow God is three, without rejecting the Old Testament’s central assertion that God is One.  Passages like today’s Gospel were the building blocks for this doctrine.  Simply put, they show us that (in the words of Pope Emeritus BXVI) “there is a ‘we’ in God:” there is a dialogue in God, a back and forth between more than one something.  

This stands in very strong contrast to the history of thought that preceded the early Church Fathers.  As heirs to the spiritual legacy of Israel, they knew that the New Testament certainly did not reveal a multiplicity of Gods, and as heirs to the philosophical legacy of the Greeks, they knew that God could not be a composite of multiple pieces.  But in the revelation of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God had revealed some kind of threeness in Himself, and they had to grapple with this.

In their efforts to articulate this “God is three” and “God is one” coherently, the Fathers adopted and developed a concept that has been indispensable to theology and philosophy ever since – the concept of person.

Nowadays, because of the way it was treated in Modern philosophy, our idea of person tends to be more individualistic.  But in today’s Gospel, Jesus expresses His identity as the Person of The Son and illuminates the Divine perspective.

Jesus says that he can’t do anything without The Father, that he only does what he sees The Father doing, that he only seeks The Father’s will, and that he is given his very life by The Father.  Elsewhere in John, he goes so far as to say, “The Father and I are One.” (John 10:30)  In short, his whole identity is defined with regard to The Father. But he never says “I am The Father;” not in John or in any Gospel: he is a distinct person.

What Jesus expresses, then, is His relationship with the Father: a relationship so profound that in it, He and the Father are truly One.  Our relationships, in friendship or romance or family or whatever their nature, unite us with one another.  But no matter how close they bring us, they can provide only a tiny glimpse of the reality that is relationship in God.  In the perfect unity of their relationship, the Three Persons are truly One God.  The complete intimacy of Father and Son that Jesus expresses today give us insight into this truth.

So we come to ourselves: if, in God, being a person is defined as being in relationship, and we are made in His image, then we can’t fully be what we are without being in relationship – relationship with one another and above all with Jesus, who invites us into the intimate life of the Trinity today, saying “whoever hears my Word and believes in the One who sent me has eternal life.”

Grace Greater Than All Our Sin

In the Old Testament reading for today, we see the immeasurable breadth of God’s power.  He created everything on earth and supplies our every need.  As spring begins we see life bursting forth around us; trees beginning to bud, birds singing and building nests, flowers opening and sharing their radiant beauty.  In all of this we find what we need to live, to survive physically from one day to the next.  The sun and rain that nurtures our food, plants from which we get medicine, the wood and other raw materials to build homes, roads, schools, churches, the intellect to use all that God has provided to survive and even thrive.

And yet, despite of all of the beauty and perfection given to mankind, Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation of sin and brought about The Fall. Everything that GOD created was good, but sin brings pain and suffering into the world.  We are like the sick man sitting near the waters of Bethesda in today’s gospel.  We want to be well, forgiven from our sins, but we have no one to help us enter the healing waters.  But God shows us his immeasurable love and mercy, sending us Jesus, to heal us from our sins and to help “keep us on the road to heaven”.  The healing waters of baptism, the gift of the Eucharist, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the sacrament of Reconciliation… gifts from God to guide us back where we belong.  With Him.

Today, be conscious of God’s grace.  Share God’s love and mercy with those you meet, remembering that without HIS love and forgiveness, we would be nothing. From the old French prayer book, Gold Dust:  “How few there are who would thus dare to address God each night:  “Lord, deal with me tomorrow as I have this day dealt with others;… those to whom I was harsh, and from malice, or to show my own superiority, exposed their failings; others, to whom from pride or dislike, I refused to speak; I will not forgive,--to whom I will not show any kindness.” Thank you God for not giving me what I deserve.  Thank you for saving me.

--Melinda Cannady, convert (2011), wife, and mother of two precious little saintmakers.

While we are yearning for the Heavenly Jerusalem

       The first reading today from Isaiah obviously points us toward Heaven. Toward the time when we will walk with the Lord in Paradise and see God clearly face to face. No more crying, no more death, no more (insert frustrating things here), just eternal happiness with the God, who wants to “exult in His people.” A land where there will be no spiritual, physical, or emotional problems, but simply perfection and happiness.

         But our human nature inclines us to ask “what about now?” Are we just sad and miserable creatures trying to get by until we go to heaven? Is Our God a distant god who awaits us in Heaven, and until then we are on our own? NO! God created us “to be a joy” and when this scripture is read in light of our resurrected Christ, new meanings begin to stand out. While we are looking forward to our union with Christ in Heaven, Christ has established His kingdom here on earth in which we are also able to rejoice in and with Him now! There are many places that this intimacy with God is apparent within our faith, especially in two places.

         The first is our Catholic Church. A place where any where in the world

and any day of the week, we are able to take sanctuary in the loving embrace of God’s grace. Free of any judgment we are able to approach God and not receive just a sign, but actually receive Him, who is goodness, physically into our bodies and into our hearts. Within our Church we can rejoice in the Lord’s presence knowing we are loved and that we matter. It is within our church that “the fruit of the vineyard [we] plant” is taken by the priest and through Christ turned into Goodness Himself. It is here we truly catch a glimpse of Heaven!

         Another place we find joy within our faith is our Blessed Mother. Her whom Jesus gave to us on the cross. Her whom Jesus enjoyed, so much so, that He felt He must share Her love and care with us. And we are able to fly to the Virgin Mary anytime with our troubles, and know she will direct us always toward Her Son. In her comfort we can trust and rest, knowing, that our God Himself rested in her arms for the entirety of His childhood.

         So during this time of lent, as we walk with Jesus in the desert, let our hearts rejoice! While life might be tough at times, or we might struggle with our Lenten sacrifices, we know it is in these sufferings we are closest to Him. Jesus is not just our leader, but also our friend. He loves us and in this love we can truly pray, “I will praise you Lord, for you have rescued me.” While in Heaven our happiness will be of all kinds, now we can have peace and joy in Christ as we look forward to eternity.

 Thank you Lord for the gift of Your Church and Your holy Mother!

-Patrick Tunnell

         

In Christ

I would like to focus on today’s second reading, Second Corinthians 5:17-21, which is beautifully tied to today’s gospel reading, the famous pericope of Christ dining with sinners and tax collectors and his telling the Pharisees the parable of the prodigal son.

St. Paul highlights the beautiful sacrament of Confession as the way to enter into the forgiveness of the Father’s love through uniting ourselves to Christ. Let us look at it line by line:

“So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see” (5:17). St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are a new creation in Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? Christ has died for our sins and rose again so that we might share in His glory, but how can we access that glorious resurrection?

“It is all God's work; he reconciled us to himself through Christ and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18). We do not reconcile ourselves to Christ, but rather, Jesus reconciles us to the Father. But where is Jesus? How are we in Christ? Jesus said to His apostles at His ascension that He would send the Holy Spirit, cf. Acts 1:7-8.

“I mean, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyone's faults against them, but entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (5:19). It would be a cruel trick if Jesus promised us the forgiveness of our sins in Him without giving us a sure way to be united to Him. St. Paul, therefore, reiterates the importance of our connection to Christ through the Apostles and those who succeed them.

“So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God” (5:20). To whom is St. Paul referring when he says “you” and “us”? When St. Paul says “us,” he is referring to himself and the other Apostles, as well as to their successors, the priests and bishops of the Church. “You” refers to those who are in need of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, i.e. all of us! St. Paul is not making a false dichotomy between “the righteous” and “sinners,” like the Pharisees do in today’s Gospel. Rather, he invites the Corinthians (and us) into the gift of Reconciliation in Christ and through apostolic authority.

“For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God” (5:21). Again, St. Paul says that it is God’s work. All are sinners, including the Apostles, but in Christ all are made whole and return to the Father like the prodigal son.

-Jacob Pride