But make me like Lazarus, who was poor in sin,
lest I receive no answer when I pray,
no finger dipped in water to relieve my burning tongue;
and make me dwell in Abraham’s bosom in Your love for mankind.
Hymn at Presanctified Liturgy , Lent
May Saint Lazarus always remind us Christ’s love for us.
5o years ago today 80 cardinals of the Roman Church elected Giovanni Battista Montini, the cardinal archbishop of Milan, as the Roman Pontiff to succeed Pope John XXIII.
Pope Pius XII gave to Milan his personal gift in the person of Monitni. He succeeded the Benedictine Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster who is now a blessed of the Church in 1954.
Among the many things he did was to confront communism, sexual “freedoms”, published Humane Vitae, closed the Second Vatican Council, set the stage for a new work of evangelization and he worked for unity among Christians, notably with the Orthodox and the Anglicans. Moreover, he set to work to reform the Roman Curia and he renovated the Roman Liturgy. The latter still a contentious point among some people.
Paul’s cause for sainthood is being studied. Pope Benedict XVI certified that the Servant of God Pope Paul VI did indeed live a life of heroic virtue bestowing the title of Venerable.
Pope Paul VI died on the feast of the Transfiguration in 1978.
Let us pray with the Church.
O God, giver of heavenly gifts, who in Saint Aloysius Gonzaga joined penitence to a wonderful innocence of life, grant through his merits and intercession, that, though we have failed to follow him in innocence, we may imitate him in penitence.
From the Office of Readings:
The divine goodness, most honored lady [Gonzaga’s Mother], is a fathomless and shoreless ocean, and I confess that when I plunge my mind into thought of this it is carried away by the immensity and feels quite lost and bewildered there. In return for my short and feeble labors, God is calling me to eternal rest; his voice from heaven invites me to the infinite bliss I have sought so languidly, and promises me this reward for the tears I have so seldom shed.
His biographers note: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (March 9, 1568 – June 21, 1591) an Italian aristocrat, who entered the Society of Jesus. As a student at the Roman College, Gonzaga died as a result of caring for the victims of an epidemic. He was beatified in 1605, and canonized in 1726. Gonzaga is the patron saint for those living with chronic illnesses, particularly those living with HIV-AIDS.
Imagine hearing for the first time. Ever. Life without sound, without music, without the voice of your parents is seemingly unbearable.
The grace of God through the practice of medicine has now allowed for Grayson Clamp, 3, to hear for the first time. Little Grayson has had to face several medical issues in his short life but the auditory brain stem implant will surely change his life. This is a beautiful story of the renewal of life. The news tonight had the recurring phrase by Grayson’s Dad this is striking in its simplicity: “Daddy loves you.” Watch the story. What a beautiful story of what Benedict XVI means by human ecology.
May Saint Cornelius, patron saint for hearing ailments, intercede before God on behalf of Grayson, and all those who have hearing problems. May God bless the medical professionals at UNC Medical Center (Chapel Hill).
Today is the feast of Saint Romuald, monk, abbot, and founder of the Camaldolese Benedictines. Romuald was a mid-10th century man of an aristocratic family who after living a life of craziness and witnessing immorality of friends and family, he move to follow the Lord caused him to radically live differently than the norm.
Camaldolese Benedictines are not well known in the USA. There are only four foundations of the Camaldolese monks and nuns in the USA: 3 in California (monks) and one in New York State (nuns).
The Camaldolese monks in Rome, for example, have as their main church, Saint Gregory the Great. From there, Gregory sent the Benedictines to England. Today, the Camaldolese monks have somewhat an ecumenical outreach to non-Catholics, and they have had an on-going relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In 2007, Pope Benedict wrote to the Camaldolese Order on the feast of Saint Peter Damian. Read the letter. It speaks of the charism of the Camadolese vocation as one of solitude and communion. This is not an esoteric vocation: it is a manner of living that grounds a person in the essential.
In 2012, the Camadolese Benedictines observed a 1000 years of being a faithful community in the Church, known as the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli. At this time, Pope Benedict said,
“Saint Romuald, the father of the Camaldolese monks, striving for an eremitic life and discipline, wandered through Italy for many years, building monasteries and tirelessly promoting the evangelical life among monks.”
And so, what does this say to us? The life of Romuald and what Benedict has highlighted, we can form our lives around the principles of silence, prayer, communion with God and others, living according to Good News. This is a serious proposition. This is what Jesus asks of us.
With the Church, we pray:
O God, who through Saint Romuald renewed the manner of life of hermits in your Church, grant that, denying ourselves and following Christ, we may merit to reach the heavenly realms on high.
The Prefect and Secretary of Congregation for Divine Worship have prepared a decree, Paternas vices (Prot. N. 215/11/L), indicating that in praying Eucharistic prayers II-IV, the priest is to insert the name of Saint Joseph. The decree states: “henceforth” and “… by virtue of the faculties granted by the Supreme Pontiff FRANCIS, is pleased to decree that the name of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary is henceforth to be added to Eucharistic Prayers II, III, IV….”
Blessed John XXIII added the name of Saint Joseph to the Roman Canon in 1962.
At this point, no effective date has been determined for usage (See CIC 8). However, the cover letter from the USCCB General Secretary mentions that it is to be done “as soon as possible.” There is, however, a significant question as to when the priest can legitimately make the change in the Eucharistic Prayer.
The Latin:
II: “ut cum beáta Dei Genetríce Vírgine María, beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, beátis Apóstolis”
III: “cum beatissíma Vírgine, Dei Genetríce, María, cum beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, cum beátis Apóstolis”
IV: “cum beáta Vírgine, Dei Genetríce, María, cum beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, cum Apóstolis”
The English:
II: that with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with Blessed Joseph, her Spouse, with the blessed Apostles
III: with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with blessed Joseph, her Spouse, with your blessed Apostles and glorious Martyrs
IV: with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God with blessed Joseph, her Spouse, and with your Apostles
The Spanish:
II: con María, la Virgen Madre de Dios, su esposo san José, los apóstoles y…
III: con María, la Virgen Madre de Dios, su esposo san José, los apóstoles y los mártires…
IV: con María, la Vigen Madre de Dios, con su esposo san José, con los apóstoles y los santos…
Ite ad Ioseph
It is usual with a new Roman Pontiff that a meeting happens with the Jesuits who publish the journal La Civiltà Cattolica; Pope Francis met on June 14, 2013 with the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Father Adolfo Nicolás and the editor, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, and their respective staff members. The bi-weekly journal is a highly regarded publication that has a unique relationship with the Holy See since 6 April 1850 in Naples.
La Civiltà Cattolica is Italy’s oldest journal; the articles communicate the Holy See’s point of view and is reviewed by the Vatican Secretary of State before they are published. The editorial policy works to confront significant problems of humanity, society and the Church, to publish articles on human, theological, philosophical, moral, social, cultural, political and literary formation, and they try to offer a chart important events related to Church life plus events concerning Italy and other nations.
Three controlling ideas that will direct La Civilta Cattolica: dialogue, discernment, and frontier.
The Pope’s address:
I am happy to meet with you, writers, your whole community, the Sisters and the staff of the administration of the House. Since 1850, the Jesuits of the Civiltà Cattolica have been engaged in a work that has a particular link with the Pope and the Apostolic See. My predecessors, meeting with you in audience, acknowledged many times how this link is an essential feature of your review. Today I would like to suggest three words to you that might help you in your endeavor.
The first is dialogue. You carry out an important cultural service. Initially the attitude and Civiltà Cattolica was combative and often, also, harshly combative, in tune with the general atmosphere of the time. Reviewing the 163 years of the review, one gathers a rich variety of positions, due be it to the changing of the historical circumstances, be it to the personality of the individual writers. Your fidelity to the Church still requires that you be hard against hypocrisies, fruit of a closed, sick heart, hard against this sickness. However, your main task is not to build walls but bridges; it is to establish a dialogue with all men, also with those who do not share the Christian faith, but “have the veneration of high human values,” and even “with those who oppose the Church and persecute her in various ways” (Gaudium et spes, 92).
There are so many human questions to discuss and share and it is always possible to approach the truth in dialogue, which is a gift of God, and to enrich ourselves mutually. To dialogue means to be convinced that the other has something good to say, to make room for his point of view, for his opinion, for his proposals without falling, obviously, into relativism. And to dialogue it is necessary to lower one’s defenses and to open the doors. Continue your dialogue with the cultural, social and political institutions, also to offer your contribution to the formation of citizens who have at heart the good of all and work for the common good. The “Civilta cattolica” is the civilization of love, of mercy and of faith.
The second word is discernment. Your task is to gather and express the expectations, the desires, the joys and the dramas of our time, and to offer the elements for a reading of the reality in the light of the Gospel. The great spiritual questions are more alive today than ever, but there is need of someone to interpret them and to understand them. With humble and open intelligence, “seek and find God in all things,” as Saint Ignatius wrote. God is at work in the life of every man and in the culture: the Spirit blows where it will. Seek to discover what God has operated and how His work will proceed. A treasure of the Jesuits is in fact spiritual discernment, which seeks to recognize the presence of the Spirit of God in the human and cultural reality, the seed of His presence already planted in the events, in the sensibilities, in the desires, in the profound tensions of hearts and of the social, cultural and spiritual contexts. I recall something that Rahner said: the Jesuit is a specialist of discernment in the field of God and also in the field of the devil. One must not be afraid to continue in discernment to find the truth. When I read these observations of Rahner, they really struck me.
And to seek God in all things, in all fields of knowledge, of art, of science, of political, social and economic life, studies, sensibility and experience are necessary. Some of the subjects you address might not have an explicit relation with a Christian perspective, but they are important to appreciate the way that persons understand themselves and the world that surrounds them. Your informative observation must be broad, objective and timely. It is also necessary to give particular attention into the truth, goodness and beauty of God, which are always considered together, and are precious allies in the commitment to defend the dignity of man, in the building of peaceful coexistence and in protecting creation carefully. From this attention stems serene, sincere and strong judgment about events, illuminated by Christ. Great figures such as Matteo Ricci are a model of this. All this requires keeping the heart and mind open, avoiding the spiritual sickness of self-reference. Even the Church, when she becomes self-referencing, gets sick, grows old. May our sight, well fixed on Christ, be prophetic and dynamic towards the future: in this way, you will always be young and audacious in the reading of events!
The third word is frontier. The mission of a review of culture such as La Civilta Cattolica enters the contemporary cultural debate and proposes, in a serious and at the same time accessible way, the vision that comes from the Christian faith. The break between Gospel and culture is undoubtedly a tragedy (cf. Evangelii nuntiandi, 20). You are called to give your contribution to heal this break, which passes also through the heart of each one of you and of your readers. This ministry is typical of the mission of the Society of Jesus. With your reflections and your deeper, support the cultural and social processes, and all those going through difficult transitions, taking account also of the conflicts. Your proper place is the frontiers. This is the place of Jesuits. That which Paul VI, taken up by Benedict XVI, said of the Society of Jesus, is true for you also in a particular way today: “Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and acute fields, in the crossroads of ideologies, in the social trenches, there was and is the confrontation between the burning exigencies of man and the perennial message of the Gospel, the Jesuits have been and are there.” Please, be men of the frontier, with that capacity that comes from God (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:6). But do not fall into the temptation of taming the frontiers: you must go to the frontiers and not bring the frontiers home to varnish them a bit and tame them. In today’s world, subject to rapid changes and agitated by questions of great relevance for the life of the faith, a courageous commitment is urgent to educate to a faith of conviction and maturity, capable of giving meaning to life and of offering convincing answers to all those seeking God. It is a question of supporting the action of the Church in all fields of her mission. This year La Civilta Cattolica has been renewed: it has assumed a new graphic appearance, it can also be read in a digital version and it brings its readers together also in the social networks. These are also frontiers in which you are called to operate. Continue on this path!
Dear Fathers, I see young, less young and elderly among you. Yours is a unique review of its kind, which is born from a community of life and of studies; as in a harmonious choir, each one must have his voice and harmonize it with that of others. Strength, dear brothers! I am sure I can count on you. While I entrust you to the Madonna della Strada, I impart to you, writers, collaborators and Sisters, as well as to all readers of the review, my Blessing.
Today’s Gospel ought to shock all of us into another orbit. One of Jesus’ most difficult teachings and expectations is made known. How have we heard the point “treat others as we would want to be treated”? Probably many times. But treating others is the least we can do. Jesus opens the horizon a bit more by saying that we have to love our enemies; we are to show mercy to others. Mercy is not a one time event; it is a perpetual way of living; it is a way of living without conditions. Catholics can’t say this is the first time for hearing this Gospel. Love of enemies is what sets true believers from those who really don’t (or can’t). Do we really think that we can live by the words of the Living God without the Living God alive in us?
I think it is reasonable to follow what the Pope has indicated in thinking of the connection of the love for our enemies impoverishing us, because it makes us poor like Jesus who was made flesh and has shown us the true face of God. Jesus’ lowering of himself is one those pivotal points in salvation of history that we can’t avoid keeping in mind on a daily basis. A new insight into what mystery of our salvation is –is revealed anew.
Of course, we need to ask what love is. One working definition is that love is having concern for another’s destiny.
In this morning’s Mass in Rome, Pope Francis said:
