ZENIT from Roswell, Georgia, United States "Not Sure How to Seek God? Hand Him Your Resistance, Says Pope..." for Saturday, 30 July 2016Like
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Not Sure How to Seek God? Hand Him Your Resistance, Says Pope by Kathleen Naab
Pope Francis this morning lived out this Jubilee of Mercy he has proclaimed for the Church, crossing a holy door at the Shrine of John Paul II in Krakow, hearing the confessions of a handful of young people, and celebrating Mass for Polish priests and religious, encouraging them to “draw life from [God’s] forgiveness in order to pour it out with compassion on our brothers and sisters.”
The Pope this evening will celebrate the prayer vigil of World Youth Day before Sunday’s closing Mass with more than a million youth expected to participate in the final events of WYD.
At today’s Mass, the Holy Father reminded his fellow priests and consecrated persons and seminarians that “Jesus directs us to a one-way street: that of going forth from ourselves. It is a one-way trip, with no return ticket. It involves making an exodus from ourselves, losing our lives for his sake and setting out on the path of self-gift.”
Furthermore, the Pope added, Jesus doesn’t like “journeys made halfway, doors half-closed, lives lived on two tracks. He asks us to pack lightly for the journey, to set out renouncing our own security, with him alone as our strength.”
This life of service to others, Francis explained, has no “closed spaces or private property for our own use.”
A priest, a consecrated person, does not choose where he lives or where they are sent; they don’t put their security in wealth or worldly power, he said.
“They love to take risks and to set out, not limited to trails already blazed, but open and faithful to the paths pointed out by the Spirit. Rather than just getting by, they rejoice to evangelize.”
Searching and finding
Francis also reflected on the apostle named in today’s Gospel: Thomas.
Somewhat stubborn, and a bit like us, “we find him likeable,” the Pope remarked.
Thomas, he said, gives us a great gift: “he brings us closer to God, because God does not hide from those who seek him.”
Drawing from Poland’s St. Faustina, the Holy Father offered some concrete advice for following in Thomas’ footsteps and seeking the Lord.
“For us who are disciples, it is important to put our humanity in contact with the flesh of the Lord, to bring to him, with complete trust and utter sincerity, our whole being. As Jesus told Saint Faustina, he is happy when we tell him everything: he is not bored with our lives, which he already knows; he waits for us to tell him even about the events of our day (cf. Diary, 6 September 1937). That is the way to seek God: through prayer that is transparent and unafraid to hand over to him our troubles, our struggles and our resistance. Jesus’ heart is won over by sincere openness, by hearts capable of acknowledging and grieving over their weakness, yet trusting that precisely there God’s mercy will be active.”
The Pontiff suggested that Thomas’ prayer when he “found” Jesus, “My Lord and my God,” — these “magnificent words” — would be a good prayer for each day … “to say to the Lord: You are my one treasure, the path I must follow, the core of my life, my all.”
Writing the Gospel
Finally, Pope Francis recalled an image he has offered before, drawing from the final verse of John’s Gospel, which says that the book of the gospel does not contain the “many other signs that Jesus worked.”
“There is room left for the signs needing to be worked by us, who have received the Spirit of love and are called to spread mercy,” the Pope suggested. “It might be said that the Gospel, the living book of God’s mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left. It remains an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practise.”
“Let me ask you this,” Francis said. “What are the pages of your books like? Are they blank? May the Mother of God help us in this. May she, who fully welcomed the word of God into her life give us the grace to be living writers of the Gospel.”
—
On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-homily-at-john-paul-ii-shrine/
Pope Lunches With WYD Volunteers by ZENIT Staff
Today the Pope had lunch with young volunteers of World Youth Day, who represented all the continents and included representatives from New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Italy, Columbia, as well as the host nation, Poland.
During the meal, each of the youth had the chance to ask Francis a question, which with the help of translators, he answered.
@Servizio Fotografico – L’Osservatore Romano
According to Vatican Radio:
One of the volunteers said she asked him how he felt following his election to the pontificate in March 2013, to which he replied: “I felt a bit of peace, and I haven’t lost this peace.” Another young woman asked Francis for some advice and his answer was: “Don’t give up hope,” adding that it’s important for young people to be themselves “in these times, these crucial moments.”
Tonight the Holy Father will lead a prayer vigil for World Youth Day pilgrims at the Field of Mercy venue on the outskirts of Krakow. The venue contains two new charitable centres, a day care for the elderly and a storage building for food parcels donated by local parishes for those most in need.
Both buildings were constructed as a permanent reminder of the theme for this year’s World Youth Day, taken from St Matthew’s Gospel: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’.
Tomorrow the WYD XXXI concludes with a closing Mass.
Today the Pope had lunch with young volunteers of World Youth Day, who represented all the continents and included representatives from New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Italy, Columbia, as well as the host nation, Poland.
During the meal, each of the youth had the chance to ask Francis a question, which with the help of translators, he answered.
@Servizio Fotografico – L’Osservatore Romano
According to Vatican Radio:
One of the volunteers said she asked him how he felt following his election to the pontificate in March 2013, to which he replied: “I felt a bit of peace, and I haven’t lost this peace.” Another young woman asked Francis for some advice and his answer was: “Don’t give up hope,” adding that it’s important for young people to be themselves “in these times, these crucial moments.”
Tonight the Holy Father will lead a prayer vigil for World Youth Day pilgrims at the Field of Mercy venue on the outskirts of Krakow. The venue contains two new charitable centres, a day care for the elderly and a storage building for food parcels donated by local parishes for those most in need.
Both buildings were constructed as a permanent reminder of the theme for this year’s World Youth Day, taken from St Matthew’s Gospel: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’.
Tomorrow the WYD XXXI concludes with a closing Mass.
Pope’s Homily at John Paul II Shrine by ZENIT Staff
Here is a Vatican translation of the text of Pope Francis’ homily this morning at a Mass he celebrated in Krakow at the Shrine of St John Paul II with priests, seminarians and religious of Poland. At the Shrine, he passed through the Holy Door of Mercy, as well as heard the confessions of some young people.
Here is a Vatican translation of the text of Pope Francis’ homily this morning at a Mass he celebrated in Krakow at the Shrine of St John Paul II with priests, seminarians and religious of Poland. At the Shrine, he passed through the Holy Door of Mercy, as well as heard the confessions of some young people.
__
Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Mass with Priests, Religious, Consecrated Persons and Seminarians
Krakow, 30 July 2016
The words of the Gospel we have just heard (cf. Jn 20:19-31) speak to us of a place, a disciple and a book.
The place is where the disciples gathered on the evening of Easter; we read only that its doors were closed (cf. v. 19). Eight days later, the disciples were once more gathered there, and the doors were still shut (cf. v. 26). Jesus enters, stands in their midst and brings them his peace, the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins: in a word, God’s mercy. Behind those closed doors there resounds Jesus’ call to his followers: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (v. 21).
Jesus sends. From the beginning, he wants his to be a Church on the move, a Church that goes out into the world. And he wants it to do this just as he did. He was not sent into the world by the Father to wield power, but to take the form of a slave (cf. Phil 2:7); he came not “to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:45) and to bring the Good News (cf. Lk 4:18). In the same way, his followers are sent forth in every age. The contrast is striking: whereas the disciples had closed the doors out of fear, Jesus sends them out on mission. He wants them to open the doors and go out to spread God’s pardon and peace, with the power of the Holy Spirit.
This call is also addressed to us. How can we fail to hear its echo in the great appeal of Saint John Paul II: “Open the doors”? Yet, in our lives as priests and consecrated persons, we can often be tempted to remain enclosed, out of fear or convenience, within ourselves and in our surroundings. But Jesus directs us to a one-way street: that of going forth from ourselves. It is a one-way trip, with no return ticket. It involves making an exodus from ourselves, losing our lives for his sake (cf. Mk 8:35) and setting out on the path of self-gift. Nor does Jesus like journeys made halfway, doors half-closed, lives lived on two tracks. He asks us to pack lightly for the journey, to set out renouncing our own security, with him alone as our strength.
In other words, the life of Jesus’ closest disciples, which is what we are called to be, is shaped by concrete love, a love, in other words, marked by service and availability. It is a life that has no closed spaces or private property for our own use. Those who choose to model their entire life on Jesus no longer choose their own places; they go where they are sent, in ready response to the one who calls. They do not even choose their own times. The house where they live does not belong to them, because the Church and the world are the open spaces of their mission. Their wealth is to put the Lord in the midst of their lives and to seek nothing else for themselves. So they flee the satisfaction of being at the centre of things; they do not build on the shaky foundations of worldly power, or settle into the comforts that compromise evangelization. They do not waste time planning a secure future, lest they risk becoming isolated and gloomy, enclosed within the narrow walls of a joyless and desperate self-centredness. Finding their happiness in the Lord, they are not content with a life of mediocrity, but burn with the desire to bear witness and reach out to others. They love to take risks and to set out, not limited to trails already blazed, but open and faithful to the paths pointed out by the Spirit. Rather than just getting by, they rejoice to evangelize.
Secondly, today’s Gospel presents us with the one disciple who is named: Thomas. In his hesitation and his efforts to understand, this disciple, albeit somewhat stubborn, is a bit like us and we find him likeable. Without knowing it, he gives us a great gift: he brings us closer to God, because God does not hide from those who seek him. Jesus shows Thomas his glorious wounds; he makes him touch with his hand the infinite tenderness of God, the vivid signs of how much he suffered out of love for humanity.
For us who are disciples, it is important to put our humanity in contact with the flesh of the Lord, to bring to him, with complete trust and utter sincerity, our whole being. As Jesus told Saint Faustina, he is happy when we tell him everything: he is not bored with our lives, which he already knows; he waits for us to tell him even about the events of our day (cf. Diary, 6 September 1937). That is the way to seek God: through prayer that is transparent and unafraid to hand over to him our troubles, our struggles and our resistance. Jesus’ heart is won over by sincere openness, by hearts capable of acknowledging and grieving over their weakness, yet trusting that precisely there God’s mercy will be active.
What does Jesus ask of us? He desires hearts that are truly consecrated, hearts that draw life from his forgiveness in order to pour it out with compassion on our brothers and sisters. Jesus wants hearts that are open and tender towards the weak, never hearts that are hardened. He wants docile and transparent hearts that do not dissimulate before those whom the Church appoints as our guides. Disciples do not hesitate to ask questions, they have the courage to face their misgivings and bring them to the Lord, to their formators and superiors, without calculations or reticence. A faithful disciple engages in constant watchful discernment, knowing that the heart must be trained daily, beginning with the affections, to flee every form of duplicity in attitudes and in life.
The Apostle Thomas, at the conclusion of his impassioned quest, not only came to believe in the resurrection, but found in Jesus his life’s greatest treasure, his Lord. He says to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28). We would do well each day to pray these magnificent words, and to say to the Lord: You are my one treasure, the path I must follow, the core of my life, my all.
The final verse of today’s Gospel speaks of a book: it is the Gospel that, we are told, does not contain all the many other signs that Jesus worked (v. 30). After the great sign of his mercy, we could say that there is no longer a need to add another. Yet one challenge does remain. There is room left for the signs needing to be worked by us, who have received the Spirit of love and are called to spread mercy. It might be said that the Gospel, the living book of God’s mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left. It remains an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practise. Let me ask you this: What are the pages of your books like? Are they blank? May the Mother of God help us in this. May she, who fully welcomed the word of God into her life (cf. Lk 8:20-21), give us the grace to be living writers of the Gospel. May our Mother of Mercy teach us how to take concrete care of the wounds of Jesus in our brothers and sisters in need, those close at hand and those far away, the sick and the migrant, because by serving those who suffer we honour the flesh of Christ. May the Virgin Mary help us to spend ourselves completely for the good of the faithful entrusted to us, and to show concern for one another as true brothers and sisters in the communion of the Church, our holy Mother.
Dear brothers and sisters, each of us holds in his or her heart a very personal page of the book of God’s mercy. It is the story of our own calling, the voice of the love that attracted us and transformed our life, leading us to leave everything at his word and to follow him (cf. Lk 5:11). Today let us gratefully rekindle the memory of his call, which is stronger than any resistance and weariness on our part. As we continue this celebration of the Eucharist, the centre of our lives, let us thank the Lord for having entered through our closed doors with his mercy, for calling us, like Thomas, by name, and for giving us the grace to continue writing his Gospel of love.© Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Pope Recaps Friday: A Day to Consider Pain – Christ’s and the World’s by ZENIT Staff
From Vatican Radio
From the window of the Archbishop’s residence on Friday evening, Pope Francis recalled the day as one of pain. “Friday, he said, is the day when we remember the death of Jesus and with the young people we prayed the Way of the Cross: the suffering and death of Jesus for all of us.”
So many people, the Pope noted, “so many people are suffering: the sick; those who are at war; the homeless; the hungry; those who are doubtful in life, who do not feel happiness,”…
In the afternoon, he continued, “I went to the children’s hospital. There too, Jesus suffers in so many sick children: I always ask myself that question, “Why do children suffer?”. It’s a mystery. There are no answers to these questions …”
Recalling his morning at Auschwitz-Birkenau, he said, “how much pain, how much cruelty! Is it possible that we men, created in the likeness of God, we are able to do these things?
Then he added, “cruelty did not end in Auschwitz, Birkenau: even today. Today! Today we torture people; many prisoners are tortured immediately, to get them to talk … It ‘s terrible!”
“Today there is this cruelty. We say, “Yes, there we saw the cruelty more than 70 years ago. How they died shot or hanged or with gas …’ But today in many places of the world where there is war, it’s the same!”
In this reality, the Holy Father said, “Jesus came to take us on his shoulders. He asks us to pray. We pray for all the Jesus’ who today are in the world: the hungry; the thirsty; the doubters; the sick, who are on their own; those who feel the weight of so many doubts and guilt. Who suffer so much … Let us pray for all the sick children, innocent, who carry the Cross for children. And we pray for so many men and women who today are tortured in many countries of the world; for prisoners who are all piled up there, as if they were animals.”
“Everyone here is a sinner”, the Pope concluded, “we all have the weight of our sins.” “But He loves us: He loves us!” Let’s all pray together for these people who are suffering in the world today so many bad things, many bad things. And when there are tears, the child seeks its mother. Even us sinners we are children, we look for our mother and pray to Our Lady all together, each in his own language.”
Innovative Media Inc.
30 Mansell Road, Suite 103
Roswell, Georgia 30076, United States---------------------
Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Mass with Priests, Religious, Consecrated Persons and Seminarians
Krakow, 30 July 2016
The words of the Gospel we have just heard (cf. Jn 20:19-31) speak to us of a place, a disciple and a book.
The place is where the disciples gathered on the evening of Easter; we read only that its doors were closed (cf. v. 19). Eight days later, the disciples were once more gathered there, and the doors were still shut (cf. v. 26). Jesus enters, stands in their midst and brings them his peace, the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins: in a word, God’s mercy. Behind those closed doors there resounds Jesus’ call to his followers: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (v. 21).
Jesus sends. From the beginning, he wants his to be a Church on the move, a Church that goes out into the world. And he wants it to do this just as he did. He was not sent into the world by the Father to wield power, but to take the form of a slave (cf. Phil 2:7); he came not “to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:45) and to bring the Good News (cf. Lk 4:18). In the same way, his followers are sent forth in every age. The contrast is striking: whereas the disciples had closed the doors out of fear, Jesus sends them out on mission. He wants them to open the doors and go out to spread God’s pardon and peace, with the power of the Holy Spirit.
This call is also addressed to us. How can we fail to hear its echo in the great appeal of Saint John Paul II: “Open the doors”? Yet, in our lives as priests and consecrated persons, we can often be tempted to remain enclosed, out of fear or convenience, within ourselves and in our surroundings. But Jesus directs us to a one-way street: that of going forth from ourselves. It is a one-way trip, with no return ticket. It involves making an exodus from ourselves, losing our lives for his sake (cf. Mk 8:35) and setting out on the path of self-gift. Nor does Jesus like journeys made halfway, doors half-closed, lives lived on two tracks. He asks us to pack lightly for the journey, to set out renouncing our own security, with him alone as our strength.
In other words, the life of Jesus’ closest disciples, which is what we are called to be, is shaped by concrete love, a love, in other words, marked by service and availability. It is a life that has no closed spaces or private property for our own use. Those who choose to model their entire life on Jesus no longer choose their own places; they go where they are sent, in ready response to the one who calls. They do not even choose their own times. The house where they live does not belong to them, because the Church and the world are the open spaces of their mission. Their wealth is to put the Lord in the midst of their lives and to seek nothing else for themselves. So they flee the satisfaction of being at the centre of things; they do not build on the shaky foundations of worldly power, or settle into the comforts that compromise evangelization. They do not waste time planning a secure future, lest they risk becoming isolated and gloomy, enclosed within the narrow walls of a joyless and desperate self-centredness. Finding their happiness in the Lord, they are not content with a life of mediocrity, but burn with the desire to bear witness and reach out to others. They love to take risks and to set out, not limited to trails already blazed, but open and faithful to the paths pointed out by the Spirit. Rather than just getting by, they rejoice to evangelize.
Secondly, today’s Gospel presents us with the one disciple who is named: Thomas. In his hesitation and his efforts to understand, this disciple, albeit somewhat stubborn, is a bit like us and we find him likeable. Without knowing it, he gives us a great gift: he brings us closer to God, because God does not hide from those who seek him. Jesus shows Thomas his glorious wounds; he makes him touch with his hand the infinite tenderness of God, the vivid signs of how much he suffered out of love for humanity.
For us who are disciples, it is important to put our humanity in contact with the flesh of the Lord, to bring to him, with complete trust and utter sincerity, our whole being. As Jesus told Saint Faustina, he is happy when we tell him everything: he is not bored with our lives, which he already knows; he waits for us to tell him even about the events of our day (cf. Diary, 6 September 1937). That is the way to seek God: through prayer that is transparent and unafraid to hand over to him our troubles, our struggles and our resistance. Jesus’ heart is won over by sincere openness, by hearts capable of acknowledging and grieving over their weakness, yet trusting that precisely there God’s mercy will be active.
What does Jesus ask of us? He desires hearts that are truly consecrated, hearts that draw life from his forgiveness in order to pour it out with compassion on our brothers and sisters. Jesus wants hearts that are open and tender towards the weak, never hearts that are hardened. He wants docile and transparent hearts that do not dissimulate before those whom the Church appoints as our guides. Disciples do not hesitate to ask questions, they have the courage to face their misgivings and bring them to the Lord, to their formators and superiors, without calculations or reticence. A faithful disciple engages in constant watchful discernment, knowing that the heart must be trained daily, beginning with the affections, to flee every form of duplicity in attitudes and in life.
The Apostle Thomas, at the conclusion of his impassioned quest, not only came to believe in the resurrection, but found in Jesus his life’s greatest treasure, his Lord. He says to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28). We would do well each day to pray these magnificent words, and to say to the Lord: You are my one treasure, the path I must follow, the core of my life, my all.
The final verse of today’s Gospel speaks of a book: it is the Gospel that, we are told, does not contain all the many other signs that Jesus worked (v. 30). After the great sign of his mercy, we could say that there is no longer a need to add another. Yet one challenge does remain. There is room left for the signs needing to be worked by us, who have received the Spirit of love and are called to spread mercy. It might be said that the Gospel, the living book of God’s mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left. It remains an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practise. Let me ask you this: What are the pages of your books like? Are they blank? May the Mother of God help us in this. May she, who fully welcomed the word of God into her life (cf. Lk 8:20-21), give us the grace to be living writers of the Gospel. May our Mother of Mercy teach us how to take concrete care of the wounds of Jesus in our brothers and sisters in need, those close at hand and those far away, the sick and the migrant, because by serving those who suffer we honour the flesh of Christ. May the Virgin Mary help us to spend ourselves completely for the good of the faithful entrusted to us, and to show concern for one another as true brothers and sisters in the communion of the Church, our holy Mother.
Dear brothers and sisters, each of us holds in his or her heart a very personal page of the book of God’s mercy. It is the story of our own calling, the voice of the love that attracted us and transformed our life, leading us to leave everything at his word and to follow him (cf. Lk 5:11). Today let us gratefully rekindle the memory of his call, which is stronger than any resistance and weariness on our part. As we continue this celebration of the Eucharist, the centre of our lives, let us thank the Lord for having entered through our closed doors with his mercy, for calling us, like Thomas, by name, and for giving us the grace to continue writing his Gospel of love.© Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Pope Recaps Friday: A Day to Consider Pain – Christ’s and the World’s by ZENIT Staff
From Vatican Radio
From the window of the Archbishop’s residence on Friday evening, Pope Francis recalled the day as one of pain. “Friday, he said, is the day when we remember the death of Jesus and with the young people we prayed the Way of the Cross: the suffering and death of Jesus for all of us.”
So many people, the Pope noted, “so many people are suffering: the sick; those who are at war; the homeless; the hungry; those who are doubtful in life, who do not feel happiness,”…
In the afternoon, he continued, “I went to the children’s hospital. There too, Jesus suffers in so many sick children: I always ask myself that question, “Why do children suffer?”. It’s a mystery. There are no answers to these questions …”
Recalling his morning at Auschwitz-Birkenau, he said, “how much pain, how much cruelty! Is it possible that we men, created in the likeness of God, we are able to do these things?
Then he added, “cruelty did not end in Auschwitz, Birkenau: even today. Today! Today we torture people; many prisoners are tortured immediately, to get them to talk … It ‘s terrible!”
“Today there is this cruelty. We say, “Yes, there we saw the cruelty more than 70 years ago. How they died shot or hanged or with gas …’ But today in many places of the world where there is war, it’s the same!”
In this reality, the Holy Father said, “Jesus came to take us on his shoulders. He asks us to pray. We pray for all the Jesus’ who today are in the world: the hungry; the thirsty; the doubters; the sick, who are on their own; those who feel the weight of so many doubts and guilt. Who suffer so much … Let us pray for all the sick children, innocent, who carry the Cross for children. And we pray for so many men and women who today are tortured in many countries of the world; for prisoners who are all piled up there, as if they were animals.”
“Everyone here is a sinner”, the Pope concluded, “we all have the weight of our sins.” “But He loves us: He loves us!” Let’s all pray together for these people who are suffering in the world today so many bad things, many bad things. And when there are tears, the child seeks its mother. Even us sinners we are children, we look for our mother and pray to Our Lady all together, each in his own language.”
Innovative Media Inc.
30 Mansell Road, Suite 103
Roswell, Georgia 30076, United States---------------------
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