take five for Easter

Full text of Pope Francis' Easter Vigil Homily.  A suggestion for reading this... set five minutes when you know you won't be disturbed...turn off the music and commit to this page for five minutes...try not to flick over to another page, stay with it! This beautiful reflection from Pope Francis proclaims the resurrection in a powerful, attractive and digestible form. Taking five minutes to ponder his reflection might well change your life.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

In the Gospel of this radiant night of the Easter Vigil, we first meet the women who go the tomb of Jesus with spices to anoint his body (cf. Lk 24:1-3). They go to perform an act of compassion, a traditional act of affection and love for a dear departed person, just as we would. They had followed Jesus, they had listened to his words, they had felt understood by him in their dignity and they had accompanied him to the very end, to Calvary and to the moment when he was taken down from the cross. We can imagine their feelings as they make their way to the tomb: a certain sadness, sorrow that Jesus had left them, he had died, his life had come to an end. Life would now go on as before. Yet the women continued to feel love, the love for Jesus which now led them to his tomb.  

But at this point, something completely new and unexpected happens, something which upsets their hearts and their plans, something which will upset their whole life: they see the stone removed from before the tomb, they draw near and they do not find the Lord’s body. It is an event which leaves them perplexed, hesitant, full of questions: “What happened?”, “What is the meaning of all this?” (cf. Lk 24:4). Doesn’t the same thing also happen to us when something completely new occurs in our everyday life? We stop short, we don’t understand, we don’t know what to do.  

Newness often makes us fearful, including the newness which God brings us, the newness which God asks of us. We are like the Apostles in the Gospel: often we would prefer to hold on to our own security, to stand in front of a tomb, to think about someone who has died, someone who ultimately lives on only as a memory, like the great historical figures from the past. We are afraid of God’s surprises; we are afraid of God’s surprises! He always surprises us! 

Dear brothers and sisters, let us not be closed to the newness that God wants to bring into our lives! Are we often weary, disheartened and sad? Do we feel weighed down by our sins? Do we think that we won’t be able to cope? Let us not close our hearts, let us not lose confidence, let us never give up: there are no situations which God cannot change, there is no sin which he cannot forgive if only we open ourselves to him.

But let us return to the Gospel, to the women, and take one step further. They find the tomb empty, the body of Jesus is not there, something new has happened, but all this still doesn’t tell them anything certain: it raises questions; it leaves them confused, without offering an answer. 

And suddenly there are two men in dazzling clothes who say: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; but has risen” (Lk 24:5-6). What was a simple act, done surely out of love – going to the tomb – has now turned into an event, a truly life-changing event. Nothing remains as it was before, not only in the lives of those women, but also in our own lives and in the history of mankind. Jesus is not dead, he has risen, he is alive! He does not simply return to life; rather, he is life itself, because he is the Son of God, the living God (cf. Num 14:21-28; Deut 5:26; Josh 3:10). Jesus no longer belongs to the past, but lives in the present and is projected towards the future; he is the everlasting “today” of God. This is how the newness of God appears to the women, the disciples and all of us: as victory over sin, evil and death, over everything that crushes life and makes it seem less human. 

And this is a message meant for me and for you, dear sister, dear brother. How often does Love have to tell us: Why do you look for the living among the dead? Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness… and that is where death is. That is not the place to look for the One who is alive!

Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do.

There is one last little element that I would like to emphasize in the Gospel for this Easter Vigil. The women encounter the newness of God. Jesus has risen, he is alive! But faced with empty tomb and the two men in brilliant clothes, their first reaction is one of fear: “they were terrified and bowed their faced to the ground”, Saint Luke tells us – they didn’t even have courage to look. But when they hear the message of the Resurrection, they accept it in faith. 

And the two men in dazzling clothes tell them something of crucial importance: “Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee… And they remembered his words” (Lk 24:6,8). They are asked to remember their encounter with Jesus, to remember his words, his actions, his life; and it is precisely this loving remembrance of their experience with the Master that enables the women to master their fear and to bring the message of the Resurrection to the Apostles and all the others (cf. Lk 24:9). 

To remember what God has done and continues to do for me, for us, to remember the road we have travelled; this is what opens our hearts to hope for the future. May we learn to remember everything that God has done in our lives.

On this radiant night, let us invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who treasured all these events in her heart (cf. Lk 2:19,51) and ask the Lord to give us a share in his Resurrection. May he open us to the newness that transforms. May he make us men and women capable of remembering all that he has done in our own lives and in the history of our world. May he help us to feel his presence as the one who is alive and at work in our midst. And may he teach us each day not to look among the dead for the Living One. Amen.

Easter - in a minute

He is risen indeed - Alleluia.  

Click on the image below to reflect on the significance of Easter; not simply an historical event, not a mere resuscitation of a body, but an earth-shattering event which transforms suffering into a hope-filled journey, destroys death, and makes true life, a reality.

4:01

Alleluia!

Christ has Died - Christ is Risen

Ria Bancroft 1975-1977

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament Christchurch - Tabernacle Doors

Rhema Interview

Interview about Holy Week and especially the Chrism Mass on Radio Rhema this morning:

http://www.rhema.co.nz/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7570:catholic-chrism-mass&Itemid=16

Good Shepherd newsletter

The Good Shepherd parish newsletter for this Sunday has now been uploaded to the parish website at www.catholichurunui.co.nz

letting go - in a minute

Have you ever heard a well-intentioned speaker talking of the life of faith as a journey of 'letting go'.  Were their examples motivated by fear, or by the attraction of love? 

Click on the image below for a reflection that you might find encouraging.

the angel of the Lord declared...

Today we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation.

Take a moment to appreciate this Millet masterpiece. Even if you have never seen the image before, you will guess that these peasants are praying. 

When the one who commissioned this painting in the mid- 1800’s changed his mind and wouldn't buy the completed work, Millet added a church bell tower and renamed his work “Angelus”.

Many of us remember the convent or church bell tolling at midday and early evening at 6. (the 6am bell was often not rung at the request of neighbours). Whatever the Catholic locals were doing when the the bell tolled, at the distinctive 3,3,3,9 ring, all would stop, mid sentence, mid activity. Catholics would stand or kneel to pray. 

Some creative geek has designed an Angelus app for a smartphone. I use it, and you can download it to your phone from this link https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-angelus-angelus-regina/id415217388?mt=8

The bell was the the call to prayer, and the only introduction necessary before the proclamation heralding the incarnation was: “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.” This is the moment of the Annunciation.

This prayer of incarnation interrupts our routines and busyness. While it may be difficult to find others to pray the Angelus with, there is nothing to stop us praying alone. 

Perhaps the near-midday ring of a nearby phone, or the moment of inserting the key in the car ignition could be for you an 'Angelus Bell'.

The message of the angel interrupted Mary’s daily routine and life’s dreams to such an extent that ‘she was greatly troubled’. “But how can this be...”. 

From the moment of Mary’s response “be it done unto me, according to thy Word”, Mary life was fulfilled. This does not mean that Mary lived in blissful earthly happiness every subsequent moment. Jump ahead 12 years to her search for a missing son, or 33 years later to the moment when she cradled her dead son in her arms. But always, in the depth of her heart, she was at peace in God.

This depth of peace, at a deeper level than all daily demands and regular routines, is also the deepest desire of every human person. This peace is our "default setting".

There is a challenge in allowing God to enter our lives. It is not a simple or easy birth. In the moment of deepest desire for the fulness of God’s life, we also feel the pain of having to let go of our old attachments. 

While we know that our personal dreams, projects and likes can never deliver the depth of joy and peace we desire, their is a deceptive and superficial comfort in these familiar traps. 

But deceptive and superficial is not enough for souls who seek Truth and the life of the depth of the heart. In the Annunciation we celebrate the fact that this life is not our own discovery or achievement. This life-giving reality has broken into our life, interrupting our plans and giving purpose to our pain. In the Incarnation, the word has become flesh, and dwells among us.

+++

How to pray the Angelus

Holy Week - in a minute

another "food for faith - in a minute" clip outlining the Liturgy of the Church through Holy Week and Easter.

4:06

praying popes

I may be the first to write of the "popes' meeting"  note the use of the apostrophe with the plural! I did not expect there to be any pictures of this meeting between Pope Francis and Pope emeritus Benedict, so this video clip is a surprise.

Fr. Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office also comments at the link below.

http://www.vis.va/vissolr/index.php?vi=all&dl=b77a7e5b-2a86-3535-73aa-514db01cf019&dl_t=text/xml&dl_a=y&ul=1&ev=1

Pope Francis & open doors

Pope Francis spoke about the Year of Faith during the week. In his comments he once again revealed that his papacy will continue the work of previous popes, especially Pope Benedict.

“in this year that my venerated predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, with a truly inspired intuition, proclaimed the Year of Faith for the Catholic Church. With this initiative, which I wish to continue and which I hope serves as a stimulus for each of us in our journey of faith, he wanted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, proposing a type of pilgrimage to what is essential for every Christian: a personal and transforming relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died and rose again for our salvation. The heart of the Council's message lies precisely in the desire to proclaim this ever-valid treasure of the faith to the persons of our time.[...]"

Also in these days we are discovering a lot more of the teaching of Pope Francis from his days as bishop of Buenos Aires.  I have already uploaded some of these interviews and comments.  Last October he wrote a pastoral letter to the people of his diocese on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, i.e. the beginning of this Year of Faith.

I was going to include a few quotations from this letter, but every bit is good, and I couldn't pick highlights. So I suggest that you take five minutes, relax, and savour this text. The timing is perfect as tomorrow (Palm Sunday) we enter Holy Week: an opportunity to live anew the events that are at the heart of every human life.

Dear Brothers and Sisters:  

Among the most striking experiences of the last decades is finding doors closed. Little by 
little increasing insecurity has made us bolt doors, employ means of vigilance, install security cameras and mistrust strangers who call at our door.  

None the less in some places there are doors that are still open. The closed door is really a symbol of our today. It is something more than a simple sociological fact; it is an existential reality that is imposing itself as a way of life, a way of confronting reality, others and the future.  

The bolted door of my house, the place of my intimate life, my dreams, hopes, sufferings and moments of happiness, is locked against others. And it is not simply a matter of the
physical house; it is also the whole area of my life, of my heart. All the time there are fewer who can cross that threshold. The security of reinforced doors protects the insecurity of a life which is becoming more fragile and less open to the riches of the life and the love of others.  

The image of an open door has always been a symbol of light, friendship, happiness, liberty and trust. How we need to recover them. The closed door does us harm, reduces and
 separates us.  

We begin the Year of Faith and, paradoxically, the image that the Pope proposes is that of a door, a door through which we must pass to be able to find what we need so much.  

The Church, through the voice and heart of its Pastor, Benedict XVI, invites us to cross the threshold, to take an interior and free step: to animate ourselves to enter a new life.  

The phrase "door to faith" brings us back to the Acts of the Apostles: "On arriving, they gathered the Church together and told them what God had done through them and how He had
opened the door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts. 14.27).  

God always takes the initiative and He does not want anyone to be excluded. God calls at the door of our hearts: Look, I am at the door, calling: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I shall enter his house and dine with him and him with me (Rev.3.20). 

Faith is a grace, a gift of God.  

"Only by believing does faith grow and be strengthened: in a continual abandon into the hands of a love which is always felt as greater because it has its origin in God"  

Crossing through that door presupposes the beginning of a way or journey that lasts a lifetime, as we pass in front of so many doors which open to us today, many of them false doors, doors that invite us in a very attractive but lying manner to go down that road, promising an empty narcissistic happiness which has an expiry date: doors that lead to cross-roads where, no matter which option we follow, will, sooner or later, cause suffering and confusion, doors focused on self which wear out and have no guarantee for the future.  

While the doors of the houses are closed, the doors of the shopping malls are always open. One passes through the door of faith, one crosses that threshold, when the Word of God is announced and the heart allows itself to be shaped by that grace which transforms. A grace which has a concrete name, and that name is Jesus. Jesus is the door. (Jn. 10:9). He, and only He, is and will always be the door. No one goes to the Father except through Him. (Jn.14.6). If there is no Christ, there is no way to God. As the door, He opens the way to God and as Good Shepherd he is the Only One who looks after us at the price of his own life.  

Jesus is the door and he knocks on our door so that we allow him to cross the threshold of our lives. "Don't be afraid. Open the doors wide for Christ", Blessed John Paul II told us at the beginning of his papacy. To open the doors of our hearts as the disciples of Emmaus did, asking him to stay with us so that we may pass through the doors of faith and that the Lord himself bring us to understand the reasons why we believe, so that we may then go out to announce it. Faith presumes that we decide to be with the Lord, to live with him and share this with our brothers and sisters.  

We give thanks to God for this opportunity to realise the value of our lives as children of God through this journey of faith which began in our lives with the waters of baptism, that unending and fruitful dew which makes us children of God and brothers and sisters in the Church.  

The purpose, the objective (of this year of Faith) is that we meet with God with whom we have already entered into communion and who wishes to restore us, purify us, raise us up and sanctify us, and give us the happiness that our hearts crave.  

To begin this year of faith is a call to us to deepen in our lives that faith we have already received. To profess our faith with our mouth implies living it in our hearts and showing it in what we do: it is a testimony and public commitment. The disciple of Christ, a child of the Church, can never think that believing is a private matter. It is an important and strong challenge for every day, convinced that he who began the good work in you will continue to perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6).Looking at our reality, as disciples who are missionaries, we ask ourselves what challenge this crossing the threshold of the faith has for us?  

Crossing the Threshold of Faith  

Crossing this threshold of the faith challenges us to discover that, even though it would
seem that death reigns in its various forms and that our history is governed by the law of the strongest or the most astute and that hate and ambition are the driving forces of so many human struggles, we are also absolutely convinced that this sad reality can and should change decisively, because 'if God is with us, who can overcome us?' (Rom. 8: 31, 37).  

Crossing this threshold of the faith supposes that we'll not be ashamed to have the heart of a child who, because he still believes in impossible things, can still live in hope, which is the only thing capable of giving sense to and transforming history. It means asking unceasingly, praying without weakening and adoring so that our vision may be transfigured.  

Crossing the threshold of the faith brings us to beg for everyone "the same sentiments that Christ had" (Phil. 2-5), so that each discover a new way of thinking, of communicating with one another, of looking at others, of respecting one another, of being in family together, of planning our futures, of living out love and our vocation.  

Crossing the threshold of the faith is to be active, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit present in the Church and who is also seen in the signs of the times. It is to join in the constant movement of life and of history without falling into the paralyzing defeatism that everything in the past was better. It is an urgency to think in new ways, to offer new suggestions, a new creativity, kneading life with "the new leaven of justice and holiness" (1 Cor. 5:8).  

Crossing the threshold of the faith implies that we have eyes to wonder and a heart that is not lazily accustomed, that is able to recognize that every time a woman gives birth it is another bet placed for life and the future; that, when we watch out for the innocence of children we are guaranteeing the truth of a tomorrow and when we treat gently the dedicated life of an elderly person we are acting justly and caressing our own roots.  

Crossing the threshold of the faith means work lived with dignity and with a vocation to serve with the self-denial of one who comes back time and time again to begin without weakening, as if everything done so far were only one step in the journey towards the Kingdom, the fullness of life.  

It is the quiet wait after the daily planting: it is the contemplation of the collected harvest, giving thanks to the Lord because he is good, asking that he not abandon the work of his hands (Psalm 137).  

Crossing the threshold of the faith demands that we struggle for liberty and life together with others even when the ambient drags its feet, in the certainty that the Lord asks of us to live justly, love goodness and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).  

Crossing the threshold of the faith bears deeply within it the continued conversion of our
attitudes, modes and tones with which we live. It demands a reformulation, not a patching up or a varnishing. It means accepting the new form that Jesus Christ prints on him who is touched by His hand and his Gospel of life.  

It means doing something totally new for society and the Church; because "He who is in Christ is a new creature" (2 Cor 5, 17-21)  

Crossing the threshold of the faith leads us to forgiving and to know how to break into a
smile. It means approaching every person who lives on the edge of existence and to call him by name. It is taking care of the fragility of the weakest and supports his trembling knees in the certainty that in what we do for the smallest of our brothers it is to Jesus himself that we are doing it (Mt. 25. 40).  

Crossing the threshold of the Faith demands that we celebrate life. That we let ourselves be transformed because we have been made one with Jesus at the table of the Eucharist celebrated in community and from there our hands and heart be busy working in the great project of the Kingdom: all the rest will be given us in addition (Mt. 6.33).  

Crossing the threshold of the faith means living in the spirit of the Vatican Council and of Aparecida (the latest meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean bishops), a Church of open doors, not just to receive in but fundamentally to go out and fill the street and the people of our times with the Good News.  

Crossing the threshold of the faith, in our Archdiocesan Church, presupposes that we be
convinced of the Mission to be a church that lives, prays and works with a missionary orientation.  

Crossing the threshold of the faith is, definitively, the acceptance of the newness of the life of the Risen Christ, raised in our poor flesh to make it a sign of the new life.  

Meditating all these things, we look at Mary. May she, the Virgin Mother, accompany us in our crossing the threshold of the faith and bring the Holy Spirit over our Church, as in Nazareth, so that just like her we may adore the Lord and go out to announce the marvels he has done in us.   

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. Buenos Aires
. October 2012

pets & cosmetics with Pope Francis

You might find this 15 minute interview with Pope Francis interesting.  It was filmed just a few months ago, and gives a good insight into the person and the priorities of Pope Francis. Note especially his comments on pets and cosmetics.

Autumn & Lent - in a minute

Click on the image to view the reflection:

3:26

protectors of God's gifts

From Pope Francis' homily at his inauguration Mass:

"The vocation of being a “protector”, however, is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents. It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s gifts!  

Whenever human beings fail to live up to this responsibility, whenever we fail to care for creation and for our brothers and sisters, the way is opened to destruction and hearts are hardened. Tragically, in every period of history there are “Herods” who plot death, wreak havoc, and mar the countenance of men and women".

Full Text of the homily available at this link.

realigning to Christ

Have you ever had backache, and visited an osteopath or chiropractor?  Click the image to hear more.

pope's first Sunday

Yesterday morning Pope Francis celebrated Mass at the church of S. Anna, just inside the Vatican gates. S. Anna is the parish church for many of those who work in the Vatican, and for a few others. A couple of things were especially notable.  First his homily for this Fifth Sunday of Lent:

Note too the remarkably informal, 'parish-priest-like' meeting and greeting the parishioners outside after Mass.  He spent 35 minutes chatting informally to pretty much everyone who was at the Mass, then walked towards the gate to greet many who waited outside the S. Anna gate. He moved onto the street and into the crowd. (Note that in doing this he became perhaps the first pope in recent history to walk to Italy!) 

He then returned to the sacristy to remove his vestments and appeared again, waving his car away and spending more time with people before finally getting into the car at 11.35am, just 25 minutes before he began the Angelus greeting and prayer from his study window.

meet Pope Francis

Pope Francis met with journalists yesterday. Here is the section of the meeting that has been subtitled in English.

You can watch the whole meeting here - but it's in Italian - still worth the watch even if you don't understand. The tone and the greetings with people at the end communicate a lot.  The first 6.5 minutes is mostly anticipation.  You can get to the English text is available by clicking on this sentence.

And I have a feeling that he would enjoy this one!

continuity - something greater - in a minute

3:07

the attractiveness of Jesus Christ

In 2001 Pope Francis, then Cardinal Bergoglio, presented one of Don Luigi Giussani's books, "El atractivo de Jesucristo" to a Book Fair gathering in Buenos Aires.  Here are a few paragraphs from his address.

"Everything in our life, today just as in Jesus' time, begins with an encounter. An encounter with this Man, the carpenter of Nazareth, a man like all men and yet different. The first ones, John, Andrew, and Simon, felt themselves to be looked at into their very depths, read in their innermost being, and in them sprang forth a surprise, a wonder that instantly made them feel bound to Him, made them feel different. 

When Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love Me?", "his 'Yes' was not the result of an effort of will, it was not the fruit of a 'decision' made by the young man Simon: it was the emergence, the coming to the surface of an entire vein of tenderness and adherence that made sense because of the esteem he had for Him-therefore an act of reason;" it was a reasonable act, "which is why he couldn't not say 'Yes.'" 

We cannot understand this dynamic of encounter which brings forth wonder and adherence if it has not been triggered-forgive me the use of this word-by mercy. Only someone who has encountered mercy, who has been caressed by the tenderness of mercy, is happy and comfortable with the Lord. I beg the theologians who are present not to turn me in to the Sant'Uffizio or to the Inquisition; however, forcing things a bit, I dare to say that the privileged locus of the encounter is the caress of the mercy of Jesus Christ on my sin. 

In front of this merciful embrace-and I continue along the lines of Giussani's thought-we feel a real desire to respond, to change, to correspond; a new morality arises. We posit the ethical problem, an ethics which is born of the encounter, of this encounter which we have described up to now. Christian morality is not a titanic effort of the will, the effort of someone who decides to be consistent and succeeds, a solitary challenge in the face of the world. No. Christian morality is simply a response. It is the heartfelt response to a surprising, unforeseeable, "unjust" mercy (I shall return to this adjective). The surprising, unforeseeable, "unjust" mercy, using purely human criteria, of one who knows me, knows my betrayals and loves me just the same, appreciates me, embraces me, calls me again, hopes in me, and expects from me. This is why the Christian conception of morality is a revolution; it is not a never falling down but an always getting up again. 

As we shall see, this authentic, in a Christian sense, conception of morality which Giussani presents has nothing to do with the spiritualistic-type quietisms of which the shelves of the religious supermarkets of today are full. Trickery. Nor with the Pelagianism so fashionable today in its different, sophisticated manifestations. Pelagianism, underneath it all, is a remake of the Tower of Babel. The spiritualistic quietisms are efforts at prayer and immanent spirituality which never go beyond themselves. 

Jesus is encountered, just as 2,000 years ago, in a human presence, the Church, the company of those whom He assimilates to Himself, His Body, the sign and sacrament of His Presence. Reading this book, one is amazed and filled with admiration at the sight of such a personal and profound relationship with Jesus, and thinks it is unlikely to happen to him. When people say to Fr. Giussani, "How brave one has to be to say 'Yes' to Christ!" or, "This objection comes to my mind: it is evident that Fr. Giussani loves Jesus and I don't love Him in the same way," Giussani answers, "Why do you oppose what you think you don't have to what you think I have? I have this yes, only this, and it would not cost you one iota more than it costs me.... Say "Yes" to Jesus. If I foresaw that tomorrow I would offend Him a thousand times, I would still say it." Thérèse of Lisieux says almost exactly the same thing: "I say it, because if I did not say 'Yes' to Jesus I could not say 'Yes' to the stars in the sky or to your hair, the hairs on your head..." Nothing could be simpler: "I don't know how it is, I don't know how it might be: I know that I have to say 'Yes.' I can't not say it," and reasonably; that is to say, at every moment in his reflections in this book, Giussani has recourse to the reasonableness of experience. 

It is a question of starting to say "You" to Christ, and saying it often. It is impossible to desire it without asking for it. And if someone starts to ask for it, then he begins to change. Besides, if someone asks for it, it is because in the depths of his being he feels attracted, called, looked at, awaited. This is the experience of Augustine: there from the depths of my being, something attracts me toward Someone who looked for me first, is waiting for me first, is the almond flower of the prophets, the first to bloom in spring. It is the quality which God possesses and which I take the liberty of defining by using a Buenos Aires word: God, in this case Jesus Christ, always primerea, goes ahead of us. When we arrive, He is already there waiting. 

He who encounters Jesus Christ feels the impulse to witness Him or to give witness of what he has encountered, and this is the Christian calling. To go and give witness. You can't convince anybody. The encounter occurs. You can prove that God exists, but you will never be able, using the force of persuasion, to make anyone encounter God. This is pure grace. Pure grace. In history, from its very beginning until today, grace always primerea, grace always comes first, then comes all the rest.

Pope Francis - another way

4:07

Pope Francis interviews

A couple of interviews with Pope Francis, (2012 and 2007)

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/america-latina-latin-america-america-latina-12945/

http://www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_16457_l3.htm

and his Lenten Letter 2013:

http://jmgarciaiii.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/cdl-bergoglios-lenten-letter-2013.html

a pope from our hemisphere

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Full Text Of Pope Francis' Speech

"Good evening.

As you know, the duty of the conclave was to appoint a bishop of Rome, and it seems to me that my brother cardinals have chosen who is from far away. Here I am.

I would like to thank you for your embrace, also to the Roman Catholic Church and the bishops, thank you very much. And first and foremost, I would like to pray for our bishop emeritus, Benedict XVI

Let us pray together for him so that he is blessed by the Lord...

Let us begin this journey together... this journey for the Roman Catholic Church. It is a journey of friendship, of love, of trust, and faith. Let us pray always for one another. Let us pray for the whole world. Let us have a big brotherhood.

I wish that this journey for the Church, which we will start today... will bear fruits for the evangelizing of this beautiful city.

I would like to offer you my blessing. But I would like to ask a favor first. I would like to pray to the Lord so that the prayer of the people blesses also the new pontiff. Let us pray in silence your prayer for me." 

Pope Francis' first words to the world.

discernment and conclave

Autumn's hope-filled path

We usually think of the beginning of March as the start of Autumn here in New Zealand. On Saturday I was at Waiau for confessions at the Church. Autumn has arrived in the Hurunui.

While we appreciate the colourful autumn decline in the trees, the autumn years of human life are not considered as attractive.

Perhaps this suggests that we can still read the language that the trees (and nature) is about life. Life moves to death, and from the dead winter branch comes the new life of spring. We do not fear death when the leaves begin to fall from the trees.

However we may have forgotten the language that the human body is about God. We taste death when the hair turns grey, the wrinkles deepen and the joints ache. We use lotions and potions to hide these 'signs of decline'.

Yet these 'signs of decline' are in fact reminders of the hope-filled journey we are making toward eternal happiness with God.

One of the great pieces of human poetry, studied by many of us at school, is John Keats "Ode to Autumn".

Take a moment to appreciate the beauty. Don't try to understand the poem, just relax and listen.