Sunday Mass at Lourdes- The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

On Sunday, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Pope Benedict said Mass in the meadow at the Shrine of Lourdes to conmemorate the 150th annyversary of the aparition of our Lady to Bernadette of Soubirous.

Dear Cardinals,
Dear Bishop Perrier,
Dear Brothers in the episcopate and the priesthood,
Dear pilgrims, brothers and sisters,

“Go and tell the priests that people should come here in procession, and that a chapel should be built here.” This is the message Bernadette received from the “beautiful lady” in the apparition of 2 March 1858. For 150 years, pilgrims have never ceased to come to the grotto of Massabielle to hear the message of conversion and hope which is addressed to them. And we have done the same; here we are this morning at the feet of Mary, the Immaculate Virgin, eager to learn from her alongside little Bernadette.

I would like to thank especially Bishop Jacques Perrier of Tarbes and Lourdes for the warm welcome he has given me, and for the kind words he has addressed to me. I greet the Cardinals, the Bishops, the priests, the deacons, the men and women religious, and all of you, dear Lourdes pilgrims, especially the sick. You have come in large numbers to make this Jubilee pilgrimage with me and to entrust your families, your relatives and friends, and all your intentions to Our Lady. My thanks go also to the civil and military Authorities who are here with us at this Eucharistic celebration.

“What a great thing it is to possess the Cross! He who possesses it possesses a treasure” (Saint Andrew of Crete, Homily X on the Exaltation of the Cross, PG 97, 1020). On this day when the Church’s liturgy celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Gospel you have just heard reminds us of the meaning of this great mystery: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that men might be saved (cf. Jn 3:16). The Son of God became vulnerable, assuming the condition of a slave, obedient even to death, death on a cross (cf. Phil 2:8). By his Cross we are saved. The instrument of torture which, on Good Friday, manifested God’s judgement on the world, has become a source of life, pardon, mercy, a sign of reconciliation and peace. “In order to be healed from sin, gaze upon Christ crucified!” said Saint Augustine (Treatise on Saint John, XII, 11). By raising our eyes towards the Crucified one, we adore him who came to take upon himself the sin of the world and to give us eternal life. And the Church invites us proudly to lift up this glorious Cross so that the world can see the full extent of the love of the Crucified one for all. She invites us to give thanks to God because from a tree which brought death, life has burst out anew. On this wood Jesus reveals to us his sovereign majesty, he reveals to us that he is exalted in glory. Yes, “Come, let us adore him!” In our midst is he who loved us even to giving his life for us, he who invites every human being to draw near to him with trust.

This is the great mystery that Mary also entrusts to us this morning, inviting us to turn towards her Son. In fact, it is significant that, during the first apparition to Bernadette, Mary begins the encounter with the sign of the Cross. More than a simple sign, it is an initiation into the mysteries of the faith that Bernadette receives from Mary. The sign of the Cross is a kind of synthesis of our faith, for it tells how much God loves us; it tells us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weaknesses and sins. The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us. It is this mystery of the universality of God’s love for men that Mary came to reveal here, in Lourdes. She invites all people of good will, all those who suffer in heart or body, to raise their eyes towards the Cross of Jesus, so as to discover there the source of life, the source of salvation.

The Church has received the mission of showing all people this loving face of God, manifested in Jesus Christ. Are we able to understand that in the Crucified One of Golgotha, our dignity as children of God, tarnished by sin, is restored to us? Let us turn our gaze towards Christ. It is he who will make us free to love as he loves us, and to build a reconciled world. For on this Cross, Jesus took upon himself the weight of all the sufferings and injustices of our humanity. He bore the humiliation and the discrimination, the torture suffered in many parts of the world by so many of our brothers and sisters for love of Christ. We entrust all this to Mary, mother of Jesus and our mother, present at the foot of the Cross.

In order to welcome into our lives this glorious Cross, the celebration of the Jubilee of Our Lady’s apparitions in Lourdes urges us to embark upon a journey of faith and conversion. Today, Mary comes to meet us, so as to show us the way towards a renewal of life for our communities and for each one of us. By welcoming her Son, whom she presents to us, we are plunged into a living stream in which the faith can rediscover new vigour, in which the Church can be strengthened so as to proclaim the mystery of Christ ever more boldly. Jesus, born of Mary, is the Son of God, the sole Saviour of all people, living and acting in his Church and in the world. The Church is sent everywhere in the world to proclaim this unique message and to invite people to receive it through an authentic conversion of heart. This mission, entrusted by Jesus to his disciples, receives here, on the occasion of this Jubilee, a breath of new life. After the example of the great evangelizers from your country, may the missionary spirit which animated so many men and women from France over the centuries, continue to be your pride and your commitment!

When we follow the Jubilee Way in the footsteps of Bernadette, we are reminded of the heart of the message of Lourdes. Bernadette is the eldest daughter of a very poor family, with neither knowledge nor power, and in poor health. Mary chose her to transmit her message of conversion, prayer and penance, which fully accord with words of Jesus: “What you have hidden from the wise and understanding, you have revealed to babes” (Mt 11:25). On their spiritual journey, Christians too are called to render fruitful the grace of their Baptism, to nourish themselves with the Eucharist, to draw strength from prayer so as to bear witness and to express solidarity with all their fellow human beings (cf. Homage to the Virgin Mary, Piazza di Spagna, 8 December 2007). It is therefore a genuine catechesis that is being proposed to us in this way, under Mary’s gaze. Let us allow her to instruct us too, and to guide us along the path that leads to the Kingdom of her Son!

In the course of her catechesis, the “beautiful lady” reveals her name to Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. Mary thereby discloses the extraordinary grace that she has received from God, that of having been conceived without sin, for “he has looked on his servant in her lowliness” (cf. Lk 1:48). Mary is the woman from this earth who gave herself totally to God, and who received the privilege of giving human life to his eternal Son. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let what you have said be done to me” (Lk 1:38). She is beauty transfigured, the image of the new humanity. By presenting herself in this way, in utter dependence upon God, Mary expresses in reality an attitude of total freedom, based upon the full recognition of her true dignity. This privilege concerns us too, for it discloses to us our own dignity as men and women, admittedly marked by sin, but saved in hope, a hope which allows us to face our daily life. This is the path which Mary opens up for man. To give oneself fully to God is to find the path of true freedom. For by turning towards God, man becomes himself. He rediscovers his original vocation as a person created in his image and likeness.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, the primary purpose of the shrine at Lourdes is to be a place of encounter with God in prayer and a place of service to our brothers and sisters, notably through the welcome given to the sick, the poor and all who suffer. In this place, Mary comes to us as a mother, always open to the needs of her children. Through the light which streams from her face, God’s mercy is made manifest. Let us allow ourselves to be touched by her gaze, which tells us that we are all loved by God and never abandoned by him! Mary comes to remind us that prayer which is humble and intense, trusting and persevering, must have a central place in our Christian lives. Prayer is indispensable if we are to receive Christ’s power. “People who pray are not wasting their time, even though the situation appears desperate and seems to call for action alone” (Deus Caritas Est, 36). To allow oneself to become absorbed by activity runs the risk of depriving prayer of its specifically Christian character and its true efficacy. The prayer of the Rosary, so dear to Bernadette and to Lourdes pilgrims, concentrates within itself the depths of the Gospel message. It introduces us to contemplation of the face of Christ. From this prayer of the humble, we can draw an abundance of graces.

The presence of young people at Lourdes is also an important element. Dear friends, gathered this morning around the World Youth Day Cross: when Mary received the angel’s visit, she was a young girl from Nazareth leading the simple and courageous life typical of the women of her village. And if God’s gaze focussed particularly upon her, trusting in her, Mary wants to tell you once more that not one of you is indifferent in God’s eyes. He directs his loving gaze upon each one of you and he calls you to a life that is happy and full of meaning. Do not allow yourselves to be discouraged by difficulties! Mary was disturbed by the message of the angel who came to tell her that she would become the Mother of the Saviour. She was conscious of her frailty in the face of God’s omnipotence. Nevertheless, she said “yes”, without hesitating. And thanks to her yes, salvation came into the world, thereby changing the history of mankind. For your part, dear young people, do not be afraid to say yes to the Lord’s summons when he invites you to walk in his footsteps. Respond generously to the Lord! Only he can fulfil the deepest aspirations of your heart. You have come to Lourdes in great numbers for attentive and generous service to the sick and to the other pilgrims, setting out in this way to follow Christ the servant. Serving our brothers and sisters opens our hearts and makes us available. In the silence of prayer, be prepared to confide in Mary, who spoke to Bernadette in a spirit of respect and trust towards her. May Mary help those who are called to marriage to discover the beauty of a genuine and profound love, lived as a reciprocal and faithful gift! To those among you whom he calls to follow him in the priesthood or the religious life, I would like to reiterate all the joy that is to be had through giving one’s life totally for the service of God and others. May Christian families and communities be places where solid vocations can come to birth and grow, for the service of the Church and the world!

Mary’s message is a message of hope for all men and women of our day, whatever their country of origin. I like to invoke Mary as the star of hope (Spe Salvi, 50). On the paths of our lives, so often shrouded in darkness, she is a beacon of hope who enlightens us and gives direction to our journey. Through her “yes”, through the generous gift of herself, she has opened up to God the gates of our world and our history. And she invites us to live like her in invincible hope, refusing to believe those who claim that we are trapped in the fatal power of destiny. She accompanies us with her maternal presence amid the events of our personal lives, our family lives, and our national lives. Happy are those men and women who place their trust in him who, at the very moment when he was offering his life for our salvation, gave us his Mother to be our own!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, in this land of France, the Mother of the Lord is venerated in countless shrines which thereby manifest the faith handed down from generation to generation. Celebrated in her Assumption, she is your country’s beloved patroness. May she always be honoured fervently in each of your families, in your religious communities and in your parishes! May Mary watch over all the inhabitants of your beautiful country and over the pilgrims who have come in such numbers from other countries to celebrate this Jubilee! May she be for all people the Mother who surrounds her children in their joys and their trials! Holy Mary, Mother of God, our Mother, teach us to believe, to hope and to love with you. Show us the way towards the kingdom of your Son Jesus! Star of the sea, shine upon us and lead us on our way! (cf. Spe Salvi, 50). Amen.

The following are his comments for the Angelus on Sunday. They were given at the close of Mass.

Dear Pilgrims, dear brothers and sisters!

Every day, praying the Angelus gives us the opportunity to meditate for a few moments, in the midst of all our activities, on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. At noon, when the first hours of the day are already beginning to weigh us down with fatigue, our availability and our generosity are renewed by the contemplation of Mary’s “yes”. This clear and unreserved “yes” is rooted in the mystery of Mary’s freedom, a total and entire freedom before God, completely separated from any complicity with sin, thanks to the privilege of her Immaculate Conception.

This privilege given to Mary, which sets her apart from our common condition, does not distance her from us, but on the contrary, it brings her closer. While sin divides, separating us from one another, Mary’s purity makes her infinitely close to our hearts, attentive to each of us and desirous of our true good. You see it here in Lourdes, as in all Marian shrines; immense crowds come thronging to Mary’s feet to entrust to her their most intimate thoughts, their most heartfelt wishes. That which many, either because of embarrassment or modesty, do not confide to their nearest and dearest, they confide to her who is all pure, to her Immaculate Heart: with simplicity, without frills, in truth. Before Mary, by virtue of her very purity, man does not hesitate to reveal his weakness, to express his questions and his doubts, to formulate his most secret hopes and desires. The Virgin Mary’s maternal love disarms all pride; it renders man capable of seeing himself as he is, and it inspires in him the desire to be converted so as to give glory to God.

Thus, Mary shows us the right way to come to the Lord. She teaches us to approach him in truth and simplicity. Thanks to her, we discover that the Christian faith is not a burden: it is like a wing which enables us to fly higher, so as to take refuge in God’s embrace.

The life and faith of believers make it clear that the grace of the Immaculate Conception given to Mary is not merely a personal grace, but a grace for all, a grace given to the entire people of God. In Mary, the Church can already contemplate what she is called to become. Every believer can contemplate, here and now, the perfect fulfilment of his or her own vocation. May each of you always remain full of thanksgiving for what the Lord has chosen to reveal of his plan of salvation through the mystery of Mary: a mystery in which we are involved most intimately since, from the height of the Cross which we celebrate and exalt today, it is revealed to us through the words of Jesus himself that his Mother is our Mother. Inasmuch as we are sons and daughters of Mary, we can profit from all the graces given to her; the incomparable dignity that came to her through her Immaculate Conception shines brightly over us, her children.

Here, close to the grotto, and in intimate communion with all the pilgrims present in Marian shrines and with all the sick in body and soul who are seeking relief, we bless the Lord for Mary’s presence among her people, and to her we address our prayer in faith:

"Holy Mary, you showed yourself here one hundred and fifty years ago to the young Bernadette, you ‘are the true fount of hope’ (Dante, Paradiso, XXXIII:12).

"Faithful pilgrims who have gathered here from every part of the world, we come once more to draw faith and comfort, joy and love, security and peace, from the source of your Immaculate Heart. Monstra Te esse Matrem. Show yourself a Mother for us all, O Mary! And give us Christ, the hope of the world! Amen."

Pope at the Esplanade des Invalides

On Saturday, the Holy Father said Mass for a crowd of over 250k at Paris' Esplanade des Invalides, home to many military monuments, including the church of St Louis de Invalides, where Napoleon Bonaparte is burried beneath the famed dome.

The Holy Father's homily:

Dear Cardinal Vingt-Trois,
Dear Cardinals and Brother Bishops,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Jesus Christ gathers us together in this remarkable place, in the heart of Paris, on this day when the universal Church commemorates Saint John Chrysostom, one of the great Doctors of the Church, who, by the witness of his life and his teaching, effectively has shown Christians the road to follow. I greet with joy all the Authorities who have welcomed me to this noble city, especially the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, whom I thank for the kind words addressed to me. I also greet all the Bishops, priests and deacons who have gathered around me for the celebration of Christ’s sacrifice. I thank all the government officials who are here with us this morning, especially the Prime Minister. I assure them of my fervent prayers for the success of their noble mission in the service of their fellow citizens.

In the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, we discover, in this Pauline year inaugurated on 28 June last, how much the counsels given by the Apostle remain important today. “Shun the worship of idols” (1 Cor 10:14), he writes to a community deeply marked by paganism and divided between adherence to the newness of the Gospel and the observance of former practices inherited from its ancestors. Shunning idols: for Paul’s contemporaries, this therefore meant ceasing to honour the divinities of Olympus, ceasing to offer them blood sacrifices. Shunning idols meant entering the school of the Old Testament Prophets, who denounced the human tendency to make false representations of God. As we read in Psalm 113, with regard to the statues of idols, they are merely “gold and silver, the work of human hands. They have mouths but they do not speak, they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear, they have nostrils but they do not smell” (Ps 113:4-5). Apart from the people of Israel, who had received the revelation of the one God, the ancient world was in thrall to the worship of idols. Strongly present in Corinth, the errors of paganism had to be denounced, for they constituted a powerful source of alienation and they diverted man from his true destiny. They prevented him from recognizing that Christ is the sole Saviour, the only one who points out to man the path to God.

This appeal to shun idols, dear brothers and sisters, is also pertinent today. Has not our modern world created its own idols? Has it not imitated, perhaps inadvertently, the pagans of antiquity, by diverting man from his true end, from the joy of living eternally with God? This is a question that all people, if they are honest with themselves, cannot help but ask. What is important in my life? What is my first priority? The word “idol” comes from the Greek and means “image”, “figure”, “representation”, but also “ghost”, “phantom”, “vain appearance”. An idol is a delusion, for it turns its worshipper away from reality and places him in the kingdom of mere appearances. Now, is this not a temptation in our own day – the only one we can act upon effectively? The temptation to idolize a past that no longer exists, forgetting its shortcomings; the temptation to idolize a future which does not yet exist, in the belief that, by his efforts alone, man can bring about the kingdom of eternal joy on earth! Saint Paul explains to the Colossians that insatiable greed is a form of idolatry (cf. 3:5), and he reminds his disciple Timothy that love of money is the root of all evil. By yielding to it, he explains, “some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs” (1 Tim 6:10). Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power and even for knowledge, diverted man from his true destiny?

Dear brothers and sisters, the question that today’s liturgy places before us finds an answer in the liturgy itself, which we have inherited from our fathers in faith, and notably from Saint Paul himself (cf. 1 Cor 11:23). In his commentary on this text, Saint John Chrysostom observes that Saint Paul severely condemns idolatry, which is a “grave fault”, a “scandal”, a real “plague” (Homily 24 on the First Letter to the Corinthians, 1). He immediately adds that this radical condemnation of idolatry is never a personal condemnation of the idolater. In our judgements, must we never confuse the sin, which is unacceptable, with the sinner, the state of whose conscience we cannot judge and who, in any case, is always capable of conversion and forgiveness. Saint Paul makes an appeal to the reason of his readers, to the reason of every human being – that powerful testimony to the presence of the Creator in the creature: “I speak as to sensible men; judge for yourselves what I say” (1 Cor 10:15). Never does God, of whom the Apostle is an authorized witness here, ask man to sacrifice his reason! Reason never enters into real contradiction with faith! The one God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – created our reason and gives us faith, proposing to our freedom that it be received as a precious gift. It is the worship of idols which diverts man from this perspective. Let us therefore ask God, who sees us and hears us, to help us purify ourselves from all idols, in order to arrive at the truth of our being, in order to arrive at the truth of his infinite being!

How do we reach God? How do we manage to discover or rediscover him whom man seeks at the deepest core of himself, even though he so often forgets him? Saint Paul asks us to make use not only of our reason, but above all our faith in order to discover him. Now, what does faith say to us? The bread that we break is a communion with the Body of Christ. The cup of blessing which we bless is a communion with the Blood of Christ. This extraordinary revelation comes to us from Christ and has been transmitted to us by the Apostles and by the whole Church for almost two thousand years: Christ instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist on the evening of Holy Thursday. He wanted his sacrifice to be presented anew, in an unbloody manner, every time a priest repeats the words of consecration over the bread and wine. Millions of times over the last twenty centuries, in the humblest chapels and in the most magnificent basilicas and cathedrals, the risen Lord has given himself to his people, thus becoming, in the famous expression of Saint Augustine, “more intimate to us than we are to ourselves” (cf. Confessions, III, 6, 11).

Brothers and sisters, let us give the greatest veneration to the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the Blessed Sacrament of the real presence of the Lord to his Church and to all humanity. Let us take every opportunity to show him our respect and our love! Let us give him the greatest marks of honour! Through our words, our silences, and our gestures, let us never allow our faith in the risen Christ, present in the Eucharist, to lose its savour in us or around us! As Saint John Chrysostom said magnificently, “Let us behold the ineffable generosity of God and all the good things that he enables us to enjoy, when we offer him this cup, when we receive communion, thanking him for having delivered the human race from error, for having brought close to him those who were far away, for having made, out of those who were without hope and without God in the world, a people of brothers, fellow heirs with the Son of God” (Homily 24 on the First Letter to the Corinthians, 1). “In fact”, he continues, “what is in the cup is precisely what flowed from his side, and it is of this that we partake” (ibid.). There is not only partaking and sharing, there is “union”, says the Doctor whose name means “golden mouth”.

The Mass is the sacrifice of thanksgiving par excellence, the one which allows us to unite our own thanksgiving to that of the Saviour, the Eternal Son of the Father. It also makes its own appeal to us to shun idols, for, as Saint Paul insists, “you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (1 Cor 10:21). The Mass invites us to discern what, in ourselves, is obedient to the Spirit of God and what, in ourselves, is attuned to the spirit of evil. In the Mass, we want to belong only to Christ and we take up with gratitude – with thanksgiving – the cry of the psalmist: “How shall I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?” (Ps 116:12). Yes, how can I give thanks to the Lord for the life he has given me? The answer to the psalmist’s question is found in the psalm itself, since the word of God responds graciously to its own questions. How else could we render thanks to the Lord for all his goodness to us if not by attending to his own words: “I will raise the cup of salvation, I will call on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116:13)?

To raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, is that not the very best way of “shunning idols”, as Saint Paul asks us to do? Every time the Mass is celebrated, every time Christ makes himself sacramentally present in his Church, the work of our salvation is accomplished. Hence to celebrate the Eucharist means to recognize that God alone has the power to grant us the fullness of joy and teach us true values, eternal values that will never pass away. God is present on the altar, but he is also present on the altar of our heart when, as we receive communion, we receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist. He alone teaches us to shun idols, the illusions of our minds.

Now, dear brothers and sisters, who can raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord in the name of the entire people of God, except the priest, ordained for this purpose by his Bishop? At this point, dear inhabitants of Paris and the outlying regions, but also those of you who have come from the rest of France and from neighbouring countries, allow me to issue an appeal, confident in the faith and generosity of the young people who are considering a religious or priestly vocation: do not be afraid! Do not be afraid to give your life to Christ! Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests at the heart of the Church! Nothing will ever replace a Mass for the salvation of the world! Dear young and not so young who are listening to me, do not leave Christ’s call unanswered. Saint John Chrysostom, in his Treatise on the Priesthood, showed how sluggish man could be in responding, but he is nonetheless the living example of God’s action at the heart of a human freedom that allows itself to be shaped by his grace.

Finally, if we turn to the words that Christ left us in his Gospel, we shall see that he himself taught us to shun idolatry, by inviting us to build our house “on rock” (Lk 6:48). Who is this rock, if not he himself? Our thoughts, our words and our actions acquire their true dimension only if we refer them to the Gospel message: “Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Lk 6:45). When we speak, do we seek the good of our interlocutor? When we think, do we seek to harmonize our thinking with God’s thinking? When we act, do we seek to spread the Love which gives us life? Saint John Chrysostom again says, “now, if we all partake of the same bread, and if we all become this same substance, why do we not show the same charity? Why, for the same reason, do we not become utterly one and the same? … O man, it is Christ who has come to seek you, you who were so far from him, in order to unite himself to you; and you, do you not wish to be united to your brother?” (Homily 24 on the First Letter to the Corinthians, no. 2).

Hope will always remain stronger than all else! The Church, built upon the rock of Christ, possesses the promises of eternal life, not because her members are holier than others, but because Christ made this promise to Peter: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). In this unfailing hope in God’s eternal presence to the souls of each of us, in this joy of knowing that Christ is with us until the end of time, in this power that the Holy Spirit gives to all those who let themselves be filled with him, I entrust you, dear Christians of Paris and France, to the powerful and merciful action of the God of love who died for us upon the Cross and rose victorious on Easter morning. To all people of good will who are listening to me, I say once more, with Saint Paul: Shun the worship of idols, do not tire of doing good!

May God our Father bring you to himself and cause the splendour of his glory to shine upon you! May the only Son of God, our master and brother, reveal to you the beauty of his risen face! May the Holy Spirit fill you with his gifts and grant you the joy of knowing the peace and light of the Most Holy Trinity, now and for ever! Amen!

Pope Benedict to the Jewish Community

After vespers on Friday night, the Holy Father addressed the Jewish community witht he folloing words:

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to receive you this afternoon. It is a happy circumstance that our meeting takes place on the eve of the weekly celebration of "Shabbat," the day that since time immemorial occupies such an outstanding place in the religious and cultural life of the people of Israel. Every pious Jew sanctifies the "Shabbat" by reading the Scriptures and reciting the psalms. Dear friends, as you know, Jesus' prayer was also nourished by the psalms. He went regularly to the Temple and to the synagogue. He spoke there on the Sabbath day. He wished to emphasize with what generosity God looks after man, also including the organization of time. Does not the Talmud Yoma (85b) state: "The Sabbath has been given to you, but you have not been given to the Sabbath?" Christ has asked the people of the Covenant to recognize always the unheard of grandeur and love of the Creator of all men. Dear friends, for reasons that unite us and for reasons that separates us, we must live and strengthen our fraternity. And we know that the bonds of fraternity are a continual invitation to know one another better and to respect one another.

By her very nature, the Catholic Church feels called to respect the Covenant established by God with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. She also places herself, in fact, in the eternal Covenant of the Almighty, who does not repent of his plan and respects the children of the Promise, children of the Covenant, as her beloved brothers in the faith. She repeats forcefully, through my voice, the words of the great Pope Pius XI, my venerated predecessor: "Spiritually, we are Semites" (Address to Belgian pilgrims, Sept. 6, 1938). Hence, the Church is opposed to all forms of anti-Semitism, of which there is no acceptable theological justification. Theologian Henri de Lubac, at a time "of darkness," as Pius XII said ("Summi Pontificatus," 20. 10. 1939), understood that to be anti-Semitic also meant to be anti-Christian (Cf. A new religious front, published in 1942 in: "Israel and the Christian Faith," p. 136). Once again I feel the duty to render moving homage to those who died unjustly and to those who have taken the trouble to see that the names of the victims remain present in the memory. God does not forget!

On an occasion such as this, I cannot but acknowledge the eminent role played by the Jews of France for the edification of the entire nation and their prestigious contribution to her spiritual patrimony. They have given -- and continue to give -- great figures to the world of politics, culture and art. I express my respect full of affection for each one of them and invoke fervently on all your families and all your communities a particular Blessing of the Lord of the times and of history, "Shabbat shalom!"

The Pope in France

Pope Benedict's homily on Friday evening's vespers Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral.

In full, B16's homily:

Dear Brother Cardinals and Bishops,
Reverend Canons of the Cathedral Chapter,
Reverend Chaplains of Notre-Dame,
Dear Priests and Deacons,
Dear Friends from Non-Catholic Churches and Ecclesial Communities,
Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Blessed be God who has brought us together in a place so dear to the heart of every Parisian and all the people of France! Blessed be God, who grants us the grace of offering him our evening prayer and giving him due praise in the very words which the Church’s liturgy inherited from the synagogue worship practised by Christ and his first disciples! Yes, blessed be God for coming to our assistance – in adiutorium nostrum – and helping us to offer him our sacrifice of praise!

We are gathered in the Mother Church of the Diocese of Paris, Notre-Dame Cathedral, which rises in the heart of the city as a living sign of God’s presence in our midst. My predecessor, Pope Alexander III, laid its first stone, and Popes Pius VII and John Paul II honoured it by their presence. I am happy to follow in their footsteps, a quarter of a century after coming here to offer a conference on catechesis. It is hard not to give thanks to the Creator of both matter and spirit for the beauty of this edifice. The Christians of Lutetia had originally built a cathedral dedicated to Saint Stephen, the first martyr; as time went on it became too small, and was gradually replaced, between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, by the great building we admire today. The faith of the Middle Ages built the cathedrals, and here your ancestors came to praise God, to entrust to him their hopes and to express their love for him. Great religious and civil events took place in this shrine, where architects, painters, sculptors and musicians have given the best of themselves. We need but recall, among so many others, the architect Jean de Chelles, the painter Charles Le Brun, the sculptor Nicolas Coustou and the organists Louis Vierne and Pierre Cochereau. Art, as a pathway to God, and choral prayer, the Church’s praise of the Creator, helped Paul Claudel, who attended Vespers here on Christmas Day 1886, to find the way to a personal experience of God. It is significant that God filled his soul with light during the chanting of the Magnificat, in which the Church listens to the song of the Virgin Mary, the Patroness of this church, who reminds the world that the Almighty has lifted up the lowly (cf. Lk 1:52). As the scene of other conversions, less celebrated but no less real, and as the pulpit from which preachers of the Gospel like Fathers Lacordaire, Monsabré and Samson transmitted the flame of their passion to the most varied congregations, Notre-Dame Cathedral rightly remains one of the most celebrated monuments of your country’s heritage. Following a tradition dating back to the time of Saint Louis, I have just venerated the relics of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns, which have now found a worthy home here, a true offering of the human spirit to the power of creative Love.

Beneath the vaults of this historic Cathedral, which witnesses to the ceaseless dialogue that God wishes to establish with all men and women, his word has just now echoed to become the substance of our evening sacrifice, as expressed in the offering of incense, which makes visible our praise of God. Providentially, the words of the Psalmist describe the emotion filling our souls with an exactness we could hardly have dared to imagine: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Ps 121:1). Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi: the Psalmist’s joy, brimming over in the very words of the Psalm, penetrates our hearts and resonates deeply within them. We truly rejoice to enter the house of the Lord, since, as the Fathers of the Church have taught us, this house is nothing other than a concrete symbol of Jerusalem on high, which comes down to us (cf. Rev 21:2) to offer us the most beautiful of dwelling-places. “If we dwell therein”, writes Saint Hilary of Poitiers, “we are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, for it is the house of God” (Tract. in Ps. 121:2). And Saint Augustine adds: “This is a psalm of longing for the heavenly Jerusalem … It is a Song of Steps, not for going down but for going up … On our pilgrimage we sigh, in our homeland we will rejoice; but during this exile, we meet companions who have already seen the holy city and urge us to run towards it” (En. in Ps. 121:2). Dear friends, during Vespers this evening, we are united in thought and prayer with the voices of the countless men and women who have chanted this psalm in this very place down the centuries. We are united with the pilgrims who went up to Jerusalem and to the steps of its Temple, and with the thousands of men and women who understood that their earthly pilgrimage was to end in heaven, in the eternal Jerusalem, trusting Christ to guide them there. What joy indeed, to know that we are invisibly surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses!

Our pilgrimage to the holy city would not be possible if it were not made in the Church, the seed and the prefiguration of the heavenly Jerusalem. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain” (Ps 126:1). Who is this Lord, if not our Lord Jesus Christ? It is he who founded his Church and built it on rock, on the faith of the Apostle Peter. In the words of Saint Augustine, “It is Jesus Christ our Lord who himself builds his temple. Many indeed labour to build, yet unless the Lord intervenes to build, in vain do the builders labour” (Tract. in Ps. 126:2). Dear friends, Augustine goes on to ask how we can know who these builders are, and his answer is this: “All those who preach God’s word in the Church, all who are ministers of God’s divine Sacraments. All of us run, all of us work, all of us build”, yet it is God alone who, within us, “builds, exhorts, and inspires awe; who opens our understanding and guides our minds to faith” (ibid.). What marvels surround our work in the service of God’s word! We are instruments of the Holy Spirit; God is so humble that he uses us to spread his word. We become his voice, once we have listened carefully to the word coming from his mouth. We place his word on our lips in order to bring it to the world. He accepts the offering of our prayer and through it he communicates himself to everyone we meet. Truly, as Paul tells the Ephesians, “he has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (1:3), for he has chosen us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, and he made us his elect, even before we came into existence, by a mysterious gift of his grace.

God’s Word, the Eternal Word, who was with him from the beginning (cf. Jn 1:1), was born of a woman, born a subject of the law, in order to redeem the subjects of the law, “to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (cf. Gal 4:4-5). The Son of God took flesh in the womb of a woman, a virgin. Your cathedral is a living hymn of stone and light in praise of that act, unique in the annals of human history: the eternal Word of God entering our history in the fulness of time to redeem us by his self-offering in the sacrifice of the Cross. Our earthly liturgies, entirely ordered to the celebration of this unique act within history, will never fully express its infinite meaning. Certainly, the beauty of our celebrations can never be sufficiently cultivated, fostered and refined, for nothing can be too beautiful for God, who is himself infinite Beauty. Yet our earthly liturgies will never be more than a pale reflection of the liturgy celebrated in the Jerusalem on high, the goal of our pilgrimage on earth. May our own celebrations nonetheless resemble that liturgy as closely as possible and grant us a foretaste of it!

Even now the word of God is given to us as the soul of our apostolate, the soul of our priestly life. Each morning the word awakens us. Each morning the Lord himself “opens our ear” (cf. Is 50:5) through the psalms in the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer. Throughout the day, the word of God becomes the substance of the prayer of the whole Church, as she bears witness in this way to her fidelity to Christ. In the celebrated phrase of Saint Jerome, to be taken up in the XII Assembly of the Synod of Bishops next month: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (Prol. in Is.). Dear brother priests, do not be afraid to spend much time reading and meditating on the Scriptures and praying the Divine Office! Almost without your knowing it, God’s word, read and pondered in the Church, acts upon you and transforms you. As the manifestation of divine Wisdom, if that word becomes your life “companion”, it will be your “good counsellor” and an “encouragement in cares and grief” (Wis 8:9).

“The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword”, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us (4:12). Dear seminarians, who are preparing to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders and thus to share in the threefold office of teaching, governing and sanctifying, this word is given to you as a precious treasure. By meditating on it daily, you will enter into the very life of Christ which you will be called to radiate all around you. By his word, the Lord Jesus instituted the Holy Sacrament of his Body and Blood; by his word, he healed the sick, cast out demons and forgave sins; by his word, he revealed to us the hidden mysteries of his Kingdom. You are called to become stewards of this word which accomplishes what it communicates. Always cultivate a thirst for the word of God! Thus you will learn to love everyone you meet along life’s journey. In the Church everyone has a place, everyone! Every person can and must find a place in her.

And you, dear deacons, effective co-workers of the Bishops and priests, continue to love the word of God! You proclaim the Gospel at the heart of the Eucharistic celebration, and you expound it in the catechesis you offer to your brothers and sisters. Make the Gospel the centre of your lives, of your service to your neighbours, of your entire diakonia. Without seeking to take the place of priests, but assisting them with your friendship and your activity, may you be living witnesses to the infinite power of God’s word!

In a particular way, men and women religious and all consecrated persons draw life from the Wisdom of God expressed in his word. The profession of the evangelical counsels has configured you, dear consecrated persons, to Christ, who for our sakes became poor, obedient and chaste. Your only treasure – which, to tell the truth, will alone survive the passage of time and the curtain of death – is the word of the Lord. It is he who said: “Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will not pass away” (Mt 24:35). Your obedience is, etymologically, a “hearing”, for the word obey comes from the Latin obaudire, meaning to turn one’s ear to someone or something. In obeying, you turn your soul towards the one who is the Way, and the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6), and who says to you, as Saint Benedict taught his monks: “Hear, my child, the teaching of the Master, and hearken to it with all your heart” (Prologue to the Rule of Saint Benedict). Finally, let yourselves be purified daily by him who said: “Every branch that bears fruit my Father prunes, to make it bear more fruit” (Jn 15:2). The purity of God’s word is the model for your own chastity, ensuring its spiritual fruitfulness.

With unfailing confidence in the power of God, who has saved us “in hope” (cf. Rom 8:24) and who wishes to make of us one flock under the guidance of one shepherd, Christ Jesus, I pray for the unity of the Church. I greet once again with respect and affection the representatives of the Christian Churches and ecclesial communities who, as our brothers and sisters, have come to pray Vespers together with us in this cathedral. So great is the power of God’s word that we can all be entrusted to it, remembering what Saint Paul once did, our privileged intercessor during this year. As Paul took leave of the presbyters of Ephesus at Miletus, he did not hesitate to entrust them “to God and to the word of his grace” (Acts 20:32), while warning them against every form of division. I implore the Lord to increase within us the sense of this unity of the word of God, which is the sign, pledge and guarantee of the unity of the Church: there is no love in the Church without love of the word, no Church without unity around Christ the Redeemer, no fruits of redemption without love of God and neighbour, according to the two commandments which sum up all of Sacred Scripture!

Dear brothers and sisters, in Our Lady we have the finest example of fidelity to God’s word. Her great fidelity found fulfilment in the Incarnation; with absolute confidence, Mary can say: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word!” (Lk 1:38). Our evening prayer is about to take up the Magnificat, the song of her whom all generations will call blessed. Mary believed in the fulfilment of the words the Lord had spoken to her (cf. Lk 1:45); she hoped against all hope in the resurrection of her Son; and so great was her love for humanity that she was given to us as our Mother (cf. Jn 19:27). Thus we see that “Mary is completely at home with the word of God; with ease she moves in and out of it. She speaks and thinks with the word of God; the word of God becomes her word, and her word issues from the word of God” (Deus Caritas Est, 41). To her, then, we can say with confidence: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, our Mother, teach us to believe, to hope, to love with you. Show us the way to his Kingdom!” (Spe Salvi, 50). Amen.

Pope's Apostolic Visit to France

The Holy Father arrived in France earlier today.

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 10, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will pray
at the feet of Our Lady of Lourdes for the Church, the sick and for peace in the
world when he visits the Marian shrine this weekend.

The Pope said this
at the end of today's general audience in a message directed to the people of
France. The Pope will travel Friday-Monday to Paris and Lourdes. His visit to
the Marian shrine takes place in the context of the 150th anniversary of
apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette Soubirous.

"I go as a messenger of peace and fraternity," he said in the message. "Your
country is not unknown to me. On several occasions I have had the joy to visit
it and to appreciate its generous tradition of hospitality and tolerance, as
well as the solidity of its Christian faith and its lofty human and spiritual
culture."

The Pontiff underlined that he is traveling to France to visit Lourdes as a
pilgrim: "After visiting Paris, your country's capital, I will have the great
joy to join the crowd of pilgrims who are going to follow the stages of the
jubilee journey, after St. Bernadette, to the Massabielle grotto.

"My prayer will intensify at the feet of Our Lady for the intentions of the
whole Church, in particular for the sick, the abandoned, as well as for peace in
the world."

"May Mary be for all of you," he added, "in particular for young people, the
Mother always attentive to the needs of her children, a light of hope that
illuminates and guides your ways."

"I invite you to join me in prayer," the Holy Father said, "so that this trip
will bring abundant fruits."

Below is a short video produced by CNA that gives a good introduction to Lourdes.

Helping Boys Become Men

By Carrie Gress

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan, SEPT. 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Boys who never feel they have been accepted and affirmed by a male authority figure may spend the rest of their lives proving to themselves and others that they are worthy of approval, says author and teen-health expert Dr. Meg Meeker.

Meeker, who has practiced pediatric and adolescent medicine, as well as teen counseling, is the author of "Boys Should Be Boys: 7 Secrets to Raising Healthy Sons," from Regnery Publishing. She also wrote "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know."

In this interview with ZENIT, Meeker talks about the important roles of mother, fathers, play and faith in raising healthy sons.

Q: What made you write this book and for whom is it written?

Meeker: After the release of "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters," I was overwhelmed by many men's response to the positive nature of the book. In short, many wrote and said, "Thank you for saying something positive about us." I realized that there was a strong anti-male sentiment in America, but I didn't realize the depth and breadth of it.

I also realized that if men felt such negativity directed toward them, that this very negativity must have trickled down into the lives of younger men and boys. I wanted to find out. So, I began research on boys, and lo and behold, I realized some alarming things that are happening to them.

For instance, I found that a lower percentage of boys graduate from high school and college than girls. They are also seven times more likely to be diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder than girls and are much more frequently labeled as learning disabled, or troubled, than girls -- particularly in the early elementary school years.

I wrote this book to parents, educators, grandparents and anyone who loves boys, in order to sound the alarm that we need to be paying closer attention to how our boys are being influenced, spoken to, educated and raised.

We have too long championed girls' successes in academics and athletics and boys have been neglected. In fact, they have become casualties of the war, if you will, to further the cause of girls and women and have been losing out for a good 20 years now.

Q: In the book, you say that it takes a real man to raise a real man. What do you mean by this?

Meeker: During the early elementary school years and up until puberty, boys bond more closely with their mothers. They receive emotional support, encouragement and spend more time with their mothers than their fathers, typically. This is normal and quite healthy.

When a boy enters puberty, his sexuality begins to flourish, his masculinity becomes better defined and he begins to carve out his identity as a man in a keener way. Because of this process, he separates himself from his mother; the great Bruno Bettelheim used to say that a boy "kills off" his mother emotionally, because he needs to assert his independence as a man. This transition is painful for mothers because boys often act surly and angry toward them -- not because they no longer love their mothers, but because they need to loosen their dependence on a female figure.

But because boys are still young, they need an authority figure to whom they can attach. Boys look to men for emotional attachment and intellectual and behavioral emulation. They need to see what it looks like to behave like a man, love like a man and work like a man. Boys are visual creatures and they need to see certain masculine behaviors with their own eyes in order to internalize those behaviors.

Boys also need affirmation from a father in order to feel good about their own masculinity. Affirmation regarding their manhood that comes from a mother just doesn't cut it in their eyes. This occurs in part because fathers carry an authority in their sons' eyes that mothers don't. This doesn't mean that mothers are less important, but they provide different things to sons and carry out different roles.

Q: What is the idea of a "blessing" that a son needs from his father?

Meeker: Every boy needs to receive a "blessing," as Gary Smalley writes, from his father. He needs to hear with his ears, see with his eyes and believe in his heart, that the person who he is, is good enough in his father's eyes. Every boy wants his father to give him a sense of male acceptance, affirmation and affection.

Boys who don't receive this from their fathers will spend decades trying to prove to themselves and to others that their actions, accomplishments and their characters are worthy of their father's approval. Hundreds of thousands of men live desperately trying to prove to themselves that they are worthy of the blessing because their fathers never dispensed it.

Q: What is the balancing role mothers play in their son's lives?

Meeker: Mothers provide a sense of emotional safety to boys, whereas fathers provide clear moral boundaries and rules. Boys tend to feel that they have to work harder to please fathers than mothers. But it is also important to realize that boys need approval and affirmation from both parents -- these just mean different things to boys.

Mothers also help boys learn an emotional language, if you will. Since mothers are usually more verbose and comfortable talking about feelings, many mothers help boys learn to identify and express their feelings better than fathers do.

Where a father may teach a young man to "buck up and be a man," a mother will encourage the same son to talk things out. She will often provide a safety net wherein a boy can cry, be angry, laugh or be frustrated, while the boy's father may openly discourage him from expressing any emotion at all, insinuating that he is weak if he does so.

Q: You encourage boys to play "war" and competitive types of sports, including chess. What is it about these types of games that are important for a boy to become a strong man?

Meeker: Games -- excluding electronic games -- provide tremendous outlets for boys. During outdoor play, boys can work our their fears, aggressions and frustrations, and even answer questions they have about themselves and life. For instance, in war games, a boy can become the aggressor or the victim. He can pretend to be the smartest general, outwitting all other leaders and show his "opponents" that he is not to be messed with. He can see what it feels like to be a variety of different people and thus transfer any fears he may harbor onto those characters and work them out. This helps him build character.

The key to games like outdoor pretend games, indoor board games, athletic games, etc., is the element of participation. Electronic games do not provide the opportunity for boys to participate to the same degree because they are passive forms of entertainment. Also, video games demand less imagination and require little, if any, team cooperation. Nothing substitutes real-life games for boys.

As boys mature, they need to understand a sense of mastery. Each boy must figure out what he is good at and have a sense that he can accomplish goals and be better than his peers at some things. He cannot figure this out through entertainment, only through physical participation in games and sport.

Every man must have a sense of accomplishment and aptitude at something because work, career and accomplishments in a man's life comprise a large part of a man's identity, more so than they do in a woman's life. Competition helps boys figure out their aptitudes.

Q: What role do you think belief in God plays for boys? How is this different from girls or adults?

Meeker: Many believe that boys are less sensitive than girls, simply because they use far fewer words to express themselves than girls do. I find this belief to be false. In fact, in my experience, many high-school boys are more sensitive than their female peers. When it comes to spiritual issues, boys are regarded in a similar vein as emotional issues. Some perceive that boys are less open to learning about God than girls are. Again, I find this not to be the case.

God plays an enormous part in the lives of boys who are believers. For instance, God, science shows, is "good" for boys. Boys who have faith are much less likely to take drugs, have sex, drink alcohol and suffer from depression than those boys who don't. When we think about the mindset of boys, this makes a lot of sense. Boys tend to be more problem-oriented, pragmatic thinkers than girls. Thus, boys respond well to a God who has a specific plan for them and who identifies a clear moral code of behavior.

In addition, boys identify more strongly than girls with the male figure of Jesus and to the image of God as father. Since they are male, boys can attach to them. This is extremely important for all boys, but particularly for boys who grow up without a father around. The life of Christ and the understanding of God as father, gives boys a tangible male role model to emulate.

More importantly, belief in God allows boys to receive male love that they may never have gotten from their own fathers. Boys fare very poorly without this male influence because they need to know that another male, whom they love and admire, values them and loves them. Since girls don't identify with the masculinity of God, they don't feel that they need to emulate him the same way that boys do. Of course we all want to follow Christ, but boys and girls do it differently.

I have literally sat with young boys who state that they cannot identify any man in their lives who loves them. For those boys, God and Christ many times are the only influence of male love that they receive. And without any experience of male love, boys suffer deeply while their identity, sexuality, ability to have healthy self-esteem and to love others are greatly affected.

God provides boys a perfect male love when very often, none other can be found, changing the course of a boy's life.

PRIESTS: REVIVE THE CHARISM YOU RECEIVED EVERY DAY

VATICAN CITY, 7 SEP 2008 (VIS) - At 5 p.m. today in the cathedral of Cagliari, Italy, the Pope met with priests, seminarians and students of the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Sardinia.

The Holy Father called on the formators and professors to guide their pupils "to a daily personal experience of God through individual and community prayer, and above all through the Eucharist, celebrated and experienced as the centre of existence".

Theological formation, he told the seminarians and students of the theological faculty, "must lead you to achieve a 'complete and unitary' vision of revealed truths and of their assimilation into the Church's experience of faith. From here arises the dual need to know the totality of Christian truths and to know them not as separate from one another, but in an organic way, as a unit, as a single truth of faith in God".

Benedict XVI highlighted the "great flowering of religious vocations among women, of which Sardinia is a true incubator". Without them, he said, "it would have been more difficulty to spread Christ's love in villages, in families, in schools, in hospitals, in prisons and in workplaces. This heritage of good has been accumulating thanks to their dedication!"

Turning to address priests, the Pope assured them of his "spiritual proximity" to help them "respond to the call of the Lord with complete faithfulness as some of your confreres have done, even recently". In this context, he mentioned Fr. Graziano Muntoni, murdered on Christmas Eve 1998 while on his way to celebrate Mass, and Fr. Battore Carzedda of the P.I.M.E., who gave his life "so that believers in all religions may open to a sincere dialogue founded upon love".

The Pope went on: "Do not be afraid of or discouraged by difficulties. ... It is important you become grains of good wheat which, falling to earth, bring forth fruit". Priests "must authoritatively proclaim the Word, renew gestures of forgiveness and giving, and exercise loving solicitude in the service of their flock, in communion with pastors and faithfully compliant to the teachings of the Magisterium".

The Holy Father concluded by calling on priests "daily to revive the charism you received with the imposition of hands, identifying yourselves with Jesus Christ in His triple function of sanctifying, tending and feeding the flock".

The Marian Papacy of Benedict XVI

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.

By conventional standards, Jesus’ mother is not a major figure in the New Testament. Her name appears barely a dozen times; famously, Mary is mentioned more often in the Qur’an than in the Christian Bible. Yet despite that relatively low profile, few figures in Scripture have been the subject of greater controversy.

For some Protestants, Mary has long loomed as a symbol of Catholicism’s penchant for “adding” to the gospel, in this case an almost blasphemous level of devotion to a mere human being. For some feminists, veneration of Mary as both virgin and mother sets an impossible standard for women, thereby perpetuating male dominance. For many secularists, the body of miraculous lore surrounding Mary, especially her reported apparitions in various parts of the world, strains credibility in a special way.

In part, perhaps, Mary has been a lightning rod precisely because she is such a uniquely Catholic figure. Catholics share Christ, the gospels, prayer and sacrifice, even the sacraments, with many other forms of Christianity. Yet even though other Christians treasure Mary in their own ways, she is strongly associated in the popular imagination with the Catholic church.

Mary’s centrality in Catholic tradition may help explain why the last two popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, have been so committed to reawakening Marian devotion in the church. For both popes, defending Catholic identity in a highly secular age has been job number one, and nothing says ‘Catholic’ quite like the Blessed Virgin Mary.

John Paul’s motto was Totus Tuus, “all yours,” a phrase from the book True Devotion to Mary by the 17th and 18th century French saint Louis de Montfort. As for Benedict XVI, so far he’s made nine foreign trips, and virtually all have pivoted on a major Marian shrine. While in Brazil, for example, Benedict went to the shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida; the heart of his trip to Austria was a stop at the sanctuary of Mariazell.

Once again next week, Benedict will be at a major Marian center to mark an important occasion, in this case the 150th anniversary of the first appearance of Mary to St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes.

Thus for Benedict, the pilgrimage to Lourdes is not a largely obligatory act of piety, one that represents a sideshow to his session with French President Nicolas Sarkozy or his efforts to revitalize the French church. Instead, Mary is very much the beating heart of this trip – and, for that matter, of much of Benedict’s papacy.

Over the weekend, Benedict offered a preview of his message in Lourdes during a brief stop at another Marian shrine – Our Lady of Bonaria, on the Italian island of Sardinia. (Our Lady of Bonaria is the traditional patron of sailors in the Mediterranean; Spanish conquistadores named the capital of Argentina for her, Buenos Aires.)

In summary, the pope made five points about Mary in Sardinia, which are likely to surface again while he’s at Lourdes:

• Mary points to Christ, above all to his incarnation.
• Mary is a symbol of the beauty and tenderness of God.
• Mary is a forerunner and a model for all disciples of Christ.
• Mary is a model for mothers, children and spouses, and thus a patron of the family.
• Mary is the “star of the new evangelization,” a patron for efforts to bring Christ to the world.

Benedict encouraged the Sardinians to renew their Marian traditions, not merely as a matter of preserving local culture, but also because of the importance of Mary in Catholic theology and spirituality.

“The role of Mary in salvation history stands out in all its clarity: the being of Mary is totally relative to Christ, in particular to his incarnation,” Benedict said in his homily at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria. “Respecting everything human, God makes it fecund from within, causing the most beautiful fruit of his creative and redemptive work to bloom from the humble virgin of Nazareth.”

“Thus we can, once again, contemplate the place of Mary in God’s plan for salvation,” the pope said. “She is, in fact, in Christ, the summit and model of ‘those who love God.’ In the ‘here I am’ of the Son, we find a faithful echo of the ‘here I am’ of his mother, as well as the ‘here I am’ of all the adoptive children of the Son.”

In a nod to local devotion, Benedict cited a line from a Marian hymn in the Sardinian dialect: Sa Mama, Fiza, Isposa de su Segnore, referring to Mary as a mother, daughter, and spouse.

“May Mary help you to carry Christ to families, small domestic churches and the building blocks of society, which today more than ever need faith and support both on the spiritual and the social level,” the pope said.

“May Mary help you find the right pastoral strategies to help young people encounter Christ,” Benedict said. “Youth by their nature carry new energy, but are often the victims of a widespread nihilism. They are thirsty for truth and for ideals, precisely when both seem to be denied.”

Finally, Benedict urged the Sardinians to turn to Mary as a patron of efforts to evangelize the world – not just in terms of making disciples, but also bringing Christian values to society and public life.

“May she make you capable of evangelizing the world of work, of the economy, of politics,” Benedict said, “all of which today need a new generation of committed lay Christians, capable of seeking, with competence and moral rigor, solutions to sustainable development.”

Benedict’s Marian leitmotif illustrates a by-now familiar theme of his papacy.

In contrast to those who regard traditional piety and doctrine as a distraction from building a better world, Benedict insists that shoring up classic Catholic identity is not merely a means, but ultimately the only means, of fostering durable peace and justice. In the final analysis, in his view, a world without God, who is revealed in Christ, cannot be just – and Mary is the ultimate witness to Christ, as well as the role model par excellence for all who wish to follow Christ.

Like John Paul before him, Benedict XVI seems determined to lead a deeply Marian papacy. That will almost certainly be the story of his visit to Lourdes, whether or not it shows up in the headlines.

September 5: Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Eleven years ago the world mourned the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her funeral was attended by thousands and watched by millions including myself, (eventhough it was televised live at 3 AM Pacific Standard Time). Thousands of miles away and only 19 years old, I too felt the sadness and mourning that the world felt at her passing.



Next to the pope, she was perhaps the most recognized Catholic in the last century and her appeal reached beyong Catholicism. Mother Teresa inpired many to a life permeated by love for justice, tender care and humility. Her biggest appeal is that she practiced exactly what she preached.


There is a photo of John Paul and Mother Teresa embracing that speaks volumes on the lives of these two extraordinary figures. Faith, hope and love come to a poignant embodiment in that simple embrace. Never one to shy away from the public light, she never missed an opportunity to challenge and uncomfort our society. Saint, prophet, and friend of God.

May she continue to insire us with her example and her words:

• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved -- they are Jesus in disguise.
• Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.
• Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.
• The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not a mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.
• If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.
• Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best.
• Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.
• We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.
• Nakedness is not only for a piece of clothing; nakedness is lack of human dignity, and also that beautiful virtue of purity, and lack of that respect for each other.
• There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.
• There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.There is only one God and He is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God. I've always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic.
• If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.
• It is a poverty to decide that an unborn child must die so that you may live as you like.
• If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve.
• We can do no great things; only small things with great love.
• I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.
• Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.
• I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?
• Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
  God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.
• Despite giving your best to the world, you may be kicked in the teeth. Give the best you've got anyway.
• Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give them peace and joy.
• Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.
• Well, let's do something beautiful for God.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pray for Us.

THE MEETING WITH THE RISEN CHRIST CHANGED PAUL'S LIFE

VATICAN CITY, 3 SEP 2008 (VIS) - This morning Benedict XVI travelled from Castelgandolfo to the Vatican for his weekly general audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall. Continuing the series of catechesis on St. Paul, he today focused on the conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

The Holy Father recalled how "the decisive moment of Paul's life came on the road to Damascus in the early 30s of the first century, following a period in which he persecuted the Church".

In order to understand what happened to the Apostle as he travelled to Damascus "we have two sources" the Pope explained. "The first and most popular are the accounts written by Luke, who narrates the event three times in the Acts of the Apostles". The details the Evangelist chooses to highlight - the light from the sky, Paul's fall to the earth, his blindness - "relate to the core of what happened", said the Holy Father, "the Risen Christ appears as a splendid light that speaks to Saul, transforming his mind and his life. ... This meeting with Christ, which is the focus of St. Luke's account, profoundly changed Paul's life, and in this sense we can and must speak of a true conversion".

Benedict XVI then went on to explain that "the second source are the Letters of St. Paul himself". The Apostle "never spoke of the particulars of the event, perhaps because he believed that everyone knew its essential details: everyone knew that from being a persecutor he had been transformed into a fervent apostle of Christ, the result not of his own reflections but of a tremendous event, a meeting with the Risen One".

In certain of his writings the Apostle of the Gentiles "highlights how the apparition of the Risen Christ - of which he himself was a true witness - is the foundation of his apostolate, ... the foundation of his new life", said the Pope.

Yet, Pope Benedict went on, "St. Paul did not consider the event as a conversion. And the reason", he explained, "is very clear: this transformation of his life was not the result of a psychological process, of an intellectual or moral evolution, ... but the fruit of his meeting with Christ Jesus. ... St. Paul's renewal cannot be explained in any other way. Psychological analyses cannot clarify and resolve the problem; only an event, the forceful encounter with Christ, is the key to understanding what happened".

For us, the Holy Father concluded, Christianity "is not a new philosophy or a new form of morality. We are only Christians if we encounter Christ, even if He does not reveal Himself to us as clearly and irresistibly as he did to Paul in making him the Apostle of the Gentiles. We can also encounter Christ in reading Holy Scripture, in prayer, and in the liturgical life of the Church - touch Christ's heart and feel that Christ touches ours. And it is only in this personal relationship with Christ, in this meeting with the Risen One, that we are truly Christian".
AG/ST. PAUL/...VIS 080903 (530)

Really?

Father Antonio Rungi says his plans have been 'deliberately misinterpreted' (SNAP / Rex Features) Richard Owen in Rome

An Italian priest who at the weekend launched an online "beauty pageant" for nuns has been forced to cancel it because it had been "misunderstood".

Father Antonio Rungi, from Caserta near Naples, said he had "many" requests from nuns to take part in the contest, "Sister Italia 2008", which was due to start on his blog next month (September), with nuns posting photographs and readers sending in votes.

When announcing the scheme Father Rungi said many younger nuns in Italy were attractive, especially those from Africa and Latin America, although the idea was also to reflect "chaste, inner beauty" and explain the conduct of religious life in convents.

However some people had "deliberately misinterpreted an innocent initiative", Father Rungi said, and he had received a flood of abusive emails. "One of them told me I would end up in Hell". He said the idea had caused "too much commotion", and he had temporarily taken down his blog.

Art devoid of beauty...

ROME (Aug. 28) - An art museum in northern Italy said Thursday it will continue displaying a sculpture portraying a green frog nailed to a cross that has angered Pope Benedict XVI and local officials. The board of the foundation of the Museion in the city of Bolzano voted to keep the work by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger, the museum said in a statement.

Earlier in August the pope had written a letter to Franz Pahl, the president of the Trentino-Alto Adige region that includes Bolzano, denouncing the sculpture. It "has offended the religious feelings of many people who consider the cross a symbol of God's love and of our redemption," Pahl quoted the pope as writing in the letter. Pahl himself has long opposed the display of "Zuerst die Fuesse" ("First the Feet" in German), even staging a hunger strike this summer and saying he would not seek re-election unless it was removed. In a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Pahl said he was outraged by the museum's decision to keep the work, which he claims "pokes fun at the Catholic population and offends religion and the pope." The 1990 wooden sculpture shows the crucified frog nailed through the feet and hands like Jesus Christ. The frog, eyes popping and tongue sticking out, wears a loincloth and holds a mug of beer and an egg in its hands. The museum said the 3-foot-tall sculpture has nothing to do with religion, but is an ironic self-portrait of the artist and an expression of his angst. "With humor and a tragicomic sense, which belongs to art since the times of Greek tragedy, Kippenberger ... faces his condition of suffering, which he expresses in many works, also, for example, in a video in which he crucifies himself," the museum said in a statement.

Born in Dortmund, Kippenberger moved from painting and sculpture to work in all mediums, often combining elements of Neo-expressionism, Pop and Dadaism. His art has been displayed across the world, including Zurich, Paris, Jerusalem, London and New York. He died in 1997, aged 43. (AP)

Reminds me of a graffito from the mid 3rd century depicting Christ on the cross as a donkey. The graffito includes the phrase, "Alexamenos sebete theon" meaning, "Alexamenos worships his god." The graffito was probably created by the same type of man as Kippenberger who had no belief and appreciation for the suffering and redeeming grace won for humanity by Christ's death on the cross. What a hateful thing to do...

The Sacred name of God, YHWH and its use in Liturgy

Last week the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published a letter to all Bishops banning the use of God's sacred name YHWH in liturgical activity. Said letter was accompanied by a letter from Francis Cardinal Arinze, prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments explaining the rationale.

In essence, Yahweh is no longer to be used a) out of the traditional respect that is given to God's name, b) to remain more in line with the mandates of Liturgiam Authenticam which dictates that Liturgical texts must be as faithful as possible to their original languages. Since the earliest texts of Scripture (written in Greek used Kyrios and those in Hebrew used Adonai), meaning "LORD," instead of YAWEH, we should follow that directive. Furthermore, the use of Yahweh is not within our tradition.

As far as liturgical impact, Y---H is not be used in music and prayer texts such as the prayers of the faithful. Arinze's letter makes the recommendation that even within readings of sacred scripture, Lord or God be used in place of Y---H.

I for one am glad that this has been clarified for us. Sadly, one of my favorite songs of all time will be done away with in liturgy, "You are Near" by Dan Schutte. Perhaps we can change the Y---H to, "My God, I know you are near, standing always at my side..." who knows.

More on the New Translation of the Roman Missal

From the USCCB

10 Questions on the Revised Translation of the Ordo Missaefrom the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia

1. Why the changes?
The Missale Romanum (Roman Missal), the ritual text for the celebration of the Mass, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as the definitive text of the reformed liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. That Latin text, the editio typica (typical edition), was translated into various languages for use around the world; the English edition was published in the United States in 1973. The Holy See issued a revised text, the editio typica altera, in 1975. Pope John Paul II promulgated the third edition of the Missale Romanum (edito typica tertia) as part of the Jubilee Year in 2000. Among other things, the third edition contains prayers for the celebration of recently canonized saints, additional prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayers, additional Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Intentions, and some updated and revised rubrics (instructions) for the celebration of the Mass. To aid the process of translation of the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued Liturgiam Authenticam, the Fifth Instruction on Vernacular Translation of the Roman Liturgy, in 2001, which outlines the principles and rules for translation. In 2007, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued the Ratio Translationis for the English Language, which outlined the specific rules for translation in English.

2. Who is doing the work of translation?
The process of translation is a highly consultative work of several groups. The International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) is chartered to prepare English translations of liturgical texts on behalf of the conferences of bishops of English–speaking countries. Currently 11 conferences of bishops are full members of the Commission: the United States, Australia, Canada, England and Wales, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Scotland, and South Africa.The USCCB and the other member Conferences of Bishops receive draft translations of each text from ICEL and have the opportunity to offer comments and suggestions to ICEL. A second draft is proposed, which each Conference of Bishops approves (a Conference reserves the right to amend or modify a particular text) and submits to the Vatican for final approval.

At the level of the Vatican (the Holy See), the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments examines texts and offers authoritative approval (recognitio) of texts and grants permission for their use. Currently the Congregation is aided by the recommendations of Vox Clara, a special commission of bishops and consultants from English–speaking countries convened to assist with the English translation of the Missale Romanum.

3. What’s new or particularly different about the revised translation?
From the Ratio Translationis:
The unique style of the Roman Rite should be maintained in translation. By “style” is meant here the distinctive way in which the prayers of the Roman Rite are expressed. The principal elements of such a style include a certain conciseness in addressing, praising and entreating God, as well as distinctive syntactical patterns, a noble tone, a variety of less complex rhetorical devices, concreteness of images, repetition, parallelism and rhythm as measured through the cursus, or ancient standards for stressing syllables of Latin words in prose or poetry. (no. 112)
The texts of the revised translation of the Roman Missal are marked by a heightened style of English speech and a grammatical structure that is based on the Latin text. In addition, many biblical and poetic images, such as “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof…” (Communion Rite) and “…from the rising of the sun to its setting” (Eucharistic Prayer III) have been restored.

4. What is the significance of the translation pro multis in the words of Institution of the Eucharistic Prayer?
In October 2006 (after the bishops of the United States approved the Gray Book text of the Order of Mass), Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, communicated to Conferences of Bishops the desire of the Holy Father for a faithful translation of pro multis as “for many” in the formula for the consecration of the Precious Blood at Mass. The use of “for many” renders a translation more faithful to the accounts of the Last Supper found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. The phrase “for many” does not mean to imply that Christ did not come to save all, but that salvation rests in part on personal acceptance of the salvation freely offered by Christ. Please see the separate section, “Six Questions on the Translation of Pro Multis” for more information.

5. What is the significance of the changes to the Nicene Creed?
Some of the most significant changes to the people’s parts in the Order of Mass are found in the Profession of Faith (the Nicene Creed). Changes to this text fall into two categories: preservation of the syntax of the original text and preservation of expressions of faith which contain Catholic doctrine. The first change is the translation of Credo as of “I” instead of “We” in the opening phrase in order to maintain the person and number indicated in the Latin text. While the profession of faith is a communal liturgical act, each individual in the liturgical assembly professes his or her own faith which is joined to the profession of the whole assembly. The second change concerns the translation of particular expressions of faith such as Unigenitus, consubstantialis, and incarnatus. The theological terminology has been preserved, in accord with Liturgiam Authenticam, in the translation to English: “Only Begotten,” “consubstantial,” and “incarnate.”

6. “And with your spirit”?
One of the more noticeable changes in the people’s parts of the Mass is the response to the greeting, “The Lord be with you.” The Latin response, et cum spiritu tuo, is rendered literally in English, “and with your spirit.” Liturgiam Authenticam calls for the faithful rendering of expressions that belong to the heritage of the ancient Church, and cites et cum spiritu tuo as an example (no. 56). Most modern languages have translated this phrase literally, so the English text now more closely parallels other vernacular translations.

7. What about the rest of the Missal?
The text of Ordo Missae I (Order of Mass) is the first of twelve (12) sections of the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia undergoing translation. The remaining sections, which include the Proper of Seasons, Ordo Missae II (containing Prefaces, Solemn Blessings, and additional Eucharistic Prayers), Proper of Saints, Commons, Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Intentions, Votive Masses, Masses for the Dead, Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children, and Antiphons, as well as Introductory Material and Appendices, have undergone first drafts (called “Green Books”). The second drafts (called “Gray Books”) for several sections have been completed and await votes by the Conferences of Bishops. Each section must follow the same process as the Ordo Missae I.

8. When will all this be complete?
Because this work involves the participation of ICEL, the USCCB as well as other English–speaking conferences of bishops), and the Holy See, it is difficult to set a firm date for the completion of the process of translation and approval. The current estimate, however, for the completion of work by the USCCB is November 2010. Once the final section of the Roman Missal has been approved by the USCCB, the complete text of the Missal must still be submitted to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for recognitio.

9. When will this be implemented for liturgical use?
The approved text of the Order of Mass has been released as a text for study and formation, but is not intended for liturgical use, that is to say it cannot be used in the celebration of the Mass. The intention of the Congregation for Divine Worship and of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is to enable and encourage a process of preparation and catechesis for both priests and the faithful, as well as to make the texts available to composers of liturgical music who can begin to set the texts, especially the acclamations, to music in anticipation of the implementation of the texts for liturgical use. It is hoped that when the time comes to use the texts in the celebration of the Mass, priests will be properly trained, the faithful will have an understanding and appreciation of what is being prayed, and musical settings of the liturgical texts will be readily available. The revised translation of the Order of Mass will be permitted only when the complete text of the Roman Missal (Third Edition) is promulgated.

10. What about the U.S. Adaptations to the Order of Mass?
When the bishops of the United States approved the translation of the Order of Mass in June, 2006, they also approved eight (8) adaptations of the Order of the Mass for use in the dioceses of the United States. These included additional texts for use in the Act of Penitence, the Mystery of Faith (Memorial Acclamation), the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer, and the Dismissal, as well as the placement of the Blessing and Sprinkling of Holy Water as part of the Introductory Rites of the Mass (rather than in an Appendix), and the insertion of a Prayer Over Water Already Blessed among the prayers of the Rite of Blessing and Sprinkling. The Congregation for Divine Worship has not yet responded to these adaptations, but at this point has granted the recognitio only for the texts to be used universally in English–speaking countries.

For the study text of the new translation click here.

Copyright © 2008 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

At the end of Summer

So summer has been lazy, reflective, and full of reading. I pulled away from the blog for a brief time so that I had an opportunity to simply relax and reflect.

Lots of things have happened in regards to liturgy in the last few weeks. Most notably, the Holy See's approval of third edition of the Roman Missal (note that it will no longer be referred to as the Sacramentary). Also worth noting is the Holy See's directive on the use of God's name within the liturgy.

Since getting my hands on a copy of the new translation I have been pouring over the new text along side the current text. Overall, I am very pleased. It is much more poetic, structured, and indeed a MUCH better translation more faithful to the Latin.

I have been sharing this with friends. The first response I usually get is, "WHY?!". Simply, the current translation does not work because it is watered down and empty of the symbolism of language and imagery that is so rich in the Latin version. From the perspective of some observers the current prayers of the English Sacramentary were a reflection of current American Society. I don't necessarily agree, but that statement is worth contemplating.

In light of Liturgiam Authenticam (2001), revision was inevitable. After years of revisions, changes, compromise, votes and headaches, the Holy See's Vox Clara Commission approved the ICEL's (International Commission on the English Language) translation.

So when do the changes begin to be in effect? Most observers seem to agree that we still have a couple of years to go. This gives time to prepare the congregations, publish the books and give liturgical musicians the opportunity to set to music the newly translated singable parts of the Mass like the Gloria and Sanctus.

Below are the Gloria and Sanctus from the new Roman Missal. Note the differences.

Gloria
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to people of good will.

We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you,
we give you thanks for your great glory,
Lord God, heavenly King,
O God, almighty Father.

Lord Jesus Christ. Only Begotten Son,
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us;
you take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer,
you are seated at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.

For you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God
the Father. Amen

Sanctus
Holy, Holy, Holy
Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Other notable changes include change in the language of the Creed and of course, everyone's favorite, "and with your spirit", instead of "and also with you."