Pope Francis

Prayer Intentions of Pope Francis for December 2016

Cartoon by  Rafaela Tasca and Carlos Latuff  [Wikipedia]
Universal Intention
End to Child-Soldiers: That the scandal of child-soldiers may be eliminated the world over.
Reflection from The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer).
Chartres Cathedral (France)
South Transept Rose Window [Wikipedia]
Evangelization Intention
Europe: That the peoples of Europe may rediscover the beauty, goodness, and truth of the Gospel which gives joy and hope to life. 
Reflection from The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer).

Prayer Intentions of Pope Francis for November 2016

Vietnamese refugee in Malaysia, 1980 [Wikipedia]

Universal Intention 

Countries Receiving Refugees: That the countries which take in a great number of displaced persons and refugees may find support for their efforts which show solidarity.

Reflection from the Apostleship of Prayer.

Evangelization Intention

 Collaboration of Priests and Laity: That within parishes, priests and lay people may collaborate in service to the community without giving in to the temptation of discouragement.

Reflection from the Apostleship of Prayer.

Thanks to Apostleship of Prayer, USA.

Prayer Intentions of Pope Francis for October 2016: Journalists and World Mission Day

Universal Intention – Journalists: That journalists, in carrying out their work, may always be motivated by respect for truth and a strong sense of ethics.
 
Intramuros, Manila: Monument of the National Press Club for the (at least) 34 journalists massacred in Maguindanao, 23 November 2009
[Photo: Ramon F. Velasquz, Wikipedia]
 
Veronica Guerin
(5 July 1958 – 26 June 1996) [Wikipedia]
 
Veronica Guerin, a crime reporter at the time of her death, was murdered because of her reporting. She is the only journalist to be killed in the line of duty in what is now the Republic of Ireland. According to the website of CPJ Committee to Protect Journalists, 77 journalists were murdered/motive confirmed, ie because of their work, between 1 July 1992 and 6 April 2014.
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Evangelization Intention – World Mission Day: That World Mission Day may renew within all Christian communities the joy of the Gospel and the responsibility to announce it. 
 
Columban Sisters and Columban Lay Missionaries in Myanmar
L to R: Sr Ashwena Apao (Philippines), Arlenne Villahermosa (Philippines), Sr Mary Dillon (Ireland), Chang Eun-Yeal, Columba (Korea)
Columban Fr Kurt Zion Pala on an outing with Malate Youth, Manila 
Father Kurt, from Iligan City, Mindanao, was ordained in November 2015. He will soon be heading for his new overseas mission in Myanmar.
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There are reflections on the two prayer intentions on the website of the Apostleship of Prayer here.

Prayer Intentions of Pope Francis for August 2016

Universal Intention

Sports. That sports may be an opportunity for friendly encounters between peoples and may contribute to peace in the world.

Evangelization Intention

Living the Gospel. That Christians may live the Gospel, giving witness to faith, honesty, and love of neighbor.

The Good Samaritan, Théodule-Augustin Ribot, before 1870
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau, France [Web Gallery of Art]

Reflections on the Intentions here.

[The second video and the Reflections are from the website of the Apostleship of Prayer, Milwaukee, WI, USA. The first video is from the website of Zenit.]

The Immaculate Conception and the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy

The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception

El Greco, 1608-13, Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, Spain [Web Gallery of Art]

Gospel Luke 1:26-38 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

The Annunciation

El Greco, 1596-1600, Museo del Prado, Madrid [Web Gallery of Art]

Logo, Jubilee of Mercy

Misericordiae Vultus

BULL OF INDICTION
OF THE EXTRAORDINARY
JUBILEE OF MERCY

FRANCIS
BISHOP OF ROME
SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD
TO ALL WHO READ THIS LETTER
GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE

Young Jew as Christ 

Rembrandt, c.1648, Staatliche Museen, Berlin [Web Gallery of Art]

Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith. Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in him. The Father, ‘rich in mercy’ (Eph 2:4), after having revealed his name to Moses as ‘a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’ (Ex34:6), has never ceased to show, in various ways throughout history, his divine nature. In the ‘fullness of time’ (Gal 4:4), when everything had been arranged according to his plan of salvation, he sent his only Son into the world, born of the Virgin Mary, to reveal his love for us in a definitive way. Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father (cf. Jn 14:9). Jesus of Nazareth, by his words, his actions, and his entire person reveals the mercy of God.

The above are the opening words of Misericordiae Vultus, the proclamation by Pope Francis of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that starts tomorrow, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, when the Pope opens the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Jubilee Year will end on the Solemnity of Christ the King, 20 November 2016. The Vatican has a website dedicated to the Jubilee Year.

In No 24 of Misericordiae Vultus Pope Francis writes:

My thoughts now turn to the Mother of Mercy. May the sweetness of her countenance watch over us in this Holy Year, so that all of us may rediscover the joy of God’s tenderness. No one has penetrated the profound mystery of the incarnation like Mary. Her entire life was patterned after the presence of mercy made flesh. The Mother of the Crucified and Risen One has entered the sanctuary of divine mercy because she participated intimately in the mystery of His love.

Chosen to be the Mother of the Son of God, Mary, from the outset, was prepared by the love of God to be the Ark of the Covenant between God and man. She treasured divine mercy in her heart in perfect harmony with her Son Jesus. Her hymn of praise, sung at the threshold of the home of Elizabeth, was dedicated to the mercy of God which extends from ‘generation to generation’ (Lk 1:50). We too were included in those prophetic words of the Virgin Mary. This will be a source of comfort and strength to us as we cross the threshold of the Holy Year to experience the fruits of divine mercy.

At the foot of the Cross, Mary, together with John, the disciple of love, witnessed the words of forgiveness spoken by Jesus. This supreme expression of mercy towards those who crucified him show us the point to which the mercy of God can reach. Mary attests that the mercy of the Son of God knows no bounds and extends to everyone, without exception. Let us address her in the words of the Salve Regina, a prayer ever ancient and ever new, so that she may never tire of turning her merciful eyes upon us, and make us worthy to contemplate the face of mercy, her Son Jesus.

Let us address her in the words of the Salve Regina, a prayer ever ancient and ever new (Misericordiae Vultus).

The Crucifixion

El Greco, 1596-1600, Museo del Prado, Madrid [Web Gallery of Art]

At the foot of the Cross, Mary, together with John, the disciple of love, witnessed the words of forgiveness spoken by Jesus (Misericordiae Vultus).

Pope Francis’s Prayer Intentions for December 2015

Young Jew as Christ, Rembrandt, c.1648
Staatliche Museen, Berlin [Web Gallery of Art]
 
Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. (Pope Francis)
 
Universal: EXPERIENCING GOD’S MERCY
That all may experience the mercy of God, who never tires of forgiving.
The Holy Family with Angels, Rembrandt, 1645
The Hermitage, St Petersburg [Web Gallery of Art]
 
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
 
Evangelization: FAMILIES
That families, especially those who suffer, may find in the birth of Jesus a sign of certain hope.
Intentions and videos from the website of the Apostleship of Prayer.

Pope Francis meets survivors of persecution in Albania

 

 

Rome-based Catholic news agency Zenit carries a story datelined Tirana, 22 September, PopeWeeps Upon Hearing Witness of Religious Persecution in Albania. The article reports: Fr Ernesto Simoni Troshani, an 84-year-old diocesan priest, recalled when the Communist party came to power and began detaining and murdering priests, some he said who died saying ‘Long live Christ the King’. He also said that his diocesan superiors were killed by firing squad . . . After his witness, Fr. Troshani approached the Holy Father and knelt, kissing his ring. The Pope, visibly moved by his testimony, wept and held the priest in a long embrace.

Sr Maria Kaleta, an Albanian, spoke of extremely difficult decisions that Christians sometime had to make. She recounted how a woman from a communist family asked her about seeking baptism for her child. Sr Kaleta said she feared that it was a trap but nonetheless, brought some water and baptized the child. During that period, she remembered her desire to go to Mass, to receive the Sacraments.

 

 

Original fresco of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy [Wikipedia]
 
Our Lady of Good Counsel is the Patron of Albania. It was a copy of the fresco above that the bishops of the country gave to Pope Francis as a gift.
 
In his homily at Mass in Mother Teresa Square, Tirana, on Sunday Pope Francis said [emphasis added]:
 
Recalling the decades of atrocious suffering and harsh persecutions against Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims, we can say that Albania was a land of martyrs: many bishops, priests, men and women religious, laity, and clerics and ministers of other religions paid for their fidelity with their lives. Demonstrations of great courage and constancy in the profession of the faith are not lacking. How many Christians did not succumb when threatened, but persevered without wavering on the path they had undertaken! 
 
I stand spiritually at that wall of the cemetery of Scutari, a symbolic place of the martyrdom of Catholics before the firing squads, and with profound emotion I place the flower of my prayer and of my grateful and undying remembrance. The Lord was close to you, dear brothers and sisters, to sustain you; he led you and consoled you and in the end he has raised you up on eagle’s wings as he did for the ancient people of Israel, as we heard in the First Reading. The eagle, depicted on your nation’s flag, calls to mind hope, and the need to always place your trust in God, who does not lead us astray and who is ever at our side, especially in moments of difficulty.
 

 

 

National Flag of Albania [Wikipedia]
 
The readings used at the Mass were not those of the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A but Exodus 19:3, 4b-6a, 7-8, Romans 15:14-21 and Luke 10: 1-9, 17-20. In the reading from Exodus God reminds Moses how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. The eagle is a national symbol of Albania and Pope Francis referred to this in his homily:
 
The Lord was close to you, dear brothers and sisters, to sustain you; he led you and consoled you and in the end he has raised you up on eagle’s wings as he did for the ancient people of Israel, as we heard in the First Reading. The eagle, depicted on your nation’s flag, calls to mind hope, and the need to always place your trust in God, who does not lead us astray and who is ever at our side, especially in moments of difficulty.
 
The Pope calls on young Albanians to be like the seventy-two disciples in the Gospel and, rooted in the memory of their own experience, to be missionaries to the rest of Europe:
 
Today, I have come to thank you for your witness and also to encourage you to cultivate hope among yourselves and within your hearts. Never forget the eagle! The eagle does not forget its nest, but flies into the heights. All of you, fly into the heights! Go high! I have also come to involve the young generations; to nourish you assiduously on the Word of God, opening your hearts to Christ, to the Gospel, to an encounter with God, to an encounter with one another, as you are already doing and by which you witness to the whole of Europe.
 
And St Paul says in the Second Reading:
 
For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ.
 
The Roman Province of Illyricum included much of today’s Albania.
 
 
May the Resurrection of the Church in Albania be a source of hope for Catholics and other Christians being persecuted for their faith in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq and Syria where in recent months Christians have been driven from their ancestral homelands, and in North Korea that in many ways resembles Albania under dictator Enver Hoxha.