Wednesday, February 15, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
ST. CLAUDE DE LA COLOMBIERE (France, 1641-1682), Jesuit, Preacher, Writer
Claude was best known before his own beatification and canonization as the spiritual director
who supported St. Margaret Mary Alacoque when she was troubled initially by her visions of the
Sacred Heart, and became, like her, an ardent devotee. Claude had been named rector of the Jesuit
College at Paray le Monial, near the convent of the Sisters of the Visitation to which Margaret
belonged. It is believed the assignment was intended to provide Margaret with the right direction.
Two years later, he was sent to London as court preacher to Mary, Duchess of York (who would
become Queen as the wife of James II). He continued guiding Margaret Mary by letter, and counseled
many Anglicans who wanted to return to the Church. Then, he found himself accused as a conspirator
in an anti-monarchic plot and was imprisoned. By intercession of King Louis XIV, he was released
and sent back to France. He died two years later. He left a number of books on the spiritual life.
He was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1992.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/021512.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
General Audience - The Holy Father reflected on three of the 'seven last words' of Jesus on the Cross as related
in the Gospel of Luke, dwelling in his conclusion on the prayer of Jesus asking the Father to forgive those
'who know not what they do' - "those who do us wrong, who have harmed us, forgiving them so that the light of
God may illuminate their heart...with the certainty that in the hands of the Father, however difficult our trials,
problems and difficulties, nor how heavy the suffering, we shall never fall out of the hands that created us,
that sustain us in the journey of existence"... He also blessed a reproduction of the Holy Door of St. Peter's
Basilica to be part of the permanent exhibit on John Paul II in his birthplace of Wadowice, Poland. The Holy Door
was last opened on Christmas Eve, 1999, when John Paul II formally inaugurated the Great Jubilee of 2000.
This afternoon, the Holy Father holds his traditional meeting with the seminarians of Rome at the Collegio Maggiore
at the Lateran, and was to give a lectio divina on verses 1-2, Chapter 12, of St. Paul's Letter to the Romans.
After the lectio, he joins the seminarians at dinner.
The Vatican today released an unusually lengthy joint communique by the Holy See and Her Majesty's Government
of the United Kingdom following the visit of a ministerial delegation led by Bsroness Warsi, the Pakistani-born
Muslim chairman of the British Conservative Party. The communique goes beyond the usual brief formula about
'cordial talks on matters of mutual interest'. The delegation met with Pope Benedict after the General Audience,
having met in previous days with other Vatican officials.
Page 1 of OR today carries the editorial commemorating the day 30 years ago when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger arrived in Rome to take up his post as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (translated and posted a few posts earlier on this page). The secular stories on Page 1 concern the Greek dilemma of continued violent rioting protesting austerity measures needed to qualify Greece for further debt bailout from the European Union; a visit to Washington by the next president of China to re-examine a strategic alliance between the world's leading economic powers; and a continuing impasse to any effective international action against Syria for its many months of violent repression of protests against President Assad's regime. On the back page is the announcement of the Lenten spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia, with the attendance of the Pope, to take place this year from Feb. 26- March 3, on the theme 'The communion of the Christian with God'. Cardinal Laurent Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa, is leading the exercises this year.; an article by Cardinal Dsiwisz on the Holy Door reproduction for Blessed John Paul's museum in his birthplace of Wadowice; and an address by Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of Cor Unum, on restructuring the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel on its 30th year of existence. Other important Church news in the inside pages: the formal inauguration last Sunday of the Ordinariate of Peter's Chair in Houston, Texas, for American Anglicans and Episcopalians converting to Catholicism; the opening of a symposium in Rome of European and African bishops on the subject of cooperating in the new evangelization, in which the Old Continent needs to learn from Africa the freshness of the faith; Patriarch Kirill II meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin and endorses his re-candidacy to be President of Russia, praising him for his role in 'leading Russia out of crisis in the 1990s'; and in the Ukraine, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk expresses the hope that a new law being considered regarding religious properties confiscated in the Soviet era from both Orthodox and Catholic Churches will be fair about restituting the properties.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/02/2013 17:00]