| | | OFFLINE | | Post: 19.901
Post: 2.542 | Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009 | Administratore | Utente Veteran | |
|
The best answer to all the detractors of Benedict XVI - and the sweetest revenge, like 'In your face, agents of Hell!'
'NON PREVALAEBUNT':
At the Vatican, an unusual Sunday crowd
for the Pope, and he wasn't even there!
The Holy Father led the noontime 'Regina caeli' prayers in Castel Gandolfo, with direct transmission to the jumbo TV screens in St. Peter's Square.
In English, he said the following:
I greet all the English-speaking visitors who join us for the Regina Caeli prayer on this Octave of Easter.
The Church’s liturgy today invites us, with the Apostle Thomas, to acknowledge the Risen Christ as our Lord and our God, and to welcome into our hearts his gifts of peace, mercy, forgiveness and new life.
Upon you and your families I invoke a continued outpouring of the joy and hope born of Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead. Happy Easter!
Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's words today:
Dear brothers and sisters:
Today concludes the Easter Octave, considered as one single day 'made by the Lord' and distinguished by the unique event of the Resurrection and the joy of the disciples in seeing Jesus again.
From the earliest Christian times, this Sunday was called 'in albis', from the Latin 'alba' given to the white garments that the neophytes wore at their Baptism on Easter eve and laid down eight days later.
The Venerable John Paul II also dedicated this same Sunday after Easter to Divine Mercy, when he canonized Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska on April 30, 2000.
The passage from St. John (20,19-31) in today's Gospel is rich in mercy and human goodness. It narrates that Jesus, after the Resurrection, visited his disciples, passing through the closed doors of the Cenacle.
St. Augustine explains that "the closed doors did not impede the entry of that body inhabited by divinity. He who, in being born, left intact the virginity of his Mother, could well enter the Cenacle's closed doors" (In Ioh. 121,4: CCL 36/7, 667).
And St. Gregory the Great adds that our Redeemer presented himself, after the Resurrection, "with an incorruptible and palpable body, but in a state of glory" (cfr Hom. in Evang., 21,1: CCL 141, 219).
Jesus showed the signs of his passion, even allowing the unbelieving Thomas into touching them. But how is it possible that a disciple can doubt?
Indeed, divine condescension allows us to draw profit from Thomas's doubting and not just from the disciples who believed. Touching the wounds of the Lord, the hesitant disciple healed not only his own disbelief but also ours.
The visit by the Risen Lord was not limited to the space of the Cenacle, but went beyond its walls, that all may receive the gift of peace and life with the 'creative breath'.
Twice, in fact, Jesus tells his disciples: "Peace be with you!", then he adds, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you".
Having said this, he breathes on them, saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
This is the mission of the Church which the Paraclete assists perennially: to bring to all the glad news, the joyous reality of God's merciful love, in order that, as St. John says, "you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name" (Jn 20,31).
In the light of these words, I encourage in particular all pastors to follow the example of the Holy Curate of Ars, who "in his time, transformed the hearts and lives of so many persons because he succeeded in making them perceive the merciful love of the Lord. I urge a similar announcement and a similar testimony to the truth of Love, in our time" (Letter decreeing the Year for Priests, 2009).
In this way, we shall always make more familiar and close Him whom our eyes have not seen but of whose infinite mercy we can be absolutely certain.
To the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Apostles, let us ask that she sustain the mission of the Church, as we invoke her exultant with joy, 'Regina caeli'!
After the prayers he said:
As we all know, a tragic air accident yesterday in Smolensk took the lives of the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, his wife, various high authorities of the Polish state, and the entire delegation that included the Archbishop Military Ordinary.
In expressing my profound condolences, I assure prayers of suffrage for the victims and of support for the beloved nation of Poland.
Yesterday in Turin, the solemn Exposition of the Holy Shroud opened. God willing, I, too, will go and venerate it on May 2. I am very happy that this event is once more inspiring a vast movement of pilgrims, but also studies, reflections ,and above all, an extraordinary attention to the mystery of Christ's suffering.
I hope that this act of veneration may help all to seek the Face of God, which was the ultimate wish of the Apostles, as it is ours.
I address a special greeting to the pilgrims gathered in Rome on the occasion of Divine Mercy Sunday. I bless you all from the heart, particularly the animators from the Holy Spirit Center for spirituality in Sassia.
May the image of the merciful Jesus, dear friends, shine in you and in your lives!
In Polish, he repeated a special message for the Poles:
With great sorrow, I learned yesterday about the tragic death of Mr. Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland, of his wife and the persons who were travelling with them. They died while en route to Katyn, the place of torture for thousands of Polish military officers who were assassinated 70 years ago. I entrust them all to the merciful Lord of life.
I join the pilgrims gathered in the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Lagiewnicki, and all the devotees of God's mercy all over the world.
Along with the popular fervor seen yesterday in Turin, as the Holy Shroud went on exposition for the first time in 10 years, these pictures show powerful physical expressions of the faith, such as cannot be understood by enemies of the Church whose only faith consists in believing their own personal infallibility!
P.S. Just a personal observation on the unprecedented tragedy that has hit the Polish people: Their late President was brought home this afternoon to Warsaw from the crash site, and the coffin was welcomed at the airport by his identical twin brother (who was his former Prime Minister), and the late President's only daughter, but only the late president's body is back - they have been unable to identify the remains of his wife Maria who died with him in the plane crash. That is unbelievably poignant! For all the faithful departed, requiescat in pace!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/04/2010 23:33] |