CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: FRI. JUNE 11, 2010: HEADLINES-
VATICAN: THOUSANDS OF CLERGY AT PRAYER VIGIL FOR YEAR FOR PRIESTS-
AFRICA: MISSIONARY ASKS GOV. PREVENT RECRUITMENT OF CHILD SOLDIERS-
AMERICA: USA: SACRED MUSIC COLLOQUIUM HELD JUNE 21 IN PENNSYLVANIA-
AUSTRALIA: BISHOP RELEASES PASTORAL LETTER TO PROMOTE DISCUSSION-
ASIA: CHINA: CONCERNS GROW FOR SAFETY OF CHRISTIAN GAO ZHISHENG-
EUROPE: ROME: KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS CELEBRATE 90TH ANNIVERSARY-
THOUSANDS OF CLERGY AT PRAYER VIGIL FOR YEAR FOR PRIESTS
VATICAN CITY, 11 JUN 2010 (VIS report) - A prayer vigil was held yesterday evening in St. Peter's Square for the close of the Year for Priests. The event was attended by some fifteen thousand priests from ninety-seven countries.
The second part of the vigil began with the Pope's arrival in St. Peter's Square by pope mobile. Cardinal Claudio Hummes O.F.M., prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, greeted the Holy Father noting how this Year for Priests has served "to promote commitment to interior renewal among all clergy, for an evangelical witness that is more powerful and incisive in the modern world".
Cardinal Hummes continued his remarks: "We would like the Year for Priests never to end; that is, we would like our striving towards sanctity, each in his own identity, never to end, and that on this journey (which must begin in the seminary and last all our earthly lives as a single formative process) we may always be comforted and supported, as we have been in this Year, by the ceaseless prayer of the Church, by the warmth and spiritual support of all the faithful".
Cardinal Hummes thanked the Pope "for everything you have done, are doing and will continue to do for all priests, even those who have lost their way. We know that Your Holiness has already forgiven and will always forgive the suffering some of them have caused you".
A passage from the Gospel was then read out, after which the Pope responded to questions put to him by five priests, representing the five continents.
After praying the Lord's Prayer, the Blessed Sacrament was borne in procession from the Bronze Door to the altar positioned in front of the Vatican Basilica. Following a moment of silent adoration, the Pope read out the prayer of the Year for Priests.
The vigil came to an end at 11.15 p.m. with the Eucharistic blessing and the singing of the "Salve Regina".
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PRIESTS: ACCOMPANY HUMAN BEINGS ON THEIR JOURNEY
The Eucharist was concelebrated by cardinals and bishops of the Roman Curia, as well as by more than fifteen thousand priests from all over the world. The Holy Father consecrated the wine in the same chalice as that used by St. John Mary Vianney, which is conserved in Ars.
In his homily the Pope noted how the Year for Priests was celebrated to ensure "a renewed appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of the priestly ministry. The priest is not a mere office-holder. ... Rather, he does something which no human being can do of his own power: in Christ's name he speaks the words which absolve us of our sins and in this way he changes, starting with God, our entire life. Over the offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ's words of thanksgiving, ... which open the world to God and unite it to Him. The priesthood, then, is not simply 'office' but Sacrament".
"This audacity of God Who entrusts Himself to human beings (Who, conscious of our weaknesses, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in His stead) this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word 'priesthood'. ...This is what we wanted to reflect upon and appreciate anew over the course of the past year. We wanted to reawaken our joy at how close God is to us, ... we also wanted to demonstrate once again to young people that this vocation, this fellowship of service for God and with God, does exist".
"It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the 'enemy'; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the Sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light - particularly the abuse of the little ones. ... We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey".
"Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God's gift, a gift concealed in 'earthen vessels' which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes His love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, His gift becomes a commitment to respond to God's courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility".
The Pope continued his homily by commenting on Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my shepherd" - which forms part of today's liturgy. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want", said Benedict XVI. "God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered. ... The world's religions, as far as we can see, have always known that in the end there is only one God. But this God was distant. ... There was still a recognition that the world presupposes a Creator. Yet this God, after making the world, had evidently withdrawn from it. The world itself had a certain set of laws by which it ran, and God did not, could not, intervene in them". However, "wherever God's loving concern is perceived as getting in the way, human beings go awry. ... God wants us, as priests, in one tiny moment of history, to share His concern about people. As priests, we want to be persons who share His concern for men and women, who take care of them and provide them with a concrete experience of God's concern".
"We should strive to 'know' men and women as God does and for God's sake; we should strive to walk with them along the path of friendship with God. ... The shepherd points out the right path to those entrusted to him. He goes before them and leads them. Let us put it differently: the Lord shows us the right way to be human. He teaches us the art of being a person. What must I do in order not to fall, not to squander my life in meaninglessness? This is precisely the question which every man and woman must ask, and one which remains valid at every moment of one's life. How much darkness surrounds this question in our own day! We are constantly reminded of the words of Jesus, Who felt compassion for the crowds because they were like a flock without a shepherd".
"The people of Israel continue to be grateful to God because in the Commandments He pointed out the way of life. ... God has shown us the way and how to walk aright. The message of the Commandments was synthesised in the life of Jesus and became a living model. Thus we understand that these rules from God are not chains, but the way which He is pointing out to us. ... By walking with Christ, we experience the joy of Revelation, and as priests we need to communicate to others our own joy at the fact that we have been shown the right way".
Explaining the Psalm's reference to the "darkest valley", Benedict XVI pointed out that this can refer to death where, however, the Lord will not abandon us. Yet, "when speaking of the darkest valley, we can also think of the dark valleys of temptation, discouragement and trial through which everyone has to pass. Even in these dark valleys of life He is there. ... Help us priests, so that we can remain beside the persons entrusted to us in these dark nights. So that we can show them your own light", he said.
The Psalm closes with a reference to the "table set", to "dwelling in the house of the Lord". In these words, said the Holy Father, "we see a kind of prophetic foreshadowing of the mystery of the Eucharist, in which God Himself makes us His guests and offers Himself to us as food - as that bread and fine wine which alone can definitively sate man's hunger and thirst. How can we not rejoice that one day we will be guests at the very table of God? ... How can we not rejoice that He has enabled us to set God's table for men and women, to give them His Body and His Blood, to offer them the precious gift of His very presence".
Finally, the Pope commented on the two communion antiphons which recount the lance thrust in Jesus' side which caused blood and water to come out. This, the Pope explained, recalls "the two fundamental Sacraments by which the Church lives: Baptism and the Eucharist. From the Lord's pierced side, from His open heart, there springs the living fountain which continues to well up over the centuries and which makes the Church. The open heart is the source of a new stream of life".
"Every Christian and every priest should become, starting from Christ, a wellspring which gives life to others. We ought to be offering life-giving water to a parched and thirsty world. Lord", the Holy Father concluded, "we thank you because for our sake you opened your heart; because in your death and in your resurrection you became the source of life. Give us life, make us live from you as our source, and grant that we too may be sources, wellsprings capable of bestowing the water of life in our time. We thank you for the grace of the priestly ministry. Lord bless us, and bless all those who in our time are thirsty and continue to seek".
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PAPAL IMAGES SOURCE http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/index.asp
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
VATICAN CITY, 11 JUN 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father:
- Appointed Bishop William Patrick Callahan O.F.M. Conv., auxiliary of the archdiocese of Milwaukee, U.S.A., as bishop of La Crosse (area 39,037, population 902,000, Catholics 207,000, priests 189, permanent deacons 42, religious 412), U.S.A.
- Appointed Bishop Anacleto Cordeiro Goncalves de Oliveira, auxiliary of Lisbon, Portugal, as bishop of Viana do Castelo (area 2,108, population 252,350, Catholics 245,725, priests 178, religious 128), Portugal. He succeeds Bishop Jose Augusto Martins Fernandes Pedreira, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
- Appointed Fr. Celmo Lazzari C.S.I., vicar general of the Congregation of St. Joseph (Giuseppini del Muraldo), as apostolic vicar of the apostolic vicariate of Napo (area 24,600, population 102,760, Catholics 85,226, priests 23, religious 73), Ecuador. The bishop-elect was born in Garibaldi, Brazil in 1956 and ordained a priest in 1982. He succeeds Bishop Paolo Mietto C.S.I., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same apostolic vicariate the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
AFRICA
MISSIONARY ASKS GOVERNMENTS PREVENT RECRUITMENT OF CHILD SOLDIERS
Agenzia Fides REPORT – African governments must commit to removing the conditions that create rebellions which in turn lead to the recruitment of child soldiers, and not merely sign agreements that I think are just rhetoric," Fides was told by Fr. Gerardo Caglioni, Xaverian missionary with a long experience in Sierra Leone, in his commenting on the declaration signed on June 9 in N'Djamena (Chad) to put an end to the recruitment of child soldiers.
The declaration was signed in N'Djamena by six of the nine participants in the regional conference on child soldiers, organized by the Government of Chad and by UNICEF, held in the Chadian capital June 7 to 9. The signing States are Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Sudan. The other three participants who did not sign the document are: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The declaration commits the signatories to "put an end to all forms of recruitment of children into armed forces and groups and to ensure that no child under the age of 18 years take part, directly or indirectly, in hostilities."
"It is useless to enter into agreements that are likely to remain a dead letter, if you do not take specific policy to give a life expectancy of the younger generation. This means creating a genuine development policy, a serious fight against corruption, building schools and infrastructures vital for African countries. I do not believe, however, that there is this desire," says Fr. Caglioni. "If you do not offer young people the hope of a better life, there will be new guerrilla groups formed that will recruit whoever they want, including children. Thus, I am skeptical of documents that are likely to remain only declarations of intent without any real impact on people's lives."
"In Sierra Leone, child soldiers were used by everyone, not only by guerrillas of the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) but also by the Kamajors militia, allied with the government. After the war (concluded in 2002) programs were started for the insertion of demobilized child soldiers into society, into schools, giving them a job, but nobody takes care of victims of child soldiers, who are often children themselves. These people have suffered deadly physical and psychological violence. I know cases of sexual abuse, of children forced to see their parents killed and burned, others who have suffered amputations. The victims are in need of material and psychological care, but they are left completely on their own," says the missionary.
http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=26844&lan=eng
AMERICA
USA: SACRED MUSIC COLLOQUIUM HELD JUNE 21 IN PENNSYLVANIA
Musica Sacra report: You are invited to sing with and experience the Sacred Music Colloquium, the largest and most in-depth teaching conference and retreat on sacred music in the world.
The primary focus of the Colloquium is instruction and experience in chant and the Catholic sacred music tradition, participation in chant and polyphonic choirs, nightly lectures and performances and daily celebrations of liturgies in both English and Latin. You are there not merely as an attendee but as a singer in some of the greatest choirs you will ever experience, singing music that will touch your heart and thrill your artistic imagination — music that is integral to the Catholic faith.
Attendance is open to anyone interested in improving the quality of music in Catholic worship. Professional musicians will appreciate the rigor, while enthusiastic volunteer singers and beginners new to the chant tradition will enjoy the opportunity to study under an expert faculty.
SOME COLLOQUIUM HIGHLIGHTS:
Extensive training in Gregorian chant and the sacred choral tradition under a world-class faculty;
Choices of a chant class for beginners, and intermediate and and advanced chant classes;
Choral experience with one of four large choirs singing sacred music of the masters such as Palestrina, Isaac, Bruckner, Victoria, Byrd, Schubert, Tallis, Josquin, and many others;
Daily liturgy with careful attention to officially prescribed musical settings;
Experience in singing at liturgy as a choir member assigned particular Mass settings, motets, chants, and responses;
Residency in dormitories or optional hotels;
Catered breakfasts, lunches, dinners and receptions;
Training in vocal production and technique;
Conducting practicum;
Training for Priests in the sung Mass;
Pedagogy demonstrations;
Composers’ Forum;
Seminars on parish music management, integrating sung parts of the liturgy, polyphonic repertoire for beginning and more established choirs;
All music, including prepared packets of chant and polyphony, as part of registration.
SOURCE http://musicasacra.com/colloquium/
AUSTRALIA
BISHOP RELEASES PASTORAL LETTER TO PROMOTE DISCUSSION
Cath News report: Bishop Christopher Prowse of the regional Victorian Diocese of Sale has released a pastoral letter aimed at promoting discussion on the future directions of the diocese, according to a diocesan media release.
The letter concludes with a list of questions which he urges people to discuss over the remainder of the year in preparation for a series of meetings early next year.
These guided discussions will help form a pastoral plan to direct the Diocese of Sale over the next few years.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21871
ASIA
CHINA: CONCERNS GROW FOR SAFETY OF CHRISTIAN GAO ZHISHENG
Idependant Catholic News report: Concerns are growing for the safety of the Chinese Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has not been seen since April.
“He is definitely in the hands of Chinese security forces,” said Bob Fu, president of the US-based rights organization ChinaAid.
Gao Zhisheng , a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, traveled to Xinjiang province at the end of April to visit relatives. He left to board a flight back to Beijing and has not been seen since. It is the second time he has disappeared in a little over a year.
Gao has been regularly arrested, imprisoned, beaten and tortured since 2005 because of his human rights work, including defending Christians and the banned Falun Gong group, another rights group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said.
CSW was “deeply concerned” about Gao’s fate, Tina Lambert, the organization’s advocacy director said.
Gao disappeared in 2009 and was not seen for 400 days until he reappeared in early April at Wutai mountain, a Buddhist retreat center in Shanxi province.
He refused to talk about his disappearance or say whether he had been held or mistreated by the authorities. Friends were quoted then as saying he seemed subdued and unable to speak freely.
His reappearance followed intense international pressure on the Chinese authorities. But he was not free for long.
“His brief reappearance to give interviews to the Western press would appear to have been orchestrated to appease international demands for information about his case,” Lambert said.
Pressure must be kept on the Chinese government, she said, to obtain information and ensure Gao’s swift release.
“His family … miss him terribly and have called for the Chinese to allow him to join them in the US.”
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16296
EUROPE
ROME: KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS CELEBRATE 90TH ANNIVERSARY
CNA report: The Knights of Columbus are celebrating the 90th anniversary of their presence in Rome by reflecting on the group's contributions to the city throughout the decades.
As part of the celebration, the Knights of Columbus introduced an exhibit at Rome's historically renowned Capitoline Museums on June 9. The exhibit is titled "Everybody welcome, everything free: the Knights of Columbus and Rome, celebrating 90 years of friendship."
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, thanked the group for their work on Tuesday, saying that throughout their 90-year presence in Rome, the Knights “have worked with particular care in favor of the younger generation by offering opportunities for fun and games, using recreational centers made freely available to parishes, schools, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, institutions for disabled and priestly formation.”
In his commentary during the event, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson explained that the Knights “were invited to this city 90 years ago by Pope Benedict the fifteenth.”
“First in 1918 to briefly run a facility for US Soldiers in World War I,” he noted, and then “on an ongoing basis to help the children of the city by giving them safe places to play sports.”
“Nothing has been able to interfere with that,” Anderson continued. “When the National government tried to close our playgrounds in 1931, the decision did not last because our friendship with the city was bigger than any political differences.”
Andrew Walther, who is vice president of Media, Research & Development for the Knights echoed Anderson in remarks to CNA on Thursday.
Although many contributions can be credited to the his group, said Walther, “the better story is how much we did on the humanitarian side in Rome.”
From “a service center for troops in World War I, to playgrounds for children since 1920, to helping with Vatican restorations and communications,” he listed, “our work has been at the service of Rome and its people.”
“Most amazing, I think,” Walther added, “is that the playgrounds remained open during WWII - when the US and Italy fought on opposing sides.”
The exhibition at the Capitoline Museums will run from Thursday, June 10 until Sunday, October 31. A series of six rooms depict the work of the Knights in various areas through an assortment of photographs, documents, newspaper articles, artwork and other objects.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/knights-of-columbus-efforts-in-rome-highlighted-in-new-museum-exhibit/
TODAY´S SAINT
St. Barnabas
Feast: June 11
Information: Feast Day: June 11
Born: Cyprus
Died: 61 AD, Salamis, Cyprus
Major Shrine: Monastery of St Barnabas in Famagusta, Cyprus
Patron of: Cyprus, Antioch, against hailstorms, invoked as peacemaker
Barnabas (originally Joseph), styled an Apostle in Holy Scripture, and, like St. Paul, ranked by the Church with the Twelve, though not one of them; b. of Jewish parents in the Island of Cyprus about the beginning of the Christian Era. A Levite, he naturally spent much time in Jerusalem, probably even before the Crucifixion of Our Lord, and appears also to have settled there (where his relatives, the family of Mark the Evangelist, likewise had their homes — Acts 12:12) and to have owned land in its vicinity (4:36-37). A rather late tradition recorded by Clement of Alexandria (Strom., II, 20, P.G., VIII, col. 1060) and Eusebius (H. E., II, i, P. G., XX, col. 117) says that he was one of the seventy Disciples; but Acts (4:36-37) favours the opinion that he was converted to Christianity shortly after Pentecost (about A.D. 29 or 30) and immediately sold his property and devoted the proceeds to the Church. The Apostles, probably because of his success as a preacher, for he is later placed first among the prophets and doctors of Antioch (xiii, 1), surnamed him Barnabas, a name then interpreted as meaning "son of exhortation" or "consolation". (The real etymology, however, is disputed. See Encyl. Bibli., I, col. 484.) Though nothing is recorded of Barnabas for some years, he evidently acquired during this period a high position in the Church.
When Saul the persecutor, later Paul the Apostle, made his first visit (dated variously from A.D. 33 to 38) to Jerusalem after his conversion, the Church there, remembering his former fierce spirit, was slow to believe in the reality of his conversion. Barnabas stood sponsor for him and had him received by the Apostles, as the Acts relate (9:27), though he saw only Peter and James, the brother of the Lord, according to Paul himself (Galatians 1:18-19). Saul went to his house at Tarsus to live in obscurity for some years, while Barnabas appears to have remained at Jerusalem. The event that brought them together again and opened to both the door to their lifework was an indirect result of Saul's own persecution. In the dispersion that followed Stephen's death, some Disciples from Cyprus and Cyrene, obscure men, inaugurated the real mission of the Christian Church by preaching to the Gentiles. They met with great success among the Greeks at Antioch in Syria, reports of which coming o the ears of the Apostles, Barnabas was sent thither by them to investigate the work of his countrymen. He saw in the conversions effected the fruit of God's grace and, though a Jew, heartily welcomed these first Gentile converts. His mind was opened at once to the possibility of this immense field. It is a proof how deeply impressed Barnabas had been by Paul that he thought of him immediately for this work, set out without delay for distant Tarsus, and persuaded Paul to go to Antioch and begin the work of preaching. This incident, shedding light on the character of each, shows it was no mere accident that led them to the Gentile field. Together they laboured at Antioch for a whole year and "taught a great multitude". Then, on the coming of famine, by which Jerusalem was much afflicted, the offerings of the Disciples at Antioch were carried (about A.D. 45) to the mother-church by Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11). Their mission ended, they returned to Antioch, bringing with them the cousin, or nephew of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10), John Mark, the future Evangelist (Acts 12:25).
The time was now ripe, it was believed, for more systematic labours, and the Church of Antioch felt inspired by the Holy Ghost to send out missionaries to the Gentile world and to designate for the work Barnabas and Paul. They accordingly departed, after the imposition of hands, with John Mark as helper. Cyprus, the native land of Barnabas, was first evangelized, and then they crossed over to Asia Minor. Here, at Perge in Pamphylia, the first stopping place, John Mark left them, for what reason his friend St. Luke does not state, though Paul looked on the act as desertion. The two Apostles, however, pushing into the interior of a rather wild country, preached at Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, at Derbe, and other cities. At every step they met with opposition and even violent persecution from the Jews, who also incited the Gentiles against them. The most striking incident of the journey was at Lystra, where the superstitious populace took Paul, who had just cured a lame man, for Hermes (Mercury) "because he was the chief speaker", and Barnabas for Jupiter, and were about to sacrifice a bull to them when prevented by the Apostles. Mob-like, they were soon persuaded by the Jews to turn and attack the Apostles and wounded St. Paul almost fatally. Despite opposition and persecution, Paul and Barnabas made many converts on this journey and returned by the same route to Perge, organizing churches, ordaining presbyters and placing them over the faithful, so that they felt, on again reaching Antioch in Syria, that God had "opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:13-14:27).
Barnabas and Paul had been "for no small time" at Antioch, when they were threatened with the undoing of their work and the stopping of its further progress. Preachers came from Jerusalem with the gospel that circumcision was necessary for salvation, even for the Gentiles. The Apostles of the Gentiles, perceiving at once that this doctrine would be fatal to their work, went up to Jerusalem to combat it; the older Apostles received them kindly and at what is called the Council of Jerusalem (dated variously from A.D. 47 to 51) granted a decision in their favour as well as a hearty commendation of their work (Acts 14:27-15:30). On their return to Antioch, they resumed their preaching for a short time. St. Peter came down and associated freely there with the Gentiles, eating with them. This displeased some disciples of James; in their opinion, Peter's act was unlawful, as against the Mosaic law. Upon their remonstrances, Peter yielded apparently through fear of displeasing them, and refused to eat any longer with the Gentiles. Barnabas followed his example. Paul considered that they "walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel" and upbraided them before the whole church (Galatians 2:11-15). Paul seems to have carried his point. Shortly afterwards, he and Barnabas decided to revisit their missions. Barnabas wished to take John Mark along once more, but on account of the previous defection Paul objected. A sharp contention ensuing, the Apostles agreed to separate. Paul was probably somewhat influenced by the attitude recently taken by Barnabas, which might prove a prejudice to their work. Barnabas sailed with John Mark to Cyprus, while Paul took Silas an revisited the churches of Asia Minor. It is believed by some that the church of Antioch, by its God-speed to Paul, showed its approval of his attitude; this inference, however, is not certain (Acts 15:35-41).
Little is known of the subsequent career of Barnabas. He was still living and labouring as an Apostle in 56 or 57, when Paul wrote I Cor. (ix, 5, 6). from which we learn that he, too, like Paul, earned his own living, though on an equality with other Apostles. The reference indicates also that the friendship between the two was unimpaired. When Paul was a prisoner in Rome (61-63), John Mark was attached to him as a disciple, which is regarded as an indication that Barnabas was no longer living (Colossians 4:10). This seems probable. Various traditions represent him as the first Bishop of Milan, as preaching at Alexandria and at Rome, whose fourth (?) bishop, St. Clement, he is said to have converted, and as having suffered martyrdom in Cyprus. The traditions are all late and untrustworthy.
With the exception of St. Paul and certain of the Twelve, Barnabas appears to have been the most esteemed man of the first Christian generation. St. Luke, breaking his habit of reserve, speaks of him with affection, "for he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of Faith". His title to glory comes not only from his kindliness of heart, his personal sanctity, and his missionary labours, but also from his readiness to lay aside his Jewish prejudices, in this anticipating certain of the Twelve; from his large-hearted welcome of the Gentiles, and from his early perception of Paul's worth, to which the Christian Church is indebted, in large part at least, for its great Apostle. His tenderness towards John Mark seems to have had its reward in the valuable services later rendered by him to the Church.
The feast of St. Barnabas is celebrated on 11 June. He is credited by Tertullian (probably falsely) with the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the so-called Epistle of Barnabas is ascribed to him by many Fathers.
source http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/B/stbarnabas.asp
TODAY´S GOSPEL
SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Luke 15: 3 - 7
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4 "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
