2014
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis visited the parish church of San Tommaso Apostolo in Infernetto this Sunday. Infernetto is a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city near the site of the ancient port of Ostia.
The Holy Father’s visit began at 4PM Rome Time.
The schedule of the visit included: a meeting with the children and young people of the parish, who are making their First Communion and Confirmation; an exchange of greetings with the parish faithful in the courtyard in front of the church; some time with children baptized in recent months and with their parents; with the elderly the sick, and with the Parish-sponsored association of families with disabled children. Pope Francis also made time to hear the confessions of several penitents before offering the Mass, which began at 6PM Rome Time.
The occasion of the visit is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the parish, dedicated to St. Thomas the Apostle.
The parish territory is home to some 20 thousand people. The parish services include an “Oratory” or playground for young people, a Caritas outreach, regular blood donation drives, a Center for the Elderly, and the San Tommaso Association that is tasked with marshalling resources for the neighbourhood’s needy and for the support of missionary efforts in other parts of the world.
Text from Vatican Radio website
The Holy Father’s visit began at 4PM Rome Time.
The schedule of the visit included: a meeting with the children and young people of the parish, who are making their First Communion and Confirmation; an exchange of greetings with the parish faithful in the courtyard in front of the church; some time with children baptized in recent months and with their parents; with the elderly the sick, and with the Parish-sponsored association of families with disabled children. Pope Francis also made time to hear the confessions of several penitents before offering the Mass, which began at 6PM Rome Time.
The occasion of the visit is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the parish, dedicated to St. Thomas the Apostle.
The parish territory is home to some 20 thousand people. The parish services include an “Oratory” or playground for young people, a Caritas outreach, regular blood donation drives, a Center for the Elderly, and the San Tommaso Association that is tasked with marshalling resources for the neighbourhood’s needy and for the support of missionary efforts in other parts of the world.
Text from Vatican Radio website
VIOLENCE IN VENEZUELA - WHAT'S GOING ON?
FREE CATHOLIC MOVIES : HEIDI WITH SHIRLEY TEMPLE - 1937 - FULL FILM
AMAZING NEW HOLLYWOOD MOVIE ON JESUS BY ROMA DOWNEY OF TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL
Crew Producers: Mark Burnett Roma Downey
Director: Christopher Spencer
Written By: Richard Bedser Christopher Spencer, Colin Swash, Nic Young
Cast: Diogo Morgado, Roma Downey, Amber Rose Revah, Louise Delamere, Darwin Shaw
A VOCATION STORY OF A JESUIT PRIEST "HE HAS CALLED ME TO SERVE"
I am the eldest of three children. My father became Catholic when he married my mother. He was a fine Catholic and good father. I was born just as World War 2 was ending. I had the good fortune of attending a Catholic elementary school run by the Sisters of Charity. It was there that I was introduced to the various devotions and mysteries and truths of the Catholic faith. Although our family attended Mass on Sunday, we did not have family devotions, for example, the rosary. So it was in the Catholic school that I first felt deeply drawn to the Person of Christ and to Mary, his mother. I started attending frequent daily Mass at an early age. During Mass I always felt the deep personal presence of Christ. I thought all my friends did too. It was only later that I learned that many of them didn't. I thought that in order to get closer to Christ in the Eucharist I should become an altar server. So as soon as I was old enough, that is what I did. Then while serving Mass, the thought occurred to me that if I wanted to get even closer to Jesus then I should become a priest. And so the first sense of my call to priesthood was intimately connected to the personal presence of the risen Jesus in the Mass. When it came time for me to go to high school, my mother asked me if I wanted to go to the Jesuit high school in our city. I don't know if I had ever heard the word "Jesuit" before or not, but it seemed like it was the very first time. The word "Jesuit" leaped out at me and I had the deep sense that God was calling me to be a Jesuit. My first reaction was to feel excitement and joy, but then since I didn't know anything about the Jesuits, I became apprehensive: "What if I don't like the Jesuit vocation? I'll be stuck in a life in which I'll never be happy." As it turned out, when I went to the high school, I found out that the Jesuit vocation appealed to me, and I met very many very helpful and inspiring Jesuits. Although I felt God calling me to religious life as a Jesuit priest, I didn't start to live as though I already were a priest. I wasn't running from the call, but I just knew I had to mature in the normal way. I enjoyed dancing very much, and used to go to all the high school dances with a girlfriend, and we enjoyed each other's company for many years. I then went to university and did an advanced Master's degree. For me, at least, I felt it was important to have the experience of living on my own, holding a full time responsible job, bringing in a salary and paying my bills. I did this for two years while teaching in a Jesuit university. After that experience, I knew that the "fullness of time" had come for me to apply to the Jesuits, which I did. Timing is always important in discerning a vocation: too early and you can undermine it; too late and you can miss it. The Jesuits accepted me. I have been a Jesuit for 42 years and a priest for 34 years. I have always found my vocation to be a great source of strength and consolation and am immensely grateful to God for all the graces he has bestowed on me to use the gifts he has given me to encourage, to teach and to guide those whom He has called me to serve. AMDG. In the Lord, Fr. Greg
POPE FRANCIS "In light of this teaching of Christ, every precept reveals its full meaning as a requirement of love..."
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with the faithful in St Peter’s Square this Sunday. Bright sunshine and unseasonable warmth in the air encouraged 50 thousand people to gather beneath the window to the Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace. Ahead of the traditional prayer of Marian devotion, they heard the Holy Father speak of the day’s Gospel reading, taken from that according to St. Matthew (5:17-37).In that Gospel reading, Our Lord is delivering his Sermon on the Mount – specifically, the part of the sermon in which Jesus addresses the question of His relationship to the Law of Moses. “Jesus does not want to erase the commandments that the Lord gave through Moses,” explained Pope Francis. “Rather,” he continued, “He desires to bring them to their fulfilment – and He immediately adds that this ‘fulfillment’ of the Law requires a higher justice, a more authentic observance.
The Holy Father went on to note the words of Jesus to His disciples: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The Pope explained that Jesus does not give importance to rote observance and outward conduct. “He goes to the root of the law, focusing above all on the intention and therefore on the human heart,” which is the source of our actions for good and for evil. Pope Francis said that profound motivations, the expression of a hidden wisdom, of God’s wisdom, are needed in order for us to act well – not merely good rules and legal norms. “The Wisdom of God,” he said, “can be received through the Holy Spirit: and we, through faith in Christ, open ourselves to the action of the Spirit, which enables us to live God's love.”
The Holy Father concluded, saying, “In light of this teaching of Christ, every precept reveals its full meaning as a requirement of love, and all [precepts] come together in the greatest commandment: love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Text Vatican Radio website
RIP BISHOP DEOGRATIAS BYABAZAIRE OF UGANDA AFRICA
Bishop Deogratias Byabazaire of Hoima died at Entebbe Airport on his way back to Uganda. Burial arrangements to be announced later.
2014
TODAY'S SAINT : FEB. 16 : ST. ONESIMUS
St. Onesimus
MARTYR AND FORMER SLAVE
Feast: February 16
Information:
Feast Day: February 16 Died: 95
HE was a Phrygian by birth, slave to Philemon, a person of note of the city of Colossæ, converted to the faith by St. Paul. Having robbed his master and being obliged to fly, he providentially met with St. Paul, then a prisoner for the faith at Rome, who there converted and baptized him, and sent him with his canonical letter of recommendation to Philemon, by whom he was pardoned, set at liberty, and sent back to his spiritual father, whom he afterwards faithfully served. That apostle made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his Epistle to the Colossians, and afterwards, as St. Jerome and other Fathers witness, a preacher of the Gospel and a bishop. He was crowned with martyrdom under Domitian in the year 95.
(Taken from Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler)
source: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/O/stonesimus.asp#ixzz1mYC2uTPA
St. Onesimus
MARTYR AND FORMER SLAVE
Feast: February 16
Information:
|
HE was a Phrygian by birth, slave to Philemon, a person of note of the city of Colossæ, converted to the faith by St. Paul. Having robbed his master and being obliged to fly, he providentially met with St. Paul, then a prisoner for the faith at Rome, who there converted and baptized him, and sent him with his canonical letter of recommendation to Philemon, by whom he was pardoned, set at liberty, and sent back to his spiritual father, whom he afterwards faithfully served. That apostle made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his Epistle to the Colossians, and afterwards, as St. Jerome and other Fathers witness, a preacher of the Gospel and a bishop. He was crowned with martyrdom under Domitian in the year 95.
(Taken from Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler) |
source: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/O/stonesimus.asp#ixzz1mYC2uTPA
SUNDAY MASS ONLINE : FEB. 16, 2014 - 6TH IN ORDINARY TIME
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 76
If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you;
if you trust in God, you too shall live;
he has set before you fire and water
to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.
Immense is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power, and all-seeing.
The eyes of God are on those who fear him;
he understands man’s every deed.
No one does he command to act unjustly,
to none does he give license to sin.
if you trust in God, you too shall live;
he has set before you fire and water
to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.
Immense is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power, and all-seeing.
The eyes of God are on those who fear him;
he understands man’s every deed.
No one does he command to act unjustly,
to none does he give license to sin.
Responsorial Psalm PS 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
R/ (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Instruct me, O LORD, in the way of your statutes,
that I may exactly observe them.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Instruct me, O LORD, in the way of your statutes,
that I may exactly observe them.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Reading 2 1 COR 2:6-10
Brothers and sisters:
We speak a wisdom to those who are mature,
not a wisdom of this age,
nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.
Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden,
which God predetermined before the ages for our glory,
and which none of the rulers of this age knew;
for, if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written:
What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you,
whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment;
and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin;
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’
will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
“It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.
But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife - unless the marriage is unlawful -
causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
Do not take a false oath,
but make good to the Lord all that you vow.
But I say to you, do not swear at all;
not by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;
nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Do not swear by your head,
for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,' and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’
Anything more is from the evil one.”
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you,
whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment.
“You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
Do not take a false oath,
but make good to the Lord all that you vow.
But I say to you, do not swear at all.
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’
Anything more is from the evil one.”
We speak a wisdom to those who are mature,
not a wisdom of this age,
nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.
Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden,
which God predetermined before the ages for our glory,
and which none of the rulers of this age knew;
for, if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written:
What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
Gospel MT 5:17-37
Jesus said to his disciples:“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you,
whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment;
and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin;
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’
will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
“It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.
But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife - unless the marriage is unlawful -
causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
Do not take a false oath,
but make good to the Lord all that you vow.
But I say to you, do not swear at all;
not by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;
nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Do not swear by your head,
for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,' and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’
Anything more is from the evil one.”
Or MT 5:20-22A, 27-28, 33-34A, 37
Jesus said to his disciples:“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you,
whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment.
“You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
Do not take a false oath,
but make good to the Lord all that you vow.
But I say to you, do not swear at all.
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’
Anything more is from the evil one.”
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