2016
#PopeFrancis makes Surprise visit “Don’t worry: we’re in God’s hands.”
Wow Man who Shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 now says he wants to be a Priest
Mehmet Alì Ağca is the Turkish man who shot St John Paul II in 1981 on May 13, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. He now says that he wants to become a priest if Pope Francis accepts him. This was in an interview with Italian TV channel Canale 5. Ağca also wants to travel with Pope Francis to Fatima in 2017 on the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions. Ağca, now 58 years old, served 19 years in an Italian prison for the shooting of Pope John Paul II. He was pardoned in the jubilee year of 2000 at the request of the Pope. Mehmet was deported to Turkey, and there he spent 10 more years in prison until 2010. "Here in Turkey, I live as a pensioner wasting my time," Ağca said. "That's why I want to make an appeal to Pope Francis: Welcome me in the Vatican, and I will become a priest," he said. "After John Paul II visited me in prison, I thought about it, and I studied the Gospel at length," he said. "I know the sacred books better than many others. If the Pope welcomes me, I'll be a priest and I will celebrate Mass, if he wants me."
"I'll pray there, maybe even together with the Pope, to the Madonna, my spiritual mother," he said. Mehmet was a member of the Turkish group the Grey Wolves, and he also said he had connections with the KGB, and with Islamic radicalism.
Please Pray for Mehmet Alì Ağca....
"I'll pray there, maybe even together with the Pope, to the Madonna, my spiritual mother," he said. Mehmet was a member of the Turkish group the Grey Wolves, and he also said he had connections with the KGB, and with Islamic radicalism.
Please Pray for Mehmet Alì Ağca....
#BreakingNews Muslim extremists Kidnap Christian Girl and Kill her Father - Please Pray
Muslims kidnap Christian girl in Faisalabad, kill father when he tries to rescue her
A 14-year-old girl has been abducted on the pretext of a job. Her father was persuaded to withdraw a complaint against her abductors, but instead of getting his daughter, he was killed in cold blood on his way to rescue her. His wife and three daughters now live in fear of reprisals, and ask for help from God's people.
Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – Two months ago, a group of Muslims abducted a 14-year-old Christian girl in Faisalabad, and later killed her father in cold blood when he tried to bring her home.
Since then, the kidnapped girl’s mother and three sisters live in fear and indigence. They cannot leave home, go to work, or attend to chores for fear of retaliation from the Muslims against whom the girl’s father had filed charges before being killed.
Najma Bibi, the girl’s mother, told AsiaNews that "several months after my daughter's kidnapping, the police have not done anything because we have no money to defend our rights. We live in a hopeless situation, we need help. I pray that my daughter will continue to place hope and faith in Jesus Christ."
The murder victim is Tanveer Masih, 42, Najma Bibi’s husband and Mehwish’s father. He and his family lived in Khalid Colony slum. He worked as a rickshaw driver. Whilst his eldest daughter looked after the house and the younger sisters, his mother and Mehwish served as domestic workers in private homes.
Mehwish went to school until eighth grade, but then had to abandon her studies for lack of money and to help the family. On 12 March, a Muslim family visited the Masih-Bibi house to ask if they could hire Mekwish’s services for a party that evening. They said they would bring her back at the end of the celebrations.
However, she never made it home, and has been missing ever since. Tanveer, desperate, went several times to the Muslim family that had hired his daughter, asking them to release her. Every time he was prevented from seeing her, given some explanation like she was out on some errands.
He also tried reconciliation through the village council, without success. After several failed attempts, Tanveer went to Raza Abad police station on 10 May and filed a complaint of abduction against Umar Daraz, Muhammad Zahid and Mobeen Rehman.
Immediately, Tanveer began receiving threatening phone calls, telling him to withdraw the complaint. But he refused to be intimidated and made a supplementary statement before the police.
At that point, two of the accused went to Tanveer’s house and told that they could settle the matter out of court if he withdrew all charges.
When he agreed to do so in order ensure his daughter’s safety, he went to a prearranged meeting, but instead of his daughter, he met two gunmen on a motorcycle who shot him to death on Jhang Road, in Thikriwala.
Local police filed a murder case, but did not arrest anyone. For this reason, Najma Bibi and the other three daughters live holed up in their home in fear that the accused of the two crimes – murder and kidnapping – might want to kill them too.
In the past few months they have survived thanks to the support of relatives, who bring them bread and butter.
"I want my daughter back,” Tanveer’s widow said. “I want the perpetrators brought to justice. I have no money to buy food or continue the legal battle. I ask help from God's people."
Shared from AsiaNewsIT
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#BreakingNews 2 Trains collide in Italy Killing 25 people and injuring 50 - Please Pray
At least 25 people were killed and around 50 were wounded in the crash, some of them critically. In Tuesday's telegram addressed to Archbishop Francesco Cacucci of Bari-Bitonto, and signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope expressed “his warm and heartfelt participation in the suffering” of the families affected by the tragedy.
The Pope assured them of his “fervent prayer of intercession for those tragically killed and,” and prayed for the “swift healing of the wounded.” Finally, Pope Francis bestowed his apostolic blessing, and entrusted all those affected by the tragedy to the “Maternal protection of the Virgin Mary.” The crash occurred at around 11:30 in Southern Italy’s Puglia region, tearing apart three carriages and sending debris into the surrounding olive groves.
The two trains collided while on the same track connecting the small towns of Corato and Andria. There was no immediate indication of the cause of the crash, but the government has promised a full and swift investigation. Tuesday’s incident is Italy’s worst railway disaster in recent years. The last major rail disaster in Italy was in 2009 when a freight train derailed the central Italian town Viareggio, killing more than 30 people living close to the tracks in the subsequent fire.
Britain's New Prime Minister is a regular Church Goer and Daughter of a Vicar
Theresa May Britain's new Prime Minister is a regular churchgoer. Theresa Mary May (maiden name Brasier) was born on October 1st, 1956. Her father was a Vicar of an Anglican Church. She is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. May has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead since 1997. She became Prime Minister in 2016 after David Cameron resigned due to the Brexit vote where Great Britain left the European Union. May has been married to Philip May, an investment banker, since 6 September 1980; the couple have no children.
Saint July 13 : St. Teresa de los Andes - #Discalced #Carmelite of #Chile
virgin, Discalced Carmelite Nuns
Vatican.va Release: The young woman who is today glorified by the Church with the title of Saint, is a prophet of God for the men and women of today. By the example of her life, TERESA OF JESUS OF LOS ANDES shows us Christ's Gospel lived down to the last detail.
She is irrefutable proof that Christ's call to be Saints is indeed real, it happens in our time, and can be answered. She is presented to us to demonstrate that the total dedication that following Christ involves, is the one and only thing that is worth this effort and that gives us true happiness.
Teresa of Los Andes with the language of her ardent life, confirms for us that God exists, that God is love and happiness, and that he is our fulfilment.
She was born in Santiago de Chile on 13 July 1900. At the font she was christened Juana Enriqueta Josefina of the Sacred Hearts Fernandez Solar. Those who knew her closely called her Juanita, the name by which she is widely known today.
She had a normal upbringing surrounded by her family: her parents Miguel Fernandez and Lucia Solar, three brothers and two sisters, her maternal grandfather, uncles, aunts and cousins.
Her family were well-off and were faithful to their Christian faith, living it with faith and constancy.
Juana was educated in the college of the French nuns of the Sacred Heart. Her brief but intense life unfolded within her family and at college. When she was fourteen, under God's inspiration, she decided to consecrate herself to him as a religious in the Discalced Carmelite Nuns.
This desire of hers was realized on 7 May 1919, when she entered the tiny monastery of the Holy Spirit in the township of Los Andes, some 90 kilometers from Santiago.
She was clothed with the Carmelite habit 14 October the same year and began her novitiate with the name of Teresa of Jesus. She knew a long time before that she would die young. Moreover the Lord revealed this to her. A month before she was to depart this life, she related this to her confessor.
She accepted all this with happiness, serenity and confidence. She was certain that her mission to make God known and loved would continue in eternity.
After many interior trials and indescribable physical suffering caused by a violent attack of typhus that cut short her life, she passed from this world to her heavenly Father on the evening of 12 April 1920. She received the last sacraments with the utmost fervour, and on 7 April, because of danger of death, she made her religious profession. She was three months short of her 20th birthday, and had yet 6 months to complete her canonical novitiate and to be legally able to make her religious profession. She died as a Discalced Carmelite novice.
Externally this is all there is to this young girl from Santiago de Chile. It is all rather disconcerting and a great question arises in us, "What was accomplished?" The answer to such a question is equally disconcerting: living, believing, loving.
When the disciples asked Jesus what they must do to carry out God's work, he replied, "This is carrying out God's work: you must believe in the one he has sent." (Jn 6, 28-29). For this reason, in order to recognize the value of Juanita's fife, it is necessary to examine the substance within, where the Kingdom of God is to be found.
She wakened to the life of grace while still quite young. She affirms that God drew her at the age of six to begin to spare no effort in directing her capacity to love totally towards him. "It was shortly after the 1906 earthquake that Jesus began to claim my heart for himself." (Diary n. 3, p. 26).
Juanita possessed an enormous capacity to love and to be loved joined with an extraordinary intelligence. God allowed her to experience his presence. With this knowledge he purified her and made her his own through what it entails to take up the cross. Knowing him, she loved him; and loving him, she bound herself totally to him.
Once this child understood that love demonstrates itself in deeds rather than words, the result was that she expressed her love through every action of her life. She examined herself sincerely and wisely and understood that in order to belong to God it was necessary to die to herself in all that did not belong to him.
Her natural inclinations were completely contrary to the demands of the Gospel. She was proud, self-centred, stubborn, with all the defects that these things suppose, as is the common lot. But where she differed from the general run, was to carry out continual warfare on every impulse that did not arise from love.
At the age of ten she became a new person. What lay immediately behind this was the fact that she was going to make her first Communion. Understanding that nobody less that God was going to dwell within her, she set about acquiring all the virtues that would make her less unworthy of this grace. In the shortest possible time she managed to transform her character completely.
In making her first Communion she received from God the mystical grace of interior locutions, which from then on supported her throughout her fife. God took over her natural inclinations, transforming them from that day into friendship and a fife of prayer.
Four years later she received an interior revelation that shaped the direction of her life. Jesus told her that she would be a Carmelite and that holiness must be her goal.
With God's abundant grace and the generosity of a young girl in love, she gave herself over to prayer, to the acquiring of virtue and the practice of a life in accord with the Gospel. Such were her efforts that in a few short years she reached a high degree of union with God.
Christ was the one and only ideal she had. She was in love with him and ready each moment to crucify herself for him. A bridal love pervaded her with the result that she desired to unite herself fully to him who had captivated her. As a result, at the age of fifteen she made a vow of virginity for 9 days, continually renewing it from then on.
The holiness of her life shone out in the everyday occurrences, wherever she found herself: at home, in college, with friends, the people she stayed with on holidays. To all, with apostolic zeal, she spoke of God and gave assistance. She was young like her friends, but they knew she was different. They took her as a model, seeking her support and advice. All the pains that are part of living, Juanita felt keenly, and the happiness she enjoyed deeply, all in God.
She was cheerful, happy, sympathetic, attractive, communicative and involved in sport. During her adolescence she reached perfect psychic and spiritual equilibrium. These were the fruit of her asceticism and prayer. The serenity of her face was a reflection of the divine guest within. Her life as a nun, from 7 May 1919, was the last rung on the ladder to holiness. Only eleven months were necessary to bring to an end the process of making her life totally Christ-like.
Her community was quick to discover the hand of God in her past life. The young novice found in the Carmelite way of life the full and efficient channel for spreading the torrent of life that she wanted to give to the Church of Christ. It was a way of life that, in her own way, she had lived amongst her own and for which she was born. The Order of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel fulfilled the desires of Juanita. It was proof to her that God's mother, whom she had loved from infancy, had drawn her to be part of it.
She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Santiago de Chile on 3 April 1987. Her remains are venerated in the Sanctuary of Auco-Rinconada of Los Andes by the thousands of pilgrims who seek in her and find guidance, light and a direct way to God.
SAINT TERESA OF JESUS OF LOS ANDES is the first Chilean to be declared a Saint. She is the first Discalced Carmelite Nun to become a Saint outside the boundaries of Europe and the fourth Saint Teresa in Carmel together with Saints Teresa of Avila, of Florence and of Lisieux.
Text shared from Vatican.va
Text shared from Vatican.va
Today's Mass Readings and Video : Wed. July 13, 2016 - #Eucharist
Lectionary: 391
Reading 1IS 10:5-7, 13B-16
Thus says the LORD:
Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger,
my staff in wrath.
Against an impious nation I send him,
and against a people under my wrath I order him
To seize plunder, carry off loot,
and tread them down like the mud of the streets.
But this is not what he intends,
nor does he have this in mind;
Rather, it is in his heart to destroy,
to make an end of nations not a few.
For he says:
“By my own power I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd.
I have moved the boundaries of peoples,
their treasures I have pillaged,
and, like a giant, I have put down the enthroned.
My hand has seized like a nest
the riches of nations;
As one takes eggs left alone,
so I took in all the earth;
No one fluttered a wing,
or opened a mouth, or chirped!”
Will the axe boast against him who hews with it?
Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it?
As if a rod could sway him who lifts it,
or a staff him who is not wood!
Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts,
will send among his fat ones leanness,
And instead of his glory there will be kindling
like the kindling of fire.
Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger,
my staff in wrath.
Against an impious nation I send him,
and against a people under my wrath I order him
To seize plunder, carry off loot,
and tread them down like the mud of the streets.
But this is not what he intends,
nor does he have this in mind;
Rather, it is in his heart to destroy,
to make an end of nations not a few.
For he says:
“By my own power I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd.
I have moved the boundaries of peoples,
their treasures I have pillaged,
and, like a giant, I have put down the enthroned.
My hand has seized like a nest
the riches of nations;
As one takes eggs left alone,
so I took in all the earth;
No one fluttered a wing,
or opened a mouth, or chirped!”
Will the axe boast against him who hews with it?
Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it?
As if a rod could sway him who lifts it,
or a staff him who is not wood!
Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts,
will send among his fat ones leanness,
And instead of his glory there will be kindling
like the kindling of fire.
Responsorial PsalmPS 94:5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15
R. (14a) The Lord will not abandon his people.
Your people, O LORD, they trample down,
your inheritance they afflict.
Widow and stranger they slay,
the fatherless they murder.
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
And they say, “The LORD sees not;
the God of Jacob perceives not.”
Understand, you senseless ones among the people;
and, you fools, when will you be wise?
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
Shall he who shaped the ear not hear?
or he who formed the eye not see?
Shall he who instructs nations not chastise,
he who teaches men knowledge?
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
For the LORD will not cast off his people,
nor abandon his inheritance;
But judgment shall again be with justice,
and all the upright of heart shall follow it.
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
Your people, O LORD, they trample down,
your inheritance they afflict.
Widow and stranger they slay,
the fatherless they murder.
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
And they say, “The LORD sees not;
the God of Jacob perceives not.”
Understand, you senseless ones among the people;
and, you fools, when will you be wise?
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
Shall he who shaped the ear not hear?
or he who formed the eye not see?
Shall he who instructs nations not chastise,
he who teaches men knowledge?
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
For the LORD will not cast off his people,
nor abandon his inheritance;
But judgment shall again be with justice,
and all the upright of heart shall follow it.
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
AlleluiaMT 11:25
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT 11:25-27
At that time Jesus exclaimed:“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Saint July 13 : St. Henry II : Patron of #Childless, #Disabled and #Oblates
Like his predecessor, Otto III, he had the literary education of his time. In his youth he had been destined for the priesthood. Therefore he became acquainted with ecclesiastical interests at an early age. Willingly he performed pious practices, gladly also he strengthened the Church of Germany, without, however, ceasing to regard ecclesiastical institutions as pivots of his power, according to the views of Otto the Great. With all his learning and piety, Henry was an eminently sober man, endowed with sound, practical common sense. He went his way circumspectly, never attempting anything but the possible and, wherever it was practicable, applying the methods of amiable and reasonable good sense. This prudence, however, was combined with energy and conscientiousness. Sick and suffering from fever, he traversed the empire in order to maintain peace.
At all times he used his power to adjust troubles. The masses especially he wished to help. The Church, as the constitutional Church of Germany, and therefore as the advocate of German unity and of the claims of inherited succession, raised Henry to the throne. The new king straightway resumed the policy of Otto I both in domestic and in foreign affairs. This policy first appeared in his treatment of the Eastern Marches.
The encroachments of Duke Boleslaw, who had founded a great kingdom, impelled him to intervene. But his success was not marked. In Italy the local and national opposition to the universalism of the German king had found a champion in Arduin of Ivrea. The latter assumed the Lombard crown in 1002. In 1004 Henry crossed the Alps. Arduin yielded to his superior power. The Archbishop of Milan now crowned him King of Italy.
This rapid success was largely due to the fact that a large part of the Italian episcopate upheld the idea of the Roman Empire and that of the unity of Church and State. On his second expedition to Rome, occasioned by the dispute between the Counts of Tuscany and the Crescentians over the nomination to the papal throne, he was crowned emperor on 14 February, 1014. But it was not until later, on his third expedition to Rome, that he was able to restore the prestige of the empire completely. Before this happened, however, he was obliged to intervene in the west. Disturbances were especially prevalent throughout the entire northwest. Lorraine caused great trouble. The Counts of Lutzelburg (Luxemburg), brothers-in-law of the king, were the heart and soul of the disaffection in that country. Of these men, Adalbero had made himself Bishop of Trier by uncanonical methods (1003); but he was not recognized any more than his brother Theodoric, who had had himself elected Bishop of Metz. True to his duty, the king could not be induced to abet any selfish family policy at the expense of the empire.
Even though Henry, on the whole, was able to hold his own against these Counts of Lutzelburg, still the royal authority suffered greatly by loss of prestige in the northwest. Burgundy afforded compensation for this. The lord of that country was Rudolph, who, to protect himself against his vassals, joined the party of Henry II, the son of his sister, Gisela, and to Henry the childless duke bequeathed his duchy, despite the opposition of the nobles (1006). Henry had to undertake several campaigns before he was able to enforce his claims.
He did not achieve any tangible result, he only bequeathed the theoretical claims on Burgundy to his successors. Better fortune awaited the king in the central and eastern parts of the empire. It is true that he had a quarrel with the Conradinians over Carinthia and Swabia: but Henry proved victorious because his kingdom rested on the solid foundation of intimate alliance with the Church. That his attitude towards the Church was dictated in part by practical reasons, primarily he promoted the institutions of the Church chiefly in order to make them more useful supports his royal power, is clearly shown by his policy.
How boldly Henry posed as the real ruler of the Church appears particularly in the establishment of the See of Bamberg, which was entirely his own scheme. He carried out this measure, in 1007, in spite of the energetic opposition of the Bishop of Wurzburg against this change in the organization of the Church. The primary purpose of the new bishopric was the germanization of the regions on the Upper Main and the Regnitz, where the Wends had fixed their homes. As a large part of the environs of Bamberg belonged to the king, he was able to furnish rich endowments for the new bishopric. The importance of Bamberg lay principally in the field of culture, which it promoted chiefly by its prosperous schools. Henry, therefore, relied on the aid of the Church against the lay powers, which had become quite formidable. But he made no concessions to the Church. Though naturally pious, and though well acquainted with ecclesiastical culture, he was at bottom a stranger to her spirit. He disposed of bishoprics autocratically. Under his rule the bishops, from whom he demanded unqualified obedience, seemed to be nothing but officials of the empire. He demanded the same obedience from the abbots. However, this political dependency did not injure the internal life of the German Church under Henry. By means of its economic and educational resources the Church had a blessed influence in this epoch. But it was precisely this civilizing power of the German Church that aroused the suspicions of the reform party. This was significant, because Henry was more and more won over to the ideas of this party.
At a synod at Goslar he confirmed decrees that tended to realize the demands made by the reform party. Ultimately this tendency could not fail to subvert the Othonian system, moreover could not fail to awaken the opposition of the Church of Germany as it was constituted. This hostility on the part of the German Church came to a head in the emperor's dispute with Archbishop Aribo of Mainz. Aribo was an opponent of the reform movement of the monks of Cluny. The Hammerstein marriage imbroglio afforded the opportunity he desired to offer a bold front against Rome. Otto von Hammerstein had been excommunicated by Aribo on account of his marriage with Irmengard, and the latter had successfully appealed to Rome. This called forth the opposition of the Synod of Seligenstadt, in 1023, which forbade an appeal to Rome without the consent of the bishop. This step meant open rebellion against the idea of church unity, and its ultimate result would have been the founding of a German national Church. In this dispute the emperor was entirely on the side of the reform party.
He even wanted to institute international proceedings against the unruly archbishop by means of treaties with the French king. But his death prevented this. Before this Henry had made his third journey to Rome in 1021. He came at the request of the loyal Italian bishops, who had warned him at Strasburg of the dangerous aspect of the Italian situation, and also of the pope, who sought him out at Bamberg in 1020. Thus the imperial power, which had already begun to withdraw from Italy, was summoned back thither. This time the object was to put an end to the supremacy of the Greeks in Italy. His success was not complete; he succeeded, however, in restoring the prestige of the empire in northern and central Italy. Henry was far too reasonable a man to think seriously of readopting the imperialist plans of his predecessors. He was satisfied to have ensured the dominant position of the empire in Italy within reasonable bounds. Henry's power was in fact controlling, and this was in no small degree due to the fact that he was primarily engaged in solidifying the national foundations of his authority. The later ecclesiastical legends have ascribed ascetic traits to this ruler, some of which certainly cannot withstand serious criticism. For instance, the highly varied theme of his virgin marriage to Cunegond has certainly no basis in fact. The Church canonized this emperor in 1146, and his wife Cunegond in 1200. Text shared from the Catholic Encyclopedia
#BreakingNews Young Dominican Friar Killed by Lightning - RIP #Dominican Antoni Marczewski
A novice with the Dominican religious order was killed by a lightning strike in the southern Polish city of Kraków on Monday.Thirty-year-old Antoni Marczewski entered the Dominican Order two years ago and took his first vows in August last year. He had earlier gained a master’s degree in biology from the University of Gdańsk.
He had a keen interest in environmental protection in the light of Christian teaching and in the relationship between faith and science. He was an editor of an internet journal by young Polish Dominicans. (mk/pk)
Text shared from Source: KAI Catholic Informational Agency - the Newspl
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1 comment:
Great post thankks
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