May all our friends have a blessed and holy Christmas.

http://www.zenit.org/article-34055?l=english

ZE11122404 - 2011-12-24
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-34055?l=english

POPE TO INFANT JESUS: MANIFEST YOUR POWER

Speaks of God's Might in Christmas Eve Homily

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 24, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI voiced a prayer tonight during his homily at the Christmas Eve Mass: "O mighty God, you have appeared as a child" and "we love your childish estate, your powerlessness," but we also ask you, "manifest your power."

In a radiantly illuminated St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope made this prayer, as he recalled that all three Christmas Masses present a quote from Isaiah, which "describes the epiphany that took place at Christmas in greater detail: 'A child is born for us, a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders; and this is the name they give him: Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace. Wide is his dominion in a peace that has no end.'"

The Holy Father said it is unknown if the prophet had a particular child in mind from his own period of history, but, he said, "it seems impossible. This is the only text in the Old Testament in which it is said of a child, of a human being: his name will be Mighty-God, Eternal-Father. We are presented with a vision that extends far beyond the historical moment into the mysterious, into the future."

"A child, in all its weakness, is Mighty God," the Pontiff declared. "A child, in all its neediness and dependence, is Eternal Father. And his peace 'has no end.'"

Reflecting on that peace, Benedict XVI said that God as a child "pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace."

"At this hour," he continued, "when the world is continually threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways, when over and over again there are oppressors' rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cry out to the Lord: O mighty God, you have appeared as a child and you have revealed yourself to us as the One who loves us, the One through whom love will triumph. And you have shown us that we must be peacemakers with you.

"We love your childish estate, your powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing presence of violence in the world, and so we also ask you: manifest your power, O God. In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors' rods, the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that your peace may triumph in this world of ours."

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Full text: www.zenit.org/article-34054?l=english

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How silently, how silently The wondrous gift is given!

As we prepare for the great Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, we should seek times of silence. In the quietness we should listen for the voice of Jesus, our Redeemer and Creator, who is coming to us as a little child.

But to set times aside to allow us to experience that silence is difficult and requires a serious discipline. The search for silence is the subject of the Pastoral Letter of Bishop Hugh, O.S.B. Bishop of Aberdeen. We invite you to meditate of his words.

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We live in a noisy world. Our towns and cities are full of noise. There is noise in the skies and on the roads. There is noise in our homes, and even in our churches. And most of all there is noise in our minds and hearts.

The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard once wrote: ‘The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and I were asked for my advice, I should reply: “Create silence! Bring people to silence!” The Word of God cannot be heard in the noisy world of today. And even if it were trumpeted forth with all the panoply of noise so that it could be heard in the midst of all the other noise, then it would no longer be the Word of God. Therefore, create silence!’

‘Create silence!’ There’s a challenge here. Surely speaking is a good and healthy thing? Yes indeed. Surely there are bad kinds of silence? Yes again. But still Kierkegaard is on to something.

There is a simple truth at stake. There can be no real relationship with God, there can be no real meeting with God, without silence. Silence prepares for that meeting and silence follows it. An early Christian wrote, ‘To someone who has experienced Christ himself, silence is more precious than anything else.’ For us God has the first word, and our silence opens our hearts to hear him. Only then will our own words really be words, echoes of God’s, and not just more litter on the rubbish dump of noise.

‘How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.’ So the carol goes. For all the noise, rush and rowdiness of contemporary Christmasses, we all know there is a link between Advent and silence, Christmas and silence. Our cribs are silent places. Who can imagine Mary as a noisy person? In the Gospels, St Joseph never says a word; he simply obeys the words brought him by angels. And when John the Baptist later comes out with words of fire, it is after years of silence in the desert. Add to this the silence of our long northern nights, and the silence that follows the snow. Isn’t all this asking us to still ourselves?

A passage from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom describes the night of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt as a night full of silence. It is used by the liturgy of the night of Jesus’ birth:

‘When a deep silence covered all things and night was in the middle of its course, your all-powerful Word, O Lord, leapt from heaven’s royal throne’ (Wis 18:14-15).

‘Holy night, silent night!’ So we sing. The outward silence of Christmas night invites us to make silence within us. Then the Word can leap into us as well, as a wise man wrote: ‘If deep silence has a hold on what is inside us, then into us too the all-powerful Word will slip quietly from the Father’s throne.’

This is the Word who proceeds from the silence of the Father. He became an infant, and ‘infant’ means literally ‘one who doesn’t speak.’ The child Jesus would have cried – for air and drink and food – but he didn’t speak. ‘Let him who has ears to hear, hear what this loving and mysterious silence of the eternal Word says to us.’ We need to listen to this quietness of Jesus, and allow it to make its home in our minds and hearts.

‘Create silence!’ How much we need this! The world needs places, oases, sanctuaries, of silence.

And here comes a difficult question: what has happened to silence in our churches? Many people ask this. When the late Canon Duncan Stone, as a young priest in the 1940s, visited a parish in the Highlands, he was struck to often find thirty or forty people kneeling there in silent prayer. Now often there is talking up to the very beginning of Mass, and it starts again immediately afterwards. But what is a church for, and why do we go there? We go to meet the Lord and the Lord comes to meet us. ‘The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!’ said the prophet Habakkuk. Surely the silent sacramental presence of the Lord in the tabernacle should lead us to silence? We need to focus ourselves and put aside distractions before the Mass begins. We want to prepare to hear the word of the Lord in the readings and homily. Surely we need a quiet mind to connect to the great Eucharistic Prayer? And when we receive Holy Communion, surely we want to listen to what the Lord God has to say, ‘the voice that speaks of peace’? Being together in this way can make us one – the Body of Christ – quite as effectively as words.

A wise elderly priest of the diocese said recently, ‘Two people talking stop forty people praying.’

‘Create silence!’ I don’t want to be misunderstood. We all understand about babies. Nor are we meant to come and go from church as cold isolated individuals, uninterested in one another. We want our parishes to be warm and welcoming places. We want to meet and greet and speak with one another. There are arrangements to be made, items of news to be shared, messages to be passed. A good word is above the best gift, says the Bible. But it is a question of where and when. Better in the porch than at the back of the church. Better after the Mass in a hall or a room. There is a time and place for speaking and a time and place for silence. In the church itself, so far as possible, silence should prevail. It should be the norm before and after Mass, and at other times as well. When there is a real need to say something, let it be done as quietly as can be. At the very least, such silence is a courtesy towards those who want to pray. It signals our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. It respects the longing of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to celebrate the sacred mysteries. And then the Mass, with its words and music and movement and its own moments of silence, will become more real. It will unite us at a deeper level, and those who visit our churches will sense the Holy One amongst us.

‘Create silence!’ It is an imperative. May the Word coming forth from silence find our silence waiting for him like a crib! ‘The devil’, said St Ambrose, ‘loves noise; Christ looks for silence.’

Yours sincerely in Him,
+ Hugh, O. S. B.
Bishop of Aberdeen

7 December 2011

"We Must Let Ourselves Be Illumined by the Ray of Light That Comes From Bethlehem"

http://www.zenit.org/article-33932?l=english

ZE11120601 - 2011-12-06
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-33932?l=english

ON PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS


"We Must Let Ourselves Be Illumined by the Ray of Light That Comes From Bethlehem"


VATICAN CITY, DEC. 5, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Sunday before and after praying the midday Angelus.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters!

This Sunday marks the second stage of Advent. This period of the liturgical year highlights two figures who had a pre-eminent role in the preparation of Jesus Christ’s entering into history: the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. Today’s text from the Gospel of Mark focuses precisely on the latter. In fact it describes the personality and mission of the Precursor of Christ (cf. Mark 1:2-8). Beginning with externals, John is presented as a very ascetic figure: he is clothed in camel skins, he eats locusts and wild honey and he lives in the wilderness of Judea (cf. Mark 1:6). Jesus himself, once contrasted him with those “who live in the palaces of kings” and “wear soft garments” (Matthew 11:8). John the Baptist’s style should recall all Christians to choose a sober lifestyle, especially in preparation for the feast of Christmas in which the Lord -- as St. Paul says -- “although he was rich, became poor for your sake, that you might become rich through his poverty” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

In regard to John’s mission, it was an extraordinary call to conversion: his baptism “is connected to an ardent call to a new way of thinking and acting, but above all with the proclamation of God’s judgment” (“Jesus of Nazareth,” Ignatius Press, 2008, p. 14) and of the imminent appearance of the Messiah, defined as “he who is greater than me” and who “will baptize in the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7, 8). John’s message thus goes further and deeper than a sober way of life: it calls us to interior change, beginning with the acknowledgement and confession of our sin. As we prepare ourselves for Christmas, it is important that we look within ourselves and we sincerely reflect on our life. We must let ourselves be illumined by the ray of light that comes from Bethlehem, the light of him who is “the greater one” and made himself small, the “strongest one” and made himself weak.

All four of the evangelists describe the preaching of John the Baptist making reference to a passage of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice cries out: in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). Mark also inserts a citation from another prophet, Malachi, which says: “Behold, I send my messenger before you: he will prepare your way” (Mark 1:2; cf. Malachi 3:1). These references to the scriptures of the Old Testament “speak of a saving intervention of God, who emerges from his hiddenness to judge and save; it is for this God that the door is to be opened and the way made ready” (“Jesus of Nazareth,” p. 15).

To the maternal intercession of Mary, the Virgin of expectation, let us entrust our path toward the Lord, while we continue our Advent itinerary of making our heart and our life ready for the coming of Emmanuel, God-with-us.

[Following the recitation of the Angelus the Holy Father addressed the faithful in various languages. In Italian he said:]

Dear brothers and sisters!

In the upcoming days in Geneva and in other cities the 50th anniversary of the institution of the International Organization for Migration, the 60th anniversary of the convention on the status of refugees and the 50th anniversary of the convention on the reduction of cases of statelessness will be marked. I entrust to the Lord those who must -- and often are forced -- to leave their own country or are deprived of citizenship. While I encourage solidarity with them, I pray for all those who expend themselves to protect and assist these brothers in these emergency situations, even exposing themselves to great toil and danger.

[In English he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Angelus. Today we mark the second Sunday of Advent by a Gospel passage where John the Baptist calls us to conversion. May we heed his call to repentance and ask the Lord to forgive us our sins, so that Emmanuel, God-with-us, may find us ready when he comes. Upon each of you and your loved ones at home, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.

[Concluding in Italian he said:]

A wish everyone a good Sunday. Have a good Sunday and a good week! Thank you!

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seen as Model for Spreading Christ's Message

http://www.zenit.org/article-33974?l=english

ZE11121208 - 2011-12-12
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-33974?l=english

LEARNING EVANGELIZATION FROM A MOTHER

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seen as Model for Spreading Christ's Message

By Mercedes De La Torre

ROME, DEC. 12, 2011 (Zenit.org).- As the Church turns its focus to the new evangelization, today's feast presents a model to follow: the Virgin of Guadalupe is an example of how to evangelize a continent, says Legionary of Christ Father Nicola Tovagliari.

Father Tovagliari participated in a conference on "The Virgin of Guadalupe: Challenge to Science, Call to Faith," organized by the master's program in Science and Faith at Rome's Regina Apostolorum university.

ZENIT spoke with Father Tovagliari about the lessons to learn from Mary.

ZENIT: What is the message that Guadalupe gives the world?

Father Tovagliari: It is a message of tenderness, of the maternal presence of the Mother of God who is also mother of all men. It is a message of protection, of care and also of confidence in the future.

ZENIT: What is the importance of the apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe?

Father Tovagliari: It is of historical importance in the event that occurred, of great importance for the evangelization of the peoples of Meso-America but also of present importance for all peoples, because it is God who doesn't forget man and makes Himself present constantly in all cultures and all ages.

ZENIT: Can Mary of Guadalupe be considered a model for the new evangelization, phenomenon of inculturation?

Father Tovagliari: Certainly, just as the first coming of Christ was by Mary's arms, Jesus' new coming also, namely, his appearing in all present cultures or in the new cultural phenomena is by Mary's arms. It's very easy to fall in love with Christ's message when it is brought by the heart of his Mother, when it is brought by a serene face, the sweet face of his Mother.

Present-day man -- who lacks affection in, let us say, this cold world and, perhaps, within the technique of secularization is somewhat extinguished -- finds in the eyes, in the Virgin's face a door to fall in love with Christ's message.

ZENIT: What is the global relevance of the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe?

Father Tovagliari: The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe attracts thousands of pilgrims every day who go to greet her, to greet her as children, to praise her and to pray and ask for something, so there are thousands of pilgrims that visit her every day.

At present the shrine, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, is the religious and Marian place of worship most visited in the world. It is estimated that some 20 million pilgrims visit it every year, but I think we could dare to say there are even more, suffice it to think that on Dec. 12, there will probably be more than 1 million pilgrims that go to greet her and sing the mañanitas to her on that day.

ZENIT: This year the Holy Father is marking Dec. 12 with a Mass in Spanish in Rome, a great event for the Church in Latin America. Why?

Father Tovagliari: The Holy Father's Mass in the Vatican is offered for the whole of Latin America, also in remembrance of the bicentenary, the 200 years of independence of the Latin nations.

In this event, the Holy Father is celebrating the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity among the peoples and I think this is an important message which we also see reflected in the Message of Guadalupe: this Virgin who appears as Mother of all men, so that men are equal in dignity, and all are brothers among themselves.

[Translation by ZENIT]