Welcome to the month of the Sacred Heart. The Pope spoke of this devotion at Sunday's Angelus.Every person needs a “center” in his life, a source of truth and goodness to draw from in the flux of the different situations of everyday life and its toil. Everyone of us, when he pauses for a moment of silence, needs to feel not only the beating of his own heart, but more deeply, the beating of a trustworthy presence, perceptible to the senses of faith and yet more real: the presence of Christ, heart of the world. And so I invite everyone to renew his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ in the month of June....
Popery
May, of course, is Mary's month, and there's a lovely Vatican tradition of closing the month with a special ceremony. Here are the Pope's remarks on that occasion, which happened to coincide with the feast of the Visitation this year. It's really wonderful:
Elizabeth is one of the many elderly women in Israel, and Mary is an unknown girl from a remote village of Galilee. What can they be and what can they do in a world in which other persons count and other powers hold sway? Nevertheless, Mary once again stupefies us; her heart is limpid, totally open to God’s light; her soul is without sin, not weighed down by pride and by egoism.Later:
Mary’s “Magnificat,” after centuries and millennia, remains the truest and the deepest interpretation of history, while the readings of the many wise persons of this world have been disproved by the facts over the course of the centuries.RTWT to understand on what ground he says this. (Pix, too.)The texts from the recent pilgrimage to Liguori are finally all up in English (sorry to say so, but I'm not impressed with the translation job. "Fraught between..."? "Values transversal to..." Ugh!) This one section of the homily in Savona was repeated like a refrain through all his addresses I noticed.
I encourage you to take the ideal of holiness seriously. A well known French writer has left us in one of his works a sentence I would like to consign to you today: "There is only one real sadness: not to be saints" (Léon Bloy, La femme pauvre, II, 27). Dear young people, dare to dedicate your life to courageous choices, not alone of course, but with the Lord!...And this also applies for Christians who are no longer young.Not the precise words, but the idea of having courage and taking on something hard. I liked this in his remarks to doctors and patients at a pediatric hospital, speaking of hope.
Jesus repeats to us, especially at the most difficult moments: "my hand supports you. Wherever you might fall, you will fall into my arms. I am present even at the threshold of death."Last week's Audience was on St. Gregory the Great's biography (note what he says about Gregory's attitude toward the Lombards and see Benedict's attitude toward Muslims?), and this morning's --still forthcoming-- was on his writings.
- To the ambassador from Bangladesh the Pope gave a lection in the moral underpinnings of democracy. Everyone could use the refresher course, frankly: personal corruption undermines freedom.
- A similar message to the ambassador from Liberia.
- The pope's itinerary for WYDSYD (World Youth Day, Sydney) is here. Get the t-shirt.
- Don't forget the Pauline year opens June 28th. Plenary indulgences available.
Potpourri
- Canada: Free Fr. De Valk! (Hauled up before HRC for defending marriage.) [Link fixed. Thanks, nin.]
- China: reports from Sheshan on day of prayer for China (cool pix!). Cardinal Zen sees government opening up in wake of earthquake.
- Iraq: anniversary of Fr. Ragheed's death. Dying words: "I can't shut God's house." Archbishop of Kirkuk asks for help.
- Italy: Shroud of Turin's going on display.
- U.S. New bishops connected to my University: Conley for Denver. Cantu for San Antonio. Cardinal George suspends Fr. Pfleger (or here). (Seen that parish's website? Yikes! Their server's crashing at present though.) The Fr. Pfleger story has a long history and, no doubt, future. Very nice story about Cardinal Dulles. Vatican confirms Archb. Burke's excommunication of those involved with "ordination" of women. And...vocations boom?
And finally...Lord, deliver us from sad saints. And make the Jesuits the butt of all jokes.
