bearings; able to listen to people’s dreams without being seduced and to
share their disappointments without losing hope and becoming bitter; able to
sympathize with the brokenness of others without losing their own strength and
identity. What is
needed is a solid human, cultural, effective, spiritual and doctrinal
formation. Dear brother bishops, courage is needed to undertake a profound
review of the structures in place for the formation and preparation of the
clergy and the laity of the
Church in Brazil. It is not enough that formation be considered a vague
priority, either in documents or at meetings. ... You cannot delegate this
task, but must embrace it as something fundamental for the journey of your
Churches.
Collegiality and solidarity in the Episcopal Conference
It is important to remember Aparecida, the method of gathering diversity
together. Not so much a diversity of ideas in order to produce a document, but
a variety of experiences of God, in order to set a vital process in motion.
... Central
bureaucracy is not sufficient; there is also a need for increased collegiality
and solidarity. This will be a source of true enrichment for all.
Permanent state of mission and pastoral conversion
Concerning mission, we need to remember that its urgency derives from its
inner motivation; in other words, it is about handing on a legacy. As for
method, it is essential to realize that a legacy is about witness, it is like
the baton in a relay
race: you don’t throw it up in the air for whoever is able to catch it,
so that anyone who doesn’t catch it has to manage without. In order to
transmit a legacy, one needs to hand it over
Subject: VISnews130728
From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt
personally, to touch the one to whom one wants to
give, to relay, this inheritance. Concerning pastoral conversion, I would like
to recall that “pastoral care” is nothing other than the exercise
of the Church’s motherhood. … So we need a Church capable of
rediscovering the
maternal womb of mercy. Without mercy we have little chance nowadays of
becoming part of a world of “wounded” persons in need of
understanding, forgiveness, love. In mission, also on a continental level, it
is very important to
reaffirm the family, which remains the essential cell of society and the
Church; young people, who are the face of the Church’s future; women,
who play a fundamental role in passing on the faith. Let us not reduce the
involvement of women in the
Church, but instead promote their active role in the ecclesial community. By
losing women, the Church risks becoming sterile. Aparecida also underlines the
vocation and mission of men in the family, the Church and in societies, as
fathers, workers and
citizens. Take this into consideration!
The task of the Church in society
In the context of society, there is only one thing which the Church quite
clearly demands: the freedom to proclaim the Gospel in its entirety, even when
it runs counter to the world, even when it goes against the tide. In so doing,
she defends
treasures of which she is merely the custodian, and values which she does not
create but rather receives, to which she must remain faithful. The Church
claims the right to serve man in his wholeness, and to speak of what God has
revealed about human
beings and their fulfilment. The Church wants to make present that spiritual
patrimony without which society falls apart. … The Church has the right
and the duty to keep alive the flame of human freedom and unity. Education,
health, social
harmony are pressing concerns in Brazil. The Church has a word to say on these
issues, because any adequate response to these challenges calls for more than
merely technical solutions; there has to be an underlying view of man, his
freedom, his
value, his openness to the transcendent.
The Amazon Basin as a litmus test for Church and society in Brazil
… The Church’s presence in the Amazon Basin is not that of
someone with bags packed and ready to leave after having exploited everything
possible. The Church has been present in the Amazon Basin from the beginning,
in her missionaries
and religious congregations, and she is still present and critical to the
area’s future. … I would like to invite everyone to reflect on
what Aparecida said about the Amazon Basin, its forceful appeal for respect
and protection of the
entire creation which God has entrusted to man, not so that it be
indiscriminately exploited, but rather made into a garden.
Dear brother Bishops, I have attempted to offer you in a fraternal spirit
some reflections and approaches for a Church like that of Brazil, which is a
great mosaic made up of different tesserae, images, forms, problems and
challenges, but which for
this very reason is an enormous treasure. The Church is never uniformity, but
diversities harmonized in unity, and this is true for every ecclesial
reality”.
___________________________________________________________
POPE FRANCIS: “BUILD UP A SWEAT” LIKE TRUE ATHLETES OF
CHRIST
Vatican City, 28 July 2013 (VIS) – Yesterday evening the Pope
celebrated a prayer vigil with almost two million young people at Copacabana.
The Liturgy of the Word began with various testimonies and questions posed to
the Holy Father.
At the end the Pope addressed the young, recalling how the Lord asked St.
Francis of Assisi to do “his part for the life of the Church. …
being at the service of the Church, loving her and working to make the
countenance of Christ shine
ever more brightly in her. Today too, as always, the Lord needs you, young
people, for his Church. Dear young people, the Lord needs this. Today too, he
is calling each of you to follow him in his Church and to be mis
ionaries”.
Due to bad weather, this vigil, which should have celebrated at the
“Campus Fidei” in Guaratiba, was transferred to Copacabana.
Francis encouraged the participants to consider this situation. “Perhaps
the Lord wishes to tell us that
the true field of faith, the true Campus Fidei, is not a geographical
location, but rather, it is us?”, he said. The Holy Father introduced
three images of the field, to “help us understand better what it means
to be a disciple and a
missionary”.
“First, a field is a place for sowing seeds”. Here the Pope
mentioned the parable of the “sower who went out to sow seeds in the
field; some seed fell on the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns,
and could not grow; other
seed fell on good soil and brought forth much fruit. Jesus himself explains
the meaning of the parable: the seed is the word of God sown in our hearts.
Today, every day”, said the Pope, “but especially today, Jesus
sows. When we welcome the
Word of God, then we become the Campus Fidei, the field of faith. Please, let
Christ and His Word enter into your life, let the seed of the Word of God be
sown, let it germinate, let it grow. God will do everything but you must let
Him in, you must let
Him work and grow”.
“I think that we have to ask ourselves honestly: what kind of ground
are we? Maybe sometimes we are like the path: we hear the Lord’s word
but it changes nothing in our lives because we let ourselves be numbed by all
the superficial
voices competing for our attention; or we are like the rocky ground: we
receive Jesus with enthusiasm, but we falter and, faced with difficulties, we
don’t have the courage to swim against the tide; or we are like the
thorny ground: negativity,
negative feelings choke the Lord’s word in us. Do I have two attitudes
in my heart: with one I am happy with God, and with the other I am happy with
the devil? One which receives the seed of Jesus and at the same time waters
the weeds? What is
born in my heart?”
“But today I am sure that the seed is falling on good soil, that you
want to be good soil, not part-time Christians, not “starchy” and
superficial, but real. Seek out a patch of good land and let the seeds fall
there; you will see
that they will bear good fruit. I know that you want to become good ground,
good Christians, not part-time Christians, those who seem to be Christians but
in reality are not. Be authentic Christians. I am sure that you don’t
want to be duped by a
false freedom, always at the beck and call of momentary fashions and fads. I
know that you are aiming high, at long-lasting decisions which will make your
lives meaningful. In silence, we must welcome the seed of Jesus. Everyone
knows the name of the
seed that enters: let it grow, and God will take care of it”.
“Jesus asks us to follow him for life, he asks us to be his
disciples, to 'play on his team'. I think that most of you love sports!
… Now, what do players do when they are asked to join a team? They have
to train, and to train a lot! The
same is true of our lives as the Lord’s disciples. ... Jesus offers us
something bigger than the World Cup! He offers us the possibility of a
fulfilled and fruitful life; He also offers us a future with Him, an endless
future, eternal life. But He
asks us to buy a ticket to this future, and the ticket is training, 'getting
in shape', bearing witness to our faith. By talking with Him in
rayer”.
Francis asked the young people various questions, to which he asked them to
respond in silence, in their hearts. “Do I pray?”, he said.
“Do I let the Holy Spirit speak to my heart? Do I ask Jesus what he
wants me to do? This is
training. Putting questions to Jesus, talking with Jesus. And if you make
mistakes in life, if you do something wrong, do not be afraid. … Always
talk to Jesus, in good times and bad. That is prayer. This is how we enter
into dialogue with Jesus
and as a missionary disciple. And by the sacraments, which make His life grow
within us and conform us to Christ. By loving one another, learning to listen,
to understand, to forgive, to be accepting and to help others, everybody,
without exclusion or
ostracism. This is the training we have to do to follow Jesus: prayer,
sacraments and helping others, serving others”.
Finally, the Holy Father spoke about the field as a construction site.
“When our heart is good soil which receives the word of God, when we
'build up a sweat' in trying to live as Christians, we experience something
tremendous: we are never
alone, we are part of a family of brothers and sisters, all journeying on the
same path: we are part of the Church; indeed, we are building up the Church
and we are making history. Please, don't become footnotes to history. Be
agents of history, go out
and build a better world”.
Pope Francis remarked that “in the Church of Jesus, we ourselves are
the living stones. Jesus is asking us to build up His Church; each one of us
is a living stone, a little building block. Each living stone contributes to
the unity and the
security of the Church. But he does not want us to build a little chapel which
holds only a small group of persons. He asks us to make his living Church so
large that it can hold all of humanity, that it can be a home for
everyone”.
“Please”, he continued, “do not leave it to others to be
the agents of change. You hold the future … continue to work against
apathy and offer a Christian response to the social and political problems
that arise all over the
world. I ask you to be builders of the future, to set to work for a better
world. Dear young people, please, do not live your lives as observers,
watching the world go by. Go into the fray, as Jesus did – He did not
sit back and watch. But where
do we start? Once, Mother Teresa was asked what should be the first thing to
change in the Church, and she replied: 'You and I'. Today I too repeat the
words of Mother Teresa and I say to you: you and I must be the first to
change.”
“Dear friends, never forget that you are the field of faith! You are
Christ’s athletes! You are called to build a more beautiful Church and a
better world. Let us lift our gaze to Our Lady. Mary helps us to follow Jesus,
she gives us the
example by her own 'yes' to God: 'I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done
to me as you say'. All together, let us join Mary in saying to God: let it be
done to me as you say”.
Following Pope Francis' address, the deacons brought the Holy Sacrament in
procession. After the Eucharistic adoration and prayers of the young people in
several languages, the recitation of the “Salve Regina” concluded
the
celebration.
___________________________________________________________
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