"May this gentle and loving Mother obtain for us the Lord's blessing upon the   
   entire human family. On this, the World Day of Peace, we especially implore   
   her intercession that the Lord may grant peace in our day; peace in hearts,   
   peace in families, peace among the nations. The message for the Day of Peace   
   this year is 'Slaves no more, but Brothers and Sisters'. All of us are called   
   to be free, all are called to be sons and daughters, and each, according to   
   his or her own responsibilities, is called to combat modern forms of   
   enslavement. From every people, culture and religion, let us join our forces.   
   May He guide and sustain us, Who, in order to make us all brothers and   
   sisters, became our servant".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    New Year's Eve Vespers: "Give thanks and ask forgiveness"   
    Vatican City, 1 January 2014 (VIS) - "The meaning of time, temporality, is   
   the atmosphere of the Epiphany of God, or rather the manifestation of God and   
   His concrete love. Indeed, as St. Peter Faber said, time is God's messenger",   
   affirmed the Holy Father during the celebration of Vespers on the Solemnity of   
   Mary Most Holy Mother of God, on the last day of the year. He continued,   
   "Today's liturgy recalls the phrase of the apostle John: 'Children, it is the   
   last hour', and that of St. Paul, who speaks of the 'fullness of time'.   
   Therefore, today shows us how time was, so to speak, 'touched' by Christ, the   
   Son of God and Mary, and received from Him new and surprising meanings: it   
   became 'salvific time', or rather the definitive time of salvation and grace.   
   And all this urges us to think of the end of the path of life, of the end of   
   our journey".   
    The Pope also remarked that with the Te Deum, the traditional hymn of   
   thanksgiving at the year end, and the Eucharistic blessing, we praise the Lord   
   and at the same time ask for forgiveness. "The attitude of giving thanks   
   disposes us to humility, to recognising and receiving the Lord's gifts", and   
   as the apostle Paul explains in the reading, the fundamental reason for giving   
   thanks to God is the fact that "He has made us all His children, He has   
   adopted us as His children. This unmerited gift, fills us with gratitude and   
   wonder. Some might say, 'But are we not already all His children, by the very   
   fact of being men?'. We certainly are, since God is the Father of every person   
   who comes into the world. But we must not forget that we were estranged from   
   Him because of original sin. ... For this reason, God sent His Son to redeem   
   us at the price of His blood. And if there was a ransom, it is because there   
   was slavery. We were His children, but we became slaves, following the voice   
   of the evil one. None other than Jesus redeems us from that effective slavery;   
   He Who took on our flesh from the Virgin Mary and died on the cross to free us   
   from the slavery of sin and to restore to us our lost filial status".   
    Francis emphasised that the liturgy also reminds us that "in the beginning,   
   before time, there was the Word ... and the Word was made man", and mentioned   
   that "the very gift for which we give thanks is also a reason for an   
   examination of conscience, for reviewing our personal and communal life, for   
   asking ourselves: how do we live? Do we live as sons or as slaves? Do we live   
   as persons baptised in Christ, anointed by the Spirit, redeemed and free? Or   
   do we live according to a worldly, corrupt logic, doing what the devil makes   
   us believe is in our interest?" He added, "we are afraid of freedom and   
   paradoxically we more or less unconsciously prefer the slavery that prevents   
   us from fully and truly living in the present, as it empties it of the past   
   and closes it to the future, to eternity. Slavery makes us believe that we   
   cannot dream, fly, hope".   
    "Nostalgia for slavery resides in our heart, as it is seemingly more   
   reassuring than freedom, which is far riskier. How we like to be rapt by so   
   many fireworks, which appear beautiful but in reality last just a few   
   instants. This is the reign, the fascination of the moment. For us, as   
   Christians, the quality of our work, our life, our presence in cities, our   
   service to the common good, our participation in public and ecclesial   
   institutions, depends on this examination of conscience".   
    The Pope went on to speak about the significance of living in Rome, "which is   
   a great gift, as it means dwelling in the eternal city; for a Christian, in   
   particular, it means being part of the Church founded on the witness and   
   martyrdom of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. Therefore, we also thank the   
   Lord for this". However, he added, there are also "grave issues of corruption,   
   which have emerged recently, and which require a serious and conscious   
   conversion of hearts for a spiritual and moral rebirth, as well as renewed   
   commitment to constructing a more just and caring city, where the poor, the   
   weak and the marginalised are the focus of our concerns and our daily actions.   
   A great and daily attitude of Christian freedom is necessary to have the   
   courage to proclaim, in our city, that we must defend the poor, and not defend   
   ourselves from the poor; that we must serve the weak and not make use of them".   
    "When in a city the poor and the weak are cared for, assisted and helped to   
   promote themselves in society, they are shown to be the treasure of the Church   
   and an asset to society. Instead, when a society ignores the poor, persecutes   
   them and criminalises them, compelling them to turn to organised crime, that   
   society is impoverished to the point of misery, loses its freedom and favours   
   the 'garlic and onions' of slavery, the slavery of its selfishness, the   
   slavery of cowardliness, and that society ceases to be Christian. Dear   
   brothers and sisters", he concluded, "to bring the year to an end is to   
   reaffirm that a 'last hour' exists, and that the 'fullness of time' exists. In   
   concluding the year, in giving thanks and asking for forgiveness, it will do   
   us good to ask for the grace to be able to walk in freedom, to be able to   
   repair the damage done and to be able to defend ourselves from the nostalgia   
   of slavery, not to idealise slavery". He encouraged those present to pray to   
   the Virgin Mary, that she might help us receive the Saviour with an open   
   heart, to truly be and live freely as children of God".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 2 January 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Fr.   
   Marcelino Antonio Maralit as bishop of Boac (area 959, population 238,850,   
   Catholics 222,130, priests 30, religious 38), Philippines. The bishop-elect   
   was born in Manila, Philippines in 1969 and was ordained a priest in 1995. He   
   holds a licentiate from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain and a   
   licentiate in church history from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross,   
   Rome. He has served in a number of pastoral roles, including parish vicar of   
   the "Immaculate Conception" parish in Batangas; professor at the St. Francis   
   de Sales major seminary of Lipa City; deputy director and subsequently   
   director of the diocesan commission for vocations; vice-rector, professor,   
   dean of studies and subsequently rector of the St. Francis theological   
   seminary. He is currently parish priest of the "Invencion de la Santa Cruz"   
   parish in Alitatag, Batangas and member of the presbyteral council of the   
   archdiocese of Lipa.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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   www.visnews.org and www.vatican.va   
      
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   Information Service may be reproduced wholly or partially by quoting   
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   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)