VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 063   
   DATE 30-03-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Palm Sunday: God humbles Himself for His people   
   - Angelus: the Pope entrusts the victims of the Alps air crash to Our Lady   
   - St. Teresa, a "remarkable woman": 500th anniversary of the birth of the   
   founder of Carmel   
   - Pope's telegram for the death of the Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian   
   Church of the East   
   - Francis prays for flood victims in Chile and Peru   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Palm Sunday: God humbles Himself for His people   
    Vatican City, 30 March 2015 (VIS) - At 9.30 a.m. in St. Peter's Square the   
   Holy   
   Father presided at the solemn liturgical celebration of Palm Sunday and the   
   Passion of the Lord. At the centre of the square, near the obelisk, the Pope   
   blessed the palm and olive branches and, at the end of the procession, he   
   celebrated the Holy Mass for the Passion of the Lord. Young people from Rome   
   and   
   other dioceses took part in the celebration, on the occasion of the thirtieth   
   World Youth Day, on the theme "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see   
   God".   
    The following is the full text of the homily pronounced by Pope Francis   
   following the proclamation of the Passion of the Lord according to Mark:   
    "At the heart of this celebration, which seems so festive, are the words we   
   heard in the hymn of the Letter to the Philippians: 'He humbled himself'.   
   Jesus'   
   humiliation. These words show us God's way and, consequently, that which must   
   be   
   the way of Christians: it is humility. A way which constantly amazes and   
   disturbs us: we will never get used to a humble God!   
    "Humility is above all God's way: God humbles himself to walk with his people,   
   to put up with their infidelity. This is clear when we read the the story of   
   the   
   Exodus. How humiliating for the Lord to hear all that grumbling, all those   
   complaints against Moses, but ultimately against him, their Father, who brought   
   them out of slavery and was leading them on the journey through the desert to   
   the land of freedom.   
    "This week, Holy Week, which leads us to Easter, we will take this path of   
   Jesus' own humiliation. Only in this way will this week be 'holy' for us too.   
   We   
   will feel the contempt of the leaders of his people and their attempts to trip   
   him up. We will be there at the betrayal of Judas, one of the Twelve, who will   
   sell him for thirty pieces of silver. We will see the Lord arrested and carried   
   off like a criminal; abandoned by his disciples, dragged before the Sanhedrin,   
   condemned to death, beaten and insulted. We will hear Peter, the 'rock' among   
   the disciples, deny him three times. We will hear the shouts of the crowd,   
   egged   
   on by their leaders, who demand that Barabas be freed and Jesus crucified. We   
   will see him mocked by the soldiers, robed in purple and crowned with thorns.   
   And then, as he makes his sorrowful way beneath the cross, we will hear the   
   jeering of the people and their leaders, who scoff at his being King and Son of   
   God. This is God's way, the way of humility. It is the way of Jesus; there is   
   no   
   other. And there can be no humility without humiliation.   
    "Following this path to the full, the Son of God took on the 'form of a   
   slave'.   
   In the end, humility also means service. It means making room for God by   
   stripping oneself, 'emptying oneself', as Scripture says. This - the pouring   
   out   
   of oneself - is the greatest humiliation of all.   
    "There is another way, however, opposed to the way of Christ. It is   
   worldliness, the way of the world. The world proposes the way of vanity, pride,   
   success, the other way. The Evil One proposed this way to Jesus too, during his   
   forty days in the desert. But Jesus immediately rejected it. With him, and only   
   by his grace, with his help, we too can overcome this temptation to vanity, to   
   worldliness, not only at significant moments, but in daily life as well. In   
   this, we are helped and comforted by the example of so many men and women who,   
   in silence and concealment, sacrifice themselves daily to serve others: a sick   
   relative, an elderly person living alone, a disabled person, the homeless.   
    "We think too of the humiliation endured by all those who, for their lives of   
   fidelity to the Gospel, encounter discrimination and pay a personal price. We   
   think too of our brothers and sisters who are persecuted because they are   
   Christians, the martyrs of our own time - and there are many. They refuse to   
   deny Jesus and they endure insult and injury with dignity. They follow him on   
   his way. In truth, we can speak of a ìcloud of witnesses' - the martyrs of our   
   own time.   
    "During this week, let us set about with determination along this same path of   
   humility, with immense love for him, our Lord and Saviour. Love will guide us   
   and give us strength. For where he is, we too shall be".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Angelus: the Pope entrusts the victims of the Alps air crash to Our Lady   
    Vatican City, 29 March 2015 (VIS) - Following the Eucharistic celebration, the   
   Holy Father prayed the Angelus and greeted all those present, especially the   
   young, whom he exhorted to continue on their path both within the dioceses and   
   in their pilgrimage across continents, leading next year to Krakow, Poland, the   
   homeland of St. John Paul II, who initiated the World Youth Days.   
    "The theme of this great meeting: 'Blessed are the merciful, for they will be   
   shown mercy', harmonises with the Holy Year of Mercy", he said. "Let yourselves   
   be filled with the tenderness of the Father, to radiate it around you. And now   
   we turn in prayer to Mary, our Mother, so that she might help us to live Holy   
   Week with faith. She too was present when Jesus entered Jerusalem, acclaimed by   
   the crowd; but her heart, like that of her Son, was ready for sacrifice. Let us   
   learn from Her, faithful Virgin, to follow the Lord even when His path leads to   
   the Cross. I entrust to her intercession the victims of last Tuesday's aviation   
   tragedy, among whom there was also a group of German students".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    St. Teresa, a "remarkable woman": 500th anniversary of the birth of the   
   founder   
   of Carmel   
    Vatican City, 28 March 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis has written a letter to Fr.   
   Saverio Cannistra, prepositor general of the Order of Descalced Brothers of the   
   Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, to commemorate the fifth centenary of the   
   birth of St. Teresa of Jesus and and to participate in the giving of thanks for   
   the charism of this "remarkable woman".   
    "I consider it a providential grace that this anniversary coincides with the   
   year dedicated to consecrated life, in which the Saint of Avila shines as a   
   sure   
   guide and attractive model of total commitment to God. ... How much we   
   continue to   
   benefit from the witness of her consecration, born directly of her encounter   
   with Christ, her experience of prayer, as a continual dialogue with God, and   
   her   
   community life, rooted in the maternity of the Church!"   
    "St. Teresa was above all a teacher of prayer. The discovery of Christ's   
   humanity was central to her experience. Moved by the desire to share this   
   personal experience with others, she describes it in a lively and simple way,   
   accessible to all, as consisting simply in 'a relationship of friendship ...   
   with   
   Whom we know loves us'. The prayer of Teresa was not a prayer reserved solely   
   to   
   a space or time of day; it arose spontaneously on the most diverse occasions.   
   ...   
   She was convinced of the value of continual, if not always perfect, prayer.   
   ... To   
   renew consecrated life today, Teresa has left us a great heritage full of   
   concrete suggestions, ways and methods of praying that, far from closing us in   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)