Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

As we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom on this Memorial Day, we think of how they have followed in the footsteps of your son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Give them the reward of their labors for their good deeds go with them.

Please hold all of our servicemen and women in your strong arms wherever they be this day. Uplift them with your grace and consolation as they go in the way of danger for the sake of our protection.

We also remember the families of our troops, and ask for your abundant blessings to fill their homes with your presence and peace, sustenance and strength to uphold their lives in hope.

May the members of our armed forces be filled with the courage needed to face each day. Grant that they will trust in the Lord's mighty power to aid them as they accomplish each task. Let our military brothers and sisters know our love, support and prayers, now and always.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

"For the glory of God and the well being of Christ's holy Church"

... I appoint you Pastor of Saint Francis de Sales Parish, Benedict, Maryland."

With these words Archbishop Wuerl began the letter, which I received from his hands last Friday, most generously assigning to my care a portion of the people of God of the Archdiocese of Washington. I thank him as I am filled with a spirit of gratitude and continue to praise God for His goodness which so abundantly flows to us through the Church in His Holy Spirit.

What wonders of love and grace are ours when we share in the obedience of the Son whose own obedience to the Father's holy will unto death has poured out for us the love of God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us? I thank God for the grace of obedience to my bishop which assures me of God's love in the life of His Son whose true Body in the world is our holy Church.

Thanks to all who have accompanied me with their love and prayers for what will soon be 18 years of my share in the holy priesthood of Jesus Christ who does not shrink from welcoming sinners and eating with them, especially in His most beautiful banquet of the Altar, His Eucharist. In this foretaste of heavenly glory the Father begins already to welcome us through the Holy Spirit of Love to the eternal heavenly wedding banquet of the Lamb: Jesus Christ.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever, through Whom these and all blessings flow. Amen.

-- ((((..))))

Donald William Wuerl
By The Grace of God and the Apostolic See
Archbishop of Washington

DECREE

FOR THE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD, I APPOINT YOU
REVEREND KEVIN M. CUSICK
PASTOR OF SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES PARISH,
BENEDICT, MARYLAND

I HEREBY COMMIT TO YOU THE FULL PASTORAL CARE OF SOULS IN
THIS PARISH WITH ALL THE JURISDICTION, FACULTIES, DUTIES,
RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES ATTACHED THERETO IN ACCORDANCE
WITH THE SACRED CANONS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AS
WELL AS THE STATUTES AND OTHER LEGISLATION OF THE
ARCHDIOCESE OF WASHINGTON FOR A TERM OF SIX YEARS.

THIS APPOINTMENT WILL BECOME EFFECTIVE ON:
JULY 1, 2010

MAY GOD GRANT YOU THE GRACE AND HEALTH TO CARRY OUT THIS
CHARGE OF PRIESTLY SERVICE FOR SOULS.

+ Donald Wuerl (Signed and sealed)
ARCHBISHOP OF WASHINGTON

GIVEN AT WASHINGTON, D.C.
ON MAY 21, 2010
Jane Golden Belford (Signed)
CHANCELLOR

Photo: The church of Saint Francis de Sales, dedicated to the patron saint of journalists and therefore also of bloggers, is located in Benedict, Md, a small port on the Patuxent River. British troops came ashore here on the march to Washington.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

His Lordship's Kindness

With thankfulness to His Excellency Abp Wuerl for his most generous confidence and beneficence.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Pastor and parish: "You cannot pray at home as at church"

"A parish is a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church; the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of the diocesan bishop." It is the place where all the faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life: it gathers them together in this celebration; it teaches Christ's saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love:

You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests.
-- CCC 2179

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Fifty Years of Covenant Love in Holy Matrimony: Congratulations Richard and Mary Cusick

Congratulations, Richard and Mary, Dad and Mom, on marking your fiftieth year of sharing in the gift of God's covenant love through the grace of the sacrament of holy matrimony.

I also offer a word of thanks to everyone here who traveled to be with us to mark this wonderful event. Your presence here is a tremendous gift for which I am sure Mom and Dad will take occasion to thank you later today.

Mom and Dad, your lives of witness to Christ's love for His Church has not only brought you happiness and fulfillment, but also brought hope to others and the new life of six children into the world in a beautiful cooperation with the plan of our heavenly Father. We are here to truly celebrate with God as our source of joy. We celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass and enjoy the proclamation of the holy Scriptures and the Lord's gift of Himself in the Eucharist here at the church of Saint Mary of the Mills, where so many important events in our lives of faith have played themselves out in a "liturgy" that stretches like a thread through and ties together what will be 48 years this July of our membership in this local family of the Faith.

As I have become, by fits and starts, a little older and perhaps even a little wiser, I've come to believe that the less one says the better. Especially around those who know one well, such as family members. You never know when you might be hoisted on your own petard! The petard, a weapon used to blast through an opponent’s defenses but which can also injure those who stand in its backblast, is a powerful symbol for ill-considered or rash speech. The collateral damage resulting from imprudent words can self-inflict the speaker! But, as you can see, today I am, shall we say, "on the spot" as I stand here in the ambo, and therefore will not get away with silence or even with prudent reticence. Thus my poor preaching will have to serve. I am consoled that the instruction of the Church directs me to preach on the holy Word of God. Thus in God we best understand His marvelous gift of Mary and Richard's share in the life-giving and unifying love of the vocation of holy matrimony for half a century.

In the first reading from Proverbs the woman in the home is praised for the work of her hands, in her vocation as a wife and a mother, but this should never be understood as implying that her labors are an end in themselves. The wife's value is based not on what she does but upon who she is, created like her husband in God's image and likeness and, therefore, always to be treated with the love of profound respect. The work of our hands is an outward sign and token of our innate value as persons, and something that cannot be calculated because it is a sharing in the infinite value of our Creator: "when one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls".

Dad, you did find a worthy wife in Mom, did you not? Or did she, in fact, find you? But however the two of you came together, it was always God's providential love that you permitted to lead and guide you, always the solid foundation upon which you built your "house", the family of six offspring which flowed from your reverence for God's gift of marital love. You understood that in God life and love are never separated. When God gives, He gives all. And so, for your love of matrimony to be holy and good, to be Godly, it has in every instance to be open to new life.

Your generous gift of yourselves, in your work as a nurse and an electrical engineer, flowed from your more profound understanding of your identity as husband and wife, as mother and father, in obedience to God's will that man and woman in matrimony are the privileged sign of Divine Love for the world. Your vocation of becoming "one flesh", of "offering your bodies as a spiritual sacrifice" in the marital embrace makes Christ our Incarnate God ever present and tangible both for you and for others. This gift you receive through the indwelling Holy Spirit by which you form part of Christ's Body the Church through baptism and the sacrament of unity in matrimony. We happy six, the fruit of your love, can never express enough our gratitude that you heroically said always "yes" to life and "yes" to love, accepting both gifts from God in obedience, "doing the will of our Father in heaven".

Most of you here know that Dad was never permitted much time for "sitting at the city gates" with the elders, the symbol of the husband's blessing in our reading from Proverbs. Mom put too high a value both on the good of his sharing with her in the labor of family life and on his wide-ranging skills as a handy-man to leave him completely out of the action. Just how long did you keep that washer going on life-support, Dad? And I remember well the rust spots in the dishwasher which you regularly covered with epoxy to prolong the life of that household appliance as well.

Some sitting and relaxing Mary and Richard did enjoy together, and with all of us, as we cruised the vessel Seven C's and dingy "Plus One" to places near, like the Chesapeake Bay, and places far, such as an unforgettable cruise connecting the St Lawrence Seaway, the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal of Canada. We celebrated togetherness in a particularly intense way as we all squeezed into our sleeping spots on the boat each night. But the tested bonds upon which we rely today that hold us together so well as a family were born in those and many other opportunities for giving and sharing. I have commented to Dad about how I think of our family dinners at home whenever I hear or pray Psalm 128 which says: “May your wife be a fruitful vine in the heart of your home and your children olive plants around your table”. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for imparting that gift of unity that expresses the love of family life and Christian witness.

In more recent years life aboard the sailing vessel Irish Blessing afforded greater challenges as you navigated the Intracoastal Waterway as a twosome. What a reversal for we your offspring to find ourselves waving from the dock, bidding farewell as you disappeared into the future seeking new adventures together and finding that, indeed, “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” as we sang in the Psalm today!

Through the years most powerful experience of togetherness we enjoyed took place here, in the pew at Sunday Mass each week around the Lord’s Eucharistic altar. You showed us by your own example of discipleship that we could learn as you did to build our houses on the solid rock of Christ, the only sure source of security and hope. We came faithfully to "listen to these Words of Mine" as Christ commands in the Gospel, so we could find already then, and still today, that the Lord is our hope, our life and our light. When we listen and act on Christ's word our lives are built as a house upon Him, and he is our Rock foundation.

Your covenant in Christ has endured and grown, has been fruitful in God's love for fifty years. Thank you for your faithfulness and for handing on our Faith by word and example as you promised to do when you brought Maureen and me, Patrick and Brian, Conor and Sheila to the baptismal font of Christ's life-giving waters which flow through the Church. And you have grown gracefully and generously into the role of grandparents and the joy of new life continues to shine in your faces as you watch Matthew, Emma, Riley, Kathleen, Kelly, Celia, Andrew, Colleen, Erin, Maura and Maggie grow.

And now, as for that "petard" to which I referred at the beginning of my reflections. I will "hoist" up once again the image of this device which can break through the most solid of barriers to make the point, happily, that our invitation in Christ to share God’s life means that we do not need to force our way through death to reach the eternity we seek. No, God’s life is a gift which is accepted through faith and persevered in through prayer and worship. For that reason I will share with you a prayer, a blessing from the 16th century expressing the desire that your journey together through life in the holy gift of matrimony will find its fulfillment in joy at the gates of the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city of God. As this ancient saying goes: "The prayers of the Saints ascending with you, will Petarr your entrances through heaven's Portcullis".

As we know by Faith, all the blessings of your love as husband and wife, the joys of your parent- and grandparenthood, could not be a true source of happiness did they not open by grace onto the horizon of the life that never ends: that on high with Christ Jesus. In the Faith, Catholic and true, we promise you this day that our prayers, best wishes and undying love will ever accompany you because of our communion in love and prayer with the saints, and all the heavenly host, in Jesus Christ: the same yesterday, today and forever. Amen.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Mom and Dad, and many more: ad multos annos!

-- homily on the occasion of Holy Mass and renewal of vows marking the fiftieth anniversary of Holy Matrimony for Richard and Mary Cusick,
at Saint Mary of the Mills Church
Laurel, Maryland
Saturday, 22 May 2010

In photo: Richard, left, and Mary, right, pose with Conor and Peggy, center, on the occasion of their celebration of Holy Matrimony on 2 January 2010.

Single and NOT Loving It?

If you show it on your face, in your voice or by your attitude, you may STAY single!

Anthony Buono at Ave Maria Singles has a lot more to say on the subject. Visit his blog 6 Stone Jars for dating and courtship advice, questions and answers.


6 Stone Jars Marriage Preparation Resources for Catholic Singles

Guidance on Catholic dating, courtship, relationships and marriage in the name of fostering successful marriages that are permanent, faithful and fruitful.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Congratulations Richard and Mary: 50 Years of Faithful Love in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony


For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh,
So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."
(Matt 19: 5,6)


May God, who loves us all,
give you his choicest blessings,
and fill your life with joy.
May He guide you in His ways,
and lead you to His glory.

May Almighty God,
Father, Son, + and Holy Spirit,
give His blessing to you for ever and ever.

Ad multos annos!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Prayers please

Please pray for a friend who has discovered his cancer is growing again after extensive chemo and radiation treatments.

Thank you.

Sanctus



Sanctus from Charles Gounod's Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cécile

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Rima Fakih and cognitive dissonance: "We practice both Muslim and Christian faiths"

Impossible.

Ms. Fakih, winner of the Miss USA pageant, makes an absurd claim.

First, Islam is not a faith it is a belief.

"The obedience of faith implies acceptance of the truth of Christ's revelation, guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself: 'Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed'. Faith, therefore, as 'a gift of God' and as 'a supernatural virtue infused by him', involves a dual adherence: to God who reveals and to the truth which he reveals, out of the trust which one has in him who speaks. Thus, “we must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”.

"For this reason, the distinction between theological faith and belief in the other religions, must be firmly held. If faith is the acceptance in grace of revealed truth, which 'makes it possible to penetrate the mystery in a way that allows us to understand it coherently',21 then belief, in the other religions, is that sum of experience and thought that constitutes the human treasury of wisdom and religious aspiration, which man in his search for truth has conceived and acted upon in his relationship to God and the Absolute."22 (Dominus Iesus)

Second, the perfect and complete revelation of the true God in Jesus Christ cannot coexist in any sincere way in the same person together with a cocktail of non-revealed human beliefs, no matter how they might be admixed with monotheism.

"Throughout the ages, there have been so-called 'private' revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

"Christian faith cannot accept 'revelations' that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such 'revelations'." (CCC 67)

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Sunday at Saint Mary of the Assumption: "Clothed with power from on high"

"... behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

"As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God."

In the city of man we can become mired, weighed down by the things which do not last. The temptation arises to become discouraged, perhaps even dissuaded from entering into the temple of God on Sunday to embrace once again the "life on high with Christ Jesus" that will never end.

But here we must be, we need to be, so that "doing Him homage" in the liturgy through the psalms, hymns and inspired songs, hearing the proclamation of His Word, receiving His Eucharist we are thereby "clothed with power from on high". We give ourselves over to the life of the liturgy in the Church, so "that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,would be preached in his name."

The "new Jerusalem" of the city of God, made present once again in Christ, is reflected by the beauty, worthiness and dignity of the sacred liturgy, where everything is done to manifest the holiness and beauty of the heavenly worship, where Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

Through the intercession of the Son now ascended, we are "clothed with power", receiving the gift of grace in the Spirit, made ready to return to "the city": to our homes and families, work and play, "equipped for every good work", "continually praising God" in the "temple" of our hearts and minds.

"Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy."

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
-- ((((..))))

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Armed Forces Day

Today please honor with prayer all men and women serving our nation in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marines.  Thank you.
((((..))))

Friday, May 14, 2010

In Caritate Non Ficta considers A Priest Life

... over a dinner at La Famiglia Restaurant in Baltimore.  Phil Johnson is assigned to Saint Mark Church in Wilmington through July, after which he will travel to Lourdes to serve English language pilgrims there until 7 August.  Visit Phil's blog at philipgerardjohnson.blogspot.com.

Philip Johnson sighted

... at La Famiglia Restaurant in Baltimore.  He recommends the Veal a la Famiglia with Marsala wine and mushroom sauce.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT AND CONSECRATION OF PRIESTS TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY


PRAYER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Church of the Most Holy Trinity – Fátima
Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Immaculate Mother,
in this place of grace,
called together by the love of your Son Jesus
the Eternal High Priest, we,
sons in the Son and his priests,
consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart,
in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.

We are mindful that, without Jesus,
we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5)
and that only through him, with him and in him,
will we be instruments of salvation
for the world.

Bride of the Holy Spirit,
obtain for us the inestimable gift
of transformation in Christ.
Through the same power of the Spirit that
overshadowed you,
making you the Mother of the Saviour,
help us to bring Christ your Son
to birth in ourselves too.
May the Church
be thus renewed by priests who are holy,
priests transfigured by the grace of him
who makes all things new.

Mother of Mercy,
it was your Son Jesus who called us
to become like him:
light of the world and salt of the earth
(cf. Mt 5:13-14).

Help us,
through your powerful intercession,
never to fall short of this sublime vocation,
nor to give way to our selfishness,
to the allurements of the world
and to the wiles of the Evil One.

Preserve us with your purity,
guard us with your humility
and enfold us with your maternal love
that is reflected in so many souls
consecrated to you,
who have become for us
true spiritual mothers.

Mother of the Church,
we priests want to be pastors
who do not feed themselves
but rather give themselves to God for their brethren,
finding their happiness in this.
Not only with words, but with our lives,
we want to repeat humbly,
day after day,
Our “here I am”.

Guided by you,
we want to be Apostles
of Divine Mercy,
glad to celebrate every day
the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar
and to offer to those who request it
the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Advocate and Mediatrix of grace,
you who are fully immersed
in the one universal mediation of Christ,
invoke upon us, from God,
a heart completely renewed
that loves God with all its strength
and serves mankind as you did.

Repeat to the Lord
your efficacious word:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3),
so that the Father and the Son will send upon us
a new outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Full of wonder and gratitude
at your continuing presence in our midst,
in the name of all priests
I too want to cry out:
“Why is this granted me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).

Our Mother for all time,
do not tire of “visiting us”,
consoling us, sustaining us.
Come to our aid
and deliver us from every danger
that threatens us.
With this act of entrustment and consecration,
we wish to welcome you
more deeply, more radically,
for ever and totally
into our human and priestly lives.

Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth
in the desert of our loneliness,
let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness,
let it restore calm after the tempest,
so that all mankind shall see the salvation
of the Lord,
who has the name and the face of Jesus,
who is reflected in our hearts,
for ever united to yours!

Amen!


APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO PORTUGAL ON THE OCCASION OF THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE BEATIFICATION OF JACINTA AND FRANCISCO,
YOUNG SHEPHERDS OF FÁTIMA

Matrimony is holy

The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church; the grace of the sacrament thus perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1799).
-- CCC 1661

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

WMET 1160 AM: Catholic radio now in DC

Tune in at home, in the car, whenever you feel the need to be uplifted by the Spirit of truth. Which is all the time, right?

1160 on the AM dial. Tell your friends and family.

Saints Clare and Isidore, pray for us.

-- ((((..))))

Naming evil as evil is not a type of "pessimism"

... and blithely ignoring evil or calling it "good" in any way is not, under any circumstance, to be understood as an attempt at being "positive".

A recent commentator used the word "pessimistic" to describe the act of sharing Church teaching about the evil of each and every gravely illicit act, of every act of disobedience to God and His divine law, regardless of intention or circumstance.

"
It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil so that good may result from it."
-- CCC 1756

There is a trend among some professed, and even practicing, Catholics and other Christians to expose themselves and their children to others who are living in public moral turpitude. It is not a matter of simply being a more "positive" person to blithely ignore moral danger or to expose oneself or one's children to such moral danger or to morally dangerous environments where there is a concerted effort to "normalize" evil behavior. Such flirting with evil is gravely wrong and a betrayal of the Catholic Faith one has claimed to believe and to follow.

Exposing children to moral danger is a form of abuse of a most irresponsible kind.

Monday, May 10, 2010

"Escaping" from the truth: a mass societal delusion

There is a common thread running through a particular mindset that manifests itself among those who say things like, "I USED to be Catholic" or "I was RAISED a Catholic" or "Thank you for reminding me why I am NO LONGER a Catholic" or similar expressions. These are manifestations of a mass delusion pervading society that one can somehow "escape" the truth by "escaping" from the Catholic Church.

No human person has it within their human power to "escape" from or evade the truth. Every human person was made by Truth, in the Truth, for the Truth. Choosing to join a particular religious sect that rejects a particular set of truths which mirrors those truths rejected by the individual who chooses to join said sect does absolutely nothing to release that particular individual from his or her ineradicable responsibility for seeking, knowing and following the truth. Such a choice simply prolongs the alienation of said individual from his or her irreducible destiny to know, love and follow the truth.

We were made for truth inasmuch as we were made by God; we are restless without the truth inasmuch as we are restless without God. God and truth are one.

There is no escaping the truth and the delusion by which a person convinces himself or herself that such is possible is a sad reduction of the human person and an attack against the image and likeness of God which is the basis of human dignity.

"Ego sum Via, Veritas et Vita; the truth will set you free."

-- ((((..)))

2010 National Association of Catholic Homeschoolers EXPO: June 18-19

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mothers "keep the word" of Life

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."

Mothers "keep the Word" in obedience to God and in service to the Gospel of Life, as every newly conceived child "comes" to the woman who thus opens her heart, mind and womb to the will of the Creator, allowing God's power and love to make "a dwelling within her" for the new person coming into being.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

A blessed Mother's Day to all mothers.

-- ((((..))))

Sunday, May 2, 2010

It is necessary to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God:

"Love one another as I have loved you."

By what logic are the glorious successes of Benedict's papacy at the same time an embarrassment to him?

This posturing is ridiculous. When Christ is glorified by the conversion of the Anglicans, how is it an embarrassment to anyone, least of all the Pope? By what faithlessness and worldliness are we to believe that the conversion to the true faith and Church of anyone, Anglican or otherwise, poses a problem for the Holy Father or the Church ahead of his planned voyage to England next year?

Let the devil and his demons writhe in agony, and watch all of those in sinful league with them do the same! Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
-- ((((..))))

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Benedict XVI: "To live according to truth and love"

"One may even say, also prescinding from eternal life, of the promised Heaven, that it is better to live in accordance with Christian criteria because to live according to truth and love, even under much persecution, is in itself good and better than everything else. It is precisely this will to live in accordance with truth and love that must also be open to the whole breadth of God's plan with us, to the courage to rejoice already at the prospect of eternal life, the ascent, following our archegos. And Soter is the Saviour, who saves us from ignorance, in seeking the final things. The Saviour saves us from solitude; he saves us from the emptiness that pervades life without eternity; he saves us by giving us love in its fullness. He is the guide. Christ, the archegos, saves us by giving us the light, giving us the truth, giving us the love of God."

EUCHARISTIC CONCELEBRATION WITH MEMBERS
OF THE PONTIFICAL BIBLICAL COMMISSION

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Pauline Chapel, Apostolic Palace
Thursday, 15 April 2010



"Se si può dire che, anche prescindendo dalla vita eterna, dal Cielo promesso, è meglio vivere secondo i criteri cristiani, perché vivere secondo la verità e l'amore, anche se sotto tante persecuzioni, è in sé stesso bene ed è meglio di tutto il resto, è proprio questa volontà di vivere secondo la verità e secondo l'amore che deve anche aprire a tutta la larghezza del progetto di Dio con noi, al coraggio di avere già la gioia nell'attesa della vita eterna, della salita seguendo il nostro archegos. E Soter è il Salvatore, che ci salva dall'ignoranza, cerca le cose ultime. Il Salvatore ci salva dalla solitudine, ci salva da un vuoto che rimane nella vita senza l'eternità, ci salva dandoci l'amore nella sua pienezza. Egli è la guida. Cristo, l'archegos, ci salva dandoci la luce, dandoci la verità, dandoci l'amore di Dio."

CONCELEBRAZIONE EUCARISTICA CON I MEMBRI DELLA
PONTIFICIA COMMISSIONE BIBLICA

OMELIA DEL SANTO PADRE BENEDETTO XVI

Cappella Paolina del Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano
Giovedì, 15 aprile 2010


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