Pope Francis’ homily at the vigil mass for Christmas focused on the importance of Jesus’ incarnation as a real and meaningful event. “The grace which was revealed in our world is Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, true man and true God. He has entered our history; he has shared our journey. He came to free us from darkness and to grant us light,” said the Pope on December 24 at the mass held in St. Peter’s Basilica. “In him was revealed the grace, the mercy, and the tender love of the Father: Jesus is Love incarnate. He is not simply a teacher of wisdom, he is not an ideal for which we strive while knowing that we are hopelessly distant from it. He is the meaning of life and history, who has pitched his tent in our midst.” Happy New Year. May your 2014 be blessed and may God use you to create a better, more peace-filled world.

After a tiring day of work as a construction day laborer, a weary Aurelio was looking forward to seeing his wife, Maria, and their five children in their small, cramped apartment in downtown Los Angeles. But the sight that greeted him when the door opened made his eyes pop with confusion, and later made his heart swell with gratitude: the joyful faces of his entire family surrounded by an avalanche of gifts in their tiny living room, all thanks to Adopt-A-Family. "I was incredulous. I knew they said they were going to help us, but we didn't know they were going to give us so much," Aurelio (last name withheld by request) said later. "We just thank God that it was true," he told The Tidings, newspaper of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Adopt-A-Family is a Los Angeles archdiocesan outreach program coordinated by the Mission Office that provides gifts of household essentials and longed-for presents to hundreds of struggling local families with children every December. "My kids were so happy to receive so many presents, everything they had asked for," continued Aurelio, a native of Mexico. "I've lived here in the U.S. for almost 15 years and I had never experienced anything like this. We are ending this year on a positive note. Thank you to everyone who made this a happy Christmas for us." This is the best of what Christmas can be. We all need to make a difference in our part of the world. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Christmas came early for 10-year-old Tora Schneider of Waupaca. On December 14, her Christmas wish to help other children was granted. With the aid of her mother and stepfather, Tora delivered more than 50 wrapped presents to children at Love Life Ministry, located in the basement of a building adjacent to St. Joseph Church in Green Bay. In early December, when Tora wrote her letter to Santa, her request was simple: "All I want for Christmas is for at least 20 kids in need" to receive gifts. So taken aback were her mother, Lora Tankersley, and stepfather, Darick Tankersley, that they did all they could to make Tora's wish come true. "I cried," said Lora. "I was so happy. We have six kids and a foster daughter and for her to be the only one (to make the request), it made my day." It turned out to be a daunting request. It took a few tries to find a place that would accept the gifts Tora wanted to hand out. The family finally learned about Green Bay's Love Life Ministry, which collects and distributes baby items to needy mothers, and contacted Sharon Zambrowicz, one of the ministry's volunteer organizers. "I just thought it was a great idea," said Zambrowicz, a member of St. Joseph Parish. "I'm just glad we were able to accommodate her. I know the families that come here and I picked out the ones that I thought were most needy." This is what Christmas is all about. Put down the credit card today and pray for peace on earth!

Pope Francis cautioned Christians not to be overly-critical of those who preach the Gospel, emphasizing that focusing too much on personal precepts keeps us from being happy. Reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading in which Jesus compares the generation to children who are always unhappy or dissatisfied, the Pope stated that “The people of God have a certain allergy to the preachers of the Word: they persecuted the prophets, (even) killed them.” Following the day’s readings, Pope Francis explored the meaning of the Gospel passage, taken from Matthew, explaining that the unhappiness of the people in that generation was because they were “not open to the Word of God.” Their refusal to listen, he noted, had nothing to do with the message, but the messenger, adding that “They reject John the Baptist,” who came “neither eating nor drinking,” saying that he was “a man possessed.” They rejected Jesus, the Pope observed, referring to him as “a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of publicans and sinners,” going on to say that the people always had a reason to criticize the preacher. “The people of that time preferred to take refuge in a more elaborate religion,” the Pope emphasized, “in the moral precepts, such as the group of Pharisees; in political compromise, as the Sadducees; in social revolution, as the zealots; in gnostic spirituality, such as Essenes. They were (happy) with their clean, well-polished system. The preacher, however, was not (so pleased),” the pontiff explained, recalling that Jesus reminded them of how their ancestors had treated the prophets in the same way. These people, noted the Pope, claim to accept the truth, “but the preacher, preaching, no. They prefer a life caged in their precepts, in their compromises, in their revolutionary plans or in their (disembodied) spirituality. These Christians are closed, they are trapped, sad,” observed the Pope, “these Christians are not free. Why? Because they are afraid of the freedom of the Holy Spirit, which comes through preaching.” Stating that “This, then, is the scandal of preaching,” the pontiff recalled the words of Saint Paul in which the apostle referred to “the scandal of preaching that ends in the scandal of the Cross,” adding that “that God should speak to us through men with limits, sinful men, scandalizes. And what scandalizes even more,” stated the Pope, “is that that God should speak to us and save us by way of a man who says he is the Son of God but ends (his life) as a criminal. That scandalizes. These sad Christians,” the pontiff observed, “do not believe in the Holy Spirit, do not believe in the freedom that comes from preaching, which admonishes you, teaches you – slaps you, as well – but it is the very freedom that makes the Church grow.” In seeing “these children who are afraid to dance, to cry, (who are) afraid of everything, who ask for certainty in all things,” Pope Francis reflected, “I think of these sad Christians, who always criticize the preachers of the Truth, because they are afraid to open the door to the Holy Spirit.” Concluding his homily, the Pope urged the Mass attendees to “pray for them,” and to “pray also for ourselves, that we do not become sad Christians, cutting off the freedom of the Holy Spirit to come to us through the scandal of preaching.”

On this morning's episode of “Today Show” Time Magazine announced their choice of Pope Francis for the 2013 “Person of the Year,” stating that he is changing the “tone and perception” of the Church. Reacting to the news, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi issued a comment, calling it “unsurprising considering the resonance and very widespread attention given to the election of Pope Francis and the beginning of his pontificate. It is a positive sign that one of the most prestigious acknowledgements in the field of the international press has been attributed to one who proclaims spiritual, religious and moral values in the world,” he said, and “who speaks effectively in favor of peace and greater justice.” The Pope, Fr. Lombardi stressed, “does not seek fame and success, since he carries out his service for the proclamation of the Gospel and the love of God for all.” However, noted the spokesman, “If this attracts men and women and gives them hope, the Pope is content. If this nomination as 'Person of the Year' means that many have understood this message, at least implicitly, he will certainly be glad.” According to Today News, the recipient of the annual award is chosen by Time’s editorial staff as an individual that has “had the most impact on the world and the news – for better or worse – over the past year.” Previous pontiffs who have received the award, which was first given to Charles Lindbergh in 1927 with the title “Man of the Year,” are Popes John the XXIII in 1962, and Blessed John Paul II in 1994. I couldn't agree more with this choice. Pope Francis is allowing God to use him as an effective instrument to blunt some of the secularism that has invaded our lives more and more in recent times.

While rereading Rick Warren's The Purpose of Christmas, I was reminded how easy it is to forget the reason for the season. Despite the bumper stickers, I still find myself being sucked into the giant "Black Friday-Cyber Monday" vortex. But Rick reminds us that this has happened before. It must have been so bad that God invaded the earth (as Rick says humorously). It's funny but memorable and thought provoking which is what good teachers do. Yes Jesus was sent to let us know how much God loves us. It didn't make any difference that God kept telling his people that they were loved. We don't even have to work for it. God loves us because God is love. But just to give us one more jolt that we could never forget, God sent his son Jesus to save us from our sins. Now Jesus was a lot like other invaders. He spoke a different language that focused on love, forgiveness, and peace. He called us to be meek and love God like little children. He asked his chosen twelve followers to give up their homes, families, jobs; really everything that they had come to hold dear. Jesus offered them eternal life and he enrolled them in a management training program that would forever change their lives.  Jesus was the ultimate CEO and like any good leader who builds something and wants it to last, he planned for his succession. Jesus knew that the apostles would have to continue to build his church on earth once he returned to Heaven. But make no mistake, Jesus did come to conquer. He only wanted the entire world. And to prove that he was serious, he gave his life. He stretched out his arms, showing the breadth of his love, and allowed himself to be nailed to the cross. So the baby Jesus that we celebrate on Christmas day grew into the savior of the world. His gift to us is eternal life but we do have to give something in return. He wants our lives. He wants to use us to further his invasion. Because his time on earth was only the beginning and we are called to continue the battle until he comes again to complete the war. So as we continue to prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the day that forever changed the world, let us truly focus on the reason for the season. Make this advent preparation time worthy of the effort that Jesus gave. Take the time to demonstrate to the world that Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, are here to change the world. Be meek, peace-makers. Reach out to those less fortunate. Bring some joy into a life that may be filled with loneliness. Invade your part of the world with the ferociousness of a prayer warrior worthy to be called a disciple of Christ. Come Emmanuel and change the world.

After a shipwreck off the coast of Nigeria, a 29-year-old man survived three days at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean while constantly reciting a psalm his wife mentioned to him during their last conversation. Harrison Okene was a Nigerian cook on the tugboat Jascon 4, which was one of three vessels pulling an oil tanker. It capsized and sank about 32 kilometers off the coast of Nigeria in late May with its 12 crewmembers aboard. Although the shipwreck occurred in May, a video of the dramatic rescue surfaced this week and was published by the Associated Press on YouTube. The video shows Okene being found alive by divers who were inspecting the shipwreck. Okene was in the bathroom when the boat sank 100 feet to the ocean floor. He was trapped in an air pocket, where he remained for three days reciting a passage from Psalm 54: “Oh God, by your name save me...The Lord sustains my life.” The video captures the moment in which a diver saw the cook's hand and thought it belonged to a dead body. When the hand grasped at him, he shouted, “He's alive, he's alive,” to his fellow rescue workers, who were watching on monitors on the surface. Okene said he thought only a miracle would lead to his rescue and during the long wait, he began “reminiscing on the verses I read before I slept. I read the Bible from Psalm 54 to 92. My wife had sent me the verses to read that night when she called me before I went to bed.” In an interview with Nigerian newspaper The Nation, Okene recalled that he began to invoke the name of God and that he was in a daze because the surroundings went completely dark. Wow #jesussaves.

Pope Francis reflected on the season of Christmas, explaining that it is a time to encounter the Lord in faith, and allow him to renew our lives. The Pope said, Christmas, “isn’t just a temporal celebration or the memory of a beautiful (event); Christmas is more…Christmas is an encounter!” As we progress through the season of Advent, “we go by this road to meet the Lord,” the Pope stated, “we walk to meet him,” to “encounter him with the heart, with life; encounter him alive, as He is; encounter him with faith.” Turning to the day's Gospel reading in which the centurion comes to Jesus asking him to heal his servant only by “saying the word,” Pope Francis noted that “it is not easy to live with faith,” emphasizing how in the Gospel the Lord “marveled at this centurion: he marveled at the faith that he had. He had walked to meet the Lord, but he did so with faith. For this reason he not only encountered the Lord, but he felt the joy of being met by the Lord. And this,” the pontiff pointed out, “is precisely the encounter that we want: the encounter of faith.” When it is only us who seek an encounter with Christ, continued the Pope, “we are – in quotation marks, let's say – the masters of this meeting,” but on the contrary, when we allow him to encounter us “and it is he himself who enters us…it is he that re-makes us all over again.” This renewal is the fruit of letting Christ encounter us, the Pope explained, “because this is the coming, this is what it means when Christ comes: to make everything new.” Jesus, he said, re-makes “the heart, the soul, life, hope,” and “our path,” adding that “We are on a journey of faith, with the faith of that centurion, to meet the Lord and mainly to let him encounter us!” The pontiff then stressed the importance of having an open heart in order for this encounter to take place, explaining that it is also crucial to be open to what the Lord wants to tell us, noting that “what he wants to tell me,” is often not “what I want him to tell me!” However, the Pope observed, “He is the Lord,” and what he tells us is meant for each of us personally, because “the Lord does not look at everyone together, like a mass. No, no! He looks everyone in the face, in the eyes, because love is not abstract: love is concrete!” Concluding his reflections, Pope Francis emphasized that this love is “from person to person: the Lord, a person, looks at me, a person. Letting ourselves be encountered by God means just this,” he stated, “to let ourselves be loved by the Lord!”

Pope Francis closed the Year of Faith by calling on people to keep Christ at the center of their lives, especially in times of trouble. "When Jesus is at the center, light shines even the darkest moments of our lives; he gives us hope," he said in his homily November 24, the feast of Christ the King. The closing Mass in St. Peter's Square also saw, for the first time, the exposition for public veneration of bones believed to be those of St. Peter. The apostle is believed to have been martyred on a hill overlooking St. Peter's Square and buried a tomb now located two levels below the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica. Eight bone fragments, each two to three centimeters long, were nestled in an open bronze reliquary displayed to the side of the altar. During the ceremony, the pope -- the 265th successor of Peter -- held the closed reliquary for several minutes in silent prayer while choirs sang the Nicene Creed in Latin. The bones, which were discovered during excavations of the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica in the 1940s, are kept in the pope's private chapel but had never been displayed in public. While no pope has ever declared the bones to be authentic, Pope Paul VI said in 1968 that the "relics" of St. Peter had been "identified in a way which we can hold to be convincing." How can you not love Pope Francis? His honesty and decision to make the papacy as transparent as possible recalls the ministry of Jesus Christ while He was on earth. I am thankful that God has decided to allow Pope Francis to lead His church.

The devastation brought on by Super Typhoon Haiyan is on a scale so big it is "unimaginable," said Jesuit Father Edwin Gariguez, head of Caritas in the Philippines. "This is beyond our capacity," said Father Gariguez, "that's the reason why we have our Caritas network with us now." When the typhoon hit November 8, the CRS country representative to the Philippines, Joe Curry, was already in Bohol dealing with relief from the October 15 earthquake, so CRS was able to get its assessment teams to Leyte November 10. With about 600,000 people displaced by the storm, the task of getting aid to Filipinos posed a challenge in terms of coordination and the logistics. International aid started began arriving the week of November 10, while local relief began immediately after the typhoon hit. But five days after the storm cut a path of damage that obliterated as many as 90 percent of the houses in some areas, there were still stories of people not receiving anything. Adelyn Manos was one of those. At the entrance of the Villiamor Air Base in Manila, she took cover from the rain under at a tarp-covered shuttle stop. She had just arrived via military plane from Tacloban, a city in Leyte that some are calling "ground zero" because of the decimation there from a 15-foot storm surge brought on by Haiyan. It left bodies strewn about in its wake. "I came with them, my three children and a companion," said the 35-year-old Manos, carrying her 3-year-old daughter. "And my other child, she died because the water went up so high ... she was not even buried because there are no coffins there." Her 8-year-old son said: "The water was so high. It was so high," as he put his arm up to indicate the flood's depth. Manos said she decided to come to Manila because none of the food packs being distributed had made their way to her neighborhood. Her husband was living in Manila for work, but he did not even know she had arrived because her cellphone got clogged with water. Reporters helped her contact her husband and were trying to arrange for a ride. Philippine President Benigno Aquino said he expected the death toll to be around 2,500 -- lower than initially predicted. That morning, the government put the death toll at 1,833; of those, 1,300 were in Leyte. The same day, Rene Almendras, the president's Cabinet secretary, said all national roads leading to the island provinces of Leyte, Samar to the east and nearby Biliran were open and passable. Provincial bus service also was back online, and airports had been opened. At least two of those would be hubs for receiving relief goods. But the government was still dealing with the enormity of the tasks at hand. In one case, the sheer volume of the goods arriving made it necessary for peace and order officers originally assigned to clearing operations to be baggers of care packages. Bodies continued to turn up, and Almendras said some locations did not have enough body bags. Jesuit Brother James Lee, head of the Church That Serves the Nation, the social justice arm of the Philippine Jesuit province, said that hungry Filipinos were blocking aid trucks, demanding food to let them pass. He said his organization's relief efforts would involve coordinating to make sure the food arrived safely at its destination. Taking the massive need and the work to meet it into account, Father Gariguez said, "As a church this is part of our ministry ... we are doing this as part of our mission: to help the poor and the vulnerable. So we are really happy to be of help and to contribute whatever we can to ease the life of our people who are really very much burdened by this disaster." Your prayers are needed but you are also urged to make a financial contribution to Catholic Relief Services.

Pope Francis has asked Catholic young people around the world to read, meditate and act on the beatitudes as they celebrate World Youth Day in their dioceses in 2014 and 2015 and as they prepare to join him in Poland in 2016. Taking the text of the beatitudes from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Pope Francis has chosen the themes for World Youth Day celebrations for the next three years, the Vatican announced November 7. World Youth Day is celebrated annually on a local level and every two or three years with an international gathering with the pope. At the end of World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis announced the next international gathering would be held in Krakow, Poland, in 2016. The annual Rome diocesan celebration with the pope is held on Palm Sunday each year; the date of the celebration in other dioceses varies. But don't wait until then. Urge the youth, and for that matter everyone, in your home parish to adopt the beatitudes to guide their daily lives. Living up to the benchmarks that Jesus shared when He was on earth is a difficult task but one worth pursuing. Can you be humble and meek? Do you mourn when others are suffering? Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Is your heart pure? Do you seek peace in your community? The accomplishment of having even a small portion of our planet adhere to the beatitudes would make our world a much more blessed place to exist.

The Archbishop of Denver warned that an increasing rejection of God endangers the foundations of democracy, urging Catholics to embrace the truth of the Gospel and to live it “both personally and publicly. When one does away with God, one embraces, whether knowingly or unknowingly, the father of lies and the evil one,” Archbishop Samuel Aquila said in a recent homily. “If there is no truth and if there is no God that is referenced, it means that we, as human beings, are the ones who decide what is good and what is evil,” he added, warning that the complete rejection of God results not in true freedom and justice, but in “dictatorship” and “totalitarianism.” His homily was delivered at the archdiocesan Red Mass, celebrated at Regis University in Denver. The Red Mass is a more than 700-year-old tradition invoking the Holy Spirit's aid for lawyers, judges, and government officials. Archbishop Aquila drew on Christ’s parable from the Gospel of Luke about the prayers of the self-righteous Pharisee and the humble tax collector. He noted that both men recognized the presence of God, but the humble one who recognized “his dependence on God, is the one who is exalted.” The archbishop said that modern society’s rejection of God is a unique challenge. “While the two men who prayed in the parable both recognized God, the great challenge for today, and especially in our own society, are those who want to impose secularism upon us, and radical secularism – a complete denial of God.” He contrasted this with the view of the Founding Fathers, who held that natural rights come from God. The archbishop said the founders’ decision to include the First Amendment’s religion clause was a recognition of the importance of religion. They believed in God and “the free exercise of their faith in the public square. Our democracy is truly based on the natural law and its survival depends upon the recognition of the Creator. There would be no discussion today about the freedom of conscience and religious freedom if everyone acknowledged that truth,” he continued. “Both of those freedoms are greatly challenged today because of the desire to abandon God.” But despite negative trends, Archbishop Aquila said Catholics should be “filled with hope” because of their faith in Christ, and because of the truth of the Gospel. “We as Catholics are called to live our faith in the world; it is not something that is private and solely personal. We are to be witnesses, as our founders were witnesses, to the Creator and to the unalienable rights bestowed by the Creator and to the truths that can be discovered by reason and that certainly are more clearly seen by faith.” He encouraged legal professionals to be “people of prayer” and to take time in prayer before they make decisions. He said judges should take their decision to the Holy Spirit and pray for the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, fear of the Lord and piety, adding that they should especially seek Christ in the Eucharist. The archbishop then told the congregation to “live your faith in the world.” Citing Pope Francis, he urged them to follow Christ through the renunciation of evil and egoism and through the choice of “good, truth, justice. We are called to recognize that the Lord is the one who stands by us and gives us strength,” he explained. Christians are called to witness as the martyrs did: “not to water down the Gospel, not to water down the faith, not to have a Christianity that is not lived or that is like a little decoration on a cake.” Archbishop Aquila said Catholics are called “in charity and in love to proclaim the God who is love. It is not some soft love, but it is a love that is all demanding and all consuming. It is the love of Christ as revealed in Christ, as lived by St. Thomas More, as lived by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as lived by so many other martyrs who gave witness to their faith as governments rejected faith.”

The first ever Filipina-American to be crowned Miss World revealed her traditional values in a recent television interview. Megan Young, the 23 year-old who was crowned Miss World on Sept. 28, said in a recent television interview that she is pro-life, rejecting both abortion and contraception. Young, who was born in Virginia but moved to the Philippines with her family as a child, was interviewed on ANC, a Filipino news network, when she was asked about the country's recent adoption of a reproductive health law, which was signed by president Benigno Aquino III on Dec. 21, 2012. The new law mandates sex education in middle and high schools and subsidizes contraceptives, including potentially abortion-inducing drugs. Young indicated opposition to the law, saying, “I'm pro-life, and if it means killing someone that’s already there, then I’m against that of course. I'm against abortion.” Asked about contraception, she added that, “I don't engage in stuff like that,” going on to say she believes that “sex is for marriage” and “should be with your partner for life. I'm actually against divorce,” she added, “because I've seen that in my family. So I think that if you marry someone, that should be the person you should be with forever, through sickness and health, through good or through bad.” When asked how a single woman as “gorgeous” as herself could remain abstinent, Young replied with a laugh, “you just say no, that’s it. If they try to push you, then you step away because you know that that person doesn’t value you, doesn’t value the relationship as much.” She said that a gentleman would not pressure a woman into premarital sex in the first place, while at the same time recognizing that abstaining from sex before marriage takes character. “If the guy is willing to sacrifice that,” she said, “then that means a lot.” Young said she chose to compete in the Miss World pageant rather than Miss Universe because Miss World’s “main focus is charities and helping out and giving back.”

During his daily mass homily Pope Francis warned those in attendance against the idolatry present in greedy hearts, stressing that the Lord gives us our gifts for the betterment of the world. “This greed makes you sick, because it makes you think of everything in terms of money. It destroys you,” the Pope told those gathered in the chapel of the Vatican's Saint Martha guesthouse Oct. 21. In his reflections, the pontiff centered on the Gospel passage in which a man approaches Jesus asking him to help resolve a dispute with his brother surrounding their inheritance, stressing that the story illustrates the problems we face in our relationship with money. “This is a day-to-day problem. How many families have we seen destroyed by the problem of money? Brother against brother, father against son. This,” he urged, “is the first result that this attitude of being attached to money does: it destroys! When a person is attached to money, he destroys himself, he destroys the family. It binds you.” Highlighting the good qualities money can have, the pontiff stressed that it brings about many necessary things and contributes greatly to “human development,” however, “when your heart is attached in this way, it destroys you.” Turning towards the parable which Jesus tells in the Gospel of the rich man who stores up treasures for himself, “but is not rich in what matters to God,” Pope Francis noted that Jesus’ warning is to guard against any form of greed. “That’s what does harm: greed in my relationship with money,” he urged, “it leads you to idolatry, it destroys your relationship with others. It destroys you, it makes you sick.” Pope Francis stressed that the most important thing to remember is that greed is a tool of idolatry “because it goes along a way contrary to what God has done for us.” Referring to the words of Saint Paul in his letters when tells us that Jesus, who was rich, became poor in order to enrich us, the pontiff urged that the path of God is “humility, to lower oneself in order to serve. Greed, on the other hand, takes us on a contrary path: You, who are a poor human, make yourself God for vanity's sake. It is idolatry!” This is why Jesus warns us so frequently against the attachment to money, the Pope said, adding that we cannot “serve two masters,” and that we should not worry because “God knows what we need.” Jesus, noted the pontiff, invites us to a “trusting abandonment to the Father,” rather than placing our trust in something which is “contrary to the path of God. The Lord teaches us the path: not the path of poverty for poverty's sake. No! It is the way of poverty as an instrument, so that God may be God, so that He will be the only Lord! All the goods that we have, the Lord gives them to us to advance the world,” stressed the Pope, “to advance humanity, to help, to help others. Today may the Word of the Lord remain in our hearts: 'Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.'”

When Christianity becomes an ideology rather than a faith based on a relationship with God, its followers become proud and rigid, Pope Francis said. When Christianity becomes an ideology, "Jesus isn't there, nor is his tenderness, love and meekness. And ideologies are always rigid, always," the pope said in a homily at his early morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives. According to a Vatican Radio report on the homily, Pope Francis said that ideological Christians are "rigid, moralists, ethicists, but without goodness. When a Christian becomes a disciple of an ideology, he has lost his faith; he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, but of this way of thinking," the pope said. Pope Francis was commenting on the day's Gospel reading from Luke (11:47-54) in which Jesus admonishes the scribes and Pharisees for trying to control the faith rather than live it and share it with others. The Gospel reading included the line: "Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."

Do you have family or friends who are in pain? They may have been laid off, gotten divorced, experienced the death of a love one or are just beat down by life in general. Every time you see them or speak with them, the conversation is filled with sadness and anguish. It can be exhausting to talk with them but that is just what Jesus calls us to do. I have been reading Max Lucado's latest book You'll Get Through This. In it, he deals with the very situations I described at the beginning of this post; people who have experienced bad things. It brings to mind the question of why God allows this to happen. Lucado seems to think that God is using these bad things to build a stronger you and me. He says that while Satan weaves hate and terror, God reweaves it into good. The Bible tells us in many different places that God will use hardship to sharpen us as Christians. When you look at Paul, Stephen, Moses, Abraham, and Jesus himself, you will realize that people going through hardship is part of life. Lucado uses the story of Joesph, one of Jacob's sons, to illustrate the model that God expects from us when bad things occur in our lives. Joseph was rejected by his family, sold into slavery, falsely accused of rape, and thrown into prison. Because Joseph had faith and an ongoing relationship with God, he knew that his future had not arrived yet. He trusted in God's perfect timing despite the hardship. He never lost his faith and he constantly relied on the Lord to carry him in these difficult times. He also, as Lucado says, did not make rash or foolish decisions. He based his decision making on the promises that God had revealed to him in a series of dreams. It is a great example for us in these trying times. We often are faced with adversity and many of us make really bad decisions trying to alleviate our pain. God does not promise a painless life. Our road will not always be smooth and there will be impediments to overcome. Isn't it nice to know that despite all of this, our God is always there? He wants to pick us up and carry us through the pain. He is love. The pain and suffering caused by the works of Satan and his followers can always be rewoven into good for God's people. I encourage you to read the story of Joseph in Genesis. Build your own relationship with God. Trust in his grace and providence and remain steadfast that He will reweave your life into something beautiful and lasting.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s repeated public support for abortion is a “grave sin” that means she should not be admitted to holy Communion, out of concern for her spiritual state, said Cardinal Raymond Burke. Cardinal Burke, who heads the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest court of appeal other than the Pope, explained that Canon 915 of canon law “must be applied” in Pelosi’s case. That canon states that people who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin” should not be admitted to Communion. “This is a person who, obstinately, after repeated admonitions, persists in a grave sin — cooperating with the crime of procured abortion — and still professes to be a devout Catholic,” Cardinal Burke said in a July interview with the Minneapolis-based newspaper The Catholic Servant, republished recently in the Catholic newspaper The Wanderer. “This is a prime example of what Blessed John Paul II referred to as the situation of Catholics who have divorced their faith from their public life and therefore are not serving their brothers and sisters in the way that they must,” the cardinal said, noting that Catholic political leaders have a duty to safeguard and promote “the life of the innocent and defenseless unborn.” Cardinal Burke is prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest legal body in the Catholic Church. Rep. Pelosi, D-Calif., a Catholic, has long supported legalized abortion. At a June press conference, she responded to a question about the difference between legal abortion and the crimes of Kermit Gosnell, a notorious Philadelphia abortionist convicted of murdering several infants born alive during failed abortions. “As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me, when we talk about this. I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics,” she said. Cardinal Burke said it is “just false and wrong” to say abortion and related matters are questions about the Catholic faith that have no role in politics. “I fear for Congresswoman Pelosi if she does not come to understand how gravely in error she is. I invite her to reflect upon the example of St. Thomas More, who acted rightly in a similar situation, even at the cost of his life,” he said. He noted that the rejection of abortion is not only a matter of Catholic teaching, but part of the “natural moral law written on every heart” and “illuminated” by Jesus Christ’s teaching, passion and death. Cardinal Burke added that it is a “contradiction” and a “scandal” when high-profile political figures who reject Catholic teaching on life and the family are honored at Catholic university commencement ceremonies, saying that this helps “contribute to the sinfulness of the individuals involved.” He deplored a “false sense of dialogue” in the wider culture and in some areas of the Catholic Church, where people simply “pretend to dialogue about open and egregious violations of the moral law.”

A gathering of researchers and scientists convened in Rome to discuss some of the greatest threats to humanity, identifying the tendency to view persons as less than human as a key factor. “Human beings no longer are looked upon as persons, but as sources of raw material to help those who are the rich and the powerful,” said Dr. Jonathan Haas, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. The academy – which works to address “issues in law, in culture, in medicine, in bioethics” – met recently for their annual meeting. Established by Bl. John Paul II, the group aims to promote and defend of human life, especially in the field of bioethics as it regards Christian morality. “It's really a profound commitment to defend the dignity of the human person from the first moment of their conception,” he said. Throughout his time in the field, Dr. Haas has observed that the most pressing life issue of modern times is “not individual specific issues, such as abortion or embryonic stem cell research, or euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. It seems to me that the most pressing, broad issue is the de-humanization, the de-personalization of the human person.” The academy's president observed the increasing culture-wide epidemic of the weak and the poor being treated as “sources of assistance for those who are…more powerful,” as a driving force behind the lack of respect for human dignity. Citing the black market sale of organs and the freezing of embryos for research as examples, he emphasized that “it’s the rich and the powerful really taking advantage of the weak and the vulnerable for their own benefit.” Given the extent of the degradation of human dignity, Dr. Haas explained the approach of the pontifical group, emphasizing that “we are an academy.” This implies, he said, that they seek individuals who are themselves “from the academy; from universities, from institutes of advanced studies, people with backgrounds in law, medicine, philosophy, theology, to address these common threats to human dignity.” Focusing on the organization’s acute expertise in varying fields, he explained that their aim is to discuss current life issues from different angles, but also from a “very high-level academic perspective,” because “those are the people who are formulating and implementing public policy around the world.” “It’s individuals who have expertise in the background, in the field of the natural sciences, the sacred sciences, philosophy, law, who are posing the threats, so we have to come back at these threats from these similar disciplines.” The eight members of the board of directors for the academy had a private audience with the Holy Father on Sept. 27, in which the Pope lauded them for their work, but also stressed the challenges that they face. In reference to the encounter, Dr. Haas said “it was wonderful, it was beautiful. His words were beautiful. He told us that we were going to have to struggle against the current. Everything you do, he said, is against the current, and it will be for the rest of your lives.” Dr. Haas noted that the Pope urged them to keep in mind that “every step that you take forward in the protection of life, the other side, the culture of death, are taking steps forward as well.” One of the qualities which stood out specifically to the academy president “was his gravity. You see pictures of him all the time, and he’s grinning, he’s smiling. But he was very somber, and he looked down, and told us we were going to have to anticipate a lifetime of struggle in addressing these issues.” Having the “support and approbation of the Vicar of Christ, the Successor to St. Peter,” who is “the highest moral authority on the planet,” the Academy president said, was a “significant encouragement” to them in their work.

The church needs good catechists, who love Christ, live out the Gospel in their lives and courageously go to the margins of society to share the gift of faith with others, Pope Francis told catechists from around the world. "Let us follow him, imitate him in his dynamic of love, of going to others, and let's go out, open the doors, have the audacity to strike out new paths to proclaim the Gospel," he said in a recent talk that was both improvised and drawn from a text. Seated behind a large wooden desk facing his audience in the Vatican's Paul VI hall, the pope joked that he was going to make just three points, "like the old-time Jesuits used to do: one, two, three," he said to laughter. Many in the audience hall took notes, closely following the pope's words. Hundreds of catechists were in Rome for a three-day international congress hosted by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization. The pope thanked them for their service to the church and said being a catechist isn't a job or a title, it's a vocation, an approach to life. Are you being a catechist for Christ? It doesn't have to be in a formal setting like a classroom or parish hall. You can catechize every day of your life. Talk to you friends, relatives and co-workers and tell them how Christ has changed your life. The gospel reading yesterday spoke of the sin of omission. Not doing anything is as bad as doing evil.

While Pope Francis’ mention of the Church’s priorities in a recent interview grabbed worldwide attention, few remember that Benedict XVI said substantially the same thing seven years ago. Pope Francis' interview with La Civiltà Cattolica published Sept. 19 led to headlines such as CNN's “Pope Francis says religion does not have the right to interfere spiritually in the lives of gays and lesbians” and the New York Times' “Pope Bluntly Faults Church's Focus on Gays and Abortion.” Among other things, the Roman Pontiff had said that the Church “cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods … when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context.” He continued, “The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus … the proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.” The Pope's words echoed those of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who had made similar comments to the bishops of Switzerland on Nov. 9, 2006. At that time, Benedict recalled that when asked for interviews in the 1980s and '90s, he knew the questions in advance, as they “concerned the ordination of women, contraception, abortion and other such constantly recurring problems. We should not allow our faith to be drained by too many discussions of multiple, minor details,” he said, “but rather, should always keep our eyes in the first place on the greatness of Christianity. If we let ourselves be drawn into these discussions, the Church is then identified with certain commandments or prohibitions,” Benedict said. “We give the impression that we are moralists with a few somewhat antiquated convictions, and not even a hint of the true greatness of the faith appears. I therefore consider it essential always to highlight the greatness of our faith,” adding that we must never be diverted from that highlight. This continuity between Benedict and Pope Francis was noted by Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, in a Sept. 22 essay in National Review Online. He pointed to a misleading “media narrative,” in which Pope Francis is portrayed as “a progressive, taking the Catholic Church in a profoundly new direction – uninterested in Church teaching on moral issues. Benedict, we are told, is conservative, doctrinaire, and old-fashioned — focused on moral issues,” according to the media narrative. Anderson concluded that “neither narrative is true, because each leaves out half of the story.”

Catholics should not be indifferent to politics, Pope Francis said, but should offer their suggestions, as well as prayers that their leaders may serve the common good in humility and love. In his September 16 daily homily at Santa Marta, the Pope rejected the idea that “a good Catholic doesn’t meddle in politics. That’s not true. That is not a good path,” he said, according to Vatican Radio. “A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself, so that those who govern can govern. None of us can say, ‘I have nothing to do with this, they govern,’” Pope Francis told those present for the Mass. Rather, citizens are responsible for participating in politics according to their ability, and in this way are responsible for their leadership. “Politics, according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good,” he explained. “I cannot wash my hands, eh? We all have to give something!” He noted that it is sometimes common for people to speak only critically of their leaders, to complain about “things that don’t go well.” Instead of simply complaining, we should offer ourselves – our ideas, suggestions, and most of all our prayers, the Holy Father said. Observing that prayer is “the best that we can offer to those who govern,” he pointed to St. Paul’s letter to Timothy inviting prayer for the conversion and strong leadership of those in authority. Even if they believe certain politicians to be “wicked,” Christians should pray “that they can govern well, that they can love their people, that they can serve their people, that they can be humble,” he said. At the same time, the Pope reflected on the role of those who hold political power, stressing the need for humility and love. Reflecting on the Gospel of the centurion who humbly and confidently asked for the healing of his servant, the Holy Father explained that “a leader who doesn’t love, cannot govern – at best they can discipline, they can give a little bit of order, but they can’t govern.” In addition, he emphasized, “You can’t govern without loving the people and without humility! And every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‘Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?’ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good,” Pope Francis continued. “The man or woman who governs – who loves his people is a humble man or woman.”

What God asks of people is too difficult and demanding to do without help from Jesus and Mary, Pope Francis said. People need to lose themselves in the contemplation of Mary's sweetness and Christ's suffering in order to receive the grace necessary to live out God's will, he said in his Sept. 12 morning homily at his residence in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. What God asks of people "is not easy to live out: Love your enemies, do good to them, lend without expecting anything in return, turn the other cheek," he said. "These are tough things, right? We, with our own strength, we can't do it. We cannot do this. Only grace can do it in us," a grace that comes from contemplating Christ, he said.

An Italian pastor has donated a used Renault 4 with 186,000 miles to Pope Francis, in response to the exhortation he made to priests and seminarians in July to live simply and humbly. Father Renzo Roca, 69, who is pastor of St. Lucy Parish in Pescantina, wrote to the Holy Father offering to donate his car, according to news reports out of the Vatican. The car was delivered to the Pontiff on September 7 at St. Martha’s Residence, shortly before the beginning of the Vigil for Peace which the Holy Father led in St. Peter’s Square that evening. “When I gave it to him, we got into the car, but I didn’t have to explain anything to the Pope because he told me that he also used a Renault 4 in Argentina and that it never left him stranded,” Father Roca said. After receiving the car, the Pope rode together with Father Roca to meet with the group of faithful that traveled with him to Rome. During the brief encounter, a young man gave the Pope a t-shirt and Father Roca explained that “normally we sell the shirts for five Euros to raise money for parish activities, but we gave it to him for free.” However, the Pope said he would pay for it. “He took out his wallet and gave us ten Euros and asked for change. Luckily I had five Euros in my pocket. Incredible,” Father Roca said. He also joked that a Swiss guard standing nearby told him, “Now we are going to be a little worried because we’ll have to watch what Pope Francis does with that Renault 4.”

As American policymakers debated military intervention in Syria, Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl joined Pope Francis and Catholics around the world in calling for peace and a just solution to the violence that has wracked the country and other parts of the world. "Today we pray for those who are a part of our human family and who endure terrible acts of violence. We also invoke God's blessings on those who strive to contain violence around the world," Cardinal Wuerl said during a special Mass September 7 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. "We ask God to give all of us the strength to walk in the light of God's love and that we might be true agents of human solidarity, justice and true peace." The Mass was one of dozens of liturgies and prayer services across the U.S. in response to Pope Francis' call for a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, the Middle East and throughout the world. "As an expression of solidarity with all the victims who suffer, especially the children, particularly in Syria but throughout the Middle East, we raise our voices in supplication for peace and reconciliation," Cardinal Wuerl said during his homily.

While the light of Jesus is powerful enough to cast out demons, it is a peaceful and humble light that helps us carry the cross in our lives, said Pope Francis in a recent homily. “Jesus doesn’t need an army to cast out the demons, he has no need of pride, no need of force, of arrogance,” the Pope said during daily Mass at the chapel of the Saint Martha House. Around 50 people, usually employees from various Vatican departments, are invited to attend each day. Pope Francis took his homily from the Gospel of Luke, which narrates how Jesus cast out demons. The light of Jesus “saves us from darkness,” emphasized the Holy Father, and Christianity is “an identity of light, not of darkness. This Light is not well-liked by the world,” he said. “Today one might think that there is the possibility of having the light with so many scientific things, and so many of the things of humanity. You can know everything, you can have knowledge of all things…but the light of Jesus is something else,” the Pope explained. He noted that “it is not a light of ignorance, it’s a light of wisdom and sagacity, but it is something other than the light of the world. The light that the world offers us is an artificial light, strong, perhaps, but that of Jesus is stronger,” he remarked. Rather than a strong but brief flash, he said, the “light of Jesus is a mild light, it is a quiet light, it is a light of peace, it’s like the light on Christmas night, without pretense.” He added that “the light of Jesus does not put on a show, it is a light that comes into the heart” and “offers and gives peace. However, it’s true that many times the devil comes dressed as an angel of light,” the Pope warned. “He likes to imitate Jesus and do good, he speaks to us quietly, as he spoke to Jesus after the fast in the desert,” he explained. The pontiff stressed that we should ask for the wisdom of discernment to distinguish when it is Jesus who gives us true light, and when it is the devil, disguised as an angel of light. “How many believe they are living in the light and they are in darkness, but they don’t realize it?” he asked. Pope Francis described the light of Jesus as “a humble light” and “not a light that imposes itself. It’s a meek light, with the strength of meekness, it’s a light that speaks to the heart, and also a light that offers you the cross,” he remarked. “If we, in our inner light are meek, if we hear the voice of Jesus in the heart and look at the cross without fear, that is the light of Jesus,” he said, contrasting this with the devil’s false light, which “makes you arrogant” and prideful, leading you “to look on others from on high, to despise others.” We can distinguish between these two lights, the Pope said, by recognizing that “wherever Jesus is, there is always humility, meekness, love and the cross.”

The promotional tour of a recent film on the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe has helped reawaken devotion to the Patroness of the Americas, while inspiring a deeper conversion among Catholics. “We need things that are artistic, that leave impressions, that will help guide people back to our faith,” said Tim Watkins, director of 'The Blood and the Rose'. The film centers around three major aspects of the apparition of the Virgin Mother to St. Juan Diego: the historical background; the apparition itself and Mary’s message; and the scientific analysis of the image on the tilma. “Even though this image was made in 1531, there are still things that we found in the twentieth century that made us go, ‘Oh wow,’” Watkins explained. “It begs the question: what else is in this image that hasn’t been discovered yet?” Careful study and inspection of the image throughout recent history has yielded surprising discoveries about the image, such as the tiny human figures and faces that appear in the life-like eyes of the Virgin and the way the stars on her mantle match the constellations at the winter solstice of 1531. In promoting his film, Watkins hopes Catholics will be strengthened in their faith while growing bolder in proclaiming the Gospel. While researching the film, Watkins said he discovered more about the apparition than he could have imagined – something he hopes viewers will experience when they see the film. “They know bits and pieces, but they don’t know the fascinating totality of the story,” he said. “There’s something in (the film) that people do not know.” While the film is meant to be a work of art inspired by the apparition, it also explores the humble sanctity of St. Juan Diego, the faithful messenger to whom the Virgin Mother appeared. “I’m not worthy to touch the tassels of Mary’s gown, but what I am capable of doing is achieving the kind of life Juan Diego lived.” The saint, Watkins added, is an example of “humble, childlike faith,” whom we can all emulate. “What we try to do with the film is inspire people to be like Juan Diego, the servant who heard the word and spread it.” To that end, Watkins has established the Messenger Eagle Foundation – an organization dedicated to catechizing Catholics and helping them spread the Gospel in their parts of the world. The name is taken from St. Juan Diego’s native name, Cauthatlatohuac, which means “the eagle who speaks.” The film, which was released in January, has been shown to audiences nationally as well as in several different countries, including Brazil, where the film was shown to World Youth Day audiences. At each showing, a reflection on St. Juan Diego and the work of a special local charitable organization is given before the film. Following that is a reflection from the local bishop or a priest. “Hopefully it becomes a fulcrum to an awakening to get us out of being pacifists in the pews to a point where we’re helping our priests succeed by getting their message to a bigger community,” Watkins reflected. To learn more about the film, or to request a screening in your area, visit thebloodandtherose.com.

Pro-life lawmakers issued statements supporting a government decision to investigate the federal funding of Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform abortions. “The federal government providing funding to abortion providers is a serious problem in our nation,” said Rep. Diane Black (R- Tenn.) in an August 5 statement. She said that she is pleased with the Government Accountability Office’s decision to investigate the use of taxpayer funds by abortion groups. The independent study of how much and for what purpose these dollars are allocated to all abortion providers is necessary for Congress to ensure accountability and oversight, she stressed. Earlier this year, more than 50 members of Congress asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate how Planned Parenthood and other organizations that promote or perform abortions use federal funds. Black has also sponsored the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would prevent federal funds from being used to fund organizations that perform abortions. Planned Parenthood’s yearly reports record more than $1.2 billion in net assets to the IRS for the 2011 fiscal year, and $87.4 million in excess revenue. However, the organization still received $542 million in federal funds in 2011-2012 from government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood performed more than 300,000 abortions in 2012, and over 1 million since 2010. Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) explained that this trend is troubling because federal tax money is “legally prohibited from being used for abortions. Under the U.S. constitution, the Obama Administration has a duty to enforce these laws. And under that same constitution, Congress has a duty to ensure that the executive branch follows the law of the land,” he emphasized. “Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide abortions clearly benefit from Uncle Sam,” Senator David Vitter commented, “but there’s no accounting to prove how they actually use that money. This GAO report would shine a light on how our tax dollars are being spent.” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) added that he is “pleased that the GAO will be investigating how much taxpayer money the abortion industry is receiving. Hopefully this will help us finally put an end U.S. taxpayer support, funding and complicity with this violence against children,” he said. Black agreed, emphasizing that she is looking forward “to reviewing the results and ultimately, mobilizing the support needed to stop federal funding of abortion providers once and for all.”

Pope Francis denounced consumerism as a poison that threatens true happiness, which comes from membership in the church. The pope made his remarks before praying the Angelus with a noontime crowd in St. Peter's Square. "The encounter with the living Jesus, in the great family that is the church, fills the heart with joy, because it fills it with true life, a profound goodness that does not pass away or decay," he said. "But this experience must face the daily vanity, the poison of emptiness that insinuates itself into our society based on profit and having (things), that deludes young people with consumerism," he said. "Young people are particularly sensitive to the emptiness of meaning and values that surrounds them," he said. "And they, unfortunately, pay the consequences."

Celebrating the feast of St. Ignatius with more than 200 of his Jesuit confreres, Pope Francis prayed that he and all of them would receive "the grace of shame" for their failures and the humility to recognize that whatever good they accomplish is really done by the Lord. Jesus told his disciples never to be ashamed of following him, but Jesuits are taught to look upon the crucifix and "feel that very human and very noble sentiment which is shame for not measuring up," the pope said July 31 during his homily at the Mass in Rome's Church of the Gesu, where St. Ignatius is buried. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the Mass was "very beautiful and very familial." In his spirituality and spiritual tradition, he said, the pope sees himself as a "son of St. Ignatius" and feels "very close to the Society of Jesus." For the Jesuits, Father Lombardi said, the pope is a confrere, but "we know the pope is the pope." At the end of the Mass, the pope prayed at the tomb of St. Ignatius, before a relic of St. Francis Xavier and at the tomb of Father Pedro Arrupe, superior of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983. He also visited the Chapel of Our Lady of the Way, patroness of the Jesuits and the title of a 15th-century Marian fresco that was dear to St. Ignatius and his first companions. In his homily, Pope Francis prayed that Mary would "help us experience shame for our inadequacy before the treasure that has been entrusted to us, so that we would live with humility before God." The pope also prayed for "our brother in Syria," an obvious reference to Jesuit Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, who was expelled from Syria in June 2012 after intensifying his public calls for democratic change in the country. He reportedly returned to Syria occasionally. Jesuit and other church officials and friends of Father Dall'Oglio said they had been unable to reach him by phone, and the Reuters news agency reported that militants with links to al-Qaida kidnapped the priest July 29 while he was walking in the northern Syrian city of al-Raqqah. As of July 31, the Vatican and the Italian foreign ministry said they could not confirm that he had been kidnapped. The pope's homily was filled with references to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, meditations and instructions for a 30-day retreat that form the basis of Ignatian spirituality. The exercises, he said, are designed to remind Jesuits that Christ and the church must be at the center of all they do; that they must allow themselves to be conquered by Christ in order to serve; and that they must feel shame in order to be humble before God and other people. Every Christian and every Jesuit, Pope Francis said, should ask himself regularly "'Is Christ the center of my life?' because there is always the temptation to place ourselves at the center." And, he said, one cannot serve Christ without being in harmony with and serving the church. "There are no parallel or isolated paths. To serve Christ is to love this concrete church and to serve it with generosity and obedience," he said. But most of the pope's homily focused on humility and recognizing one's limits, so as to be mindful always of greatness of God's mercy. "We look at the wisdom of Christ and our ignorance, at his omnipotence and our weakness, at his justice and our inequity and at his goodness and our badness," the pope said. "We ask for the grace of shame, the shame that comes from a continuous conversation of mercy with him, the shame that makes us blush before Jesus Christ," he said. The sense of shame leads to the virtue of humility, he said, and a recognition that each Christian "carries a great treasure in fragile, inadequate, insufficient earthen vessels." The 76-year-old pope said he thinks often of what the "twilight of the Jesuit" should be as he faces the end of his life. He described as "two icons of this twilight" St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary who died in 1552 awaiting a chance to get to mainland China, and Father Arrupe, who in 1981 suffered a massive stroke, "which began his long and exemplary twilight" that lasted almost 10 years and included seeing Pope John Paul appoint an interim superior of the Jesuits, a move seen by many as a lack of trust in the ability of the Jesuits to govern themselves.

Marking the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, during a recent Angelus address Pope Francis said the transmission of faith takes places first and foremost in the home and among families. "Saints Joachim and Anne were part of a long chain of people who had transmitted their love for God, expressed in the warmth and love of family life, down to Mary, who received the Son of God in her womb and who gave him to the world, to us," Pope Francis told World Youth Day pilgrims on July 26. "How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith!" he said. Pope Francis began his Angelus address by telling the pilgrims he would be happy if his visit to Rio were to "renew, in each one of you, your love for Christ and his Church and your joy in being one with him, belonging to the Church and being committed to offering a living witness to the faith." He praised the Angelus as a "beautiful popular expression of the faith" which "punctuates the rhythm of our daily activities," encouraging all to pray it regularly. "It reminds us of a luminous event which transformed history: the Incarnation, the moment when the Son of God became man in Jesus of Nazareth." The Pope turned to reflecting on the day's feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary and grandparents of Jesus, and emphasized to the young pilgrims the importance of honoring their own grandparents. "In their home, Mary came into the world ... (she) grew up in the home of Joachim and Anne; she was surrounded by their love and faith: in their home she learned to listen to the Lord and to follow his will." He noted that Grandparents Day is also celebrated today, marking the feast of God's own grandparents. "How important grandparents are for family life," the Pope said, "for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society." "How important it is to have intergenerational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family. Children and the elderly build the future of peoples: children because they lead history forward, the elderly because they transmit the experience and wisdom of their lives," he said. Pope Francis added, "This relationship and this dialogue between generations is a treasure to be preserved and strengthened!"  He said the pilgrims at World Youth Day "wish to acknowledge and honour their grandparents," saluting them with "great affection" and thanking them for the "ongoing witness of their wisdom." Having said that, Pope Francis led the crowd in the Angelus prayer as "one big family," turning to Mary "that she may protect our families and make them places of faith and love in which the presence of Jesus her Son is felt." I ask you pray with me that Pope Francis' message resonate with those seeking God and that Our Lord continue to use the Pope as his vessel on earth.

Building on his lifelong love of comic books, an Eastern Catholic monk has authored a short graphic novel, “The Truth is Out There,” to help explain the truths of the faith in an understandable way. “The reason I did it in cartoon format was because I didn’t think my friends would read it any other way,” said Amadeus – which is the author's pen-name. “The Truth is Out There” tells the story of two space-age mail carriers who begin discussing the meaning of life at a coffee bar, and as they search for truth, one comes to find it resting in the Catholic Church. In the book's introduction, Amadeus recounts that the work began a few years before he entered the monastery, during a conversation he was having with three friends of his who were all “born and raised Catholic. It became appallingly clear how little any of us knew our faith…I had just stumbled upon the greatest problem of my generation of Catholics,” wrote Amadeus. The monk said that he “grew up loving to read,” and his favorite comic was “The Adventures of Tintin.” When he was ten, he was given a book “on how to draw comics. Two, actually; one was how to draw cartoons, the other was how to draw superheroes.” Amadeus found he “could do the cartoons alright,” and said, “I fell in love with cartooning.” In high school and college, he wrote cartoons for his school newspapers, but “wanted to make drawings come to life,” and so became an aerospace engineer. After working as an engineer for a few years, he felt a call to join the Maronite Monks of Adoration, a contemplative order located in Massachusetts. The order is part of the Maronite Church, an Eastern Catholic Church based in Lebanon. The monks' life is contemplative, dedicated to Eucharistic Adoration and praying the Divine Office and the Divine Liturgy. “When I came to the monastery, it was actually incredible: that was when I didn't want to cartoon,” Amadeus related. “I thought, 'I really have to settle into being a monk.' But the moment I entered the silence of the cloister, it was like my head was flooded with cartoons. It was nonstop: I just had all these great ideas.” Amadeus was able, “with a lot of mortification,” to “put off doing this book for a couple of years.” But in the monastery, immersed in philosophy and theology, he found that he wanted to share the riches of the Truth with the friends he had known before entering his new life. “Originally, I wanted to write it out as a letter with a few drawings, like the illustrated manuscript traditions,” he related. But finding that “too boring,” Amadeus said, “finally I broke down and decided to do the whole thing as a comic strip because that’s what I'm good at; that’s what I do best.” “The Truth is Out There” betrays a familiarity with the pre-Christian tradition of philosophy – Plato and Aristotle – as well as the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Amadeus said the comic format is “just the way I know how to get my thoughts, my ideas out,” and that “the harder the idea is, the more helpful it is to draw it out.” Part of his motivation in drawing the graphic novel was to convey the beauty of the Church's faith, and Amadeus said that beauty – whether made by man or God – is meant to draw us to the Creator. “The beauty that we create is obviously taken from the beauty of nature. And the beauty of nature is a reflection of God; that’s his work,” he said. “I don’t think there is a better way to draw hearts to God, to Christ. That’s where all the beautiful churches and artwork, all those things we hold in such high regard…that was inspired by the beauty of nature to return to the beauty of God.” He intends to write another comic novel, this time about salvation history, called “The Big Picture.”

Father Robert Barron, rector of Mundelein Seminary outside of Chicago, has produced a new video series emphasizing the primacy of beauty in drawing people to Christ. “Let's start with the beauty of the faith … I wanted to start with the splendor of it,”  Fr. Barron, a priest of the Chicago archdiocese, told the Catholic News Agency. “I don’t talk about any of the hot button issues.” Slated for release on DVD this August, “Catholicism: The New Evangelization,” explores the Church's mission in contemporary culture. The program follows Fr. Barron's critically acclaimed, high-definition “Catholicism” series of 2011, which aired on PBS nationwide. His approach to the new evangelization – the late Blessed John Paul II's term for reaching formerly Christian societies – tends to begin with “something in the culture that people are watching or paying attention to.” The priest, who founded global media group Word on Fire, said is able to find in these things something “that speaks to the Catholic faith, that reflects the Catholic faith.” “So it’s more of affirmative orthodoxy; a positive approach,” he said. “And I think that intrigues people.” The series focuses on the new evangelization because “it's what we need, as a Church.” It grew out of conversations Fr. Barron had on trips to Australia and England, looking at what is “drawing people in these very secularized societies back to the Church.” The election of Pope Francis has given the Church the opportunity of a new, more positive narrative in the mainstream media, and Fr. Barron suggested that “maybe they are captivated by Francis.” In concert with his focus on beauty as a route for the new evangelization, the priest said, “I want to get people off of the one-sided stress on sexual ethics.” While acknowledging that sexual ethics are “very important,” he said the singular emphasis on this one facet of Church teaching “distorts the message. If you read the New Testament, yes there's a sexual ethic implicit in the New Testament, but would you get the impression that's the one thing that we're supposed to do – we're supposed to get people clear on their sexual lives?” No, he answered, the primary calling of Christians is “declaring the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, declaring the kingdom of God breaking into history, declaring this revolution that's wrought grace.” “Now an implication of that is, get your sexual lives in order, towards love.” But rather than focusing all one's message on sexual ethics, he declared, “I'd like to widen the lens a little bit.” CNA spoke with Fr. Barron at a Catholic media conference in Denver, shortly after a talk he presented, where discussed the “balloons and banners” era following the Second Vatican Council, when there was a “dumbing down” of catechesis in much of the Church. Asked if he thinks that era is starting to change, he responded, “not enough.” “I worry about that … it needs to change.” The Church needs “a couple of saints, who will really raise up armies of teachers,” Fr. Barron said. The generations of Catholics formed under Benedict XVI and in John Paul II's later years need “to go for advanced studies in philosophy and theology, so they can pass the thing on in a sophisticated way,” he reflected. Going along with this, he said Catholics colleges must “become a breeding ground of Catholic intellectual life,” having professors, not only in philosophy and theology, but all the disciplines, “whose teaching is informed by their faith.” Fr. Barron called it a “tragedy” that so many Catholic universities have “secularized themselves … aping Princeton and Harvard.” He promoted Vatican II's idea that Catholic laypeople are called to be “great Catholics in the world.” Rather than privatizing their faith, Catholics – whether business leaders, politicians, or media personalities – should let that faith inform their “decisions, approach, attitude.” This is “tricky,” he emphasized, saying that “if you're a media person you can't say, 'I'm going to be announcing Jesus Christ risen from the dead as I do the evening news.'” And yet, he calls for the “still unrealized Vatican II vision … of the laity Christifying the world” by refusing to privatize their Catholic faith. Letting faith inform one's decisions in public: “that's evangelization,” Fr. Barron said.

Keep the fire alive

In order to do the Lord’s work, Pope Francis said, we should remember our first encounter with Jesus, in which we were invited to recognize our own sinfulness and experience his loving gaze. “Those who consider themselves righteous, they can cook in their own stew!” the Pope said during morning Mass on July 5. “He came for us sinners and this is beautiful.”Reflecting on a Bible passage in which the tax collector Matthew decides to follow Jesus, he asked those present to remember their first encounter with Christ. Remember always, it is like blowing on the embers of that memory, no? Blowing to keep the fire alive, always,” he said at the chapel of St. Martha. “That memory gives Matthew strength and to all of them to forge ahead: ‘the Lord has changed my life, I met the Lord!’” he added. Pope Francis gave his homily based on the Gospel passage in which Jesus invites Matthew, a tax collector, to follow him. Later in the reading, Pharisees criticize Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners to which he replies, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick do. The taxpayers were sinners twice because they were attached to money and were also traitors of the country in the sense that they collected taxes from their own people for the Romans,” said the Pope. “Matthew feels Jesus’ gaze upon him and he feels stunned,” he said. “He hears Jesus’ invitation, ‘follow me, follow me.’” According to the Holy Father, Matthew is then “full of joy but he’s also doubtful because he’s also very attached to money. It just took a moment and we see how (the artist) Caravaggio was able to capture it, that man who was looking, but also, with his hands, was taking the money,” he stated. He noted that there is “a moment in which Matthew says yes, leaves everything and goes with the Lord. It is the moment of mercy received and accepted, ‘yes I’m coming with you!’ and it is the first moment of the meeting, a profound spiritual experience,” said Pope Francis. He then reflected on the second part of the reading, during which Jesus eats with the sinners and tax collectors. “The Lord feasts with the sinners. God’s mercy is celebrated,” he said. He explained how the biblical parables talk of those who refuse to take part in the Lord’s feast; that Jesus went out to find the poor and the sick and feasted with them.  “And following these two moments, the stunned encounter and the feast, comes the ‘daily work’ of announcing the Gospel,” he added. The Pope stressed that this work “must be nurtured with the memory of that first encounter, of that feast” and that this work is not just for one moment, but lasts up to the end of one’s life. The strength to do this work, he told the Governorate, comes from the memory of “those events, of that encounter with Jesus who has changed my life, who had mercy!”

Don't be a remote-controlled Catholic

Pope Francis said that Jesus does want Christians to succumb to either extreme of being self-absorbed or overly-dependent. “Jesus wants neither selfish Christians, who follow their egos and do not speak with God, nor weak Christians, without will, 'remote-controlled,'” he said. The latter are “incapable of creativity...seek ever to connect with the will of another, and are not free,” he told the crowds packed into Saint Peter's Square. The Pope based his remarks on Luke 9 which tells how Jesus made the concrete decision to travel to Jerusalem, where he would be crucified. “Jesus, in his earthly life, was not, so to speak, 'remote-controlled,'” he said. “He was the Word made flesh, the son of God made man, and at one point he made a firm decision to go up to Jerusalem for the last time.” During his reflection, Pope Francis also emphasized that Jesus never imposes his will on anyone but “extends invitations,” and “invites us.” The pontiff added that what Jesus wants is for Christians to be free and that the way to do this is through “the inner dialogue with God in conscience.” “If a Christian does not know how to talk with God, does not know how to listen to God, in his own conscience, then he is not free,” he stressed. The Pope underscored that the faithful must learn to listen more to their consciences, but that “this does not mean we ought to follow our ego, do whatever interests us, whatever suits us, whatever pleases us.” Conscience, he explained, is “the interior space in which we can listen to and hear the truth, the good, the voice of God.” “It is the inner place of our relationship with Him, who speaks to our heart and helps us to discern, to understand the path we ought to take, and once the decision is made, to move forward, to remain faithful.” In this sense, he observed, Benedict XVI “has given us a great example.” Pope Francis recalled how Benedict had prayed and realized that resigning from the papacy was the step he had to take. “He followed his conscience with a great sense of discernment and courage.” “This example of our father does much good to all of us, as an example to follow.” Concluding his remarks, Pope Francis also touched on Italy's June 30 celebration of the day of Charity of the Pope. “I desire to thank the bishops and all the parishes, especially the poorest ones, for the prayers and offerings that support the many pastoral initiatives and charitable activities of the Successor of Peter in every part of the world,” he said.