Friday 30 August 2013
Monday 26 August 2013
Agnus Dei - Pastoral Work of our Papal Nuncio and Irish Bishops: Twenty new seminarians to commence Priesthood stud...
Agnus Dei - Pastoral Work of our Papal Nuncio and Irish Bishops: Twenty new seminarians to commence Priesthood stud...: Twenty new seminarians to commence priesthood studies at Saint Patrick’s College Maynooth “ … have the courage to go against the tide ...
Tuesday 20 August 2013
Road of Hope: The Spiritual Journey of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan
On April 24, 1975 ,
six days before the city fell to the North Vietnamese army, Father Van Thuận
was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Saigon . It led to
his subsequent arrest by the new communist regime, which sent him to a
“re-education camp” for 13 years, nine of which were in solitary confinement.
During those years in jail, he found himself in a situation
of seemingly utter hopelessness.
But instead of wallowing in his misfortune, he saw it as an
opportunity to come into closer communion with Christ, increasing his hope,
which he was then able to pass on to others.
After his release in 1988, he was exiled in 1991, but
welcomed home by Pope John Paul II, who made him an official in the Roman
Curia. The Holy Father later appointed him president of the Pontifical Council
for Justice and Peace, a post he held from 1998 to 2002. He was elevated to the
College of Cardinals in 2001.
Meeting with those who helped complete the diocesan phase of
Cardinal Thuận’s beatification last week, Pope Francis recalled his “witness to
hope,” saying his memory is still alive and that he had a “spiritual presence
that continues to bring his blessing.”
Many people were edified by their encounter with Cardinal
Van Thuận, the Pope added, and many recall “his gentle smile and the greatness
of his soul.”
Tuesday 13 August 2013
Monday 12 August 2013
VITA CONSECRATA - Apostolic Exhortation on the Consecrated Life - Part 6
Societies of Apostolic Life
11. Also worthy of special mention are Societies of
Apostolic Life or of common life, composed of men or women. These pursue,
each in its own particular way, a specific apostolic or missionary end. In many
of them an explicit commitment to the evangelical counsels is made through
sacred bonds officially recognized by the Church. Even in this case, however,
the specific nature of their consecration distinguishes them from Religious
Institutes and Secular Institutes. The specific identity of this form of life
is to be preserved and promoted; in recent centuries it has produced many
fruits of holiness and of the apostolate, especially in the field of charity
and in the spread of the Gospel in the Missions.
New expressions of consecrated life
12. The perennial youth of the Church continues to be
evident even today. In recent years, following the Second Vatican Council, new
or renewed forms of the consecrated life have arisen. In many cases, these
are Institutes similar to those already existing, but inspired by new spiritual
and apostolic impulses. Their vitality must be judged by the authority of the
Church, which has the responsibility of examining them in order to discern the
authenticity of the purpose for their foundation and to prevent the
proliferation of institutions similar to one another, with the consequent risk
of a harmful fragmentation into excessively small groups.
In other cases it is
a question of new experiments which are seeking an identity of their own in the
Church and awaiting official recognition from the Apostolic See, which alone
has final judgment in these matters.These new forms of consecrated life now
taking their place alongside the older ones bear witness to the constant
attraction which the total gift of self to the Lord, the ideal of the apostolic
community and the founding charisms continue to exert, even on the present
generation. They also show how the gifts of the Holy Spirit complement one
another.In this newness however the Spirit does not contradict himself. Proof
of this is the fact that the new forms of consecrated life have not supplanted
the earlier ones. Amid such wide variety the underlying unity has been
successfully preserved, thanks to the one call to follow Jesus — chaste, poor
and obedient — in the pursuit of perfect charity. This call, which is found in
all the existing forms of consecrated life, must also mark those which present
themselves as new.
Purpose of the Apostolic Exhortation
13. Gathering together the fruits of the Synod's labours, in
this Apostolic Exhortation I wish to address the whole Church in order to offer
not only to consecrated persons but also to the Bishops and the faithful the
results of a stimulating exchange, guided by the Holy Spirit with his gifts of
truth and love.
During these years of renewal, the consecrated life, like
other ways of life in the Church, has gone through a difficult and trying
period. It has been a period full of hopes, new experiments and proposals aimed
at giving fresh vigour to the profession of the evangelical counsels. But it
has also been a time of tension and struggle, in which well-meaning endeavours
have not always met with positive results.The difficulties however must not
lead to discouragement. Rather, we need to commit ourselves with fresh
enthusiasm, for the Church needs the spiritual and apostolic contribution of a
renewed and revitalized consecrated life. In this Post-Synodal Exhortation I
wish to address religious communities and consecrated persons in the same
spirit which inspired the letter sent by the Council of Jerusalem to the
Christians of Antioch, and I am hopeful that it will meet with the same
response: "When they read it, they rejoiced at the encouragement which it
gave" (Acts 15:31). And not only this. I also hope to increase the
joy of the whole People of God.
As they become better acquainted with the
consecrated life, they will be able with greater awareness to thank Almighty
God for this great gift.In an attitude of heartfelt openness towards the Synod
Fathers, I have carefully considered the valuable contributions made during the
intense work of the Assembly, at which I made a point of being present
throughout. During the Synod, I also sought to offer the entire People of God a
number of systematic talks on the consecrated life in the Church. In them I
presented anew the teachings found in the texts of the Second Vatican Council,
which was an enlightening point of reference for subsequent doctrinal
developments and for the reflections of the Synod during the busy weeks of its
work. I am confident that the sons and daughters of the Church, and consecrated
persons in particular, will receive this Exhortation with open hearts.
At the
same time, I hope that reflection will continue and lead to a deeper
understanding of the great gift of the consecrated life in its three aspects of
consecration, communion and mission. I also hope that consecrated men and
women, in full harmony with the Church and her Magisterium, will discover in
this Exhortation further encouragement to face in a spiritual and apostolic
manner the new challenges of our time.
Sunday 11 August 2013
Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal come to Ireland
The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal will open a new
convent in Drogheda, Co. Louth this month.
Four members of the congregation are currently making final
preparations to reside at their new home next to St Mary’s church in St
James Street .
The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal today have four
communities, three in the United States
in addition to a convent in Leeds in England .
The congregation was established 25 years ago by Fr Andrew Apostoli in the Bronx
area in New York . The community
strives to live according to the ideals of St Francis as handed on by the
Capuchins. The sisters work to evangelise and with the homeless and the poor.
In a statement to The Irish Catholic this week on the new
departure for the CFR, the congregation’s Mother Superior expressed her joy at
its arrival in Ireland .
“We are thrilled for the opportunity for the community to
come to Ireland
and we can’t wait to get there.”
The CFR sisters will attend a special Mass of welcome in Drogheda
on August 15.
Friday 9 August 2013
VITA CONSECRATA - Apostolic Exhortation on the Consecrated Life - Part 5
Apostolic religious life
9. The West has also known, down the centuries, a variety of
other expressions of religious life, in which countless persons, renouncing the
world, have consecrated themselves to God through the public profession of the
evangelical counsels in accordance with a specific charism and in a stable form
of common life,for the sake of carrying out different forms of apostolic
service to the People of God. Thus there arose the different families of Canons
Regular, the Mendicant Orders, the Clerics Regular and in general the Religious Congregations of men and women devoted to apostolic and missionary activity and
to the many different works inspired by Christian charity.
This is a splendid and varied testimony, reflecting the
multiplicity of gifts bestowed by God on founders and foundresses who, in
openness to the working of the Holy Spirit, successfully interpreted the signs
of the times and responded wisely to new needs. Following in their footsteps,
many other people have sought by word and deed to embody the Gospel in their
own lives, bringing anew to their own times the living presence of Jesus, the
Consecrated One par excellence, the One sent by the Father. In every
age consecrated men and women must continue to be images of Christ the Lord,
fostering through prayer a profound communion of mind with him (cf. Phil 2:5-11),
so that their whole lives may be penetrated by an apostolic spirit and their
apostolic work with contemplation.
Secular Institutes
10. The Holy Spirit, who wondrously fashions the variety of
charisms, has given rise in our time tonew expressions of consecrated life, which
appear as a providential response to the new needs encountered by the Church
today as she carries out her mission in the world.
One thinks in the first place of members of Secular
Institutes seeking to live out their consecration to God in the world through
the profession of the evangelical counsels in the midst of temporal realities;
they wish in this way to be a leaven of wisdom and a witness of grace within
cultural, economic and political life. Through their own specific blending of
presence in the world and consecration, they seek to make present in
society the newness and power of Christ's Kingdom,striving to transfigure the
world from within by the power of the Beatitudes.
In this way, while they
belong completely to God and are thus fully consecrated to his service, their
activity in the ordinary life of the world contributes, by the power of the
Spirit, to shedding the light of the Gospel on temporal realities. Secular Institutes,
each in accordance with its specific nature, thus help to ensure that the
Church has an effective presence in society. valuable role is also played by Clerical
Secular Institutes, in which priests who belong to the diocesan clergy,
even when some of them are recognized as being incardinated in the Institute,
consecrate themselves to Christ through the practice of the evangelical
counsels in accordance with a specific charism. They discover in the spiritual
riches of the Institute to which they belong great help for living more deeply
the spirituality proper to the priesthood and thus they are enabled to be a
leaven of communion and apostolic generosity among their fellow clergy.
Thursday 8 August 2013
VITA CONSECRATA - Apostolic Exhortation on the Consecrated Life - Part 4
The Order of Virgins; hermits and widows
7. It is a source of joy and hope to witness in our time a
new flowering of the ancient Order of Virgins, known in Christian
communities ever since apostolic times.Consecrated by the diocesan Bishop, these women acquire a particular link with the Church, which they are commited
to serve while remaining in the world. Either alone or in association with
others, they constitute a special eschatological image of the Heavenly
Bride and of the life to come, when the Church will at last fully live her
love for Christ the Bridegroom.
Men and women hermits, belonging to ancient Orders or
new Institutes, or being directly dependent on the Bishop, bear witness to the
passing nature of the present age by their inward and outward separation from
the world. By fasting and penance, they show that man does not live by bread
alone but by the word of God (cf. Mt 4:4). Such a life "in the
desert" is an invitation to their contemporaries and to the ecclesial
community itself never to lose sight of the supreme vocation, which
is to be always with the Lord.Again being practised today is the consecration
of widows,known since apostolic times (cf. 1 Tim 5:5, 9-10; 1
Cor 7:8), as well as the consecration of widowers. These women and men,
through a vow of perpetual chastity as a sign of the Kingdom
of God
Institutes completely devoted to contemplation
8. Institutes completely devoted to contemplation, composed
of either women or men, are for the Church a reason for pride and a source of
heavenly graces. By their lives and mission, the members of these Institutes
imitate Christ in his prayer on the mountain, bear witness to God's lordship
over history and anticipate the glory which is to come.
In solitude and silence, by listening to the word of God,
participating in divine worship, personal asceticism, prayer, mortification and
the communion of fraternal love, they direct the whole of their lives and all
their activities to the contemplation of God. In this way they offer the
ecclesial community a singular testimony of the Church's love for her Lord, and
they contribute, with hidden apostolic fruitfulness, to the growth of the
People of God.hus there is good reason to hope that the different forms of
contemplative life will experience continued growth in the younger
Churches as an evident sign that the Gospel has taken firm root,
especially in those areas of the world where other religions predominate. This
will make it possible to bear witness to the vitality of the traditions of
Christian asceticism and mysticism and will contribute to interreligious
dialogue.
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