Friday 30 September 2011

Pope Madrid WYD debit account


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: father patrick ...
Sent: Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 13:44
Subject: Madrid Profits from WYD

Madrid profits over $200 million from WYD


.- The Spanish capital city of Madrid came away with over $200 million in profits after World Youth Day 2011 held this past August, officials said.
The WYD Madrid press office reported Sept. 26 that the Confederation of Businessmen of Madrid calculated that the capital took in some $216 million during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.
The Community of Madrid estimated that WYD produced an increase of $199 million in the region’s Gross Interior Product. The contribution made by WYD was also recognized by the Madrid Consistory, which awarded the event with the Tourism Prize of the City of Madrid for promoting the city internationally. It also classified WYD as a National Patrimony.
Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid, who received the prize, said, “The hospitality of Madrid was crucial to the success of World Youth Day. The kindness and friendliness with which the pilgrims were welcomed shows the human reflection of the city, which is what surprised WYD attendees the most,” he said.
After WYD, Madrid experienced an historic increase of 42 percent in the number of foreign visitors compared to August of 2010, according to government statistics.
The Commerce Confederation of Madrid said this has helped boost the city’s image as one of great “hospitality and capacity to host large events.”
Attendees of WYD said their experience in the Spanish capital was very positive.  A poll carried out by GAD3 revealed that the level of satisfaction towards the city was very high.  Around 80 percent of those surveyed said gave high marks to the streets and monuments of Madrid.  Over 75 percent said they would recommend to their friends a trip to Spain and 47 percent said the event improved their image of the country.
WYD Madrid 2011 also stood out for its impact in the media. More than 12 million followed the specials broadcast on the Spanish television networks.  Some 5,000 journalists were given credentials for covering the event.

St Jerome, patron of Scripture scholars

St Jerome - Durer
A pope is said to have remarked, on seeing a picture of Jerome striking his breast with a stone, "You do well to carry that stone, for without it the Church would never have canonized you" (Butler's Lives of the Saints).



----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
Nivard ...
Sent:
Friday, 30 September 2011, 10:28
Subject:  
St Jerome, 20 09 2011

St Jerome: Memorial
 
Jerome is the patron of scripture scholars and all who read the Bible on a regular basis.
 
Pope Benedict’s greatest priority is to enable the people of our time to encounter God

Benedict quotes with approval the words of St Jerome. Jerome taught that we should approach the word of God with the same attention that we receive the Eucharist. "If a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. God's Word and Christ's flesh and blood are being poured into our ears yet we pay no heed. We are in great peril and we don’t know it."
  
Benedict XVI wants us to grow in understanding of the Bible, not only for our own sake but also for the sake of others. It is the Pope's intuition that we will not succeed in leading the people of our own day to God if we have not first encountered Him in Scripture.
  
Above: Highlights from Catholic Herald Issued Nov 11th, 2010, Verbum Domini, Apostolic Exhortation on the Bible..Extracts from Editorial: Below:
 
What is Benedict XVI's top priority? Is it the clerical abuse scandal or perhaps reforming the liturgy? Might it be fighting the "dictatorship of relativism" or seeking Christian unity? These are all major concerns of this pontificate. Yet there is another priority which Pope Benedict considers even more pressing. He explains what it is in the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, released last Thursday. "There is no greater priority," he writes, "than this: to enable the people of our time once more to encounter God, the God who speaks to us and shares his love so that we might have life in abundance." Benedict XVI has written this new document to inspire each of us ­bishops, clergy, consecrated persons, lay faithful and seekers - to meet the God who speaks in the Bible.
   
It is sometimes said that the liturgy is for Catholics and the Bible is for Protestants. This could not be further from Pope Benedict's vision in Verbum Domini. He quotes with approval the words of St Jerome, patron of Scripture scholars, who taught that we should approach the word of God with the same attention that we receive the Eucharist. "If a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled," the saint wrote. "Yet we are listening to the word of God and God's Word and Christ's flesh and blood are being poured into our ears yet we pay no heed, what great peril should we not feel?"
   
St Jerome's words indicate that the struggle to appreciate the word of God is not a new feature of Catholic history. Benedict XVI wants us to grow in understanding of the Bible, for our own sake but also for the sake of others. It is the Pope's intuition that we will not succeed in leading the people of our own day to God if we have not first encountered Him in Scripture. 

Thursday 29 September 2011

FEAST OF MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS- (2) The Song of Songs by Richard of Saint Victor


 29 September


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29



JOHN 1:47-51


FEAST OF MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS


Second Reading

From a commentary on the Song of Songs by Richard of Saint Victor (Cap 4 PL 196, 417-418)

God defends his chosen ones in the Church, in troubled times he is himself their shield, and through the watchful care of angels he protects them. He presents the angels to his own as servants and messengers, to further their salvation, to report their needs, and to carry their prayers. Even though he himself sees and understands the situation of each person, he still wishes to be told of it by his angels, in order to make known and show more clearly his love and consideration for humankind by his use of such worthy and beloved messengers.

Do we realize how much they desire our salvation and long to have us as their companions? Who can have any idea of the love and care with which they keep watch over those entrusted to them; how they stir up the listless and urge to greater zeal the fervent and attentive; how they make excuses for sins so as to bring only good deeds to God's notice? And when they see a soul burning with great desire and longing for God with pure intention, do we realize how they love that soul, rejoice with it, visit it, and hasten to and fro between that soul and God?

The angels are friends of the bridegroom, so they listen to the soul's words, and make them known to the bridegroom. The soul's words are its desires, which the friends, that is the angels, listen to and delight in. They make them known, and they invite the soul to come; they console it, and advise it to seek and knock, because anyone who seeks finds, and to anyone who knocks the door is opened.

Meanwhile, until the bridegroom comes, they frequently visit such a fervent soul, and by an increase of grace prepare it more fully for his arrival. They draw its thoughts toward a perception of their presence, and an awareness of their friend¬ship, so that through this knowledge it may advance to divine knowledge.

Thus the soul searching for God is found by the blessed angels, and after going round the city in its quest, deserves to be approached by them. It sees them coming to meet it and is taken in charge by them. In fact, they come before the bride¬groom, manifesting their presence and revealing themselves, for being angels of light they accompany the Light, and the soul, flooded with light, is both illuminated and moved, so that it perceives their coming and is conscious of their presence.  
A Word in Season, Monastic Lectionary pp. 185-6

RICHARD OF SAINT VICTOR (d.1173) was a Scottish or Irish canon known for his piety and zeal who became prior of Saint Victor at Paris under a lax and spendthrift English abbot. As the author of Benjamin minor and Benjamin major he was one of the great mystical writers of the middle ages, so that the originality of his treatise on the Trinity, which influenced Alexander of Hales, tends to be overlooked. The bulk of his writing was connected with contemplation and shows traces of Pseudo-Denis. He influenced Bonaventure and the Franciscan school.


Wednesday 28 September 2011

Night Office Saint Macarius of Egypt



26th Week Ord Time Wedneday
From a homily attributed to Saint Macarius of Egypt
  • Those who approach the Lord must first of all force them­selves to do good, even against the inclination of their hearts. Then, when God sees them engaged in that struggle, and constraining themselves by force even though their hearts are reluctant, he will grant them the true prayer of the Spirit, and give them real love, true gentleness, deep compassion, genuine kindness, and in a word fill them with the fruits of the Spirit.
  • However, if any, being unable to pray, strive only to obtain the grace of prayer, making no effort to be gentle, humble, loving, and to observe the rest of the Lord's commandments, not caring or toiling or struggling to gain these virtues as far as determination and free-will may do so, then although the grace of prayer may at times be given them with some of the refresh­ment and joy of the Spirit, according to their request, in charac­ter they remain as they were before. They are not gentle because they have shirked the toil and preparation necessary to become so. They have no humility because they have not asked for it or made any effort to obtain it. They do not love everyone because they have not tried to do so, asking for this love in prayer. Even while they are praying they have no faith or confidence in God since, not knowing themselves, they are unaware of their lack of it and do not strive by self-denial to obtain from the Lord firm faith in him and real confidence.
  • For just as they have to force, to compel themselves to pray when their hearts are reluctant, so they should do the same to gain trust in God, humility, love, gentleness, sincerity and sim­plicity, and all fortitude and patience with joy as scripture says. They should make every effort to think little of themselves, to regard themselves as poor and least of all; they should avoid speaking of. unprofitable matters, but always meditate on the things of God and then speak of what is in their hearts. So also they should restrain themselves from anger and shouting, ac­cording to the Apostle's admonition: Do not nurse grudges, lose your temper, raise your voice, slander anyone, or do evil of any kind. They should force themselves to follow all the ways of the Lord, to practice every virtue, to live a good and noble life, to be well behaved, and to have the deep humility that is shown in gentleness. Never should they exalt themselves, be proud, conceited, or speak ill of anyone.

Responsory          Is 55:6-7; Zep 2:3
Seek the Lord while he may still be found; call to him while he is near; let the wicked abandon their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. + Let them return to the Lord who will take pity on them;
to our God who will freely forgive.
v. Seek the Lord, all you the humble of the land, who obey his commandments; seek righteousness, seek humility. + Let them
return ...  

COMMENT "Where God is, there is a future"



Sanctuary 'flickr' 

Dear William,
Thank for following the trail of Benedict XVI in Germany.
The State Visit and the Pilgrimage of the Church has been the experience of the beauty of encounter as of the travelling of the disciples on the road with Jesus. (Lk. 9:57).
Some photos are missed, as for example pictures of the Pope celebrating Benediction at the Marian Shrine.  
The Media has proved to be at service of the people.
Yours   ...Donald  

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William J  ...
To: Donald ...
Sent: Tuesday, 27 September 2011, 19:52
Subject: [Blog]
Choice words, Pope Benedict
Dear Father Donald,
 
Pope Benedict XVI breathes the life of the Spirit into the world as he travels across the continents. I am quite in awe of his spirituality, as one listening to St. Paul:
 
"Where God is, there is a future. Indeed – when we allow God’s love to influence the whole of our lives, then heaven stands open. Then it is possible so to shape the present that it corresponds more and more to the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then the little things of everyday life acquire meaning, and great problems find solutions."
 
If I had been a young man by the name of Eutychus (Acts 20) listening from a high windowsill, I too would have fallen... from so deep a trance.
 
Thank you for collating all of Benedict XVI's addresses on your Blog, truly a feast! 
 
... in Our Lord,
William 


All Angels, a sermon by John Henry Newman

MAGNIFICAT http://www.magnificat.com
Picture, with acknowledgement -thank you.

 

On earth as it is in heaven…
Artwork of the front cover: The Archangels Triumphing over Lucifer(1516), Marco d’Oggiono (c. 1470-1530), Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy. © akg-images / Erich Lessing.

Created “with the seal of perfection, of complete wisdom and perfect beauty” (Ez 28:12), the angel Lucifer (Light-bearer), weary of worshipping, wanted to be worshipped. He revolts against God and draws away a third of the angels in his mad enterprise (Rv 12:4). A great battle in heaven ensues, and Michael (Who is like God), at the head of the army of faithful angels, triumphs and casts the vanquished into the abyss. In this painting, Marco d’Oggiono proposes that we meditate upon the repercussions, in our own everyday lives, of this incomprehensible mystery of iniquity, as Saint Paul puts it (2 Thes 2:7). This is why the artist depicts Lucifer nude, in a caricature of the wicked man who falls headlong into the pit of his own passions. It is also why he portrays the victorious Michael flanked by Gabriel (God is strong) and Raphaël (God heals). The invisible, spiritual conflict that sets angel against angel plays itself out at the heart of our lives as well. Wherever the celestial powers who remain faithful accomplish their mission in the service of our salvation, the angels of darkness rage on in the attempt to render useless the redemption wrought for us by the blood of Christ.
At the center of our spiritual combat, Michael comes to our aid with the might of his arm and extends over us the protection of his radiant wings. At his right stands Gabriel. He comes to reveal for us the benevolent plan of God and to gather up our “Fiat.” At his left Raphaël comes to heal our vices and to take us by the hand, guiding us over the perilous passes along the steep path of salvation.   ■ Pierre-Marie Varennes
_________________________________________________

29 September
Saint Michael and All Angels
Gospel
From the gospel according to John (1:47-51)
Third Reading
From a sermon by John Henry Newman (Parochial and Plain Sermons, volume 4, pages 200-204. 207-209)
There are two worlds, "the visible and the invisible," as the Creed speaks, - the world we see, and the world we do not see; and the world which we do not see as really exists as the world we do see. It really exists, though we see it not. The world that we see, we know to exist, because we see it. All that meets our eyes forms one world. It is an immense world; it reaches to the stars. It is everywhere; and it seems to leave no room for any other world.
And yet in spite of this universal world which we see, there is another world, quite as far-spreading, quite as close to us, and more wonderful; another world all around us, though we see it not, and more wonderful than the world we see. For, first of all, he is there who is above all beings, who has created all, before whom they all are as nothing, and with whom nothing can be compared. Almighty God, we know, exists more really and absolutely than any of those fellow-men whose existence is conveyed to us through the senses; yet we see him not, hear him not, we do but "feel after him," yet without finding him.   

Tuesday 27 September 2011

The talk which Benedict XVI gave at Freiburg to those engaged in work for and with the Church.

Dear Fr. Edward,
Thank you.
I will be happy and follow up
on your suggestion for the special selection from the Germany Addresses.

Yours.
Donald
PS. Received the beautiful music.
http://player.rv.va/vaticanplayer.asp?language=it&tic=VA_IL2P1NGD


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fr. Edward . . .
To: Donald . . .
Sent: Monday, 26 September 2011, 22:24
Subject: A suggestion.

Dear Father Donald,

May I make a suggestion - after you have examined the material - that
you also publish the talk which Benedict XVI gave at Freiburg to those
engaged in work for and with the Church.

One reason is the beautiful music played by a wind ensemble at three
points during the meeting.

You can add the  English translation. You will get it all together
from the whole programme of texts and videos which you can find
through the medallion "Germany 2011" at the top left of the first page
(after the division into languages) of the Vatican web-site.
Blessings in Domino,
fr Edward O.P..
Iceland.

+ + +

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI 
Concert Hall, Freiburg im Breisgau
Sunday, 25 September 2011

Mr President of the Federal Republic,
Mr Minister President,
Mr Mayor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,
I am glad to be here today to meet all of you who work in so many ways for the Church and for society. This gives me a welcome opportunity personally to thank you most sincerely for your commitment and your witness as “powerful heralds of the faith in things to be hoped for” (Lumen Gentium, 35 – validi praecones fidei sperandarum rerum); this is how the Second Vatican Council describes people like you who do dedicated work for the present and the future from a faith perspective. In your fields of activity you readily stand up for your faith and for the Church, something that, as we know, is not at all easy at the present time.
For some decades now we have been experiencing a decline in religious practice and we have been seeing substantial numbers of the baptized drifting away from church life. This prompts the question: should the Church not change? Must she not adapt her offices and structures to the present day, in order to reach the searching and doubting people of today?
Blessed Mother Teresa was once asked what in her opinion was the first thing that would have to change in the Church. Her answer was: you and I.
Two things are clear from this brief story. On the one hand Mother Teresa wants to tell her interviewer: the Church is not just other people, not just the hierarchy, the Pope and the bishops: we are all the Church, we the baptized. And on the other hand her starting-point is this: yes, there are grounds for change. There is a need for change. Every Christian and the whole community of the faithful are called to constant change.
What should this change look like in practice? Are we talking about the kind of renewal that a householder might carry out when reordering or repainting his home? Or are we talking about a corrective, designed to bring us back on course and help us to make our way more swiftly and more directly? Certainly these and other elements play a part and we cannot go into all these matters here. But the fundamental motive for change is the apostolic mission of the disciples and the Church herself.
The Church, in other words, must constantly rededicate herself to her mission. The three Synoptic Gospels highlight various aspects of the missionary task. The mission is built first of all upon personal experience: “You are witnesses” (Lk 24:48); it finds expression in relationships: “Make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19); and it spreads a universal message: “Preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mk 16:15). Through the demands and constraints of the world, however, this witness is constantly obscured, the relationships are alienated and the message is relativized. If the Church, in Pope Paul VI’s words, is now struggling “to model itself on Christ's ideal”, this “can only result in its acting and thinking quite differently from the world around it, which it is nevertheless striving to influence” (Ecclesiam Suam, 58). In order to accomplish her mission, she will need again and again to set herself apart from her surroundings, to become in a certain sense “unworldly”.
The Church’s mission has its origins in the mystery of the triune God, in the mystery of his creative love. And love is not just somehow within God, it isGod, he himself is love by nature. And divine love does not want to exist only for itself, by nature it wants to pour itself out. It has come down to humanity, to us, in a particular way through the incarnation and self-offering of God’s Son: by virtue of the fact that Christ, the Son of God, as it were stepped outside the framework of his divinity, took flesh and became man, not merely to confirm the world in its worldliness and to be its companion, leaving it to carry on just as it is, but in order to change it. The Christ event includes the inconceivable fact of what the Church Fathers call a sacrum commercium, an exchange between God and man. The Fathers explain it in this way: we have nothing to give God, we have only our sin to place before him. And this he receives and makes his own, while in return he gives us himself and his glory: a truly unequal exchange, which is brought to completion in the life and passion of Christ. He becomes, as it were, a “sinner”, he takes sin upon himself, takes what is ours and gives us what is his. But as the Church continued to reflect upon and live the faith, it became clear that we not only give him our sin, but that he has empowered us, from deep within he gives us the power, to offer him something positive as well: our love – to offer him humanity in the positive sense. Clearly, it is only through God’s generosity that man, the beggar, who receives a wealth of divine gifts, is yet able to offer something to God as well; that God makes it possible for us to accept his gift, by making us capable of becoming givers ourselves in his regard.
The Church owes her whole being to this unequal exchange. She has nothing of her own to offer to him who founded her, such that she might say: here is something wonderful that we did! Her raison d’être consists in being a tool of redemption, in letting herself be saturated by God’s word and in bringing the world into loving unity with God. The Church is immersed in the Redeemer’s outreach to men. When she is truly herself, she is always on the move, she constantly has to place herself at the service of the mission that she has received from the Lord. And therefore she must always open up afresh to the cares of the world, to which she herself belongs, and give herself over to them, in order to make present and continue the holy exchange that began with the Incarnation.
In the concrete history of the Church, however, a contrary tendency is also manifested, namely that the Church becomes self-satisfied, settles down in this world, becomes self-sufficient and adapts herself to the standards of the world. Not infrequently, she gives greater weight to organization and institutionalization than to her vocation to openness towards God, her vocation to opening up the world towards the other.
In order to accomplish her true task adequately, the Church must constantly renew the effort to detach herself from her tendency towards worldliness and once again to become open towards God. In this she follows the words of Jesus: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn17:16), and in precisely this way he gives himself to the world. One could almost say that history comes to the aid of the Church here through the various periods of secularization, which have contributed significantly to her purification and inner reform.
Secularizing trends – whether by expropriation of Church goods, or elimination of privileges or the like – have always meant a profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness, for in the process she as it were sets aside her worldly wealth and once again completely embraces her worldly poverty. In this she shares the destiny of the tribe of Levi, which according to the Old Testament account was the only tribe in Israel with no ancestral land of its own, taking as its portion only God himself, his word and his signs. At those moments in history, the Church shared with that tribe the demands of a poverty that was open to the world, in order to be released from her material ties: and in this way her missionary activity regained credibility.
History has shown that, when the Church becomes less worldly, her missionary witness shines more brightly. Once liberated from material and political burdens and privileges, the Church can reach out more effectively and in a truly Christian way to the whole world, she can be truly open to the world. She can live more freely her vocation to the ministry of divine worship and service of neighbour. The missionary task, which is linked to Christian worship and should determine its structure, becomes more clearly visible. The Church opens herself to the world not in order to win men for an institution with its own claims to power, but in order to lead them to themselves by leading them to him of whom each person can say with Saint Augustine: he is closer to me than I am to myself (cf. Confessions, III,6,11). He who is infinitely above me is yet so deeply within me that he is my true interiority. This form of openness to the world on the Church’s part also serves to indicate how the individual Christian can be open to the world in effective and appropriate ways.
It is not a question here of finding a new strategy to relaunch the Church. Rather, it is a question of setting aside mere strategy and seeking total transparency, not bracketing or ignoring anything from the truth of our present situation, but living the faith fully here and now in the utterly sober light of day, appropriating it completely, and stripping away from it anything that only seems to belong to faith, but in truth is mere convention or habit.
To put it another way: for people of every era, and not just our own, the Christian faith is a scandal. That the eternal God should know us and care about us, that the intangible should at a particular moment have become tangible, that he who is immortal should have suffered and died on the Cross, that we who are mortal should be given the promise of resurrection and eternal life – for people of any era, to believe all this is a bold claim.
This scandal, which cannot be eliminated unless one were to eliminate Christianity itself, has unfortunately been overshadowed in recent times by other painful scandals on the part of the preachers of the faith. A dangerous situation arises when these scandals take the place of the primary skandalonof the Cross and in so doing they put it beyond reach, concealing the true demands of the Christian Gospel behind the unworthiness of those who proclaim it.
All the more, then, it is time once again to discover the right form of detachment from the world, to move resolutely away from the Church’s worldliness. This does not, of course, mean withdrawing from the world: quite the contrary. A Church relieved of the burden of worldliness is in a position, not least through her charitable activities, to mediate the life-giving strength of the Christian faith to those in need, to sufferers and to their carers. “For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being” (Deus Caritas Est, 25). At the same time, though, the Church’s charitable activity also needs to be constantly exposed to the demands of due detachment from worldliness, if it is not to wither away at the roots in the face of increasing erosion of its ecclesial character. Only a profound relationship with God makes it possible to reach out fully towards others, just as a lack of outreach towards neighbour impoverishes one’s relationship with God.
Openness to the concerns of the world means, then, for the Church that is detached from worldliness, bearing witness to the primacy of God’s love according to the Gospel through word and deed, here and now, a task which at the same time points beyond the present world because this present life is also bound up with eternal life. As individuals and as the community of the Church, let us live the simplicity of a great love, which is both the simplest and hardest thing on earth, because it demands no more and no less than the gift of oneself.
Dear friends, it remains for me to invoke God’s blessing and the strength of the Holy Spirit upon us all, that we may continually recognize anew and bear fresh witness to God’s love and mercy in our respective fields of activity. Thank you for your attention.

© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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LATEST NEWS 


Full text: Pope’s speech to lay Catholics in Freiburg

By POPE BENEDICT XVI on Saturday, 24 September 2011
Full text: Pope’s speech to lay Catholics in Freiburg
Pope Benedict XVI in Freiburg, 
on his third day of a four-day-visit to Germany (AP Photo)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am grateful for this opportunity to come together, here in Freiburg, with you, the Council Members of the Central Committee for German Catholics (ZdK). I gladly express to you my appreciation for your work in publicly representing the concerns of Catholics and in giving impetus to the apostolate of the Church and of Catholics in society. I also thank the President of the ZdK, Herr Alois Glück, for his kind greeting.
Dear friends, for some years now, development aid has included what are known as “exposure programmes”. Leaders from the fields of politics, economics and religion live among the poor in Africa, Asia, or Latin America for a certain period and share the day-to-day reality of their lives. They are exposed to the circumstances in which these people live, in order to see the world through their eyes and hence to learn how to practise solidarity.  

Monday 26 September 2011

Pope at Marian sanctuary of Etzelsbach in Germany Sept. 23


Pope visits Etzelsbach shrine: "Life should be an answer to God's love"

Holy Father address at Vespers, Etzelsbach Germany
Etzelsbach-Marian-Shrine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlajXJSbQ5U
Address: Scottish Catholic Observer

Sept 23 2011

Holy Father: address at Vespers, Etzelsbach, Germany

Pope Benedict XVI lead a congregation of hundreds in the celebration Vespers at the Wallfahrtskapelle, or Pilgrimage Chapel of the Shrine, located in the small hamlet of Etzelsbach, outside the city of Erfurt, on Friday evening. Addess and video link below.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Now I am able to fulfil my wish to visit Eichsfeld, and here in Etzelsbach to thank Mary in company with you. “Here in the beloved quiet vale”, as the pilgrims’ hymn says, “under the old lime trees”, Mary gives us security and new strength. During two godless dictatorships, which sought to deprive the people of their ancestral faith, the inhabitants of Eichsfeld were in no doubt that here in this shrine at Etzelsbach an open door and a place of inner peace was to be found. The special friendship with Mary that grew from all this, is what we seek to cultivate further, not least through this evening’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
When Christians of all times and places turn to Mary, they are acting on the spontaneous conviction that Jesus cannot refuse his mother what she asks; and they are relying on the unshakable trust that Mary is also our mother – a mother who has experienced the greatest of all sorrows, who feels all our griefs with us and ponders in a maternal way how to overcome them. How many people down the centuries have made pilgrimages to Mary, in order to find comfort and strength before the image of the Mother of Sorrows, as here at Etzelsbach!
Let us look upon her likeness: a woman of middle age, her eyelids heavy with much weeping, gazing pensively into the distance, as if meditating in her heart upon everything that had happened. On her knees rests the lifeless body of her son, she holds him gently and lovingly, like a precious gift. We see the marks of the crucifixion on his bare flesh. The left arm of the corpse is pointing straight down. Perhaps this sculpture of the Pietà, like so many others, was originally placed above an altar. The crucified Jesus would then be pointing with his outstretched arm to what was taking place on the altar, where the holy sacrifice that he had accomplished is made present in the Eucharist.
A particular feature of the holy image of Etzelsbach is the position of Our Lord’s body. In most representations of the Pietà, the dead Jesus is lying with his head facing left, so that the observer can see the wounded side of the Crucified Lord. Here in Etzelsbach, however, the wounded side is concealed, because the body is facing the other way. It seems to me that a deep meaning lies hidden in this representation, that only becomes apparent through silent contemplation: in the Etzelsbach image, the hearts of Jesus and his mother are turned to one another; they come close to each other. They exchange their love. We know that the heart is also the seat of the most tender affection as well as the most intimate compassion. In Mary’s heart there is room for the love that her divine Son wants to bestow upon the world.
Marian devotion focuses on contemplation of the relationship between the Mother and her divine Son. The faithful constantly discover new dimensions and qualities which this mystery can help to disclose for us, for example when the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is seen as a symbol of her deep and unreserved loving unity with Christ. It is not self-fulfilment that truly enables people to flourish, according to the model that modern life so often proposes to us, which can easily turn into a sophisticated form of selfishness. Rather it is an attitude of self-giving directed towards the heart of Mary and hence also towards the heart of the Redeemer.
“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28), as we have just heard in the Scripture reading. With Mary, God has worked for good in everything, and he does not cease, through Mary, to cause good to spread further in the world. Looking down from the Cross, from the throne of grace and salvation, Jesus gave us his mother Mary to be our mother. At the moment of his self-offering for mankind, he makes Mary as it were the channel of the rivers of grace that flow from the Cross. At the foot of the Cross, Mary becomes our fellow traveller and protector on life’s journey. “By her motherly love she cares for her son’s sisters and brothers who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home” (Lumen Gentium, 62). Yes indeed, in life we pass through high-points and low-points, but Mary intercedes for us with her Son and conveys to us the strength of divine love.
Our trust in the powerful intercession of the Mother of God and our gratitude for the help we have repeatedly experienced impel us, as it were, to think beyond the needs of the moment. What does Mary actually want to say to us, when she rescues us from our plight? She wants to help us grasp the breadth and depth of our Christian vocation. With a mother’s tenderness, she wants to make us understand that our whole life should be a response to the love of our God, who is so rich in mercy. “Understand,” she seems to say to us, “that God, who is the source of all that is good and who never desires anything other than your true happiness, has the right to demand of you a life that yields unreservedly and joyfully to his will, striving at the same time that others may do likewise.” Where God is, there is a future. Indeed – when we allow God’s love to influence the whole of our lives, then heaven stands open. Then it is possible so to shape the present that it corresponds more and more to the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then the little things of everyday life acquire meaning, and great problems find solutions. Amen.
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 Pic: Pope Benedict gives a blessing after leading a prayer service at the Marian sanctuary of Etzelsbach in Germany Sept. 23
Video: 
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Pope Benedict XVI prays shrine of the Virgin Mary at the pilgrimage chapel in Etzelsbach, eastern Germany

Marian sanctuary of Etzelsbach
Dear Fr. Edward,   
Thank for your Email and its sermon for  the Saturday Our Lady.
I am happy with the peroration which fills up the News of the Marian Shrine at Etzelsback and the illustrating , illuminating the German pictures.
Yours,
Donald



Etzelsbach Shrine of Our Lady, East Germany
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: edward booth . . .
To:
 Donald . . .
Sent: Sunday, 25 September 2011, 22:24
Subject: Benedict XVI in Germany

Dear Father Donald,
I have checked that the whole sermon with photographs for the Sisters
has been attached, and I hope that it arrives safely.
The TV transmission from Etzelsbach was beautiful ! I think that if
you hit the "Germany" Medallion on the first page of the Vatican
web-site you will find a connection. If not try the document as
provided by the the Bulletin of today of the Press Office.

Blessings in Domino,
fr Edward O:P.
 +++
Saturday of Our Lady 24 September
By Fr. Edward Booth OP

          It is possible to bring together the gospel of today with some very pertinent thoughts about Our Lady. We can approach the matter like this. Those prophesies about the coming passion of Our Lord: were they known to Mary? Had they been discussed together by her and the apostles, especially after the death of Jesus, because they did not share the same privileges. Those of Mary were very great.... 
Wallfahrtskapelle Etzelsbach
. . ..
          This is why it is so difficult to portray Mary's sufferings. One feels that Michelangelo had reflected on this question and how she would have reacted when the dead torso of Jesus was placed, with all of its still flowing blood on her lap. Michelangelo shows her face as virginal but without pain. I was watching the visit of the Holy Father yesterday afternoon to a Marian place of Pilgrimage at Etzelsbach just outside Erfurt. The Pope gave a beautiful and most perceptive meditation based on the pietá which was there. This was published by the Vatican Press Office in the course of today. It is of carved wood, not stone like the marble of Michelangelo's statue. The body of Christ with the Crucifixion wounds lies on her lap stiffly.  Her face is that of a middle-aged woman. The eyes are clear and still, but are not touched searing pain because she sees more deeply than that. All credit to the artist (probably local) who had not solved the problem by making her virginal, but pure, wise and experienced and communicating deeply in the sufferings of her Son.
Etzelsbach had already found its way before the day's end into Google images, and I found an image of the statue which proved difficult to reproduce. Also pictures of the chapel itself and of the Pope arriving SCV1 from the nearby landing site with an impressive group of German army helicopters: the Pietá had been transferred from the chapel to a specially raised altar in a large field, and a very large photograph of it was also displayed next to it.
On Saturday morning, together with more photos of the Pope's visit, I had found a better photograph of the statue in itself and a photograph of Benedict XVI with the statue.  
Pope Benedict XVI prayes at a shrine of the Virgin Mary during a vesper service at the pilgrimage chapel in Etzelsbach, eastern Germany on September 23, 2011, the second day of the Pontiff's first state visit to his native Germany. The 84-year old pope,...
Holy Father address at Vespers, Etzelsbach Germany 
Etzelsbach-Marian-Shrine

Very funny article,. but so truthful


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: father patrick . . .
To: 
Sent: Monday, 26 September 2011, 19:28
Subject: FW: Very funny article,. but so truthful


Covering the Pope: a guide for journalists

Milo Yiannopoulos sheds some light on the arcane world of Catholicism, for the benefit of befuddled mainstream reporters
By Milo Yiannopoulos on Monday, 26 September 2011
Covering the Pope: a guide for journalists 
A harassed BBC reporter wonders how she can possibly fit any more Hitler references into her copy
Imagine you’re a newly minted BBC News intern. You bound into the office on your first day, your 2:1 in Media Studies and Digital Production from the University of Salford burning a hole in your pocket.
You’ve made it! You’ve reached the dizzying heights of the state broadcaster’s newsroom. You’re ready to take over the world.
But disaster strikes: your editor hands you the first assignment, and it’s a report on the Catholic Church. Pope Benewhatsit has gone to some place to give some speech about God and stuff.
You’re eager to impress, but totally out of your depth. What are you to do? Who do you turn to?
Well, here at the The Catholic Herald, we understand how peculiar and arcane the world of Catholicism must appear to reporters new to the beat. That’s why we’ve trawled the archives of the major broadcasters and newspapers to bring you the lessons learned by your senior colleagues.
We hope that by sharing these best practice guidelines, we can help reporters to uphold the tradition of fair and balanced reporting on Catholic issues for which the British press is rightly famed. Here, then, are our top tips for success.
For any event at which the Pope appears, always inflate the number of protesters. At World Youth Day in Madrid this year, the number of protesters represented less than 0.04 per cent of the people who turned out in support of the Pope (5,000 people versus 1.5 million people). But that didn’t stop those enterprising minds at the BBC from focusing almost exclusively on the malcontents, ignoring the vast scale and success of a joyful celebration of young Catholics.
Likewise, in another report from the BBC about the Pope’s trip to Germany last week, a couple of hundred protesters were turned into “several thousand”. Words like “several” are useful, because they’re easier to wriggle out of than real numbers.
If in doubt, be vague and waffly about the purpose of any protests – especially if there doesn’t appear to be one. Those nice Christian folk only “turn the other cheek” anyway; not like the protesters, who, if they don’t get due praise and coverage, will bombard your switchboard with anguished complaints and flood the blogosphere with manufactured outrage at your lack of thoroughness.
Any rumour of a potential walk-out from politicians or other religious leaders in response to an appearance by Pope should be reported as fact - in other words, as though it had already happened. Don’t correct your story if it turns out only that a tiny proportion of the loonier fringes of Government failed to show up. That’s just splitting hairs.
Deploy the trinity of divideddivisive and division. These words should be on the tip of your tongue at all times. Remember, the Pope’s opinions are dangerous and alarming: don’t let him get away with expressing an opinion without slathering your copy in withering invective. It’s also useful to mash up different sorts of Christianity: the readers don’t know the difference between Archbishop Rowan Williams and Archbishop Vincent Nichols anyway, and it helps to convey the sense that the Church is fractured and damaged.
In fact, there are lots of adjectives you can use suggestively. Trowel them on. Your journalism professor may have told you to go easy on the descriptive words, but he wasn’t talking about religious affairs. It doesn’t matter if your purple prose makes the headline ungainly, or even if you can’t substantiate the accusations. Take your lead from this Reuters headline.
Mock and undermine the Church’s position on moral issues by referring to Church “policy”, erroneously implying that like, say, a Government’s, these “policies” could be altered at a moment’s notice, if only those guys in frocks really cared about ordinary people.
Be sure to draw attention to ways in which Catholic teaching conflicts with the moral fashions of the day, whether it’s on contraception, climate change or immigration. If you can, try to appropriate the language of the Church and speeches by its bishops and subordinate it to your own politically correct, urban lexicon of equality, fairness and “social justice”. (If you’re lucky enough to be reporting on England and Wales, you’ll find that most of the work is done for you by the right-on members of that Bishops’ Conference. Otherwise, you might have to do some of the work yourself.)
Don’t just seize on perceived tensions, but actively foment discontent by Googling for as many negative stories about the Church as you can find and summarising the grievances quoted in them. Paragraphs 9-18 of your story are the perfect place to really warm to your theme, dredging up whatever ludicrous rants fromJohann Hari or childish, abortive stunts by Richard Dawkins come to hand.
If you don’t have time to ponder the meaning of one of the Pope’s more thoughtful addresses, just say it “verged on the academic”. No one will accuse you of failing to bother paying attention because there was a better headline elsewhere. Plus, you can give the impression that the Pope is a boring speaker. Back of the net!
Picking quotes can be tough. The golden rule is never, ever quote from supporters; only protesters. Find the angriest feminist you can find and start her off on a riff about patriarchal hegemony and the all-male priesthood. If you only include negative quotes, it looks like all right-thinking people oppose the Pope’s presence.
Struggling to muster enough fake anger? Try this new tactic, pioneered by the Guardianimply that Catholics and non-Catholics alike are bored rigid with the whole shebang. We understand that, in the case of last week’s German trip, this technique involved waiting until 6 pm when the shops shut, then cornering one of those cat ladies who hang around Mitte selling used copies of the previous day’s paper.
Where possible, use photos of the Pope’s back. These are brilliant because they imply that he’s isolated and unpopular. Don’t be fooled by eyewitness reports that describe him as energetic and surrounded by thousands of well-wishers.
Finally – and this one’s important – make liberal use of Adolf Hitler. Hitler is a staple part of any modern religious affairs correspondent’s diet. No report about Benedict XVI or the Catholic Church is complete without a reference to the Nazis, especially the fact that he was a member of the Hitler Youth.
Don’t bother reading his statements on the subject or asking anyone familiar with the history of the period. You might discover that Joseph Ratzinger was a reluctant young man pressed into the equivalent of military service at a time when barely any young person failed to enroll in some sort of state youth organisation, and where would you be then? No, just remember to mention that he was a member. Bonus points for mentioning Hitler or the Nazis twice in one paragraph.