POPE LEO: LET US RAISE OUR VOICES FOR PEACE – SCRIPTURE, TRADITION INTIMATELY BOUND TOGETHER, FORM ONE SACRED DEPOSIT OF FAITH

I am sure that EWTN’s Father Mitch Pacwa was delighted with Pope Leo’s catechism at today’s general audience as the Holy Father continues his teaching on the Vatican Council II document Dei Verbum, today highlighting Scripture and Tradition, which is precisely the name of Fr. Mitch’s weekly TV and radio show! Great minds think alike, as the saying goes!

POPE LEO: LET US RAISE OUR VOICES FOR PEACE

Tuesday evening as he was about to return to Rome from his weekly overnight stay at Castelgandolfo, Pope Leo spoke briefly to the media outside the papal residence about the situation in the Middle East, saying, “I’ll only say that we must pray very much for peace. … We little ones can raise our voices and always seek dialogue and not violence to resolve these problems, “especially on this day when we commemorate the Shoah.” Earlier, Leo XIV wrote on his X account: “Let us fight against all forms of antisemitism.” Pope Leo: Let us raise our voices for peace – Vatican News

SCRIPTURE, TRADITION INTIMATELY BOUND TOGETHER, FORM ONE SACRED DEPOSIT OF FAITH

The Paul VI Hall today was at full capacity, and then some, for Pope Leo’s weekly general audience as he continued his series of catecheses on Vatican Council II and a rereading of and reflection on its documents, having chosen the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, for his first reflection.

“Today,” Leo told the pilgrims present, “we consider the relationship between Scripture and Tradition. In the passage we just heard from John’s Gospel, Jesus says he will send the Holy Spirit to guide the Apostles to remember, apply and proclaim everything he taught. Sacred Scripture, the inspired word of God, and Sacred Tradition, the living memory of the Church, are intimately bound together and form the one Deposit of Faith. This deposit which contains the entirety of our faith –- doctrine, worship, morality, etc. –- is not static but dynamic for it develops and is more profoundly understood by the Church over the centuries, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

“Entrusted to the Church who preserves and interprets it in Jesus’ name,” stated the Pope, “this deposit helps us to navigate the complexities of life to reach our eternal home in heaven. May we become living and faithful witness to God’s word in Scripture and Tradition.”

Leo XIV explained that, “the apostle Paul repeatedly exhorts his disciple and collaborator Timothy: ‘O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you!’. The dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum echoes this Pauline text when it says: ‘Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church,’ interpreted by the ‘living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ’. ‘Deposit’ is a term that, in its original meaning, is juridical in nature and imposes on the depositary the duty to preserve the content, which in this case is the faith, and to transmit it intact.”

Pope Leo stressed that the “’deposit’ of the Word of God is still in the hands of the Church and all of us, in our various ecclesial ministries, must continue to preserve it in its integrity, as a lodestar for our journey through the complexity of history and existence.”

At the end of English-language greetings, Pope Leo said, “Yesterday was the International Remembrance Day for all victims of the Holocaust, which brought death to millions of Jews and to many other people. On this yearly occasion of painful remembrance, I ask the Almighty for the gift of a world without antisemitism and without prejudice, oppression, and persecution of any human creature. I renew my appeal to the community of nations to remain ever vigilant. May the horror of genocide never again be inflicted upon any people and that a society founded on mutual respect and the common good may be built.”

He also remembered the “beloved people of Mozambique,” struck by devastating floods, and expresses his prayers for the victims and reassures his closeness to loved ones, the displaced, and rescue workers.”

Pope Leo heads back to his apartment – See you next week, Holy Father!

 

POPE AT AUDIENCE: WE ARE GOD’S BELOVED CHILDREN – JANUARY 21: ST. AGNES, BABY LAMBS AND THE PALLIUM

POPE AT AUDIENCE: WE ARE GOD’S BELOVED CHILDREN

During his weekly general audience, Pope Leo XIV reminded the faithful that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, as he continues his catechesis on the Dogmatic Constitution ‘Dei Verbum’ on Divine Revelation. “Thanks to Jesus, Christians know God the Father and entrust themselves to Him with confidence.” Pope Leo XIV expressed this as he continued his catechesis series on the Second Vatican Council and concentrated again this week on the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum on Divine Revelation, which last week he called “one of the most beautiful and important” documents of the Council.

READ POPE LEO’S FULL ADDRESS HERE

Full Vatican video of general audience here: Pope at Audience: We are God’s beloved children – Vatican News

EWTN summary and English-language video here: (8) EWTN Vatican on X: “Pope Leo continues his catechesis on the documents of Vatican II, concentrating his focus on Dei Verbum, the Council’s document on Divine Revelation, reminding us that the Incarnation is the fulfilment of God’s revelation of himself. “The Son,” the Pope said, “through his https://t.co/Wh1tZLmGJT” / X

JANUARY 21: ST. AGNES, BABY LAMBS AND THE PALLIUM

Traditionally, on the morning of January 21, the liturgical memory of St. Agnes, two lambs, blessed earlier in the morning in the Roman basilica named for this saint, are presented to the Pope for a blessing and prayer. This annual event was sidelined a few years ago because of Covid, and the last time lambs were brought to Pope Francis was January 21, 2021.

Thus, today’s ceremony was a first for Pope Leo as pontiff and as also the first one in five years, although the blessing of the lambs took place this morning in the Mausoleum of Saint Constantina, as the basilica of St. Agnes is undergoing renovations.

As you can see in the video ((8) EWTN Vatican on X: “Pope Leo XIV was presented with two lambs on Wednesday morning on the liturgical feast of St. Agnes (Jan. 21), in keeping with an ancient tradition of the Church in Rome. The lambs were subsequently blessed in the Mausoleum of Saint Constantina, a rite that usually takes place https://t.co/PN5IyXT2eX” / X),  Pope Leo, wearing special liturgical vestments, seemed to enjoy this ritual. He will have another link to these lambs, whose wool is shorn and woven into palliums, when he presents the palliums to new archbishops on the June 29^th feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Vatican News looked back at this tradition today: “The first mention of the tradition of blessing two lambs on the feast of St. Agnes dates back to the 6th century. It is tied to an ancient legend about her life that says that she appeared to her parents after her death when they came to pray at her tomb. They saw her surrounded by a choir of virgins and holding a pure lamb in her arms. Historical records also indicate that two lambs were once considered the “rent” paid by the monks of the Basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Walls to the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Members of the Lateran Chapter would present these lambs to the Pope for his blessing.”

I’ve always loved this story and this feast day and write about it every year on this day. This might be a good time to gather some young ones around for a fun story!

The baby lambs are raised by the Trappist Fathers of the Abbey of the Three Fountains. When their wool is shorn, the Sisters of St. Cecelia weave it into the palliums that, on the June 29th feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, are given to new metropolitan archbishops as signs of their office.

The pallium is a white woolen circular band embroidered with six black crosses which is worn over the shoulders and has two hanging pieces, one in front and another in back. Worn by the Pope and by metropolitan archbishops, it symbolizes authority and expresses the special bond between the bishops and the Roman Pontiff. In a 1978 document, “Inter Eximina Episcopalis,” Pope Paul VI restricted its use to the Pope and metropolitan archbishops. Six years later, Pope John Paul decreed that it would be conferred on the metropolitans by the Pope on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

In the past, among those usually in attendance at the January 21 ceremony in the Apostolic Palace were 21 people, including two Trappist fathers, several nuns, two canons of the Chapter of St. John, the dean of the Roman Rota, and two officials from the Office of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, and a number of other invited guests.

The baby lambs, under one year of age, are normally tucked into wicker baskets, and both lambs and baskets are adorned with red and white ribbons and flowers, white to symbolize purity and red to signify the blood of a martyr. In 2004 St. John Paul II blessed the lambs during a general audience in the Paul VI Hall as both the audience and St. Agnes’ feast day occurred on a Wednesday, just like this year.

Agnes died about 305 and is buried in the basilica named for her on Rome’s Via Nomentana. Historical accounts vary about the birth, life and manner of death of Agnes but generally it is recounted that, in order to preserve her virginity, she was martyred at a very young age, probably 12. She is usually depicted with a lamb because the Latin word so similar to her name, agnus, means “lamb.” The name Agnes is actually derived from the feminine Greek adjective hagné meaning “chaste, pure.”

A number of years ago I was intrigued by the January 21 press office communiqué about this event. It had been slightly altered since the announcement the previous day that the Pope would bless “two live baby lambs.” Naturally it was the word “live” that intrigued me – as if he might bless lambs that were no longer alive! That word did not appear the day of the blessings!

In 2011, the Vatican newspaper, carried an interview with Sr. Hanna Pomniaowska, one of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth who prepares the lambs every year for their Vatican visit. This order of nuns has been preparing the baby lambs for over 140 years and it was their founder, Blessed Frances Siedliska, who started this custom in 1884. Up to that date another order of nuns had prepared the lambs but it became difficult when the nuns began to age. At that time the Sisters of the Holy Family took over the duties.

Two lambs are brought to the sisters on January 20 by the Trappist Fathers of Tre Fontane (Three Fountains). The nuns then bring the lambs to the top floor of their residence where there is a terrace with a laundry room where the lambs are washed with delicate soap usually used for children until their wool is white as the driven snow and they are dried with a hair dryer that, in recent years, has replaced the towels they once used. (Vatican News photos)

The nuns are careful to completely dry the lambs so that, at their tender age, they do not fall sick. The room is well heated. After the lambs are dried they are placed in a tub that is covered with straw and closed with canvas so they don’t catch cold. A meal of straw is fed to the lambs who then spend the night in the laundry.

The morning of January 21, the nuns place two small capes on the lambs, one is red to indicate St. Agnes’ martyrdom and the other is white to indicate her virginity. There are also three letters on each mantle: S.A.V. (St. Agnes Virgin) and S.A.M. (St. Agnes Martyr). The sisters weave crowns of interlocking red and white flowers, place them on the baby lambs’ heads, and then put the lambs in a decorated basket. The lambs are tied so they don’t escape. In fact, one of them did escape a few years back, jumping up and running from the altar at St. Agnes Basilica where they had been placed on the altar and blessed.

Following this ceremony, two papal assistants bring the lambs in a van to the Vatican where they are presented to the Holy Father. It is usually the sisters who are celebrating a jubilee of religious vows who are present in the papal residence.