SPEAKING PERSONALLY… – CANDLELIT PROCESSION IN VATICAN GARDENS MARKS FEAST OF THE VISITATION – MATTEO RICCI: “HE BROUGHT CHRISTIANITY TO CHINA”

SPEAKING PERSONALLY…

FEAST OF THE VISITATION: One of my favorite places in Vatican City has always been the small, historic, beautiful church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini. I have attended several funeral visitation vigils for cardinals, and have been to Mass there as well, always a bit overcome by the history and simple beauty. And one of my favorite events in the Vatican is the annual procession that is about to start in the Vatican gardens at the church of Santo Stefano to mark the feast of the Visitation. If you are ever in Rome on May 31, try to attend this remarkable annual event.

MATTEO RICCI , JOAN AND CHINA: Today’s general audience catechesis focussed, as it has for weeks, on apostolic zeal with Pope Francis choosing a special “witness to zeal” each week. Today he spoke at length on Jesuit Fr. Matteo Ricci, a singular and amazing missionary who dedicated his life to evangelization in China, a goal his fellow Jesuit, Fr. Francis Xavier, wished to reach but never did, as we learned at the May 17 general audience.

In 1995 I was in Beijing where Fr. Ricci, who died May 11, 1610, is buried. I was a member of the Vatican delegation to the United Nations conference on Women in September 1995. We had extraordinarily little time in the weeks that we were in Beijing to see some of the sights but several delegation members did visit Fr. Ricci’s tomb in Zhalan Cemetery, the oldest Christian cemetery in China.

I was enormously impressed with Italian-born Fr. Ricci’s story and tried to learn all I could about this man – who always dressed as a Chinese scholar – whom the Chinese called “Sage of the West.”

YouWenhui 游文輝, alias Manuel Pereira c. 1610, oil on canvas, 120 × 95 cm. © Society of Jesus, Il Gesù, Rome.

One biographical site noted, “Ricci arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macau in 1582 where he began his missionary work in China. He became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601 when invited by Emperor who sought his services in matters such as court astronomy and calendar science.”

It was Emperor Wanli of the Ming dynasty who donated the land specifically for the burial of Matteo Ricci. It was an unheard of honor for the Chinese to do this but Emperor Wanli did have great respect for the Jesuits in general and Fr. Ricci in particular whose name in China was Li Matou.

I felt very privileged not just to be a member of the Holy See delegation to the Beijing conference but privileged to be in China, whose millennia-old history is one of the most fascinating imaginable. I could write a small volume on what I learned and experienced during those weeks in this vast Asian nation. A few years later I had an equally amazing learning experience when I visited Taiwan for 12 days – another small volume for sure!

One chapter of such a book would be the offer I received to return some day to Taiwan to teach English at the Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages in Kaohsiung, Taiwan! I will have to find my video of that trip!

CANDLELIT PROCESSION IN VATICAN GARDENS MARKS FEAST OF THE VISITATION

At 7 this evening, feast of the Visitation, the annual candlelit procession in the Vatican Gardens will take place as the faithful pray the rosary and process from the church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini to the Grotto of Lourdes in Vatican City. Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, will deliver remarks at the grotto.

Tradition says this church was built by Pope Lei I (400–461), who named it St. Stephen Major in remembrance of St. Stephen protomartyr. There was already a monastery here at the time of Pope Gregory III (8^th century). It was restored by Pope Sixtus IV who assigned it in 1479 to Coptic monks in the city and the name was changed to St. Stephen of the Abyssinians (Ethiopians). Considered the national church of Ethiopia, St. Stephen’s is one of the only standing structures in the Vatican to survive the destruction of the first St. Peter’s basilica in 1506.

MATTEO RICCI: “HE BROUGHT CHRISTIANITY TO CHINA”

Today at the general audience, Pope Francis praised the apostolic zeal of Venerable Matteo Ricci, one of the early Jesuit missionaries to the Far East whose love for the Chinese people remains a model of consistency for Christian witness.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Matteo Ricci’s love for the Chinese people remains an enduring source of inspiration.

With this sentiment, Pope Francis described Venerable Matteo Ricci, one of the early Jesuit missionaries to the Far East, at his weekly General Audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square, as he continued his catechesis series on saints who personified apostolic zeal.

“His love for the Chinese people is a model; but what is a very timely one, is his consistency of life, his Christian witness. He brought Christianity to China…”

The Pope praised Ricci’s excellence in various areas, but stressed that his greatness, above all, lies in his being “consistent with his vocation, consistent with that desire to follow Jesus Christ.”

Last week, Pope Francis praised St. Andrew Kim Taegon, the first native priest of Korea and a martyr for the faith, who dreamed of reaching China, but was not able to fulfill that dream. This week, instead, he spoke of Ricci who did.

Reflecting on the saint to the thousands of faithful in the Square, the Pope remembered how originally from Macerata, in Italy’s Marche region, Ricci studied in Jesuit schools and having himself entered the Society of Jesus. Enthused by the reports of missionaries, like many of his young companions, he asked to be sent to the missions in the Far East.

Father Ricci would go to China, and patiently go on to master the difficult Chinese language and immerse himself in the country’s culture.  It would take 18 years, and unshakeable faith, to arrive in Peking, the Pope said, overcoming frequent mistrust and opposition.

Thanks to his writings in Chinese and his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, the Jesuit Pope observed, Matteo Ricci became known and respected “as a sage and scholar.”

His vast learning and ability to engage in sincere and respectful dialogue, the Holy Father explained, were employed in the service of the Gospel. “This opened many doors to Him,” the Pope said. Ricci, he noted, made the Gospel known not only in his writings, but by his example of religious life, prayer and virtue.

In this way, the Pope suggested, Ricci attracted many of his Chinese disciples and friends to embrace the Catholic faith.

Matteo Ricci died in Peking (modern Beijing) in 1610, at the age of 57, “dedicating his whole life to mission.”  Ricci was the first foreigner permitted by the Emperor to be buried on Chinese soil.

Great Missionaries

The Pope praised the strong prayer life of Ricci which propelled all his work, and that animates the life of missionaries.

Consistency and closeness to Christ, through prayer, the Pope suggested, is one of the greatest characteristics of the great missionaries, before inviting the faithful to ask themselves whether they are consistent in their Christian faith.

 

A CANDLELIT PROCESSION AND THE ROSARY MARK FEAST OF THE VISITATION

Today, feast of the Visitation, Pope Francis tweeted: Let us learn from the strong and helpful faith of our Mother Mary in order to become living signs of God’s mercy.

On my first visit to the Holy Land, one of the highlights of our trip was an afternoon visit to two lovely shrines not far from Jerusalem in the Judean Hills. We went to the picturesque village of Ein Karem and saw the Church of St. John the Baptist, built over the site where St. John was born, and the Church of the Visitation, built where Mary stayed with her cousin Elizabeth when she was expecting St. John.

We know from St. Luke that, following Angel Gabriel’s Annunciation to Mary, Gabriel also told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant and that is why she left Nazareth for Ein Karem:

Mary then “went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!  But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (Luke 1:39-45)

Courtyard of the Church of St. John

The Church of St. John

Grotto of birthplace of St. John the Baptist

“Here was born the precursor of the Lord”

Church of the Visitation

A CANDLELIT PROCESSION AND THE ROSARY MARK FEAST OF THE VISITATION

It is a time-honored tradition in the Vatican to hold an evening candlelit procession, with the recitation of the rosary, in the Vatican Gardens on the May 31 feast of the Visitation. In past years the lay faithful were invited to join cardinals, including the Pope’s vicar for Vatican City, bishops, priests, men and women religious and Vatican employees in the procession that starts at the Church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians (named for St. Stephen Protomartyr, which means “first martyr”), just behind the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica, and ends at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.

In past years, about 9 p.m., the Pope joined everyone at the Grotto and made a brief address. I have posted several columns in the years that I joined in the procession.

During his pontificate, Pope Saint John Paul II participated in the procession every year until 2002, when his poor health made it impossible.

In 2005, just six weeks after his election, Benedict XVI participated in this celebration for the first time as Pope. In remarks at the grotto at that time, he called attention to the Year of the Eucharist, pointing out that “Mary helps us to discover the mystery of Communion.” Noting that the procession always occurs on the feast of the Visitation, he said that Mary’s trip to see her cousin Elizabeth was, in a sense, “the first Eucharistic procession in history,” adding that the faithful have the same role as the Church “unceasingly welcomes Jesus in the holy Eucharist and carries Him to the world.”

In 2008, that ceremony took place in St. Peter’s Square. It was believed the change was made by the then-new papal master of liturgical ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini, to allow more faithful to participate. Candles, with durable plastic shields against the wind and a small prayer and song booklet prepared by the Vicariate of Vatican City were placed on each chair for the thousands of religious and lay people, including entire families, who participated in this evocative ceremony.

Cardinal Angelo Comastri, vicar for Vatican City, led the procession of cardinals that year, as he did last year, 2016.

Pope Francis marked the feast of the Visitation in 2013, just months after his election, in St. Peter’s Square. In 2014 he participated in the procession in the Vatican gardens. I could find no record of his participation in 2015 and he was not present for the 2016 commemoration.

 

 

POPE FRANCIS’ PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR JUNE – CANDLES, A PROCESSION AND THE ROSARY MARK FEAST OF THE VISITATION – VATICAN CRICKET TEAM PREPARES FOR BRITISH TOUR

It was a quiet day for Pope Francis – no public appearances – as he prepares for tomorrow’s general audience and also gets ready for the three-day Jubilee of Priests that starts tomorrow! The main event at the Vatican is taking place as I write (see story below) – the procession and rosary in the Vatican Gardens for the feast of the Visitation.

Following that I’ve posted an interesting story about the Vatican’s Cricket team! Enjoy!

A PAPAL TWEET FOR MAY 31: I join spiritually all those taking part in special devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary on this last day of the month of May.

POPE FRANCIS’ PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR JUNE

The Holy Father’s universal prayer intention for June is: “That the aged, marginalized, and those who have no one may find, even within the huge cities of the world, opportunities for encounter and solidarity.”

His intention for evangelization is: “That seminarians and men and women entering religious life may have mentors who live the joy of the Gospel and prepare them wisely for their mission.”

A CANDLELIT PROCESSION AND THE ROSARY MARK FEAST OF THE VISITATION

It is a time-honored tradition in the Vatican to hold an evening candlelit procession, with the recitation of the rosary, in the Vatican Gardens on the May 31 feast of the Visitation. In past years the lay faithful were invited to join cardinals, including the Pope’s vicar for Vatican City, bishops, priests and men and women religious in the procession which started at the Church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians (named for St. Stephen Protomartyr, which means “first martyr”), located just behind the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica, and ended at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.

In past years, about 9 p.m., the Pope joined everyone at the Grotto and made a brief address. I have posted several columns in the years that I joined in the procession.

During his pontificate, Pope Saint John Paul II participated in the procession every year until 2002, when his poor health made it impossible.

In 2005, just six weeks after his election, Benedict XVI participated in this celebration for the first time as Pope. In remarks at the grotto at that time, he called attention to the Year of the Eucharist, pointing out that “Mary helps us to discover the mystery of Communion.” Noting that the procession always occurs on the feast of the Visitation, he said that Mary’s trip to see her cousin Elizabeth was, in a sense, “the first Eucharistic procession in history,” adding that the faithful have the same role as the Church “unceasingly welcomes Jesus in the holy Eucharist and carries Him to the world.”

Photos from Ein Karem, site of the Visitation, home of St. Elizabeth, John the Baptist:

In 2008, that ceremony took place in St. Peter’s Square. It was believed the change was made by the then new papal master of liturgical ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini, to allow more faithful to participate. Candles, with durable plastic shields against the wind and a small prayer and song booklet prepared by the Vicariate of Vatican City were placed on each chair for the thousands of religious and lay people, including entire families, who participated in this evocative ceremony.

Cardinal Angelo Comastri, vicar for Vatican City, led the procession of cardinals, as he will again this year, 2016.

Pope Francis marked the feast of the Visitation in 2013, just months after his election, in St. Peter’s Square. In 2014 he participated in the procession in the Vatican gardens. I could find no record of his participation last year and he will not be present for tonight’s ceremony in the Vatican Gardens, once again led by Cardinal Comastri.

A note from a Vatican Radio news site states that “participation is reserved to Vatican staff and members of their family.” I do not remember seeing such a note in the past but that may simply be that there was a note and I overlooked it. However, in my experience, lay faithful from Rome did participate in the past, but the world has changed and so have security measures in many parts of the world, including the Vatican.

VATICAN CRICKET TEAM PREPARES FOR BRITISH TOUR

(Vatican Radio) St Peter’s Cricket Club, popularly known as the ‘Vatican XI’ is preparing for a second British tour with both ecumenical and interfaith objectives high on the agenda.

The team, comprised of Catholic priests and seminarians from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the UK, was founded in 2013 and challenged a Church of England cricket team in Canterbury the following year. Since then, the sporting friendships and spiritual experiences have grown, with the Anglican side coming to Rome for a return match in 2015.

From September 11th to 20th the Vatican team sets off on a second ‘Light of Faith’ tour, playing against Anglicans, a Muslim team from Yorkshire and an interfaith match against cricketers from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist communities in the south east of England.

The Vatican XI, which enjoys the patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture, will play in venues which have been offered free of charge, including the famous Edgbaston ground in Birmingham and the revered Headingley site which has been used for international test cricket since 1899.

The goals of St Peter’s team members include sharing their faith with others, building bridges across religious and cultural divides and furthering what Pope Francis calls ‘the culture of encounter. To find out more, Philippa Hitchen spoke with team manager,Fr Eamonn O’Higgins, spiritual director of the Maria Mater Ecclesiae seminary where many of the players are in training for the priesthood.

Fr Eamonn says that the tours are called ‘Light of Faith’ because “deep down, that is what we try to transmit. He notes that while the 2014 tour focused on establishing relations with the Church of England, this second event has a much broader interreligious dimension with Muslims and others who’ve become interested in the opportunities that such encounters can offer.

While cricket is the context in which the players meet, Fr Eamonn says the tour is also about going “to pray and to commune” with people in different ways. He notes that he’s been invited to speak at a mosque on the Friday that the team will be in Batley, Yorkshire with the local community. “It’s a pilgrimage”, he says, adding “that means not only praying ourselves, but understanding and praying with other faiths as well”.

Asked about the effect of these ecumenical and interreligious encounters on the seminarians training at the Mater Ecclesiae seminary, Fr Eamonn says that for “all of us, not just the lads”, it has “an extremely broadening effect”. While we sometimes have our own stereotypes, often influenced by the media’s depiction of other religious communities, he says “the fact of meeting members of other faiths, understanding their contexts, listening to their prayer, being with their families”, enables the team to understand other people and their traditions in a new way.

“You cannot understand another culture or another religion without getting into it from the inside, from somebody else’s point of view, the Vatican team manager insists, “and this is the privilege we’ve been able to experience”.