STARTING SEVEN (The Pillar): On this day 30 years ago, the Santo Bambino was stolen from Rome’s Santa Maria in Ara Coeli church in 1994.
Interestingly enough, just over 100 years earlier, on 18 January 1894, Pope Leo XIII authorized its public devotion.
Something new today at the end of each report on Vatican news: “Thank you for reading our article. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to our daily newsletter. Just click here”
I found this on the articles in the main languages of the Vatican (English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish). I did not see it on news in Arabic but a phrase at the bottom of each page that I had translated offered a mission statement and a way to support news “with prayer or a gift.” Interesting…..
POPE FRANCIS: LENT IS A TIME OF CONVERSION AND FREEDOM
“When our God reveals Himself, His message is always one of freedom,” Pope Francis says in the opening of his Message to the faithful for Lent 2024.
Recalling the Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt, the Holy Father explains that our journey through the desert can be a season of grace – not an abstract journey, but a concrete path that involves seeing the world as it is and hearing the cries of our oppressed brothers and sisters.
Countering a globalization of indifference
The Pope insisted on the need to counter a “globalization of indifference.”
“Our Lenten journey will be concrete if… we realize that even today we remain under the rule of Pharoah. A rule that makes us weary and indifferent. A model of growth that divides us and robs us of our future.”
At the same time, Pope Francis reminded us that it is God who takes the initiative. Too often, he said, there remains within us “an inexplicable longing for slavery,” a desire to cling to idols that paralyze us, as Israel was paralyzed in the desert.
Lent, however, is a “season of grace, a time of conversion,” where the desert can become “a place where our freedom can mature in a personal decision not to fall back into slavery,” where “we find new criteria of justice and a community with which we can press forward on a road not yet taken.”
Pausing for prayer and to help our neighbour
He added that the Lenten journey involves a struggle. It is a time for action, the Pope said, but also a time “to pause” – to pause in prayer and to pause “in the presence of a wounded brother or sister.”
“Love of God and love of neighbour are one love,” Pope Francis continued, explaining that “the contemplative dimension” of Lent can help us “release new energies,” to be “more sensitive to one another: in the place of threats and enemies, we discover companions and fellow travelers.”
‘A flash of new hope’
Pope Francis concluded his Lenten message on a hopeful note: “To the extent that this Lent becomes a time of conversion, an anxious humanity will notice a burst of creativity, a flash of new hope.”
Calling on the faithful to “be ready to take risks,” he invited them “to find the courage to see our world, not as in its death throes, but in a process of giving birth; not at the end, but at the beginning of a great new chapter of history.”
“Faith and charity,” he said, “take hope, this small child, by the hand. They teach her to walk, and at the same time, she leads them forward.”
Thank you for reading our article. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to our daily newsletter. Just click here
POPE TO NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY: HELP STUDENTS DREAM WITH HEAD, HEART, HANDS
“This is the secret of education: that we think what we feel and do; that we feel what we think and do; and, that we do what we feel and think.”
Pope Francis offered that summary of his vision of the mission of educators as he met on Thursday in the Vatican with the President and Board of Trustees of the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana.
As he spoke to the men and women responsible for the university of the “Fighting Irish,” the Pope reflected in depth on what he calls the “three languages of education: the head, the heart, and the hands.”
In this photo: (L) Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., will become president of Notre Dame July 1, 2024, succeeding (R) Rev John Jenkins:
These three elements of the human person, he said, form the core of Catholic education and its goal of assisting young people to arrive at maturity and completeness.
Intellectual faculties
Pope Francis said Catholic universities, such as Notre Dame, carry out study and research to pursue the advancement of knowledge, often employing a cross-disciplinary approach.
“These educational endeavors undertaken by Catholic institutions,” he said, “are grounded in the firm conviction of the intrinsic harmony of faith and reason, from which flows the relevance of the Christian message for all areas of personal and social life.”
He invited Notre Dame’s educators to help students develop their “head,” or mental faculties, through deeper appreciation of both learning in general and the richness of the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Dreams of the heart
Turning to the “heart,” known as the seat of wisdom and faith in the Judeo-Christian tradition, Pope Francis said Catholic education should assist students to cultivate openness to the three transcendentals: the true, the good, and the beautiful.
He said this requires teachers and students to develop genuine relationships so as to explore together the deeper questions of life.
The Pope asked the Catholic educators of Notre Dame if they “help young people dream,” inviting them to respond in their own conscience.
“It also means promoting dialogue and a culture of encounter,” he said, “so that all can learn to acknowledge, appreciate, and love each person as a brother or sister, and most fundamentally, as a beloved child of God.”
He therefore upheld the role of religion in educating people’s hearts in a way that will help students to renew society and face challenges in life.
Hands of service
The “hands,” or active, charitable aspect of the human person, represent the goal of Catholic education, said the Pope.
Through our actions, he added, we are called to build a better world “by teaching mutual coexistence, fraternal solidarity, and peace.”
“We cannot stay within the walls or boundaries of our institutions, but must strive to go out to the peripheries and meet and serve Christ in our neighbor,” he said.
And he praised the University’s efforts to foster zeal among students to reach out to meet the needs of underprivileged communities.
‘Powerful means for good in society’
Pope Francis concluded the audience with officials from the University of Notre Dame by thanking them for their generous service to maintaining the school’s “unique character and identity.”
“May your contributions to the life of this institution continue to enhance its legacy of a solid Catholic education and enable the University to be, as your founder Father Edward Sorin desired, ‘a powerful means for good’ in society.”
Joan's Rome 