Pope Pius XII Addresses British and Canadian Soldiers in 1944

Hat-tip to Chrysostom.

The joy on his face suggests to me that he wasn’t “Hitler’s Pope”, as some have wished to slander him.

Why do we love our Lady?

From:http://www.josemariaescriva.info

Faith in the fact that God himself became man has been the joyful conviction of the Church from the very beginning. To come into the world, God chose to rely on the free cooperation of a human being, Mary, to be the mother of his Son through the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Church, from her beginnings, has honored Mary as the daughter of God the Father, mother of God the Son, and spouse of God the Holy Spirit. How did God choose Mary? How did she conceive the Son of God? Why do we call Mary Virgin and Mother?

How did Mary conceive the Son of God made man?

The historical event which God had foreseen from all eternity took place in a Nazareth, a village in Galilee, when the Angel Gabriel appeared to a young Jewish woman, “a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary” says St Luke in chapter 1 of his Gospel.

To come into the world God wanted the free co-operation of a creature, Mary, to be the mother of his Son. “The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in the coming of death, so also should a woman contribute to the coming of life.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 488, 504, 511.

Velazquez, The coronation of the Virgin (detail),
oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

The Holy Father; Pentecost Homily: Newness, harmony and mission (full text)

(Vatican Radio) Below the official English language translation of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass for the Feast of Pentecost with New Movements:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we contemplate and re-live in the liturgy the outpouring of the Holy Spirit sent by the risen Christ upon his Church; an event of grace which filled the Upper Room in Jerusalem and then spread throughout the world.

But what happened on that day, so distant from us and yet so close as to touch the very depths of our hearts? Luke gives us the answer in the passage of the Acts of the Apostles which we have heard (2:1-11). The evangelist brings us back to Jerusalem, to the Upper Room where the apostles were gathered. The first element which draws our attention is the sound which suddenly came from heaven “like the rush of a violent wind”, and filled the house; then the “tongues as of fire” which divided and came to rest on each of the apostles. Sound and tongues of fire: these are clear, concrete signs which touch the apostles not only from without but also within: deep in their minds and hearts. As a result, “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit”, who unleashed his irresistible power with amazing consequences: they all “began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit gave them ability”. A completely unexpected scene opens up before our eyes: a great crowd gathers, astonished because each one heard the apostles speaking in his own language. They all experience something new, something which had never happened before: “We hear them, each of us, speaking our own language”. And what is it that they are they speaking about? “God’s deeds of power”.

In the light of this passage from Acts, I would like to reflect on three words linked to the working of the Holy Spirit: newness, harmony and mission.

Biblical Reflection for the Solemnity of Pentecost.

The Humble, Yet Powerful Beginning of a New Age

by Fr. Thomas Rosica

Solemnity of Pentecost, Year  C – Sunday,May 19, 2013

The readings for Pentecost are Acts 2:1-11;1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Rom 8:8-17 and Jn 20:19- or Jn 14:15-16, 23b-26

We know the story well (Acts 2:1-10) — it is the dawn of the day of Pentecost and the followers of Jesus are gathered to wait and pray. This new day begins with an explosion of sounds from heaven, and a violent wind. The story is reminiscent of the mighty wind that hovered over the waters in the Genesis creation story. What was first heard was then seen — tongues like fire (2:3). The first gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of speech in different languages.

The scene quickly shifts from the inside upper room, where the disciples are gathered, to the Jerusalem streets outside the house. There the Gospel is already drawing crowds together. Out in the streets, “devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem (2:5)” confront the church, and their initial response is bewilderment (2:6). The “tongues” spoken of are obviously various languages of “every nation under heaven,” since each foreigner exclaims: “We hear, each of us, in our own native language” (2:8).

Luke’s roll call of the nations — Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes (2:9-10) — makes it very clear that no nationality is excluded from the proclamation of the Good News. In these few lines, Luke gives us a story in miniature, of the whole plot of the Acts of the Apostles.

What Jesus Really Said About Sins of the Flesh

From: http://www.crisismagazine.com

by Anthony Esolen

I have often heard it said that our Lord did not care overmuch about sins of the flesh; for He was relentless in his attacks upon hypocrisy, pride, and avarice, but was so mild towards adulterers and fornicators that we might, extrapolating from that mildness, so far dispense Christians from the strictures of the sixth commandment as to ignore their sins, nay, even to make a virtue of them, so long as they commit them with sufficient sweetness and affection.That interpretation cannot be supported by any commonsense reading of His words.

When the Pharisees, “tempting Him,” asked Him whether it was lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause at all, Jesus astonished and dismayed them with his reply.  They were not asking Him whether divorce was allowable.  Of course it was.  They were asking Him on what grounds divorce was allowable.  They should have known better.  This same Jesus, after all, is He who said that a man who but looks at a woman with lust in his heart has already committed adultery with her.  It is insanity to try to turn that declaration inside out.  We cannot say that a man who commits adultery—the Greek word, like the Latin, suggests not the breaking of a vow, but the soiling of something that ought to be clean—is as pardonable as a man who turns a wolf’s eye towards the pretty lady; just as we cannot say that a man who kills his brother is as pardonable as a man who calls him a fool.  That would be counsel from a satanic sermon under the mountains.

Our loyalty and love for the Pope

Homily at Mass for the Meeting of the National Council of the Union of Catholic Mothers, Swanwick, 14th May 2013

A student drew my attention to a video clip on YouTube where a series of people were interviewed on the street and asked for their first reactions to the new Pope. Everyone seemed to have a strong opinion: some liked the new Pope, others just dismissed him. However, the strange thing was that all these interviews took place the day before Pope Francis was elected and yet already the man and woman on the street had such strong views about him! In many ways this accords with our Catholic faith: to the Catholic it 

We have just witnessed the drama of the choice of the 266th Successor of St. Peter as Bishop of Rome and so to be a Holy Father for us all. It was neither a political event, nor the outcome of a talent contest, but a moment when the whole Church prayed, as we have just heard recounted in the Acts of the Apostles: “Lord, you can read every heart … show us therefore … who you have chosen …” (Acts 1:24) In his meeting with the thousands of journalists gathered in Rome following his election Pope Francis recognised that it is not always easy for the media to report on the Church. She ultimately defies all the categories of politics, elections and celebrity personalities because as Pope Francis said: “Christ is the centre! Without him, Peter and the Church would not exist and would have no reason to exist” (16th March 2013). Only from this perspective, Pope Francis said, could a satisfactory account be given of the Church’s life and activity. It is a perspective with which the media may struggle, but it is the perspective of the faith which we must always share. The Church does not belong to us. She is Christ’s Church and if we lose sight of Him we will understand neither the Pope nor those extraordinary words in the Gospel which apply to Pope Francis and to us all: “you did not choose me, no, I chose; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last …” (John 15: 16).matters little what a Pope is like in his background, temperament, age or nationality; what really matters is that he is simply, fully, faithfully the Pope who continues the apostolic ministry of Peter in the life of the Church. The Feast of St. Matthias today reminds us that “the apostles took care to appoint successors,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, so that the divine mission entrusted by Jesus to the apostles would continue until the end of time (CCC 860).

Footage Of Hell

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a movie speaks a million. There are very few scary representations of Hell in the world of film. Most of the time it is treated as a joke.

I watched this film with the kids when they were young, and I think it left a permanent frightening impression on them, and vicariously on me. Below is a clip from the end of Disney’s “The Black Hole” (1979). It shows the fate of the wicked, murderous and power-crazed Dr Hans Reinhardt and his robot assistant Maximilian, (made in his own image), after they both fall into the singularity. Childish perhaps, but the doomful depiction of Hell and the damned, and the powerfully gloomy music by John Barry do it for me.

The dishevelled, wicked doctor is first seen falling into the abyss and merging with his robot alter ego, then the chimera stands alone above the fiery pit of the damned for all eternity. Chilling stuff, worthy of Hieronymus Bosch, were he a film director.