23 QUOTES FROM LUMEN FIDEI

July 5, 2013 · by Robert Christian · in Blog

Humility prevents me from giving this post the title ‘Top 23 Quotes from Lumen Fidei’, so I will simply say that these are the passages that caught my eye as I read the encyclical, which was released earlier today:

1. “Yet in the absence of light everything becomes confused; it is impossible to tell good from evil, or the road to our destination from other roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere.”
2. “The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence.”
3. “For Abraham, faith in God sheds light on the depths of his being, it enables him to acknowledge the wellspring of goodness at the origin of all things and to realize that his life is not the product of non-being or chance, but the fruit of a personal call and a personal love.”
4. “Faith consists in the willingness to let ourselves be constantly transformed and renewed by God’s call. Herein lies the paradox: by constantly turning towards the Lord, we discover a sure path which liberates us from the dissolution imposed upon us by idols.”
5. “Christian faith is thus faith in a perfect love, in its decisive power, in its ability to transform the world and to unfold its history.”
6. “Paul rejects the attitude of those who would consider themselves justified before God on the basis of their own works. Such people, even when they obey the commandments and do good works, are centred on themselves; they fail to realize that goodness comes from God. Those who live this way, who want to be the source of their own righteousness, find that the latter is soon depleted and that they are unable even to keep the law. They become closed in on themselves and isolated from the Lord and from others; their lives become futile and their works barren, like a tree far from water.”
7. “Faith in Christ brings salvation because in him our lives become radically open to a love that precedes us, a love that transforms us from within, acting in us and through us.”
8. “The image of a body does not imply that the believer is simply one part of an anonymous whole, a mere cog in great machine; rather, it brings out the vital union of Christ with believers, and of believers among themselves (cf. Rom 12:4-5). Christians are “one” (cf. Gal 3:28), yet in a way which does not make them lose their individuality; in service to others, they come into their own in the highest degree.”
9. “Faith without truth does not save, it does not provide a sure footing. It remains a beautiful story, the projection of our deep yearning for happiness, something capable of satisfying us to the extent that we are willing to deceive ourselves. Either that, or it is reduced to a lofty sentiment which brings consolation and cheer, yet remains prey to the vagaries of our spirit and the changing seasons, incapable of sustaining a steady journey through life.”
10. “Faith transforms the whole person precisely to the extent that he or she becomes open to love.”
11. “Faith knows because it is tied to love, because love itself brings enlightenment.”
12. “Love cannot be reduced to an ephemeral emotion. True, it engages our affectivity, but in order to open it to the beloved and thus to blaze a trail leading away from self-centredness and towards another person, in order to build a lasting relationship; love aims at union with the beloved. Here we begin to see how love requires truth. Only to the extent that love is grounded in truth can it endure over time, can it transcend the passing moment and be sufficiently solid to sustain a shared journey. If love is not tied to truth, it falls prey to fickle emotions and cannot stand the test of time. True love, on the other hand, unifies all the elements of our person and becomes a new light pointing the way to a great and fulfilled life. Without truth, love is incapable of establishing a firm bond; it cannot liberate our isolated ego or redeem it from the fleeting moment in order to create life and bear fruit.”
13. “Christian faith, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of God’s total love and opens us to the power of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience. Each of us comes to the light because of love, and each of us is called to love in order to remain in the light.”
14. “Religious man is a wayfarer; he must be ready to let himself be led, to come out of himself and to find the God of perpetual surprises.”
15. “The transmission of the faith not only brings light to men and women in every place; it travels through time, passing from one generation to another. Because faith is born of an encounter which takes place in history and lights up our journey through time, it must be passed on in every age. It is through an unbroken chain of witnesses that we come to see the face of Jesus.”
16. “Persons always live in relationship. We come from others, we belong to others, and our lives are enlarged by our encounter with others.”
17. “It is impossible to believe on our own. Faith is not simply an individual decision which takes place in the depths of the believer’s heart, nor a completely private relationship between the “I” of the believer and the divine “Thou”, between an autonomous subject and God. By its very nature, faith is open to the “We” of the Church; it always takes place within her communion.”
18. “The sacraments communicate an incarnate memory, linked to the times and places of our lives, linked to all our senses; in them the whole person is engaged as a member of a living subject and part of a network of communitarian relationships.”
19. “Faith is born of an encounter with God’s primordial love, wherein the meaning and goodness of our life become evident; our life is illumined to the extent that it enters into the space opened by that love, to the extent that it becomes, in other words, a path and praxis leading to the fullness of love.”
20. “Young people in particular, who are going through a period in their lives which is so complex, rich and important for their faith, ought to feel the constant closeness and support of their families and the Church in their journey of faith. We have all seen, during World Youth Days, the joy that young people show in their faith and their desire for an ever more solid and generous life of faith. Young people want to live life to the fullest. Encountering Christ, letting themselves be caught up in and guided by his love, enlarges the horizons of existence, gives it a firm hope which will not disappoint. Faith is no refuge for the fainthearted, but something which enhances our lives. It makes us aware of a magnificent calling, the vocation of love. It assures us that this love is trustworthy and worth embracing, for it is based on God’s faithfulness which is stronger than our every weakness.”
21. “We need to return to the true basis of brotherhood.”
22. “Faith teaches us to see that every man and woman represents a blessing for me, that the light of God’s face shines on me through the faces of my brothers and sisters.”
23. “Faith also helps us to devise models of development which are based not simply on utility and profit, but consider creation as a gift for which we are all indebted; it teaches us to create just forms of government, in the realization that authority comes from God and is meant for the service of the common good. Faith likewise offers the possibility of forgiveness, which so often demands time and effort, patience and commitment. Forgiveness is possible once we discover that goodness is always prior to and more powerful than evil, and that the word with which God affirms our life is deeper than our every denial.”

October 1, 2012 letter to the Church in Buenos Aires on the Year of Faith from (then) Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ (now Pope Francis)

October 1, 2012 letter to the Church in Buenos Aires on the Year of Faith

from (then) Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ (now Pope Francis)

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Among the most striking experiences of the last decades is finding doors closed. Little by little increasing insecurity has made us bolt doors, employ means of vigilance, install security cameras and mistrust strangers who call at our door.

None the less in some places there are doors that are still open. The closed door is really a symbol of our today. It is something more than a simple sociological fact; it is an existential reality that is imposing itself as a way of life, a way of confronting reality, others and the future.

The bolted door of my house, the place of my intimate life, my dreams, hopes, sufferings and moments of happiness, is locked against others. And it is not simply a matter of the physical house; it is also the whole area of my life, of my heart. All the time there are fewer who can cross that threshold. The security of reinforced doors protects the insecurity of a life which is becoming more fragile and less open to the riches of the life and the love of others.

The image of an open door has always been a symbol of light, friendship, happiness, liberty and trust. How we need to recover them. The closed door does us harm, reduces and separates us.

We begin the Year of Faith and, paradoxically, the image that the Pope proposes is that of a door, a door through which we must pass to be able to find what we need so much.

The Church, through the voice and heart of its Pastor, Benedict XVI, invites us to cross the threshold, to take an interior and free step: to animate ourselves to enter a new life.

The phrase “door to faith” brings us back to the Acts of the Apostles: “On arriving, they gathered the Church together and told them what God had done through them and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts. 14:27).

God always takes the initiative and He does not want anyone to be excluded. God calls at the door of our hearts: Look, I am at the door, calling: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I shall enter his house and dine with him and him with me (Rev 3:20).

Faith is a grace, a gift of God.

“Only by believing does faith grow and be strengthened: in a continual abandon into the hands of a love which is always felt as greater because it has its origin in God”

Crossing through that door presupposes the beginning of a way or journey that lasts a lifetime, as we pass in front of so many doors which open to us today, many of them false doors, doors that invite us in a very attractive but lying manner to go down that road, promising an empty narcissistic happiness which has an expiry dated: doors that lead to cross-roads where, no matter which option we follow, will, sooner or later, cause suffering and confusion, doors focused on self which wear out and have no guarantee for the future.

While the doors of the houses are closed, the doors of the shopping malls are always open. One passes through the door of faith, one crosses that threshold, when the Word of God is announced and the heart allows itself to be shaped by that grace which transforms. A grace which has a concrete name, and that name is Jesus. Jesus is the door. (Jn. 10:9). He, and only He, is and will always be the door. No one goes to the Father except through Him. (Jn.14.6). If there is no Christ, there is no way to God. As the door, He opens the way to God and as Good Shepherd he is the Only One who looks after us at the price of his own life.

Jesus is the door and he knocks on our door so that we allow him to cross the threshold of our lives. “Don’t be afraid . open the doors wide for Christ”, Blessed John Paul II told us at the beginning of his papacy. To open the doors of our hearts as the disciples of Emaus did, asking him to stay with us so that we may pass through the doors of faith and that the Lord himself bring us to understand the reasons why we believe, so that we may then go out to announce it. Faith presumes that we decide to be with the Lord, to live with him and share this with our brothers and sisters.

We give thanks to God for this opportunity to realize the value of our lives as children of God through this journey of faith which began in our lives with the waters of baptism, that unending and fruitful dew which makes us children of God and brothers and sisters in the Church.

The purpose, the objective (of this year of Faith) is that we meet with God with whom we have already entered into communion and who wishes to restore us, purify us, raise us up and sanctify us, and give us the happiness that our hearts crave.

To begin this year of faith is a call to us to deepen in our lives that faith we have already received. To profess our faith with our mouth implies living it in our hearts and showing it in what we do: it is a testimony and public commitment. The disciple of Christ, a child of the Church, can never think that believing is a private matter. It is an important and strong challenge for every day, convinced that he who began the good work in you will continue to perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil. 1:6).

Looking at our reality, as disciples who are missionaries, we ask ourselves what challenge this crossing the threshold of the faith has for us?

Crossing this threshold of the faith challenges us to discover that, even though it would seem that death reigns in its various forms and that our history is governed by the law of the strongest or the most astute and that hate and ambition are the driving forces of so many human struggles, we are also absolutely convinced that this sad reality can and should change decisively, because ‘if God is with us, who can overcome us?’ (Rom. 8: 31, 37).

Crossing this threshold of the faith supposes that we’ll not be ashamed to have the heart of a child who, because he still believes in impossible things, can still live in hope, which is the only thing capable of giving sense to and transforming history. It means asking unceasingly, praying without weakening and adoring so that our vision may be transfigured.

Crossing the threshold of the faith brings us to beg for everyone “the same sentiments that Christ had” (Phil. 2-5), so that each discover a new way of thinking, of communicating with one another, of looking at others, of respecting one another, of being in family together, of planning our futures, of living out love and our vocation.

Crossing the threshold of the faith is to be active, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit present in the Church and who is also seen in the signs of the times. It is to join in the constant movement of life and of history without falling into the paralyzing defeatism that everything in the past was better. It is an urgency to think in new ways, to offer new suggestions, a new creativity, kneading life with “the new leaven of justice and holiness” (1 Cor. 5:8).

Crossing the threshold of the faith implies that we have eyes to wonder and a heart that is not lazily accustomed, that is able to recognize that every time a woman gives birth it is another bet placed for life and the future; that, when we watch out for the innocence of children we are guaranteeing the truth of a tomorrow and when we treat gently the dedicated life of an elderly person we are acting justly and caressing our own roots.

Crossing the threshold of the faith means work lived with dignity and with a vocation to serve with the self-denial of one who comes back time and time again to begin without weakening, as if everything done so far were only one step in the journey towards the Kingdom, the fullness of life. It is the quiet wait after the daily planting: it is the contemplation of the collected harvest, giving thanks to the Lord because he is good, asking that he not abandon the work of his hands (Psalm 137).

Crossing the threshold of the faith demands that we struggle for liberty and life together with others even when the ambient drags its feet, in the certainty that the Lord asks of us to live justly, love goodness and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).

Crossing the threshold of the faith bears deeply within it the continued conversion of our attitudes, modes and tones with which we live. It demands a reformulation, not a patching up or a varnishing. It means accepting the new form that Jesus Christ prints on him who is touched by His hand and his Gospel of life. It means doing something totally new for society and the Church; because “He who is in Christ is a new creature” (2 Cor 5, 17-21)

Crossing the threshold of the faith leads us to forgiving and to know how to break into a smile. It means approaching every person who lives on the edge of existence and to call him by name. It is taking care of the fragility of the weakest and supports his trembling knees in the certainty that in what we do for the smallest of our brothers it is to Jesus himself that we are doing it (Mt. 25. 40).

Crossing the threshold of the Faith demands that we celebrate life. That we let ourselves be transformed because we have been made one with Jesus at the table of the Eucharist celebrated in community and from there our hands and heart be busy working in the great project of the Kingdom: all the rest will be given us in addition (Mt. 6.33).

Crossing the threshold of the faith means living in the spirit of the Vatican Council and of Aparecida (the latest meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean bishops), a Church of open doors, not just to receive in but fundamentally to go out and fill the street and the people of our times with the Good News.

Crossing the threshold of the faith, in our Archdiocesan Church, presupposes that we be convinced of the Mission to be a church that lives, prays and works with a missionary orientation.

Crossing the threshold of the faith is, definitively, the acceptance of the newness of the life of the Risen Christ, raised in our poor flesh to make it a sign of the new life.

Meditating on all these things, we look at Mary. May she, the Virgin Mother, accompany us in our crossing the threshold of the faith and bring the Holy Spirit over our Church, as in Nazareth, so that just like her we may adore the Lord and go out to announce the marvels he has done in us.

1 October 2012
Feast of St Therese of the Child Jesus

Card. Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ

B- Catholics

This Wednesday, 7:15pm in the Paulist Center. Topic: Looking ahead not back

St. Philip Neri Closing Centennial Mass

Final Centennial Mass from Michael Evernden on Vimeo.

Upcoming Events

TO PRACTICE RESURRECTION

March 31, 2013 · by Marcus Mescher · in Journal

As the world gets to know Pope Francis, one thing is becoming overwhelmingly clear: this is a man who takes the symbolic meaning of his actions very seriously.  From the way he travels to the way he preaches, from where he stays to how he prays, this is a man whose dispositions and actions reveal a character marked by the virtues of piety, simplicity, humility, and solidarity with the poor.

Illustrated by this picture recently posted on Facebook by Catholic Relief Services, Pope Francis’ emerging legacy already seems to focus on doing.  Just like the parable of the Good Samaritan, when Jesus reminds his disciples it’s not enough to know that the heart of Christian faith is to love God and one’s neighbors; his command is to “Go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37).  In studies of what determines whether or not Christians are actually good neighbors, Yale Professor of Psychology Paul Bloom reportsthat religious education, family background, moving sermons, and even the degree of one’s personal piety matter far less than belonging to the kinds of relationships and networks that inspire and sustain a commitment to practicing these attitudes and actions.

Much has been written this week about Pope Francis’ exhortation for Christians to spend time this Holy Week to go to the ones who are suffering (including great pieces like this and this in Millennial).  This echoes the repeated calls of Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino to care for the “crucified peoples” of today.  Sobrino’s theology is oriented by his conviction that the gospels depict in Jesus a man who cared more about people’s suffering than their sinfulness.  Attentive to this suffering and mindful of Leonardo Boff’s indicting claim that future generations will call us “barbarian, inhuman, and shameless for our great insensitivity to the suffering of our own brothers and sisters,” Sobrino turns to Jesus’ resurrection as “our final view of existence and its meaning [for] what we can hope for, what we must do.”

Sobrino’s emphasis on the resurrection is not naïve Easter euphoria or utopianism.  Instead, he reminds us that the resurrection is the source of the Good News, the dynamism that helps us face the “greatest hurdle facing evangelization,” which is “the lack of conviction that good news is possible.”  Indeed, Easter Sunday gives us new eyes to see what we can hope for and what we must do.

Because Good Friday isn’t the end of Jesus’ story – Easter is.

Thus, more is possible because of what we believe and celebrate on Easter.  But this is more than looking backward at a historical event, or anticipating a future, eschatological reality.  Sobrino employs a line from the brilliant theologian Karl Rahner to describe Jesus’ triumphant resurrection as a “permanent prevailing,” which allows us “to experience the repercussions of Jesus’ resurrection as such in our own lives here and now.”

This leads Sobrino to conclude that the resurrection – as already but not fully realized – allows us to live now as “risen beings” entrusted with the mission to “do what God himself does: to take the victim Jesus down from the cross.”  Sobrino then insists that this requires that we work to take the “crucified peoples” down from their crosses today.  This is what it means to say that the resurrection is something to be lived: we are called to follow the crucified Jesus and put the Risen Christ into action.

Living as risen beings means to practice resurrection (to quote a line from Wendell Berry’s “The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”).  Augustine once preached, “We are a resurrection people and Alleluia! is our song.”  This is what the prophet Isaiah refers to when envisioning the new heavens and the new earth (Is 65:17) and what Saint Paul meant when he described the “new creation” made possible in Christ.  According to Paul, for Christian disciples everywhere, this implies the gift and task of participating in this new creation as Christ’s own “ambassadors of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:16-21).

In his pastoral letters, Paul attests to the fact that this is the way to cultivate the virtue of eusebeia, commonly translated as “piety” or “godliness” (e.g., 1 Tim 2:2, 4:7-8; Titus 2:1-10).  Eusebeia provides a bridge to the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.  It is the virtue of ordering ourselves first to God, and making this right-relationship the foundation for pursuing and practicing the other virtues in relationships with others.  It is a virtue not for piety’s sake, but for restoring right-relationship, wholeness, and balance (shalom) with all God’s people.

It is this virtue that seems to most effectively express the example being set forward by Pope Francis.  Perhaps his humble, joyful example will inspire more of us to realize our vocation as Easter people and to practice resurrection wherever we are.

And, like the Good Samaritan, to be willing to go out of our way and into the ditch so we can be risen beings together, on the margins and with those who are suffering and crucified today.  To make the places we find ourselves – at home, in school, at work, in our neighborhoods and parishes – communities of practice to inspire and sustain these virtues for loving God and our neighbors.

WALK WITH US THROUGH

HOLY WEEK

Good Friday Service with Communion, 7:00pm

Easter Vigil, Saturday, 8:30pm

Easter Sunday, Mass at 8:30 and 10:30am

Home Sweet Domus – No Palace for The Pope

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013

Home Sweet Domus – No Palace for The Pope

Not that it's terribly a surprise, but now it's official – Pope Francis has chosen not to live in the Papal Apartment of the Apostolic Palace, opting instead to remain in the simpler, more communitarian atmosphere of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Vatican "hotel."

Less than two weeks since the pontiff's election, the latest move in Papa Bergoglio's Vatican "revolution" was announced by the Holy See's lead spokesman, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, confirming a report in today's La Nación, the Argentine daily of record. Francis himself spoke of the decision at today's morning Mass in the Domus chapel – which, continuing his now-daily custom, was celebrated with guests: in today's case, the permanent community in residence at the Domus.

Having reportedly remarked that the official living quarters "can fit 300 people" on his first tour of it (above), the Pope will continue to use the suite on the Palace's top floor as an office where he'll receive official visitors and handle other daytime work. 

Lombardi said today that Francis has now moved to a suite in the Domus, leaving the simple room which he was assigned by lot along with the other cardinal-electors prior to the Conclave. The suite had been prepared for the new Pope in anticipation of renovations others might've sought to the Palace apartment; the study in Francis' new quarters is shown above. 

As the pontiff determined where he'd live, the Vatican previously stated that Francis wanted his living arrangements to be marked by "simplicity and sharing." Beyond his Masses in the house chapel, the Pope is said to have been taking his meals in common with the Domus' residents and guests.

As cardinal-archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio famously eschewed the house that came with the post for a simple apartment, where he did most of his own cooking and cared for an elderly cleric.

Opened in 1996 near the basilica's Arch of the Bells, the Domus normally hosts prelates visiting the Vatican on church business. Its prime purpose, however, was to provide accommodation for the cardinals during a Conclave – before its construction, generations of electors slept in makeshift, barracks-like quarters splayed through the antique rooms surrounding the Sistine Chapel, the beds often separated from each other merely by curtains.

Beyond seeking a humbler set-up – not to mention a home-base that's less isolating and, perhaps, easier to sneak out of as he sees fit – Francis' decision to remain at S. Marta underscores a unique reality of the new papacy: unlike his predecessors since time immemorial, the pontiff has no personal household of aides and domestics who've come with him to the Vatican. As the household traditionally shares the Palace residence with the Pope, the lack of a "family" of his own means that Francis would've been occupying the old apartment by himself.

Developing – more to come.

PHOTO: L'Osservatore Romano(1); AFP(2)

-30-

WALK WITH US THROUGH

HOLY WEEK

Palm Sunday, Saturday 4:00pm, Sunday 8:30 & 10:30am

Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord's Supper, 7:00pm

Good Friday Service with Communion, 7:00pm

Easter Vigil, Saturday, 8:30pm

Easter Sunday, Mass at 8:30 and 10:30am

Hildegard von Bingen

PRESENTING: “VISION” Sunday, February 17 at 1:00 pm

A movie on the life of Hildegard von Bingen, who was canonized and made a Doctor of the Church in 2012 by Benedict XVI. Sunday, February 17 at 1:00 pm in the Paulist Center Chapel.

Hildegard von Bingen was truly a woman ahead of her time. A visionary in every sense of the word, this famed 12^th century Benedictine nun was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist. In a staggering performance, actor Barbara Sukowa portrays Bingen’s fierce determination to expand the responsibilities of women within the order, even as she fends off outrage from some in the Church over the visions she claims to receive from God.

Von Bingen was charged with heresy and threatened with excommunication from her order by the Abbot of her Benedictine community. Lushly shot in the original medieval cloisters of the fairytale-like German countryside, Vision is a profoundly inspirational portrait of a woman who has emerged from the shadow of history as a forward-thinking and iconoclastic pioneer of faith, change and enlightenment.

The Paulist Fathers Portland Presents: