At 12 today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of the study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:

“Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mt 22 : 34-40), a doctor of the Law asks Jesus what “the great commandment” (v. 36) is, that is, the principal commandment of all the divine Law. Jesus replies simply: “” You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind “” (v. 37). And he immediately adds: “The second is similar to that:” You shall love your neighbor as yourself “” (v. 39).

Jesus’ response takes up and unites two fundamental precepts, which God gave to his people through Moses (cf. Dt 6: 5; Lv19.18). And thus he overcomes the pitfall that was set for him “to put him to the test” (v. 35). His interlocutor, in fact, tries to drag him into the dispute between the experts of the Law on the hierarchy of prescriptions. But Jesus establishes two essential cornerstones for believers of all times, two essential cornerstones of our life. The first is that the moral and religious life cannot be reduced to anxious and forced obedience. There are people who try to fulfill the commandments in an anxious or forced way, and Jesus makes us understand that moral and religious life cannot be reduced to anxious and forced obedience, but must have love as its principle. The second hinge is that love must strive together and inseparably towards God and neighbor. This is one of the main novelties of Jesus’ teaching and it makes us understand that it is not true love of God that which is not expressed in love of neighbor; and, in the same way, it is not true love of neighbor that which does not draw from the relationship with God.

Jesus concludes his response with these words: “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (v. 40). This means that all the precepts that the Lord has given to his people must be related to the love of God and neighbor. In fact, all the commandments serve to implement, to express that double indivisible love. Love for God is expressed above all in prayer, especially in adoration. We neglect the adoration of God so much. We make the prayer of thanks, the supplication to ask for something…, but we neglect the adoration. It is to worship God that is the very core of prayer. And love for one’s neighbor, which is also called fraternal charity, is made up of closeness, listening, sharing, caring for the other. And many times we neglect to listen to the other because he is boring or because he takes away my time, or to take him, accompany him in his pains, in his trials … But we always find time to chat, always! We have no time to console the afflicted, but a lot of time to chat. Be careful! The apostle John writes: “Whoever does not love his brother who sees, cannot love God who does not see” (1 Jn 4:20). Thus we see the unity of these two commandments.

In today’s Gospel, once again, Jesus helps us to go to the living and gushing source of Love. And this source is God himself, to be loved totally in a communion that nothing and no one can break. Communion which is a gift to be invoked every day, but also a personal commitment so that our life does not allow itself to be enslaved by the idols of the world. And the verification of our journey of conversion and holiness is always in the love of neighbor. This is the verification: if I say “I love God” and I don’t love the neighbor, it doesn’t work. The proof that I love God is that I love my neighbor. As long as there is a brother or sister to whom we close our hearts, we will still be far from being disciples as Jesus asks of us. But his divine mercy does not allow us to be discouraged, on the contrary he calls us to start again every day to live the Gospel consistently.

May the intercession of Mary Most Holy open our hearts to welcome the “great commandment”, the double commandment of love, which summarizes all the law of God and on which our salvation depends.“

[01272-EN.02] [Original text: Italian]

At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of the study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:

“Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

This Sunday’s Gospel ( cf.Mt22: 15-21) shows us Jesus struggling with the hypocrisy of his opponents. They compliment him a lot – at the beginning, a lot of compliments – but then they ask an insidious question to put him in difficulty and discredit him before the people. They ask him: “Is it lawful, or not, to pay the tax to Caesar?” (v. 17), that is, to pay taxes to Caesar. At that time, in Palestine, the domination of the Roman Empire was poorly tolerated – and of course, they were invaders -, also for religious reasons. For the population, the cult of the emperor, also underlined by his image on the coins, was an insult to the God of Israel. Jesus’ interlocutors are convinced that there is no alternative to their question: either a “yes” or a “no”. They were waiting, precisely because with this question they were sure to corner Jesus and make him fall into the trap. But He knows their malice and frees himself from the trap. He asks them to show him the coin, the tax currency, the tax currency, takes it in his hands and asks who the imprinted image is. They answer that it belongs to Caesar, that is, the emperor. Then Jesus replies: “Pay back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (v. 21).

With this answer, Jesus places himself above the controversy. Jesus, always above. On the one hand, he recognizes that the tax to Caesar must be paid – for all of us too, taxes must be paid – because the image on the coin is his; but above all remember that every person carries within himself another image – we carry it in the heart, in the soul -: that of God, and therefore it is to Him, and to Him alone, that everyone is indebted for his own existence, for his own life.

In this sentence of Jesus we find not only the criterion of the distinction between the political and religious spheres, but clear guidelines emerge for the mission of believers of all times, even for us today. Paying taxes is a citizen’s duty, as is compliance with the just laws of the state. At the same time, it is necessary to affirm the primacy of God in human life and in history, respecting God’s right to what belongs to him.

Hence the mission of the Church and Christians: to speak of God and to witness him to the men and women of their time. Each of us, by Baptism, is called to be a living presence in society, animating it with the Gospel and with the vital lymph of the Holy Spirit. It is a question of committing oneself with humility, and at the same time with courage, making one’s contribution to building the civilization of love, where justice and fraternity reign.

Holy Mary help everyone to escape from all hypocrisy and to be honest and constructive citizens. And may he support us, disciples of Christ, in the mission of bearing witness that God is the center and meaning of life.

[01236-EN.02] [Original text: Italian] Vatican New – Bulletin

At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of the study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

With the story of the parable of the wedding feast, Acts of the Apostles (cf. Mt22.1-14), Jesus outlines the plan that God has thought of for humanity. The king who “made a wedding feast for his son” (v.2) is the image of the Father who has arranged for the whole human family a marvelous feast of love and communion around his only begotten Son. Twice the king sends his servants to call the guests but they refuse, they don’t want to go to the party because they have other things to think about: fields and business. Many times we too put our interests and material things before the Lord who calls us – and calls us to a party. But the king in the parable does not want the room to remain empty, because he wishes to donate the treasures of his kingdom. Then he says to the servants: “Go now to the crossroads and all those you will find, call them” (v.9). This is how God behaves: when rejected, instead of giving up raises and invites to call all those who are at crossroads, without excluding anyone. No one is excluded from the house of God.

The original term that the evangelist Matthew uses refers to the limits of the roads, that is, those points where the city streets end and the paths that lead to the countryside area, outside the town, where life is precarious, begin. It is to this humanity of the crossroads that the king in the parable sends his servants, in the certainty of finding people willing to sit at the table. Thus the banquet hall is filled with “excluded”, those who are “out”, of those who had never seemed worthy to participate in a party, a wedding banquet. On the contrary: the master, the king, says to the messengers: “Call everyone, good and bad. All!”. God also calls the bad ones. “No, I’m bad, I’ve done so many …”. He calls you: “Come, come, come!”. And Jesus went to lunch with the tax collectors, who were public sinners, they were the bad guys. God is not afraid of our soul wounded by so many evil, because he loves us, he invites us. And the Church is called to reach today’s crossroads, that is, the geographic and existential peripheries of humanity, those places on the margins, those situations in which they find themselves encamped and live shreds of humanity without hope. It is a question of not settling on the comfortable and usual ways of evangelization and witness to charity, but of opening the doors of our hearts and of our communities to all, because the Gospel is not reserved for a select few. Even those on the margins, even those who are rejected and despised by society, are considered by God worthy of his love. He prepares his banquet for everyone: just and sinful, good and bad, intelligent and uneducated. Last evening, I managed to make a phone call to an elderly Italian priest, a missionary from the youth in Brazil, but always working with the excluded, with the poor. And he lives that old age in peace: he has burned his life with the poor. This is our Mother Church, this is the messenger of God who goes to the crossroads of paths.

However, the Lord places a condition: wearing the wedding garment. And let’s go back to the parable. When the room is full, the king arrives and greets the guests of the last hour, but he sees one of them without the wedding dress, that kind of cape that each guest received as a gift at the entrance. People went how they were dressed, how they could be dressed, they wore no gala dresses. But at the entrance they were given a kind of cape, a gift. That fellow, having refused the free gift, has excluded himself: so the king can do nothing but throw him out. This man accepted the invitation, but then decided that it meant nothing to him: he was a self-sufficient person, he had no desire to change or to let the Lord change him. The wedding dress – this cape – symbolizes the mercy that God gives us freely, that is, grace. Without grace one cannot take a step forward in the Christian life. Everything is grace. It is not enough to accept the invitation to follow the Lord, it is necessary to be available for a journey of conversion, which changes the heart. The habit of mercy, which God offers us ceaselessly, is a free gift of his love, it is precisely grace. And it requires to be received with amazement and joy: “Thank you, Lord, for giving me this gift”. it is a free gift of his love, it is precisely grace. And it requires to be received with amazement and joy: “Thank you, Lord, for giving me this gift”. it is a free gift of his love, it is precisely grace. And it requires to be received with amazement and joy: “Thank you, Lord, for giving me this gift”.

May Mary Most Holy help us to imitate the servants of the Gospel parable in coming out of our schemes and our narrow views, announcing to everyone that the Lord invites us to his banquet, to offer us the grace that saves, to give us his gift.

[01196-EN.02] [Original text: Italian]

At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of the study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:

“Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In today’s Gospel (cf. Mt 21 : 33-43) Jesus, foreseeing his passion and death, tells the parable of the murderous tenants, to admonish the chief priests and the elders of the people who are about to take a wrong path. These, in fact, have bad intentions towards him and look for a way to eliminate him.

The allegorical story describes a master who, after having taken great care of his vineyard (cf. v. 33), entrusts it to peasants to leave. Then, at harvest time, he sends servants to collect the fruit; but those tenants welcome the servants with sticks and some even kill them. The master sends other servants, more numerous, who however receive the same treatment (cf. vv. 34-36). The climax is reached when the owner decides to send his son: the winemakers have no respect for him, on the contrary, they think that by eliminating him they will be able to take over the vineyard, and so they kill him too (cf. vv. 37-39).

The image of the vineyard is clear: it represents the people that the Lord has chosen and formed with so much care; the servants sent by the master are the prophets, sent by God, while the son is the figure of Jesus. And as the prophets were rejected, so too Christ was rejected and killed.

At the end of the story, Jesus asks the leaders of the people: “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these farmers?” (v. 40). And they, taken by the logic of the narrative, pronounce their own condemnation: the owner – they say – will severely punish those wicked and entrust the vineyard “to other farmers, who will deliver the fruit in due time” (v. 41).

With this very hard parable, Jesus places his interlocutors in front of their responsibility, and he does so with extreme clarity. But we don’t think this warning applies only to those who rejected Jesus at that time. It is valid for any time, including ours. Even today God expects the fruits of his vineyard from those he has sent to work in it. All of us.

In any age, those who have an authority, any authority, even in the Church, in the people of God, may be tempted to do their own interests, instead of those of God himself. And Jesus says that true authority is when one does service, is in serving, not exploiting others. The vineyard belongs to the Lord, not ours. Authority is a service, and as such it must be exercised, for the good of all and for the spread of the Gospel. It is bad to see when people in authority in the Church seek their own interests.

Saint Paul, in the second reading of today’s liturgy, tells us how to be good workers in the Lord’s vineyard: what is true, noble, just, pure, lovable, honored; that which is virtue and deserves praise, may all this be the daily object of our commitment (cf. Phil 4,8). I repeat: what is true, noble, just, pure, lovable, honored; what is virtue and deserves praise, may all this be the daily object of our commitment. It is the attitude of authority and also of each of us, because each of us, in his own small way, has a certain authority. In this way we will become a Church more and more rich in fruits of holiness, we will give glory to the Father who loves us with infinite tenderness, to the Son who continues to give us salvation, to the Spirit who opens our hearts and pushes us towards the fullness of good.

We now turn to Mary Most Holy, spiritually united with the faithful gathered in the Shrine of Pompeii for the Supplication, and in the month of October we renew the commitment to pray the Holy Rosary.”

[01159-EN.02] [Original text: Italian] – Taken from the Vatican News – Bulletin 2020

Zoom Conference with Jim Murphy, Catholic Evangelist, and Missionary.

Friday, October 16th at 7:00 pm and Saturday, October 17th at 7:00 pm

Schedule:
6:30 – 7:00 pm – Intercessory prayers- praying the Holy Rosary – led by Prayer Groups
7:00 – 7:05 pm – Welcome Note – Peter Thompson
7:05 – 7:10 pm – Opening Prayer/ Blessing – Deacon Alex Martinez
7:10 – 7:25 pm – Praise and Worship – Anthony Banka 7:25 – 8:20 pm – Talk – Jim Murphy
8:20 – 8:25 pm – Closing Prayer/ Blessing – Deacon Alex Martinez

Zoom Meeting ID: 815 5265 4065
Password: 838915
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81552654065?pwd=NC9EZzdUZjlIclFiekpyQ2N5Zk8yUT09
No registration needed

Donations are welcomed to support CCCRS and Jim’s missionary work.
Donations can be made via e-transfer to the email at treasurer@cccrs.com or cheques can be mailed (payable to CCCRS) to:
CCCRS
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