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The New Evangelisation and The Year of Faith
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‘The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us’ John 1:14 +e812ei_print.indd 2
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Where God Weeps on EWTN Mark von Riedemann, Communications Director, ACN International invites you to watch the new series of ‘Where God Weeps’ on EWTN (Sky 589).
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helping the Church heal the world. 151 St. Mobhi Road, Dublin 9. TEL 01 837 7516 EMAIL info@acnireland.org +e812ei_print.indd 3
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www.ewtn.com www.wheregodweeps.org
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Fridays at 19:00 hours. Sundays at 02:00 hours (Repeat).
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Contents
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Introduction - Fr. Martin Maria Barta . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................ 2 A Letter of Introduction - Johannes Freiherr Heereman ................................... 3 Conversion, and Walls for the House of Faith - The New Evangelisation ........ 4 The Good Shepherd, Seeking and Saving Souls - Lebanon ............................ 6 The Many Different Forms of Mission - Brazil .............................................. 8 Your Christmas Gift for the Church in Need ............................................... 10
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Introduction - On The New Evangelisation . . . . . ............................................... 12 Year of Faith Introduction - by Pope Benedict XVI......................................... 13 What the World Needs Now - by Fr. Michael Shields. ................................... 18 What is the New Evangelisation?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............................................. 20 Blessed Charles De Foucauld - Priest, Martyr .............................................. 21 Reflections for Advent and Christmas - Pope Benedict XVI ............................ 24 Nativity of the Lord: Mystery of Joy and Light - by Pope Benedict XVI.......... 26
Editor: Jürgen Liminski. Publisher: Kirche in Not / Ostpriesterhilfe, Postfach 1209, 61452 Königstein, Germany. De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae. Printed in Ireland - ISSN 0252-2535. www.acn-intl.org
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Dear Friends, At Christmas time a deep and mysterious yearning awakens in the human heart for a better, happier world. Is this merely an emotional delusion, no more than a distant memory of carefree childhood days that quickly fades away in the harsh light of everyday? Or is the Christmas feast truly an echo of the Divine Word, who became Man in Bethlehem? How hard we find it, in our selfish pride, to accept the simple truth that God became a tiny, helpless Child! And yet it is in this very God who became a child that the salvation of the world lies.
way that quite to its
leads surely goal.’
When we kneel in humility before the Child Jesus in the manger, this great grace is given to us – to be a child before God. To accept everything from God as a gift, even before we can achieve anything – this is the summit of the Christian life.
Edith Stein – Saint Teresa Benedicta of Only as a child, living unconditionally the Cross – once wrote in these words from the Father’s hand, can we taste the to a philosopher who true joy of Christmas. asked her advice: Edith Stein once again, In the very God who ‘You cannot be helped in a meditation: ‘To be became a Child lies the with arguments. If a child of God means to salvation of the world. one could liberate you be led by God’s hand, from all argumentato do God’s will and not tion, that might indeed help you. And our own, to lay all our cares and hopes as for advice, I have already given you in God’s hands and to be concerned no my advice: to become like a little child longer for ourselves or our future. In this and to lay your life, with all its ponder- lie the freedom and joyfulness of the ing and probing, in the Father’s hands. child of God. How few there are, even If you cannot manage to do this, then among the truly pious, who themselves ask the unknown God, in whom you possess these qualities! It is a long way doubt, to help you to do so. Now you from the self-satisfaction of the “good are staring at me in great astonishment, Catholic” who “does his duty” – but for for daring to respond to you with such the rest does what he wants – to a life simple childish wisdom. It is wisdom, lived from God’s hand, with the simplicbecause it is simple, and all myster- ity of a child.’ ies are contained within it. And it is a
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Thank you, dear friends for your living faith, with which you have supported ACN throughout the years in so many different projects. Your faith gives us the courage to turn to you once again for help with the many needs of the Church. Then, together with Our Lady, we can bring to others the love of the Divine Child and the true joy of Christmas.
Dear friends,
our benefactors have given proof of their solidarity with their persecuted Christian brothers and sisters, through their generous legacies or regular donations. The fidelity of the persecuted and the generosity of the benefactors, united in mutual prayer and solidarity, is the best response we can make to the Christmas message of God’s love for all mankind. P I
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Fr. Martin Maria Barta Ecclesiastical Assistant
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I was appointed to this post a year ago. During this year I have come to see the hatred against Christians as a particularly shocking form of violence- against 2 0 13 innocent victims. There is seemingly no 12 end in sight to the violence. With the birth of his Son in deepest poverty God desired to make a new beginning in his loving plan of Salvation. Yet right from the start his message was contested. In our time as well the Church of Christ is unthinkable without the testimony of the martyrs. Their blood is the seed of the Church, from which we too live.
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To you and all your families a Blessed Christmas and a joyful New Year.
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May this Christmas feast draw our gaze still more firmly towards those people MILLI N C O whose fidelity to the Gospel demands O everything of them, often – like Saint Stephen – even their lives. We owe the suffering Church our prayers and our Johannes Freiherr Heereman, support. Once again this year, many of Executive President of ACN International
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Conversion, and Walls for the House of Faith In his Confessions, St Augustine describes the conversion of Victorinus, a prominent scholar and adviser to government circles and to the rich. He believed, yet lacked ‘only’ baptism and the public profession of his faith. ‘Know, that I have finally become a Christian’, said Victorinus to Simplician, the spiritual father of St Ambrose, in a secret meeting. But Simplician replied, ‘I do not believe you, and I will not number you among the Christians until I see you going to the church of Jesus Christ.’ ‘Why?’, asked Victorinus with a smile. ‘Do walls make one a Christian, then?’ Indeed they do for they create community, bear witness, provide shelter and a space for catechesis. Again and again bishops come to us, including those from the ancient Christian lands of Eastern Europe, asking our help so that they can build such walls – whether for a
church, a parish house or a youth centre. Within the walls of one such centre, the diocese of Sambir-Drohobych, in Ukraine is planning to organise retreats for young people and training courses for the leaders of summer youth camps. They also need a larger hall for teaching and catechesis. The demand for these retreats and courses is considerable, in fact. For 18 years now the diocese has been running the summer camps, which already involve over 2,000 young people. ‘Sarepta’ is the name they give these camps, and their aim is to combine fun and relaxation with spiritual instruction. They have a strong appeal among the young – and their appeal is growing. We have promised to finance the cost of a new extension. In Daugavpils, in Latvia, as throughout the sphere of Soviet power, the Communists built whole suburbs, with schools,
Under Our Lady’s protection – praying for the future of Uruguay.
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change that. They offer the young people the chance of camping weekends in their mission station, with prayer, music and games – but without TV, Internet or mobile phones. They call these weekends ‘24 hours in Bethlehem’. And the young people love to come. In summer the weather is fine for camping, but in winter it is too cold. And so they are building a youth hostel for girls and another for boys, quite close to the presbytery. They are asking our help to build for the future – ensuring the Good News from Bethlehem does not come to an end.
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factories, residential apartment blocks – but without churches. In the Kimiku quarter of the city, home to 24,000 souls – there is a gradual reawakening of Christian life. Daugavpils is the largest town in the diocese. Bishop Janis Bulis and the 2,000 or so Catholics who now live in Kimiku began work on a church two 0 13 years ago, only stopping work -in22011 2 yet, if when the money ran out. 1And completed, the walls of this church would give concrete testimony to the return of the Gospel to this once Catholic region, after over half a century of anti-Christian dictatorship. The final price tag for the building will be half a million Euros, and the bishop is seeking funding worldwide. We have promised him to help, confident in your generous response.
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And what about Victorinus? He finally overcame his fear of publicly professing Christianity. ‘Filled with shame at his I In the secularist state of Uruguay, as in vanity and P blushing at his unfaithfulness O Western Europe, very few childrenM come to the truth’, he embraced Christianity ILLIO N C to church after making their First Holy and baptism, St Augustine writes. And so Communion. The Sisters of the Family of he bore witness to all, both within and Mary in the diocese of Florida intend to without the walls.•
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No ‘Sarepta’ without the Cross. Under this sign they can pray, learn and relax.
Building the house of faith – the unfinished walls of the church in Daugavpils.
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The Good Shepherd, Seeking and Saving Souls in Lebanon The Good Shepherd Sisters have a fourth vow: ‘to work for the conversion of sinners and to save souls’. This is the work they do, all over the world, including in Lebanon.
Sister Pascale, giving traumatised women new hope.
‘Consider, dear sisters, how ennobling for us is the sacrifice that we make in our fourth vow, for the salvation of souls. This offering makes us worthy to collaborate in the work of divine Mercy.’ For Sister Pascale these words of the foundress of her congregation have long since become second nature. It goes without saying that she is working for the salvation of souls. She goes into the prisons of Beirut and helps traumatised women. ‘She has travelled her path alone’, she says of Fatmé, a young Muslim woman, forced into marriage at the age of 14 to a man who already had children older than she was. The man beat her often and beat her hard. She was not even allowed to look out of the window, let alone leave the house. At the age of 19 she already had two young
boys. When her husband was murdered, Fatmé was blamed and charged with his murder. No one stood up for her, she had no chance of a fair trial and was condemned.
So grateful for your help: Srs Georgette, Marie-Claude, Pascale and Monique.
Sister Pascale got to know her in the prison, visiting her twice a week, helping to heal her soul by simply being there, talking with her. For years. After 12 years Fatmé was finally released from prison. Her children were in an orphanage by then, quite estranged from her. Pascale continued to visit her, teaching her knitting and ceramics craftwork, so that she could earn a little money from home. Fatmé knows the Koran; Pascale gave her the Gospels. The Good News heals. Viviane, a young Christian woman, was also married young, at the age of 15. Her husband constantly cheated on her, took drugs, beat her up. Often she ended up in hospital. She became pregnant, had a child. Finally, the drugs took their toll on her
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husband. He became depressive, decided case is being re-examined. to kill himself – and her as well. He made a ‘She has endured everything, meal for the two of them, laced with poison. because she believes’, says But she only ate a little, and survived. She Sister Pascale. She continues to was accused of murder; the police beat help Viviane, who is also a soul her to force her into making a ‘confession’. 13 in need of healing. ‘Every soul is precious’, 0 2 While on remand, she told her side - of the she says. ‘The Good Shepherd wishes all to story, but no one believed her. 12 Her child be saved.’ is with her husband’s relatives, in a ‘living hell’, as Sister Pascale puts it. Her father-in- Sister Pascale is grateful to you, the benefaclaw is an addict, her sister-in-law mentally tors, for without your help she could not do disturbed, she describes her mother-in-law this work. And Fatmé and Viviane are just as evil and false. Sister Pascale visits the two examples among many. • family and the young boy, now nine years Keyrings, old, says, ‘I want to go to mummy.’ Viviane made in prison has now been on remand for seven years, by Fatmé without trial. She doesn’t have the money and Viviane. for a lawyer. Her mother cleans apartment PI blocks, to make ends meet. Pascale has O M I LAL I N C found a lawyer willing to take on the case. O priest, who believes Viviane’s account, has made a written account of the whole affair and passed it to the lawyer. Now the whole
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Saint Maria Euphrasia Pelletier Born in 1796, at the age of 21 she took her permanent vows in the congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge. At 29 she became Superior and established a new house in Angers, France in 1829. In 1831 she established the congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd (the Good Shepherd Sisters). It was recognised by the Pope in 1835, with Angers as the mother house and seed ground of new houses. By the time of her death in 1868 she had established 110 convents on all five continents. • Aid to the Church in Need +e812ei_print.indd 11
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The Many Different Forms of Mission in Brazil In May 2007, in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI, the Fifth General Assembly of the Bishops’ conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean resolved to launch a grand continental mission whose aim was to give ‘Latin America and the Caribbean a new impetus and new strength’. For Bishop Dominique Marie Jean Denis of the diocese of Santíssima Conceição do Araguaia, Brazil, this is like the sending of the disciples by Christ. Following the centenary celebrations of his diocese, he has launched a three-year mission in the countryside, in the towns, and in hearts and minds. The third of these is the hardest, being aimed as it is at dialoguing with specific professions. The aim is to convey a clear understanding of the Catholic faith, its meaning and forms of expression, through two or three-day congresses. Thus, for example, there will be a congress for teachers and educators, and another
for prison staff and their 80-plus volunteer workers in the prison ministry; another for artists and musicians to mark the Year of Faith, with up to 200 musicians from 10 different parishes. Bishop Dominique is finding a variety of different ways of bringing the Word to his people. Last year he wrote a theatre play for everyone, entitled ‘Gideon’s Christmas’. It is set back in the time of the Judges of Israel, when the people had become unfaithful to God and fallen into the hands of the Midianites. The message for today is clear: those who do not respect the Commandments of God will fall prey to heathen ways and will worship idols such as Mammon. Gideon was called by God to shake his people out of their torpor and defeat the Midianites. He succeeded, with just a handful of faithful warriors – and a piece of cunning deception. The message again is that God needs men for the mission – not many but faithful ones. And just as Gideon and his men
God will never abandon us... Bishop Dominique explains his play.
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The continental mission is a contemporary way of proclaiming the Gospel. The Message of Love does not change, but the form may indeed do so, for it must be adapted to the circumstances. In the diocese of Rio Branco, deep in the Amazon rainforest, 33 priests (just 11 of them diocesan priests) minister to around half a million souls. Out After crossing the Rio Branco: of a total of 32 parishes, 10 have to make Father Paolino, bringing the Word. do without any priest at all. Consequently, 3 1 0 2 with even Bishop Joaquín Pertíñez Fernández encircled the camp of the Midianites is frequently on the road. The huge trumpets and firebrands, so the 12missionar- himself ies of today should not hide their light under distances mean heavy transport costs; a bushel, but should proclaim the Good then there are the exhausting climatic conditions in this ‘green hell’, the malaria, News with commitment and joy. the dengue fever, the frequent flooding. But Bishop Dominique also has a surprise This year the Rio Branco overflowed again, in store for Gideon and for the missionaries inundating numerous towns and villages – for after having withstood the test, they and leaving 10,000 people homeless in this encounter Joseph and Mary on the way to diocese alone. Many of the smaller commuBethlehem, fall into conversation and learn nities are accessible only by water. Travel from Joseph about the approaching birth costs are an essential item, an investment speak. But what matters is of Jesus. Gideon draws the appropriate in mission, so P Ito and O that the priests missionaries continue conclusion: God will never abandon M us;IHe C LLIO N is always at our side – and above all since to come, for Christ’s missionary command knows no frontiers. • He became Man.
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God always forgives: Bishop Joaquín hearing confessions.
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Whoever is with God will find a way: Bishop Joaquín on a mule.
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Your Christmas Gift for the Church in Need 10 Euros – to warm the hearts of the faithful – even at minus 25°C
50 Euros – to keep the Church’s mission on the road
This small town in Romania is called Holod – from a Slavonic word meaning ‘cold’. In winter the temperature can fall to minus 25°C. The community of Easternrite Catholics here need some sort of heating for their little chapel. The situation is the same in the parish of Teceu Miu, where the elderly in particular are hoping the Church won’t be so bitterly cold this winter. The church is the only one in the region, and it is also attended by Latin-rite Catholics and Romanian Orthodox believers. The need is the same in Pargaresti, and in Varadia. In the hills and mountains of Romania communities need adequate heating in their churches or new, weather tight windows (saving 25% of the heating costs). They have been saving up, to the best of their abilities, but their own resources are insufficient. If a few hundred of benefactors could give 10 Euros each, we could be warming the hearts of our Romanian brothers and sisters in the winter cold this Christmas.•
A set of car tyres as a Christmas present? Or a new battery? For Bishop Emilio Aranguren Echeverría of Holguín, the largest diocese in Cuba, the work of the pastoral apostolate sometimes depends on a set of tyres to keep it on the road. Or perhaps a new battery, so that the motor can start in the first place. Cars and spare parts are a major problem in Cuba – as official permission is required to purchase a new car. So Cuba remains an island of classic cars, and every car owner has to go in search of spare parts to keep his vehicle going for as long as mechanically possible. And for the same reason it makes sense for the diocese – with its 35 parishes, 114 mission houses and 140 mission stations – to have its own garage in order to maintain its 48 vehicles in service. So let us help these communities to celebrate Christmas – whether with new tyres and batteries, or with myrrh and frankincense. If 300 ACN benefactors give 50 Euros each, then Bishop Emilio will be able to bring them the Good News. •
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100 Euros – to make Christ visible in his Church
The parish of St Therese in Niamey, Niger is ‘dynamic, full of initiative and joyful in living its Faith in the midst of a Muslim environment’, writes Archbishop Michel Cartatéguy. ‘There can be no Church without priests, nor can there be priests without the Church.’ Undoubtedly, the Church in Cuba has a quite special need for more priests and for good priests, who can ‘convey hope, despite all the vicissitudes of life’. The help you are giving represents a major contribution towards this, as the 56 young men and future priests in the seminary of San Carlos y San Ambrosio in Havana, Cuba will readily testify. They have written to express their heartfelt thanks to you for having made them ‘the object of your kindness’. And they also thank you ‘on behalf of our Catholic faithful, for it is they too who ultimately benefit from our training and
This church will be ‘a visible sign of the Christian presence’, a lighthouse of faith. It will be the first Catholic church in this part of town. It will strengthen the Christians in their identity as they work, quietly and discreetly among the poor. The walls are already standing; what is missing is the roof. It will eventually have space for 500 people. Will you help us to provide a roof for this House of God? 100 Euros will pay for one square metre of roof. You will be giving tangible form to the message of peace, and giving honour to the Prince of Peace. •
from your help’. As they point out,we are all of us – priests, laity and b en efa cto rs – ‘indispensable for the life of the other, so that each of us in his own way helps to build up the Church of Christ. That is so beau• tiful and wonderful.’
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A LOOK IN THE
with the second providing a more extended reflection on the mystery of Joy and Light entailed in the Nativity of the Lord.
A chairde, ittingly the Year of Faith 2012-2013 marking the golden anniversary of the commencement of the Second Vatican Council began during the Bishop’s Synod on the New Evangelisation. In the first article of this ‘Look in the Mirror’, Pope Benedict XVI outlines his reasons for proclaiming the ‘Year of Faith’.
In ‘Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives’, Benedict emphasises that authentic Catholic culture is deeply rooted in Faith and Reason, and while it is eminently reasonable to have faith there will always be mystery because Truth simply surpasses all reason. Truth however can be attained by all who humbly seek it through listening to the Word of God and who put it into practice.
Subsequently Fr. Michael Shields in his article on ‘What the world needs now’ takes up the theme of giving witness to the Faith. Writing from a former Gulag and bastion of Soviet atheism he stresses humanity’s inescapable need to live in Truth and Love. In all of this Fr. Michael is in no doubt that Christian Truth is transformative because every day he witnesses the difference it makes in a society ruined by rampant godlessness and untruth.
Today all over the world there are many millions of Christians who responding to the Word of God, ‘the Word’ who ‘became flesh and dwelt amongst us’. More often than not these humble men and women provide a silent witness within their families and in their local communities. Individually they are ‘little lights’, collectively they ‘civilise the world’. The New Evangelisation invites us and our faith requires us, irrespective of age or condition in life, to be ‘lights to the world’.
Witnessing to the beauty of Truth and doing so in Charity lies at the very heart of New Evangelisation as it does indeed of Fr. Michael’s personal mission to Magadan, a mission which he discharges following the saintly example of Blessed Charles de Foucauld, a priest whose life and witness is briefly summarised herein. There then follows two articles by Pope Benedict, the first of which is a small collection of five brief reflections given by the Holy Father on the subject of Advent and Christmas
During this ‘Year of Faith’ let us encourage each other in the Faith and actively seek out ‘little ways’ to bring the Light of Christ to a world ever in need of Christian Joy and Hope and Truth. Beannachtaí daoibh go léir
J F Declan Quinn
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The Year of Faith. Introduction.1 Pope Benedict XVI
announced this special Year of Faith, so that the Church might:• Renew the enthusiasm of believing in Jesus Christ. • Revive the joy of walking on the path he pointed out. • Bear a tangible witness to the transforming power of faith.
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he 50th anniversary of the - 2open2 ing of the Second Vatican 1 Council is an important opportunity to return to God, to deepen our faith and live it more courageously, and to strengthen our belonging to the Church, ‘teacher of humanity’. It is through the proclamation of the Word, the celebration of the sacraments and works of charity that she guides us to meeting and knowing Christ, true God and true man. This is not an encounter
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he encounter with Christ renews our human relationships, directing them, from day to day, to greater solidarity and brotherhood in the logic of love. Having faith in the Lord is not something that solely involves our intelligence, the area of intellectual knowledge; rather, it is a change that involves our life, our whole self: feelings, heart, intelligence, will, corporeity, emotions and human relationships. With faith everything truly changes, in us and for us, and our future destiny is clearly revealed, the truth of our vocation in history, the meaning of life, the pleasure of being pilgrims bound for the heavenly Homeland.
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with an idea or with a project of life, but with a living Person who transforms our innermost selves, revealing to us our true identity as children of God.
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owever — let us ask ourselves — is faith truly the transforming force in our life, in my life? Or is it merely one of the elements that are part of existence, without being the crucial one that involves it totally? With the Catecheses of this Year of Faith let us make a journey to reinforce or rediscover the joy of faith, in the knowledge that it is not something extraneous, detached from daily life, but is its soul. Faith in a God who is love, who makes himself close to man by incarnating himself and by giving himself on the Cross, who saves us and opens the doors of Heaven to us once again, clearly indicates that man’s fullness consists solely in love.
that there is no true humanity except in the places, actions, times and forms in which the human being is motivated by the love that comes from God. It is expressed as a gift and reveals itself in relationships full of love, compassion, attention and disinterested service to others. Wherever there is domination, possession, exploitation and the taking advantage of the other for selfish reasons wherever there is the arrogance of the ego withdrawn into the self, the human being is impoverished, debased and disfigured. The Christian faith, active in charity and strong in hope, does not limit but rather humanizes life, indeed, makes it fully human.
his must be unequivocally reasserted today, when the cultural transformations under way frequently display so many forms of barbarity, passed off as ‘conquests of civilization’. Faith affirms
aith means taking this transforming message to heart in our life, receiving the revelation of God who makes us know that he exists, how he acts and what his plans for us are. Of course, the
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Nazareth Crucified and Risen, the Saviour of the world who is seated at the right hand of the Father and is the judge of the living and the dead. This is the kerygma, the central explosive proclamation of faith. However the problem of the ‘rule of faith’ has been posed from the outset, in other words the problem of believers’ faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel, which to be firmly anchored, to the saving truth about God and man that must be preserved and passed down. St Paul wrote: ‘I preached to you the Gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast — unless you believed in vain’ (1 Cor 15:2).
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mystery of God always remains beyond our conception and reason, our rites and our prayers. Yet, through his revelation, God actually communicates himself to us, recounts himself and makes himself accessible. And we are enabled to listen to his Word and to receive his truth. This, then, is the wonder of faith: God, in his love, creates within us — through the action of the Holy Spirit — the appropriate conditions for us to recognise his Word. God himself, in his desire to show himself, to come into contact with us, to make himself present 13 in our history, enables us to listen 2to0and receive him. St Paul expresses2it with joy 1 and gratitude in these words: ‘And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers’ ( 1 Thess 2:13).
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od has revealed himself with words and works throughout a I long history of friendship with P mankind which culminated in the IncarnaMILLI N C O tion of the Son of God and in the Mystery O of his death and Resurrection. God not only revealed himself in the history of a people, he not only spoke through the ut where can we find the essential Prophets but he also crossed the threshformula of faith? Where can we find old of his Heaven to enter our planet as a the truths that have been faithfully man, so that we might meet him and lis- passed down to us and that constitute the ten to him. And the proclamation of the light for our daily life? The answer is simple. Gospel of salvation spread from Jerusa- In the Creed, in the Profession of Faith or lem to the ends of the earth. The Church, Symbol of Faith, we are reconnected with born from Christ’s side, became the mes- the original event of the Person and hissenger of a new and solid hope: Jesus of tory of Jesus of Nazareth; what the Apostle
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to the Gentiles said to the Christians of Corinth happens: ‘I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures’ (1 Cor 15:3-5). oday too the Creed needs to be better known, understood and prayed. It is important above all that the Creed be, so to speak, ‘ recognised’. Indeed, knowing might be merely an intellectual operation, whereas ‘recognizing’ means the need to discover the deep bond between the truth we profess in the Creed and our daily existence, so that these truths may truly and in practice be — as they have always been — light for our steps through life, water
that irrigates the parched stretches on our path, life that gets the better of some arid areas of life today. The moral life of Christians is grafted on the Creed, on which it is founded and by which it is justified. t is not by chance that Blessed John Paul II wanted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a reliable norm for teaching the faith and a dependable source for a renewed catechesis, to be based on the Creed. It was a question of confirming and preserving this central core of the truths of the faith and of rendering it in a language that would be more comprehensible to the people of our time, to us. It is a duty of the Church to transmit the faith, to communicate the Gospel, so that the Christian truths may be a light in the new cultural transformations and that Christians may be able to account for the hope that is in them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). Today we are living in a society in constant movement, one that has changed radically, even in comparison with the recent past. he processes of secularisation and a widespread nihilistic mentality in which all is relative have deeply marked the common mindset. Thus life is often lived frivolously, with no clear ideals or well-founded hopes, and within fluid and temporary social ties. Above all the new generations are not taught the truth nor the profound meaning of existence that surmounts the contingent situation, nor permanent affections and trust. Relativism leads, on the contrary, to having
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no reference points, suspicion and fi0 13 2 ckleness break up human relations, while life 2 is lived in brief experiments 1without the assumption of responsibility.
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hristians often do not even know the central core of their own Catholic faith, the Creed, so that they leave room for a certain syncretism and religious relativism, blurring the truths to believe in as well as the salvific uniqueness of Christianity. The risk of fabricating, as it were, a ‘do-it-yourself’ religion is not so far off today. Instead we must return to God, to the God of Jesus Christ, we must rediscover the Gospel message and make it enter our consciences and our daily life more deeply.
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f individualism and relativism seem to would like it to be clear that this condominate the minds of many of our tent or truth of faith (fides quae) bears contemporaries, it cannot be said that directly our life; it asks for a converbelievers are completely immune to these sion of life that gives life to a new way of dangers, with which we are confronted in believing in God (fides qua). Knowing God, the transmission of the faith. The investiga- meeting him, deepening our knowledge of tion promoted on all the continents through the features of his face is vital for our life the celebration of the Synod of Bishops on so that he may I enter into the profound the New Evangelization, has highlighted dynamicsO ofPthe human being. • MILLI N C some of them: a faith lived passively and O Audience, Saint Peter’s Square, privately, the rejection of education in the 1 General Wednesday, 17 October 2012 faith, the gap between life and faith.
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‘Joy is the true gift of Christmas, not the expensive gifts that call for time and money... Let us pray that this presence of the liberating joy of God shines forth in our lives.’ Pope Benedict XVI
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What the World Needs Now - by Fr. Michael Shields Let’s just all agree…’all religions are equal and are a valid path to God?’ No, no believing Muslim, no orthodox Jew, no practicing Catholic nor could any true Christian agree with such a statement. Yes they would agree that we all share some truths and hold some deep faith realities in common. Yes they would say that in a world of great differences we should be prepared to give reasons why we believe we have better answers to life’s great questions, but no true believer would ever claim that all religions are equally valid paths to God. The fact is that the statement ‘all religions are equal’ is an arrogant one which emerges from a secular culture that seeks to impose its ‘faith reality’ on others, a secular culture which proclaims religion to be at best a tolerable social nuisance or at worst the root of all human strife. In other words secularists and secularised cultures relentlessly try to convert to their religious relativism all people of faith who give witness to Charity in the Truth. Sustained attempts to convert the faithful are happening everywhere in today’s globalised world as secularism denies the ultimate truth claims of all religions. In doing so Secularism claims for itself an ultimate truth which it denies to others. Secularists claim that there is no ultimate truth, that all truth is relative and that truth is a social/political construct. In taking such a position, Secularism is culturally imperialistic worldview that seeks to imposes its ‘truth’ on other belief systems. So it is that while at first Secularist truth claims
appear to be humble, well-considered and liberating they are in fact arrogant, illogical and imprisoning. The practical truth is that we cannot live Fr. Michael Shields, our lives without Magadan, Siberia. believing in something. In fact everyone has a belief system, which is used to answer life’s big questions. Simply put, religion is humanity’s way of trying to answer the big questions of life: • Why are we here? • What is right and what is wrong? • What is best way to live? • Where am I going? • Where did I come from? • Indeed why should I get up in the morning? So here is the point, the real issue does not lie in claiming all religions to be equal (equally valid or equally invalid) but in enquiring as to which religion provides the best answer to the deepest questions of life. Now here we have the underlying reason why Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the ‘Year of Faith.’ As people of faith we are called and are being called to go out and engage secular religious realities as well as other world religions and show why Christianity is the greatest strategy for saving cultures, societies and souls. In proclaiming the ‘Year of Faith’ the Holy Father invites us to engage in a
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new kind of ecumenism, one which respects other faiths enough to agree upon what we share in common and one that respects why it is that we are Christians and what it is that Christ uniquely offers to the world.
we are saved by God’s grace, renewed by His forgiveness and achieve peace through surrendering to God’s Will and embracing His Holy Cross.
Think about it, why should anyone take Christianity seriously if we as Christians won’t demonstrate to the world that Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh is the best answer to the deepest questions of life?
The simple truth of the matter is that no other religion has such a love for this world, respect for the dignity of every human person or such a complete and hope-filled worldview. The Catholic Church is God’s chosen means to always and everywhere proclaim His Word to the world and His Word is life. •
The Truth is that Christianity offers Hope to the world, a liberating world view that
“Ultimate reality for a Christian is a man on a cross… … • loving people, who do not love Him, • forgiving people, who are abusing Him, • serving people, who oppose Him. And when Christians take that into the very heart of their lives … • How could they coerce? • How could they trample? • How could they be cruel to anyone? They could not be and we cannot be! Everyone of us has a set of fundamental beliefs upon which we live our lives and Christianity has an exclusive set of fudamental beliefs. But which set of beliefs leads to the most inclusive behaviour and a personally fulfilling life? Take moralistic religion into the centre of your life, and you will be superior to the seculars.
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Take secularism into the centre of your life, and you will feel superior to all these stupid religious people. Take the Gospel into the centre of your life, and • you will be humbled before the people, who do not believe what you believe, • you will seek to serve the people, who do not believe what you believe and • you will know that the Man, who loves people, who do not love Him, is what your whole life build on. Here is how to release this incredible force into the world For those who already believe the Gospel, believe it more deeply. For those who do not believe the Gospel, consider believing it, and become part of what the world needs now.”1 • 1 Adapted from a homily by Tim Keller, Exclusivity of Christianity.
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What is the New Evangelisation? vangelisation that is ‘new in its ardour, methods and expression.’ The New Evangelisation calls each of us to deepen our faith, believe in the Gospel message and go forth to proclaim the Gospel. The focus of the New Evangelisation calls all Catholics to be evangelised and then go forth to evangelise. In a special way, the New Evangelisation is focused on ‘re-proposing’ the Gospel to those who have experienced a crisis of faith. Pope Benedict XVI called for the reproposing of the Gospel ‘to those regions awaiting the first evangelisation and to those regions where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularisation.’ The New Evangelisation invites each Catholic to renew their relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church.
Why do we need the New Evangelisation? The New Evangelisation offers hope. Jesus grants all people rest and comfort from the world’s burdens (Mt. 11:28) by offering us the hope of salvation and eternal life. Through the ‘re-proposing’ of the Gospel, the Church seeks to comfort all those who are burdened. The New Evangelisation offers the gifts of Faith, Hope, Charity and new life in Christ. •
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lessed harles e oucauld (1856-1916) Priest, Martyr
into Saint-Cyr, the West Point of France. Charles admired the Jesuits, but he was bored with his life and no longer believed in God. Charles wrote, ‘At seventeen I was all selfishness, all vanity, and all irreverence, consumed by desire for evil. I was completely disorientated.’ He begged his grandfather to let him leave Saint-Cyr. As a proud Foucauld, his grandfather would have none of that. Finally, with the help of a tutor, Charles graduated from Saint-Cyr near the bottom of his class, ranking 333 out of a class of 338. He sought entrance into the military academy, but was rejected because he was too fat. Again his grandfather had to help.
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harles de Foucauld lived a remarkable life of adventure, deprivation and devotion. He was a man of extremes, an aristocratic bon vivant whose conversion to Christianity led him to embrace a life of solitude and prayer. Charles de Foucauld 201as3 was baptised into the Catholic Church an infant and received his First 12Holy Communion at the age of fourteen, but he was hardly saintly. Described by one biographer as ‘one of the most perverse foot-stompers As a young military man Charles continued and blue-murder screamers’ Strasbourg, to follow an empty life. He was very popular France had ever known. Charles and his with his classmates since he had the money sister, Marie, were orphaned when Charles to entertain them all. He graduated from was only six. It appears that Charles’ father Calvary School, but again finished near the fell into a deep depression and left home bottom of his class and number 87 out of 88. to go to Paris and live with his sister. He All this time, Charles had a mistress, Mimi, abandoned his family and remained in whom he would not give up. He enjoyed I Paris until his death. His mother died after P falling ill from worry about her husband. MILLI N C O O The children were adopted by their maternal grandparents. The kindly grandfather spoiled Charles, and saw his temper tantrums as signs of character.
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At the age of fourteen, Charles began studies at Nancy Lycee, where he received above average grades in history and geography, and low grades in Latin and religion. He managed to graduate at the age of sixteen and was sent to Paris where the Jesuits were to prepare him for his entrance exams A LOOK IN THE +e812ei_print.indd 25
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her company so much that he brought her to Africa when his unit was assigned there, much to the displeasure of the Army. When he refused to legalise his situation, the army discharged him and he returned to France. Gradually the social life began to bore him and he regretted giving up his military career. He was able to get reinstated and rejoined his old regiment in Africa. He became a disciplined military leader and became impressed with the religious zeal of some of the Muslims who would risk their lives to stop fighting when it came time to pray. Once again, Charles left the military to work for the French Geographical Society. He had a very keen interest in Northern Africa and devoted his time to exploring and mapping the region of Morocco. In 1886 he returned to Paris to finish his book on Morocco. He led an active social life and during this time, at a dinner party in the home of his cousin a devout Roman Catholic, he had occasion to meet Fr. Huvelin, the pastor of Saint Augustine’s Church.
It was during this time that the question of faith was constantly on his mind. He would visit the churches of Paris and pray, ‘God, if you exist, let me come to know you.’ One morning Charles walked into Fr. Huvelin’s church and said he wanted to talk about faith. The priest suggested he make a good confession and from that moment, at age 28, Charles converted to faith in Jesus Christ. Regarding his conversion, Charles said, ‘The moment I realised that God existed, I knew I could not do otherwise than to live for Him alone.’ Within months, he had decided to love and imitate Jesus totally. The Lord’s humility and abandonment to the will of the Father, especially as exhibited in Jesus’ hidden life at Nazareth deeply impressed him. He wanted to own nothing, be unimportant and spend his time in prayer. He entered a Cistercian Trappist abbey in France in 1890. After a few years he moved to a monastery in Syria, but wanted more solitude so he left and went to a convent in Nazareth where for three years he happily worked as a gardener. While working for the Poor Clare nuns, he met Mother Elisabeth, the Superior and a woman of uncommon wisdom. She helped Charles come to accept his vocation to the priesthood so that he could better serve God. Africa was calling and he wanted to bring the sacraments to ‘the most rejected.’ On June 9, 1901, at the age of 43 Charles de Foucauld was ordained a priest and went to the Sahara near Morocco to live as a ‘hermit missionary’ among non-Christians. He built a small hermitage which he used for Adoration and hospitality. In 1902 he devel-
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Charles de Foucauld’s life was the seed in the Gospel that had to die to bring forth fruit. At the time of his death neither his missionary contacts nor his design for a new religious order had born fruit. Within twenty years of his death at least three congregati M Ions L were founded that derived their inspirationL I O N and Rules from Charles de Foucauld. These Little Brothers of Jesus, Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart and Little Sisters of Jesus live in small groups all over the world preaching by the lives they live. This holy man who was a monk, priest, explorer, linguist, and scholar left his wild selfish years behind and became selflessly in love with Jesus Christ who longed for Him intensely and sought only to do His will. The grain of wheat, consumed by Love, continues to bear fruit abundantly.
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‘I wish to be buried in the place where I die and to remain there until the Resurrection. I forbid that my body be transported elsewhere, that I be taken from the spot where the Good Lord has had me finish my pilgrimage.’ - from the will of Blessed Charles •
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oped a program of buying slaves in order to free them. He dreamed of being joined by a small community that would live with him in the desert. He revised his rule demanding three things of his followers: that they are ready to have their heads cut off, to die of starvation and to obey him ‘in spite of his worthlessness.’ For the next fifteen years he lived as a missionary hermit finally settling in a Tuareg village. He divided his time between prayer, intellectual work and visits from the Tuareg people, extensively learning their language and culture. The people respected Charles for his life of poverty, 201to3 prayer and hospitality. Charles hoped convert them only by example 12and kindness of his life, and this would draw them to Christ. In 1916, Fr. Charles de Foucauld was shot by a band of marauders during an anti-French uprising. He died alone in his desert dwelling at the age of 58.
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Reflections for Advent and Christmas by Pope Benedict XVI
‘Presence’ 1 dvent invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us. ‘Waiting’ 2 he question is: Is the humanity of our time still waiting for a Saviour? One has the feeling that many consider God as foreign to their own interests. Apparently, they do not need him. They live as though he did not exist and, worse still, as though he were an “obstacle” to remove in order to fulfill themselves. Even among believers some let themselves be attracted by enticing dreams and distracted by misleading doctrines that suggest deceptive shortcuts to happiness. Yet, despite its contradictions, worries and tragedies, and perhaps precisely because of them, humanity today seeks a path of renewal, of salvation, it seeks a Saviour and awaits, sometimes unconsciously, the coming of the Saviour who renews the world and our life, the coming of Christ, the one true Redeemer of man and of the whole of man.
‘Preparation’ 3 hristmas is a privileged opportunity to meditate on the meaning and value of our existence. The approach of this Solemnity helps us on the one hand to reflect on the drama of history in which people, injured by sin, are perennially in search of happiness and of a fulfilling sense of life and death; and on the other, it urges us to meditate on the merciful kindness of God who came to man to communicate to him directly the Truth that saves, and to enable him to partake in his friendship and his life. Therefore let us prepare ourselves for Christmas with humility and simplicity, making ourselves ready to receive as a gift the light, joy and peace that shine from this mystery.
Christmas address in St. Peter’s Square.
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‘Sign’ 4 od’s sign is his humility. God’s sign is that he makes himself small; he becomes a child; he lets us touch him and he asks for our love. How we would prefer a different sign, an imposing, irresistible sign of God’s power and greatness! But his sign summons us to faith and love, and thus it gives us hope: this is what God is like. He has power, he is Goodness itself. He invites us to become like him. Yes indeed, we become like God if we allow ourselves to be shaped by this sign; if we ourselves learn humility and hence true greatness; if we renounce violence and use only the weapons of truth and love.
The Crib in St. Peter’s Square.
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Homily at First Vespers of Advent, November 28, 2009. Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience December 20, 2006. General Audience, December 17, 2008. Homily at Mass for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, December 24, 2009. 5 Homily at Mass for the Solemnity,of the Nativity of the Lord, December 25, 2008.
Pope Benedict XVI Christmas Card. A LOOK IN THE
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‘Changing’ 5 nly if people change will the world change; and in order to change, people need the light that comes from God, the light which so unexpectedly [on the night of Christmas] entered into our night. •
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Nativity of the Lord: Mystery of Joy and Light
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- Benedict XVI he liturgical time of Christmas begins on the evening of 24 December with the Vigil Mass and ends with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. …all takes place around the two great Solemnities of the Lord: Christmas and Epiphany. The very names of these two feasts indicate their respective traits. hristmas celebrates the historical event of Jesus’ Birth in Bethlehem. Epiphany, which came into being as a feast in the East, indicates an event but above all one aspect of the Mystery: God reveals himself in the human nature of Christ and this is the meaning of the Greek verb epiphaino, to make oneself visible. ere I would like to recall briefly several themes proper to the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord. irst of all, let us ask ourselves: what is the first reaction to this extraordinary action of God who makes himself a child, who makes himself man? I think that the first reaction can only be one of joy. ‘Let us all rejoice in the Lord, for our Saviour is born to the world’. The Mass on Christmas Eve begins with these words and we (hear)… what the Angel said to the Shepherds: ‘Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy’ (Lk 2:10). This is the theme with which the Gospel begins and also with which
it concludes, since the Risen Jesus was to reprimand the Apostles precisely for being sad (cf. Lk 24:17) — incompatible with the fact that he remains Man for eternity. owever, let us take another step; what gives rise to this joy? I would say that it is born from the heart’s wonder at seeing that God is close to us, that God thinks of us, that God acts in history; it is therefore a joy born from contemplating the face of that humble Child because we know that he is the Face of God present for ever in humanity, for us and with us. Christmas is joy because at last we see and are certain that God is the goodness, life, and truth of human beings and that he stoops down to them to lift them up to him. od becomes so close that it is possible to see and touch him. The Church contemplates this ineffable mystery and the liturgical texts of this Season are steeped in wonder and joy; all Christmas carols express this joy. Christ-
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mas is the point at which Heaven and earth converge and the various expressions we hear in these days stress the greatness of what has come about: the remote — God who seems very remote — has become close, ‘The inaccessible wanted to be accessible, he who exists before time began to be in time, the Lord of the universe, veiling the greatness of his majesty, took the nature of a servant’ 2
AITH 8 on the Nativity: CCL 138, 139): F F
ndeed, the Holy Pontiff says (Sermon
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he theology and spirituality of Christmas use a phrase to describe this event, they speak of an admirable commercium, that is, a wondrous exchange between divinity and humanity. St Athanasius of Alexandria says (De Incarnatione, 54, 3: PG 25, 192):
‘so that we may have recourse to that unutterable condescension of the Divine Mercy, whereby the Creator of men deigned to become man, and be found ourselves in his nature whom we worship in ours’
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In that Child who needed everything 201 as all children do, what God 2is — eter1 nity, strength, holiness, life and joy — is united with what we are: weakness, sin, suffering and death.
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‘The Son of God became man so that we might become God’
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Christ born in a stable is born in me, Christ accepted by shepherds accepts me, Christ receiving the wise men receives me, Christ revealed to the nations be revealed in me, Christ dwelling in Nazareth You dwell in me, Christ, grant that people may look at me, and see Your Presence. Amen
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he second act of the exchange consists in our real and intimate participation in the divine nature of the Word. St Paul says: ‘When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons’ (Gal 4:4-5). hristmas, therefore, is the feast on which God made himself so close to man as to share in his own act of being born, to reveal to him his deepest dignity: that of being a son of God. Thus the dream of humanity beginning in Paradise — we would like to be like God — is brought about in an unexpected manner not because of the greatness of man who cannot make himself God but because of the humility of God who comes down and thus enters us in his humility and raises us to the true greatness of his being. The Second Vatican Council said in this regard:
‘In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear’ (Gaudium et Spes, n. 22); otherwise it remains an enigma: what does this creature man mean? t is only by seeing that God is with us that we can see light for our being, that we can be content to be human beings and live with trust and joy. And where does this wondrous exchange become truly present, so that it may work in our life and make it an existence of true children of God? It becomes tangible in the Eucharist. When we participate in Holy Mass we present what is ours to God: the bread and the wine, fruit of the earth, so that he will accept them and transform them, giving us himself and making himself our food, in order that in receiving his Body and his Blood we may participate in his divine life.
‘May the birth of the Prince of Peace remind the world where its true happiness lies; and may our hearts be filled with hope and joy, for the Saviour has been born for us’ Pope Benedict XVI
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would like to reflect, lastly, on another aspect of Christmas. When the Angel of the Lord appeared to the Shepherds on the night of Jesus’ Birth, Luke the Evangelist notes that ‘the glory of the Lord shone around them’ (Lk 2:9); and the Prologue of John’s Gospel speaks of the Word made flesh as of the true light coming into the world, the light that can enlighten every man (cf. Jn 1:9). The Christmas liturgy is bathed in light.
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising’ (Is 60:1-3)
AITH F Fshadows hrist’s coming dispels the OHoly 0 13 of the world, fills the - 2Night
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t the beginning of the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, we find the following words:
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2 with a heavenly brightness and 1 reflects the splendour of God the Father on human faces. Today too, enveloped in Christ’s light, we are insistently invited by the Christmas Liturgy to let our minds and hearts be illuminated by God who has shown the radiance of his Face. The First Preface of Christmas proclaims:
t is an invitation addressed to the Church, the community of Christ, but also to each one of us, to acquire an ever livelier awareness of the mission and of the responsibility to the world in witnessing to and bringing the new light of the Gospel.
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‘In the wonder of the incarnation your eternal Word has brought to the ‘Christ is the light of humanity; and it I the heartfelt desire of eyes of faith a new and radiant vision is, accordingly, P O Council, being gathered of your glory. In him we see our M God Csacred I L L I Othis N made visible and so are caught up in together in the Holy Spirit, that, by love of the God we cannot see’. proclaiming his Gospel to every creature, it may bring to all men that light n the Mystery of the Incarnation of Christ which shines out visibly from God, having spoken and intervened the Church’ (n. 1). in history through messengers and with signs, ‘appeared’, emerged from his he Gospel is not a light to hide but inaccessible light to illuminate the world. to set upon a stand. The Church is not light but receives the light of n the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the Christ, receives it to be illuminated by it Church presents a very important and to radiate it in its full splendour. And passage from the Prophet Isaiah: ‘ this must also happen in our personal life.
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nce again, I cite St Leo the Great who said on Holy Night: ‘recognise, O Christian, your dignity and, enabled to share in the divine nature, do not wish to relapse into your former base condition with unworthy conduct. Remember who is your Head and to which Body you belong. Remember that you were snatched from the power of darkness and transferred into the light and into the Kingdom of God’ (Sermon 1 on the Nativity, 3, 2: CCL 138, 88). 1 BENEDICT XVI, GENERAL AUDIENCE, 4 January 2012. 2 St. Leo the Great, Sermon 2 on the Nativity of the Lord, 2.1)
ear brothers and sisters, Christmas means pausing to contemplate that Child, the Mystery of God who became man in humility and poverty, but above all it means welcoming within us once again that Child who is Christ the Lord, to live of his own life, to ensure that his sentiments, his thoughts and his actions are our sentiments, our thoughts and our actions. Celebrating Christmas is therefore showing the joy, the newness and the light that this Birth brought to the whole of our life, so that we too may be heralds of joy, of true newness, of the light of God to others. •
Christmas Wish God give you blessings at Christmas time; Stars for your darkness, sun for your day, Light on the path as you search for the Way, And a mountain to climb. God grant you courage this coming year, Fruit for your striving, friends if you roam, Joy in your labour, love in your home, And a summit to clear
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An Tríonóid Bheannaithe In ainm an Athar, agus an Mhic, agus an Spioraid Naoimh Amen Tá mé ag lúbadh mo ghlun i súil an Athar a chruthaigh mé, i súil an Mhic a cheannaigh mé, i súil an Spioraid a ghlanaigh mé, le grá agus rún.
Prayer to Christ the Redeemer Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before you. We are yours, and yours we wish to be; but to be more surely united with you, behold each one of use freely consecrates himself today to your Most sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known you; many, too, despising your precepts, have rejected you. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to your Sacred Heart. Be King O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken you, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned you; grant that they may quickly return to the Father’s house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keels aloof, and call them back to the harbour of truth and the unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd.
Prayers to the Holy Trinity In the name of the Father And of the Son And of the Holy Spirit Amen I lovingly kneel before The Father who created me, The Son who redeemed me and The Spirit who cleansed me.
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Grant, O Lord, to your Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give tranquillity of order to all nations; make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honour for ever.
Amen
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Need, Love and Thanks – Your Letters Aid to the Church in Need’s
‘Faith Card’ and ‘Learn to Pray
The Rosary Card’
A widow’s mite, for the poorest When we got news from you that you were going to support our project, I went straight into the chapel to give thanks, though I know there are others still waiting for help. We love to read the Mirror and hear of your wonderful work for persecuted Christians and for the hungry… We hope that our small contribution – our widow’s mite – can help ease the most urgent needs. And you may also count on our prayers! A community of religious sisters, Brazil So many cries for help Please accept my small donation of $50 to your good work. I will give when I can, though I am on very limited funds. It is difficult to choose which cry for help to answer as they are so many. I hope my donation will help someone in need. A benefactress in Australia
Available free of charge in quantities of 100 for distribution within parishes, Catholic community groups and schools. For more Information contact Vincent by calling 01 837 7516 or email vincent@acnireland.org
Aid to the Church in Need helping the Church heal the world.
We will treasure them! On behalf of Year 5/6 at Banks town Public School Catholic Scripture Class, we wish to thank you for the lovely Christmas Tree Ornament gifts (made in Bethlehem by Christian families in need) which we all received last year. We will always treasure them. Students from Australia A birthday gift Reading your newsletters has opened my eyes to the terrible sufferings of Christians around the world, but especially in the Middle East. The help you give is wonderful and I wanted to make an extra effort in my support. For my 60th birthday party I asked for donations instead of presents and I am delighted to enclose a cheque for £320. I will always keep ACN in my prayers. A benefactor from the United Kingdom
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Thank you from Aid to the Church in Need Each year thanks to the • Donations • Legacies and • Mass offerings
FAITH F O
of its benefactors in Ireland and around the 3 01to: world, ACN is 2 able
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IL D R E N
20
YE AR
• Provide 12 sustenance and the means of survival for approx. 20,000 priests • Support approx. 18,000 seminarians and religious and • Distribute approx. 1.5 million catechetical books for children in over 170 languages.
ES
CH
OF
Heartfelt thanks for all your prayers and support provided to Christ’s Suffering and Persecuted Church.
Worldwide over 50 million Children’s Bibles have been distributed in more than 170 languages.
GO
May the Good Lord continue to bless I you P and your family, past and present, now and MILLI N C O always. O
D
SP
I H EAKS TO
S
J F Declan Quinn Director Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland) Where to send your contribution for the Church in Need: Please use the Freepost envelope. Aid to the Church in Need, 151 St. Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. Tel. (01) 837 7516. Email: info@acnireland.org Web: www.acnireland.org
(Registered Charity Numbers: (RoI) 9492 (NI) XR96620).
If you give by standing order, or have sent a donation recently, please accept our sincere thanks. This Mirror is for your interest and information.
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Please visit www.godspeakstohischildren.org to view an online version of ‘The Four Gospels’ and ‘God Speaks Through His Saints and Our Suffering’.
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The Year of Faith 2012 - 2013
““In the very God who became a Child lies the salvation of the world” Fr. Martin Barta, ACN
‘In the Child Jesus, God made himself dependent, in need of human love. He put himself in the position of asking for human love – our love. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season and discover behind it the Child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light.’ Pope Benedict XVI. Christmas Mass, St Peter’s, Rome, 2011.
To live from God’s hand, with the simplicity of a child... Christmas in front of the crib, in Kazakhstan.
helping the Church heal the world. 151 St. Mobhi Road, Dublin 9. TEL 01 837 7516 EMAIL info@acnireland.org +e812ei_print.indd 1
www.acnireland.org www.acnuk.org www.wheregodweeps.org www.godspeakstohischildren.org
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Aid to the Church in Need
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