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VATICAN NEWS
Holy Spirit heals divisions caused by money, vanity, and gossip
Catholic News Agency T he Holy Spirit can help Christians overcome the three temptations that destroy community life, Pope Francis said during morning Mass on April 21.
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Speaking from the chapel of his Vatican residence, Casa Santa Marta, the pope turned to the day’s first reading (Acts 4:32- 37), which describes the harmony among the first Christians. This description was no fantasy, he said, but rather a model for today’s Church.
“It is true that immediately after this, problems will begin,” he observed, “but the Lord shows us how far we can go if we are open to the Holy Spirit, if we are docile. In this community there is harmony.”
Pope Francis said that many things divided parishes, dioceses, communities of priests, and men and women religious. He identified three major temptations: money, vanity and idle chatter.
He said money, vanity and idle chatter have divided believers since the early days of Christianity.
“Money divides the community,” he said. “For this reason, poverty is the mother of the community. Poverty is the wall that guards the community. Money divides ... Even in families: how many families ended up divided by an inheritance?”
He continued: “Another thing that divides a community is vanity, that desire to feel better than others. ‘Thank you, Lord, that I am not like the others:’ the Pharisee’s prayer.”
Vanity could be seen at the celebration of sacraments, the pope said, with people vying to wear the best clothes.
“Vanity enters there too. And vanity divides. Because vanity leads you to be a peacock and where there is a peacock, there is division, always,” he said.
“A third thing that divides a community is idle chatter: it’s not the first time I’ve said it, but it’s reality ... That thing that the devil puts in us, like a need to talk about others. ‘What a good person that is…’ -- ‘Yes, yes, but…’ Immediately the ‘but:’ that’s a stone to disqualify the other.”
Yet with the Holy Spirit we are able to resist all three temptations, he said, concluding: “Let us ask the Lord this docility to the Spirit so that He may transform us and transform our communities, our parish, diocesan, religious communities: transform them, so that we may always move forward in the harmony that Jesus wants for the Christian community.”
After Mass, the pope presided at adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
He led those watching via livestream in an act of spiritual communion, praying: “My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you above all things, and I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace you as being already there and unite myself wholly to you. Never permit me to be separated from you.”
Finally, those present sang the Easter Marian antiphon “Regina caeli.”
At the start of Mass, Pope Francis noted that amid the coronavirus lockdown towns and cities had fallen silent.
“In this time there is so much silence,” he said. “One can also feel the silence. May this silence, which is a little new in our habits, teach us to listen, make us grow in our ability to listen. Let us pray for this.”
Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. Vatican Media
St. Peter’s Basilica and square closed to public March 10, 2020.
Vatican City prepares to ease coronavirus restrictions in May
By Courtney Mares
Catholic News Agency V atican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with members of the Roman curia on Wednesday to discuss the gradual reopening of Holy See offices as Italy prepares to end its national lockdown.
The heads of Vatican dicasteries decided to implement a “gradual reactivation of ordinary services” starting in May, while “safeguarding the health precautions to limit contagion,” according to a statement from the Holy See Press Office April 22.
Italy’s strict lockdown is scheduled to end May 4 after 55 days of mandatory quarantine for the entire country.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced April 21 that he will be releasing a plan to slowly lift the coronavirus restrictions and reopen businesses.
“I wish I could say: let’s reopen everything. Immediately. … But such a decision would be irresponsible. It would bring up the contagion curve uncontrollably and it would frustrate all the efforts we’ve put in so far,” Conte wrote in a Facebook post published April 21.
After over a month of lockdown, more than 100,000 people are currently ill with COVID-19 in Italy after 183,957 total cases were documented by the Italian Ministry of Health.
When the Diocese of Rome announced the suspension of all public Masses one day before the national lockdown was declared, there had been a total of 87 coronavirus cases documented in Lazio, the region surrounding Rome. As of April 21, there are 4,402 active cases reported in the same region with an additional 1,130 people recovered and 363 deceased.
Vatican City itself has reported nine cases of COVID-19 among its employees. The most recent confirmed case was reported by the Holy See Press Office this week after the patient was hospitalized.
“Appropriate sanitisation and checks were carried out among those who had had contact with the interested party on the only day of his presence at the workplace in the two weeks prior to the response, all with negative results,” Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni said April 20.
Bruni has repeatedly said that Vatican City is implementing measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in coordination with the Italian authorities.
St. Peter’s Basilica and square, the Vatican Museums, and several other public offices in the Vatican City State have been closed for more than six weeks.
1 | Fri | Easter Weekday | white/white [Saint Joseph the Worker] Acts 9:1-20/ Jn 6:52-59 (277) or, for the Memorial, Gn 1:26—2:3 or Col 3:14-15, 17, 23-24/ Mt 13:54-58 (559)
2 | Sat | Saint Athanasius, Bishop
and Doctor of the Church | white | Memorial | Acts 9:31-42/Jn 6:60-69 (278)
3 | SUN | FOURTH SUNDAY OF
EASTER | white Acts 2:14a, 36-41/1 Pt 2:20b-25/Jn 10:1-10 (49) Pss IV 4 | Mon | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 11:1-18/Jn 10:11-18 (279) 5 | Tue | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 11:19-26/Jn 10:22-30 (280) 6 | Wed | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 12:24—13:5a/Jn 12:44-50 (281) 7 | Thu | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 13:13-25/Jn 13:16-20 (282) 8 | Fri | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 13:26-33/Jn 14:1-6 (283) 9 | Sat | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 13:44-52/Jn 14:7-14 (284)
10 | SUN | FIFTH SUNDAY OF
EASTER | white Acts 6:1-7/1 Pt 2:4-9/ Jn 14:1-12 (52) Pss I
11 | Mon | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 14:5-18/Jn 14:21-26 (285)
12 | Tue | Easter Weekday | white/ red/red [Saints Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs; Saint Pancras, Martyr] Acts 14:19-28/Jn 14:27-31a (286)
13 | Wed | Easter Weekday | white/ white [Our Lady of Fatima] Acts 15:1-6/ Jn 15:1-8 (287)
14 | Thu | Saint Matthias, Apostle
| red | Feast | Acts 1:15-17, 20-26/Jn 15:9-17 (564) Pss Prop
15 | Fri | Easter Weekday | white/ white [USA: Saint Isidore] Acts 15:22- 31/Jn 15:12-17 (289)
16 | Sat | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 16:1-10/Jn 15:18-21 (290)
17 | SUN | SIXTH SUNDAY OF EAS
TER 11 | white Acts 8:5-8, 14-17/1 Pt 3:15-18/Jn 14:15-21 (55) Pss II
11 When the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated on the following Sunday, the Second Reading and Gospel from the Seventh Sunday of Easter (see no. 59) may be read on the Sixth
Sunday of Easter. 18 | Mon | Easter Weekday | white/red [Saint John I, Pope and Martyr] Acts 16:11-15/Jn 15:26—16:4a (291) 19 | Tue | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 16:22-34/Jn 16:5-11 (292) 20 | Wed | Easter Weekday | white/ white [Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest] Acts 17:15, 22—18:1/Jn 16:12-15 (293) 21 | Thu | Easter Weekday | white/red [Saint Christopher Magallanes, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs] Acts 18:1- 8/Jn 16:16-20 (294) 22 | Fri | Easter Weekday | white/ white [Saint Rita of Cascia, Religious] Acts 18:9-18/Jn 16:20-23 (295) 23 | Sat | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 18:23-28/Jn 16:23b-28 (296)
24 | SUN | THE ASCENSION OF THE
LORD | white | Solemnity | Acts 1:1-11/ Eph 1:17-23/Mt 28:16-20 (58) Pss Prop 25 | Mon | Easter Weekday | white/ white/white/white [Saint Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church; Saint Gregory VII, Pope; Saint Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin] Acts 19:1-8/Jn 16:29-33 (297) 26 | Tue | Saint Philip Neri, Priest | white | Memorial | Acts 20:17-27/Jn 17:1-11a (298) 27 | Wed | Easter Weekday | white/ white [Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop] Acts 20:28-38/Jn 17:11b-19 (299) 28 | Thu | Easter Weekday | white | Acts 22:30; 23:6-11/Jn 17:20-26 (300) 29 | Fri | Easter Weekday | white/ white [Saint Paul VI, Pope] Acts 25:13b-21/Jn 21:15-19 (301) 30 | Sat | Easter Weekday | white | Morning: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31/Jn 21:20-25 (302) 31 | SUN | PENTECOST SUNDAY | red | Solemnity | Vigil: Gn 11:1-9 or Ex 19:3-8a, 16-20b or Ez 37:1-14 or Jl 3:1-5/Rom 8:22-27/Jn 7:37-39 (62) or, for the Extended Vigil: Gn 11:1-9/Ex 19:3-8a, 16-20b/Ez 37:1-14/Jl 3:1-5/ Rom 8:22-27/ Jn 7:37-39 (Lectionary for Mass Supplement, 62) Day: Acts 2:1-11/1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13/Jn 20:19-23 (63) Pss Prop
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