Tag Archives: Pope Francis

St Joseph, great saint and powerful intercessor

St Josemaria Escriva calls St  Joseph “our father and lord”. We can learn much from this great saint and entrust all our needs to him. In this meditation we consider how:

  • St Joseph was chosen by God from all eternity to be the spiritual father of Jesus and the guardian of the Holy Family
  • God gave St Joseph special graces and virtues for his mission
  • Like Our Lady, St Joseph is a model of all the virtues and we have much to learn from him
  • St Joseph was the greatest saint after Our Lady
  • St Joseph is a most powerful intercessor, as attested by St Teresa of Avila, Pope Pius XI and Pope Francis, and we can entrust all our needs to him, assured of being heard

 

Living Lent with generosity

 

The word Lent comes from the ancient word Lencten, meaning springtime. If we live Lent well we have a true springtime, with new growth in our spiritual life. In this meditation we consider how:

  • In Lent we accompany Jesus in his forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert.
  • We respond to his invitation, if we want to be his disciples, to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow him.
  • We can choose something from each of the three traditional areas of prayer, fasting and charity.
  • If we live Lent with generosity, we will be much closer to God on Easter Sunday than we were on Ash Wednesday.

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St Joseph’s docility to the will of God

St Joseph's Dream

One of St Joseph’s remarkable qualities was his docility to the will of God. In this meditation we consider:

  • How St Joseph responded to God’s will in various moments
  • Comments of Pope Francis, St Josemaria Escriva and St John Chrysostom on St Joseph’s docility
  • How we come to know the will of God in our own life
  • How our docility, like that of St Joseph, should be prompt, complete, responsible, free and loving

The Good Samaritan

 

We all love the parable of the Good Samaritan, but how well do we live out its message? In this meditation we use Pope Francis’ commentary on the parable in his encyclical Fratelli tutti to see the many lessons it contains and to suggest practical ways of putting these lessons into practice.

With Christ in the storm

 

On 27 March 2020 at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome Pope Francis conducted an hour of prayer broadcast around the world to pray for God’s help in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world. He based his homily on that occasion on the Gospel passage of Christ calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee when the apostles begged him for help. In this meditation we use Pope Francis’ homily to consider how:

  • We should trust more in God in all our problems
  • Christ is always with us and he truly cares for us even when we may wonder where he is
  • We can use the present crisis to examine our priorities and to choose what is of lasting value
  • We should draw closer to God through an increased life of prayer
  • In our difficulties Christ is sharing his Cross with us
  • We should reach out more to others to help them in these special times

Living Lent well

 

Our Lord fasted and prayed for forty days before beginning his public life of preaching the Gospel. In Lent we accompany him in prayer, fasting and almsgiving to prepare for the great feast of Easter. In this meditation we consider how:

  • Inspired by Christ’s example, our prayer and fasting will help us overcome the many temptations we face in life.
  • When we live Lent well, we grow in self-mastery and experience the joy of the resurrection every day.
  • Lent spurs us on to new growth in the spiritual life and prepares us for our final meeting with Our Lord.
  • Texts of Pope Francis and St Peter Chrysologus show us the importance and unity of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
  • There are many practical ways of living each of these aspects of Lent.

Stand up for the faith

Christ teaching the apostles

Jesus warned his followers on one occasion that they would be hated and persecuted for the sake of his name. Today this is happening on a grand scale, in part because the Catholic Church is the largest single religion in the world and in part because the Church stands firmly for what the world is against: the sanctity of life and of marriage, the importance of chastity, the rights of parents in the education of their children… In this meditation we use Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate to consider how:

  • The Church is being attacked for its stand on many issues
  • The world needs what the Church teaches in order to find the happiness and peace it desires
  • We must learn what the Church teaches and defend this teaching with charity and strength
  • We must seek holiness, “the most attractive face of the Church” in order to show the world the beauty of our faith and to avoid being swept along by the current of the world

Discovering our calling

Jesus told the apostles in the Last Supper that they had not chosen him, but that he had chosen them for a particular mission:  to go out and bear fruit. God has created each individual for a purpose: to fulfil some definite part of his plan for the salvation of all souls. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture. St John Henry Newman, Pope Francis and St Josemaria to see how:

  • God has a particular plan for each of us, which only we can fulfil
  • To fulfil this plan we must first seek holiness, love for God which consists in doing his will
  • If we think ourselves unworthy and incapable, so were the apostles
  • Many great things depend on whether we fulfil the mission God has planned for us

Sacrament of joy

 

The parable of the prodigal son is mercy perosnified.

The sacrament of Penance is truly a sacrament of joy, a sacrament of mercy. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture, St John Paul II, Pope Francis and St John Vianney to consider how:

  • Christ gave the sacrament of penance  to the Church on the very evening of his Resurrection
  • The sacrament corresponds to deep-seated human needs
  • We obtain many benefits when we go to Confession
  • We do well to receive the sacrament frequently
  • We should do all we can to take others to Confession

 

 

The Holy Family, model of all families

 

 

In the words of St John Paul II “The history of mankind, the history of salvation, passes by way of the family”. Yet the family today is under attack in many ways. If it is to fulfil its mission, the family can turn to the Holy Family of Nazareth for inspiration and strength. In this meditation we use texts from St John Paul II, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Pope Francis to consider:

  • The beauty of the Holy Family, model of all families
  • The attack on the family in today’s world
  • The vital importance of the family for the wellbeing of the spouses, the children and society
  • Some ways the family can model itself on the Holy Family and thus fulfil its mission more effectively.