Pope Benedict instructed members of religious congregations yesterday on the thirteenth Day of Consecrated Life, that the best way to respond to their vocation is to focus on the lifestyle and mission of St. Paul. The Holy Father met with members of religious congregations, institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, after the conclusion of a Mass celebrating the Day of Consecrated Life, an annual celebration established by John Paul II.
After greeting those present, the Holy Father focused his remarks on St. Paul, the Apostle who is recognized as the father of those “who, called by the Lord, have chosen to dedicate themselves unconditionally to Him and His Gospel.” He further explained that the best way to respond to one’s vocation to the consecrated life, is by imitating the lifestyle of Paul and his focus on poverty, chastity and obedience.
The Holy Father then zeroed in on the three “evangelical counsels” by first turning his attention to poverty. “In the life of poverty [Paul] saw a guarantee that the Gospel would be announced freely,” and also found a life of poverty to be “an expression of real solidarity towards brothers and sisters in need.”
"Accepting God's call to chastity," continued the Holy Father, the Apostle of the Gentiles "gave his heart entirely to the Lord” to serve others with “greater freedom and dedication.”
In addition, “in a world in which the values of Christian chastity enjoyed little popularity,” Pope Benedict noted, Paul “offered secure guidelines of behavior."
On the subject of obedience, Benedict XVI recalled how St. Paul was "under daily pressure because of his anxiety for all the churches,” and how this "inspired, shaped and consumed his life, making it a sacrifice agreeable to God."
The Holy Father then discussed Paul’s mission as an aspect of consecrated life. “He was entirely for Jesus in order to be, like Jesus, for everyone.” By imitating Paul, “so closely bound to the person of Christ, we recognize a profound capacity to unite spiritual life and missionary activity. In him, these two dimensions support one another."
The Pope told the consecrated people of his hope that the Pauline Year may "give you further encouragement to welcome the witness of St. Paul,” specifically by “meditating daily upon the Word of God through the faithful practice of 'lectio divina', and singing 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts'.”
“May the Apostle help you to accomplish your apostolic service in and with the Church, the Holy Father ended in prayer, “with an unreserved spirit of communion, making a gift of your charisms to others and bearing witness to the greatest charism of all, which is charity."
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(Source: CNA)
This appeared on Indymedia site today -
ReplyDeleteI guess those who carry on like this are not exactly following in St. Paul's footsteps in their vocation.
Photo opportunities for the local Parish Priest
by Walter Dunne Wed Feb 04, 2009 19:35
You can guarantee our local Parish Priest in BRAY is there grinning in photos in our local newspaper almost every week with the CREAM of local society who are all in his pocket. Local Councillors, School Principals, those associated with Golf Clubs, local hotel owners, the local council who donated a Defibrillator which offered a photo opportunity for him but now lies gathering dust when he never was interested enough to organise the three monthly re-training courses and up grading of skills for same or even bothering to draw up rota for those qualified to use it. It meant a gathering of local press and photographers and his PUSS in all the local papers praising him for the FIRST Church to have one and now as we say you could prise the dust and grime off it he is no longer interested and looking with his cronies for the next photo opportunity almost begging for offers from locals to get the PUSS in the papers again.
Local radio is no problem to him either to advertise his wares when he gets the chance. What a hypocrite out for self promotion and nothing else. No care for the genuine church goers under his care. They get regular begging letters looking for more Euro to swell the church coffers while he plans grandeur for the local church to put it into three quarters of a million in debt and soon after he will move off to another Parish leaving us to pay for his ego boost for 10 years or more and all this for things that we the Parishioners do not want but we have no say. All was planned and agreed behind our backs. That is his form of democracy.
At great expense a prefab TIN BOX Church has been in the Church grounds for over a month now and huge metal shipping containers also there for store of Church furniture etc., but is there any sign of the workmen or work being done yet while the rental of all this is costing us the Parishioners a fortune NO. ZIP, NADA. He had gates locked while work on the site was meant to be going on for almost 3 weeks. Now they are open again but the little man is probably too embarrassed to update us as to what the heck is happening and why no work has started.
We were supposed to have our Church back and ready for Easter now a month has been WASTED and nothing done.
Archbishop Martin sits on his throne and ignores what is going on in the Parish and with the Parish Priest while he swans around lording it over his cronies and serfs.
It is not just the government that need a wake up call. The Church needs one too.
We should fire the lot of them. People power that is what we need. As well as protest marches to Government Offices we should have them to our local Churches too.
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