(Vatican Radio) Argentinian priest José Gabriel Brochero has been beatified in the Northern Argentine City of Cordoba. James Blears reports about a devout life dedicated to the people of the pampas.
The parish of St Albert spans 4,336kms. Back in the 19th century there were no roads, paths, postal service or telegraph. Father José Gabriel Brochero initiated them, but his tireless journeys through a then wilderness terrain encompassed so much more.
Riding on a mule he brought the gospel, the prayer book and the image of he Virgin Mary to the most isolated communities. As he himself said: "Abandoned by everyone, but not by God."
The Gaucho Priest who was born in 1840 died of leprosy in 1914.
Not only did he minister to the people of the pampas, he often worked side by side with them as a carpenter and a laborer. In his later years he became physically blind.
The people of Argentina haven't and never will forget undaunted, and truly devout Father Brochero. More than 150,000 of them attended the Beatification ceremony in the City of Cordoba including several thousand gauchos, dressed in the same style poncho, he himself wore on his quest which forever continues.
zondag 15 september 2013
Argentianian Priest Fr Brochero beatified
Pope Angelus: Look to the mercy of God
He said that all three parables speak of the joy of God, which is the joy of forgiving. The Holy Father went on to say that this Gospel shows Christianity at work, adding that mercy is the true force that can save man and the world from the "cancer" that is the sin, evil, moral, and spiritual.
Continuing on the theme forgiveness, Pope Francis said that Jesus “is all mercy , all love is God made man.” Each of us, he said “ is the lost sheep, the lost coin , and each of us is the son who has wasted their freedom following false idols, the illusions of happiness, and lost everything.” But God, the Holy Father underlined, “does not forget us, the Father never abandons us. God respects our freedom, but remains faithful . And when we return to Him, he welcomes us as children, into his house, because he never stops, not even for a moment, to expect us, with love.”
But the Pope also warned against judging others and judging God because we think he should punish sinners. Instead, said Pope Francis we should forgive and show mercy. If we live according to the rule “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, he noted we will never overcome the spiral of evil.”
Following the recitation of the Marian Prayer, the Holy Father recalled Blessed José Gabriel Brochero, who was beatified on Saturday in Argentina. Pope Francis said Bless José was a priest who was driven by the love of Christ, a man who devoted himself entirely to his flock , He was, the Pope added with the people, and at the end he was blind and the leper, but full of joy , the joy of the Good Shepherd.
zaterdag 14 september 2013
Pope Francis: Approach mystery of the Cross with prayer and tears
(Vatican Radio) At the Mass for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Pope Francis said the mystery of the Cross is a great mystery for mankind, a mystery that can only be approached in prayer and in tears.
In his homily, the Pope said that it is in the mystery of the Cross that we find the story of mankind and the story of God, synthesized by the Fathers of the Church in the comparison between the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in Paradise, and the tree of the Cross:
“The one tree has wrought so much evil, the other tree has brought us to salvation, to health. This is the course of the humanity’s story: a journey to find Jesus Christ the Redeemer, who gives His life for love. God, in fact, has not sent the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. This tree of the Cross save us, all of us, from the consequences of that other tree, where self-sufficiency, arrogance, the pride of us wanting to know all things according to our own mentality, according to our own criteria, and also according to that presumption of being and becoming the only judges of the world. This is the story of mankind: from one tree to the other.”
In the Cross there is the “story of God,” the Pope continued, because we can say that God has a story.” In fact, “He has chosen to take up our story and to journey with us,” becoming man, assuming the condition of a slave and making Himself obedient even to death on a Cross:
“God takes this course for love! There’s no other explanation: love alone does this. Today we look upon the Cross, the story of mankind and the story of God. We look upon this Cross, where you can try that honey of aloe, that bitter honey, that bitter sweetness of the sacrifice of Jesus. But this mystery is so great, and we cannot by ourselves look well upon this mystery, not so much to understand – yes, to understand – but to feel deeply the salvation of this mystery. First of all the mystery of the Cross. It can only be understood, a little bit, by kneeling, in prayer, but also through tears: they are the tears that bring us close to this mystery.”
“Without weeping, heartfelt weeping,” Pope Francis emphasized, we can never understand this mystery. It is “the cry of the penitent, the cry of the brother and the sister who are looking upon so much human misery” and looking on Jesus, but “kneeling and weeping” and “never alone, never alone!”
“In order to enter into this mystery, which is not a labyrinth but resembles one a little bit, we need the Mother, the mother’s hand. That she, Mary, will make us understand how great and humble this mystery is; how sweet as honey and how bitter as aloe. That she will be the one who accompanies us on this journey, which no one can take if not ourselves. Each one of us must take it! With the mother, weeping and on our knees.”
