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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

CATHOLIC NEWS WORLD : TUES. MARCH 4, 2014 - SHARE

2014










POPE FRANCIS "...The Cross is always present on the road of a Christian!”

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TODAY'S SAINT : MARCH 4 : ST. CASIMIR PRINCE OF POLAND

(Vatican Radio) The persecution of Christians in contemporary society was the focus of Pope Francis’ homily at his Mass on Tuesday morning in the Santa Marta residence. He warned that
the Cross is always on the road of a Christian, saying there are more Christian martyrs today than during the early days of the Church.

In his homily, the Pope took as his cue the biblical account of where Peter asked Jesus what the disciples would receive in return for following him. He said Peter probably thought that following Jesus would be a great commercial activity because Jesus is generous but, as Christ warned, whatever they would gain would always be accompanied by persecutions.

“It’s as if Jesus said, ”Yes, you have left everything and you will receive here on earth many things: but with persecutions!” Like a salad with the oil of persecution: always! This is what the Christian gains and this is the road for the person who wants to follow Jesus, because it’s the road that He himself trod.: He was persecuted! It’s the road of humbling yourself. That’s what Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians. ‘Jesus emptied himself and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross’. This is the reality of Christian life.”

Pope Francis went on to warn that the Cross is always present on the road of a Christian!” We will have many brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers in the Church, in the Christian community, but we also will have persecutions.

“This is because the world does not tolerate the divinity of Christ. It doesn’t tolerate the preaching of the Gospel. It does not tolerate the Beatitudes. And so we have persecutions: with words, with insults, the things that they said about Christians in the early centuries, the condemnations, imprisonment…. But we easily forget. We think of the many Christians, 60 years ago, in the labour camps, in the camps of the Nazis, of the communists: So many of them! For being Christians! And even today…. But (people say) ‘today we are better educated and these things no longer exist’. Yes they do! And I tell you that today there are more martyrs than during the early times of the Church.”

Pope Francis pointed out that there are many brothers and sister nowadays who bear witness to Jesus and are persecuted. Some cannot even carry around a Bible.

“They are condemned for having a Bible. They can’t wear a crucifix. And this is the road of Jesus. But it is a joyful road because our Lord never tests us beyond what we can bear. Christian life is not a commercial advantage, it’s not making a career: It’s simply following Jesus! But when we follow Jesus this happens. Let’s think about if we have within us the desire to be courageous in bearing witness to Jesus. And let’s spare a thought -- it will do us good – for the many brothers and sisters who today – today! – cannot pray together because they are persecuted: they cannot have the book of the Gospel or a Bible because they are persecuted.” 

Let’s think, the Pope continued, about those brothers who cannot go to Mass because it is forbidden and let’s ask ourselves if we are prepared to carry the Cross and suffer persecutions like Jesus did? It’s good for all of us to think about this, concluded the Pope.


Text from Vatican Radio website 

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ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY RELEASE:
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
28 Feb 2014

Lent Calendar on iPad and Web
The Archdiocese of Sydney's social network xt3.com will launch its 2014 Lent Calendar and Smartphone App, in partnership with The University of Notre Dame Australia on Ash Wednesday next week.

For each day of Lent, Xt3 will provide daily inspiration through videos, podcasts and reflections, as well as beautiful original artworks of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, created by Xt3.com
The 2014 Xt3 Lent Calendar is also available as a FREE App for your iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
The calendar can be downloaded for Android devices by searching for "Xt3 Lent" in the Google Play store, or by clicking here.
It is also available for download on the iPad and iPhone, just search for "Xt3 Lent" in the App store, or click here.

Lent Calendar on iPhone and Android
The content for each day is hidden until that particular day of Lent has arrived. The first feature will be available on Ash Wednesday, 5 March 2014.
The first video reflection on Ash Wednesday will be His Eminence Cardinal George Pell on the history and meaning of Lent.
Other original videos include a story on the Easter Mystery with Fr Tony Percy, Rector of the Good Shepherd Seminary; a week in the life of a priest with Fr Michael de Stoop, testimonies from a number of students from The University of Notre Dame Australia; dating for Catholics plus podcasts on aetheism, confession, human trafficking, immigration, and reflections from priests and Bishops from around Australia.
Another feature is a narration of the Stations of the Cross by the Missionaries of God's Love sisters plus content from Fr Robert Barron in the US and George Weigel.
The app will run for one week after Easter up to Divine Mercy Sunday and the canonisation of John Paul II and John XXIII.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE UKRAINE - APPEAL BY PATRIARCHS

ASIA NEWS IT REPORT:
by Nina Achmatova
The pro tem leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (tied to Russia) appeals to Kirill to do everything possible to avoid war. His plea comes after the Kremlin gets the green light to use military force. Russian Orthodox patriarch speaks to President Turchynov by phone.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Metropolitan Onufry, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, has appealed to Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to make every effort to avoid bloodshed in Ukraine. This comes after the Russian Senate gave the Kremlin the green light to send Russian troops into the Ukraine.
Sources close to the Moscow Patriarchate told AsiaNews that Onufry's initiative was something "new" and "very significant" because it illustrates a different position between Russian and Ukrainian Churches and that the Ukrainian "episcopate is not pro-Russian," as one might have thought in the past.
Speaking on 2 March about the possible deployment of Russia troops in the former Soviet republic, Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bukovina warned against "catastrophic consequences for both countries".
He also described the current situation in Ukraine as "the most difficult in its recent history."
The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Church just elected Onufry as locum tenens of the Metropolitanate of Kiev in lieu of Metropolitan Vladimir, who has been very ill for some time.
Onufry's plea was followed by a telephone conversation between Kirill and Ukrainian interim president Oleksandr Turchynov, to whom the Orthodox patriarch expressed «deep concern about the latest developments in Ukraine".
Patriarch Kirill said "everything possible should be done to put an end to the suffering of the people, and to stop the violence and all manifestations of ethnic and religious discrimination".
This is the same argument Moscow has used to justify its intervention to defend ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
So far though, no cases of actual attacks or intimidation have been reported against the country's Russian-speaking population.
Whilst the patriarchs prayed for peace in the Ukraine and the country's integrity, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Synodal Department for Cooperation between Church and Society of the Moscow Patriarchate, described the deployment of troops in the Crimea as a "peace mission" whose aim is to "defend the freedom and identity" of the Russian population.
Chaplin said he hoped that soldiers are not faced "a ruthless resistance that could lead to large-scale fighting."

"No one wants bloodshed," said Chaplin, "nor to widen the gap between the Orthodox faithful in the space of historic Rus," a term that refers to the territories of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
SHARED FROM ASIA NEWS IT

WHAT IS MARDI GRAS OR PANCAKE TUESDAY ANSWERS AND A RECIPE FOR YOU

Image for Royal couple visit Northern Ireland
"Mardi Gras" is french for fat tuesday. This refers to the day before Ash Wednesday when the 40 days of Lent officially begins. "Mardi Gras", "Carnival" and "Shrove Tuesday" all involve celebrations of eating, drinking, dancing, etc. before the fasting of Lent.  Some celebrate the "Carnival" by joining in parades with elaborate costumes, festive music, dancing, and other activities. March 4, 2014 is Shrove Tues.

Princess Kate Middleton: on Shrove Tuesday (Image source: Google)
The english word 'Shrove' refers to confessing of sins for Lent. In parts of Europe the "Shrove Tuesday" is celebrated by flipping pancakes. (image source: http://www.ucfjourno.org/taxonomy/term/3)
"Carnival" means farewell to meat.
There are many cities world-wide that have historic and magnificent celebrations on this day. The most famous include cities famous for Mardi Gras celebrations Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Trinidad and Tobago, New Orleans (Louisiana), Quebec City (Canada).
Historical roots in Jewish Tradition
The Jews also celebrate the re-dedication of the Temple with Hanukkah. When the re-dedication occurred there was a lighting of the lamps with pure oil that lasted for 8 days. To commemorate this the Jews eat latkes (potato pancakes), made with lots of oil.
IRISH SHROVE TUESDAY PANCAKE RECIPE
Ingredients:
8oz all purpose/plain flour
Pinch salt
2 eggs
2½ cups milk
2 tsp melted butter plus melted butter for cooking
Method:
Makes 12 pancakes
Sieve the flour into a large baking bowl, add the salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the eggs and beat well until smooth and lump free.
Add half the milk and the 2 tsp of butter, beat well. Add the remaining milk and stir.
Leave the batter to rest for 15 minutes.
Lightly grease a pancake pan or frying pan with a little melted butter, heat until very hot and add a ladle of batter to evenly and thinly coat the base of the pan. Cook until set and lightly golden. Flip over (if you are really brave try tossing the pancake in the air, great fun) and cook on the other side for approx 30 seconds.
Remove the pancake from the pan, place on a sheet of kitchen paper and keep warm. Continue as above until all the batter is used up.
(RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Celebrate-Fat-Tuesday-or-Shrove-Tuesday-with-this-delicious-Irish-pancake-recipe-139804393.html#ixzz1n4N5C1tP)
Some traditions over the centuries have led to excessive indulgences during this day. Let us keep sober and remember the roots of the Lenten fast when Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. In the Gospels we find the story which is the reason for the fast; when Jesus "was in the desert forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan; and he was with beasts, and the angels ministered to him." (Mark 1:13)

TODAY'S MASS ONLINE : TUESDAY MARCH 4, 2014

Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 348


Reading 1        1 PT 1:10-16

Beloved:
Concerning the salvation of your souls
the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours
searched and investigated it
investigating the time and circumstances
that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated
when it testified in advance
to the sufferings destined for Christ
and the glories to follow them.
It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you
with regard to the things that have now been announced to you
by those who preached the Good News to you
through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven,
things into which angels longed to look.

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly,
and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Like obedient children,
do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance
but, as he who called you is holy,
be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct,
for it is written, Be holy because I am holy.

Responsorial Psalm                PS 98:1, 2-3AB, 3CD-4

R. (2a) The Lord has made known his salvation.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.

Gospel          MK 10:28-31

Peter began to say to Jesus,
“We have given up everything and followed you.”
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

2014

TODAY'S SAINT : MARCH 4 : ST. CASIMIR PRINCE OF POLAND

St. Casimir
PRINCE OF POLAND
Feast: March 4


Information:
Feast Day:March 4
Born:
October 3, 1458(1458-10-03), Wawel, Kraków
Died:March 4, 1484, Hrodna, Belarus
Canonized:
1522, Rome by Pope Adrian VI
Major Shrine:Vilnius Cathedral
Patron of:patron saint of Poland and Lithuania
St Casimir was the third among the thirteen children of Casimir III, King of Poland, and of Elizabeth of Austria, daughter to the Emperor Albert II, a most virtuous woman, who died in 1505. He was born in 1458, on the 3rd of October. From his childhood he was remarkably pious and devout. His preceptor was John Dugloss, called Longinus, canon of Cracow, a man of extraordinary learning and piety, who constantly refused all bishoprics and other dignities of the church and state which were pressed upon him. Uladislas, the eldest son, was elected King of Bohemia in 1471, and became King of Hungary in 1490. Our saint was the second son; John Albert the third son, succeeded the father in the kingdom of Poland in 1492; and Alexander, the fourth son, was called to the same in 1501. Casimir and the other princes were so affectionately attached to the holy man, who was their preceptor, that they could not bear to be separated from him. But Casimir profited most by his pious maxims and example. He consecrated the flower of his age to the exercises of devotion and penance, and had a horror of that softness and magnificence which reign in courts His clothes were very plain, and under them he wore a hair shirt. His bed was frequently the ground, and he spent a considerable part of the night in prayer and meditation, chiefly on the passion of our Saviour. He often went out in the night to pray before the church-doors; and in the morning waited before them till they were opened to assist at matins. By living always under a sense of the divine presence he remained perpetually united to, and absorbed in, his Creator, maintained an uninterrupted cheerfulness of temper, and was mild and affable to all. He respected the least ceremonies of the church: everything that tended to promote piety was dear to him. He was particularly devout to the passion of our blessed Saviour, the very thought of which excited him to tears, and threw him into transports of love. He was no less piously affected towards the sacrifice of the altar, at which he always assisted with such reverence and attention that he seemed in raptures. And as a mark of his singular devotion to the Blessed Virgin, he composed, or at least frequently recited, the long hymn that bears his name, a copy of which was, by his desire, buried with him. His love for Jesus Christ showed itself in his regard for the poor, who are his members, to whose relief he applied whatever he had, and employed his credit with his father, and his brother Uladislas, King of Bohemia, to procure them succour. His compassion made him feel in himself the afflictions of every one.
The Palatines and other nobles of Hungary, dissatisfied with Matthias Corvin, their king, son of the great Huniades, begged the King of Poland to allow them to place his son Casimir on the throne. The saint, not then quite fifteen years of age, was very unwilling to consent; but in compliance with his father's will he went, at the head of an army of twenty thousand men, to the frontiers in 1471. There hearing that Matthias had formed an army of sixteen thousand men to defend him, and that all differences were accommodated between him and his people, and that Pope Sixtus IV had sent an embassy to divert his father from that expedition, he joyfully returned, having with difficulty obtained his father's consent so to do. However, as his dropping this project was disagreeable to the king his father, not to increase his affliction by appearing before him he did not go directly to Cracow, but retired to the Castle of Dobzki, three miles from that city, where he continued three months in the practice of penance. Having learned the injustice of the attempt against the King of Hungary, in which obedience to his father's command prevailed upon him to embark when he was very young, he could never be engaged to resume it by fresh pressing invitation of the Hungarians, or the iterated orders and entreaties of his father. The twelve years he lived after this he spent in sanctifying himself in the same manner as he had done before. He observed to the last an untainted chastity, notwithstanding the advice of physicians who excited him to marry, imagining, upon some false principle, this to be a means necessary to preserve his life. Being wasted with a lingering consumption, he foretold his last hour, and having prepared himself for it by redoubling his exercises of piety, and receiving the sacraments of the church, he made a happy end at Vilna, the capital of Lithuania, on the 4th of March, 1484, being twenty-three years and five months old. He was buried in the Church of St. Stanislas. So many were the miracles wrought by his intercession that Swiecicki, a canon of Vilna, wrote a whole volume of them from good memoirs in 1604. He was canonized by Pope Leo X, whose legate in Poland, Zachary Ferrier, wrote the saint's life. His body, and all the rich stuffs it was wrapped in, were found quite entire, and exhaling a sweet smell one hundred and twenty years after his death, notwithstanding the excessive moisture of the vault. It is honoured in a large rich chapel of marble, built on purpose in that church. St. Casimir is the patron of Poland and several other places, and is proposed to youth as a particular pattern of purity. His original picture is to be seen in his chapel in St. German des Prez in Paris, built by John Casimir, King of Poland, the last of the family of Waza, who, renouncing his crown, retired to Paris, and died Abbot of St. Germain's in 1668.
What is there on earth which can engage the affections of a  Christian, or be the object of his ambition, in whose soul God desires to establish his kingdom? Whoever has conceived a just idea of this immense happiness and dignity must look upon all the glittering bubbles of this world as empty and vain, and consider every thing in this life barely as it can advance or hinder the great object of all his desires. Few arrive at this happy and glorious state, because scarce any one seeks it with his whole heart, and has the courage sincerely to renounce all things and die to himself: and this precious jewel cannot be purchased upon any other terms. The kingdom of God can only be planted in a soul upon the ruins of self-love: so long as this reigns, it raises insuperable obstacles to the perfect establishment of the empire of divine love. The amiable Jesus lives in all souls which he animates by his sanctifying grace, and the Holy Ghost dwells in all such. But in most of these how many worldly maxims and inclinations diametrically opposite to those of our most holy heavenly king, hold their full sway! how many secret disorders and irregular attachments are cherished! how much is found of self-love, with which sometimes their spiritual exercises themselves are infected! The sovereign King of men and their merciful Redeemer is properly said to reign only in those souls which study effectually, and without reserve, to destroy in their affections whatever is opposite to his divine will, to subdue all their passions, and to subject all their powers to his holy love. Such fall not into any venial sins with full deliberation, and wipe away those of frailty into which they are betrayed, by the compunction and penance in which they constantly live, and by the constant attention with which they watch daily over themselves. They pray with the utmost earnestness that God deliver them from all the power of the enemy, and establish in all their affections the perfect empire of his grace and love; and to fulfil his will in the most perfect manner in all their actions is their most earnest desire and hearty endeavour. How bountifully does God reward, even in this life, those who are thus liberal toward him! St. Casimir, who had tasted of this happiness, and learned truly to value the heavenly grace, loathed all earthly pomp and delights. With what joy ought not all Christians, both rich and poor, to be filled when they hear: The kingdom of God is within you! With what ardor ought they not to devote themselves to make God reign perfectly in their hearts! How justly did St. Casimir prefer this pursuit to earthly kingdoms!


SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/C/stcasimir.asp#ixzz1oBH2qOYL