DONATE TO JCE NEWS

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Catholic News World : Sunday, May 4, 2014 - Share!

2014


(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis visited the central Roman church of St. Stanislaw on Sunday morning. St. Stanislaw’s is the Polish national church in Rome, and serves the significant Polish population in the city. The Holy Father made the visit in order to celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving for the canonization of Pope St. John Paul II, who was a native of Poland and Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow before being elected to the See of Peter in October of 1978.

In his homily, Pope Francis praised the Polish nation as, “[A] people that have been greatly tried in their history.” He went on to say, “The Polish people know well that, in order to enter into glory, one must needs pass by way of the passion and the cross – and [the Polish people] know this, not because they have studied it, but because they have lived it.”

 “St. John Paul II,” continued Pope Francis, “as a worthy son of his earthly homeland, followed this way – he followed it in an exemplary manner.” Pope Francis then asked, “And what of us? Are we prepared to follow [the way of the passion and the cross]?” 

Reflecting on the Gospel reading of the day, which tells the story of Our Lord’s appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Pope Francis recalled a saying of Pope St. John Paull II: “We are pilgrims, not vagabonds.” He went on to say that the disciples on the way to Emmaus were wandering – they knew not whither they were headed, nor what end they would make. “On the way back,” he said, “they were witnesses of the hope that is Christ, because they had met Him, the Risen Wayfarer: this Jesus, the Risen One walking with us. And Jesus is here today, He is here, among us, He is here, in His Word, He is here on the altar, He walks with us, the Wayfarer is Risen.”

The Holy Father concluded, praying, “May St. John Paul II help us be [such] resurrected wayfarers.” 


Text from  Vatican Radio website 

Wow March for Life in Rome with 50,000 and Pro-Life Leaders " Abortion is not Normal"

Francis Pope blesses the march for life
The 4th annual March for Life was held in Rome on May 4, 2014. 50,000 took part including 14 Cardinals and Pro-Life leaders from across the Globe. Pope Francis greeted the march participants from the window of the Apostolic palace, he noted that this year the March for Life had “an international and ecumenical character.” “Many congratulations and go forward, and work on this!” the Pope encouraged participants. Last year, (Pictured above) Pope Francis made a surprise visit to the March for Life in his popemobile.

The march began with the speech of the president Virginia Coda Nunziante, , at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs, she said,"Abortion is not normal. We want to oppose all attempts at normalization of abortion...."We want to show that the people of life do not give up. Our presence is to be a witness." Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, led Eucharistic adoration the night before at the Basilica of S. Andrea della Valle, 
March for Life 2014



Sunday Mass Online : May 4, 2014 - 3rd Sun. of Easter

Third Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 46


Reading 1ACTS 2:14, 22-33

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.
You who are Israelites, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God
with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs,
which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
For David says of him:
I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence
.

“My brothers, one can confidently say to you
about the patriarch David that he died and was buried,
and his tomb is in our midst to this day.
But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him
that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,
he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld
nor did his flesh see corruption.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father
and poured him forth, as you see and hear.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

R/ (11a) Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R/ Alleluia.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R/ Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R/ Alleluia.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R/ Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R/ Alleluia.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R/ Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R/ Alleluia.
You will show me the path to life,
abounding joy in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R/ Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R/ Alleluia.

Reading 2 1 PT 1:17-21

Beloved:
If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially
according to each one’s works,
conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,
realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a spotless unblemished lamb.

He was known before the foundation of the world
but revealed in the final time for you,
who through him believe in God
who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,
so that your faith and hope are in God.

Gospel LK 24:13-35

That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

Pope Francis prays for Peace in Ukraine and for Afghanistan Victims - Video


(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis appealed for peace in Ukraine on Sunday. Speaking to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the midday Regina coeli prayer (which replaces the Angelus at Eastertide), The Holy Father said, “I would like to invite you to entrust to Our Lady the situation in Ukraine, where tensions continue unabated.” The Holy Father went on to say, “I pray with you for the victims of recent days, asking that the Lord instill sentiments of peacemaking and brotherhood in the hearts of everyone.”

Pope Francis also asked prayers for the victims of the massive landslide that killed more than 2 thousand people in an Afghan village near the border with Tajikistan on Friday of last week. “Let us pray also,” he said, “for those who died because of the huge landslide that struck two days ago in a village in Afghanistan.” Pope Francis went on to pray, “[May] Almighty God, who knows the name of every one of the victims, welcome all in His peace, and give survivors the strength to go forward, with the support of those who seek to alleviate their suffering.”
Text from Vatican Radio website 

Pope Francis "....ensure the training of a new generation of leaders whose minds and hearts are shaped by the truth..." to Papal Foundation

POPE FRANCIS RECEIVES THE “PAPAL FOUNDATION”
Vatican City, 2 May 2014 (VIS) – Today at midday, in the Vatican's Sala Clementina, the Pope received two hundred members of the “Papal Foundation” during its annual visit to Rome. The “Papal Foundation” is an American Catholic association founded in Philadelphia, U.S.A. in 1990 by the late Cardinal John Krol, which provides funds to meet the needs of the Church throughout the world. (Image Source Radio Vaticana)

The Bishop of Rome thanked the Foundation for the help it offers the Church in developing countries by supporting educational, charitable and apostolic projects, and also for the scholarships it makes available to laity, priests and religious for study in Rome. “In this way, you help to ensure the training of a new generation of leaders whose minds and hearts are shaped by the truth of the Gospel, the wisdom of Catholic social teaching and a profound sense of communion with the universal Church in her service to the entire human family”.
He concluded by mentioning the momentousness of these days marked by the canonisation of John XXIII and John Paul II, and assured the members of the Papal Foundation of his prayers that they may “be confirmed in the grace of your Baptism and in your commitment to be missionary disciples filled with the joy born of a personal encounter with the Risen Jesus”. Vatican Information Service Release

Saint May 4 : St. Godehard of Hildesheim - Patron of Sick Children


St. Godehard of Hildesheim
BISHOP
Feast: May 4


     Information:
Feast Day:May 4
Born:960, Reichersdorf, Bavaria
Died:May 4, 1038
Canonized:1131, Rheims by Innocent II
Patron of:ravelling merchants; invoked against fever, dropsy, childhood sicknesses, hailstones, the pain of childbirth, and gout; invoked by  those in peril of the sea
He was a native of Bavaria, and abbot of Altaich, in that country, and reformed likewise the abbeys of Hersfeld, in Hesse, of Tergensee, in the diocese of Frisinguen, and of Chremsmunster, in that of Passaw. In 1021, the episcopal chair of Hildesheim falling vacant by the death of St. Bernward, St. Godard was compelled by St. Henry to take upon him that pastoral charge. The relief of the poor, both spiritual and temporal, was everywhere the first object of his attention. He died on the 4th of May, 1038, and was canonized by Innocent II in 1131. Many places in Germany acknowledge him patron, and several bear his name. See his life by Wolfhert, his disciple, in Henschenius, p. 501, and in Mabillon: and more at large, with long histories of miracles, among the writers of the history of the most illustrious house of Brunswick-Hanover, t. 2, p. 483. Several very devout epistles of St. Godard, or Godehard, are given us by Dom. Pez, in his Codex Diplomatico-Historico-Epistolaris, p. 133, & c.


source: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/G/stgodehardofhildesheim.asp#ixzz1twI4dVBu