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Thursday, September 18, 2014

Catholic News World : Thursday September 18, 2014 - Share!

2014



Pope Francis “Love the people that God has given to your charge,even when they have committed grave sins....Reception is for all without discrimination,”


Pope Francis with new bishops
18/09/2014




(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday received the participants in a pair of orientation and training programmes for newly ordained bishops, which took place in Rome over the past week. The annual courses – open to bishops ordained in the past year – have been organised by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.
 In his remarks to the bishops who took part in the sessions, which were held at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University, Pope Francis spoke of the importance of never losing sight of the  inseparable bond between the stable presence of the Bishop and the growth of the flock. “Every authentic reform of the Church of Christ begins with the presence of Christ – who is never missing – and also of the pastor who governs in Christ’s name.” The Holy Father went on to say, “This is not a pious recommendation.” Citing the Council of Trent, Pope Francis continued, saying, “When a shepherd hides [from his flock] or is unreachable, pastoral care and the salvation of souls are at risk.
The Holy Father also spoke of the need for a humble spirit of service in a shepherd of souls, a willingness to meet people where they are in their lives and to resist the temptation to change people. “Love the people that God has given to your charge,” said Pope Francis, “even when they have committed grave sins,” and that bishops owe their faithful and everyone under their pastoral responsibility the fullness of the Church’s teaching in all its breadth. “Reception is for all without discrimination,” he said, explaining that the Church is to offer “welcome to all without discrimination, offering the firmness of the authority that enables growth and the gentleness of paternity that generates.” 

2014

Novena to St. Joseph Cupertino and Special Prayer for Exams - Patron of Students, Pilots and Disabled


EXAM PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH CUPERTINO 
This powerful prayer is very effective in examinations. It has to be said before appearing in the examination. There are two variants to this prayer. Both the prayers are equally effective. 
You can choose any one of these:- First Prayer O Great St. Joseph of Cupertino who while on earth did obtain from God the grace to be asked at your examination only the questions you knew, obtain for me a like favour in the examinations for which I am now preparing. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked. Through Christ our Lord. St. Joseph of Cupertino, Pray for us. Amen. 
 Second Prayer O St. Joseph of Cupertino who by your prayer obtained from God to be asked at your examination, the only preposition you knew. Grant that I may like you succeed in the (here mention the name of Examination eg. History paper I ) examination. 
 In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked. O St. Joseph of Cupertino pray for me O Holy Ghost enlighten me Our Lady of Good Studies pray for me Sacred Head of Jesus, Seat of divine wisdom, enlighten me. Remember, when you succeed in the exams then you should thank St. Joseph of Cupertino. Image Source: Ordo Fratrum Minorum Conventualium.

NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH CUPERTINO 
He is patron of students doing exams, travellers (especially those undertaking journeys by air), pilots, and is invoked by children, adults and the elderly who are unloved, abandoned or neglected.
FIRST DAY:
Dear St Joseph, you were an unwanted child and were thought worthless even by your own mother. Intercede for all unwanted children that they may come to know they were born out of God’s love for them. We pray especially for (mention your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
SECOND DAY:
Dear St Joseph, you were an angry, frustrated child. We pray for all who struggle to express themselves, and that you help us overcome sins of anger. We pray especially for (mention your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
THIRD DAY:
Dear St Joseph, you experienced no love in your family and were considered of little account by all who knew you. We pray for all who have experienced the same. May we learn to treat everyone as having the worth they have in God’s eyes. We pray especially for (mention your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
FOURTH DAY:
Dear St Joseph, you suffered because you found it difficult to learn. We pray for all those who struggle at school. May they take comfort from the fact that although learning wasn’t easy for you, this didn’t stop you from becoming a saint. We pray especially for (mention your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
FIFTH DAY:
Dear St Joseph, you did the best with the intelligence you did have and put the rest in God’s hands. That way you passed all your exams and became a priest. We pray for all those struggling with exams. May we also do our best in everything and trust in God to guide our lives. We pray especially for (mention your request. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
SIXTH DAY:
Dear St Joseph, even the thought or mention of anything holy made you levitate in ecstasy. Grant us something of the understanding and reverence for God and his saints that you had. We pray especially for (mention your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
SEVENTH DAY:
Dear St Joseph, only when your superior ordered you to, were you able to come back down to earth. May we too have a love for and obedience to the teachings of the Church. We pray especially for (mention your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
EIGHTH DAY:
Dear St Joseph, you were unjustly suspected, confined to your room and neglected by those charged with looking after you. You accepted all this with humility. We pray for all those unjustly imprisoned, and that we too may have the humility to accept injustice for the love of Christ. We pray especially for (mention your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
NINTH DAY:
Dear St Joseph, because you could levitate you are the patron of travellers, especially air travellers. We pray for all those travelling that they may safely reach their destinations. We pray especially for (mention your request). Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

New Archbishop of Sydney : Anthony Fisher OP of Parramatta Diocese Australia


The Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP Appointed New Archbishop of Sydney

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
18 Sep 2014

The Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP has been appointed as the new Archbishop of Sydney
Pope Francis has appointed the Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP as the new Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
He has been Bishop of Parramatta since 2010.
Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher will be the ninth Metropolitan Archbishop of Sydney.  He succeeds Cardinal George Pell who was appointed to a new senior role in the Vatican earlier this year.
"The Catholic community in the Archdiocese of Sydney is delighted to welcome Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP as the ninth Archbishop of Sydney," says Bishop Peter Comensoli, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Sydney.

 "He has a great breadth and depth of experience beyond Sydney, having engaged extensively in key areas of Australian life, including family, education, healthcare and young people. He combines this significant contribution to the wider community with his fine pastoral leadership of the Diocese of Parramatta over the past 4 years," he adds.
Following the announcement by Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Pope's representative in Australia, Archbishop Anthony said he was "deeply honoured" by the appointment. 
"I'm very excited to be returning to the Archdiocese of Sydney and building on the strong foundations left by my predecessor Cardinal George Pell. Sydney is a vibrant, growing city with so much potential to be one of the greatest cities - and faith communities - of the world."

Archbishop-elect of Sydney, Most Reverend Anthony Fisher OP at his Installation Mass when he was installed as the Bishop of Parramatta in 2010
Archbishop Fisher DD BA LIB BTheol DPhil, has been the Bishop of the Diocese of Parramatta for the past 4 years. Prior to this he was an Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, during which time he was Co-ordinator of World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney.
After working as a lawyer at a major Sydney firm for some years, he entered the Dominicans in 1985.  He undertook doctrinal studies at the University of Oxford and he has published extensively in moral theology and bioethics. He is an ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the body that advises the Church on bioethics.
Archbishop Anthony has also worked extensively in the field of education and is Chairman of the Catholic Education Commission of New South Wales.
He has also received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Notre Dame Australia.
As Bishop of Parramatta, his work has focussed on four priority areas: supporting families, supporting young people of ethnic background, promoting vocations and evangelisation.

Most Reverend Anthony Fisher OP at World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia
A date will be announced for the Installation of Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher OP as the new Archbishop of Sydney at St Mary's Cathedral.
"I ask all Catholics and other people of good will to pray for me that I might be a good shepherd after the heart of Jesus Christ," he says.
A full biography of Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher OP is availablehere.
Media Release from the Diocese of Parramatta (PDF)
Statement from Bishop Peter Comensoli, Apostolic Administrator of Sydney (PDF

Pope Francis "...the very door that opens us to the Lord’s caress, His forgiveness, to His Word 'Go in peace, your faith has saved you!',


Pope Francis preaches at Mass Thursday morning
18/09/




(Vatican Radio) Having the courage to acknowledge that we are sinners enables us to receive Christ’s caress, His forgiveness, said Pope Francis Thursday morning during Mass at Santa Marta.The day's liturgy presents the Gospel of the sinful woman who washes Jesus' feet with her tears and anoints them with perfume drying them with her hair. Jesus is invited to the house of a Pharisee, "a person of a certain level of culture" - the Pope said – who "wanted to listen to Jesus", hear his doctrine, find out more. In his own mind, he judges both Jesus and the sinful woman, thinking if Jesus "truly were a prophet he would know want kind of woman is touching him”. The Pharisee “is not a bad man” he simply “cannot understand the woman’s actions”.
 "He cannot understand the simple gesture: the simple gestures of the people. Perhaps this man had forgotten how to caress a baby, how to console a grandmother. In his theories, his thoughts, his life of government - because perhaps he was a councilor of the Pharisees – he had forgotten the simple gestures of life, the very first things that we all, as newborns, received from our parents".
Pope Francis said that Jesus rebukes the Pharisee "with humility and tenderness", "his patience, his love, the desire to save everyone" leads him to explain the woman’s gesture to the Pharisee, and at the same time point to the Pharisee’s own lack of courtesy.  And amid the shocked murmuring of the crowd, he says to the woman: "Your sins are forgiven". "Go in peace, your faith has saved you!"
"He only says the word salvation - 'Your faith has saved you' – to the woman, who is a sinner. And he says it because she was able to weep for her sins, to confess her sins, to say 'I am a sinner', and admit it to herself. He doesn’t say the same to those people, who were not bad people: they simply did not believe themselves to be sinners. Other people were sinners: the tax collectors, prostitutes ... These were the sinners. Jesus says this word - 'You are saved, you are safe - only to those who open their hearts and acknowledge that they are sinners. Salvation only enters our hearts when we open them to the truth of our sins".
"The privileged place to encounter  Jesus Christ is in our sins". Pope Francis observed that this may seem like "heresy” but St. Paul also said as much when he said he would boast of only two things: his sins and the Risen Christ who saved him.
"This is why the ability to acknowledge our own sins, to acknowledge our misery, to acknowledge what we are and what we are capable of doing or have done is the very door that opens us to the Lord’s caress, His forgiveness, to His Word 'Go in peace, your faith has saved you!', because you were brave, you were brave enough to open your heart to the only One who can save you".
Jesus said to the hypocrites, " Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you".  These are strong words - concluded the Pope - because those who feel themselves sinners "open their hearts in the confession of their sins, to encounter Jesus, who gave His blood for us all".

(Emer McCarthy)

Today's Mass Readings : Thursday September 18, 2014


Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 446


Reading 11 COR 15:1-11

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the Apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the Apostles,
not fit to be called an Apostle,
because I persecuted the Church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.

Responsorial Psalm PS 118:1B-2, 16AB-17, 28

R. (1) Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
“The right hand of the LORD is exalted;
the right hand of the LORD has struck with power.”
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
You are my God, and I give thanks to you;
O my God, I extol you.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

Gospel LK 7:36-50

A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him,
and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.
Now there was a sinful woman in the city
who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.
Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,
she stood behind him at his feet weeping
and began to bathe his feet with her tears.
Then she wiped them with her hair,
kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself,
“If this man were a prophet,
he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him,
that she is a sinner.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Simon, I have something to say to you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor;
one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty.
Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both.
Which of them will love him more?”
Simon said in reply,
“The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”
He said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,
“Do you see this woman?
When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet,
but she has bathed them with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss,
but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil,
but she anointed my feet with ointment.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven;
hence, she has shown great love.
But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The others at table said to themselves,
“Who is this who even forgives sins?”
But he said to the woman,
“Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Free Catholic Movie : The Reluctant Saint : Stars Maximilian Schell about St. Joseph Cupertino

The Reluctant Saint (1962) 105 min - Comedy | Drama - 2 November 1962 (West Germany)
Saint Joseph of Cupertino was born Giuseppe Maria Desa in Copertino, Puglia, Kingdom of Naples. (June 17, 1603 — September 18, 1663) Joseph of Cupertino, a simple young man thought by many in his village to be an idiot, is pressured to enter a monastery. He does so, and surprises everyone by passing the entrance exam to study for the priesthood. But this is only the first of many surprises from the man who would become Saint Joseph Cupertino. (Review by Internet IMDB)
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Writers: John Fante, Joseph Petracca
Stars: Maximilian Schell, Ricardo Montalban, Lea Padovani
RIP Maximilian Schell

 2014


Saint September 18 : St. Joseph of Cupertino : Patron of Students, Pilots and Mentally Handicapped

St. Joseph of Cupertino
MYSTIC
Feast: September 18
Information:
Feast Day:
September 18
Born:
June 17, 1603, Copertino, Puglia, Kingdom of Naples
Died:
September 18, 1663, Osimo, Marche, Papal States
Canonized:
July 16, 1767, Rome by Pope Clement XIII
Patron of:
Aviation, astronauts, mental handicaps, test taking, students

Mystic, born 17 June, 1603; died at Osimo 18 September, 1663; feast, 18 September. Joseph received his surname from Cupertino, a small village in the Diocese of Nardo, lying between Brindisi and Otranto in the Kingdom of Naples. His father Felice Desa, a poor carpenter, died before Joseph was born and left some debts, in consequence of which the creditors drove the mother, Francesca Panara, from her home, and she was obliged to give birth to her child in a stable. In his eighth year Joseph had an ecstatic vision while at school and this was renewed several times; so that the children, seeing him gape and stare on such occasions, lost to all things about him, gave him the sobriquet "Bocca Aperta". At the same time he had a hot and irascible temper which his strict mother strove hard to overcome. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but at the age of seventeen he tried to be admitted to the Friars Minor Conventuals and was refused on account of his ignorance. He then applied to the Capuchins at Martino near Tarento, where he was accepted as a lay-brother in 1620, but his continual ecstasies unfitted him for work and he was dismissed. His mother and his uncles abused him as a good-for-nothing, but Joseph did not lose hope. By his continued prayers and tears he succeeded in obtaining permission to work in the stable as lay help or oblate at the Franciscan convent of La Grotella near Cupertino. He now gave evidence of great virtues, humility, obedience, and love of penance to such an extent that he was admitted to the clerical state in 1625, and three years later, on 28 March he was raised to the priesthood. Joseph was but little versed in human knowledge, for his biographers relate that he was able to read but poorly, yet infused by knowledge and supernatural light he not only surpassed all ordinary men in the learning of the schools but could solve the most intricate questions.
His life was now one long succession of visions and other heavenly favours. Everything that in any way had reference to God or holy things would bring on an ecstatic state: the sound of a bell or of church music, the mention of the name of God or of the Blessed Virgin or of a saint, any event in the life of Christ, the sacred Passion, a holy picture, the thought of the glory in heaven, all would put Joseph into contemplation. Neither dragging him about, buffeting, piercing with needles, nor even burning his flesh with candles would have any effect on him - only the voice of his superior would make him obey. These conditions would occur at any time or place, especially at Mass or during Divine Service. Frequently he would be raised from his feet and remain suspended in the air. Besides he would at times hear heavenly music. Since such occurrences in public caused much admiration and also disturbance in a community, Joseph for thirty-five years was not allowed to attend choir, go to the common refectory, walk in procession or say Mass in church, but was ordered to remain in his room, where a private chapel was prepared for him. Evil-minded and envious men even brought him before the Inquisition, and he was sent from one lonely house of the Capuchins or Franciscans to another, but Joseph retained his resigned and joyous spirit, submitting confidently to Divine Providence. He practised mortification and fasting to such a degree, that he kept seven Lents of forty days each year, and during many of them tasted no food except on Thursdays and Sundays. His body is in the church at Osimo. He was beatified by Benedict XIV in 1753, and canonized 16 July 1767 by Clement XIII; Clement XIV extended his office to the entire Church. His life was written by Robert Nuti (Palermo, 1678). Angelo Pastrovicchi wrote another in 1773, and this is used by the Bollandist "Acta SS.", V, Sept., 992.


SOURCE: EWTN

Catholic Quote to SHARE by St. Francis of Assis "Lord, make me a instrument of you peace..."

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." -St. Francis