There was a cheerful applause for the nine novices and their novice master, Fr. Carlo Chiappini, from Genova, at lunch in the Curia on Sunday, 07 July 2013. The group included seven first-year novices and two second-year novices. They arrived at the Curia for a short visit and to greet Fr. General following their attendance of the Papal Audience of Seminarians and Novices held at the Vatican this past week. They shared their experiences of the Papal Audience with Fr. General and the community members during a short social hour after lunch.

Pope Francis sends message of support for human life to Catholics in Ireland, Scotland and England and Wales. Below is a communique from the Bishops ‘Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) attached with the Pope’s message signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

In a special message to Catholics across Britain and Ireland, ahead of the annual Day for Life, Pope Francis has emphasised the need to care for life from conception to natural end.
In his message, he says that all life has inestimable value ‘even the weakest and most vulnerable, the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God’s creation, made in his own image, destined to live for ever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect’.

He has promised his prayers that ‘Day for Life will help to ensure that human life always receives the protection that it is due.‘
Over half-a-million leaflets have been sent to parishes in England and Wales in readiness for Day for Life Sunday (28 July). The theme of the Day is ‘Care for Life – It’s Worth It’ taken from a homily preached by Cardinal Bergoglio in 2005 during a Mass in honour of the protector of Pregnant Women, Saint Raymond Nonnatus.

Within this homily, the now Pope Francis said: “All of us must care for life, cherish life, with tenderness, warmth…to give life is to open (our) heart, and to care for life is to (give oneself) in tenderness and warmth for others, to have concern in my heart for others.

Caring for life from the beginning to the end. What a simple thing, what a beautiful thing..So, go forth and don’t be discouraged. Care for life. It’s worth it.”

This year’s Day for Life focuses on care for unborn children and their mothers; care for people who are elderly and care for those who are suicidal and their families. One of its key aims is to build an environment of compassion and care that nurtures and sustains life, even in the most challenging of human events and personal circumstances.
Day for Life is celebrated annually by the Catholic Church in Ireland, Scotland and England and Wales. The proceeds of the Day for Life collection to be held in parishes in England and Wales assist the work of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre and other life related activities supported by the Church.

Text of the Message from Pope Francis to Catholics in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales

“Calling to mind the teaching of Saint Irenaeus that the glory of God is seen in a living human being, the Holy Father encourages all of you to let the light of that glory shine so brightly that everyone may come to recognise the inestimable value of all human life. Even the weakest and most vulnerable, the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God’s creation, made in his own image, destined to live for ever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect. His Holiness prays that the Day for Life will help to ensure that human life always receives the protection that is its due, so that “everything that breathes may praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6).”

The day for life in Scotland England and Wales is marked on Sunday 28th July, while is Ireland it is celebrated on Sunday October 6th.

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by Krystyna Skvorc, parish historian

In the late afternoon of April 22, 1889, a crowded train carrying hundreds of would-be homesteaders arrived from Purcell. As the frenzied hopeful late-comers jostled their way onto the makeshift platforms, there emerged one tall, solitary figure dressed in black from head to foot. The Rev. Nicolas F. Scallon, attired in the priestly traveling garb of the day, made his way along the dusty trampled paths toward the newly formed Oklahoma City.

Already tents and crude wooden lean-tos had been erected along what was soon called Main Street, Fr. Scallon set about locating each Catholic settler, as well as possible places in which to celebrate Mass. In fact, many of the first Masses were celebrated in a tent which housed McGinley’s General Store. On one occasion after a heavy rain had turned the red dirt of the unpaved streets into a soupy mix of mud and horse manure, Fr. Scallon excused the ladies from attending Mass. He kindly noted that the muck would certainly soil their skirts.

Less than two weeks after The Land Run, Fr. Scallon and his fledgling flock of 16 families began plans to build a church. For $225 they bought three lots on “Blue Hill.” so called because of the srnall blue wildflowers that blanketed that part of the prairie. Work on the 24-x-40-foot wooden structure began July 1, 1889. The cross was placed atop the spire July 31. The $101 bell was hung Aug. 2, 1889.

On Aug. 4, the 650-pound bell for the very first time rang out its joyful call to worship for all to hear. Across the recently settled prairie town, rich and poor, old and young. paused momentarily, and considered each his own journey with God. As the warm summer breeze filtered through the white wooden walls of Oklahoma City’s first Catholic church, the happy tones of the big bell faded.

At once, pioneer priest Fr. Scallon commenced to intone the first Mass in the new building for the recently formed parish of St. Joseph Catholic Church. Who among those families worshiping there that day could have envisioned the stately Coffeyville brick edifice which would, within a few short years, evolve from that simple structure?

In fact, St. Joseph soon outgrew its wood-framed building. On Oct. 19, 1901, excavation begsn for the foundation of a 137-x-64-foot brick building. This new church was solemnly dedicated by Oklahoma’s first Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Theophile Meerschaert on Dec. 18, 1904. Fittingly, lumber and pews from the original St. Joseph were used in the new church. The grand bell found a new home as well from which to proclaim its joyous call to worship. In 1905, Pope Pius X raised the Vicarate of the Oklahoma Territory to a diocese. Thus did St. Joseph Church become the first cathedral in Oklahomal.

Over subsequent decades, the church building, both inside and outside, has undergone several renovations, and has been remodeled numerous times. The most extensive restoration project, however, was necessary by the bombing of the nearby Murrah Federal Building. The old cathedral endured tremendous damage during that megaton explosion. Amazingly, the tabernacle candle remained lit throughout the violent blast. And the beautiful old crucifix with its life-size corpus remained unscratched by the flying glass and debris.

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by PAUL

1 Thessalonians 5:17 urges us to “pray without ceasing.”

I’ve been thinking about this instruction a fair bit of late. “Finding God in all things,” the cri de coeur of the Ignatian family, is one thing but trying to pray all the time is quite another.

The only way I can get my head around it is either to broaden my definition of prayer or change my interpretation of “without ceasing.” As is the case with many things, I think it means doing a bit of both.

Beyond any formal prayer, I believe that any life consciously directed at loving God and one’s neighbor is, perforce, prayerful.

You do not have to be muttering the “Jesus Prayer” every waking moment to be a person of prayer. Nor does “without ceasing” mean that you can’t take time away from prayer to watch a sitcom on TV or have a long chat about inconsequential matters with a friend.

It seems to me that “pray without ceasing” is as much about a disposition and commitment than it is about any specific plan of action.

Am I wrong?

(Vatican Radio) “We announce with joy that Pope Francis has had lunch with the Jesuit community of the Vatican Observatory. We are deeply moved!” This was the first of a series of messages posted on Twitter on Sunday by Jesuit astronomers of Castel Gandolfo – first in Italian and then in English, Spanish and French. The Vatican Observatory has its headquarters in the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo, while the Pontifical Palace, directly above the apartment of the Pope, continues to host the domes with telescopes. But the observations for some time have been being made at the new research centre, the Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG), located in the United States, in Tucson, at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona.

Vatican Radio’s Fausta Speranza spoke with the director of the Vatican Observatory, Father José Gabriel Funes (pictured), about Pope Francis’ visit to one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world.

Father José Gabriel Funes(JF): It was a very beautiful day for the us Jesuits who work at the Vatican Observatory. We greeted the Pope, then we took him to see some of the places we have here at Castel Gandalfo. The Pope saw some ancient books – the most precious ones we have – such as, for example, a copy of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus, the Principia of Isaac Newton, and La riforma del calendario gregoriano [“The Reform of the Gregorian Calendar”] and the Tabelle [“The Tables”] of Father Clavio, who took part in that reform. He visited the meteorite laboratory, where he looked in the microscope at a meteorite that had fallen at Buenos Aires. Brother Consolmagno, the curator, had prepared this little surprise. At the end of lunch, the Pope signed the parchment we have with the signatures of all the Popes from Pius XI up to today, to Pope Francis. It was truly very beautiful, and we are very happy.

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Befriend your enemies, and you’ll have destroyed them.

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis travelled on Monday to the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa. He threw a wreath of flowers into the sea to remember the thousands of migrants who have died making the journey to Italy from Africa. He then met with several migrants, thanking them for their welcome. The highlight of the day was a Mass celebrated in the island’s sports stadium, which served as a reception centre for the thousands of people who fled the upheavals caused by the Arab Spring unrest in North Africa, as well as refugees from poverty and violence in other parts of Africa.

Pope Francis said he came to Lampedusa “today to pray, to make a gesture of closeness, but also to reawaken our consciences so that what happened would not be repeated.”

He began by greeting the islanders with the phrase “O’ scia’!” a word of greeting in their local dialect, and thanking them for the work they have done to provide assistance to the migrants who have found their way to Lampedusa, saying they offer “an example of solidarity.”

He also greeted Muslim migrants who are about to begin Ramadan.

“The Church is near to you in the search for a more dignified life for yourselves and for your families,” he said.

The Holy Father wore violet vestments during the Mass, calling it a “liturgy of repentance.”

“God asks each one of us: Where is the blood of your brother that cries out to me?,” Pope Francis said during his homily, quoting from the Genesis story of Cain and Abel. “Today no one in the world feels responsible for this; we have lost the sense of fraternal responsibility.”

“The culture of well-being, that makes us think of ourselves, that makes us insensitive to the cries of others, that makes us live in soap bubbles, that are beautiful but are nothing, are illusions of futility, of the transient, that brings indifference to others, that brings even the globalization of indifference,” he continued. “In this world of globalization we have fallen into a globalization of indifference. We are accustomed to the suffering of others, it doesn’t concern us, it’s none of our business.”

Pope Francis then moved from the Old Testament to the New Testament, with another story of death caused by indifference to suffering: the Massacre of the Innocents.

“Herod sowed death in order to defend his own well-being, his own soap bubble,” said the Holy Father. “And this continues to repeat itself. Let us ask the Lord to wipe out [whatever attitude] of Herod remains in our hears; let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty in the world, in ourselves, and even in those who anonymously make socio-economic decisions that open the way to tragedies like this.”
Pope Francis then asked for forgiveness: for the “indifference towards so many brothers and sisters…for those who are pleased with themselves, who are closed in on their own well-being in a way that leads to the anaesthesia of the heart, … for those who with their decisions at the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies. Forgive us, Lord!”

Though the influx of migrants has slowed since its height at the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2011, people nevertheless continue to come. Shortly before the pope arrived on the tiny island Monday morning, a boat carrying 165 migrants from Mali made port. On Sunday, 120 people including four pregnant women were rescued at sea after their vessel suffered engine failure roughly 11 kilometres from the Lampedusan coast.

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by Jim Manney

Regina Spektor is an indie pop singer-songwriter and pianist with a serious bent. She’s written several songs on biblical themes. In “Laughing With,” she ventures into theology, contrasting the times when we take God seriously with the times we don’t. It helps to follow the lyrics. This video has them in both English and Spanish.

You feel happy when you see the one you love dearly is happy.

07 June, 2013. There were about nine thousand people including, students, educationists, Parents, Ignatian youths and Jesuits from Italy and Albania in the Paul VI hall in the Vatican for the special audience with Pope Francis. His message to the future generation stressed on the point of taking up the special task of uplifting humanity from the present situation of economic and power struggle to social relationships. He answered many personal and general questions from the students representatives.

More information and video clips will be available on the site:
http://www.radiovaticana.va/