Category: Christian Charity

CATHOLIC FAITHWATCH: “Message of the Holy Father Francis for Lent 2018 Released; [‘Because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold’ (Mt 24: 12)]” – VaticanVa 11.1.17

Catholic, Catholic Church, Catholic Faith, Christian Charity, Christian Life, Faithwatch, Headlines, Lent, Pope Francis, Vatican
Pope Francis file photo, adapted from image (c) VIS

“Because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold” (Mt 24: 12) … the Pasch of the Lord draws near! In our preparation for Easter, God in His Providence offers us each year the season of Lent as a ‘Sacramental Sign of our Conversion’ … to help the entire Church experience this time of grace anew, with joy and in truth.  * * * More than anything else, what destroys charity is greed for money, ‘the root of all evil’ …. The rejection of God and His Peace soon follows … What are we to do? … devoting more time to prayer … Almsgiving sets us free from greed and helps us to regard our neighbour as a brother or sister. … Fasting weakens our tendency to violence … an important opportunity for growth. … experience[ing]what the destitute and the starving … endure. … express[ing] our own spiritual hunger and thirst for life in God. Fasting wakes us up. It makes us more attentive to God and our neighbour. It revives our desire to obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger. … I urge the members of the Church to take up the Lenten journey with enthusiasm, sustained by almsgiving, fasting and prayer. If, at times, the flame of charity seems to die in our own hearts, know that this is never the case in the heart of God! He constantly gives us a chance to begin loving anew. …”

Click here for: “Message of the Holy Father Francis for Lent 2018, 06.02.2018; [‘Because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold’ (Mt 24: 12)]” – Vatican.va 11.1.17 

Additional Links & Resources:

Cross Atop Rocky Cliff“Pope Francis releases 2018 Lenten message: Full text” – Vatican Radio
http://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-02/pope-francis-lenten-message-2018.html

“Pope Francis: ‘Come back to the Lord with all your heart during Lent’
http://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-02/pope-francis-lent-message-2018-cold-hearts.html

“This Lent, revive your enthusiasm for the faith, Pope says” – CNA
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/this-lent-revive-your-enthusiasm-for-the-faith-pope-says-16801

“Pope Francis releases Lenten message” – CNS/Arlington Catholic Herald
https://www.catholicherald.com/News/National___International/Pope_Francis/Pope_Francis_releases_Lenten_message/

“This Lent, Pope Francis invites us to reject ‘false prophets’; The pope’s 2018 Lenten message is released” – OSV
https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Perspectives/Columnists/Article/TabId/797/ArtMID/13632/ArticleID/24159/This-Lent-Pope-Francis-invites-us-to-reject-false-prophets.aspx

“Pope Francis’ Message for Lent 2015; ‘Make your hearts firm'” – OSV
https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Faith/Article/TabId/720/ArtMID/13628/ArticleID/16821/Pope-Francis-Message-for-Lent-2015.aspx

[featured images are file photos]

View of St. Peter's Basilica at Vatican from River

 

 

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CATHOLIC FAITHWATCH: “[Almsgiving, Lent, the Final Judgment] – John Paul II General Audience, Wednesday, March 28, 1979” – VaticanVa

Catholic, Catholic Faith, Christian Charity, Christian Life, Faithwatch, Headlines, Lent
Saint Pope John Paul II file photo, adapted from image at archives.gov

“Only with a total attitude — in his relationship with God … himself and … his neighbor — does man reach conversion and remain in the state of conversion. ‘Alms’ … has a meaning … decisive for this conversion. … recall the image of the Last Judgment that Christ gave us: ‘… I was hungry and you gave Me food. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink … a stranger and you welcomed Me. … naked and you clothed Me … sick and you visited Me … in prison and you came to Me. … * * * Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mt 25:35-40). … the Fathers of the Church will then say with St Peter Chrysologus: ‘The poor man’s hand is the treasury of Christ, since Christ receives everything that the poor man receives’ (Sermo VIII, 4), and with St. Gregory of Nazianzus: ‘The Lord of all things wants mercy, not sacrifice; and we give it through the poor’ (De patuperum amore, XI). … this opening to others … expressed by ‘help,’ by ‘sharing’ food, a glass of water, a good word, consolation, a visit, precious time, etc., this interior gift offered to the other man, arrives directly at Christ, directly at God. It decides the meeting with Him. It is conversion. … many texts in the Gospel … confirm this … also in the whole of Scripture. ‘Alms’ understood according to the Gospel, according to the teaching of Christ, has a definitive, decisive meaning in our conversion to God. If alms be lacking, our life does not yet converge fully towards God. …”

Click here for: “[Almsgiving, Lent, the Final Judgment] – John Paul II General Audience, Wednesday, March 28, 1979” – VaticanVa

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CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “[‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’] – Saint Caesarius of Arles (470-543), Monk and Bishop, Sermon 25” – DailyGospel

Catholic, Catholic Faith, Christian Charity, Christian Life, Faith Links, Gospel of Matthew, Headlines
Artistic Drawing of Jesus Preaching in Sermon on the Mount

“If we consider it well, my brethren, the fact that Christ is hungry in those who are poor has something to say to us… Look: on one side a tiny coin and on the other, the Kingdom. What is the comparison? You give a small coin to a poor man and receive the Kingdom from Christ; you give a scrap of bread and receive eternal life from Christ; you give an item of clothing and receive forgiveness for your sins from Christ. …”

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CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “The Law Rooted in Our Hearts” – DailyGospel/ Saint Irenaeus of Lyons/ Against the Heresies

Bible, Catholic, Catholic Faith, Christian Charity, Christian Life, Faith Links, Headlines, Holy Scripture
Artistic Drawing of Jesus Preaching in Sermon on the Mount

“The Law contains natural prescriptions that already administer justice, and even before the gift of the Law to Moses, people observed these prescriptions and were justified by their faith and were pleasing to God. The Lord has not abolished those prescriptions but developed and fulfilled them as the following words testify: ‘You have heard that it was said: “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’ (Mt 5:27-28). And again: ‘It was said: “You shall not kill.” But I say to you: whoever is angry with his brother without reason will be answerable to the court” (cf. Mt 5:21f.)… And so on. None of these prescriptions imply either the contradiction nor the abolition of those that preceded them, but their fulfilment and development. As the Lord himself says: ‘Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven’ (Mt 5:20). …”

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FAITHWATCH DailyGospel.org/ Saint Gregory Nazianzen Gospel commentary: “When you give a banquet, invite the poor”

Bible, Catholic, Catholic Faith, Christian Charity, Faithwatch, Headlines, Holy Scripture, Love
Earth Satellite Image in Style of Projection Map

Let us keep an eye on our neighbor’s well-being, whether in good health or struck by sickness, with as much concern as we do our own. For ‘we are all one in the Lord’ (Rom 12:5) …. What the members of a body are for each other, every one of us is for each of the others. So we shouldn’t either neglect or abandon those who have fallen into the state of weakness that haunts us all. … it is better to sympathize with the misfortunes of our poor neighbors … They are in God’s image just as we are ….

Click here for DailyGospel.org; Saint Gregory Nazianzen Gospel commentary: “When you give a banquet, invite the poor”- On love for the poor, 8, 14 ; PG 35, 867, 875

 

 

 

 

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