Pope Francis waves to pilgrims during the Angelus Aug. 14, 2022. / Vatican Media. See CNA article for full slideshow.
Vatican City, Aug 14, 2022 / 05:23 am (CNA).
The fire of faith should spur us to conversion, not lull us into complacency, Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Sunday.
In his weekly message on the Gospel, the pope reflected on a passage from St. Luke, who wrote: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!’”
“Faith is not a ‘lullaby’ that lulls us to sleep, but rather a living flame to keep us wakeful and active even at night,” Francis said Aug. 14.
The pope delivered his reflection on the flame of faith from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square. Afterwards, he prayed the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, in Latin, before sharing some concluding remarks.
“The Gospel,” he said, “does not leave things as they are; when the Gospel passes, and is heard and received, things do not remain as they are. The Gospel provokes change and invites conversion.”
According to Francis, the fire of the Gospel does not give a false sense of peace, but spurs people into action.
“It is just like fire: while it warms us with God’s love, it wants to burn our selfishness, to enlighten the dark sides of life — we all have them — to consume the false idols that enslave us,” he said.
The pope said Jesus is inviting each person to be rekindled by the flame of the Gospel. To illustrate this point, he quoted from the book “The Discovery of God,” by Henri de Lubac, a 20th century theologian and Jesuit priest.
“As Father de Lubac said — faith in God ‘reassures us — but not on our level, or so to produce a paralyzing illusion, or a complacent satisfaction, but so as to enable us to act,” he emphasized.
He also suggested everyone ask themselves if they are passionate about the Gospel, if they read it often, and if they carry it with them.
“Does the faith I profess and celebrate lead me to complacent tranquility or does it ignite the flame of witness in me?” he said, proposing the question for reflection. “We can also ask ourselves this question as Church: in our communities, does the fire of the Spirit burn, with the passion for prayer and charity, and the joy of faith? Or do we drag ourselves along in weariness and habit, with a downcast face and a lament on our lips? And gossip every day?”
Do an interior examination on these questions, Francis said, so that like Jesus, we can say “we are inflamed with the fire of God’s love, and we want to spread it around the world, to take it to everyone, so that each person may discover the tenderness of the Father and experience the joy of Jesus, which enlarges the heart — and Jesus enlarges the heart — and makes life beautiful.”
Pope Francis closed his message by asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary.
After the Angelus, he drew attention to a humanitarian crisis in Somalia and some parts of the neighboring countries.
“The people of this region, already living in very precarious conditions, are now in mortal danger due to drought,” he explained.
Lamenting that war diverts attention and resources away from other places, he expressed hope that the international community will respond to the emergency.
The fight against hunger and the promotion of health and education, he said, “are the goals that demand the greatest commitment.”
Pope Francis also recalled the Aug. 17th anniversary of Saint Pope John Paul II’s entrustment of the world to Divine Mercy, which was carried out at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland, 20 years ago in 2002.
“And we ask the Lord [for a] special mercy, mercy and compassion, for the tormented Ukrainian people,” he added.
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Thousands of pro-life advocates gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. / Katie Yoder/CNA
Washington D.C., Dec 2, 2021 / 08:04 am (CNA).
Anna Del Duca and daughter, Frances, woke up at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning to brave the 30-degree weather outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. They arrived hours before oral arguments began in the highly-anticipated abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The case, which involves a Mississippi law restricting most abortions after 15 weeks, challenges two landmark decisions: Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld Roe in 1992.
“We’re looking forward to the end of Roe versus Wade in our country,” Anna, who drove from Pittsburgh Tuesday night, told CNA. In her hands, she held a sign reading, “I regret my abortion.”
Anna Del Duca (right) and her daughter, Frances, traveled from Pittsburgh to attend a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. Katie Yoder/CNA
“I would like to use my testimony to be a blessing to others,” she said, so that “others will choose life or those who have regretted abortion or had an abortion would turn to Jesus.”
Anna remembered having an abortion when she was just 19. Today, she and her daughter run a group called Restorers of Streets to Dwell In Pittsburgh that offers help to women seeking healing after abortion.
Anna and Frances were among thousands of Americans who rallied outside the Supreme Court before, during, and after the oral arguments. To accommodate them, law enforcement closed the street in front of the court. Capitol police also placed fencing in the space in front of the building in an attempt to physically separate rallies held by abortion supporters and pro-lifers.
At 21-weeks pregnant, pro-life speaker Alison Centofante emceed the pro-life rally, called, “Empower Women Promote Life.” The event featured a slew of pro-life women of diverse backgrounds and numerous politicians.
“It’s funny, there were so many diverse speakers today that the only unifying thread was that we want to protect preborn children,” Centofante told CNA. They included Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Catholics, agnostics, atheists, women who chose life, and women who regretted their abortions, she said.
She recognized women there, including Aimee Murphy, as people who are not the typical “cookie cutter pro-lifer.”
Aimee Murphy, 32, founder of pro-life group Rehumanize International, arrived at the Supreme Court around 6:30 a.m. She drove from Pittsburgh the night before. Her sign read, “Queer Latina feminist rape survivor against abortion.”“At Rehumanize International, we oppose all forms of aggressive violence,” she told CNA. “Even as a secular and non-partisan organization, we understand that abortion is the most urgent cause that we must stand against in our modern day and age because it takes on average over 800,000 lives a year.”
She also had a personal reason for attending.
“When I was 16 years old, I was raped and my rapist then threatened to kill me if I didn’t have an abortion,” she revealed.
“It was when he threatened me that I felt finally a solidarity with unborn children and I understood then that, yeah, the science told me that a life begins at conception, but that I couldn’t be like my abusive ex and pass on the violence and oppression of abortion to another human being — that all that I would be doing in having an abortion would be telling my child, ‘You are an inconvenience to me and to my future, therefore I’m going to kill you,’ which is exactly the same thing that my rapist was telling me when he threatened to kill me.”
On the other side of the police fence, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Abortion Access Coalition and NARAL Pro-Choice America participated in another rally. Yellow balloons printed with the words “BANS OFF OUR BODIES” escaped into the sky. Several pro-choice demonstrators declined to speak with CNA.
Voices clashed in the air as people, the majority of whom were women, spoke into their respective microphones at both rallies. Abortion supporters stressed bodily autonomy, while pro-lifers recognized the humanity of the unborn child. Chants arose from both sides at different points, from “Whose choice? My choice!” to “Hey hey, ho ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go!”
At 10 a.m., the pro-life crowd sudddenly went silent as the oral arguments began and the rally paused temporarily as live audio played through speakers.
Hundreds of students from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, traveled to Washington, D.C. for a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. Katie Yoder/CNA
During the oral arguments, students from Liberty University knelt in prayer. One student estimated that more than a thousand students from the school made the more than 3-hour trip from Lynchburg, Virginia.
“Talking about our faith is one thing, but actually acting upon it is another,” he said. “We have to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. So to me this is part of doing that.”
Sister Mary Karen, who has been with the Sisters of Life for 21 years, also stressed the importance of prayer. She drove from New York earlier that morning because, she said, she felt drawn to attend. She came, she said, to pray for the country and promote the dignity of a human person.
“Our culture is post-abortive,” she explained. “So many people have suffered and the loss of human life is so detrimental, just not knowing that we have value and are precious and sacred.”
Theresa Bonopartis, of Harrison, New York, was among the pro-life demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021. She runs a nonprofit group called Entering Canaan that ministers to women and others wounded by abortion. Katie Yoder/CNA
She stood next to Theresa Bonopartis, who traveled from Harrison, New York, and ministers to women and others wounded by abortion.
“I’ve been fighting abortion for 30 years at least,” she told CNA.
Her ministry, called Entering Canaan, began with the Sisters of Life and is observing its 25th anniversary this year. It provides retreats for women, men, and even siblings of aborted babies.
Abortion is personal for Bonopartis, who said she had a coerced abortion when she was just 17.
“I was kicked out of the house by my father and then coerced into getting an abortion,” she said. “Pretty much cut me off from everything, and that’s something people don’t really talk about … they make it try to seem like it’s a woman’s right, it’s a free choice. It’s all this other stuff, but many women are coerced in one way or another.”
She guessed that she was 14 or 15 weeks pregnant at the time.
“I saw my son. I had a saline abortion, so I saw him, which I always considered a blessing because it never allowed me to deny what abortion was,” she said. Afterward, she said she struggled with self-esteem issues, hating herself, guilt, shame, and more. Then, she found healing.
“I know what that pain is like, I know what that experience is like, and you know that you can get past it,” she said. “You just want to be able to give that message to other people, that they’re able to heal.”
Residents of Mississippi, where the Dobbs v. Jackson case originated, also attended.
Marion, who declined to provide her last name, drove from Mississippi to stand outside the Supreme Court. She said she was in her early 20s when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
“At the time, of course, I could care less,” she said. Since then, she had a change of heart.
“We were the generation that allowed it,” she said, “and so we are the generation who will help close that door and reverse it.”
Marion, who declined to provide her last name, was among those who attended a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, from Mississippi, where the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case originated. Katie Yoder/CNA
The crowd at the pro-life rally included all ages, from those who had witnessed Roe to bundled-up babies, children running around, and college students holding up homemade signs.
One group of young friends traveled across the country to stand outside the Supreme Court. They cited their faith and family as reasons for attending.
Mathilde Steenepoorte, 19, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, identified herself as “very pro-life” in large part because of her younger brother with Down syndrome. She said she was saddened by the abortion rates of unborn babies dianosed with Down syndrome.
Juanito Estevez, from Freeport, a village on Long Island, New York, at a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021. Katie Yoder/CNA
Juanito Estevez, from Freeport, a village on Long Island, New York, arrived Tuesday. He woke up at 6 a.m. to arrive at the Supreme Court with a crucifix in hand.
“I believe that God is the giver of life and we don’t have the right [to decide] whether a baby should live or die,” he said.
He also said that he believed women have been lied to about abortion.
“We say it’s their right, and there’s a choice,” he said. When girls tell him “I have the right,” his response, he said, is to ask back, “You have the right for what?”
Mallory Finch, from Charlotte, North Carolina, was among the pro-life demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021.
Mallory Finch, from Charlotte, North Carolina, also woke up early but emphasized “it was worth it.” A pro-life podcast host, she called abortion a “human-rights issue.”
“I hope that it overturns Roe,” she said of the case, “but that doesn’t mean that our job as pro-lifers is done. It makes this, really, just the beginning.”
Archbishop-elect Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky / Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux via YouTube
Vatican City, Feb 8, 2022 / 04:57 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Bishop Shelton Fabre to lead the Archdiocese of Louisville in Kentucky… […]
Pope Francis presides over Ash Wednesday Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome on Feb. 14, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Mar 29, 2024 / 10:10 am (CNA).
For the first time in his 11-year pontificate, Pope Francis has written… […]
8 Comments
Without prejudice, a favorable impression of Francis’, “Faith is not a lullaby, rather a living flame to keep us wakeful and active even at night”. He may have read John of the Cross’ Living Flame of Love. Faith is a flame that spurs us to action.
Although [there always the condition] faith isn’t entirely “discovery [of] the tenderness of the Father and the joy of Jesus”. There’s the ruggedness of the narrow path, the willingness to offer ourselves for the salvation of the other. Faith the Fathers taught inflames us with love of God that translates, the Apostle’s many sleepless nights, adversity, marked expression of tender love in appeal to the sinner to return to the commandments of Christ as the Apostle does so well in his exhortations to the Corinthians.
“Deliver us Lord from every evil and grant us peace in our day, that by the help of Your mercy we may be free from sin and protected from all anxiety, as we wait in joyful hope the coming of our Saviour ….”
Through faith we sing lullaby’s to our children, we want them at peace and to feel God’s love. Our faith is a gift from God and we want to share it.
Might it be fair to speculate that Papa’s dreams are more of flames than sweet? Yes we have tribulation and upset and, yet:
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Prayers for Papa, may the Holy Spirit be the source of all encouragement and discernment.
For lovers of lullabies, and in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day
Toora loora looral
Toora loora li
Toora loora looral
Hush now, don’t you cry
Toora loora looral
Toora loora li
Toora loora looral
That’s an Irish lullaby
Christian action and witness obviously requires both passion or gentleness in different circumstances. The weak mind of Francis, a neophiliac in continuous need to try to prove to himself that he can be an original, deep thinker, creates nonsensical fantasy targets of thought that never considers countering implications to his thesis. He can’t seem to figure out such things like the connection between being soft on the sex revolution and the effects on abortion. Nor can he seem to figure out that avoiding God’s gift of guilt through the pursuit of serial families has bad effects on abandoned families. He does seem, however, to figure out what garners accolades from everyone else who fails to think matters through.
This attitude, a typically simplistic nostrum by Francis, who often seems to TRY to be a clone of the late Cdl. Martini, is observed in this comment below from an article on Martini’s last interview:
“The Church was “tired,” its rites were “pompous,” and he who had dreamed of a “young church” now stared at countless ashes. How he wanted the embers beneath the ashes to burn! Where were the men who burned for the spreading of the “spirit”? Where were the men who would preach “discernment” and carry the Eucharist to those in “complex family situations?”
After Martini, the Fight Over His Spiritual Testament (repubblica.it)
Faith is a gift. Conversion is an ongoing process. Saint Ignatius of Antioch has left some inspiring thoughts for consideration: “If we be ground in the mill of Life, may we be found pure Bread. If we be crushed in the wine press of suffering, may we be found pure wine”.
Without prejudice, a favorable impression of Francis’, “Faith is not a lullaby, rather a living flame to keep us wakeful and active even at night”. He may have read John of the Cross’ Living Flame of Love. Faith is a flame that spurs us to action.
Although [there always the condition] faith isn’t entirely “discovery [of] the tenderness of the Father and the joy of Jesus”. There’s the ruggedness of the narrow path, the willingness to offer ourselves for the salvation of the other. Faith the Fathers taught inflames us with love of God that translates, the Apostle’s many sleepless nights, adversity, marked expression of tender love in appeal to the sinner to return to the commandments of Christ as the Apostle does so well in his exhortations to the Corinthians.
Yes the casting of fire on the earth too!
“Deliver us Lord from every evil and grant us peace in our day, that by the help of Your mercy we may be free from sin and protected from all anxiety, as we wait in joyful hope the coming of our Saviour ….”
A favorite prayer from the canon of the Mass.
Through faith we sing lullaby’s to our children, we want them at peace and to feel God’s love. Our faith is a gift from God and we want to share it.
Might it be fair to speculate that Papa’s dreams are more of flames than sweet? Yes we have tribulation and upset and, yet:
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Prayers for Papa, may the Holy Spirit be the source of all encouragement and discernment.
For lovers of lullabies, and in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day
Toora loora looral
Toora loora li
Toora loora looral
Hush now, don’t you cry
Toora loora looral
Toora loora li
Toora loora looral
That’s an Irish lullaby
Christian action and witness obviously requires both passion or gentleness in different circumstances. The weak mind of Francis, a neophiliac in continuous need to try to prove to himself that he can be an original, deep thinker, creates nonsensical fantasy targets of thought that never considers countering implications to his thesis. He can’t seem to figure out such things like the connection between being soft on the sex revolution and the effects on abortion. Nor can he seem to figure out that avoiding God’s gift of guilt through the pursuit of serial families has bad effects on abandoned families. He does seem, however, to figure out what garners accolades from everyone else who fails to think matters through.
This attitude, a typically simplistic nostrum by Francis, who often seems to TRY to be a clone of the late Cdl. Martini, is observed in this comment below from an article on Martini’s last interview:
“The Church was “tired,” its rites were “pompous,” and he who had dreamed of a “young church” now stared at countless ashes. How he wanted the embers beneath the ashes to burn! Where were the men who burned for the spreading of the “spirit”? Where were the men who would preach “discernment” and carry the Eucharist to those in “complex family situations?”
After Martini, the Fight Over His Spiritual Testament (repubblica.it)
Faith is a gift. Conversion is an ongoing process. Saint Ignatius of Antioch has left some inspiring thoughts for consideration: “If we be ground in the mill of Life, may we be found pure Bread. If we be crushed in the wine press of suffering, may we be found pure wine”.