Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City State, where a group of Benedictine nuns from Argentina will take up residence in January 2024 at the invitation of Pope Francis. / Credit: Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Vatican C… […]
Terminally ill British infant Indi Gregory has been given more time to live after a court on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, gave her family permission to appeal a judge’s decision mandating where her life support can be removed. / Credit: Christian Con… […]
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas. / Credit: Peytonlow at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, Nov 12, 2023 / 16:25 pm (CNA).
Just hours after Pope Francis removed Bishop Joseph Strickland as the he… […]
Pope Francis prayed the Angelus before over 20,000 faithful at St. Peter’s Square on Sun., Nov. 12, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Nov 12, 2023 / 10:10 am (CNA).
Pope Francis reflected on today’s gospel message, urging the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square to cultivate the interior life and worry less about making a good impression.
Speaking in his Angelus address on Nov. 12, the pope asked the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square to consider, “How is the oil of my soul: do I nourish it and keep it well?”
The pope turned to the parable of the 10 virgins who are awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom to the wedding feast. Five of them were wise and had extra lamp oil to provide light until he arrived, but five were foolish, having brought no extra oil.
The difference between those who prepared their lamps with oil and those who did not is the difference between “goodwill” and “preparation” the Holy Father said. In this way, it reminds us of our own interior life.
“And what is the characteristic of the oil? That it cannot be seen: it is inside the lamps, it is not conspicuous, but without it, the lamps give no light,” said the pope.
The pope also warned that today there are many obstacles to having a genuine moment of inward reflection.
“Let us look at ourselves, and we will see that our life runs the same risk: Today we are very careful about our appearance, the important thing is to take good care of one’s image and make a good impression in front of others.”
“It is the stewardship of the inner life. This means knowing how to stop and listen to one’s heart, to keep watch over one’s own thoughts and feelings,” said the pope.
To engage in the inner reflection and contemplation necessary for a healthy spiritual life requires more than the willingness to listen, he said. “It means knowing how to make room for silence, so as to be capable of listening,” which, he said, often entails making sacrifices.
During the appeal, the pope called attention to the grave situation in Sudan. Conflict broke out in the county between two rival factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023. The fighting, which has left over 10,000 dead, has been concentrated in the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region.
“I am close to the suffering of those dear people of Sudan, and I make a heartfelt appeal to local leaders to encourage access to humanitarian aid and, with the contribution of the international community, to work towards finding peaceful solutions. Let us not forget these brothers of ours who are being tested,” said the pope.
Following his appeal for those in Sudan, the Holy Father spoke again about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“Every day our thoughts turn to the very serious situation in Israel and Palestine. I am close to all those who suffer, Palestinians and Israelis. I hug them in this dark moment. And I pray a lot for them.”
“Enough, brothers, enough! In Gaza, the wounded must be helped immediately, civilians must be protected, and much more humanitarian aid must be delivered to that exhausted population. The hostages, among whom there are many elderly people and children, must be freed.”
“Every human being, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, of any people and religion, every human being is sacred, precious in the eyes of God and has the right to live in peace. Let us not lose hope: we pray and work tirelessly so that the sense of humanity prevails over the hardness of hearts,” said the pope.
At the end of the Mass of consecration on Nov. 1, 2023, María Ruiz Rodríguez shows the ring symbolizing her membership in the Ordo Virginum. That’s the only outward sign of her consecration. / Credit: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Nov 12, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
On the 25th day of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Church in Jerusalem welcomed a new consecrated member into its fold. María Ruiz Rodríguez made her consecration in the Ordo Virginum on Nov. 1, permanently rooting herself in the local ecclesiastical community.
“A thought crossed my mind, a temptation: ‘What purpose does this step serve in the midst of current events? Doesn’t the Church have more urgent matters to attend to than to stop and celebrate the consecration of a humble woman like me?’” Ruiz shared with CNA a few days later. But she said she was immediately aware of something else.
“I told myself: I cannot delay this commitment… In fact, uniting my life with the Church in a time of suffering is even more meaningful,” she said.
Ruiz, now 42, is originally from Spain and arrived in Jerusalem in 2018 for a period of discernment. At that time, she was a member of the “Monastic Family of Bethlehem, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. Bruno,” an institute of consecrated life established in France in 1950.
It was Ruiz’s first time in the Holy Land, even though the desire to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land had long been a dream in her heart.
“For two years, I set aside my savings to make a pilgrimage in 2000, the year of the Great Jubilee. However, in that very year, I entered the convent, so I gave up. I felt that Jesus was saying to me: ‘I am your Holy Land.’ In a way, I had already arrived in Jerusalem,” Ruiz said.
It was in the Holy Land that Ruiz first came into contact with some consecrated women of the Ordo Virginum.
“I was looking for my place and I felt called,” she said.
The Ordo Virginum, Ruiz continued, “is the oldest form of consecration in the Church”. Abandoned over the centuries in favor of the religious life, it was rediscovered with the Second Vatican Council as a form of life that, “in a radically transformed historical context” possesses “a surprising force of attraction” and is “capable of responding not only to the desires of many women to dedicate themselves totally to the Lord and to their neighbors, but also to the concurrent rediscovery by the particular Church of its own identity in communion with the one Body of Christ” (cf. Instruction “Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago” on the “Ordo Virginum”).
Consecrated women in the Ordo Virginum choose to live a life of virginity “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” in a lay form of life. They do not wear religious habits, do not live in communities, have no common statutes or rules, or even superiors. Instead, they maintain a personal reference to the local bishop — in this case, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa — who acts as guarantor of their journey of discernment and presides over their consecration.
The sole commitment these consecrated women make is the “resolution of chastity,” which they express during the Rite of Consecration. The only symbol they wear is a ring, emphasizing the spousal character of this vocation, which reflects the mystery of the Church as “Bride of Christ.” Engraved in Ruiz’s ring is an inscription in Hebrew meaning “O my life,” referring to Christ, and the date of her consecration.
Women who consecrate themselves in the Ordo Virginum support themselves through their jobs. Ruiz is an iconographer and has been working for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem for about four years. She was drawn into a project aimed at renewing liturgical books — the Missal and the Evangeliary — with her artwork.
“I first approached iconographic art when I was a nun. It was first of all a spiritual journey, a path of prayer. More than an artistic expression, an icon is a profession of faith. Before beginning the work, I invoke the Holy Spirit and ask for forgiveness for my own sins and for those who will venerate these images. I was interested in this dimension of relationship,” Ruiz shared. She spent a year researching the style and colors.
“The patriarch asked me to create something that would speak to local Christians, who are Latin by tradition but Eastern by culture. A style that was uniquely mine yet rich in the entire iconographic tradition of the Church of Jerusalem. The art of Armenian manuscripts certainly had a significant influence on me.”
The patriarch takes a personal interest in overseeing Ruiz’s work. “We read the Gospel together and choose which scenes to represent, taking into account the particularity of each evangelist. He particularly enjoys highlighting passages that are less frequently represented in the artistic tradition. This is a project close to his heart,” she told CNA.
Currently, Ruíz is in the process of creating images for the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.
“The process is very laborious and involves multiple stages for each page: the pencil lettering, the crafting of the icons, then the ink lettering and finally the gilding.” The plan is for a volume of about 200 pages with 250 images.
“Making this work in Jerusalem has a special value: I can visit the places where that Gospel was lived” but also “immerse myself in Jewish culture,” she said. “This has opened my eyes to the richness that Judaism brings to Christianity. There is a perfect continuity and at the same time an unprecedented newness in the person of Christ.”
Ruiz learned the local languages — Arabic and Hebrew. The Mass of her consecration brought together within one place all the diverse “souls” of the Jerusalem Church: priests, friars, religious, and laity, Arab Christians and Hebrew-speaking Christians, each hearing the word of God in their own language. There were migrants, foreigners, Jews, and Christians of various denominations.
“I believe my being a foreigner is a blessing for this Church,” Ruiz said. “Why were there such different people in the church that day? Because I am neither Arab nor Jewish, and this allows me to bring both of these peoples into my heart together. In the praise of God we were one people, transcending the divisions that usually separate us. The Church in Jerusalem also needs this, to remember its universal vocation.”
With her consecration, Ruiz embarks on her new journey as a “living stone” of the Jerusalem Church: “I am certain that I am finally in the right place. It is not an act of heroism. I am simply where God wants me to be.”
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Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas. / Credit: Peytonlow at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2023 / 09:50 am (CNA).
Pope Francis removed Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, from his post Satur… […]
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas. / null
Vatican City, Nov 11, 2023 / 07:05 am (CNA).
The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis has relieved Bishop Joseph Strickland from his duties in the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, and appointed a… […]
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, which was closed in 1989 and sold, which the Serenelli Project is hoping to purchase (left), and a home for ex-inmates reentering society owned by the Serenelli Project (right). / Credit: Serenelli Project
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