Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Oct 30, 2023 / 13:45 pm (CNA).
Now that the Synod on Synodality has drawn to a close, all eyes are on&nbs… […]
Friars walking along the Via Dolorosa on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. After two weeks, the Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land returned to pray the Way of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. / Credit: Marinella Bandini
Jerusalem… […]
Pope Francis visits the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square following vespers on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 2022. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 30, 2023 / 12:45 pm (CNA).
The Christmas 2023 Nativity scene at the Vatican will evoke the first-ever live manger, which was created by St. Francis of Assisi in Italy in the 1200s, the Vatican said Monday.
The Vatican’s Nativity scene, which is different every year, will be unveiled at a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 9. The Christmas tree will also be lit for the first time this season at the same event.
The Christmas tree and Nativity scenes will remain in place through the Christmas season, until Jan. 7, 2024, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
St. Francis’ meditations on the life of Christ while visiting the Holy Land led him to create a representation of the birth of Jesus on Christmas in Greccio, Italy, in 1223. It is believed to be the origin of the Nativity scene.
The Vatican’s Nativity scenes in St. Peter’s Square and the Paul VI Hall will “revive the atmosphere of Christmas 1223 … when St. Francis, returning from a journey to the Holy Land, asked to reenact the birth of Jesus in a village that reminded him of Bethlehem,” a press release said.
Christmas 2023 marks 800 years since St. Francis of Assisi staged the first manger scene in the hill town of Greccio, about 50 miles north of Rome.
In addition to the traditional Nativity figures of Mary, Joseph, the child Jesus, and the ox and donkey, the life-size painted terracotta statues will depict St. Francis and some of the principal characters who helped him create the first live creche.
The structure behind the figures will be of the rock still present at the Catholic shrine in Greccio and the fresco painted above it. The surrounding countryside and the four Franciscan shrines of that area will also be depicted.
The Nativity scene inside the Paul VI Hall, where Pope Francis holds his Wednesday audiences with the public during the winter months, will be made from thousands of glass Venetian tiles.
The 82-foot-tall white spruce to be used for the Vatican Christmas tree comes from the Italian Alps close to the border with France.
Instead of traditional ornaments, the tree will be decorated with thousands of edelweiss, a white mountain flower that grows in the Alps and other areas of high altitude.
Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher. / Credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images and Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, Oct 30, 2023 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
Vatican foreign … […]
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Oct 30, 2023 / 11:45 am (CNA).
The first part of the Synod on Synodality’s two-part assembly concluded Sunda… […]
Workers prepare to distribute medical aid and medicines to Nasser Medical Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, which recently arrived through the Rafah crossing on Oct. 29, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza. / Credit: Ahmad Hasab… […]
Pope Francis addresses nearly 20,000 faithful at his Sunday Angelus address on Oct. 29, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 29, 2023 / 12:05 pm (CNA).
During his Sunday Angelus message, Pope Francis expressed that the love of God an… […]
null / nito/Shutterstock.
Vancouver, Canada, Oct 29, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The majority of British Columbians support the right of religiously affiliated health care facilities to reject euthanasia on their premises and to transfer patients re… […]
Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 29, 2023 / 07:30 am (CNA).
At the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass, Pope Francis said that God’s love cannot be confined “to our own agenda” and that those who truly want to reform the Catholic Church should follow Jesus’ greatest commandment: to adore God and love others with his love.
“We may have plenty of good ideas on how to reform the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love, that is the great and perennial reform,” Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29.
“We are always at risk of thinking that we can ‘control God,’ that we can confine his love to our own agenda. Instead, the way he acts is always unpredictable, it goes beyond, and consequently, this action of God demands amazement and adoration,” he added.
The pope underlined that worship of Jesus in the tabernacle “in every diocese, in every parish, in every community” is necessary in the “struggle against all types of idolatry” in today’s world.
“Let us be vigilant, lest we find that we are putting ourselves at the center rather than him. And let us return to worship. May worship be central for those of us who are pastors: let us devote time every day to intimacy with Jesus the Good Shepherd in the tabernacle. Adoration,” he said.
“Only in this way will we turn to Jesus and not to ourselves. For only through silent adoration will the Word of God live in our words; only in his presence will we be purified, transformed, and renewed by the fire of his Spirit. Brothers and sisters, let us adore the Lord Jesus!”
The pope’s homily marked the closing of the monthlong 2023 Synod on Synodality assembly, where 365 delegates discussed and voted on more than 80 proposals for how to become a more “synodal Church.”
“Brothers and Sisters, the General Assembly of the Synod has now concluded,” he said. “In this ‘conversation of the Spirit,’ we have experienced the loving presence of the Lord and discovered the beauty of fraternity.”
“Today we do not see the full fruit of this process, but with farsightedness, we look to the horizon opening up before us. The Lord will guide us and help us to be a more synodal and more missionary Church, a Church that adores God and serves the women and men of our time, going forth to bring to everyone the consoling joy of the Gospel,” Francis added.
In his homily, Pope Francis said that he believed that the conclusion of this stage in the Synod “it is important to look at the ‘principle and foundation’ from which everything begins ever anew: loving God with our whole life and loving our neighbors as ourselves.”
“Not our strategies, our human calculations, the ways of the world, but love of God and neighbor: that is the heart of everything,” he said.
Pope Francis emphasized that adoration and worship are “essential in the life of the Church.”
“To adore God means to acknowledge in faith that he alone is Lord and that our individual lives, the Church’s pilgrim way, and the ultimate outcome of history all depend on the tenderness of his love. He gives meaning to our lives,” he said.
“Those who worship God reject idols because whereas God liberates, idols enslave,” he added.
“We must constantly struggle against all types of idolatry; not only the worldly kinds, which often stem from vainglory, such as lust for success, self-centredness, greed for money — the devil enters through our pockets let us not forget — the enticements of careerism; but also those forms of idolatry disguised as spirituality: my own spirituality, my religious ideas, my pastoral skills.”
Pope Francis said that being “a worshiping Church and a Church of service” entails “washing the feet of wounded humanity, accompanying those who are frail, weak and cast aside, going out lovingly to encounter the poor.”
Quoting St. John Chrysostom, he said: “The merciful man is as a harbor to those who are in need; and the harbor receives all who are escaping shipwreck, and frees them from danger, whether they be evil or good; whatsoever kind of men they be that are in peril, it receives them into its shelter. You also, when you see a man suffering shipwreck on land through poverty, do not sit in judgment on him, nor require explanations, but relieve his distress.”
About 5,000 people attended the closing Mass for the Synod on Synodality’s 2023 assembly, according to the Vatican. The Mass concluded with the congregation singing the Marian hymn “Salve Regina.”
Pope Francis thanked all of the cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, and lay people from around the world who traveled to Rome to participate in the Synod. Next year, the delegates will return to the Vatican in October 2024 to take part in the second assembly to advise the pope on the theme: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.”
“In expressing my gratitude, I would also like to offer a prayer for all of us: may we grow in our worship of God and in our service to our neighbor. Worship and Service. May the Lord accompany us. Let us go forward with joy,” Pope Francis said.
Patrick Norton tells his incredible story of meeting who he believes was Sister Annella Zervas at Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in the Saint Benedict Monastery cemetery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Around 150 people gathered for an event where a lette… […]
© Catholic World Report