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It is everyone's responsibility to prepare for the Great Jubilee, because it “certainly involves a special grace of the Lord for the Church and for the whole of humanity” (cf. Apostolic Letter Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 55).
On this day dedicated to the Holy Trinity, how can we fail to stress that the Holy Year will have as its aim “to give glory to the Trinity, from whom everything in the world and in history comes and to whom everything returns” (ibid.)?
The feast of “Corpus Christi”, with its Eucharistic celebration next Thursday at St John Lateran followed by the now traditional procession, in which I invite everyone to participate, reminds us of the International Eucharistic Congress. This extraordinary spiritual gathering will take place at the same Basilica of St John Lateran precisely on the feast of the Trinity in the Year 2000, to remind everyone that Christ is the only way to approach the Father and that he is present and alive in the Church and in the world.
5. “Glory and honour to God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; glory and praise to him for endless ages” (Third Antiphon, First Vespers).
Yes, glory and honour to the Holy Trinity. Let us together raise our song of praise and thanksgiving to the Holy Trinity.
Let us adore the mystery of the hidden presence of God among us, contemplating in silence his saving plan.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Let us make our own the words suggested to us by the liturgy: “Glory and praise to God who is, who was and who is to come”.
Amen!
Acknowledgment: We thank the Vatican Publisher for allowing us to publish the Homily of Blessed Pope John Paul II, so that it could be accessed by more people all over the world; as a source of God’s encouragements to all of us. |
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CANONIZATION OF 5 BLESSEDS HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II Feast of the Blessed Trinity
1. "Blessed be God the Father and his only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit: for great is his love for us" (Entrance Antiphon).
The entire liturgy is focused on the Trinitarian mystery, source of life for every believer, but especially today, on the feast of the Blessed Trinity.
"Glory to the Father, glory to the Son, glory to the Holy Spirit": every time we proclaim these words, the synthesis of our faith, we adore the only true God in three Persons. With amazement we contemplate the mystery that completely surrounds us. Mystery of love, mystery of ineffable holiness.
"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth" we will sing in a little while, entering into the heart of the Eucharistic prayer. The Father created everything with his wisdom and loving providence; the Son redeemed us with his death and resurrection; the Holy Spirit sanctifies with the fullness of his gifts of grace and mercy.
We can correctly define today's solemnity as the feast of holiness. It is a perfect day for the ceremony of the canonization of the five blesseds: Luigi Scrosoppi, Agostino Roscelli, Bernardo da Corleone, Teresa Eustochio Verzeri, Rafqua Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès.
2. "Justified ... by faith, we are in peace with God by means of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5,1).
For the apostle Paul, as we have heard in the second reading, holiness is a gift which the Father communicates to us through Jesus Christ. Faith in him is the principle of sanctification. By faith man enters the order of grace; by faith he hopes to take part in the glory of God. This hope is not a vain illusion, but the sure fruit of an ascetic path through many trials, that are faced with patience and proven virtue.
This was the experience of St Luigi Scrosoppi, during a life entirely spent for the love of Christ and his neighbour, especially, the weaker and the defenceless.
"Charity, charity": this exclamation burst from his heart at the moment of leaving the world for heaven. He exercised charity in an exemplary way, above all, in the service of abandoned orphan girls, involving a group of teachers, with whom he was able to start the Congregation of the "Sisters of Divine Providence".
Charity was the secret of his long and untiring apostolate, nourished by a constant contact with Christ, contemplated and imitated in the humility and poverty of his birth at Bethlehem, in the simplicity of his life of hard work at Nazareth, in the complete immolation on Calvary, and in the astonishing silence of the Eucharist. Consequently, the Church holds him up to priests and to the faithful as a model of a deep and effective union of communion with God and the service of his neighbour. In other words, he is a model of a life lived in intense communion with the Holy Trinity.
He felt the duty to communicate the same faith to others, above all, to those whom he approached in the ministry of confession. He became a master of the spiritual life, especially for the congregation of sisters founded by him. The sisters always found him serene even in the most trying situations. St Agostino Roscelli exhorts us always to trust in God, immersing ourselves in the mystery of his love.
Even today the world needs saints like Brother Bernard immersed in God and for that very reason able to hand on God's truth and love. The humble example of the Capuchin saint offers an encouragement never to tire of prayer, since prayer and listening to God are the soul of authentic holiness.
St Teresa Eustochio Verzeri: faith in providence and abandonment to direction of Spirit
This was the teaching that St Teresa left to her Institute of the "Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus" founded by her. This is the teaching that she left us all. In the midst of contradictions and inner and exterior sufferings one must keep alive faith in God Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
May St Rafqa watch over those who know suffering, particularly over the peoples of the Middle East who must face a destructive and sterile spiral of violence. Through her intercession, let us ask the Lord to open hearts to the patient quest for new ways to peace and so hasten the advent of reconciliation and harmony.
7. "O Lord our God, how great is your name through all the earth" (Psalm 8,2.10). Contemplating these outstanding examples of holiness, the psalmist's exclamation comes spontaneously to mind. The Lord does not stop giving to the Church and to the world wonderful examples of men and women who are reflections of the glory of the Trinity. Their witness incites us to raise our eyes to heaven and to seek without pause the kingdom of God and his justice.
May Mary the Queen of all saints, who first heard the call of the Most High, uphold us in our service of God and neighbor. And may you go with us saints Luigi Scrosoppi, Agostino Roscelli, Bernardo da Corleone, Teresa Eustocchio Verzeri, Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès, so that our lives like yours may give praise to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Acknowledgment: We thank the Vatican Publisher for allowing us to publish the Homily of Blessed Pope John Paul II, so that it could be accessed by more people all over the world; as a source of God’s encouragements to all of us. |
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APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGE OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II TO BERN MASS AT ALMEND ESPLANADE IN BERN HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II Solemnity of the Holy Trinity
1. "Blessed be God the Father and his Only-Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit: for he has shown that he loves us" (Opening Prayer).
On this first Sunday after Pentecost, the Church invites us to celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity. We do so, dear brothers and sisters, in a superb setting of snowy peaks and green valleys covered with an abundance of flowers and fruits and numerous lakes and springs that make your Land beautiful. Our meditation is guided by the first reading which brings us to contemplate divine Wisdom: "When [God] established the heavens... when he made firm the skies above..., when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit... when he marked out the foundations of the earth..." (Proverbs 8: 27-29).
Yet, we should not only turn our gaze toward creation, "the work of God's hands" (Responsorial Psalm); it should be especially attentive to the people around us. I greet you with affection, dear brothers and sisters of this marvellous region in the heart of Europe. I would like to shake hands with each one of you to greet you personally and say to you: "The Lord is with you and he loves you!".
I extend a fraternal greeting to the Bishops of Switzerland with their President, Bishop Amédée Grab of Coire, as well as Bishop Kurt Koch of Basel, whom I thank for his words on behalf of you all. I address my respectful greetings to the President of the Swiss Confederation as well as to the Authorities who have honoured us with their presence.
Lastly, I address a special greeting full of affection to all the young Catholics of Switzerland, whom I met yesterday evening at the Bern Expo Palace. There we heard together Jesus' demanding, stirring invitation: "Arise!". Dear young friends, may you know that the Pope loves you, that he accompanies you in his daily prayers, that he is counting on your collaboration to proclaim the Gospel and encourages you to advance confidently on the path of Christian life.
2. "We joyfully proclaim our faith... You have revealed your glory", we will say in the Preface. Our Eucharistic Assembly is a witness and proclamation of the glory of the Most High and of his active presence in history. Sustained by the Spirit, whom the Father sent to us through the Son, "we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope" (Romans 5: 3-4).
Dear friends, I ask the Lord to be a witness of hope among you, a witness of that hope that "does not disappoint" because it is founded on God's love, "poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5: 5). Today, the world is especially in need of this: a supplement of hope!
3. "You are one Lord, one God" (Preface). The three Persons, equal and separate, are one God. Their real distinction does not divide the unity of their divine nature.
Christ proposed this immensely deep communion to us, his disciples, as a model: "that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17: 21). The celebration of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity is a strong appeal for the commitment to unity. It is an appeal that involves everyone, Pastors and faithful alike, and impels all to a renewed consciousness of their personal responsibility in the Church, the Bride of Christ. How is it possible, in the face of these words of Christ, not to feel the goad of ecumenism? I reaffirm also on this occasion the desire to advance on the path to full communion with all believers, albeit difficult, yet full of joy.
It is certain, however, that a strong contribution to the ecumenical cause derives from the commitment of Catholics to living inner unity. In the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, I stressed the need "to make the Church the home and the school of communion " (n. 43), keeping the eyes of the heart fixed "on the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us" (ibid.). In this way we foster that "spirituality of communion" which, departing from the places where people and Christians are formed, reaches the parishes, associations and movements. A local Church in which the spirituality of communion flourishes will be able to purify herself constantly from the "toxins" of selfishness that give rise to jealousy, diffidence, manias for self-affirmation and harmful contrasts.
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