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Dear brothers and sisters, today we celebrate the World Day of Social Communications with the theme communication in service of an authentic culture of encounter. Social communications can promote the sense of the unity of the human family, solidarity, and the commitment to a dignified life for all. Let us pray that communications, in its every form, be effectively placed at the service of encounter among people, communities and nations; let it be an encounter based on mutual respect and listening.
Yesterday, in Collevalenza, Mother Speranza was proclaimed Blessed, born in Spain by the name of María Josefa Alhama Valera, Foundress in Italy of the Handmaids and Sons of Merciful Love. May her witness help the Church to proclaim everywhere, through concrete and daily actions, the infinite mercy of our Heavenly Father toward every person. Let us all, with a round of applause, greet Blessed Mother Speranza!
I wish all a good Sunday. Have a good lunch and goodbye, and pray for me!
Acknowledgment: We thank the Vatican Publisher for allowing us to publish the Homilies of Pope Francis I, so that they 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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Pentecost Vigil, First Reading: Book of Genesis 11:1-9 Throughout the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.’ (For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen). ‘Come,’ they said ‘let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered about the whole earth.’ Now the Lord came down to see the town and the tower that the sons of man had built. ‘So they are all a single people with a single language!’ said the Lord. ‘This is but the start of their undertakings! There will be nothing too hard for them to do. Come, let us go down and confuse their language on the spot so that they can no longer understand one another.’ The Lord scattered them thence over the whole face of the earth, and they stopped building the town. It was named Babel therefore, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. It was from there that the Lord scattered them over the whole face of the earth. |
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Pentecost Vigil, First reading: Book of Exodus 19:3-8,16-20 Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Say this to the House of Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel: ‘“You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own, for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.” ‘Those are the words you are to speak to the sons of Israel.’ So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people, putting before them all that the Lord had bidden him. Then all the people answered as one, ‘All that the Lord has said, we will do.’ Now at daybreak on the third day there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a dense cloud, and a loud trumpet blast, and inside the camp all the people trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain of Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. Like smoke from a furnace the smoke went up, and the whole mountain shook violently. Louder and louder grew the sound of the trumpet. Moses spoke, and God answered him with peals of thunder. The Lord came down on the mountain of Sinai, on the mountain top, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. |
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Pentecost Vigil, Second Reading: letter of Saint Paul to the Romans 8:22-27 From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved – our salvation is not in sight, we should not have to be hoping for it if it were – but, as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet – it is something we must wait for with patience. The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.
Gospel Acclamation Alleluia, alleluia! Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Alleluia! |
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Sequence Holy Spirit, Lord of Light, From the clear celestial height Thy pure beaming radiance give. Come, thou Father of the poor, Come with treasures which endure Come, thou light of all that live! Thou, of all consolers best, Thou, the soul’s delightful guest, Dost refreshing peace bestow Thou in toil art comfort sweet Pleasant coolness in the heat Solace in the midst of woe. Light immortal, light divine, Visit thou these hearts of thine, And our inmost being fill: If thou take thy grace away, Nothing pure in man will stay All his good is turned to ill. Heal our wounds, our strength renew On our dryness pour thy dew Wash the stains of guilt away: Bend the stubborn heart and will Melt the frozen, warm the chill Guide the steps that go astray. Thou, on us who evermore Thee confess and thee adore, With thy sevenfold gifts descend: Give us comfort when we die Give us life with thee on high Give us joys that never end. |