Novena time

If you would like to know more about novenas, this book is a great resource.

The Church’s Most Powerful Novenas by Michael Dubruiel  (title of first edition: Mention Your Request Here – which is the changeable part of every novena, when you insert your own personal intention.)

The Power of the Cross

Here’s a link to a page with a free download of Michael Dubruiel’s book The Power of the Cross.  

It’s in .pdf format.

Also on the page is a link to a series of interviews Michael did with Catholic radio station KVSS on the book. 

Michael Dubruiel 1958-2009

Michael Dubruiel died on February 3, 2009 after suffering a heart attack while on the treadmill at the Mountain Brook, AL YMCA.

This blog will remain online indefinitely, as will his webpage.

If you would like to assist Michael’s family, please consider buying his books.

You may read about Michael’s passing at his wife Amy’s blog here.

The last column he wrote for the diocesan newspaper, the night before he died, is here.

Thank you for your prayers for Michael’s soul and for his family.

We Need Change…

Some Seed Fell...column

I was in Washington, D.C. last week, not for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, but for the annual March for Life. I was not there alone, but in solidarity with a crowd of 300,000 (one television station’s estimate), including many from our Diocese and even more from our state of Alabama. Something that will surprise those who have never participated in such a March (we have one in Birmingham every year too) is the overwhelming majority of the marchers are very young people, in their teens and twenties—those who are most likely to be confronted with life’s realities of the abortion issue. This is in stark contrast to the few opposing protestors who show up on the other side: they are old and clearly beyond their child bearing years. In other words, it is not even their issue.

The Catholic side of the March begins each year at the Verizon Center in Washington with a youth rally. If you are not there a good three hours before it starts, you don’t get in—and thousands don’t. Students from John Carroll found that out last year, and this year they arrived really early to insure that they had a place at the Lord’s table. Bishop Baker compares this Youth Rally to a mini World Youth Day. There are testimonies, music, and most importantly prayer—all culminating with Holy Mass.

The over 20,000 youth, gathered at the Verizon Center then march to the Mall where people of all faiths assemble to hear a series of talks. By the time our group arrived at the Mall the talks had already begun, so I did not hear all of them. However, the one that impressed me deeply was delivered by Pastor Luke Robinson, an African Methodist Episcopal preacher from Quinn Chapel located in Frederick, Maryland.

Pastor Robinson recalled the events of the week, beginning with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and the inauguration of the first black president the following day. He praised the partial fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream.

Pastor Robinson then spoke about President Obama, “I am praying that God’s hand will lead him in righteousness and justice.” He continued:

 

“Today, Thursday, Jan. 22, we come here to deal with some unfinished business as it relates to the dream. We need change now more than ever. We are calling on the  President of Change, President Barack Obama to be an agent of change as it relates to the lives of over one million children who will be slaughtered in this, his first year as President, by a horrible practice called abortion and ‘a woman’s right to choose.’ We need change, Mr. President, because every day about 4000 babies die by abortion. Every day, Mr. President, people with your ethnic background and my ethnic background die in astounding numbers. Abortion is the number one killer of African Americans in this country.”
“We make up about 12% of the population and about 34% of all abortions are black babies. In the last 36 years over 17 million African American babies have died by abortion alone.  We need to change this picture. We need to stop this slaughter of the innocent preborn. Please, Mr. President, be that agent of change that can commute the sentence of over 1400 African American children and over 3000 children from other ethnic groups, sentenced to die every day in this country by abortion. We need change and we need it now. I pray with so many others that your administration will preside over the end to abortion and to the black genocide in America. At the conclusion of your term in office, may it never be said that you presided over the largest slaughter of innocent children in the history of the country and that African Americans became an ever increasing minority under your hand.”

Pastor Robinson received a huge ovation at the end of his remarks.  He said eloquently what so many of us hope that President Obama will really be—a president of change. Unfortunately, if the first days of his office are any indication, not much has changed since the last pro-abortion president was in office. On Friday the newly elected president signed an executive order, once again funding foreign agencies that provide abortions—many in countries where the populace is rightly opposed to the practice.

I hope that all who read this column will make a special effort to pray Bishop Baker’s prayer for our new president and all political leaders, that they will experience conversion and become consistently pro-life in all issues. May they work tirelessly to end war, as well as the war against the unborn. May they see life as a gift, not as a threat to their children’s future.

When it comes to protecting the innocent in this country, to quote Pastor Robinson, “We need change and we need it now.”

New Version of Way of the Cross by Michael Dubruiel and Amy Welborn

John Paul II’s Biblical Way of the Cross(It is also available in an IPhone App) – a new version of the Way of the Cross (or Stations of the Cross)

And check out this page on Michael Dubruiel’s book The Power of the Cross - available in a free .pdf download here. 

What Would Have Happened?

Conversion of Saint Paul

Pope: Happy Chinese New Year!

From Asia News Italy:

Benedict XVI extended his Best Wishes for Chinese New Year to all the peoples of East Asia who follow the Lunar Year and who will start celebrating the Year of the Ox tomorrow.

Speaking at the end of the Angelus prayer to the faithful gathered in St Peter’ Square, the Pope said: “The peoples of the various countries of East Asia are preparing to celebrate the Lunar New Year. To them I express my Best Wishes that they may experience this celebration in joy. Joy is the expression of when we are in harmony with ourselves. And this can only come when we are in harmony with God and his creation. May joy always be alive in the hearts of all the citizens of these nations, so dear to me; may it shine around the world!”

China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Koreas, Vietnam and all the countries will large Chinese communities like Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines celebrate this event.

Saint Paul’s conversion, which the Church celebrates today, was however the main subject in the Pope’s reflections ahead of the Marian prayer.

“If truth be told,” said the Pope, “in the case of Paul some prefer not to use this term because,” they say, “he was already a believer; in fact he was a fervent Jew, and thus did not go from no faith to faith or from idols to God; nor did he abandon the Jewish faith to join Christ. In reality, the Apostle’s experience can be a model for every true Christian conversion.”

Paul’s conversion, the Pope went on to say, “took shape in the meeting with the Risen Christ. It was that meeting that radically changed his life. On the way to Damascus what happened to him is what Jesus calls for in today’s Gospel. Saul converted because, thanks to divine light, he believed in the Gospel’. This is his and our conversion: believing in the dead and risen Jesus and opening ourselves to the light of divine grace. In that moment Saul understood that his salvation did not depend on good deeds performed in accordance with the Law, but in the fact that Jesus also died for him, the persecutor, and had risen.”

For each Christian, baptism is the sign of conversion. “Converting,” explained the Pontiff, “means, also for each one of us, that Jesus, by dying on the cross, “has [. . .] given himself up for me” (cf Gal, 2:20), has risen and [now] lives with me and in me. By putting my trust in the power of his remission and letting myself be taken by His hand, I can escape the quick sands of pride and sin, lies and sadness, selfishness and false security, to find out and live the richness of his love.”

Benedict XVI also said that this afternoon he would preside over the solemn Vespers in St Paul’s Outside the Walls Basilica along with Rome’s ecumenical leaders.

“We Christians have not yet achieved the goal of full unity,” he added, “but if we allow ourselves to be continuously converted by the Lord Jesus we shall certainly get there.”

The Pope also mentioned important another event, the 56th World Leprosy Day. “I am happy,” said the Pope, “that the United Nations, in a recent statement by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has urged states to protect people living with leprosy and their families. For my part, I can assure them that they are in my prayers, and I encourage once more all those who are fighting by their side for their complete recovery and social integration.”

A special greeting, said with “great affection”, was dedicated to the children of Rome’s Azione Cattolica, who were involved throughout the month in meetings, reflections, and activities connected to the “Caravan of Peace”.

At the end of the Angelus two children and the Pontiff together released two white doves.

Indifference – A column by Michael Dubruiel

(Michael Dubruiel died one week after writing this post.)

This week’s Some Seed Fell…column:

This past Thursday evening, a unique situation took me back thirty years to the time I lived just north of Istanbul, Turkey. Such a recollection transpired through a conversation I had at a dinner sponsored by the Alabama Faith Council held at Holy Trinity-Holy Cross Orthodox Church. My tablemate was a Moslem, a native of Turkey, and sitting and conversing with him evoked memories of my own time there.

Thirty years ago, I was stationed in Turkey while serving in the United States Army. I was only twenty years old at the time, and it was my first experience away from the United States. Living in the predominantly Moslem country made it even more foreign to me.

The Turkish people were very helpful and hospitable; I have many fond memories of sharing a cup of hot chai (tea) with someone who insisted that we visit—when I was just passing by or in a hurry to be someplace else. They always took the time to notice the details of daily life. In this age when it seems as though life is quickly passing us by, I often reflect fondly back on that time when life seemed much slower.

Just before I arrived in Turkey, I had recently undergone a strong conversion experience and was on fire to read as much as I could about Jesus and the Church that He founded. But alas, at the Army outpost where I found myself there existed very little to satisfy my thirst. (This was in the day before the internet and Amazon).

One day while talking with the Protestant Chaplain (we had no Catholic Chaplain there) about my quandary, he handed me a set of cassette tapes that had been left behind by his predecessor, a Catholic priest. They were retreat conferences by the Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

I listened to these tapes over and over during that year, gaining new insights into Christ and our Catholic Faith every time. Archbishop Sheen often used poetry in his preaching, and this set of retreat tapes contained ample amounts of it. I liked one especially, and have quoted it often since those days in Turkey thirty years ago. It is a poem by G. Studdert-Kennedy entitled “Indifference.”

Geoffrey Anketell Studdert-Kennedy was an Anglican priest, born in Leeds (England) in 1883. He served as a chaplain in World War I, and his front line experiences made him deeply aware of the cruelty that humans can inflict upon one another. He wrote “Indifference” about the treatment of Christ in the poor in Birmingham (England) and the indifference of modern men to Jesus.

I have thought of this poem almost everyday that I have lived here in Birmingham, Alabama – often as a challenge towards my own lack of vigilance and passion. Every morning when I pass by the Cathedral of Saint Paul on my way to the office, do I remember that I am passing by his Eucharistic Presence; do I sign myself with His cross? When He approaches me in the guise of the poor asking for alms, do I look for a way to avoid that meeting or reach out with aid? When He comes asking me to do something for Him under the appearance of those engaged in His work in the Church, do I welcome Him and seek to do His will or find a way to avoid Him?

These are all questions that haunt me from a poem about another place named Birmingham. Here is G. Studdert-Kennedy’s poem:

When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do, ‘
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary.

There are many, many believers in Birmingham, Alabama.I am grateful to be here, where my faith can be enriched by so many.

Still we all need to be vigilant, to watch for Him, to recognize Him when we meet Him.

Just yesterday, a Catholic woman who had previously been a Baptist told me that she often feels that many Catholics do not realize what a gift they are receiving in the Eucharist—that they are receiving Jesus Christ. I took it to heart, for I know I have been guilty of it myself.

I once contemplated writing a book about the Midwest entitled “In the Ruins of Catholicism.” When I lived up there, I often visited abandoned shrines, monasteries, and churches—all now closed. They spoke of a glorious day in the distant past. Why did they cease to exist? People stopped caring, I presume.

Here the Church is thriving, new buildings are going up, new shrines are dedicated, and thriving religious communities are filled with young souls. Let us never forget the first zeal we felt at the onset of our Christian journey; but if we have forgotten our “first love” (Revelation 2:4), let us start afresh to ever watch for Him in the people and places around us – in our immediate daily life and be mindful that He comes to us in the Blessed Sacrament.

Rescinding Excommunications

What does it all mean for those who are members of the SSPX? Father Z provides Q & A:

I am seeing a lot of confusion in the wake of the lifting of the excommunications of the bishops of the SSPX.

Let’s get some things clear.

VERY LITTLE HAS CHANGED JURIDICALLY except in the status ofthose four bishops.

I hope that this has helped to change the “atmosphere” surrounding these problems.  

The “lifting” of the excommunications is a first step in the long process that still remains.

Q: Is the SSPX now legitimate?

Not in a juridical sense, no.  The SSPX still does not have the approval of the Pope or of a diocesan bishop.  It is still a separated group, though these days many prefer not to speak of “schism”.

Q: Is it okay for the SSPX bishops to ordain now?

No. The bishops of the SSPX are validly consecrated bishops, but the fact remains that they were illicitly consecrated.  That hasn’t changed.  They are still not reconciled with the Bishop of Rome.  They are still suspended a divinis.  They still have no permission to exercise ministry in the Church.  They may not licitly ordain.  They have no authority to establish parishes, etc.

Q: Are the chapels of the SSPX okay now?

Not in a juridical, legal sense, no.  Many good things can happen in one of those communities, but the SSPX chapels are not, because of the lifting of the excommunications, suddenly made legitimate.  They are not reconciled by this move.  

Q: Are the priests of the SSPX in good standing now?

Not yet they aren’t.  The priests of the SSPX are still suspendeda divinis.  They say Mass validly, but without the permission of the Church, either from a faculty of the Holy See or the local bishop.  They do not have the necessary faculties to hear confessions and give sacramental absolution except in danger of death.

Q: Is it okay to go to chapels of the SSPX for Mass?

Yes and no.  It is still not “okay” to go to chapels of the SSPX if you are doing so out of contempt for the Holy See or Holy Father, etc.  If are are deeply attached to the older form of Mass, and it is very hard on you to go without it, yes, you can attend these Masses our of devotion.  You can fulfill your Sunday obligation still, because the 1983 Code of Canon Laws says you do.  

But the fact remains that these are still chapels separated from unity with the local bishop.  

In my opinion, it is not a good idea to go to these chapels exclusively except perhaps in very rare circumstances wherein there really is no acceptable alternative.

Q: Is it okay to receive Communion at an SSPX Mass?

Yes and no.  Yes… if you would otherwise have to go without the Eucharist for a long time because you are morally or physically impeded from receiving in a licit way.  No… if you are doing so because of contempt for the Pope, bishop, Holy See, etc.  

I don’t think it is a good idea to frequent and receive Communion often in the chapels of the SSPX.  I think that undermines a person’s sense of unity with the Holy Father and the local bishop.

Remember: The lifting of the excommunications was a necessary step on the way to something better.

In his letter to followers of the SSPX, Bp. Fellay reminded everyone that they prayed that the older form of Mass would be derestricted, and it was with Summorum Pontificum.  He said there was a Rosary campaign to aid the lifting of the excommunications.  That happened today.  Bp. Fellay now says that we must pray that the necessary talks with the Holy See can begin soon about theological questions.  Amen.  Let us pray.

So… folks… don’t suddenly get it into your head that all the problems with the SSPX have suddenly been removed.  Nothing has changed about their status.  What changed was the status of the four bishops: they are no longer excommunicated, but they are still in a state of separation from clear and manifest unity with the Holy Father.

We Shall Overcome Someday

Some Seed Fell…column:

While many people today rightly embrace the values of the Civil Rights Movement, they often fall slightly short of recognizing the fundamental stimulus that motivated the first Christian ministers and civil leaders. These zealous men and women knew that equality of persons does not rest on humanity itself, but on an acknowledgement that there is one God and we are His children.

 Last Saturday I was reminded of this at the Marin Luther King Jr. breakfast, held at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. Listening to the uplifting performance of the Voices of the New Testament as they sang, the powerful message of Father Manuel Williams, C.R. as he preached, I recollected back about eleven years to the time that I taught social issues to high school students at Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida. Already back then, the horrific memories of racial inequality in our land were waning. Students were incredulous of the miracles that had taken place through the non-violent protest and the strong belief in God which ultimately aroused lethargic disciples of Jesus Christ from stupor to recognize their brothers and sisters in the Mystical Body of Christ.

 Today, however, we live in a different age and face new challenges. Just yesterday while driving into work, I heard a sports announcer complain because the quarterback for the University of Florida, Tim Tebow, gave thanks to God while thanking his teammates, coaches and fans. It keenly disturbed this sports broadcaster. Several other sports outlets, when replaying Tebow’s announcement that he intended to return for his senior season at UF, deleted his tribute to God. Why?

           

In a sense God has taken the place of the marginalized in our modern world. It is God now Who is segregated and refused admittance into our public schools. He is unwelcome in public eating areas, so that one seldom sees “Grace” prayed before or after a meal. It is God Who is rebuffed on the sporting field. If mankind needs a scapegoat upon which to place all its sins and send into exile, then surely God has assumed this role for Himself in our time.

 But alas, without God, we fall back into familiar patterns of abusing one another. Our Lord narrated the parable of a master who departed on a trip and whose servants began mistreating each other because they believed their master would not return. Eventually, however, the master did return. God, too, will come again and assume His rightful place in our lives. When He comes, how will He find us? Will we be the ones defending out brothers and sisters from the moment of conception to natural death?

 This week the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s will see a crowning achievement with the swearing in of President Barack Obama as the nation’s first African-American president. Several days after the new President’s inauguration, a significant event will take place in Washington, D.C. – the annual March for Life. May God continue to work miracles of justice for all—and may we who march for life one day sing in victory that this battle has been won!

It is Time

The beginning of a new year always promises the hope of fresh beginnings. We make resolutions to live better and to make better choices—to start anew. Perhaps that is why, when I recently attended the Divine Liturgy at Saint George Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Birmingham, these words from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom struck me:

“Having prayed for a perfect, holy, peaceful, and sinless day, let us commit ourselves and one another, and our whole life to Christ our God.”

I was struck by the realization that if we really are praying for a “perfect, holy, peaceful, and sinless day,” then we have to “commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.” Yet, I know this is what I continually fail to do—really commit myself and my “whole life” to Christ.
I do commit part of my life to Christ, but this falls short of what God expects and deserves. Recently Monsignor Muller preached in our parish on the need for stewardship and impressed this point upon me—we have to give ourselves entirely to Christ, and what prevents us is an illusion that somehow we can save ourselves and that we really don’t need Christ.
However, this is an illusion of the worst kind—for without Christ we are all as good as dead.
So at the top of my list of goals for this New Year is the resolution to surrender everything to Christ, to be a steward of what God has given me (my life) and continues to give to me (my children). I also want to commit others to Christ through my prayer—to lift them up in prayer, so that they too will accept the gifts that God gives to them.
In the most popular movie over the Christmas holiday, “Marley and Me,” the character played by Jennifer Anniston utters the line, “Let’s stop trying not to have a baby.” I believe firmly that art does in fact imitate life. Such a line doesn’t come out of a vacuum, but reflects a deep seated feeling in our culture that we have not been as welcoming of God’s gifts as we should be. To further stress the point, the trailer for an upcoming movie entitled “The Unborn” is a horror flick. Our culture is literally haunted by the unborn and the gifts of God that we have rejected.
This is a special time of the year to recall the gift of life—our own (and hence the need to once again eat well and exercise) and all of God’s creation—from the moment of conception to natural death. Do we want a holy, peaceful, and sinless day? Then we must commit ourselves entirely to Christ our God.
Bishop Baker has invited everyone to join him in the Cathedral this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. for a Mass dedicated to the Respect of Life. An ecumenical March for Life at Bryant Park will follow at 10:45 a.m. I hope you will join us in these concrete ways of committing ourselves entirely to Christ our God.
Now is the time.

The T-Shirts are Already Printed

To buy one go here

20 + C + M + B + 09

One of the most popular posts on this blog continues to be the one regarding the  Blessing of your home with the Epiphany Inscription Over the Doorway of your home, from Father Mark:

The letters have two meanings. They are the initials of the traditional names of the Three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They also abbreviate the Latin words “Christus mansionem benedicat.” “May Christ bless the house.” The letters recall the day on which the inscription is made, as well as the purpose of blessing.The crosses represent the protection of the Precious Blood of Christ, whom we invoke, and the holiness of the Three Magi sanctified by their adoration of the Infant Christ. The inscription is made above the front door, so that all who enter and depart this year may enjoy God’s blessing. The month of January still bears the name of the Roman god Janus, the doorkeeper of heaven and protector of the beginning and end of things. This blessing “christens” the ancient Roman observance of the first month. The inscription is made of chalk, a product of clay, which recalls the human nature taken by the Adorable and Eternal Word of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To bless your home this Epiphany, read the Prologue of Saint John’s Gospel, followed by the Our Father, and the Collect of the Epiphany; then write the inscription for this year above your front door with blessed chalk.

For more books by Michael Dubruiel about prayer and the Mass, go here. 

For a free e-book download of The Power of the Cross by Michael Dubruiel, go here. 

Imitate the Star of Bethlehem

Papal homily for the Feast of the Epiphany:

 Epiphany, the Feast that celebrates the Magi’s coming to the manger in Bethlehem led by a star, is the sign of a “cosmological revolution caused by the arrival into the world of the Son of God. [. . .] Divine love, incarnate in Christ, is the fundamental and universal law of creation.” Benedict XVI’ s homily in today’s Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord is an appeal to scientists to acknowledge in their studies the reality of “The love which moves the sun and the other stars” as Dante put it to define God in the last verse of the Divine Comedy.“The stars, the planets, the universe as a whole are not governed by a blind force; they do not obey the dynamics of matter alone,” the Pope said. “They are not therefore cosmic elements that must be deified; on the contrary, in all and above all there is a personal will, the Spirit of God, that was revealed in Christ as love.”

The Pontiff’s appeal is even more significant this year because 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s first telescopic observations, a year the United Nations has designated as the International Year of Astronomy.

The Pontiff said that the Magi “were probably astronomers” who through their observations “saw a new start appear” and “interpreted” the event “as the annunciation of the birth of a king.”

Even in our age, Benedict XVI noted, “quite a few scientists like Galileo have not given up on reason or faith, giving instead the utmost value to both as they nourish each other.”

The “cosmological revolution” brings freedom to man. As Saint Paul said in his Letter to the Colossians: “See to it that no one captivate[s] you [. . .] according to the elemental powers of the world” (cf Col, 2:8). Man is free and able to relate to God’s creative freedom. He is at the origin of and rules everything, not as a cold and anonymous engine, but as Father, Spouse, Friend, and Brother; as Logos, ‘Word-Reason’, that united our mortal flesh once and for all and fully shared our condition, showing the overflowing power of his grace.”

“Christian thinking compares the cosmos to a ‘book’ as Galileo put it himself, considering it as the work of an author who expresses himself through the ‘symphony’ of creation,” the Pope said. “At a certain point in this symphony one finds what in music is called a ‘solo’, a subject assigned to a single instrument or voice. And it is so important that the meaning of the whole work depends upon it. This ‘solo’ is Jesus . . . . The Son of man sums up in himself earth and sky, creation and Creator, flesh and Spirit. He is the centre of the cosmos and history because in Him Author and work are united without merging.” 

Thanks to Christ’s dominion over creation and history, as confirmed by the Resurrection, the Church marches assured in history.

“There is no shadow, however dark, that can dim the light of Christ. For this reason believers in Christ never lose hope vis-à-vis the great social and economic crisis troubling humanity today, the destructive hatred and violence that continue to shed blood in many regions of the world and man’s selfishness and pretensions to be his own god, which leads sometimes to dangerous distortions of God’s design about life and the human dignity in matter of the family and the harmony of creation. As I wrote in the already mentioned Spe salvi Encyclical, our efforts to free human life and the world from poisons and pollution that could destroy the present and the future retains its value and meaning, ‘even if we outwardly achieve nothing or seem powerless in the face of overwhelming hostile forces,’ because ‘it is the great hope based upon God’s promises that gives us courage and directs our action in good times and bad’(n. 35).”

The Feast of the Epiphany bids the Church to imitate “the service the star provided the Magi of the East and led them to Jesus” (cf Saint Leo the Great, Ser 3 on Epiphany, 5: PL 54, 244). And in this Christians have a model in Saint Paul, whose bimillenial is celebrated this year.

“What was Paul’s life after his conversion if not a race to bring the light of Christ to the nations and bring the nations to Christ,” the Pope said. “God’s grace made Paul a ‘star’ among people. His ministry is an example and incentive for the Church to rediscover its essentially missionary vocation, renewing its commitment to announcing the Gospel, especially to those who do not know it yet.”

After urging the faithful to be nourished by the Word of God, the Pontiff concluded saying: “Of the Word of life we are but servants. This is how Paul saw himself and his ministry, a service to the Gospel, when he said: ‘All this I do for the sake of the gospel’ (1 Cor, 9:23). This is also what the Church and every ecclesial community, bishop and presbytery ought to say: All this I do for the sake of the gospel.”