Pope Francis: Witness to the Passion for Evangelisation

I continue to find interesting Pope Francis' sequence of General Audience addresses on the passion for evangelisation. He is now dedicating them to witnesses to this zeal drawn from the life of the Church.

He has recently spoken about Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary to China in the late 16th/early 17th century. Pope Francis' General Audience address can be found here, and it is possible to note the element of cultural encounter that formed Matteo Ricci's life in China. A more academic, and complementary, account of his missionary activity can be found at Thinking Faith: Matteo Ricci: Shaped by the Chinese.

Most recently, Pope Francis has spoken about St Therese of Lisieux, a patron saint of missionaries. The Audience address is here. Commenting on the well known story of St Therese's prayer for Enrico Pranzini, Pope Francis observed:

Brothers and sisters, such is the power of intercession moved by charity; such is the engine of mission! Missionaries, in fact — of whom Thérèse is patroness — are not only those who travel long distances, learn new languages, do good works, and are good at proclamation; no, a missionary is also anyone who lives as an instrument of God’s love where they are. Missionaries are those who do everything so that, through their witness, their prayer, their intercession, Jesus might pass by.

This is the apostolic zeal that, let us always remember, never works by proselytism — never  — or constraint, — never — but by attraction. Faith is born by attraction. One does not become Christian because they are forced by someone, but because they have been touched by love. More than having many available means, methods, and structures, which sometimes distract from what is essential, the Church needs hearts like Thérèse’s, hearts that draw people to love and bring people closer to God. And let us ask the saint — we have her relics here — let us ask the saint  for the grace to overcome our selfishness and let us ask for the passion to intercede so that this attraction can be greater in people and so that Jesus might be known and loved.

An online retreat

House of Prayer describes itself as follows:

"My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." Mk 11:17 This site is intended as a resource for Catholics and other Christians interested in growing spiritually through prayer.

The daily posts are in the Ignatian tradition, and the side bar offers links to guidance in that same tradition. You are encouraged to join them during Lent. To gain an idea, this is the post for Wednesday of last week.

A good contemporary guide on Ignatian spirituality, which keeps its psychological insights within the context of Sacred Scripture, is welcome.

H/T Catholic Analysis.

With vision.....

This...

Following Mass in the splendour of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm street Mayfair I persuaded Joe to venture out to South London as I had read rave reviews of tours of Battersea power station. This was a last chance to see the art-deco style building before re-development.

We followed vast amounts of pilgrims (do they read the same paper?)to the hallowed areas where you were allowed to see the remains of the building's beauty-which Joe described as a heap of rubbish and thought the decision to make it a listed buiding was a mistake.

No Herculanium or Pompeii it is not but it has it's own beauty- the remains of beautiful blue tiling on the walls and" stepping" in the columns of bricks and who couldn't be enamoured by those graceful chimneys(these are to be re-built due to corrosion).

The surrounding area is to be the place to be seen ! A new tube line to Battersea is planned , a six acre public park, river boat to the new site and river side homes for seven thousand residents and to top it all it is "zero carbon emissions"! Let us hope that after two failed attempts to re-develop the area in 1990 and 1993 this time the plans aren't affected by the "credit crunch" we have been promised.

span >

...could become

On the way back we went to St. Mary's in Cadogan street where we had to walk around the block as a wedding party were taking last photos and guests moving off in limousines- we arrived back at the church as the Bride and Groom were hailing a taxi!

St Mary's has some interesting, newer- looking, stain glass windows. If you are in London I would highly recommend a visit to the Farm Street church in Mayfair and if you are interested there is a tour of Battersea power station on August 30th-10am-5pm!

Thinking Faith: St Paul and St Ignatius

I have not been keeping up with recent articles appearing on the Jesuit on-line journal Thinking Faith. I had a quick look at a couple of articles this morning, though.

The first is entitled "Who was St Paul?",and was published to mark the start of the Year of St Paul. It is an essentially academic article, giving a very useful introduction to the writings of St Paul in the light of scholarship about their origin and authorship. I found it very useful for "locating" the different letters of St Paul, in their relation to the account of St Paul contained in the Acts of the Apostles. A useful read, though perhaps to be used for preparation rather than directly in parish catechesis. The paragraph that caught my eye, and which I think conveys a fair impression of the whole, was the following:

We begin with Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, commonly dated around the year 50 A.D., which gives it the distinction of being the first New Testament book to be written. And this makes ‘Paul’ the first word of the New Testament! As we read through the four pages of this letter, we realise that Paul’s first priority in his apostolate was the personal visit. If this was impossible, then he would send his delegate, in this case Timothy. Only as a third possibility would he write a letter. This was something new for him and a risk. To minimise the risk, he gave an order, the only one in this letter, that the letter be read out to the whole community (1 Thessalonians 5:27). The experiment must have been successful, because this became the first of a series of letters which were written over the next ten years.

In the age of electronic communication, the suggestion of a priority for personal visiting in the apostolate is interesting. Or perhaps we might think that St Paul, in writing letters, was the first century equivalent of today's Catholic blogger and that, if the New Testament was being written today, it would appear first in the blogosphere ...

There is also an article on St Ignatius Loyola, "Will the real Ignatius please stand up?". I did not find this as useful as I found the article about St Paul. It does prompt me in two directions. It will be interesting to study the decrees of the recent General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, which are, I believe, an attempt to define the direction of the Society for the future. It will also be interesting to look at the Magis08 project undertaken by the Society in preparation for and as part of their contribution to the recent World Youth Day. What little I have been able to see of this wide ranging and international project suggests that it rooted itself in the Spiritual Exercises.

The Thinking Faith website carries a three part interview with the newly elected Jesuit General, undertaken after the General Congregation.