Lourdes Magazine: "The spirit of Tibhirine is alive"

The January-February 2011 issue of Lourdes Magazine carries an interview with Brother Jean Pierre, one of two monks who survived the attack on the Cistercian monastery at Tibhirine in 1996, after which seven of the monks were killed. Brother Jean Pierre and Brother Amedee, the other survivor, continue their monastic life in Morocco.

Brother Jean Pierre wrote the following in a letter sent to Lourdes Magazine in November 2010:

We were lucky to obtain a DVD of the film "Of Gods and Men". I like it very much, because it really conveys the message of what was experienced during these three dangerous years by the Community, the reasons for choosing to stay, and the difficult unanimous commitment. I like the departure in the snow, towards the mystery of the total gift of self in communion with the oblation of Christ so that the reign of Love may come on our suffering earth ... I am amazed by what the actors of the film experienced as they managed to self-obliterate so perfectly in order to enter into the spirit of the message and the people they had to represent ... I think the Holy Spirit is at work here.

When the interview asks Brother Jean Pierre what is the secrect of the monks friendship with the Muslims who surround the monastery, he answers:

Prayer. In Tibhirine the bells of the monastery rang and the Muslims never asked us to prevent them from ringing. There was a mutual respect at the very heart of our common vocation: to adore God, to praise Him and sing his glory. In Morocco, we also live this communion in prayer when we get up at night to pray at the same time as our Muslum neighbours are awakened by the muezzin. The fidelity to the times of prayer is the secret of our friendship with the Muslims. We want to be in God's presence with them, be true to ourselves in this inner light that only silence gives. Muslims teach us to pray ....

I wonder if Brother Jean Pierre's experience, and that of the two monasteries in which he has lived in the Atlas, can shed some light on the choice of a bell as one of the key symbols for the 50th International Eucharistic Congress?

"We do this to show that it comes from the heart"

The December 2010/January 2011 issue of Lourdes Magazine has as its main feature a retrospective look back at the pilgrimages that visited Lourdes during a year whose theme was "Making the sign of the Cross with Bernadette".

A short piece about the pilgrimage of travelling people to Lourdes includes the following dialogue:

"The sign of the cross is part of our life and our traditions", says Teejy. "It's like a prayer. It is not a question of signing like Zorro but taking the time to really ask the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to come and enlighten us". Moses, shirtless, eyes clear, added: "We do it, then kiss our hand and place it on our heart". He adds: "by your mouth you bless the Lord, but you can also curse him, so we do this to show that it comes from the heart".

Lourdes Magazine: October-November 2010

The October-November edition of Lourdes Magazine looks ahead to the pastoral theme of the next pilgrimage year. This theme is "Pray the Our Father with Bernadette". If forms the second year of a three year cycle which draw our attention to the prayers that St Bernadette used during her first meeting with the Blessed Virgin.

The articles in the Magazine are made up of answers to 50 questions about the Our Father, written by the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Mgr Jacques Perrier. I haven't read them systematically yet, but hope to do so during the season of Advent. My dip suggests that the articles are reflective and helpful, providing a certain intellectual input by, for example, including citations of the Fathers of the Church, but keeping that input at a profoundly pastoral level. Question 7 is a discussion entitled "Father or Mother?" - but don't take away from the title of the question any idea that Mgr Perrier's is denying the Fatherhood of God.

In the centre of the Magazine is a double page spread dedicated to helping children, or perhaps teenagers, to pray the Our Father. One of the interesting things about this spread are the photographs illustrating a young girl in different postures of prayer to illustrate the different petitions of the Our Father. In Question 47, Mgr Perrier describes a range of different practises in this regard. Whilst not coming to a definitive conclusion about the question of the congregation extending their hands along with the priest, his reply does suggest a positive evaluation of such a practice.

In Christian prayer, the greatest traditional attitude is the Orant gesture represented in the catacombs. As it is a woman it cannot be a priest. Afterwards the gesture was practiced only by priests during the greater part of the Mass, notably during the prayers, the Eucharistic Prayer and the Our Father. When the faithful recite the Our Father with the priest it is reasonable for them to adopt this gesture. Extended arms render us vulnerable: in prayer we rightly wish to be vulnerable to God. They also reproduce the attitude of Christ on the cross. The hands slightly raised towards the heavens correspond to the invocation "Our Father who art in Heaven".

If I understand the rubrics of the Liturgy correctly, they expect the congregation to stand for the Our Father at Mass, but beyond that, remain silent. So far as I can gather, in those places where some people do extend their hands for the Our Father, the people are generally happy to accept that some people will do that and others will not, there being no sense of division or anxiety created as a result.

With Bernadette, let us make the sign of the Cross

"With Bernadette, let us make the sign of the Cross" is the pastoral theme in Lourdes for the 2010 pilgrimage season. A presentation of the theme, in .pdf format, can be downloaded here, from the Lourdes website. The October-November 2009 issue of Lourdes Magazine was dedicated to this them, and contains a series of  articles reflecting on the sign of the Cross and on its significance in the life of Bernadette. One of the articles from that issue can be found here, and it indicates the reasons for this choice of pastoral theme. Not available online, but worthy of comment, are a series of meditations/photgraphs by Philippe MacLeod and an article "A sign children understand" which gives practical pointers for both parents and children about making the sign of the Cross.

In some parts of the world, Christians are persecuted today on account of their faith.

In other places, people suffer on account of natural disasters or conflict.

In developed countries, an attempt is made to ban the Cross from public display. At the same time, it is not unusual for Crosses to be worn as jewelry.

The pastoral theme challenges us to recognise the content of our faith expressed in praying the Sign of the Cross; to recognise the Cross as we encounter it in the circumstances of our own life and the lives of others; to make visible the sign of the Cross. Most fundamentally, it asks us to make of the Cross a real sign that we try to live out rather than just a piece of decoration that has no substance.  In the circumstances of Europe, where the place of the Cross is challenged, the choice of theme is very timely.

A particular way in which the theme is being celebrated in Lourdes is in the "field of Crosses" being placed by pilgrimages at the Breton  Calvary, near the St Michael's Gate entrance to the shrine. As I watched this video about the "field of Crosses" at Lourdes' Youtube channel, I was reminded of Lithuania's "hill of Crosses". In a somewhat different situation today, the Lourdes "field of Crosses" provides a very timely witness to Christian faith. I hope that the authorities at the shrine will find a way of preserving this witness after the 2010 pilgrimage season.

Christians should wear crosses - and Lourdes Magazine October-November 2009

The Anglican Bishop of Litchfield, Rt Rev Jonathon Gledhill, has called on Christians to wear crosses, or the fish symbol, to demonstrate their faith in the public arena. He particularly encouraged them to do so during the period leading up to Christmas. The BBC report here, and that from Christian Today here.

By a happy coincidence, the October-November issue of Lourdes Magazine arrived today. It has as its theme and cover story: "Learn to make the Sign of the Corss with Bernadette". This is to be the theme for the pilgrimages of 2010, and the magazine has dedicated this particular issue to the theme with the idea that it can be used to prepare for next year's pilgrimages. At the date of posting, there is nothing about the 2010 theme on the Lourdes website, but I expect that something will appear sooner or later.

In his editorial, Francois Vayne writes:

It seems to me intuitively that when we make this Sign, it is as if the shadow of the Cross covers us in the same way as it covered Mary at the instant the Crucified Christ gave up His Spirit. This fruitful shadow, that of the Spirit, associates us with the compassion of Mary, Mother of the new humanity.

A meditation entitled "You belong to Christ" echoes the words of the Bishop of Lichfield ("The mark of a real Christian community is not so much the lapel badges and crosses we wear as the spontaneous, generous and practical love we show to the world") , that the cross should be more to us than just a badge. Yes, it is a badge or a sign that we wear and express; but it is a badge and sign of a deeper reality.

The cross is not a badge. May it become more than a symbol for you: you are a Christian, you belong to Christ. Let the Cross dominate you life. It shows the descent as much as the ascent - the ascent which is effected in the same measure as the descent is extended downwards. It seems to want to say to you: don't look up so much, where you are seeking to flee. Come down, come down, become more silent, more docile, do not recoil in the face of suffering, ridicule, humiliation; a hand is holding you at the other end, and hoisting you up, without you even knowing it.

In an article intended to help parents pray the Sign of the Cross with their children, we find the following as a caption to one of the illustrations:

I am a child of God. When I make the Sign of the Cross, I trace over me the Cross of Jesus, the Saviour. When I touch my forehead, my heart and my shoulders, it is He who marks me with His Love.

How to pray the Rosary

From p.107 of the Official Handbook of the Legion of Mary, referring to the practice that I call "clipping" - starting the second part of each prayer during the last phrase of the first part - and which occasionally (OK, regularly) leads me into mischief while leading the Rosary. I sometimes stop without saying "Jesus" and let everyone else start the second part of the prayer without it:

The proper recitation of the Ave requires that the second part should not begin until the first part has been finished, and the Holy Name of Jesus reverently pronounced.

From an article in the June-July issue of Lourdes Magazine, describing a "school of prayer" in the shrine run each day to help individual pilgrims in praying the Rosary:

..start with a time of silence in the presence of the Lord, make the Sign of the Cross, choose a Word of God as a main thread, pray the Our Father, then evoke the decade and turn towards the Trinity (this is what we call the doxology: Glory be to the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit), and end with your own intimate prayer.

Catholics and the new communications media

During recent months, there have been three large international Catholic events. The International Eucharistic Congress took place in Quebec, Canada in June. This was followed by the World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia in August. And, just last weekend, we saw the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Paris and Lourdes, France.

Something that all three of these events have in common is the way in which media coverage, and in particular internet coverage, was provided by Catholic apostolates. Whilst some of the organisations providing coverage are sponsored and/or established by the relevant diocese (I am thinking of ECDQ.tv, Eglise Catholique de Quebec, who provided coverage of the International Eucharistic Congress), I think they all represent initiatives of lay people in collaboration with the hierarchy of the Church. My view is that they represent the best of lay apostolate, making use of the professional expertise that is appropriate to the lay state and putting it at the service of the Church.

The three relevant organisations are ECDQ.tv, in Quebec, Canada. Video coverage from the Eucharistic Congress is still available on the site. Salt and Light TV, based in Montreal, are also a similar apostolic organisation which gave coverage to the Eucharistic Congress. The World Youth Day website provided streaming video coverage, which is still available. KTO television catholique provided complete coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to France. I think all of these organisations broadcast on cable and satellite, as well as having well developed internet sites.

As this photograph of the "equipe" at KTO television catholique in 2007 demonstrates, the size of the production teams does not appear to be large. There seems to be a real sense of undertaking this work as an apostolate on behalf of the Church, a sense of a "charism" being lived out, rather than of their being just a bureaucratic "media office".

One should perhaps add, as another example of a new media apostolate, the website of the Marian shrine at Lourdes. Lourdes Magazine, with its own website, is also an excellent media initiative.

Lourdes Magazine: July-August 2008

The current issue of Lourdes Magazine arrived today. The main theme of the issue is that of the Eucharistic presence of Jesus: "Jesus: Eucharist at the centre of our lives" proclaims the front cover. The two prompts for this choice of theme are the International Eucharistic Congress held in Quebec in June and the French National Pilgrimage to Lourdes taking place in August (this pilgrimage is entrusted in Lourdes' jubilee year with the Jubliee mission concerning the Eucharist).

One article is entitled "Bernadette's longing for the Eucharist" and explains how her return from Bartres to Lourdes just before the apparitions began was motivated by Bernadette's wish to complete the catechism lessons so that she could receive Holy Communion for the first time, something that was going to be barred to her if she stayed in Bartres.

Another article looks briefly at the three Eucharistic Congress held in Lourdes itself - those of 1899, 1914 (just before the outbreak of World War I, and just one week before France mobilised its troops for war) and 1981 (when Pope John Paul II was prevented from attending the Congress by the assassination attempt of 13th May that year).

A third article describes the Eucharistic procession as it now takes place each afternoon of the pilgrimage season. A fourth article celebrates the 50th anniversary this year of the starting of Eucharistic Adoration in the shrine, Adoration which now takes place in the Tent of Adoration through the pilgrimage season.

Amongst the news items is a report on the inauguration of a house to welcome pilgrims coming to Lourdes from the Arab world. The House "Beth Maryam - Star of the East" is the inspiration of a Lebanese Maronite priest. Mgr Labaky has given his life to working with orphans in the Lebanon, a country seriously affected by both internal and external conflict over the years; he is the founder of a spiritual movement in his country - "Lo Tedhal - Do not fear". The article describes his commitment to the children of the Lebanon as follows:

Life had to go on. The islands of peace which the hearts of the children, their homes and schools represented had to be preserved.

Lourdes part 5: reflections on the meaning of art

A feature of the 150th anniversary year in Lourdes has been the completion of a number of projects that might be described as works of "art" as well as being works of devotion. I think of the new mosaics on the facade of the Rosary Basilica and of the completion of the new Stations of the Cross on the prairie; also the publication of a book like Alina Reyes La jeune fille et la Vierge.

This prompts a reflection on what it is that constitutes a genuine work or art.

The mosaics of the Mysteries of Light on the Rosary Basilica were designed by a priest of Slovenian origin, Father Marko Ivan Rupnik.

For Father Rupnik a prayerful atmosphere is both a way of life and creativity, which he shares with his team of some fifteen artists and technicians from the Centre Aletti (in Rome): "We pray in eight languages according to seven different Churches. For me, the testimony of prayer is to be found in charity. If I see that the artists get on together, that we help one another, that there is true cohesion, then I am convinced taht God is here in our midst. ... Every day during Mass, we all offer our work through the bread and wine of the Eucharist so that the project and our labour remain united to Christ. We are only poor artists, but we are also perfectly aware that everything we do can contribute to creating a meeting between Man and God. This is the reason why we pay so much attention to the faces and the gaze of our figures. An exchange must be possible."[Lourdes Magazine January-February 2008]

The new Stations of the Cross for the sick were implemented in white Carrera marble by a sculptor called Maria de Faykod, over a five year period stretching from February 2003 to February 2008. The sculptor has also written the meditations published in a booklet, along with striking photographs of each of the new Stations of the Cross. To the traditional fourteen stations, Maria has added three new stations so that the complete work becomes a Way of the Cross and a Way of the Resurrection. These new stations are those of Mary awaiting the Resurrection, the Resurrection of Jesus itself and the Theophany of the Resurrected Christ to the Disciples of Emmaus (Transubstantiation). In his introduction to the booklet of meditations, the Rector of the Shrine at Lourdes writes:

The Church has always liked and encouraged artists. They are the people, in fact, to whom Heaven has given a sixth sense to express that which is deepest in man. Only artists are capable of allowing us to sense the real meaning of the human soul. ... We know that the Ancients used to say that Beauty is the splendour of Truth, and that Beauty, Truth, and Goodness, are in constant dialogue with each other. This can be seen in all its fullness in this Way of the Cross. It is founded on the truth of the Gospel writings and the Tradition of the Church. It is beautiful, and because of this it touches our deepest emotions. Let us not be mistaken however, its beauty is not solely limited to the aesthetics of its perfectly executed forms. This Way of the Cross is mysteriously inhabited by a Presence, traversed by a powerful Breath from one end to the other, which raises us up and carries us very high and very far ...

Alina Reyes book was one of the main books promoted at a book fair held in Lourdes in February 2008. The author's encounter, not so much with Lourdes as with Bernadette, came at a difficult time in her life (I have yet to get hold of and read the novel Foret profonde which describes this), and she attributes to it her return to life. Talking about the event of the apparitions of Lourdes, Alina Reyes says:

I tried to show the literary dimension of this event, and what strikes me is its resemblance to the beginning of Genesis. "God said ... And there was light". The word of God is a light; this is what is happening in Lourdes. The word which Bernadette transmitted to the world testifies to this "light", as she says at the beginning, which appeared to her in the "darkness" of the grotto. [Lourdes Magazine April-May 2008]

Alina Reyes writes of Lourdes as a "whole place that speaks", so that we can see the word spoken through the apparitions is the same as the word spoken by the surrounding mountains. She also speaks of the Lady who appears as expressing the possibility that there is an original purity in creation that can be rediscovered in the Immaculate and that we can rediscover in ourselves.

All of these artists, in quite different ways (and in the case of Alina Reyes, in a way which is less clearly a manifestation of Catholic faith and rather an expression of an encounter with Bernadette), show something of the interiority of human life, the spiritual dimension of creation, the permanent and the essential that live in the physical forms of our lives. Ultimately it should be seen as expressing the life of grace that moves and heals - and that is what makes their works to be works of art.

Lourdes Magazine - April/May 2008

The current issue of Lourdes Magazine arrived a few days ago. As usual it contains a mix of articles related to the life of the shrine. The main feature covers the 50th anniversary of the International Military Pilgrimage. I think it was participation in this pilgrimage, possibly in the late 1950's or early 1960's, that saw my father make his first visit to Lourdes. We saw from time to time some black and white film of this .... The ethos of this pilgrimage is that of military engagement as being at the service of peace. The pilgrimage can be an occasion of reconciliation between those who have fought on the opposite sides of conflicts. The Magazine also contains the homily preached by the Bishop of Lourdes and Tarbes on the 11th February this year, for the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

What caught my attention, though, was coverage of a "book fair" held in Lourdes 9th-11th February. This featured a number of books about Lourdes or St Bernadette, some published for the 150th anniversary year. One is a book La jeune fille et la Vierge by Alina Reyes. The surprising thing about this is that Alina Reyes previous writings are "controversial" (the word used by her interviewer in the Magazine - they are actually better described by the word "erotic"). I have not been able to find out much about Alina Reyes apart from the Lourdes Magazine interview. The fascinating possibility that I want to explore when I am able to obtain her book about St Bernadette and her novel Foret profonde (in which she writes about the healing influence of Lourdes in her life) is that her life expresses the purification of eros to become agape of which Pope Benedict XVI writes in Deus Caritas Est.

Meanwhile, some extracts from the interview:

I did not recieve a religious education; I was a natural mystic who was not aware of it. Above all, as far as I can remember, I knew with an unsustainable certainty (to the point that I often tried to rid myself of this feeling), that a superior, cosmic order, invisible and spiritual, which I could not name, carried me personally in His heart. I could never have talked about it, it was too overwhelming, and I still cannot say any more. At twenty four, whilst expecting my second son, I read and re-read the Gospels and spent months embraced by a marvellous grace. I continued to experience this state, but still declared myself an unbeliever. This is how I know of this process of emptying oneself to receive the invisible. Little by little, increasingly specific things occurred to me, more and more evident, notably a direct contact with God. I knew then I should no longer conceal the name of the One who inhabited me ...

My novels are only "controversial" for those who see evil where it is not. I have always denounced the culture of morbid sex, and sought to give my vision of the flesh; flesh which is happy is one of the means for human beings to access a fulfilled fusion with the world, in other words, the Creation. ... Then yes, I reconcile Eros and Agape, and I am a Christian because this religion is that of the flesh. When we enter a church we see the flesh of Christ, the flesh of the saints, we see the child Jesus at Mary's bosom ... God was incarnate, how can one believe He hates the flesh?...

I tried to show the literary dimension of this event [ie the apparitions at Lourdes], and what strikes me is its resemblance to the beginning of Genesis: "God said ... And there was light". The word of God is a light; this is what is happening in Lourdes. The word which Bernadette transmitted to the world testifies to this "light", as she says at the beginning, which appeared to her in the "darkness" of the grotto ...

Yes I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing Pascal and I do it again by saying: "It is necessary to find the virgin in oneself to discover the hidden Virgin". The Virgin Mary is a door to enter God, and this door is innocence, the spiritual possibility of regarding the world as immaculate in its conception. I think I have said that the Virgin in us is our true face, our face denuded of social masks ... Lourdes invites us to present ourselves before the Virgin Mary, as we are surrounded by the mountains which evoke naturally the purity of nature, a purity we lose so dramatically.

The introduction to the interview describes Alina Reyes book as "at the same time splendid and surprising"; according to the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, it is "a book which will stand the test of time".

Lourdes Magazine: March-April 2008

A day or two ago my copy of the March-April issue of Lourdes Magazine arrived. The "feature" topic in this issue is the international meeting of members of Hospitality, that took place in Lourdes 6th-9th December 2007. The Hospitality family has two parts: the diocesan/national hospitalities that accompany individual pilgrimages and the Hospitality of Our Lady of Lourdes which provides services in the Shrine, its hostels, at the railway station and at the airport. The members of these Hospitalities are all volunteers who, paying their own way, spend some time in Lourdes helping the sick.

In recent years, the Hospitality of Our Lady of Lourdes have put in place a four year programme of formation for their volunteers. This combines practical training in such matters as the handling of wheelchairs and simple lifting of the sick with a formation in the history and spiritual heritage of the Lourdes shrine. This formation leads up to a Hospitality member making their "commitment", the core of which is a promise to visit Lourdes each year to spend time helping the sick.

This, the second international meeting of Hospitality members, took as its theme Christian voluntary work. Reflecting the formation given to Hospitality members, the meeting reflected on how professional competence and Christian charity come together in the life and work of a Christian volunteer. Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, conducted a plenary session on the encyclical "Deus Caritas Est" and voluntary work:

"In turning towards God, new and specific elements enter into the manner in which we habitually see humanitarian aid - elements which the baptised Christian should not renounce....As the Pope says, the neighbour 'has always need of something more than technically correct care'. Beyond treatment he has need of 'humanity', 'care which ... comes from the heart.' It is necessary to be rooted in faith and attached to God in order to meet your neighbour."

Sr Veronique Margron OP is the Dean of the faculty of theology at the Universite de l'Ouest in Angers, France. A long extract from her presentation at the meeting is included in the Magazine under the title "Christian attitudes in voluntary work". The extract addresses the question of commitment, in the light of the commitment that Hospitality members make. This is a wide ranging presentation, talking about several aspects of commitment and essentially implying a certain permanence and totality to it. To give you a flavour:

"Your commitment as a volunteer assigns, commits everything you are. .... Commitment is a virtue. Volunteering lived as commitment is a virtue. This commitment generates the theological virtue of hope; fundamentally for the person herself."

This is very striking when volunteering is so often seen as something short term or temporary, a "gap year" kind of activity. Sr Veronique ended her presentation with a paragraph devoted to chastity:

"We could use just one word to qualify the proper attitude of the volunteer here in Lourdes as in any other Church service: chastity, in other words, the proper presence, the proper distance with the other, which is called benevolence and respect, which always considers the other, the person who is helped, my colleagues, as subjects of mystery and freedom - never like objects, not even objects of care or goodness. Hence the importance the whole Christian tradition gives to this beautiful word 'chastity': not as law but as an art of good living, a virtue, a way of life for each one of us and not for a few such as the religious. We are all called by Christ to live with chastity because it is the sign of the love of Christ who loved passionately without ever holding onto his friends, or those he helps, heals and feeds. It is the signature of his art of loving. Chastity is the opposite of the possession of the other. In this way, the closer we are to somebody, the more essential chastity is, like the proper way to love, which will truly do some good. This is then what I eventually invite you to do."

If you have the chance to read this issue of Lourdes Magazine, do so. It combines an attractive offering of news relating to the shrine with some substantial spiritual and theological food

World Day for the Sick: 11th February 2008

The theme for this year's World Day for the Sick is "The Eucharist, Lourdes and Care for the Sick". It therefore links two of the big international Catholic celebrations taking place in 2008 - the 150th anniversary year of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes and the International Eucharistic Congress taking place in Quebec, Canada in June. Pope Benedict XVIs message for the day can be found at the Vatican website. Another worthwhile read is the recent post of Catholic mom of 10 about her own illness.

The Vatican has its own "think tank" on matters relating to the world of healthcare. It is called the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral of Health (or variations upon, depending on how you translate from Italian into English!). The Council organises an annual conference on an issue related to healthcare and also leads on the World Day for the Sick. They publish an academic journal "Dolentium Hominum", which is published in several languages one of which is English. The conference ususally examines an issue very thoroughly, looking at clinical and epidemiological aspects, theological and spiritual aspects, practical and pastoral aspects, and the perspectives of other Christian denominations and religious faiths. The internet presence of the Pontifical Council is not as well organised as it might be. I know that the library of the Linacre Centre in London, UK, have a complete set of "Dolentium Hominum". We might keep the work of the Pontifical Council, and of all those involved in pastoral work with the sick and medical staff, in our prayers on 11th February.

February Magazines: "New City", "Lourdes Magazine"

The current issues of two magazines have arrived in the last couple of days.
"New City" is the magazine of Focolare in the UK. The cover article for February is about the Vatican's mission at the United Nations. The article is largely an interview with Archbishop Migliore, who heads the mission of the Holy See at the United Nations. He tells an interesting story of how the Holy See's representation was able to facilitate meetings between a delegation from the Great Lakes area of Africa and different offices and officials of the UN. The delegation were particularly anxious for the UN to take steps to reduce the flow of armaments into their home region, armaments which were fuelling violence. A couple of weeks after the visit of the delegation, the UN adopted a strong resolution on the issue, which paved the way for an international protocol among the local nations to control the traffic in armaments in the region. A second article in "New City" is a presentation of Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical "Spes Salvi".
The January-February issue of "Lourdes Magazine" has a focus on the new mosaics that were unveiled on the 8th December 2007. These have been placed in the facade of the Rosary Basilica, facing out onto the piazza in front of the Basilica. They will therefore form a backdrop to the conclusion of the Rosary procession each evening of the pilgrimage season. The mosaics represent the five Mysteries of Light. I suspect that the style of the mosaics will appeal to some and not to others. The photographs in the magazine have not really given me any feel for what it will be like to see the mosaics in situ. Two things have caught my attention, though. The mosaic of the Wedding Feast at Cana portrays two "couples": the bride and groom of the wedding, and, portrayed side by side as if they are also bride and groom, Jesus and his Mother. I think that this richly expresses the connections from Cana, to the sacrifice of the Lamb on Calvary, to the Church-Mary born on Calvary, and on to the nuptial relationship of Christ and the Church-Mary represented in the Eucharist and on Calvary. The second thing that caught my attention was the choice of images to represent the third Mystery of Light, the proclamation of the Gospel and the call to repentance. These two images are the lowering of the paralytic through the ceiling of the house (Jesus instructs the paralytic to rise and walk, as his sins are forgiven) and Jesus giving the Apostles the power to forgive sins after His Resurrection.
Take, and read.