Thank you Fr. Thiago, for blessing us with your presence and enriching us with your preaching. May God bless you, as your priestly journey continues at St. George's in Worcester.
Pope at Pallium Mass: World Needs More Prayer,
Less Complaints
Article from Our Sunday Visitor
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Some people always will want to destroy unity and stifle prophets, Pope Francis said on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
And yet, Jesus challenges everyone to be — like Peter — a rock for building a renewed church and renewed humanity, and — like Paul — a missionary who brings the Gospel to others, he said during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica June 29.
People also need to complain less and pray more, especially for those who govern, the pope said.
People must ask themselves whether they “simply talk and do nothing” because God wants people to pray and “be mindful of those who do not think as we do, those who have slammed the door in our face, those whom we find it hard to forgive.”
The feast day celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica was markedly different from other years because of ongoing restrictions in place to stem the spread of COVID-19. Normally archbishops appointed over the course of the previous year would have been invited to concelebrate the feast day Mass with the pope and watch as he blessed their palliums, woolen bands worn around their shoulders.
In his homily, the pope said Sts. Peter and Paul demonstrate unity in diversity; they were two very different individuals, who sometimes argued heatedly, but they saw one another as brothers, united by Jesus.
Jesus “did not command us to like one another, but to love one another,” the pope said. “He is the one who unites us, without making us all alike.”
When the early church faced fierce persecution, the pope said, “no one ran away, no one thought about saving his own skin, no one abandoned the others, but all joined in prayer,” which created “a unity more powerful than any threat.”
They also prayed instead of complaining about the injustice they faced, the pope added.
“It is pointless, even tedious, for Christians to waste their time complaining about the world, about society, about everything that is not right,” he said. “Complaints change nothing.”
The world needs “not speeches, but service. Not theory, but testimony,” he said. “We are not to become rich, but rather to love the poor. We are not to save up for ourselves, but to spend ourselves for others. To seek not the approval of this world, but the joy of the world to come. Not better pastoral plans, but pastors who offer their lives — lovers of God.”
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The God Minute July 3, 2020 Concert Friday
"Take me out of the Dark" (Concert Friday Song) by Gary Valenciano
