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POPE FRANCIS’ TOP 10 SECRETS
FOR HAPPINESSIn an interview published in part in the Argentine weekly “Viva”, the pope listed his Top 10 tips for bringing greater joy to one’s life:
1. “Live and let live.” Everyone should be guided by this principle, he said, which has a similar expression in Rome with the saying, “Move forward and let others do the same.”
2. “Be giving of yourself to others.” People need to be open and generous toward others, he said, because “if you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid.”
3. “Proceed calmly” in life. The pope, who used to teach high school literature, used an image from an Argentine novel by Ricardo Guiraldes, in which the protagonist — gaucho Don Segundo Sombra — looks back on how he lived his life.
“He says that in his youth he was a stream full of rocks that he carried with him; as an adult, a rushing river; and in old age, he was still moving, but slowly, like a pool” of water, the pope said. He said he likes this latter image of a pool of water — to have “the ability to move with kindness and humility, a calmness in life.”
4. “A healthy sense of leisure.” The pleasures of art, literature and playing together with children have been lost, he said.
“Consumerism has brought us anxiety” and stress, causing people to lose a “healthy culture of leisure.” Their time is “swallowed up” so people can’t share it with anyone.
Even though many parents work long hours, they must set aside time to play with their children; work schedules make it “complicated, but you must do it,” he said.
Families must also turn off the TV when they sit down to eat because, even though television is useful for keeping up with the news, having it on during mealtime “doesn’t let you communicate” with each other, the pope said.
5. Sundays should be holidays. Workers should have Sundays off because “Sunday is for family,” he said.
6. Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs for young people. “We need to be creative with young people. If they have no opportunities they will get into drugs” and be more vulnerable to suicide, he said.
“It’s not enough to give them food,” he said. “Dignity is given to you when you can bring food home” from one’s own labor.
7. Respect and take care of nature. Environmental degradation “is one of the biggest challenges we have,” he said. “I think a question that we’re not asking ourselves is: ‘Isn’t humanity committing suicide with this indiscriminate and tyrannical use of nature?'”
8. Stop being negative. “Needing to talk badly about others indicates low self-esteem. That means, ‘I feel so low that instead of picking myself up I have to cut others down,'” the pope said. “Letting go of negative things quickly is healthy.”
9. Don’t proselytize; respect others’ beliefs. “We can inspire others through witness so that one grows together in communicating. But the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyzes: ‘I am talking with you in order to persuade you,’ No. Each person dialogues, starting with his and her own identity. The church grows by attraction, not proselytizing,” the pope said.
10. Work for peace. “We are living in a time of many wars,” he said, and “the call for peace must be shouted. Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet, peace is always proactive” and dynamic.
CHURCH ATTENDANCE LINKED WITH REDUCED SUICIDE RISK, ESPECIALLY
FOR CATHOLICS, STUDY SAYSLOS ANGELES – The LA Times reported that, against a grim backdrop of rising suicide rates among American women, new research has revealed a blinding shaft of light: One group of women — practicing Catholics — appears to have bucked the national trend toward despair and self-harm. Compared with women who never participated in religious services, women who attended any religious service once a week or more were five times less likely to commit suicide between 1996 and 2010, says a study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry.
RELIGIOUS PEOPLE LIVE
FOUR YEARS LONGER THAN ATHEISTSResearchers have found a surprising correlation between longevity and religious faith. Church-goers appear to live up to four years longer than atheists, at least according to an analysis of 1,000 obituaries published across the United States. The Ohio State psychology researchers behind the study insist there is merit to the connection: people with religious affiliations often volunteer and engage in social activities throughout their lives - something routinely tied to longer
lifespan.
INCREASE IN NUMBER OF
CATHOLICS WORLDWIDEThe newly released Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2016 reports a 1.1 percent increase in absolute Catholic numbers between 2015 and 2016. In 2015 there were 1,285 million baptized Catholics and in 2016 1,299 million. However, the world population increased by 1.14 percent (from 7.383 billion to 7.467 billion) meaning that as a proportion of world population the proportion of Catholics fell, from 17.73 percent of the world’s population in 2015 to 17.67 percent in 2016.
The global figures fail to differentiate between those regions such as Africa where the Church is enjoying dramatic expansion, and regions such as Europe where it is not. The number of African Catholics rose from 185 million in 2010 to 228 million in 2016 – a more than 23 percent increase, that means 17.6 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Africa.
Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest number of Catholics in Africa, with 44 million, while Nigeria has 28 million.
By contrast, Europe was more or less static and is also stagnating in terms of demographic dynamics. Europe hosts almost 22 percent of the world’s Catholics with numbers increasing by a marginal 0.2 percent between 2010 and 2016.
The Americas are home to 48.6 percent of baptized Catholics, with 57.5 percent of those living in South America, 28.4 percent of them in Central America and 14.1 percent in North America. The number of Catholics in Asia has remained at around 11 percent of the continent’s population between 2010 and 2016.YOU HAVE A FRIEND IN JESUS
VATICAN CITY --- Zenit News reported that Pope Francis on May 14, 2018, spoke in simple terms of Jesus and Friendship in his homily at Mass in Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican. As reported in Vatican News, he reminded the congregation that friendship with Jesus isn’t by chance but is the Christian’s destiny. Today is the Feast of Saint Matthias, who was chosen “by lot” by the disciples to replace Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. Matthias was chosen from a small group who had been followers since the early days of Christ’s ministry.
For the rest of us, Jesus offers his friendship not “by lot” but as a gift. And he continues His offer even when we betray Him “with our sins, with our whims” and “faithful to His friendship”.
The Holy Father affirmed that all Christians receive this friendship, although the disciples received in “stronger” measure. The Pope referred to the gospel reading for the day (JN 15:9-17) in which Jesus tells the disciples that they are not slaves or servants, but friends. And he awaits those who avoid Him, always there with His friendship. Pope Francis concluded by urging Christians to ask Jesus for the grace to stay in His love and friendship.‘CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC’ PRO-LIFERS ATTEND IRISH RALLY AHEAD OF VOTE
DUBLIN, IRELAND --- The Catholic News Agency reported that less than two weeks before a historic vote on whether to allow increased access to abortion in Ireland, thousands of people gathered last Saturday for a final pro-life rally in the capital city of Dublin. The atmosphere among the crowds was “cautiously optimistic,” Paul MacAree, a radio producer for EWTN Ireland, told CNA. Recent polls have shown that as much as 18 percent of Ireland’s Catholic-majority population is still undecided on their referendum vote. “We’ve got about a 78 percent Catholic population, but unfortunately the Catholic population is very poorly catechized when it comes to understanding these issues,” MacAree said. On May 25, Irish citizens will vote whether they want to repeal the country’s eighth amendment, which recognizes the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child. Under current law, the practice of abortion in Ireland is illegal, unless the mother’s health is endangered. Pro-life Irish citizens are encouraging a “no” vote on the referendum.
PRAY FOR IRELAND
'THE CHURCH IS FOR LIFE'
VATICAN CITY --- The Catholic News Agency reported that Pope Francis told a group of Catholic doctors that ideologies which do not acknowledge and uphold the dignity of human life must be resisted and the Catholic Church’s teaching on life affirmed, “The Church is for life, and her concern is that nothing is against life in the reality of a concrete existence, however weak or defenseless, even if not developed or not advanced,” the pope said. He noted the “hardships and difficulties” physicians may face when they are faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church, particularly when they promote and defend human life “from its conception to its natural end.” Doctors “are called to affirm the centrality of the patient as a person and his dignity with his inalienable rights, primarily the right to life,” he said. “The tendency to debase the sick man as a machine to be repaired, without respect for moral principles, and to exploit the weakest by discarding what does not correspond to the ideology of efficiency and profit must be resisted.”
Pope Francis spoke with members of the International Federation of Associations of Catholic Physicians ahead of a congress on the theme of “Holiness of life and the medical profession, from Humanae Vitae to Laudato Si'.
Addressing the group, he praised the fidelity of their associations to the directives of the Magisterium and encouraged them to “continue with serenity and determination on this path.” To be a Catholic doctor means to feel driven by “faith and from communion with the Church” to growin Christian and professional formation and to know the laws of nature in order “to better serve life,” he said, stressing that the participation of Catholic physicians in the life and mission of the Church is “so necessary.” Francis noted that the health and medical fields are a part of the advance of the “technocratic cultural paradigm,” which adores human power without limits and makes everything irrelevant if it does not serve a person’s own interests. “Be more and more aware that today it is necessary and urgent that the action of the Catholic physician presents itself with an unmistakable clarity on the level of personal and associative testimony,” he urged. He also encouraged working together with professionals of other religious convictions who also recognize the dignity of the human person, and with priests and religious who work in the healthcare field. Continue the journey “with joy and generosity,” he said, “in collaboration with all the people and institutions that share the love of life and endeavor to serve it in its dignity and sacredness.”
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GOD IS NOT INDIFFERENT
HE'S CLOSE AND PERSONALVATICAN CITY --- The Catholic News Agency reported that Pope Francis marked the feast of the Holy Trinity stressing the personal love and interest God has in each one of his children, saying the Lord is not ever far away, but is an attentive and loving Father to all. “God does not want so much to reveal to us that he exists, but rather that he is the 'God with us,' that he loves us, is interested in our personal story and cares for each person, from the smallest to the greatest,” the pope said.
The Catholic News Agency reported that Pope Francis marked the feast of the Holy Trinity stressing the personal love and interest God has in each one of his children, saying the Lord is not ever faraway, but is an attentive and loving Father to all. “God does not want so much to reveal to us that he exists, but rather that he is the 'God with us,' that he loves us, is interested in our personal story and cares for each person, from the smallest to the greatest,” the pope said.
Even though God is in heaven, he is also on earth, Francis said, adding that because of this, “we don't believe in a distant, indifferent entity.” “On the contrary, in the love that created the universe and generated a people, became flesh, died and rose for us, and as the Holy Spirit
transforms everything and brings it to fullness.” Pope Francis focused on the day's feast of the Holy Trinity. The feast of the Trinity, Francis said, is not only an invitation to contemplate and praise Jesus Christ, but it is also an opportunity to celebrate “with ever-new wonder the God of love, who freely offers his life to us and asks us to spread it in the world.” He then turned to the second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, in which the apostle speaks of how Christians are sons ofGod, and are able call him “abba,” meaning “father.” St. Paul, the pope said, experienced first-hand the deep transformation of the God of love, who allows us to not only call him “Father,” but more personally, “dad,” and who gives us the ability to call on him “with the total confidence of a child who abandons themselves in the arms of the one who gave them
live.” Through his action in each person, the Holy Spirit “makes it so that Jesus Christ is not reduced to a person of the past, but that we feel close to him, our contemporary, and that we experience the joy of being beloved children of God,” Francis said. He noted that Christians are not alone, he said, because the Holy Spirit was sent to guide and accompany them. And thanks to both the presence of the Spirit and the strength he offers, “we can realize with serenity the mission that he entrusted to us: to announce and bear witness to his Gospel to everyone and so dilate communion with him and the joy that comes from it.” Pope Francis closed his address saying the feast of the Holy Trinity “makes us contemplate the mystery of a God who incessantly creates, redeems and sanctifies, always with love and for love, and to every creature that
welcomes him, he gives the gift of reflecting a ray of his beauty, goodness and truth.” -
IN GENERATING CHILDREN,
PARENTS ARE
“COLLABORATORS OF GOD”
VATICAN CITY --- Zenit News reported that Pope Francis said that, in generating children, parents are collaborators of God. Pope Francis stressed this during his Angelus address on the Feast Day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. St. John’s birth, the Jesuit Pope reminded, is the event that illuminates the lives of his parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, which they never expected and assumed had become impossible, due to their advanced age. “These elderly parents had dreamed and even prepared that day, but now they no longer expected it: they felt excluded, humiliated, disappointed: they had no children,” Francis said. “But God does not depend on our logic and our limited human capacities,” the Pope continued, urging: “We must learn to trust and to be silent in the face of the mystery of God and to contemplate in humility and silence his work, which is revealed in history and which so often exceeds our imagination.” With their baby’s birth, Elizabeth and Zechariah experience that “nothing is impossible to God” and are overjoyed. The Pontiff called on faithful to remember those who discussed joyously this miraculous birth of John, and they did so with joy, happily, with a sense of amazement, surprise and gratitude. Looking at this, the Pope called on all faithful to ask themselves some questions: “how is my faith? Is it a joyful faith, or is it always the same faith, a “flat” faith? I have a sense of amazement when I see the works of the Lord, when I hear about the evangelization or the life of a saint, or when I see many good people: do I feel grace inside, or is there nothing moving in my heart? Can I feel the consolations of the Spirit or am I closed?” “Let us ask each of us, in an examination of conscience: How is my faith? Is it joyous? Is it open to God’s surprises? Because God is the God of surprises.
The Holy Father prayed that the Blessed Virgin Mary help us to understand that in every human person there is the imprint of God, the source of life. “She, Mother of God and our Mother, makes us more and more aware that in generating a child, parents act as collaborators of God, a truly sublime mission that makes each family a sanctuary of life and awakens – every birth of a child – joy, amazement, gratitude.”FIVE BOOKS THAT WALKED ME
BACK TO THE FAITH
By Becky CarterCrossing the Tiber. Journey Home. Coming Home. However you label that decision to go all in on Catholicism, the process is never without heartbreak and loss. After falling in love with my non-Catholic husband and subsequently falling away from my Catholic roots, we spent 17 years roaming the Protestant landscape. My everyday life friends were also deeply steeped in our schooling and faith community. Therefore, when we left that faith tradition, we inevitably had to leave behind some sweet relationships that just did not survive the departure. The good news about God is that he redeems all things and blesses one hundred fold our obedience, eternally speaking. When our family left our Calvinist tradition and turned to Rome several years ago, these 5 books were most influential to me.
1. Unabridged Christianity, by Fr. Mario P. Romero.
2. Rome Sweet Home, by Scott and Kimberly Hahn.
3. Surprised by Truth, by Patrick Madrid.
4. The Salvation Controversy, by James Akin.
5. The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis De Sales.(In case anyone needs some
summer reading)SEVEN DAILY HABITS
TO HELP GROW IN HOLINESSCheryl Hernandez, writing for Seton Magazine shares this: Fulfilling our Sunday obligation by going to Mass is the bare minimum we are asked to do as Catholics. But is this enough?
The reality is that we live in a broken world, and we are trying to raise our children in increasingly secular, unholy times. But God still calls us to holiness! He tells us to “Pray always and do not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). We need to power up — gain as much strength and grace as possible to do this momentous job of raising a holy family in today’s world — and to do it with joy and hope. Below are seven sure-fire ways to grow in holiness. Not seven ways to avoid stress, skip over any hardships, or land on our two feet perfectly each time. But these seven daily habits, if done with the intention to grow closer to Our Lord, will give us the grace we need to grow in holiness. Fr. John McCloskey, a priest of Opus Dei, called these the “Seven Daily Habits of Holy Apostolic People” and teaches how incorporating each one into our daily lives will result in “true happiness in this life and the vision of God in the next.” The seven daily habits he proposes are the1. The Morning Offering,
2. Spiritual Reading,
3. The Holy Rosary,
4. Holy Mass and Communion,
5. at least 15 minutes of mental prayer,
6. brief examination of conscience at night.Don’t scan the list and give up because it seems impossible! Just as a father stretches out his hands, encouraging his little toddler to take a few steps toward him, picking him up when he toddles over, props him up and encourages him to try again, Our Lord will help us as we take baby steps toward Him.
Do one thing. Just one! Master it, then add another. Keep going until these seven wonderful daily habits become an integral part of your life. And if you are raising a family, take your spouse and children along with you on this path to holiness. -
BELIEF IN CHRIST
CANNOT BE REDUCED TO A FORMULA,VATICAN CITY --- The Catholic News Agency reported that, Pope Francis said that the ability to know and have a relationship with the living Christ is both a mystery and a grace, something which Christians understand interiorly, not through mathematical proofs. “Jesus is the Son of God: therefore, He is perennially alive as his Father is eternally alive,” the pope said.
“This is the novelty that grace ignites in the heart of those who open themselves to the mystery of Jesus: the non-mathematical certainty, but even stronger, interior, of having met the Source of Life, the life itself made flesh, visible and tangible in the midst of us.” Pope Francis spoke about a Catholic’s experience of the mystery of Jesus before leading the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the patrons of Rome. He explained that this knowledge, that Christ is eternally alive and present, is not something a person experiences on the merit of being Christian, but it is a gift of grace from the Trinitarian God: “Father and Son and Holy Spirit.” Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew – when Jesus asks his disciples, “who do you say that I am?” – explaining that “all of this [mystery] is contained in a seed in St. Peter’s answer: “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Just as in the Gospel, when the disciples tell Jesus the different interpretations people had of him at the time, “over the centuries, the world has defined Jesus in different ways,” Francis said.
These definitions, he said, include, “a great prophet of justice and love; a wise master of life; a revolutionary; a dreamer of the dreams of God ... and so on.” But amid the confusion of these and different hypotheses on the identity of Jesus, Peter’s confession, “humble and full of faith, stands even today, simple and clear,” he said: “‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” Continuing, the pope explained that following Peter’s answer, Jesus makes him the head of his Church, pronouncing the word, “Church,” for the first time in the Gospels, “expressing all the love towards it, which he defines as ‘my Church.’” Jesus establishes the community of the New Covenant, which is based on faith in him. “A faith that Blessed Paul VI, when he was still Archbishop of Milan, expressed with this admirable prayer,” he said, concluding his address by quoting the prayer. “O Christ, our only mediator, You are necessary for us: to live in communion with God the Father; to become [one] with you, that you are the only Son and our Lord, your adopted sons; to be renewed in the Holy Spirit (Pastoral Letter, 1955).”
DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE CROSS –
THERE IS NO GLORY WITHOUT ITVATICAN CITY --- The Catholic News Agency also reported that, Pope Francis said, for Jesus, suffering and glory go hand in hand, urging Christians not to fall into the temptation of running from the cross, but to imitate Christ in bending down to embrace the weak and vulnerable. In his homily for the June 29 Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the official patrons of Rome, the pope said that in Jesus, “glory and the cross go together; they are inseparable.” “Once we turn our back on the cross, even though we may attain the heights of glory, we will be fooling ourselves, since it will not be God’s glory, but the snare of the enemy.” He pointed to the day's Gospel reading from Matthew, in which Peter declares that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Though Jesus applauds Peter for this recognition, telling him he is the rock on which he will build the Church, a few lines later Jesus chastises Peter for swearing that he will not allow the crucifixion to happen.
By doing this, Peter “immediately becomes a stumbling stone in the Messiah’s path,” Francis said, because while he believes that he is defending Jesus, “Peter, without realizing it, becomes the Lord’s enemy; Jesus calls him 'Satan.'”
In contemplating Peter's life and his confession of faith in the day's Gospel, Catholics are also invited to reflect on the daily temptations that every disciple faces, the pope said.
“Like Peter, we as a Church will always be tempted to hear those 'whisperings' of theevil One, which will become a stumbling stone for the mission,” he said, explaining that he used the word “whisper” because “the devil seduces from hiding, lest his intentions be
recognized.” “He behaves like a hypocrite, wishing to stay hidden and not be discovered.”
Christians, he said, can often be tempted to keep a “prudent distance” from the wounds of Christ, whereas Jesus himself bends down to touch humanity's brokenness and asks Christians to join him in touching “the suffering flesh” of others.
“To proclaim our faith with our lips and our heart demands that we – like Peter – learn to recognize the 'whisperings' of the evil one,” he said. “It demandslearning to discern and recognize those personal and communitarian pretexts that keep us far from real human dramas, that preserve us from contact with other people’s concrete existence and, in the end, from knowing the revolutionary power of God’s tender love.”
By choosing not to separate his glory from his death on the cross, Jesus frees both his disciples and the Church from “empty forms of triumphalism” which are void of love, service, compassion, and, ultimately, people, he said. Jesus, Francis said, wants to free the Church from “grand illusions that fail to sink their roots in the life of God’s faithful people or, still worse, believe that service to the Lord means turning aside from the dusty roads of history.” To contemplate and follow Christ, then, means opening one's heart to God the Father and to all those he chose to identify with, “in the sure knowledge that he will never abandon his people.” Pope Francis closed his homily urging attendees to imitate Peter in confessing that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” This is the daily chorus that every disciple ought to profess, he said, saying it should be done “with the simplicity, the certainty and the joy of knowing that the Church shines not with her own light, but with the light of Christ.”
“Her light is drawn from the Sun ofJustice, so that she can exclaim: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.'”
Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Square for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, during which he gave new metropolitan archbishops appointed throughout the past year a white wool vestment called the “pallium.” Though there were 30 who will receive the pallium, only 26 made it to the Mass in Rome. Adorned with six black silk crosses, the pallium dates back to at least the fifth century. The wearing of the pallium by metropolitan archbishops is a symbol of authority and of unity with the Holy See, and it serves as a symbol of the metropolitan archbishop’s jurisdiction in his own diocese as well as the other particular dioceses within his ecclesiastical province. The title of “metropolitan bishop” refers to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis, namely, the primary city of an ecclesiastical province or regional capital.
The “pallium Mass” also fell the day after Pope Francis created 14 new cardinals in a June 28 consistory, 11 of whom are of voting age.