POPE'S EFFECT

And now it ends. Before Pope Francis left the country, he reminded us Filipinos to be compassionate at all times. I hope that, that message will really penetrate into our hearts. During his first mass and homily at the Manila Cathedral his introduction was "Do you love me?" All who gathered around him and even people outside the Church responded, "YES" and he was laughing. That introduction really connotes something. It is like when Jesus was asking for Peter in three times, “Peter, do you love me?” This question can only be answered if we are compassionate. By answering ‘YES’ does not mean true because sometimes we are doubtful. We only love when we are also loved by others. We can only love when there is in return, because we love the term reciprocity, it is give and take love. It is not compassion by the way. The true compassion is when we love unconditionally. Pope Francis did not say, “Love one another” but rather, “Be compassionate” because it is with compassion that we can love truly. I hope that the happiness we experienced when the Pope was here, will never end tomorrow, because if it ends tomorrow, then our joy is solely on Pope’s appearance not in Christ who is the center of his visit. Before Pope arrives in our country, he reminded us by not focusing on him, but on Christ.

A Temporary Community

“A TEMPORARY COMMUNITY”

This insight is a reaction not in a negative sense derive from “Virtual Community, Is Real Community”.

As we can see, we are living now in a virtual world. Almost everything is instant. Everything is already in front of us. Tangible or not tangible, but it is real. Almost everything is on the tip of our fingers. The approximate 180,497 islands in the world are now one in a virtual world. All are connected. The history of continental drift presented how the lands being separated and now the world of webs presents how the land reunited.

So now, let us examine this virtual world what could be the best things it offers. We knew how this social media work in our community. We knew its limits. We even tried its advantages and disadvantages, but these are not evil by the way. We understand that it is God’s plan under the command of human, because God instructed us to procreate things and even lives. Much more, He gave us reason to produce ideas and thoughts for us to create something that could help us to connect all people here on earth.

The virtual world is one of the greatest inventions that makes us reunited. It is being said that “It tends to connect rather than isolate users”. Yes it is. We create new communities on the net, phones, television, radio and others and we call it real, but these communities are “temporary communities”. Why is that so? Because these communities are very much dependent with the technologies. Communities like these are dead if there’s no social media. But again, we believe that these are real albeit members are beyond horizon. Temporary communities are inevitably be subsided in the long run. It will not stay longer but slowly diminishes. But virtual world is always advancing.

I happened to tune in, like program in television, radio and others but in the long run the program diminished. Like “Wanted pangga, Eat Bulaga, etc. but what happen now? These are what we call virtual community because many are tuning in. Facebook is another community, twitter and yahoo mail and many more. But there will be a time that these communities will change because the world is advancing and so do this virtual world. For instance, face book is a later development. That is why I call it “Temporary Communities” because it keeps on changing and even the members of these communities. 

The Pope is Coming To Town

“THE PRIVILEGE OF OUR COUNTRY”

Filipinos are preparing for the coming of our pope the successor of St. Peter. After so many years we have been the privilege country since Pope John Paul’s time. Newscasters are unanimously spending much time just to inform all Filipinos that the pope is coming.  We are not among the least even in the spiritual aspect since we are a Christian country. The year 2015 be will the year of history and the time that is worth remembering for the herald of the church is coming to town.

What could be in the pope that makes us joyfully preparing for his coming? If we are going to ask every Filipino “What do you feel that the pope is coming?” I am very sure that their answer would be “I am happy to see him”. In fact, even in barrios and sitios they are hoping that they will be given a chance to see him personally. That’s how the way Filipino Christians loved their leader. How much more when Jesus will come in our country.

The happiness that we feel right now is not that the pope loves the poor, but because we have such leader like him. He goes out from his comfort zones to be one with his people. It is not that he only loves the poor, but he loves all Christians, like Christ Jesus as our true master and leader. He offered His life for the sake of His people. As the Father loves His son and so the Son loves His children as well.

The visit of the pope is not because it is the year of the poor and our country is not that really poor, but because the Lord Jesus Christ wanted us to be renewed with our faith. The Lord sends this pope for us to be reminded that He still loves us. He still loves us in the midst of sun shines and dark clouds. The calamities that we experienced are not valid reasons that we can say we are not loved. And so let us be prepared for this year because the Pope is coming to town.

To the Catholic Church's "seven deadly sins," Pope Francis has added the "15 ailments of the Curia."

VATICAN CITY (AP) — To the Catholic Church's "seven deadly sins," Pope Francis has added the "15 ailments of the Curia."

Francis issued a blistering indictment of the Vatican bureaucracy Monday, accusing the cardinals, bishops and priests who serve him of using their Vatican careers to grab power and wealth, of living "hypocritical" double lives and forgetting that they're supposed to be joyful men of God.

Francis turned the traditional, genteel exchange of Christmas greetings into a public dressing down of the Curia, the central administration of the Holy See which governs the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church. He made clear that his plans for a radical reform of the structures of church power must be accompanied by an even more radical spiritual reform of the men involved.

Ticking off 15 "ailments of the Curia" one by one, Francis urged the prelates sitting stone-faced before him in the marbled Sala Clementina to use the Christmas season to repent and atone and make the church a healthier, holier place in 2015.

Vatican watchers said they had never heard such a powerful, violent speech from a pope and suggested that it was informed by the results of a secret investigation ordered up by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI in the aftermath of the 2012 leaks of his papers.

Benedict tasked three trusted cardinals to probe deep into the Vatican's back-stabbing culture to root out what would have prompted a papal butler to steal incriminating documents and leak them to a journalist. Their report is known only to the two popes.

Francis had some zingers: How the "terrorism of gossip" can "kill the reputation of our colleagues and brothers in cold blood." How cliques can "enslave their members and become a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body" and eventually kill it off by "friendly fire." How some suffer from "spiritual Alzheimer's," forgetting what drew them to the priesthood in the first place.

"The Curia is called on to always improve itself and grow in communion, holiness and knowledge to fulfill its mission," Francis said. "But even it, as any human body, can suffer from ailments, dysfunctions, illnesses."

Francis, who is the first Latin American pope and never worked in the Italian-dominated Curia before he was elected, has not shied from complaining about the gossiping, careerism and bureaucratic power intrigues that afflict the Holy See. His 2013 Christmas address cast a spotlight on such sins.

But a year into his reform agenda, Francis seemed even more emboldened to make clear to the prelates themselves that superficial displays of change aren't what he is looking for.

"This is a speech without historic precedent," church historian Alberto Melloni, a contributor to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, said in a telephone interview. "If the pope uses this tone, it's because he knows it's necessary."

Melloni noted that until Francis was elected, the Vatican bureaucracy largely answered to no one, saying "an entire generation of the Curia ran it as if they were pope." St. John Paul II was too busy travelling the world, and later too sick, to pay attention to administrative details, and Benedict left the minutiae of running a government to his deputy, later determined to have been part of the problem.

The Rev. Robert Wister, a church historian at Seton Hall University, said Francis was essentially asking the Curia to undergo an examination of conscience, asking them to reflect on how they had sinned before God before going to confession.

"Perhaps he believes that only a severe rebuke can help turn things around," he said.

The cardinals were not amused. Few smiled as Francis spoke, and at the end they offered only tepid applause to a speech that was so carefully prepared it had footnotes and Bibilical references. Francis greeted each one, but there was little Christmas cheer in the room.

It is, to be fair, a difficult time for the Curia. Francis and his nine key cardinal advisers are drawing up plans to revamp the whole bureaucratic structure, merging offices to make them more efficient and responsive.

Francis has said though that while this structural reform is moving ahead, what is taking much longer is the "spiritual reform" of the people involved.

The Vatican's finances are also in the midst of an overhaul, with Francis' finance czar, Cardinal George Pell, imposing new accounting and budget measures on traditionally independent congregations not used to having their books inspected.

Francis started off his list with the "ailment of feeling immortal, immune or even indispensable."

Then one by one he went on: Being rivals and boasting. Wanting to accumulate things. Having a "hardened heart." Wooing superiors for personal gain. Having a "funereal face" and being too "rigid, tough and arrogant," especially toward underlings — a possible reference to the recently relieved Swiss Guard commander said to have been too tough on his recruits for Francis' tastes.

Some critiques could have been seen as worthy of praise: working too hard and planning too much ahead. But even those traits came in for criticism as Francis noted that people who don't take time off to be with family are overly stressed, and those who plan everything to a "T'' don't allow themselves to be surprised by the "freshness, fantasy and novelty" of the Holy Spirit.

At the end of the speech, Francis asked the prelates to pray that the "wounds of the sins that each one of us carries are healed" and that the Church and Curia itself are made healthy.

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Christmas greetings after the Urbi et Orbi Message: A message from Pope Francis last December 2013.

   

To you, dear brothers and sisters, gathered from throughout the world in this Square, and to all those from different countries who join us through the communications media, I offer my cordial best wishes for a merry Christmas!

On this day illumined by the Gospel hope which springs from the humble stable of Bethlehem, I invoke the Christmas gift of joy and peace upon all: upon children and the elderly, upon young people and families, the poor and the marginalized. May Jesus, who was born for us, console all those afflicted by illness and suffering; may he sustain those who devote themselves to serving our brothers and sisters who are most in need. Happy Christmas to all!

Prayer Before the Blessed Sacrament

When the faithful adore Christ present in the sacrament, they should remember that this presence derives from the sacrifice and is directed towards both sacramental and spiritual communion.

In consequence, the devotion which leads the faithful to visit the Blessed  Sacrament draws them into an ever deeper participation in the Paschal Mystery. It leads them to respond gratefully to the gift of him who through his humanity constantly pours divine life into the members of his body. dwelling with Christ our Lord, they enjoy his intimate friendship and pour out their hearts before him for themselves and their dear ones, and pray for the peace and salvation of the world. They offer their entire lives with Christ the Father in the Holy Spirit, and receive in this wonderful exchange an increase of faith, hope and charity. Thus they nourish those right dispositions which enable them with all due devotion to celebrate the memorial of the Lord and receive frequently the bread given us by the Father.

The faithful should therefore strive to worship Christ our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, in harmony with their way of life. Pastors should exhort them to this, and set them a good example.

Note: This is from S.C.R., Eucharisticum Mysterium no. 50

Communion Outside Mass

a. It is necessary to accustom the faithful to receive communion during the actual celebration of the Eucharist. Even outside Mass, however, priests will not refuse to distribute communion to those who have good reason to ask for it. By permission of the bishop of the place, according to the norm of the Motu Proprio Pastorale Munus, n.4, or by permission of the major superior of a religious institute according to the Rescript  Cum admotae, Art.1,n.1, communion may be distributed even during the afternoon.


b. When, at the prescribed times, communion is distributed outside Mass, if it is judged suitable, a short Bible service may precede it, in accordance with the Instruction 'Inter Oecumenici', nn. 37 and 39.


c. If Mass cannot be celebrated because of a lack of priests, and communion is distributed by a minister who has the faculty to do this by indult from the Holy See, the rite laid down by the competent authority is to be followed.

Note: This quoted from Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery; Eucharisticum Mysterium no. 33.