Pope Francis: Unity with Christ will transform your life

(CNA/EWTN News).- In his Sunday Regina Coeli address Pope Francis focused on the parable of the vine and the branches, saying that it reveals the importance of uniting oneself to Jesus, who changes how we live.

“Jesus is the life, and through him – like sap in a tree – the love of the same God, of the Holy Spirit, passes to the branches,” the Pope told attendees of his May 3 Regina Coeli address.

“We receive a new way of being, the life of Christ becomes ours: we are able to think like him, act like him, to see the world and things with the eyes of Jesus.”

As a result of this union, we are better able to love others, “beginning with the poorest and those who suffer, with his heart and bring into the world the fruits of goodness, charity and peace,” he said.

Francis spoke to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly address. Before leading the crowd the traditional Marian prayer, he drew attention to Jesus’ use of the parable of the vine and the branches in the day’s Gospel reading, taken from John Chapter 15.

Already getting close to the moment of his Passion and death, Jesus wanted to stress to his disciples the importance staying in communion with him, the Pope said.

Even though he wouldn’t be with them physically, Jesus would be with them in a new way that would bear a lot fruit, he continued. However, if instead the disciples lost communion with the Lord, rather than bearing fruit they would become “sterile,” and damage the community.

In the parable Jesus gives, “the branches are not self-sufficient, but depend totally on the vine, in which the source of their life is found. This is how it is for us Christians,” the Pope said.

Thanks to our baptism we have received new life in Christ, and thanks to the Church we are able to remain in “vital communion” with the Lord through both prayer and the sacraments, he continued.

Francis stressed the importance of daily prayer, of listening and being docile to the Word of God, reading the Gospel and participating especially in the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confession as particularly helpful in maintaining this communion.

By remaining “intimately united” to Jesus, a person also harvests the fruits of the Holy Spirit, he said, which St. Paul names in Galatians as love, joy, peace, magnanimity, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

In cultivating these a person “does so much good to others and to society as a true Christian,” the Pope said, observing that a Christian is recognized “from these attitudes, as a tree is recognized by its fruits.”

“The fruits of this profound union with Jesus are marvelous: our whole being is transformed by the grace of the Holy Spirit: soul, intelligence, will, affections and even the body, because we are united in body and spirit,” he said.

Pope Francis continued, noting that due to the “new way of being” we receive from this union with Christ, our own perspective changes and we are able to think and act like him, especially when it comes to the poor and suffering.

He then said that each person, each branch on the “one vine” that is Christ, are all together “called to bring the fruits of this common belonging to Christ and to the Church.”

The Pope concluded his address by invoking the intercession of the Virgin Mary, so that each person can be a living branch in the Church that gives a coherent witness to the faith.

Feast of Ss. Philip and James

Fasting as Spiritual Weapon

 This is a great post on Fasting from The Catholic Gentleman:

Fasting gives birth to prophets and strengthens the powerful; fasting makes lawgivers wise. Fasting is a good safeguard for the soul, a steadfast companion for the body, a weapon for the valiant, and a gymnasium for athletes. Fasting repels temptations, anoints unto piety; it is the comrade of watchfulness and the artificer of chastity. In war it fights bravely, in peace it teaches stillness. – St. Basil the Great

Are you struggling with a sin? I mean a sin that you just can’t seem to get rid of; a sin that is keeps you in a constant state of guilt and despair. You’ve prayed, you’ve frequented the sacraments, but you just can’t seem to break its hold.

We’ve all been there at one point or another, and such struggles are part and parcel of the spiritual life. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Today, I want to introduce you to a very powerful, but much neglected weapon in the spiritual arsenal: Fasting.

If you want to put to energize your spiritual life, if you want to slay a sin that has you in bondage,  if you want to grow in union with God, take up the holy weapon of fasting. For as Jesus said, there are some demons that “cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.”

Let’s examine this powerful weapon and its use in the spiritual life.

Read the rest here.

Pope Francis: Saint Joseph and the dignity of labor

(Vatican Radio) To mark International Labour Day which coincides with the Feast day of Saint Joseph the worker, Veronica Scarisbrick takes a look at the special devotion Pope Francis has for this Saint. As well as focus briefly on one of the social issues central to his thinking: the dignity of labour.

Let’s begin with his devotion to Saint Joseph as there’s quite a list of things that connect Pope Francis to this saint. Among them the choice of the date for the beginning of his pontificate the 19th of March, Saint Joseph’s feast day, and the choice of the nard flower symbolic of this saint on his coat of arms. Then in July 2013 his decision to consecrate Vatican City State not just to Saint Michael, as had been previously planned, but to Saint Joseph as well. And on a more personal note his admission to cherishing a wooden statue representing a dormant Saint Joseph, dressed in gold trimmed dark green and red garments according to Hispanic iconography, by which he places prayer requests. Simply because as he mentioned when he confided to us this personal gesture: “ He’s a carpenter and he gets the job done, even though he sometimes makes you wait”.

As for what links Pope Francis to Saint Joseph, International Labour Day and workers why not shine the spotlight on his words the 1st of May 2013, so the very first year of his pontificate, during his weekly general audience. Words which focus precisely on work and the figure of Saint Joseph. In a special way on the role played by Joseph as the legal father who teaches his son his skills as a carpenter in the workshop in Nazareth on a daily basis and shares with him, the efforts, the commitment, the satisfactions and problems that come with the job.

On this occasion Pope Francis goes on to remind us of the dignity and importance of work. The Book of Genesis, he says, tells us that God created man and woman entrusting them with the task of filling the earth and subduing it, which does not mean exploiting it, but nurturing and protecting it, caring for it through their work: “Work is part of God's loving plan, we are called to cultivate and care for all the goods of creation and in this way participate in the work of creation! Work is fundamental to the dignity of a person...it gives you the ability to maintain yourself, your family, to contribute to the growth of your nation. And here I think of the difficulties which, in various countries, today afflicts the world of work and business; I think of how many, and not just young people, are unemployed, many times due to a purely economic conception of society, which seeks selfish profit, beyond the parameters of social justice. I wish to extend an invitation to solidarity to everyone, and I would like to encourage those in public office to make every effort to give new impetus to employment, this means caring for the dignity of the person, but above all I'd like to say do not lose hope; St. Joseph also experienced moments of difficulty, but he never lost faith and was able to overcome them, in the certainty that God never abandons us.And then I would like to speak especially to you young people: be committed to your daily duties, your study, your work, to relationships of friendship, to helping towards others; your future also depends on how you live these precious years of your life. Do not be afraid of commitment, of sacrifice and do not look with fear towards the future; keep your hope alive: there is always a light on the horizon".

But while Pope Francis on this occasion shares with us words of encouragemen as we've just noticed he also chooses to highlight some of the evils of society in the area of work and denounces once again, the practice some companies have of adopting policies that favour profit over human dignity or even human life. And then uses an image to express how fundamental work is to the dignity of the person:"... work to use an image ‘anoints’ with dignity, fills us with dignity, makes us similar to God who has worked and still works, who also acts”.

One last word perhaps: let’s hope the prayer requests that Pope Francis places by the reclining and dormant figure of Saint Joseph are eventually answered…As he once assured us, they always are!

Scott Hahn: The biblical basis for Purgatory

A Prayer to St. Joseph the Worker

O Glorious St. Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations, to work with gratitude and joy, in a spirit of penance for the remission of my sins, considering it an honor to employ and develop by means of labor the gifts received from God, to work with order, peace, moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from weariness and difficulties, to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self, having always death before my eyes and the account that I must render of time lost, of talents wasted, of good omitted, of vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God.

All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after thine example, O Patriarch, St. Joseph. Such shall be my watch-word in life and in death.

– Composed by St. Pius X

Hat tip to Deacon Greg!

Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

For Catholics around the world today is the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, is the patron saint of workers. Pope Pius XII decided in 1955 to add the optional feast day of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1, to counteract the Communists’ May Day holiday by Christianizing this European Labor Day. The Holy Father assured his audience and the working people of the world: “You have beside you a shepherd, a defender and a father in Saint Joseph, the carpenter whom God in His providence chose to be the virginal father of Jesus and the head of the Holy Family. He is silent but has excellent hearing, and his intercession is very powerful over the Heart of the Savior."