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Letter #47: To Mary[2013-03-15][Engleză]March 14, 2013, Thursday -- To MaryToday Pope Francis, on the first day after his election, did four remarkable things, and did not do a fifth. 1. Mary. At about 8 a.m., he slipped out of the Vatican in a single, unmarked black car -- a Volkswagen, not a Mercedes -- without an escort, and drove across Rome to the Basilica of St. Mary Major (painting, below), the largest (and most beautiful) basilica in the world dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. There, he prayed in front of an ancient icon, called the Salus Populi Romani, or the Protectress of the Roman People, held by tradition to have been painted by St. Luke himself. He also brought flowers and laid them beneath the icon on honor of Mary (photo below). So, the first act of his pontificate was to pray before the Virgin Mary. 2. Pope St. Pius V. While in the Basilica, he went and knelt in front of a tomb of a Pope. Which Pope? Pope St. Pius V (1504-1572), the Pope who, being a Dominican, declared the Dominican St. Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church and commissioned the first edition of his complete works. The He also patronized the sacred music composer Palestrina, and, in his the Apostolic Constitution Quo Primum on July 14, 1570, promulgated the 1570 edition of the Roman Missal, making it mandatory throughout the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, except where a Mass liturgy dating from before 1370 AD was in use. This "St. Pius V" form of the Mass remained essentially unchanged for 400 years until Pope Paul VI's revision of the Roman Missal in 196970. It is this form of the Mass that many today call "the old Latin Mass," or "the Tridentine Mass," or, since 2007, the "Extraordinary Form" of the Mass. It seems clear that by kneeling and praying before the tomb of this great, and holy, Pope, Pope Francis was making a statement of respect for him and his work, and so, by implication, for the form of the Mass that he codified. Note also that, as a cardinal, Pope Pius V gained a reputation for putting orthodoxy before personalities, prosecuting eight French bishops for heresy. He also stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor, Pope Pius IV, to his face when he wanted to make a 13-year old member of his family a cardinal. For a Pope who wishes to end corruption, a prayer before the tomb of Pius V makes a certain sense. Also, Pius V arranged for the formation of the Holy League, an alliance of Catholic states, which defeated the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Pius V attributed this victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victory on October 7. In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII changed the title of this feast-day to the "Feast of the Holy Rosary." (It is being reported in the Italian press that Pope Francis prays 15 decades of the Rosary daily.) Once Pius V was elected, he at once proceeded to reduce the cost of the papal court after the manner of the Dominican Order to which he belonged. According to this precedent, Pope Francis will also proceed to reduce the cost of the Vatican Curia. Curial officials, tighten seatbelts... 3. Stay home, give to the poor. As reported on the Rorate Caeli website, the new Pope has asked his nuncio in Argentina, where he is from, to ask all the bishops, priests, nuns, and faithful of his home country not to travel to Rome for his installation Mass, but to save the money and give it instead to the poor... Here is a photo of the letter and a translation of the text: Apostolic Nunciature Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, March 14, 2013 Your Excellency, I have the honor and the satisfaction of turning to you to inform you that the Holy Father Francis has asked me to transmit to all Bishops, Priests, Religious men and women, and to all the People of God his cherished recognition for the prayers and the expressions of warmth, affection, and charity that he has received. At the same time, he would wish that, instead of going to Rome for the beginning of his Pontificate next March 19, you may keep this spiritual closeness that is so much appreciated, accompanying it with some gesture of charity towards the neediest. I take this joyful opportunity to vouch to you my sentiments of respectful attention. +Emil Paul Tscherrig Apostolic Nuncio ============================================== 4. First Mass and Homily as Pope. During his first Mass celebrated as Pope, today at 5 p.m. in the Sistine Chapel (it was televised here in Italy), he delivered a 7-minute homily without a prepared text. He spoke in beautiful Italian, slowly, clearly, eloquently, for about seven minutes, addressing all the cardinals who had just elected him yesterday evening. He structured his homily around three words: camminare, to walk, edificare, to build, and confessare, to confess or bear witness to the glory of Christ and his Cross. He asked the cardinals to walk with him, and if they fell, to get up and start walking again; to build with him, to build the Church; and to confess Christ with him, but always, Christ with His Cross... Several things struck observers about this Mass. First, that Pope Francis went away from his throne and over to the pulpit to speak his homily, like a classical preacher; second, his very simply vestments. But, the most striking thing was that he spoke without a prepared text. He could have asked for help from someone to prepare a text for him, and then he could have made small or large revisions, but rather he preferred to deliver a spontaneous meditation, which obviously seemed more direct, more familiar, more authentic... With regard to the homily, I can only say that Pope Francis used powerful images -- the images of children building sand castles at the beach, to describe us building on anything except on Christ -- and powerful expressions -- he spoke specifically of the devil, of the demon, saying when we do not bear witness to Christ, we are bearing witness to... the devil. And he specifically warned about worldliness, about becoming worldly, about forsaking Christ to focus on the world. Powerful words, stirring words, for Christians. And he specifically ruled out that the Church can be anything other than the mystical Bride of Christ -- ruled out that the Church can be another NGO doing philanthropic work. This was a powerful, pontificate-orienting statement. First Homily Here is the complete text of that first homily this afternoon, March 14, in the Sistine Chapel where yesterday he was elected Pope, spoken without a prepared text: "When we walk without the cross " by Pope Francis In these three readings, I see that there is something in common: it is movement. In the first reading, movement in walking; in the second reading, movement in the building up of the Church; in the third, in the Gospel, movement in confession. To walk, to build up, to confess. To walk. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. This is the first thing that God said to Abraham: Walk in my presence and be without reproach. To walk: our life is a journey and when we stop it is no good. To walk always, in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, seeking to live with that irreproachability which God asked of Abraham, in his promise. To build up. To build up the Church. Stones are spoken of: the stones have substance; but living stones, stones anointed by the Holy Spirit. To build up the Church, the bride of Christ, on that cornerstone which is the Lord himself. This is another movement of our lives: to build up. Third, to confess. We can walk as much as we wish, we can build many things, but if we do not confess Jesus Christ, it is no good. We will become a humanitarian NGO, but not the Church, bride of the Lord. When one does not walk, one halts. When one does not build on stone what happens? That happens which happens to children on the beach when they make sand castles, it all comes down, it is without substance. When one does not confess Jesus Christ, I am reminded of the expression of Léon Bloy: "He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil. When one does not confess Jesus Christ, one confesses the worldliness of the devil, the worldliness of the demon. To walk, to build/construct, to confess. But the matter is not so easy, because in walking, in building, in confessing, at times there are shocks, there are movements that are not properly movements of the journey: they are movements that set us back. This Gospel continues with a special situation. The same Peter who has confessed Jesus Christ says to him: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I will follow you, but let us not speak of the cross. This has nothing to do with it. I will follow you with other possibilities, without the cross." When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross, and when we confess Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord: we are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but not disciples of the Lord. I would like that everyone, after these days of grace, should have the courage, truly the courage, to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the cross of the Lord; to build up the Church upon the blood of the Lord that was shed upon the cross; and to confess the only glory: Christ crucified. And in this way the Church will move forward. I hope for all of us that the Holy Spirit, through the prayer of the Virgin Mary, our Mother, may grant us this grace: to walk, to build up, to confess Jesus Christ crucified. So may it be. Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com Contor Accesări: 1141, Ultimul acces: 2026-07-28 15:24:03
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