The Pope And Church News: News Vatican Information Service May 7, 2014

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

News Vatican Information Service May 7, 2014

SUMMARY:

- GENERAL AUDIENCE: THE GIFT OF COUNSEL

- MAY, MONTH OF THE ROSARY

- CARDINAL BALDISSERI TO TAKE POSSESSION OF HIS DIACONATE

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GENERAL AUDIENCE: THE GIFT OF COUNSEL

Vatican City, 7 May 2014 (VIS) – Counsel, that gift by which the Holy Spirit enables us to make concrete decisions according to the logic of Jesus and the Gospel was the theme of Pope Francis' catechesis during this Wednesday's general audience.

The Holy Spirit “helps us to grow positively both inwardly and in the community, and helps us not to fall prey to selfishness or to our way of seeing things”. “The essential condition for conserving this gift is prayer”, said the Holy Father, explaining that “we can all say the prayers we learnt as children, but we can also approach God in our own words: Lord, help me, advise me. What should I do now? And with prayer, we make space for the Holy Spirit to come and help us in this moment, to advise us on what we should do. We must never forget to pray. No-one knows if we pray on the bus or walking along the street: we can pray in silence. Let us take advantage of these moments to pray … so that the Holy Spirit may grant us the gift of counsel”.

In our intimacy with God, and listening His Word, we gradually leave aside our personal logic … and within us there matures a profound harmony with the Lord which leads us, in turn, to ask ourselves what His will is. It is the Spirit who advises us, but we must make space for this to happen. It is necessary to give space and pray to so that [the Holy Spirit] may always help us”.

And, like the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, counsel is “a treasure for the entire Christian community”, since the Lord does not speak to us only in the intimacy of the heart, but also through the voice and the witness of our brothers … who help us to shed light on our lives and to recognise the Lord's will”. In this respect, Francis mentioned that once, in the Argentine diocese of Lujan, a young man with “tattoos and earrings and all those things” recounted a very serious situation to him in confession, and said that his mother had advised him to turn to the Virgin Mary. “She was a woman with the gift of counsel. This mother did not know how to solve her son's problem but she indicated a sure path to him. … And effectively the boy said to me that: 'I looked to Our Lady and I felt that I should do this, this and this...'. And I didn't have to speak”, he recalled, “as the mother and the boy himself had already said everything. This is the gift of counsel. You, mothers who have this gift, ask for it for your children. Being able to give advice to one's children is a gift from God”.

The Holy Father concluded by citing Psalm 16, which says: “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken”. “May the Spirit always instil in our hearts that certainty, and in this way fill us with peace, and may we always ask for the gift of counsel!”.

MAY, MONTH OF THE ROSARY

Vatican City, 7 May 2014 (VIS) – At the end of today's general audience, in the greetings in different languages, the Pope addressed in German the relatives and friends of the new Swiss Guards who yesterday swore their allegiance and assured them that “the Holy Spirit will drive out all fear”. He went on to speak about the World Youth Day to be celebrated in Poland in 2016. “Let us begin our path towards the meeting in Poland”, he said; “Let us walk together, united in love and prayer, following St. John Paul II's invitation to be always young in the Holy Spirit”.

In Italian, he greeted the Red Cross volunteers who are celebrating 150 years since the foundation of this organisation; the families of the young people of the San Patrignano House, to whom he confirmed his support “against any type of drug abuse”, and the Italian Confcommercio Ascom Group from Padua, to whom he gave encouragement in this moment of economic difficulty.

The Pontiff also invited pilgrims to visit the tombs of the apostles so that “there might grow the Paschal joy of the Resurrection, which is also made manifest in certain charitable works”.Tomorrow, Thursday, the Church will recite the Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii, the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary, and Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin will be present. Therefore, he urged the faithful to invoke Mary's intercession “so that the Lord may grant mercy and peace to the Church and to all the world”, and encouraged them to take special care to pray the rosary during this month of May.

CARDINAL BALDISSERI TO TAKE POSSESSION OF HIS DIACONATE

Vatican City, 7 May 2014 (VIS) – The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff today announced that this coming Sunday, 11 May, at 10:30 a.m., Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, will take possession of the diaconate of Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino, Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, 5.