Rest on the flight into Egypt, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo ... Frasi Papa Usa...stars ushers us into...

Prayer, miracles, the virginity of Mary, the humanity of Jesus

Benedict XVI in Advent and at Christmas

Rest on the flight into Egypt, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Puskin Museum, Moscow

Let us now ask ourselves: to whom does the Son want to revealGod’s mysteries? At the beginning of the Hymn Jesus expresses Hisjoy because the Father’s will is to keep these things hidden from thelearned and the wise and to reveal them to little ones (cf. Lk 10, 21).Thus in His prayer, Jesus manifests his communion with the Fa-ther’s decision to disclose His mysteries to the simple of heart: theSon’s will is one with the Father’s.

Divine revelation is not brought about in accordance with earthlylogic, which holds that cultured and powerful people possess im-portant knowledge and pass it on to simpler people, to little ones.

The little ones

General Audience

Wednesday 7 December 2011

42 30DAYS N. 12 - 2011

ADVENT 2011

God used a quite different approach: those to whom His communi-cation was addressed were, precisely, “babes”. This is the Father’swill, and the Son shares it with Him joyfully.

But what does “being little” and simple mean? What is the “little-ness” that opens man to filial intimacy with God so as to receive Hiswill? What must the fundamental attitude of our prayer be? Let us

4330DAYS N. 12 - 2011

¬

And so we ask You: manifest Your power, O God

On the facing page, The birth of Jesus; above, The announcement to the shepherds, polychromatic wood

panels on the ceiling of the church of Saint Martin, Zillis, Switzerland

look at “The Sermon on the Mount”, in which Jesus says: “Blessedare the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5, 8). It is purity ofheart that permits us to recognize the face of God in Jesus Christ; itis having a simple heart like the heart of a child, free from the pre-sumption of those who withdraw into themselves, thinking theyhave no need of anyone, not even God.

In Matthew’s Gospel, following the Cry of Exultation, we find oneof Jesus’ most heartfelt appeals: “Come to me, all who labour andare heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11, 28). Jesus asks us togo to Him, for He is true Wisdom, to Him who is “gentle and lowlyin heart”. He offers us “His yoke”, the way of the wisdom of theGospel which is neither a doctrine to be learned nor an ethical sys-tem but rather a Person to follow: He himself, the Only BegottenSon in perfect communion with the Father.

Dear brothers and sisters, we have experienced for a moment thewealth of this prayer of Jesus. With the gift of His Spirit we too canturn to God in prayer with the confidence of children, calling himby the name Father, “Abba”. However, we must have the heart of lit-tle ones, of the “poor in spirit” (Mt 5, 3) in order to recognize thatwe are not self-sufficient, that we are unable to build our lives onour own but need God, that we need to encounter Him, to listen toHim, to speak to Him. Prayer opens us to receiving the gift of God,his wisdom, which is Jesus Himself, in order to do the Father’s willin our lives and thus to find rest in the hardships of our journey.

Many thanks.

44 30DAYS N. 12 - 2011

AVVENTO 2011ADVENT 2011

In the vision of the Book of Revelation there is a further detail: uponthe head of the woman clothed with the sun there is “a crown oftwelve stars”. This sign symbolizes the 12 tribes of Israel and meansthat the Virgin Mary is at the centre of the People of God, of the en-tire communion of saints. And thus this image of the crown of 12stars ushers us into the second great interpretation of the heavenlyportent of the “woman clothed with the sun”: as well as represent-

4530DAYS N. 12 - 2011

¬


The Virgin Mary and the ChurchThe one threat of which the Church can and must

be afraid is the sin of her members

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Thursday 8 December 2011

30DAYS N. 12 - 201146

ing Our Lady, this sign personifies the Church, the Christian com-munity of all time. She is with child, in the sense that she is carry-ing Christ in her womb and must give birth to Him in the world.This is the travail of the pilgrim Church on earth which, amidstthe consolations of God and the persecution of the world, mustbring Jesus to men and women.

Fresco representing chapter 12 of Revelation, on the back wall of the Basilica of San Pietro al Monte, Civate (Lecco)

ADVENT 2011

It is for this very reason, because she is carrying Jesus, that theChurch comes up against the opposition of a ferocious adversary,represented in the apocalyptic vision by “a great red dragon” (Rev12, 3). This dragon sought in vain to devour Jesus — the “malechild, destined to rule all the nations” (12, 5) — in vain because Je-sus, through his death and resurrection, ascended to God and isseated on his throne. Therefore the dragon, defeated once and forall in Heaven, directly attacks the woman — the Church — in thewilderness of the world. However in every epoch the Church is sus-tained by the light and strength of God Who nourishes her in thedesert with the bread of His Word and of the Holy Eucharist. And soit is that in every tribulation, in all the trials she meets over time andin the different parts of the world, the Church suffers persecutionbut turns out to be victorious. And in this very way the Christiancommunity is her presence, the guarantee of God’s love against allthe ideologies of hatred and selfishness.

The one threat of which the Church can and must be afraid is thesin of her members. Whereas Mary is indeed Immaculate, free fromany stain of sin, the Church is holy but at the same time she is blem-ished by our sins.

For this reason, we too, especially on this Feast, do not cease to askher for help with filial trust: “O Mary, conceived without sin, prayfor us who turn to you”. Ora pro nobis, intercede pro nobis ad DominumIesum Christum!

30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 47


Today I would like to reflect with you on the prayer of Jesus linked toHis miraculous healing action. Various situations are presented inthe Gospels in which Jesus prays while He contemplates the benefi-cial and healing work of God the Father Who acts through Him.This is a form of prayer which, once again, demonstrates His unique

Prayer and miraclesThe Giver is more precious than the gift given;

the gift is given ‘as well’

General Audience


48 30DAYS N. 12 - 2011

Christ cures a cripple, polychromatic wood panel of the church

of Saint Martin, Zillis, Switzerland

ADVENT 2011

relationship of knowledge and communion with the Father, whileJesus lets Himself be involved with deep human participation in thehardships of his friends, for example, those of Lazarus and his fami-ly or of the many poor and sick people to whom He seeks to givepractical help.

A significant case is the healing of the deaf mute (cf. Mk 7, 32-37). Mark the Evangelist’s account — that we have just heard —shows that Jesus’ healing action is connected with the intense rela-tionship He had both with His neighbour — the sick man — andwith the Father.

The central point of this episode however is the fact that when Je-sus was about to work the healing, He directly sought His relation-ship with the Father. Indeed the account relates that “looking up toheaven, he sighed” (v. 34). Jesus’ attention and treatment of the sickman are linked by a profound attitude of prayer addressed to God.Moreover, His sighing is described with a verb which, in the NewTestament, indicates the aspiration to something good which is stilllacking (cf. Rom 8, 23).

Thus, as a whole, the narrative shows that it was His human in-volvement with the sick man that prompted Jesus to pray. Hisunique relationship with the Father and His identity as the Only Be-gotten Son surface once again. God’s healing and beneficial actionbecome present in Him, through his Person. It is not by chance thatthe people’s last remark after the miracle has been performed isreminiscent of the evaluation of the Creation at the beginning ofthe Book of Genesis: “He has done all things well” (Mk 7, 37).Prayer clearly entered the healing action of Jesus as He looked up toheaven. The power that healed the deaf mute was certainly elicited

4930DAYS N. 12 - 2011


¬

30DAYS N. 12 - 201150

by compassion for him but came from recourse to the Father. Thesetwo relationships interact: the human relationship of compassionwith the man enters into the relationship with God, and thus be-comes healing.

On Jesus’ prayer in the account of the raising of Lazarus the Cate-chism of the Catholic Church comments: “Jesus’ prayer, characterizedby thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask: before the gift is given, Je-sus commits Himself to the One who gives and who in his gifts givesHimself. The Giver is more precious than the gift; He is the ‘trea-sure’; in Him abides his Son’s heart; the gift is given ‘as well’ (cf. Mt6, 21 and 33)”. To me this seems very important: before the gift isgiven, committing ourselves to the One who gives. The Giver ismore precious than the gift. For us too, therefore, over and abovewhat God bestows on us when we call on Him, the greatest gift thatHe can give us is his friendship, His presence and His love. He is theprecious treasure to ask for and to preserve forever.

With His prayer Jesus wanted to lead people to faith, to total trustin God and in His will. And He wanted to show that this God Whoso loved man and the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son (cf.Jn 3, 16), is the God of Life, the God Who brings hope and can re-verse humanly impossible situations.

ADVENT 2011


30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 51

Trust!

It is the hand of Jesus

that guides everything...

Saint Theresaof the Child Jesus

Let us not grow

weary of praying.

Trust works miracles.

Saint Theresaof the Child Jesus

Invitation to prayerThe editorial office of 30Days invites all, and in particular the consecrated per-sons of the cloistered convents and monasteries, to pray for Don GiacomoTantardini. For some months he has been undergoing treatment for a lung tu-mour. May the Lord grant us to pray with trust for the miracle of a cure. We askthe priests who appreciate and cherish 30Days to celebrate Holy Mass for thisintention. We ask of parents the charity of encouraging their children to pray.

In particular I would like to reflect briefly on the importance ofMary’s virginity, namely that she conceived Jesus while remaining avirgin.

Against the background of the event of Nazareth is the prophecyof Isaiah. “Behold, a young virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and

The virginity of MaryMary wanted that the Son to be born of her

be totally a gift of grace

Angelus

Sunday 18 December 2011

30DAYS N. 12 - 201152

The Virgin Mary, detail of the Annunciation,

Beato Angelico, Prado Museum, Madrid

ADVENT 2011


30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 53

shall call his name Immanuel” (Is 7, 14). This ancient promisefound superabundant fulfilment in the Incarnation of the Son ofGod. Indeed, not only did the Virgin Mary conceive, but she did sothrough the work of the Holy Spirit, that is, God Himself. The hu-man being who came to life in her womb took Mary’s flesh, but Hisexistence derived totally from God. He is fully man, made of clay —to use the biblical symbol — but comes from on high, from Heaven.The fact that Mary conceived while remaining a virgin is thus essen-tial to the knowledge of Jesus and to our faith, because it testifiesthat it was God’s initiative and, above all, it reveals who the con-ceived being was. As the Gospel says: “the child to be born will becalled holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1, 35). In this sense, the virginity ofMary and the divinity of Jesus guarantee each other.

This is what makes that single question so important that Mary,“greatly troubled”, asks the Angel: “How can this be, since I have nohusband?” (Lk 1, 34). Mary was very wise in her simplicity. She didnot doubt God’s power, but she wanted to better understand Hiswill, in order to conform herself completely to this will. Mary wasinfinitely overcome by the Mystery, yet she occupied perfectly theplace which, in its centre had been assigned to her. Her heart andher mind are fully humble and precisely because of her unique hu-mility, God awaits this young woman’s “yes” in order to carry outhis plan. He respects her dignity and her freedom. Mary’s “yes” en-tailed motherhood and virginity as a whole. She wanted everythingin her to glorify God and she wanted the Son, born of her, to be to-tally a gift of grace.

When in the liturgical celebrations we hear or proclaim: “today isborn our Saviour”, we are not using an empty, conventional expres-sion. Rather, we mean that God is offering to us “today”, now, to me,to each one of us, the possibility of recognizing and welcomingHim, as did the shepherds in Bethlehem, so that He may also beborn in our lives and renew, illuminate and transform them by HisGrace and by His Presence.

The manger in Bethlehem

General Audience


30DAYS N. 12 - 201154

The Child Jesus, detail of the Nativity, Andrea Pisano,

pulpit of Siena Cathedral

ADVENT 2011


And, St Leo the Great also said in another of his Christmas ser-mons: “Today the Maker of the world was born of a Virgin’s womb,and He, who made all natures, became Son of her, whom He creat-ed. Today the Word of God appeared clothed in flesh, and thatwhich had never been visible to human eyes began to be tangible toour hands as well. Today the shepherds learned from angels’ voicesthat the Saviour was born in the substance of our flesh and soul”(Sermo 26, In Nativitate Domini, 6, 1: PL 54, 213).

Christmas and Easter are both feasts of redemption. Easter cele-brates it as a victory over sin and death; it marks the final momentwhen the glory of the Man-God shines out like the light of day.Christmas celebrates it as God’s entry into history, His becomingman in order to restore mankind to God. It marks, so to speak, the ¬

30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 55

The star that indicates the place where Jesus was born in the Nativity Grotto, in the Basilica of the Nativity, Bethlehem, with the inscription

HIC DE VIRGINE MARIA IESUS CHRISTUS NATUS EST(HERE OF THE VIRGIN MARY JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN)

initial moment when we see the first gleam of dawn. However justas daybreak precedes and heralds the light of the day, so Christmasalready proclaims the Cross and the glory of the Resurrection.

Let us look at the Bethlehem Grotto: God humbled Himself to thepoint of being laid in a manger, already a prelude to the humblingof Himself in the hour of His passion. The culmination of the lovestory between God and man passes through the manger in Bethle-hem and the tomb in Jerusalem.

Let us experience the Nativity of the Lord contemplating the pathof the immense love of God who lifts us up to Him through theMystery of the Incarnation, Passion, Death and Resurrection of HisSon; for, as St Augustine said, “In [Christ] the divinity of the OnlyBegotten One was made to share in our mortality, that we mightshare in His immortality” (Epistola 187, 6. 20: PL 33, 839-840).

30DAYS N. 12 - 201156

Children in the Grotto of the Nativity

ADVENT 2011


30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 57

WHO PRAYS IS SAVED

“I am therefore very glad that 30Giorni should make a new edi-tion of this little book containing the fundamental prayers ofChristians that have grown over the centuries. I hope this littlebook may become a traveling companion for many Christians”.

from the Introduction by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of 18 February 2005

(elected Pope on 19 April 2005 with the name Benedict XVI)

The little booklet, of which 30Giorni

has already distributed hundreds of thousands of copies,

published in Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German

and Chinese, contains the simplest prayers of the Christian life,

such as those of morning and evening,

and all that helps to make a good Confession.

The reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to Titus that we have justheard begins solemnly with the word “apparuit”, which thencomes back again in the reading at the Dawn Mass: apparuit –“there has appeared”. This is a programmatic word, by which theChurch seeks to express synthetically the essence of Christmas.

The humanity of JesusIn the child in the stable at Bethlehem, we can,

as it were, touch and caress God

Holy Mass

Saturday 24 December 2011

30DAYS N. 12 - 201158

CHRISTMAS 2011

Veni ad salvandum nos!Come to save us!

Formerly, people had spoken of God and formed human imagesof Him in all sorts of different ways. God Himself had spoken invarious ways to mankind (cf. Heb 1, 1 – reading in the Mass of theday). But now something more has happened: He has appeared.He has revealed himself. He has emerged from the inaccessiblelight in which He dwells. He himself has come into our midst.This was the great joy of Christmas for the early Church: God ¬

30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 59

Adoration of the Child, Gerrit van Honthorst, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

has appeared. No longer is He merely an idea, no longer do wehave to form a picture of Him on the basis of mere words. He has“appeared”.

But now we ask: how has He appeared? Who is He in reality? Thereading at the Dawn Mass goes on to say: “the kindness and love ofGod our Saviour for mankind were revealed” (Tit 3, 4). For the peo-ple of pre-Christian times, who before the terrors and contradic-tions of the world feared that God Himself might not be altogethergood either, that He too might well be cruel and arbitrary, this was areal “epiphany”, the great light that has appeared to us: God is puregoodness. Today too, people who are no longer able to recognizeGod through faith are asking whether the ultimate power that un-derpins and sustains the world is truly good, or whether evil is just aspowerful and primordial as the good and the beautiful which we en-counter in radiant moments in our world. “The kindness and love ofGod our Saviour for mankind were revealed”: this is the new, con-soling certainty that is granted to us at Christmas.

God has appeared – as a child. It is in this guise that He pitsHimself against all violence and brings a message that is peace. Atthis hour, when the world is continually threatened by violence inso many places and in so many different ways, when over and overagain there are oppressors’ rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cryout to the Lord: O mighty God, You have appeared as a child andYou have revealed yourself to us as the One Who loves us, the Onethrough Whom love will triumph. And You have shown us thatwe must be peacemakers with You. We love Your childish estate,Your powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing presenceof violence in the world, and so we also ask You: manifest Yourpower, O God.

30DAYS N. 12 - 201160

¬

CHRISTMAS 2011


30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 61

Madonna with Child, Carlo Maratta, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

30DAYS N. 12 - 201162

The Chapel of the Crib in the Convent of Saint Francis in Greccio (Rieti)

CHRISTMAS 2011


Christmas is an epiphany – the appearing of God and of his greatlight in a child that is born for us. Born in a stable in Bethlehem, notin the palaces of kings. In 1223, when Saint Francis of Assisi cele-brated Christmas in Greccio with an ox and an ass and a manger fullof hay, a new dimension of the mystery of Christmas came to light.Saint Francis of Assisi called Christmas “the feast of feasts” – aboveall other feasts – and he celebrated it with “unutterable devotion” (2Celano 199; Fonti Francescane, 787). He kissed images of the Christ-child with great devotion and he stammered tender words such aschildren say, so Thomas of Celano tells us (ibid.).

For the early Church, the feast of feasts was Easter: in the Resurrec-tion Christ had flung open the doors of death and in so doing hadradically changed the world: He had made a place for man in GodHimself. Now, Francis neither changed nor intended to change thisobjective order of precedence among the feasts, the inner structureof the faith centred on the Paschal Mystery. And yet through himand the character of his faith, something new took place: Francisdiscovered Jesus’ humanity in an entirely new depth. This humanexistence of God became most visible to him at the moment whenGod’s Son, born of the Virgin Mary, was wrapped in swaddlingclothes and laid in a manger. The Resurrection presupposes the In-carnation. For God’s Son to take the form of a child, a truly humanchild, made a profound impression on the heart of the Saint of As-sisi, transforming faith into love. “The kindness and love of God ourSaviour for mankind were revealed” – this phrase of Saint Paul nowacquired an entirely new depth. In the child in the stable at Bethle-hem, we can as it were touch and caress God.

30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 63

¬

Today, anyone wishing to enter the Church of Jesus’ Nativity inBethlehem will find that the doorway which was five and a half me-tres high, through which emperors and caliphs used to enter thebuilding, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one anda half metres has remained. The intention was probably to pro-vide the church with better protection from attack, but above allto prevent people from entering God’s house on horseback. Any-one wishing to enter the place of Jesus’ birth has to bow down. Itseems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here, by which wewould like to be touched on this holy night: if we want to find theGod Who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from thehigh horse of our “enlightened” reason. We must set aside ourfalse certainties, our intellectual pride, which prevents us fromrecognizing God’s closeness. We must follow the interior path ofSaint Francis – the path leading to that ultimate outward and in-ward simplicity which enables the heart to see. We must bowdown, spiritually we must as it were go on foot, in order to passthrough the portal of faith and encounter the God who is differentfrom our prejudices and opinions – the God who conceals Him-self in the humility of a newborn baby.

64 30DAYS N. 12 - 2011

sfdskgdshgkshgkhskghskghskjhgksjhgkjshgkjshgdkjshgkssdskghskjghskjghksjhgkjshgkjshgkshgkhskghskjhgkjsh

gkjshgkjshgkjshkgshkghskjghskjhgksjhgkjshgkshkgjhskjghskghskjghksghk

CHRISTMAS 2011

6530DAYS N. 12 - 2011


The small Door of Humility through which one enters the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem

The Son of the Virgin Mary is born for everyone; he is the Sav-iour of all.

This is how Christ is invoked in an ancient liturgical antiphon: “OEmmanuel, our king and lawgiver, hope and salvation of the peo-ples: come to save us, O Lord our God”. Veni ad salvandum nos!Come to save us!

Come to save us!God is the Saviour; we are those who are in peril.

He is the physician; we are the infirm

Urbi et orbi Message

Sunday 25 December 2011

30DAYS N. 12 - 201166

Benedict XVI during the Holy midnight Mass on Christmas 2011

CHRISTMAS 2011


Yes, this is the meaning of the Child’s name, the name which, byGod’s will, Mary and Joseph gave Him: He is named Jesus, whichmeans “Saviour” (cf. Mt 1, 21; Lk 1, 31). He was sent by God the Fatherto save us above all from the profound evil rooted in man and in his-tory: the evil that is separation from God, the prideful presumption ofbeing self-sufficient, of trying to compete with God and to take Hisplace, to decide what is good and evil, to be the master of life anddeath (cf. Gen 3, 1-7). This is the great evil, the great sin, from which ¬

30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 67

Birth of Christ, Anton Raphael Mengs, Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig

we human beings cannot save ourselves unless we rely on God’s help,unless we cry out to him: “Veni ad salvandum nos! – Come to save us!”

The very fact that we cry to heaven in this way already sets us aright; itmakes us true to ourselves: we are in fact those who cried out to Godand were saved (cf. Esth [LXX] 10, 3ff.). God is the Saviour; we are thosewho are in peril. He is the physician; we are the infirm. To realize this isthe first step towards salvation, towards emerging from the maze inwhich we have been locked by our pride. To lift our eyes to heaven, tostretch out our hands and call for help is our means of escape, providedthat there is Someone who hears us and can come to our assistance.

Dear brothers and sisters in Rome and throughout the world, onthis Christmas 2011, let us then turn to the Child of Bethlehem, tothe Son of the Virgin Mary, and say: “Come to save us!”

30DAYS N. 12 - 201168

Madonna with Child, detail, Sandro Botticelli and workshop, Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna

CHRISTMAS 2011

Today, the day after the solemn liturgy of the Lord’s Birth, we arecelebrating the Feast of St Stephen, a deacon and the Church’s firstmartyr. The historian Eusebius of Caesarea describes him as the“perfect martyr” (Die Kirchengeschichte v. 2,5: GCS II, I, Lipsia1903, 430), because in the Acts of the Apostles it is written that“Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signsamong the people” (6, 8). ¬


30DAYS N. 12 - 2011 69

Saint Stephen, detail of the mosaic of the triumphal

arch in the Basilica of San Lorenzo Outside the Walls, Rome

The secret martyrdomThose who perform the commandments

of the Lord bear witness to Him and faithfully

invoke the Lord’s name

Feastday of Saint Stephen protomartyr

Monday 26 December 2011

After the generation of the Apostles, martyrs acquired an impor-tant place in the esteem of the Christian community.

Dear friends, the true imitation of Christ is love, which someChristian writers have called the “secret martyrdom”. Concerningthis St Clement of Alexandria wrote: “those who perform the com-mandments of the Lord, in every action ‘testify’, by doing what Hewishes, and faithfully naming the Lord’s name” (Stromatum IV, 7,43, 4: SC 463, Paris 2001, 130). Today too, as in antiquity, sincereadherence to the Gospel can require the sacrifice of life and manyChristians in various parts of the world are exposed to persecutionand sometimes martyrdom. However, the Lord reminds us: “hewho endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10, 22).

30DAYS N. 12 - 201170

Mosaic of the triumphal arch in the Basilica of San Lorenzo Outside the Walls, Rome

© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

CHRISTMAS 2011

Rest on the flight into Egypt, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo ... Frasi Papa Usa...stars ushers us into...

Documents

Transcript of Rest on the flight into Egypt, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo ... Frasi Papa Usa...stars ushers us into...