What a truly remarkable and holy day. I had to run at fir a meeting at our parish right as Vespers ended and everyone is just smiling and really joyful tonight. I don't do Facebook, but my daughter talked to me a short time ago and said the comments from people her age (mid 20s) have been so positive about the Pope and the Church. She said people are talking about faith and belief and hope. Let's pray when the euphoria subsides this remains. I think maybe sine if us- I think many on this forum will be called to be "salt" and "light" to those that maybe heard something stirring within them because of the Holy Father's messages.
This is what hope looks like. The eyes of this sick man on the Vicar of Christ is very moving to me. Let's offer a prayer for this young man that if it is God's will, he be healed. View attachment 3489
The Short reading from tonight's Vespers. Coincidence that it speaks of joy on a day filled with joy? I don't think so Short Reading1 Peter 1:6-9 © This is a cause of great joy for you, even though you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like gold – only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire – and then you will have praise and glory and honour. You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him, you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described, because you believe; and you are sure of the end to which your faith looks forward, that is, the salvation of your souls.
Francis Consoles the Little Sisters Pope Francis visits an order of sisters being forced to provide contraceptives to workers by Rodney Pelletier • September 24, 2015 WASHINGTON, September 24, 2015 (ChurchMilitant.com) - While in Washington D.C., the Holy Father made a surprise visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor, currently locked in a legal battle with Obama over the implementation of the "Obamacare" contraception mandate. A Vatican spokesman confirmed the visit was not on the pope's itinerary and is a sign of support for the Sisters in their struggle for religious freedom. The Little Sisters of the Poor provide low-income housing, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities for the elderly across the United States. They've been trying to get an exemption from the 2012 HHS Mandate forcing them to provide insurance coverage for birth control, sterilizations and abortion-causing drugs in employee health plans. Although the Mandate provides for an opt-out provision, the Sisters argue that signing the opt-out clause makes them morally complicit in facilitating evil, as it gives third-party insurers permission to step in and provide contraception for employees. In July a federal court determined the Sisters didn't adequately establish the mandate was a "substantial burden" on their free exercise of religion. Earlier this month, after seven out of the 12 federal judges refused to re-hear the case, five judges wrote a dissent, commenting, "When a law demands that a person do something the person considers sinful, and the penalty for refusal is a large financial penalty, then the law imposes a substantial burden on that person's free exercise of religion." The judges further commented that the decision is "clearly and gravely wrong — on an issue that has little to do with contraception and a great deal to do with religious liberty." And on the point that the decision fails to respect the Sisters' beliefs and rather tries to reframe those beliefs, they argue that "it is not the job of the judiciary to tell people what their religious beliefs are." The Sisters would have to pay fines as high as $2.5 million for each year they don't comply — that's as much as 40 percent of their yearly operating cost. The Mother Provincial of the Little Sisters responded, "We perform this loving ministry because of our faith and simply cannot choose between our care for the elderly poor and our faith, and we shouldn't have to." http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/francis-consoles-the-little-sisters
Breaking news- Speaker of House, John Boehner just announced his resignation from Congress. Reports say he spoke to his colleagues and concluded by reading them the Prayer of St. Francis and told them his meeting and listening to the words of Pope Francis yesterday was. "Crystalizing" moment for him. So while we may have thought him blubbering and emotional, maybe he is a good Catholic msn who took the words of his Pope to heart. Really a stunning development. http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/25/boehner-resigning-from-congress.html
Wow....what did the Pope say to John Boehner. Not just resigning as speaker but from Congress all together.
Its 2am and I am watching Our Pope at the UN on Aljazeera. He is brave, true and free indeed. He makes us like him through his way and his words.
The speaker is retiring because he cannot do anything greater...he was able to bring a Pope to a joint session of congress. His dreams are fulfilled. Great job speaker of the house...how many blessing were given because of this one act. May God Bless You and Your Family Brother al
I would resign to if, especially as a Catholic who had just invited the Pope to come speak, I then had to do the unconscionable and allow a bill to pass that funds Planned Parenthood for another year. Heaven have mercy on all of our souls
I love the good sister reaching out to him as well. Reminds of Peter reaching for the Lord after his faith failed him.
"Brothers stand together....keep a true bond between you...if you fight among yourselves you will be devoured by those outside." Pope Francis to the UN a few moments ago.
On his way to Ground Zero and will meet with 9/11 families. If you have not been to this site, it is really very moving- a place where close to 3000 innocent people died, including 9 of my fellow parishioners.
A few of what I think are important highlights from Pope's UN speech which I think affirm fundamentals of our faith as well: The simplest and best measure and indicator of the implementation of the new Agenda for development will be effective, practical and immediate access, on the part of all, to essential material and spiritual goods: housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual freedom and education. These pillars of integral human development have a common foundation, which is the right to life and, more generally, what we could call the right to existence of human nature itself. …The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any instance above ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves” (ID. Address to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone, 6 August 2008, cited ibid.). Consequently, the defence of the environment and the fight against exclusion demand that we recognize a moral law written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between man and woman (cf. Laudato Si’, 155), and absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions (cf. ibid., 123, 136). …The common home of all men and women must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic. This common home of all men and women must also be built on the understanding of a certain sacredness of created nature.
John Boenher in his press conference on his resignation just said that after hearing the Pope yesterday saying we should live by the "golden rule", he prayed about it and decided today to quit. He had thought about it before and was thinking of doing it toward the end of the year, but apparently the words of the Pope caused him to move up his timeline
I was very,very struck on looking at John's face during the Pope's speech to Congress. It was a picture. I encourge people to go back and look at his face as the Holy Father was speaking. I believe we have just been witness to a public miracle. A conversion. Truly amazing.
I think people who have been critical of Pope Francis really need to go back and reevaluate, I suspect we are dealing with a great saint here.
... \ ...in his last act before resigning, John Boehner passes a bill that fully funded planned parenthood, fruits of the pope's visit to the US.
