Happy Feast of St. Joseph!

May St. Joseph become for all of us an exceptional teacher in the service of Christ's saving mission, a mission which is the responsibility of each and every member of the Church: husbands and wives, parents, those who live by the work of their hands or by any other kind of work, those called to the contemplative life and those called to the apostolate.

This just man, who bore within himself the entire heritage of the Old Covenant, was also brought into the "beginning" of the New and Eternal Covenant in Jesus Christ. May he show us the paths of this saving Covenant as we stand at the threshold of the next millennium, in which there must be a continuation and further development of the "fullness of time" that belongs the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word.

      -Blessed John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (1989)

St. Joseph, Father of the New Evangelization, Pray for Us.

Let us be concerned for each other

In his Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, Blessed John Paul II wrote that the whole life of the Christian community must lead to a “high standard of ordinary Christian living.” He said:

…since Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit, it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity.

We are called to live as saints, Blessed John Paul II would say, and we are called to encourage our brothers and sisters to do the same. “Those who have come into genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves,” he said.

Pope Benedict XVI echoes this in his 2012 Message for Lent, which was inspired by a verse in the Letter to the Hebrews:

Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works (Heb  10:24).

During this Lenten time of prayer, sharing, fasting and silence the Holy Father urges us to have concern for others. We should desire what is good for our brothers and sisters—physically, morally, and spiritually. Contemporary culture has lost a sense of what is good and evil, so spiritual poverty is especially important this Lent. He said:

…I would like to mention an aspect of the Christian life, which I believe has been quite forgotten: fraternal correction in the view of eternal salvation. Today, in general, we are very sensitive to the idea of charity and caring about the physical and material well-being of others, but almost completely silent about our spiritual responsibility towards our brothers and sisters.

World Youth Day update

Last week Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, head of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said that preparations for World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro are going very well.

World Youth Day has “proved to be an instrument of evangelization of extraordinary power,” he said. “I’m sure that Rio will give a strong confirmation of this fact.”

For more check out this article on World Youth Day 2013’s official site.

The sound of silence and penance

This past week, Pope Benedict XVI gave the Church two important messages to remember during Lent.

In his Wednesday catechesis, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the importance of interior and exterior silence and how it allows us to hear the Word and let it dwell within us. In order to pray, the Pope said we must turn off the noise of the modern world. We must find the silence that Jesus sought in His daily life and on the Cross.

Spending quiet time in prayer every day is important for those who want to take part in the New Evangelization. Confession also helps, Pope Benedict said. In an address last Friday, he connected the fruits of evangelization with the holiness of the Church’s body. God’s children are sanctified by the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and a conversion of heart directly impacts one’s ability to spread the Gospel. He said:

Thus each confession, from which each Christian will emerge renewed, will represent a step forward for new evangelization.

Although Catholics are just asked to confess their sins once a year, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the gift of the Father's mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is merciful (1458).    

According to Pope Benedict, time in silent prayer and confession of our sins will not only set us on the path to holiness this Lent, but they will also help us to be better purveyors of the Gospel. Let us be sanctified so that we can fully participate in the New Evangelization.

Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, Pray for Us.

More on the New Evangelization

Two new additions have been made to the New Evangelization pages on the Blessed John Paul II Shrine website.

In last month’s edition of Columbia Magazine, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson wrote a piece about the New Evangelization and how we are called to be missionaries in our families and communities.

Cardinal Dolan also gave an address during the Day of Prayer and Reflection of the College of Cardinals. In it he shares a seven step strategy of evangelization that will help defeat the “towering challenge” of secularism in our world.

Looking for some Lenten inspiration?

Then follow the Pope on Twitter! The Pontifical Council for Social Communications is bringing the New Evangelization to social media this Lent, and their hope is to engage the hearts and minds of young people with important themes from Pope Benedict’s Lenten message for 2012. Check out Pope to You for more information on accessing Vatican messages via Twitter, Facebook, and iPhone applications.

A Witness to Suffering

In his keynote address at “The Boundaries of the Human” conference in Rome two weeks ago, Cardinal Raymond Burke spoke about Blessed John Paul II and how his life and teachings provide a model for Christian suffering.

Blessed John Paul II lost his mother at a young age, and her passing was followed by the deaths of both his father and his dearest brother. He lost the people who were closest to him, and he also experienced the degradation of Polish culture and freedom during periods of Nazi occupation and Communism.

Blessed John Paul II is extraordinary…His own life is a testimony to suffering embraced in order to love more.

Despite experiencing such darkness early in his life, Blessed John Paul II emerged as a joyful disciple of Christ, full of a deep love for all of humanity. This carried him through his pontificate, which held its own burdens. As he recovered from an attempt on his life, Blessed John Paul II responded with a smiling forgiveness.  And when he reached old age, he courageously faced the world even though sickness and death were upon him.

Blessed John Paul II fully embraced his afflictions, and he gave the Church a beautiful gift through his witness to suffering.

In an Apostolic Letter written after his recovery from the 1981 assassination attempt, Blessed John Paul II addressed the Christian meaning of human suffering. He wrote that through suffering, man shares in the redemptive power of the Passion and death of Christ. Suffering is love, and in it man finds his vocation: 

Suffering as it were contains a special call to the virtue which man must exercise on his own part. And this is the virtue of perseverance in bearing whatever disturbs and causes harm. In doing this, the individual unleashes hope, which maintains in him the conviction that suffering will not get the better of him, that it will not deprive him of his dignity as a human being, a dignity linked to awareness of the meaning of life.

Suffering works to “unleash love in the human person,” Blessed John Paul II wrote, and when Christians suffer, they do so in union with the Church. They are united with the Blessed Mother, and saints like Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Ignatius of Loyola and all of those who have been sanctified through their suffering.

Let’s follow Blessed John Paul II’s example and embrace our crosses during this penitential season of Lent, as we meditate upon Christ’s Passion and anticipate His resurrection.