Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq this past weekend meant that, for a day or two at least, the Western media had to acknowledge the precarious situation facing Christians in the troubled nation — people who normally aren’t on their radar. These survivors of ISIS-led genocide in 2014 continue to suffer daily indignities: Even those Christians who haven’t lost their ancestral homes are officially second-class citizens.
In his second sermon for Lent 2021, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher to the Papal Household, reflects on the humanity of Jesus as the perfect model for all human beings:
Although Pope Francis is in Iraq for his 33rd Apostolic Journey abroad, the annual Lenten reflections for the Roman Curia and the Pope’s closest collaborators continue in the Vatican.
With time spinning fast, His Holiness Pope Francis’ historic visit to Iraq is coming soon. He will visit bleeding Iraq on March 5-8, 2021 which serves as a message of peace and interfaith dialogue to the entire world.
“Someone exists who holds in his hands the destiny of this passing world; Someone who holds the keys to death and the netherworld; Someone who is the Alpha and the Omega … And this Someone is Love. He alone can give the ultimate assurance when he says ‘Be not afraid!’” —Pope St. John Paul II.
February 15, 2015 a day that was not like any other day. It was the day in which evil hands of extremists took the lives of 21 Copts in cold blood.
This day marked a heinous crime the like of which has been repeatedly perpetrated at different times in various parts of the world including the Middle East.
What a vicious and bloodthirsty extremists who chop off heads to satisfy their mean desire, and carry out an act they term as “heroism” at the expense on innocent and peaceful people!
“No slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:20)
No obstacles can stand in the way of serving the Lord. It is merely a divine and a sublime call that can never be neglected or ignored.
Fr. Raphael Nguyen says, “It is amazing that, after so long, God chose me to be a priest to serve Him and others, especially the suffering.”
On February 11, thousands of people commemorate the first apparition of Blessed Mary to Saint Bernadette. It is a celebration marking the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the 28th World Day of the Sick, which is a day instituted by Saint John Paul II in 1992 and celebrated for the first time in Lourdes on February 11, 1993. This coincidence indicates that as we mark the apparition of Blessed Mary, it is also a remainder that we need to pray seeking the Divine Mother’s care and healing of the sick, the suffering and the oppressed.
Peace-loving people worldwide are focusing their attention on the proposed papal visit to Iraq as the time of the trip approaches, namely on March 5-8.
With the deterioration of security situation in Iraq, hopes hinge on the importance of this visit viewing it as a means to resuscitate a Middle East that restores its beauty, unity, common living, and most of all its diversity.
The idea of an integral ecology, that sees “strong” connections between environmental and human suffering, is the “great and extraordinary reflection that Pope Francis hands on to the world” with the Encyclical Laudato Si’. The founder of Slow Food, creator of the international Terra Madre network and of the Laudato Si’ Communities (the latter with Bishop Domenico Pompili), observes how the time has arrived to overcome the paradigm of “profiting off of everything” to instead begin “to think about common and relational goods”.
January 18-25 is a week to always be marked with hope and nonstop prayers seeking divine intercession to attain the long-aspired wish, namely Christian unity.
It is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that is marked every year with strong devotion, solemn and sincere prayers to the Mother of the Church, Blessed Mary, and to Lord Jesus Christ seeking divine help to bring about the desired unity which is the hope of billions of Christians worldwide.
