Maria, ster van de evangelisatie

It was in a packed St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday that Pope Benedict XVI declared that the year 2012 to 2013 was to be a”Year of Faith”. The Holy Father made the announcement during his homily at a mass for the New Evangelisation. The Eucharistic celebration marked the conclusion of a meeting organised by Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation, which the Pope addressed on Saturday.

Speaking about his decision to invoke this “Year of Faith” Pope Benedict said it was "to give new impetus to the mission of the whole Church to lead men out of the desert in which they often find themselves, to the place of life, of friendship with Christ".

VATICAN CITY, 15 SEP 2011 (VIS) - Today in Castelgandolfo the Holy Father received a group of newly consecrated bishops who are currently participating in a meeting organised by the Congregation for Bishops. For the last ten years the congregation has been inviting new bishops to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter in order to reflect on the main responsibilities of episcopal ministry.

"You are invited", the Pope told the group "to renew your profession of faith and your trusting adherence to Jesus Christ over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, showing the same impulse of love as Peter himself and strengthening your ties of communion with his Successor and with your brother bishops".

In this context Benedict XVI explained that "the bishop ... is not alone, he is part of that 'corpus episcoporum' which, joining us to Christ, has been handed down from the Apostles' time to our own". He encouraged the prelates to live every day in episcopal fraternity, working in communion with the Pope and their brother bishops, while "seeking to cultivate friendship with them and with your priests".

Pope Benedict XVI on Pentecost Sunday entrusted the cause of peace in the world to the intercession of those who gave their lives for Christ in concentration camps. The Holy Father was speaking to the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square this Sunday morning, the feast of Pentecost, after the recitation of the Regina Caeli from the window of his study. The Pope especially recalled the witness borne by the young priest and martyr Alois Andritzki, who was killed by the Nazis in 1943 in the Dachau concentration camp, and who is to be declared Blessed Monday in Dresden, Germany.

We all like spectacular fireworks. They are exciting, impressive, exhilarating.

The Church's first Pentecost had some spectacular fireworks.

The Apostles and other Christians were gathered "in one place together". 

• We don't know exactly where.
• Probably it was somewhere inside or near the Temple in Jerusalem, since right after the fireworks, crowds started to gather.
• It may have been the same large room where Jesus and the Apostles had eaten the Last Supper.
• We are not certain.

So they were all in one place, and then a thunderous noise like a strong wind, like a tornado, came from the sky.

• And then flames appeared. Flames of fire just appeared out of nowhere, spontaneously, hovering in the air.
• And these flames divided up and started floating through the air until they came to rest on each of the people gathered.

But the fireworks didn't stop there. 

• All of a sudden the Christians started speaking in languages that they didn't know.
• A crowd had gathered by now, with visitors from all over the world who were in Jerusalem for the festival.
• Each one heard the Christians explaining the gospel in their own language.

It was a dramatic, spectacular display.

But we would be wrong to conclude from this that the Holy Spirit's normal way of acting in our life is through dramatic fireworks.

• In fact, it's just the opposite.
• God's action in our life is most often gentle and hardly perceptible at first.
• How does Jesus send the Spirit to his Apostles after his resurrection? He breathes on them - quietly and subtly.
• How does St Paul describe the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church? Like the soul of a body - powerful, essential, but invisible and subtle.

The Holy Spirit works quietly.