Headlines for June 25, 2024

Ordered from most to least recent.

 Pope on AI: Welcome its benefits to humanity, but mitigate its risks
 Russian ambassador meets with Pope, praises his ‘balanced and invariably peaceful stance’
 Cardinal Fernández ordains 1st bishop of UK ordinariate
 Papal encouragement for Italy’s pro-life marchers
 Bishop Schneider argues against excommunication for Archbishop Vigano
 Strong Vatican emphasis on AI continues as dicastery announces conference
 Spain has more missionaries than any other nation
 Singapore’s president meets Pope Francis ahead of September visit
 Diocese of Rome concludes 1st step toward sainthood for young wife, mother

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1 <p><b>Thursday of the Second Week of Easter:</b> O God, who for the salvation of the world brought about the paschal sacrifice, be favorable to the supplications of your people, so that Christ our High Priest, interceding on our behalf, may by his likeness to ourselves bring us reconciliation, and by his equality with you free us from our sins. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.</p> 4 2026-04-16 00:00:00.0 <p>The <em>Roman Martyrology's</em> commemorations today include: <ul><li><b>St. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879).</b> Bernadette, the oldest of six children, was born in Lourdes, France, in 1844. At the age of 14, between 11 February 1858 and 16 July 1858, Bernadette had 18 visions of the Immaculate Conception in a local grotto near the bank of the River Gave, near Lourdes. During the visions, Mary requested prayer and penitence, asked for the construction of a new church, and led Bernadette to a freshwater spring believed to have miraculous healing powers. Despite strong doubt and even opposition from political and church officials, Bernadette's faith in what she had witnessed remained steadfast and humble. Saint Bernadette longed to become a Carmelite nun, but ill health prevented her from doing so. In 1866, she retreated from the public eye to the convent Notre Dame at Nevers where she remained until her death at the age of 35.</li> <li><b>St. Benedict Joseph Labre (1748-1783)</b>. Benedict who was called the "Beggar of Rome" and was a pilgrim recluse. He was born in Amettes, France, on March 25, 1748, the eldest of eighteen children. He was devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and attended Forty Hours devotion in the city. He died in Rome on April 16.</li> <li><b>St. Evodius (c. 69)</b> was one of the seventy-two disciples Christ, and Catholic tradition has always held that he was the first bishop of Antioch after St. Peter. As bishop of Antioch, he was the first to coin the word “Christian” to refer to the disciples of Jesus. He probably died between the years 64-67, when he was then succeeded by St. Ignatius of Antioch.</li> </ul> <hr/><p><b>Meditation for Thursday of the Second Week of Easter</b> <br/><b>Our Holy Faith</b> <br/>1. During the second week after Easter the liturgy lays great emphasis on the virtue of faith. "And this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. . . [in the fact] that Jesus is the Son of God" (Epistle). In the Gospel the Lord reproaches the apostle Thomas for his unbelief. Thomas, falling on his knees before the Lord, confesses, "My Lord and my God." Jesus replies, "Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed." The Communion prayer resumes the theme of the Gospel and calls out to us when we receive the Lord, "Put in thy hand and know the place of the nails, and be not faithless, but believing."</p> <p>2. As newborn babes, yet wise by reason of faith! In the measure in which we acquire a childlike spirit, our faith becomes proportionately stronger and more perfect. Christianity is founded on faith. Faith is the beginning of salvation and the basis of all Christian thought. All Christian reasoning, all Christian values, all Christian undertakings, all Christian life, spring from the virtue of faith. Faith includes more than the mere conviction that God, the Supreme Being, exists. Faith requires that we accept and conform our lives to all those things which God has commanded us to accept. We must accept all His commands on faith, simply because God has spoken. By faith we make an offering of our whole being to God and subject ourselves to Him in the spirit of sacrifice. We make a voluntary renunciation of our own understanding and accept all that God reveals, out of a deep veneration for His infallibility. It is indeed no small matter to consecrate oneself to God as a sacrifice, together with all one's thoughts and desires; yet we do this by our faith. We do even more. To believe in God means to make Him our highest and greatest goal, the goal upon which we center all our thought and actions, all of our strivings, our whole life. We make ourselves and our whole life completely dependent on Him, and strive with all the strength of our heart and mind to serve Him. To believe in God means that a man must give himself and all that he is over to God and serve Him with a service that can be rendered to God alone. Only he can believe in God in this manner who possesses the Christian faith; and he who possesses this faith must make God the center of all his thoughts and desires. He must subject himself to God, to His every word and command, to His inspirations and guidance. Do we have such a faith?</p> <p>"This is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith." But our faith in God has various degrees and stages of perfection. We should strive to attain to perfect faith, that "which overcometh the world." We have reached the first degree of faith when we live according to the maxims of the faith. "Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself" (Jas. 2:17). He who knows the will of his master, but fails to carry it out, he who has the name of the Lord on his lips, but dishonors Him by his deeds, is worthy of greater punishment than he who has learned nothing of the faith. "Not everyone that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of My Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 7:21).</p> <p>To be joyful and free in our faith is the second degree of faith. He who lives by faith as the child in the house of his father, as the free man in his home, feels nothing of the burden of faith which the slave finds so onerous. The realms of faith become for him a familiar region, and he moves about in the light of faith with a naturalness and ease which others would find difficult or impossible. Even the regulations of spirit and heart, which faith imposes, become familiar and do not become burdensome.</p> <p>To live by faith is the third and final stage in our growth in faith. Faith lives in us, and we live by faith. "In the head of the book it is written of me that I should do Thy will; O my God, I have desired it, and Thy law is in the midst of my hear' (Ps. 39:9). Those who live according to faith need make no laborious search to discover the will of God. Without compulsion and, as it were, by instinct they sense God's presence and recognize the hand of God in everything that befalls them, be it sweet or bitter, welcome or unwelcome. They have no need of artificial means for placing themselves in the presence of God. They feel themselves in the presence of God even when they are engaged in the most absorbing work, or when they are surrounded on all sides by men of the world. Their life both day and night, is a burning flame of love that consumes them in the service of God. Faith is no longer something exterior to them, but becomes the very soul of their life. It is this kind of faith that makes saints. Once we possess such faith, we readily overcome the world with its lusts and its self-love, and we allow ourselves no rest until we have complied with every law and every counsel which faith presents to us to arouse our love and our generosity.</p> <p>3. Because we live by faith and according to the rules of faith, the world attacks us who are Christians. The world cannot endure the spirit which inspires us as Christians, because our world is in the realm of faith. The knowledge of it is not "found in the land of them that live in delights" (Job 28:13). The more we are misunderstood and abused by the world, the more we ought to thank God, for persecution is a good indication that God has endowed us with His spirit.</p> <p>We must treasure and love the faith with which we were filled at the time of our baptism. We must not rest until it has pervaded our very flesh and blood, until we live by faith alone. <br/>—Benedict Baur, OSB, <em>The Light of the World</em></p> Thursday of the Second Week of Easter 0 According to the Roman Martyrology, today is the feast St. Evodius one of the seventy-two disciples Christ, and Catholic tradition has always held that he was the first bishop of Antioch after St. Peter. As bishop of Antioch, he was the first to coin the word “Christian” to refer to the disciples of Jesus. He probably died between the years 64-67, when he was then succeeded by St. Ignatius of Antioch. Moved from May 6 <p><b>Mass Propers for Thursday of the Second Week of Easter:</b></p> <p><b>Entrance Antiphon, Cr. Ps 68 (67):8-9, 20:</b> O God, when you went forth before your people, marching with them and living among them, the earth trembled, heavens poured down rain, alleluia.</p> <p><b>Alleluia Verse, Jn 20:29:</b> You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord; blessed are those who have not seen, but still believe! </p> <p><b>Preface III of Easter:</b> It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, at all times to acclaim you, O Lord, but in this time above all to laud you yet more gloriously, when Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.</p> <p>He never ceases to offer himself for us but defends us and ever pleads our cause before you: he is the sacrificial Victim who dies no more, the Lamb, once slain, who lives for ever.</p> <p>Therefore, overcome with paschal joy, every land, every people exults in your praise and even the heavenly Powers, with the angelic hosts, sing together the unending hymn of your glory, as they acclaim:</p> <p><b>Communion Antiphon, Mt 28:20:</b> Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, alleluia.</p> 2 gold 6 Easter [empty string] 2028
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