© Vatican Media
Pope Francis at Santa Marta: It’s a Beautiful Opportunity for Families to Creatively Rediscover Affection – Prays for Families ‘All Cooped Up’ During Quarantine
Pope Francis again today offered his private daily Mass at his residence Casa Santa Marta for the victims of Coronavirus, praying today especially for families during this time of quarantine.
The Masses in Francis’ chapel normally welcome a small group of faithful, but due to recent measures’ taken by the Vatican, are now being kept private, without their participation.
It was announced in recent days that the Pope would have these Masses, in this period, be available to all the world’s faithful, via streaming on Vatican Media, on weekdays, at 7 am Rome time.
This comes at a time too when the Italian bishops’ conference has canceled public Masses throughout the nation, until at least April 3rd, following guidelines put out by Italian authorities. The entire country is on lockdown.
Again during today’s Mass, the Holy Father expressed his closeness to those suffering, the elderly, and all those working to contain and cure the virus.
In his homily, the Holy Father commented on today’s readings from the Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:1-15 and Luke’s Gospel (Luke4: 24-30), reported Vatican News.
“I am thinking of families who are cooped up,” the Holy Father began his homily saying.
While lamenting the seriousness of the virus, Francis looked on the bright side: “It’s a beautiful opportunity to creatively rediscover affection.”
“May the Lord,” he prayed,” help them to discover new ways, new expressions of love, of living together in this new situation.”
He invited faithful watching him via streaming to join him in praying “for families so that the relationships within the family at this moment might flourish always for the good.”
In addition to Santa Marta, the Vatican is taking other steps to discourage crowds and keep people safe. They are televising the Pope giving privately, from the papal library, his weekly Angelus and General Audience addresses.
Moreover, the Vatican Museums are now closed, along with the Vatican’s other similar museums. There have also been various guidelines implemented throughout the Vatican, to prevent the spread of the virus.
To date, one person, an external visitor, has been tested positive for Coronavirus in the Vatican. The five people the individual had contact with, are being quarantined.
For anyone interested, the Pope’s Masses at Santa Marta can be watched live and can be watched afterward on Vatican YouTube. Below is a link to today’s Mass. Also, a ZENIT English translation of the Pope’s full homily can be read below:
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FULL HOMILY
In the both texts that the Liturgy has us meditate on today there is an attitude that draws our attention, a human attitude, but not of a good spirit: anger. The people of Nazareth began to listen to Jesus, they liked the way He spoke, but then someone said: “But in what University has He studied? He is the son of Mary and Joseph; He’s been a carpenter! What is He coming to say to us?” And the people scorned Him. They became indignant (Cf. Luke 4:28). And this anger led them to violence. And that Jesus they admired at the beginning of the preaching, they chased out to throw down from the hill (Cf. v. 29).
Also Naaman — Naaman was a good man, open to faith –, but when the prophet sent him to bathe seven times in the Jordan, he was angry. But why? “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage” (2 Kings 5:11-12) — with anger.
Also in Nazareth there were good people. However, what was behind these good people that lead them to this attitude of anger? And worse at Nazareth: to violence. Both the people of the Synagogue as well as Naaman thought that God manifested Himself only in the extraordinary, in things outside of the common; that God couldn’t act in the common things of life, in simplicity. They disdained the simple. They disdained; they scorned simple things. And our God makes us understand that He always acts in simplicity: in simplicity, in the house of Nazareth, in the simplicity of every day work, in the simplicity of prayer . . . simple things. Instead, the worldly spirit leads us to vanity, to appearances . . . and both end up in violence. Naaman was very educated, but he slams the door in the prophet’s face and goes away. Violence, it was a gesture of violence. The people of the Synagogue begin to get angry, to get angry and they take the decision to kill Jesus, but unconsciously, and they chase Him out to throw Him down. Anger is an awful temptation and leads to violence.
A few days ago, they made me see on a mobile phone the film of the door of a building that was in quarantine. There was a person, a young man who wanted to go out. And the guard told him he couldn’t. And he punched him, with anger, with scorn. “But who are you, ‘negro,’ to impede me from going out?” Anger is the attitude of the proud, but of the proud . . . with a terrible poverty of spirit, proud people that live only with the illusion of being more than they are. The people that get angry are a “spiritual class”: in fact, often these people need to get angry, to be indignant, to feel themselves a person.
This can also happen to us: the “Pharisaic scandal,” theologians call it, namely, to scandalize me with things that are God’s simplicity; the simplicity of the poor, the simplicity of Christians, as if to say: “But this isn’t God. No, no. Our God is more cultured; He is wiser, He is more important. God can’t act in this simplicity.” And anger always leads one to violence, either to physical violence or to the violence of gossip, which kills as does the physical.
Let us think of these two passages: the anger of the people in the Synagogue of Nazareth and Naaman’s anger, because they didn’t understand the simplicity of our God.
[ZENIT translation of Pope Francis’ full homily at Santa Marta]
Read the source: https://zenit.org/articles/pope-at-santa-marta-its-a-beautiful-opportunity-for-families-to-creatively-rediscover-affection-full-text/
Santa Maria Maggiore – © Vatican Media
Pope Visits Rome Churches to Pray for End to Coronavirus
Icon of Maria Salus Populi Romani at Basilica of St. Mary Major at Foot of a Wooden Crucifix that Protected Rome from a Great Plague
Pope Francis spent his afternoon on the Third Sunday of Lent seeking to underline his closeness to those who suffer by imploring the special protection of Our Lady, reported Vatican News. He engaged in two intense moments of prayer: one before the ancient icon of Maria Salus Populi Romani at the Basilica of St. Mary Major and the other at the foot of a wooden crucifix that protected Rome from a great plague.
The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, announced the Pope’s visits in a communique on Sunday.
“This afternoon, just after 4 PM, Pope Francis left the Vatican and made a private visit to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, to offer a prayer to the Virgin Mary, Salus Populi Romani, where her icon is kept and venerated. Then, after taking a walk along the Via del Corso – as if making a pilgrimage – he visited the church of San Marcello on the Corso, where a miraculous crucifix is housed. In 1522 it was carried in procession throughout the neighborhoods of the city so that the “Great Plague” might cease in Rome. With his prayer, the Holy Father pleaded for an end to the pandemic that has struck Italy and the world. He also implored the healing of the many sick people, remembered the numerous victims of these past days, and asked that their families and friends might find consolation and comfort. His prayer intention was also extended to healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, and all those working in these days to guarantee the smooth functioning of society. The Holy Father returned to the Vatican around 5:30 PM.”
Pope Francis’ special devotion to Our Lady Salus Populi Romani is well-known. He visits her icon on major Marian feast days and makes a point to stop in for prayer both before and after his international Apostolic Journeys.
In 593 Pope St. Gregory the Great carried the icon in procession to stop a plague. And in 1837 Pope Gregory XVI invoked her to put an end to a cholera epidemic.
The Pope’s second stop on Sunday was also significant, considering the critical moment the world is going through.
The church of San Marcello on the Corso houses a venerated wooden crucifix from the 15th century, which scholars hold is the most realistic in Rome. It even survived a fire and saved the city from a plague. Pope St. John Paul II embraced that same crucifix to mark the culmination of the Day of Forgiveness during the Jubilee Year of 2000.
The numerous traditions of miracles attributed to the “Most Holy Crucifix” began on May 23, 1519.
On that night a large fire completely destroyed the church that bears Pope Marcel’s name. The entire building was found in ruins the next morning. But from the ashes emerged the crucifix of the main altar, untouched. A small oil lamp still burned at the Crucified’s feet.
The scene greatly touched the faithful of Rome, and several began to meet every Friday evening to pray. Pope Leo X ordered the rebuilding of the church in 1519.
Three years after the fire, Rome was hit by the “Great Plague”.
The faithful carried the crucifix in procession – despite the bans understandably put in place by the authorities to halt the spread of the contagion. The crucifix was carried through the streets of Rome toward St. Peter’s Basilica. The procession lasted 16 days: from August 4-20, 1522. As it progressed, the plague showed signs of retreating, and every neighborhood sought to keep the crucifix as long as possible.
Finally, as the crucifix reentered the church, the plague ceased altogether.
Since 1600, the procession from the church of San Marcello to St. Peter’s Basilica became a tradition repeated during Holy Years. The names of the Popes who called each Jubilee are inscribed on the back of the crucifix, along with the year.
Read the source: https://zenit.org/articles/pope-visits-rome-sites-to-pray-for-end-to-coronavirus/
Coronavirus: Pope prays for families to rediscover affection that unites them
March 16,2020
Before celebrating Mass at Casa Santa Marta, the pope asked to pray for the sick, but also for families staying at home.
POPE FRANCIS
“May the Lord help families to discover new ways, new expressions of love, of living together in this new situation. It’s a beautiful opportunity to rediscover affection, with creativity, in the family. Let us pray for families, so that the relationships within the family at this moment might flourish always for the good.”
Many countries are seeing an increase in initiatives to help those who can’t leave their homes.
These go from digital assistance to facilitate working from home, to video conferences and free lectures.
Pope Francis: God acts in ordinary things, in simplicity
March 16,2020
During his homily at today’s Mass at Casa Santa Marta, the pope warned against an attitude of indignation.
He recalled that many who listened to Jesus were indignant, because He was just the son of a carpenter. This was like the biblical character, Naaman, who became indignant when the prophet Elisha suggested he bathe in the Jordan to cure himself of leprosy.
POPE FRANCIS
“Both the people at the synagogue in Nazareth and Naaman thought God manifested Himself only through the extraordinary, through things that are out of the ordinary. [They thought] God couldn’t act through the commonalities of life, in simplicity.”
Pope Francis said indignation always leads to violence. This could be physical violence, or the violence of speaking badly of others.