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(Vatican Radio) Have you ever read anything Saint Thérèse of Lisieux wrote? If you have or even if you haven’t be sure to listen to this programme focusing on the writings of this Doctor of the Church to mark the day the Church remembers her on October 1st.

Saint Thérèse was a Carmelite nun who died of tubercolosis in 1897 at the age of 24. Pope Pius XI who canonised her declared that the life she lived in Carmel did not go beyond the common order of things. However she sublimated that life to such an extent that she was proposed by four popes in succession as an example to follow.

She left us her autobiography, by the title: ” The Story of a Soul” . It became a best seller and is considered one of the greatest books of spirituality ever written.

In this programme written and presented by Jill Bevilacqua and produced by Sean Patrick Lovett we bring you a selection of readings from this book.

For a PDF download from Discerning Hearts of  St. Therese’s “The Story of a Soul“…click here

(Vatican Radio)
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How does God measure success? What is a good measure of success? How do we know what tasks God wants us to fulfill? Is it wrong to be rich?
These are just some of the questions sent in by listeners that our very own official from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Msgr. John Kennedy , answers in this week’s episode of Questions of Faith, as he helps us to navigate the modern world and rediscover what we believe and why we believe. 

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(Vatican Radio)

Did you know that Jesus means God saves and Christ means the anointed one? And did you know that during the sacrament of Confirmation we too are anointed like Christ to be his witness in the world? Do you know why we choose ‘new’ names for our confirmation? Or why we have to be ‘confirmed in our faith’? And if Confirmation is the last sacrament in the rite of Christian initiation, can you name the other two? In short, what is the point of the sacrament of confirmation?

These are just some of the questions sent in by listeners that our very own official from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Msgr. John Kennedy , answers in this week’s episode of Questions of Faith, as he helps us to navigate the modern world and rediscover what we believe and why we believe.

So if you have any questions, big or small, why not ask the official? You can do this by submitting them to Vatican Radio’s – English Section Facebook page as a post or private message and tuning in each week to find out the answers to your Questions of Faith.

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/04/17/questions_of_faith:_the_point_of_confirmation/en1-683824
of the Vatican Radio website

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From Vatican Radio:

The 265th Successor of Peter has taken the name Francis. He hasn’t yet told us why but one presumes it’s after Saint Francis who was born in Assisi, an Umbrian hilltop town in 1181.

Saint Francis is “the one saint whom all generations have succeeded in canonising” and is probably the best known saint in the whole calendar.

The 19th century French Protestant writer Ernest Renan , declared that ” after Jesus, he was the only perfect Christian . Blessed ” Pope Pius IX , in an encyclical celebrating the 7th centenary of the death of Saint Francis said the same.

“Whether or not Francis was the one and only perfect Christian ” comments biographer Abbé Englebert, “he was certainly the only Christian to take Christ quite literally at his word. Noone else has ever dared to do so .”

Perhaps Thomas Merton comes closest to the truth when he says: ” merely to know Saint Francis is to understand the Gospel in all its fullnes.”

What we know is that Francis was praying one day in the little ruined chapel of San Damiano. Suddenly the figure of Christ on the Crucifix called out to him…”Francis, go and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.”…..

(Vatican Radio)

In part three of our series answering listener’s questions of faith, Monsignor John Kennedy, an official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, answers a question from a listener in Korea who has asked how often we should go to Confession. In this weeks episode, Monsignor Kennedy brings us on a journey of rediscovery of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

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(Vatican Radio)

In part two of our series answering listeners questions of faith, Monsignor John Kennedy, an official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, answers a question from the USA on the pace we should apply to reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church; from the UK on why we are baptised as infants and not later on in life; and reveals a little known fact regarding who can minister the Sacrament of Baptism

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This is a FANTASTIC summation of the lives of Peter and Paul in the life of the early Church by Vatican Radio…don’t miss it!

 

From Vatican Radio:

Why Peter and Paul ?

Wherever you go in Rome you always see Saint Peter and Saint Paul linked together.

Their feast day too is celebrated on the same day . Shouldn’t they each have their own feast day?

The irony is that they fought mightily in their lifetime and not just about trivial things but about matters that went to the very heart of what Christianity is all about.

Listen to Scripture scholar Mark Benedict Coleridge , Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn:[powerpress = “Vatican-Radio”]

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from Vatican Radio:

Did you know that the Feast of Corpus Christi was established during Saint Thomas’s lifetime? And that he probably wrote many of the prayers we use in the liturgy on this feast as well as some fine hymns in honour of the Blessed Sacrament.

But what is the connection with the pelican biting its breast , releasing drops of blood, to feed the young?

A programme presented by Monsignor Philip Whitmore and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick.

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From Vatican Radio:

While the rest of the world was seething with the war and its evils in a lonely corner of Europe 1917 three young children had a vision of Our Lady.That apparition sparked off the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, an inspiration for millions to work and pray for peace.

Since that time not only have millions prayed the Rosary and done penance but have made the pilgrimage to Fatima.

Among these Blessed John Paul II who shortly after his visit there during the Jubilee Year, in the presence of the statue representing Our Lady of Fatima entrusted the third millennium to her immaculate heart.

Monsignor Philip Whitmore brings us the hymn the crowds sang on that occasion. One which tells the story of those three young shepherd children….

A programme produced by Veronica Scarisbrick.

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Once again we thank the fine folks at Vatican Radio and the intrepid Veronica Scarisbrick for this thoughtful reflection:

It was the 18th of November 1965 and in Saint Peter’s Basilica the Second Vatican Council was drawing to a close when during its penultimate session Pope Paul VI promulgated the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation.

At the time of this ground breaking Council, a young Patrick Kelly now Archbishop of Liverpool was present in Saint Peter’s Basilica witnessing on many an occasion the discussions of the Council Fathers. He shared with Veronica Scarisbrick his memories of that epoch and in a special way of that document on Revelation, gone down in history with the Latin title of ‘Dei Verbum’

Fifty years on from the beginning of that Council back on the 11^th of October 1962 , among the events to mark this anniversary is a conference taking place here in Rome on April 26th sponsored by the Pontifical Lateran University and focusing on this same ‘Dei Verbum’ document.
The man to chair this meeting is the Dean of the Faculty of Church History and Fine Arts of the Church at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Jesuit Professor Norman Tanner.

In an effort to find out more about ‘Dei Verbum’ Veronica Scarisbrick went round to call on him at the University there and began by asking him how important this document was at the time it was drawn up.

While acknowledging its central role Father Tanner also places it in the broader context of the Council documents and then goes on to highlight the relevance of this document today.

 

[powerpress]Vatican Radio:

In churches and piazzas and in homes all across Italy, nativity scenes or presepe as they’re called here have been set up to recall the humble birth of the Saviour in Bethlehem.

Naples has for centuries been one of the capitals of nativity scene-making here in Italy, with craftsmen creating elaborate figures, animals and entire villages out of clay and paper mache’. Pictures and paintings of the Nativity have been around since the very first Christians used them to record Christ’s birth. But the tradition of making a three dimensional presepe or creche dates back to the time of St. Francis of Assisi who is credited with making the first live nativity scene on a hillside in Umbria, Italy around the year 1220.

Tracey McClure sat down with Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University, for a fireside chat about the origins of nativity scenes and where some of the most interesting can be found here in Rome.

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 Pope Benedict XVI heard the second in a series of sermons dedicated to the theme of the New Evangelization. After singing the ancient Advent hymn, Rorate coeli, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa delivered a 5-part discourse centered on the history of the Church’s preaching of the Gospel, beginning with the great re-thinking of the relationship between the pilgrim Church on Earth to the secular authority accomplished by St Augustine of Hippo, and leading through the great periods of evangelization – and in some cases re-evangelization – of the peoples of Europe in the wake of the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, before turning to the magnificent renewal of learning and missionary zeal – concentrating on the creation and development of monasticism, which itself ran through the dark centuries after the fall of the West and made possible the magnificent achievements of the High Middle Ages.

Then, Fr. Cantalamessa turned to the present, reflecting on the relationship between Mission and Contemplation, saying, “It is not enough that there be in the Church those who dedicate themselves to contemplation and those who dedicate themselves to mission: there must rather be a synthesis of the two things in the very life of every missionary.”

Fr. Cantalamessa concluded his reflections on a Marian note, saying,

“Mary is the Star of Evangelization, for she brought the Word, not to this or that people, but to the whole world,”

and noting that she did so by carrying the Word in her womb – not in her mouth or on her lips. “She was filled,” he said, “even physically, with Christ – and she radiated Him with her very presence

Leave it to the intrepid Veronica Scarisbrick to find St. Andrew (I love the girls at Vatican Radio…they ROCK)

 

 

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From Vatican Radio

Have you ever wondered which of the Figures in the Last Judgement fresco in the Sistine Chapel is Saint Andrew ?

Veronica Scarisbrick shares with you a comment focusing in a special way on this central figure in Michelangelo’s masterpiece, given he’s been placed close the figure of Christ the Judge.

That’s with Professor of Fine Arts, Breda Ennis of the American University of Rome who shares with us her expertise in the field of sacred art.

 

He’s Monsignor Timothy Verdon, Professor of Sacred Art at the Theological University of Central Italy who explains to Veronica Scarisbrick how we can preach the word of God through sacred art .

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In an effort to mark a year since the concluding document from the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the ‘The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church’ was published here in the Vatican . A document referred to as a post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation in a deliberate reference of the key Vatican II documents ‘Dei Verbum’ which sheds light on the past 40 years or so of theological , pastoral and practical reflection on the centrality of the Scriptures in the life, the liturgy and the witness of all Christian Churches we join one of the relators at this Synod . – Vatican Radio

During his Angelus on Tuesday, Pope Benedict said “the Feast of All Saints is a good time to lift our gaze from the realities of the world… to the enormity of God, who encompasses all eternity and holiness. “

He said holiness is the vocation of all the baptized, and all the people of God are called to be saints.

The Pope then turned his thoughts to Wednesday’s commemoration of All Souls

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“From the early days of the Christian faith,” he said, “the Church on earth, recognizing the communion of the whole mystical body of Jesus Christ, has with great respect honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers for them.”

The Pope said “our prayers for the dead are not only useful, but necessary.”

The Holy Father reminded the faithful to keep the bonds of affection with our loved ones who have died, not only through prayer, but also through actions like visiting cemeteries.

He said this reminds us all that we are meant for another life after death.

see more on the website for Vatican Radio