The Year of Faith Ends: A Theological Reflection

I wanted to share the lovely reflection that Father John, the pastor of St. John the Evangelist, offered at the November luncheon for the Ave Maria Founders Club:

(The introduction video is at a normal volume level, but unfortunately, I recorded the video from my seat rather than sitting close to a speaker. For better listening, you may want to use headphones during the actual talk for better listening...)

I love being Catholic in Naples!

Evangelii Gaudium: Prayer of Pope Francis to the Mother of the living Gospel

This beautiful prayer is at the conclusion of the exhortation:

Mary,

Virgin and Mother,

you who, moved by the Holy Spirit,

welcomed the word of life in the depths

of your humble faith:

as you gave yourself completely to the Eternal One,

help us to say our own “yes”

to the urgent call, as pressing as ever,

to proclaim the good news of Jesus.

Filled with Christ’s presence,

you brought joy to John the Baptist,

making him exult in the womb of his mother.

Brimming over with joy,

you sang of the great things done by God.

Standing at the foot of the cross with unyielding faith,

you received the joyful comfort of the resurrection,

and joined the disciples in awaiting the Spirit

so that the evangelizing Church might be born.

Obtain for us now a new ardour born of the resurrection,

that we may bring to all the Gospel of life

which triumphs over death.

Give us a holy courage to seek new paths,

that the gift of unfading beauty

may reach every man and woman.

Virgin of listening and contemplation,

Mother of love, Bride of the eternal wedding feast,

pray for the Church, whose pure icon you are,

that she may never be closed in on herself

or lose her passion for establishing God’s kingdom.

Star of the new evangelisation,

help us to bear radiant witness to communion,

service, ardent and generous faith,

justice and love of the poor,

that the joy of the Gospel

may reach to the ends of the earth,

illuminating even the fringes of our world.

Mother of the living Gospel,

wellspring of happiness for God’s little ones,

pray for us.

Amen. Alleluia!

~ Prayer of Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, Nov 2013

Evangelii Gaudium: Decalogue for the New Evangelization

The new Apostolic Exhortation from St. Francis had an interesting feature that I discovered quite by accident.  There are ten yes/no statements in the headings of the table of contents.  So, of course I just had to make a graphic!

There also was a nice word cloud from the exhortation 

"Evangelii Gaudium - Joy of the Gospel"

Lest We Forget: memorial to veterans

Well, several weeks late, but I finally finished putting together some of the video and pictures from events here in Naples, FL.

Here are some video highlights from the statue dedication: 

My favorite of the shots of the statue that I took: