We are the People of God, trying to practice and to live the words of our tradition, with the guidance of our magisterium (that is, our church teaching down through the ages) in our faith communities. Catholics understand the universal Church as the communion of local churches, spread throughout the world. This communion is symbolized and brought about through the celebration of the Eucharist.
Pope Francis celebrated a Mass in Sweden on On All Saints Day 2016, and shared his thoughts about new beatitudes we should add to the ones Jesus gave us on the Sermon on the Mount. He stated that new situations require new energy and a new commitment for modern Christians:
Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others and forgive them from their heart.
Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized and show them their closeness.
Blessed are those who see God in every person and strive to make others also discover him.
Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.
Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.
Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.
All these are messengers of God's mercy and tenderness, Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis celebrated a Mass in Sweden on On All Saints Day 2016, and shared his thoughts about new beatitudes we should add to the ones Jesus gave us on the Sermon on the Mount. He stated that new situations require new energy and a new commitment for modern Christians:
Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others and forgive them from their heart.
Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized and show them their closeness.
Blessed are those who see God in every person and strive to make others also discover him.
Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.
Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.
Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.
All these are messengers of God's mercy and tenderness, Pope Francis said.
Lumen Gentium (LG) |
Gaudium et Spes (GS) |
Evangelii Gaudium (EG) |
In 1964 Pope Paul VI promulgated Lumen Gentium (LG) as part of the Vatican II Council. In the first section of LG paragraph 8 it states:
“Christ was sent by the Father ‘to bring good news to the poor, to heal the contrite of heart’,‘to seek and to save what was lost.’ Similarly, the Church encompasses with love all who are afflicted with human suffering and in the poor and afflicted sees the image of its poor and suffering Founder. It does all it can to relieve their need and in them it strives to serve Christ.”[36] The biblical reference that accompanies Lumen Gentium sums the first part of section 31 well: If the root is holy, then the branches are too(Romans 11:16). As followers of Jesus we are rooted with Christ, and we are all interrelated and tangled up branches. Lumen Gentium IV, 31 calls to us to fulfill our baptismal promise to serve and states: "These faithful (the Laity) are by Baptism made one body with Christ and are constituted among the People of God; they are in their own way, made sharers in the priestly, prophetical and kingly functions of Christ, and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world." Read the full document |
Gaudium et Spes (GS) was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1965 as the final document promulgated by the bishops who attended the Second Vatican Council. GS is a much broader document than LG and discusses the Catholic Church's teachings in relationship to the changing world around the Church. One of the famous phrases from GS is to examine the “signs of the times” in relation to the Church, a phrase that recognizes that the Church has to take in and respond to the modern world around us, along with all the challenges it brings.
The modern world we live in today does not have enough clergy to perform the same duties that they used to in schools, hospitals, churches and in the broader community. Today our Church leadership from Vatican II to Pope Francis reflects the scripture messages that urge us to be active people of faith in our communities, and be the caregivers who keep our spiritual connections alive. Read the full document |
Section five of Evangelii Gaudium is entitled “A Mother with an Open Heart,” which is how Pope Francis envisions how our Church can operate in the world today. He calls for the doors of the Church to always be wide open, so all can be part of the community. He notes that the Eucharist is a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak, and above all we need to go nourish the poor and the sick first.[37]
Read the full document |
In January 1973 the instruction Immense Caritas was issued by Pope Paul VI that gave permission for designated lay men and women to distribute communion as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. The US Catholic Bishops (through the publications reviewed in the Rites section) identify when laypeople may conduct liturgies, including when they can bring Holy Communion to the sick and infirm. Go to Liturgical Rites
NOTE: All scripture quotations are from the Catholic Study Bible Second Edition New American Bible Edited by Donald Senior and John J. Collins.
© Copyright Sharon Dobbs 2016