Rediscover "EVANGELII NUNTIANDI: APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION OF HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI, ordained May 29, 1920 as we also reflect on "MARY MOTHER OF THE CHURCH" [EXCERPTS in ENGLISH & PORTUGUESE]
Revisit this message addressed "TO THE EPISCOPATE, TO THE CLERGY AND TO ALL THE FAITHFUL OF THE ENTIRE WORLD" (solenidade da Imaculada Conceição da Bem-aventurada Virgem Maria, do ano de 1975)
ETERNAL WISDOM
“The Rosary is a long chain that links Heaven and earth. One end of it is in our hands and the other end is in the hands of the Holy Virgin…the Rosary prayer rises like incense to the feet of the Almighty.”
~ St. Therese
“Dear brothers and sisters, our heart is like a magnet: it lets itself be attracted by love, but it can cling to one master only and it must choose: either it will love God or it will love the world’s treasure (cf. Mt 6:24); either it will live for love or it will live for itself (cf. Mk 8:35). Let us ask ourselves where we are in our story of love with God. Do we content ourselves with a few commandments or do we follow Jesus as lovers, really prepared to leave behind something for him?” (Pope Francis, Canonization Homily for St. Pope Paul VI).1
ETERNAL WISDOM: ST. POPE PAUL VI2, INTRO TO EVANGELII NUNTIANDI3
ABOUT EVANGELII NUNTIANDI: On June 22, 1973, we said to the Sacred College of Cardinals:
"The conditions of the society in which we live oblige all of us therefore to revise methods, to seek by every means to study how we can bring the Christian message to modern man. For it is only in the Christian message that modern man can find the answer to his questions and the energy for his commitment of human solidarity."[7]And we added that in order to give a valid answer to the demands of the Council which call for our attention, it is absolutely necessary for us to take into account a heritage of faith that the Church has the duty of preserving in its untouchable purity, and of presenting it to the people of our time, in a way that is as understandable and persuasive as possible.4
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, December 8, 1975, the thirteenth year of our Pontificate.
Tema muitas vezes realçado no decorrer do nosso pontificado
Quanto a este tema da evangelização, nós tivemos oportunidade, em diversas ocasiões, de realçar a sua importância, muito antes das jornadas do Sínodo.
"As condições da sociedade, tivemos ocasião de dizer ao Sacro Colégio dos Cardeais, a 22 de junho de 1973, obrigam-nos a todos a rever os métodos, a procurar, por todos os meios ao alcance, e a estudar o modo de fazer chegar ao homem moderno a mensagem cristã, na qual somente ele poderá encontrar a resposta às suas interrogações e a força para a sua aplicação de solidariedade humana". (7)E acrescentávamos na mesma altura que, para dar uma resposta válida às exigências do Concílio que nos interpelam, é absolutamente indispensável colocar-nos bem diante dos olhos um patrimônio de fé que a Igreja tem o dever de preservar na sua pureza intangível, ao mesmo tempo que o dever também de o apresentar aos homens do nosso tempo, tanto quanto isso é possível, de uma maneira compreensível e persuasiva.ONLINE LINK: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/pt/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangelii-nuntiandi.html
Dado em Roma, junto de São Pedro, no dia 8 de dezembro, solenidade da Imaculada Conceição da Bem-aventurada Virgem Maria, do ano de 1975, décimo terceiro do nosso pontificado.
THE ROSARY HOUR PODCAST NEWSLETTER [29 May 2023]
Memorial - St. Paul VI5 & MARY MOTHER OF THE CHURCH
Re-post contains excerpts from
“EVANGELII NUNTIANDI” from the APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION OF HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VIEXCERPTS below appear in ENGLISH & PORTUGUESE
Article on Mary Mother of the Church in footnote #6.6
EXCERPT: #1: MISSION OF EVANGELIZING? Missão de evangelizar?
But who then has the mission of evangelizing?
The Second Vatican Council gave a clear reply to this question: it is upon the Church that "there rests, by divine mandate, the duty of going out into the whole world and preaching the gospel to every creature." [82] And in another text: "...the whole Church is missionary, and the work of evangelization is a basic duty of the People of God." [83]
A Igreja toda missionária:
Mas, então quem é que tem a missão de evangelizar?
O Concílio Ecumênico Vaticano II respondeu claramente a esta pergunta: "Por mandato divino, incumbe à Igreja o dever de ir por todo o mundo e pregar o Evangelho a toda a criatura", (82) E noutro texto o mesmo Concílio diz ainda: "Toda a Igreja é missionária, a obra da evangelização é um dever fundamental do povo de Deus". [83]
EXCERPT #2: The Church and evangelization | Igreja e a evangelização
We have already mentioned this intimate connection between the Church and evangelization. While the Church is proclaiming the kingdom of God and building it up, she is establishing herself in the midst of the world as the sign and instrument of this kingdom which is and which is to come. The Council repeats the following expression of St. Augustine on the missionary activity of the Twelve: "They preached the word of truth and brought forth Churches."[84]
Já recordamos esta ligação íntima entre a Igreja e a evangelização. Quando a Igreja anuncia o reino de Deus e o edifica, insere-se a si própria no âmago do mundo, como sinal e instrumento desse reino que já é e que já vem. O mesmo Concílio referiu com justeza, as palavras bem significativas de Santo Agostinho, sobre a ação missionária dos doze: "pregaram a palavra da verdade e geraram as Igrejas".(84)
EXCERPT #3: Profundamente eclesial | Deeply Ecclesial
60. O fato de a Igreja ser enviada e mandada para a evangelização do mundo, é uma observação que deveria despertar em nós uma dupla convicção.
A primeira é a seguinte: evangelizar não é para quem quer que seja um ato individual e isolado, mas profundamente eclesial. Assim, quando o mais obscuro dos pregadores, dos catequistas ou dos pastores, no rincão mais remoto, prega o Evangelho, reúne a sua pequena comunidade, ou administra um sacramento, mesmo sozinho, ele perfaz um ato de Igreja e o seu gesto está certamente conexo, por relações institucionais, como também por vínculos invisíveis e por raízes recônditas da ordem da graça, à atividade evangelizadora de toda a Igreja. Isto pressupõe, porém, que ele age, não por uma missão pessoal que se atribuísse a si próprio, ou por uma inspiração pessoal, mas em união com a missão da Igreja e em nome da mesma.
Donde, a segunda convicção: se cada um evangeliza em nome da Igreja, o que ela mesma faz em virtude de um mandato do Senhor, nenhum evangelizador é o senhor absoluto da sua ação evangelizadora, dotado de um poder discricionário para realizar segundo critérios e perspectivas individualistas tal obra, mas em comunhão com a Igreja e com os seus Pastores.
A Igreja é ela toda inteiramente evangelizadora, como frisamos acima. Ora isso quer dizer que, para com o conjunto do mundo e para com cada parcela do mundo onde ela se encontra, a Igreja se sente responsável pela missão de difundir o Evangelho.
ENGLISH:
60. The observation that the Church has been sent out and given a mandate to evangelize the world should awaken in us two convictions.
The first is this: evangelization is for no one an individual and isolated act; it is one that is deeply ecclesial. When the most obscure preacher, catechist or pastor in the most distant land preaches the Gospel, gathers his little community together or administers a sacrament, even alone, he is carrying out an ecclesial act, and his action is certainly attached to the evangelizing activity of the whole Church by institutional relationships, but also by profound invisible links in the order of grace. This presupposes that he acts not in virtue of a mission which he attributes to himself or by a personal inspiration, but in union with the mission of the Church and in her name.
From this flows the second conviction: if each individual evangelizes in the name of the Church, who herself does so by virtue of a mandate from the Lord, no evangelizer is the absolute master of his evangelizing action, with a discretionary power to carry it out in accordance with individualistic criteria and perspectives; he acts in communion with the Church and her pastors.We have remarked that the Church is entirely and completely evangelizing.
This means that, in the whole world and in each part of the world where she is present, the Church feels responsible for the task of spreading the Gospel.
EXCERPT #4: THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH | Igreja universal
61. Brothers and sons and daughters, at this stage of our reflection, we wish to pause with you at a question which is particularly important at the present time. In the celebration of the liturgy, in their witness before judges and executioners and in their apologetical texts, the first Christians readily expressed their deep faith in the Church by describing her as being spread throughout the universe. They were fully conscious of belonging to a large community which neither space nor time can limit: From the just Abel right to the last of the elect,[85] "indeed to the ends of the earth,[86] "to the end of time."[87]
This is how the Lord wanted His Church to be: universal, a great tree whose branches shelter the birds of the air,[88] a net which catches fish of every kind[89] or which Peter drew in filled with one hundred and fifty-three big fish,[90] a flock which a single shepherd pastures.[91] A universal Church without boundaries or frontiers except, alas, those of the heart and mind of sinful man.62. Nevertheless this universal Church is in practice incarnate in the individual Churches made up of such or such an actual part of mankind, speaking such and such a language, heirs of a cultural patrimony, of a vision of the world, of an historical past, of a particular human substratum. Receptivity to the wealth of the individual Church corresponds to a special sensitivity of modern man.
Let us be very careful not to conceive of the universal Church as the sum, or, if one can say so, the more or less anomalous federation of essentially different individual Churches. In the mind of the Lord the Church is universal by vocation and mission, but when she puts down her roots in a variety of cultural, social and human terrains, she takes on different external expressions and appearances in each part of the world.
Thus each individual Church that would voluntarily cut itself off from the universal Church would lose its relationship to God's plan and would be impoverished in its ecclesial dimension. But, at the same time, a Church toto orbe diffusa would become an abstraction if she did not take body and life precisely through the individual Churches. Only continual attention to these two poles of the Church will enable us to perceive the richness of this relationship between the universal Church and the individual Churches.
Perspectiva da Igreja particular
62. Entretanto, esta Igreja universal encarna-se de fato nas Igrejas particulares; e estas são constituídas por tal ou tal porção da humanidade em concreto, que fala uma determinada linguagem e é tributária de uma certa herança cultural, de uma visão do mundo, de um passado histórico e, enfim, de um substrato humano específïco. A abertura para as riquezas da Igreja particular corresponde a uma sensibilidade especial do homem contemporâneo.
Guardemo-nos bem, no entanto, de conceber a Igreja universal como sendo o somatório, ou, se se preferir dizê-lo, a federação mais ou menos anômala de Igrejas particulares essencialmente diversas. No pensamento do Senhor é a Igreja, universal por vocação e por missão, que, ao lançar as suas raízes na variedade dos terrenos culturais, sociais e humanos, se reveste em cada parte do mundo de aspectos e de expressões exteriores diversas.
Assim, toda a Igreja particular que se separasse voluntariamente da Igreja universal perderia a sua referência ao desígnio de Deus e empobrecer-se-ia na sua dimensão eclesial. Mas, por outro lado, uma Igreja toto urbe diffusa (espalhada por todo o mundo) tornar-se-ia uma abstração se ela não tomasse corpo e vida precisamente através das Igrejas particulares. Só uma atenção constante aos dois polos da Igreja nos permitirá aperceber-nos da riqueza desta relação entre Igreja universal e Igrejas particulares.
EXCERPT #5: CUT OFF FROM THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH
64. …
As history in fact shows, whenever an individual Church has cut itself off from the universal Church and from its living and visible center- sometimes with the best of intentions, with theological, sociological, political or pastoral arguments, or even in the desire for a certain freedom of movement or action- it has escaped only with great difficulty (if indeed it has escaped) from two equally serious dangers. The first danger is that of a withering isolationism, and then, before long, of a crumbling away, with each of its cells breaking away from it just as it itself has broken away from the central nucleus. The second danger is that of losing its freedom when, being cut off from the center and from the other Churches which gave it strength and energy, it finds itself all alone and a prey to the most varied forces of slavery and exploitation.
64. …
Conforme a história demonstra, aliás, sempre que tal ou tal Igreja particular, algumas vezes com as melhores intenções e baseando-se em argumentos teológicos, sociológicos, políticos ou pastorais, ou mesmo no desejo de uma certa liberdade de movimentos ou de ação, se desligou da Igreja universal e do seu centro vivo e visível, essa Igreja só muito dificilmente escapou, se é que escapou, a dois perigos igualmente graves: o perigo, de um lado, do isolacionismo estiolante, e depois, em breve tempo, da desagregação, com cada uma das suas células a separar-se dela, como ela própria se separou do núcleo central; e de outro lado, o perigo de perder a sua liberdade, uma vez que, desligada do centro e das outras Igrejas que lhe comunicavam vigor e energia, ela se veio a encontrar sozinha, à mercê das mais variadas forças de escravização e de exploração.
ALSO…
The more an individual Church is attached to the universal Church by solid bonds of communion, in charity and loyalty, in receptiveness to the Magisterium of Peter, in the unity of the lex orandi which is also the lex credendi, in the desire for unity with all the other Churches which make up the whole- the more such a Church will be capable of translating the treasure of faith into the legitimate variety of expressions of the profession of faith, of prayer and worship, of Christian life and conduct and of the spiritual influence on the people among which it dwells. The more will it also be truly evangelizing, that is to say, capable of drawing upon the universal patrimony in order to enable its own people to profit from it, and capable too of communicating to the universal Church the experience and the life of this people, for the benefit of all.
Quanto mais uma Igreja particular estiver ligada, por vínculos sólidos de comunhão, à Igreja universal, na caridade e na lealdade, na abertura para o magistério de Pedro, na unidade da lex orandi (norma da oração), que é também a lex credendi (norma para crer), e no cuidado pela unidade com todas as demais Igrejas que compõem a universalidade, tanto mais essa Igreja estará em condições de traduzir o tesouro da fé na legítima variedade das expressões da profissão de fé, da oração e do culto, da vida e do comportamento cristão e do influxo irradiante do povo em que a mesma fé se acha inserida. E, a par disto, mais ela será verdadeiramente evangelizadora, ou seja, capaz de ir beber no patrimônio universal para fazer com que dele aproveite esse seu povo; e, depois, capaz de comungar com a Igreja universal a experiência e a vida desse mesmo povo, para benefício de todos.
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FOOTNOTES
Jesus asks each of us and all of us as the Church journeying forward: are we a Church that only preaches good commandments or a Church that is a spouse, that launches herself forward in love for her Lord? Do we truly follow him or do we revert to the ways of the world, like that man in the Gospel? In a word, is Jesus enough for us or do we look for many worldly securities? Let us ask for the grace always to leave things behind for love of the Lord: to leave behind wealth, leave behind the yearning for status and power, leave behind structures that are no longer adequate for proclaiming the Gospel, those weights that slow down our mission, the strings that tie us to the world. Without a leap forward in love, our life and our Church become sick from “complacency and self-indulgence” (Evangelii Gaudium, 95): we find joy in some fleeting pleasure, we close ourselves off in useless gossip, we settle into the monotony of a Christian life without momentum, where a little narcissism covers over the sadness of remaining unfulfilled.
This is how it was for the man, who – the Gospel tells us – “went away sorrowful” (v. 22). He was tied down to regulations of the law and to his many possessions; he had not given over his heart. Even though he had encountered Jesus and received his loving gaze, the man went away sad. Sadness is the proof of unfulfilled love, the sign of a lukewarm heart. On the other hand, a heart unburdened by possessions, that freely loves the Lord, always spreads joy, that joy for which there is so much need today. Pope Saint Paul VI wrote: “It is indeed in the midst of their distress that our fellow men need to know joy, to hear its song” (Gaudete in Domino, I). Today Jesus invites us to return to the source of joy, which is the encounter with him, the courageous choice to risk everything to follow him, the satisfaction of leaving something behind in order to embrace his way. The saints have travelled this path.
Paul VI did too, after the example of the Apostle whose name he took. Like him, Paul VI spent his life for Christ’s Gospel, crossing new boundaries and becoming its witness in proclamation and in dialogue, a prophet of a Church turned outwards, looking to those far away and taking care of the poor. Even in the midst of tiredness and misunderstanding, Paul VI bore witness in a passionate way to the beauty and the joy of following Christ totally. Today he still urges us, together with the Council whose wise helmsman he was, to live our common vocation: the universal call to holiness. Not to half measures, but to holiness. It is wonderful that together with him and the other new saints today, there is Archbishop Romero, who left the security of the world, even his own safety, in order to give his life according to the Gospel, close to the poor and to his people, with a heart drawn to Jesus and his brothers and sisters. We can say the same about Francesco Spinelli, Vincenzo Romano, Maria Caterina Kasper, Nazaria Ignazia of Saint Teresa of Jesus, and also our Abruzzese-Neapolitan young man, Nunzio Sulprizio: the saintly, courageous, humble young man who encountered Jesus in his suffering, in silence and in the offering of himself. All these saints, in different contexts, put today’s word into practice in their lives, without lukewarmness, without calculation, with the passion to risk everything and to leave it all behind. Brothers and sisters, may the Lord help us to imitate their example.
FACTS ABOUT POPE SAINT PAUL VI (1963-1978)
SEE: BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE ON THE HOLY SEE HERE:
ENGLISH: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/biografia/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_20190722_biografia.html
PORTUGUESE: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/pt/biografia/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_20190722_biografia.html
FRENCH: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/fr/biografia/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_20190722_biografia.html
ITALIAN: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/biografia/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_20190722_biografia.html
SPANISH: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/es/biografia/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_20190722_biografia.html
ACCESS THE FULL LIBRARY OF WRITINGS / SERMONS etc. HERE:
Heston, Edward Louis. "St. Paul VI". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 May. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Blessed-Paul-VI. Accessed 21 May 2023.
Original name: Giovanni Battista Montini
SEE: https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/it/holy-father/paolo-vi.html
Born September 26, 1897, Concesio (near Brescia, Italy)
On 29 May 1920 he was ordained to the priesthood.
“In 1924 he began his service to the Supreme Pontiffs, Pius XI and Pius XII, and at the same time exercised his priestly ministry among university students”.
He was nominated as the Substitute of the Secretariat of State he worked during the Second World War to find shelter for persecuted Jews and refugees, heroically feeding / caring for a million+ people.
He was later designated Pro-Secretary of State for the General Affairs of the Church, also because of which he knew and encountered many of the proponents of the ecumenical movement.
He was appointed as Archbishop of Milan, he worked with great care for the diocese.
In 1958, he was elevated to the dignity of a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church by Pope Saint John XXIII
Paul VI was elected on 21 June 1963 to the See of Peter.
He immediately continued the work begun by his predecessors, in particular he brought the Second Vatican Council to its completion and he began many initiatives that showed his solicitude for the Church and for the contemporary world.
Among these initiatives we ought to recall his voyages as a pilgrim, undertaken as an apostolic service which served both as a preparation for the unity of Christians and in asserting the importance of fundamental human rights.
Furthermore, he exercised his Supreme Magisterium favouring peace, promoting the progress of peoples and the inculturation of the faith, as well as the liturgical reform, approving Rites and prayers at once in line with tradition and with adaptation for a new age.
By his authority he promulgated the Calendar, the Missal, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Pontifical and nearly all of the Ritual for the Roman Rite with the purpose of promoting the active participation of the faithful in the Liturgy.
At the same time he saw to it that papal celebrations should take on a more simple form.
Spirit was returned to God on August 6, 1978, Castel Gandolfo buried just as he had lived, in a humble manner.
Beatified October 19, 2014;
Canonized October 14, 2018;
Feast day September 26)
He was Pope during the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) and “the immediate postconciliar era, in which he issued directives and guidance to a changing Roman Catholic Church. His pontificate was confronted with the problems and uncertainties of a church facing a new role in the contemporary world.”