VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 063
DATE 30-03-2015

Summary:
- Palm Sunday: God humbles Himself for His people
- Angelus: the Pope entrusts the victims of the Alps air crash to Our Lady
- St. Teresa, a "remarkable woman": 500th anniversary of the birth of the
founder of Carmel
- Pope's telegram for the death of the Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian
Church of the East
- Francis prays for flood victims in Chile and Peru
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 Palm Sunday: God humbles Himself for His people
 Vatican City, 30 March 2015 (VIS) - At 9.30 a.m. in St. Peter's Square the
Holy
Father presided at the solemn liturgical celebration of Palm Sunday and the
Passion of the Lord. At the centre of the square, near the obelisk, the Pope
blessed the palm and olive branches and, at the end of the procession, he
celebrated the Holy Mass for the Passion of the Lord. Young people from Rome
and
other dioceses took part in the celebration, on the occasion of the thirtieth
World Youth Day, on the theme "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see
God".
 The following is the full text of the homily pronounced by Pope Francis
following the proclamation of the Passion of the Lord according to Mark:
 "At the heart of this celebration, which seems so festive, are the words we
heard in the hymn of the Letter to the Philippians: 'He humbled himself'.
Jesus'
humiliation. These words show us God's way and, consequently, that which must
be
the way of Christians: it is humility. A way which constantly amazes and
disturbs us: we will never get used to a humble God!
 "Humility is above all God's way: God humbles himself to walk with his people,
to put up with their infidelity. This is clear when we read the the story of
the
Exodus. How humiliating for the Lord to hear all that grumbling, all those
complaints against Moses, but ultimately against him, their Father, who brought
them out of slavery and was leading them on the journey through the desert to
the land of freedom.
 "This week, Holy Week, which leads us to Easter, we will take this path of
Jesus' own humiliation. Only in this way will this week be 'holy' for us too.
We
will feel the contempt of the leaders of his people and their attempts to trip
him up. We will be there at the betrayal of Judas, one of the Twelve, who will
sell him for thirty pieces of silver. We will see the Lord arrested and carried
off like a criminal; abandoned by his disciples, dragged before the Sanhedrin,
condemned to death, beaten and insulted. We will hear Peter, the 'rock' among
the disciples, deny him three times. We will hear the shouts of the crowd,
egged
on by their leaders, who demand that Barabas be freed and Jesus crucified. We
will see him mocked by the soldiers, robed in purple and crowned with thorns.
And then, as he makes his sorrowful way beneath the cross, we will hear the
jeering of the people and their leaders, who scoff at his being King and Son of
God. This is God's way, the way of humility. It is the way of Jesus; there is
no
other. And there can be no humility without humiliation.
 "Following this path to the full, the Son of God took on the 'form of a
slave'.
In the end, humility also means service. It means making room for God by
stripping oneself, 'emptying oneself', as Scripture says. This - the pouring
out
of oneself - is the greatest humiliation of all.
 "There is another way, however, opposed to the way of Christ. It is
worldliness, the way of the world. The world proposes the way of vanity, pride,
success, the other way. The Evil One proposed this way to Jesus too, during his
forty days in the desert. But Jesus immediately rejected it. With him, and only
by his grace, with his help, we too can overcome this temptation to vanity, to
worldliness, not only at significant moments, but in daily life as well. In
this, we are helped and comforted by the example of so many men and women who,
in silence and concealment, sacrifice themselves daily to serve others: a sick
relative, an elderly person living alone, a disabled person, the homeless.
 "We think too of the humiliation endured by all those who, for their lives of
fidelity to the Gospel, encounter discrimination and pay a personal price. We
think too of our brothers and sisters who are persecuted because they are
Christians, the martyrs of our own time - and there are many. They refuse to
deny Jesus and they endure insult and injury with dignity. They follow him on
his way. In truth, we can speak of a ìcloud of witnesses' - the martyrs of our
own time.
 "During this week, let us set about with determination along this same path of
humility, with immense love for him, our Lord and Saviour. Love will guide us
and give us strength. For where he is, we too shall be".

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 Angelus: the Pope entrusts the victims of the Alps air crash to Our Lady
 Vatican City, 29 March 2015 (VIS) - Following the Eucharistic celebration, the
Holy Father prayed the Angelus and greeted all those present, especially the
young, whom he exhorted to continue on their path both within the dioceses and
in their pilgrimage across continents, leading next year to Krakow, Poland, the
homeland of St. John Paul II, who initiated the World Youth Days.
 "The theme of this great meeting: 'Blessed are the merciful, for they will be
shown mercy', harmonises with the Holy Year of Mercy", he said. "Let yourselves
be filled with the tenderness of the Father, to radiate it around you. And now
we turn in prayer to Mary, our Mother, so that she might help us to live Holy
Week with faith. She too was present when Jesus entered Jerusalem, acclaimed by
the crowd; but her heart, like that of her Son, was ready for sacrifice. Let us
learn from Her, faithful Virgin, to follow the Lord even when His path leads to
the Cross. I entrust to her intercession the victims of last Tuesday's aviation
tragedy, among whom there was also a group of German students".

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 St. Teresa, a "remarkable woman": 500th anniversary of the birth of the
founder
of Carmel
 Vatican City, 28 March 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis has written a letter to Fr.
Saverio Cannistra, prepositor general of the Order of Descalced Brothers of the
Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, to commemorate the fifth centenary of the
birth of St. Teresa of Jesus and and to participate in the giving of thanks for
the charism of this "remarkable woman".
 "I consider it a providential grace that this anniversary coincides with the
year dedicated to consecrated life, in which the Saint of Avila shines as a
sure
guide and attractive model of total commitment to God. ... How much we
continue to
benefit from the witness of her consecration, born directly of her encounter
with Christ, her experience of prayer, as a continual dialogue with God, and
her
community life, rooted in the maternity of the Church!"
 "St. Teresa was above all a teacher of prayer. The discovery of Christ's
humanity was central to her experience. Moved by the desire to share this
personal experience with others, she describes it in a lively and simple way,
accessible to all, as consisting simply in 'a relationship of friendship ...
with
Whom we know loves us'. The prayer of Teresa was not a prayer reserved solely
to
a space or time of day; it arose spontaneously on the most diverse occasions.
...
She was convinced of the value of continual, if not always perfect, prayer.
... To
renew consecrated life today, Teresa has left us a great heritage full of
concrete suggestions, ways and methods of praying that, far from closing us in

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 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)