A prayer to Mary, our Mother

Mother of the silence that preserves the mystery of God, deliver us from the idolatry of the present, to which those who forget are condemned. Purify the eyes of pastors with the balm of memory: that we might return to the freshness of the beginning, for a praying and penitent Church.

Mother of the beauty that blossoms from fidelity to daily work, remove us from the torpor of laziness, of pettiness, and defeatism. Cloak Pastors with that compassion that unifies and integrates: that we might discover the joy of a humble and fraternal servant Church.

Mother of the tenderness which enfolds in patience and mercy, help us burn away the sadness, impatience, and rigidity of those who have not known what it means to belong.

Intercede with your Son that our hands, our feet and our hearts may be swift: that we may build the Church with the truth in charity.

Mother, we will be the People of God, on pilgrimage towards the Kingdom.

Amen.

 by Pope Francis

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/24/pope_leads_italian_bishops_in_profession_of_faith/en1-695043 of the Vatican Radio website

I believe in God

From all eternity, God spoke one word which said all He had to say. It was not a human word, and therefore it was not limited. The word God spoke is God. "The Word was with God and the Word was God" (Jn 1, 1) John told us in the prologue to his gospel.

Spoken from eternity the Word brought about the beginning of time through creation, for “All things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made that had been made”. (Jn 1, 3)

After creation, God made his Word known in many ways and at many times through those he chose so people could come to know Him, the true God and to embrace the project He set in motion when He created everything that is in the heavens and on earth.

Who can be saved?

A reading from the holy gospel according to Mark: Peter began to say to [Jesus], “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age - houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Mk 10, 28-31) This is the word of the Lord.

This gospel reading is sort of framed between two stories. Jesus was “setting out on a journey”, he was walking, therefore. A young rich man ran up to him and asked him “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered that he should obey the commandments. When the young man answered that he had kept them all since his youth, Jesus looked at him and loved him, and he challenged him to give up everything he had to follow him [Jesus]. The young man “was shocked and went away grieving”. The disciples were shocked too for Jesus told them how difficult it was “for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” They said to one another: “Then who can be saved?”