Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets. Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with him there and proclaimed his name, "LORD." Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out, "The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."
Book of Daniel 3,52-56. Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever; and blessed is your holy and glorious name, praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
Blessed are you who look into the depths from your throne upon the cherubim; praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven, praiseworthy and glorious forever.
Second Letter to the Corinthians 13,11-13. Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with all of you.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 3,16-18. God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
POPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 4 June 2023 Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno! Today, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the Gospel is taken from Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus (cf. Jn 3:16-18). Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, passionate about the mystery of God: he recognizes in Jesus a divine master and goes to speak to him in secret, at night. Jesus listens to him, understands he is a man on a quest, and then first, he surprises him, answering that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, one must be reborn; then, he reveals the heart of the mystery to him, saying that God loved humanity so much that he sent his Son into the world. Jesus, therefore, the Son, speaks to us about his Father and his immense love.
Father and Son. It is a familiar image which, if we think about it, disrupts our images of God. Indeed, the very word “God” suggests to us a singular, majestic and distant reality, whereas hearing about a Father and a Son brings us back home. Yes, we can think of God in this way, through the image of a family gathered around the table, where life is shared. After all, the table, which, at the same time is an altar, is a symbol with which certain icons depict the Trinity. It is an image that speaks to us of a God of communion. Father, Son and Holy Spirit: communion. But it is not only an image; it is reality! It is reality because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that the Father poured into our hearts through Jesus (cf. Gal 4:6), makes us taste, makes us savour God’s presence: a presence that is always close, compassionate and tender. The Holy Spirit does with us what Jesus does with Nicodemus: he introduces us to the mystery of new birth, the birth of faith, of Christian life, he reveals the heart of the Father to us, and he makes us partake in God’s very life.
We could say that the invitation he extends to us is to sit at the table with God to share in his love. This is the image. This is what happens at every Mass, at the altar of the Eucharistic table, where Jesus offers himself to the Father and offers himself for us. Yes, that is how it is, brothers and sisters, our God is a communion of love: and this is how Jesus revealed him to us. And do you know how we can remember this? With the simplest gesture, which we learned as children: the sign of the cross. By tracing the cross on our body, we remind ourselves how much God loved us, to the point of giving his life for us; and we repeat to ourselves that his love envelops us completely, from top to bottom, from left to right, like an embrace that never abandons us. And at the same time, we commit ourselves to bear witness to God-as-love, creating communion in his name. Perhaps now, each one of us, and all together, let us make the sign of the cross on ourselves… [he makes the sign of the cross].
Today, then, we can ask ourselves: do we bear witness to God-as-love? Or has God-as-love become in turn a concept, something we have already heard, that no longer stirs nor provokes life? If God is love, do our communities bear witness to this? Do they know how to love? Do our communities know how to love? And our family, do we know how to love in the family? Do we always leave the door open, do we know how to welcome everyone — and I emphasize, everyone — as brothers and sisters? Do we offer everyone the food of God’s forgiveness and Gospel joy? Does one breathe the air of home, or do we resemble more closely an office or a reserved place where only the elect can enter? God is love, God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and he gave his life for us. This is why we make the sign of the cross.
And may Mary help us to experience the Church as that home of familial love, for the glory of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
BENEDICT XVI - Jesus and the Church can no more separate one from the other than they can simply identify with each other. He always infinitely surpasses the Church. It wasn't only with the Second Vatican Council that it became clear to us that he, as Lord of the Church, is also its greatness and measure. I've always experienced this as both a consolation and a challenge... As a consolation, because we've always known that the scrupulousness of rubrics and jurists has nothing to do with Him, with the infinite generosity that comes to us from the words of the Gospel like a breeze that brings refreshment and topples like a house of cards all pedantic devotion. We've always known that closeness to Him is totally independent of the ecclesiastical dignity one possesses, as well as legal or historical erudition. This has always enabled me to look at external things with the necessary calm, always drawing from the figure of Jesus a sense of liberating optimism. But on the other hand, we never lose sight of the fact that Christ, in many respects, demands much more than the Church knows how to demand. The radicalism of his words can only be truly matched by the radicalism of choices such as those made by the hermit Anthony, the father of the desert, or by Francis of Assisi in accepting the Gospel message to the letter... I know that the Jesus of the Gospels is the real Jesus, I know that I can trust him far more peacefully than the most learned reconstructions, and that he will outlive them all. All the breadth and nuances of the gospel tradition inform me about who Jesus was and is. He makes himself heard and seen again and again...
To you, Father Almighty, origin of the cosmos and man, for Christ, the Living One, Lord of time and history, in the Spirit who sanctifies the universe, praise, honor, glory, today and in the endless centuries. Amen! St. John Paul II
FAUSTI - "For God loved the world so much" God has always loved the world, even if the world rejects Him. The love of the Father is free and without reserve. The Son, who knows Him and lives by Him, bears witness to it from the cross. This verse presents to us the center of John's Gospel, which is intended to lead us to confess with wonder. "We have recognized and believed in the love that God has for us. For "God is Love" (1 Jn 4:16). " He gave us the Only Begotten Son" because only in him, who loves as he is loved, do we see our identity as children of the Father. Jesus, being Son, lived what we too are called to live: "filiality" and the consequent fraternity. He loves us with the same Love that the Father has for Him and assures us that the Father loves us as He loves us (17:23), with a love that is before the foundation of the world (17:24). Salvation is to believe in Jesus Crucified, the Son of Man raised up . He is the Word, the light and life of every man, who became flesh to tell us the absolute Love of the Father. In Him we receive our identity as children and we are what we are. Outside of Him, we are what we are not, the nothingness of ourselves. That is why to welcome Him, the Son, is to find oneself; to reject Him is to lose oneself. "Not to judge the world, but that the world may be saved through Him." The Son has the same judgment as the Father. He comes with the scourge into the temple not to judge or condemn the sinful world. He has come to save it precisely by "purifying" the Temple, by laying aside with His Cross the diabolical image that man has of God and of himself. In Him raised up we have the true knowledge of Him and of ourselves, which the mouth of the serpent had taken from us. To adhere to Him is true holiness and justice: it is to live of the Son and as children, to share in the common glory of the Father and the Son. Whoever does not believe in the absolute love offered by the lifted Son of man, excludes himself from love and life. The decision of faith towards the Flesh of Jesus gives us birth from above: it is eternal life. The prologue does not say that those who reject Him in the testimony of the wise men and prophets are judged. On the contrary, the Word became Flesh in order to save this world that did not receive the light and condemned itself to darkness. For this reason every man, like Nicodemus, despite uncertainties and difficulties, must be led to be born from above through the knowledge of Son. The meaning of human history is the revelation of the Son, his growth to his full stature (Eph 4:13) so that God may be everything in all.
St .ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself completely, to abide in You, still and quiet as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing disturb my peace and cause me to leave You, my Immutable One, but may every moment lead me deeper into the depths of Your mystery. Pacify my soul, make it Your heaven, Your beloved home and the place of Your repose; may I never leave You there alone, but may I be present entirely, completely awakened in my faith, completely adoring, completely abandoned to Your creative action. O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, I would like to be a bride for Your Heart; I would like to cover You with glory, I would like to love You… to the point of dying! But I feel my powerlessness and ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to submerge me, to invade me, to replace me with You, so that my life may be nothing more than a radiance of your Life. Come into me as an Adorer, as a Redeemer, as a Savior. O Word, eternal, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you; I want to make myself completely docile to learn everything from you; then, through all the nights and every form of emptiness or powerlessness, I want to always gaze upon you and dwell beneath your great light. O my beloved star, enchant me, so that I can no longer escape from your living splendor. O Fire that "consume", Spirit of love, come upon me so that you may realize in me an incarnation of the Word; may I be an added humanity for Him, in which He can renew all His Mystery. And you, O Father, bend over your poor little creature, cover her with your shadow and see in her only the beloved Son in whom you have placed all your delight. O my Three, my all, my Bliss, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I abandon myself to You like prey. Bury Yourself in me, so that I may bury myself in You, waiting to be able to contemplate, in your own light, the abysmal greatness.
Book of Exodus 34,4b-6.8-9.
RispondiEliminaEarly in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets.
Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with him there and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out, "The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity,
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."
Book of Daniel 3,52-56.
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
and blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim;
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,
praiseworthy and glorious forever.
Second Letter
to the Corinthians 13,11-13.
Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with all of you.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint John 3,16-18.
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
THE WORDS OF THE POPES
RispondiEliminaPOPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 4 June 2023
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
Today, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the Gospel is taken from Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus (cf. Jn 3:16-18). Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, passionate about the mystery of God: he recognizes in Jesus a divine master and goes to speak to him in secret, at night. Jesus listens to him, understands he is a man on a quest, and then first, he surprises him, answering that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, one must be reborn; then, he reveals the heart of the mystery to him, saying that God loved humanity so much that he sent his Son into the world. Jesus, therefore, the Son, speaks to us about his Father and his immense love.
Father and Son. It is a familiar image which, if we think about it, disrupts our images of God. Indeed, the very word “God” suggests to us a singular, majestic and distant reality, whereas hearing about a Father and a Son brings us back home. Yes, we can think of God in this way, through the image of a family gathered around the table, where life is shared. After all, the table, which, at the same time is an altar, is a symbol with which certain icons depict the Trinity. It is an image that speaks to us of a God of communion. Father, Son and Holy Spirit: communion. But it is not only an image; it is reality! It is reality because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that the Father poured into our hearts through Jesus (cf. Gal 4:6), makes us taste, makes us savour God’s presence: a presence that is always close, compassionate and tender. The Holy Spirit does with us what Jesus does with Nicodemus: he introduces us to the mystery of new birth, the birth of faith, of Christian life, he reveals the heart of the Father to us, and he makes us partake in God’s very life.
We could say that the invitation he extends to us is to sit at the table with God to share in his love. This is the image. This is what happens at every Mass, at the altar of the Eucharistic table, where Jesus offers himself to the Father and offers himself for us. Yes, that is how it is, brothers and sisters, our God is a communion of love: and this is how Jesus revealed him to us. And do you know how we can remember this? With the simplest gesture, which we learned as children: the sign of the cross. By tracing the cross on our body, we remind ourselves how much God loved us, to the point of giving his life for us; and we repeat to ourselves that his love envelops us completely, from top to bottom, from left to right, like an embrace that never abandons us. And at the same time, we commit ourselves to bear witness to God-as-love, creating communion in his name. Perhaps now, each one of us, and all together, let us make the sign of the cross on ourselves… [he makes the sign of the cross].
Today, then, we can ask ourselves: do we bear witness to God-as-love? Or has God-as-love become in turn a concept, something we have already heard, that no longer stirs nor provokes life? If God is love, do our communities bear witness to this? Do they know how to love? Do our communities know how to love? And our family, do we know how to love in the family? Do we always leave the door open, do we know how to welcome everyone — and I emphasize, everyone — as brothers and sisters? Do we offer everyone the food of God’s forgiveness and Gospel joy? Does one breathe the air of home, or do we resemble more closely an office or a reserved place where only the elect can enter? God is love, God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and he gave his life for us. This is why we make the sign of the cross.
And may Mary help us to experience the Church as that home of familial love, for the glory of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
BENEDICT XVI - Jesus and the Church can no more separate one from the other than they can simply identify with each other.
RispondiEliminaHe always infinitely surpasses the Church.
It wasn't only with the Second Vatican Council that it became clear to us that he, as Lord of the Church, is also its greatness and measure.
I've always experienced this as both a consolation and a challenge...
As a consolation, because we've always known that the scrupulousness of rubrics and jurists has nothing to do with Him, with the infinite generosity that comes to us from the words of the Gospel like a breeze that brings refreshment and topples like a house of cards all pedantic devotion.
We've always known that closeness to Him is totally independent of the ecclesiastical dignity one possesses, as well as legal or historical erudition.
This has always enabled me to look at external things with the necessary calm, always drawing from the figure of Jesus a sense of liberating optimism.
But on the other hand, we never lose sight of the fact that Christ, in many respects, demands much more than the Church knows how to demand.
The radicalism of his words can only be truly matched by the radicalism of choices such as those made by the hermit Anthony, the father of the desert, or by Francis of Assisi in accepting the Gospel message to the letter...
I know that the Jesus of the Gospels is the real Jesus, I know that I can trust him far more peacefully than the most learned reconstructions, and that he will outlive them all.
All the breadth and nuances of the gospel tradition inform me about who Jesus was and is. He makes himself heard and seen again and again...
To you, Father Almighty,
RispondiEliminaorigin of the cosmos and man,
for Christ, the Living One,
Lord of time and history,
in the Spirit who sanctifies the universe,
praise, honor, glory,
today and in the endless centuries. Amen!
St. John Paul II
FAUSTI - "For God loved the world so much" God has always loved the world, even if the world rejects Him. The love of the Father is free and without reserve. The Son, who knows Him and lives by Him, bears witness to it from the cross.
RispondiEliminaThis verse presents to us the center of John's Gospel, which is intended to lead us to confess with wonder. "We have recognized and believed in the love that God has for us.
For "God is Love" (1 Jn 4:16).
" He gave us the Only Begotten Son" because only in him, who loves as he is loved, do we see our identity as children of the Father.
Jesus, being Son, lived what we too are called to live: "filiality" and the consequent fraternity. He loves us with the same Love that the Father has for Him and assures us that the Father loves us as He loves us (17:23), with a love that is before the foundation of the world (17:24).
Salvation is to believe in Jesus Crucified, the Son of Man raised up .
He is the Word, the light and life of every man, who became flesh to tell us the absolute Love of the Father.
In Him we receive our identity as children and we are what we are.
Outside of Him, we are what we are not, the nothingness of ourselves.
That is why to welcome Him, the Son, is to find oneself; to reject Him is to lose oneself.
"Not to judge the world, but that the world may be saved through Him." The Son has the same judgment as the Father. He comes with the scourge into the temple not to judge or condemn the sinful world. He has come to save it precisely by "purifying" the Temple, by laying aside with His Cross the diabolical image that man has of God and of himself. In Him raised up we have the true knowledge of Him and of ourselves, which the mouth of the serpent had taken from us. To adhere to Him is true holiness and justice: it is to live of the Son and as children, to share in the common glory of the Father and the Son. Whoever does not believe in the absolute love offered by the lifted Son of man, excludes himself from love and life.
The decision of faith towards the Flesh of Jesus gives us birth from above: it is eternal life.
The prologue does not say that those who reject Him in the testimony of the wise men and prophets are judged.
On the contrary, the Word became Flesh in order to save this world that did not receive the light and condemned itself to darkness.
For this reason every man, like Nicodemus, despite uncertainties and difficulties, must be led to be born from above through the knowledge of Son.
The meaning of human history is the revelation of the Son, his growth to his full stature (Eph 4:13) so that God may be everything in all.
St .ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself completely, to abide in You, still and quiet as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing disturb my peace and cause me to leave You, my Immutable One, but may every moment lead me deeper into the depths of Your mystery.
RispondiEliminaPacify my soul, make it Your heaven, Your beloved home and the place of Your repose; may I never leave You there alone, but may I be present entirely, completely awakened in my faith, completely adoring, completely abandoned to Your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, I would like to be a bride for Your Heart; I would like to cover You with glory, I would like to love You… to the point of dying! But I feel my powerlessness and ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to submerge me, to invade me, to replace me with You, so that my life may be nothing more than a radiance of your Life. Come into me as an Adorer, as a Redeemer, as a Savior. O Word, eternal, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you; I want to make myself completely docile to learn everything from you; then, through all the nights and every form of emptiness or powerlessness, I want to always gaze upon you and dwell beneath your great light. O my beloved star, enchant me, so that I can no longer escape from your living splendor.
O Fire that "consume", Spirit of love, come upon me so that you may realize in me an incarnation of the Word; may I be an added humanity for Him, in which He can renew all His Mystery.
And you, O Father, bend over your poor little creature, cover her with your shadow and see in her only the beloved Son in whom you have placed all your delight.
O my Three, my all, my Bliss, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I abandon myself to You like prey. Bury Yourself in me, so that I may bury myself in You, waiting to be able to contemplate, in your own light, the abysmal greatness.