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(Vatican Radio) On Thursday, Pope Francis celebrated a solemn Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, and also commemorated the 21st annual World Day for Consecrated Life.

In his homily for the Mass, the Holy Father called on consecrated women and men to “accompany Jesus as He goes forth to meet His people, to be in the midst of His people.”

Below, please find the full text of Pope Francis’ homily for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord: 

Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

2 February 2017

When the parents of Jesus brought the Child in fulfilment of the prescriptions of the law, Simeon, “guided by the Spirit” (Lk 2:27), took the Child in his arms and broke out in a hymn of blessing and praise.  “My eyes”, he said, “have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Lk 2:30-32).  Simeon not only saw, but was privileged to hold in his arms the long-awaited hope, which filled him with exultation.  His heart rejoiced because God had come to dwell among his people; he felt his presence in the flesh. 

Today’s liturgy tells us that in that rite, the Lord, forty days after his birth, “outwardly was fulfilling the Law, but in reality he was coming to meet his believing people” (Roman Missal, 2 February, Introduction to the Entrance Procession).  This encounter of God with his people brings joy and renews hope.

Simeon’s canticle is the hymn of the believer, who at the end of his days can exclaim: “It is true, hope in God never disappoints” (cf. Rm 5:5).  God never deceives us.  Simeon and Anna, in their old age, were capable of a new fruitfulness, and they testify to this in song.  Life is worth living in hope, because the Lord keeps his promise.  Jesus himself will later explain this promise in the synagogue of Nazareth: the sick, prisoners, those who are alone, the poor, the elderly and sinners, all are invited to take up this same hymn of hope.  Jesus is with them, Jesus is with us (cf. Lk 4:18-19).

We have inherited this hymn of hope from our elders.  They made us part of this process.  In their faces, in their lives, in their daily sacrifice we were able to see how this praise was embodied.  We are heirs to the dreams of our elders, heirs to the hope that did not disappoint our founding mothers and fathers, our older brothers and sisters.  We are heirs to those who have gone before us and had the courage to dream.  Like them, we too want to sing, “God does not deceive; hope in him does not disappoint”.  God comes to meet his people.  And we want to sing by taking up the prophecy of Joel and making it our own: “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (2:28).

We do well to take up the dreams of our elders, so that we can prophesy in our day and once more encounter what originally set our hearts afire.  Dreams and prophecies together.  The remembrance of how our elders, our fathers and mothers, dreamed, and the courage prophetically to carry on those dreams.

This attitude will make us fruitful.  Most importantly, it will protect us from a temptation that can make our consecrated life barren: the temptation of survival.  An evil that can gradually take root within us and within our communities.  The mentality of survival makes us reactionaries, fearful, slowly and silently shutting ourselves up in our houses and in our own preconceived notions.  It makes us look back, to the glory days – days that are past – and rather than rekindling the prophetic creativity born of our founders’ dreams, it looks for shortcuts in order to evade the challenges knocking on our doors today.  A survival mentality robs our charisms of power, because it leads us to “domesticate” them, to make them “user-friendly”, robbing them of their original creative force.  It makes us want to protect spaces, buildings and structures, rather than to encourage new initiatives.  The temptation of survival makes us forget grace; it turns us into professionals of the sacred but not fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of that hope to which we are called to bear prophetic witness.  An environment of survival withers the hearts of our elderly, taking away their ability to dream.  In this way, it cripples the prophecy that our young are called to proclaim and work to achieve.  In a word, the temptation of survival turns what the Lord presents as an opportunity for mission into something dangerous, threatening, potentially disastrous.  This attitude is not limited to the consecrated life, but we in particular are urged not to fall into it.

Let us go back to the Gospel passage and once more contemplate that scene.  Surely, the song of Simeon and Anna was not the fruit of self-absorption or an analysis and review of their personal situation.  It did not ring out because they were caught up in themselves and were worried that something bad might happen to them.  Their song was born of hope, the hope that sustained them in their old age.  That hope was rewarded when they encountered Jesus.  When Mary let Simeon take the Son of the Promise into his arms, the old man began to sing of his dreams.  Whenever she puts Jesus in the midst of his people, they encounter joy.  For this alone will bring back our joy and hope, this alone will save us from living in a survival mentality.  Only this will make our lives fruitful and keep our hearts alive: putting Jesus where he belongs, in the midst of his people. 

All of us are aware of the multicultural transformation we are experiencing; no one doubts this.  Hence, it is all the more important for consecrated men and women to be one with Jesus, in their lives and in the midst of these great changes.  Our mission – in accordance with each particular charism – reminds us that we are called to be a leaven in this dough.  Perhaps there are better brands of flour, but the Lord has called us to be leaven here and now, with the challenges we face.  Not on the defensive or motivated by fear, but with our hands on the plough, helping the wheat to grow, even though it has frequently been sown among weeds.  Putting Jesus in the midst of his people means having a contemplative heart, one capable of discerning how God is walking through the streets of our cities, our towns and our neighbourhoods.  Putting Jesus in the midst of his people means taking up and carrying the crosses of our brothers and sisters.  It means wanting to touch the wounds of Jesus in the wounds of a world in pain, which longs and cries out for healing.

To put ourselves with Jesus in the midst of his people!  Not as religious “activists”, but as men and women who are constantly forgiven, men and women anointed in baptism and sent to share that anointing and the consolation of God with everyone.

To put ourselves with Jesus in the midst of his people.  For this reason, “we sense the challenge of finding and sharing a ‘mystique’ of living together, of mingling and encounter, of embracing and supporting one another, of stepping into this flood tide which, while chaotic, can [with the Lord] become a genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of solidarity, a sacred pilgrimage…  If we were able to take this route, it would be so good, so soothing, so liberating and hope-filled!  To go out of ourselves and to join others” (Evangelii Gaudium, 87) is not only good for us; it also turns our lives and hopes into a hymn of praise.  But we will only be able to do this if we take up the dreams of our elders and turn them into prophecy.

Let us accompany Jesus as he goes forth to meet his people, to be in the midst of his people.  Let us go forth, not with the complaining or anxiety of those who have forgotten how to prophesy because they failed to take up the dreams of their elders, but with serenity and songs of praise.  Not with apprehension but with the patience of those who trust in the Spirit, the Lord of dreams and prophecy.  In this way, let us share what is truly our own: the hymn that is born of hope. 

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday celebrated Mass for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and of Societies of Apostolic Life participated in the Liturgy.

Listen to our report: 

The Mass also commemorates the World Day for Consecrated Life. On this day, the Church celebrates and prays for those who have consecrated their lives to God by the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. The World Day for Consecrated Life was established in 1997 by Pope Saint John Paul II; 2017 marks the twenty-first annual observance of the Day.

The liturgical feast chosen for the commemoration celebrates the presentation of the newborn Jesus in the Temple by Joseph and Mary forty days after His birth, in accordance with the law of the Old Testament. The feast is also known as “Candlemas” on account of the blessing of candles and the procession that takes place at the beginning of the Mass.

The candles blessed during the Liturgy thus symbolize both Christ, who is the Light of the World; and the lives of consecrated women and men who are called to reflect the light of Christ for all peoples.

In his homily for during the Mass, Pope Francis spoke of the “hymn of hope” pronounced by Simeon and Anna when they saw the Saviour appearing in the Temple. We, too, the Pope said, “have inherited this hymn of hope from our elders… We would do well to take up the dreams of our elders, so that we can prophesy in our day, and once more encounter what originally set our hearts on fire.”

But he also warned of a “temptation” that can make the consecrated life barren: the temptation of “survival”, which urges us to protect ourselves at the expense of our dreams. “The temptation of survival,” Pope Francis said, “makes us forget grace.”

The Holy Father reminded consecrated women and men, that they are called to put themselves “with Jesus in the midst of His people.”

Pope Francis concluded his homily with the exhortation: “Let us accompany Jesus as He goes forth to meet His people, to be in the midst of His people.”

This year’s celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life has a particular significance, being devoted to thanksgiving and prayer for the give of vocations, especially in view of the upcoming Synod of Bishops, which will be dedicated to the theme: “Youth, faith and vocational discernment.” The Synod is expected to meet in October 2018.

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Washington D.C., Feb 2, 2017 / 10:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted that protecting religious freedom is a U.S. priority, while defending his recent halt of refugee admissions as a necessary step to protect that freedom.

“Freedom of religion is a sacred right, but it is also a right under threat all around us, and the world is under serious, serious threat in so many different ways, and I’ve never seen it so much and so openly since I took the position of President,” President Trump stated at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning.

“There are those who would seek to enter our country for the purpose of spreading violence or oppressing other people based upon their faith or their lifestyle. Not right,” he said. “We will not allow a beachhead of intolerance to spread in our nation.”

Last week, Trump ordered a halt to refugee admissions for 120 days – indefinitely for Syrian refugees – and a temporary ban on immigration from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa. The order was met with criticism from the U.S. bishops and humanitarian organizations.

On Thursday, the president spoke at the annual National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel, a tradition that dates back to 1953. Each year on the first Thursday of February, religious and civic leaders gather in prayer for the country.

Vice President Mike Pence was in attendance as well as King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Michael Wear, former director of faith outreach for Obama 2012 campaign, said that according to a "trusted source," at least half a dozen people who were invited to the prayer breakfast were unable to attend due to the new travel restrictions.

President Trump emphasized the global threat of religious violence, citing “acts of wanton slaughter against religious minorities,” and noting that “terrorism is a fundamental threat to religious freedom.”

“We have seen peace-loving Muslims, brutalized, victimized, murdered, and oppressed by ISIS killers. We have seen threats of extermination against the Jewish people,” he said. “We have seen a campaign of ISIS and genocide against Christians where they cut off heads.”

He pledged to stop such violence and “to defend and protect religious liberty in our land,” insisting that Americans must live in “a tolerant society” where they “can feel safe and secure.”

“In recent days, we have begun to take necessary action to achieve that goal,” he continued.

Last week, his executive order on “protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States” suspended refugee admissions into the U.S. for 120 days and immigration from seven countries for 60 days while his administration would investigate the security of the refugee resettlement program and the quality of information-gathering on foreign nationals seeking to enter the U.S.

“Our nation has the most generous immigration system in the world,” he said, but some people “exploit that generosity.” He promised to ensure that future immigrants and refugees “fully embrace our values of religious and personal liberty, and that they reject any form of oppression and discrimination.”

“We will be a safe country, we will be a free country, and we will be a country where all citizens can practice their beliefs without fear of hostility or fear of violence,” he said.

Earlier in the program, the Senate chaplain, Barry C. Black, emphasized the power of prayer.

“I agree with Tennyson that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,” he said. “My friends, when we make our voices heard in heaven, it makes a palpable difference.”

He added that first, “we pray from a sense of need,” saying that “my friends, God wants us to pray when we need Him,” and “we ought to pray that God’s hand will be on our President.”

“Secondly, pray with intimacy,” he insisted, pointing to Jesus addressing God the Father as “Abba,” or “daddy.”

“Pray like Hannah,” he said, pointing to the mother of the prophet Samuel who “prayed with such specificity and such intimacy” for a baby that the priest Eli “thought she was inebriated.”

Also, “pray for those who govern,” he added, “so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.”

Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.), heads of the Senate’s weekly prayer breakfast group, and Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), heads of the House weekly prayer breakfast group, spoke and highlighted their common prayer which transcends political party lines.

“We haven’t come here to celebrate power or money or politics. We’ve come here together to pray. And it may be the understatement of the century that Washington, D.C. needs prayer,” Sen. Coons stated.

Trump at the breakfast also pledged to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits non-profit organizations and their representatives from officially endorsing political candidates or participating in their campaigns, lest they lose their tax-exempt status.

“Jefferson asked can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” Trump asked, noting that “among those freedoms is the right to worship according to our own beliefs.”

“That is why I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.”

 

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Vatican City, Feb 2, 2017 / 11:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Everyone, but especially consecrated men and women, Pope Francis said Thursday, are called to be leaven in the world, bringing Christ to the people – even when it seems like the work goes unnoticed, or there is another who would do a better job.

“The Lord has called us to be leaven here and now, with the challenges we face. Not on the defensive or motivated by fear, but with our hands on the plough, helping the wheat to grow, even though it has frequently been sown among weeds,” he taught during his homily at a Feb. 2 Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Mass celebrated the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and marked the 21st World Day of Consecrated Life.

Pope Francis said the calling of consecrated women and men is to put Christ “in the midst of people,” not acting as some sort of religious activist, but as “men and women who are constantly forgiven, men and women anointed in baptism and sent to share that anointing and the consolation of God with everyone.”

Addressing the potential doubts and fears people may have, Francis said “all of are aware of the multicultural transformation we are experiencing; no one doubts this.”

But “it is all the more important for consecrated men and women to be one with Jesus, in their lives and in the midst of these great changes. Our mission – in accordance with each particular charism – reminds us that we are called to be a leaven in this dough,” he said.

“Putting Jesus in the midst of his people means having a contemplative heart, one capable of discerning how God is walking through the streets of our cities, our towns and our neighborhoods.”

“Putting Jesus in the midst of his people,” he continued, “means taking up and carrying the crosses of our brothers and sisters. It means wanting to touch the wounds of Jesus in the wounds of a world in pain, which longs and cries out for healing.”

Referring to the day’s Gospel reading about Mary and Joseph’s presentation of Christ in the temple, he said that the words of Simeon and Anna were not full of self-absorption or an analysis of their personal situations.

Instead, their “song” was “born of hope, the hope that sustained them in their old age. That hope was rewarded when they encountered Jesus.”

Just as Mary placed Christ before Simeon and Anna to hold and to see, consecrated women and men are called to bring Christ to the people and areas they serve.

Sometimes, Pope Francis said, we can fall prey to a temptation of “survival,” a mentality that can take root within people and within communities which turns them into “reactionaries, fearful, slowly and silently shutting ourselves up in our houses and in our own preconceived notions.”

It makes us look back, “to the glory days – days that are past,” instead of working to rekindle the dreams and creativity present in our founders. A “survival mentality robs our charisms of power” by trying to make them more safe and more palatable to the modern world, he explained.

Moreover, the Pope said “the temptation of survival makes us forget grace” by turning us “into professionals of the sacred but not fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of that hope to which we are called to bear prophetic witness.”

This attitude is not limited to the consecrated life, he said, but “we in particular are urged not to fall into it.”

Referring to the Introduction to the Entrance Procession in the Roman Missal, the Pope said that today’s liturgy tells us that when Christ was presented in the temple, that rite, forty days after his birth, “outwardly was fulfilling the Law, but in reality he was coming to meet his believing people.”

“This encounter of God with his people brings joy and renews hope,” he said. “Whenever Mary puts Jesus in the midst of his people, they encounter joy.”

“For this alone will bring back our joy and hope, this alone will save us from living in a survival mentality. Only this will make our lives fruitful and keep our hearts alive: putting Jesus where he belongs, in the midst of his people.”

This “hymn of hope” sung by Simeon and Anna is something we have inherited, we are “part of this process,” Francis said. In the founders of the different orders, “In their faces, in their lives, in their daily sacrifice we were able to see how this praise was embodied,” he explained.

“We are heirs to those who have gone before us and had the courage to dream. Like them, we too want to sing, ‘God does not deceive; hope in him does not disappoint.’ God comes to meet his people.”

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Alexandria, La., Feb 2, 2017 / 12:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop David P. Talley now heads the Diocese of Alexandria, with Pope Francis’ acceptance of the resignation of Bishop Ronald P. Herzog.

“Many thanks to all, for these three months of transitioning,” Bishop Talley said in a Feb. 2 statement. “We will care for and honor our bishop emeritus, lovingly; and I will give you all I have and am capable of.”

Bishop Talley, 66, was born in Columbus, Ga. Sept. 11, 1950. He studied at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in Indiana and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 1989. He received a doctorate in canon law from the Gregorian University in Rome, and St. John Paul II named him a monsignor in 2001.

Benedict XVI named him an auxiliary bishop for the Atlanta archdiocese in January 2013, and Pope Francis named him coadjutor bishop of central Louisiana’s Alexandria diocese Sept. 21, 2016.

Bishop Talley was raised a Southern Baptist but left the denomination as a teenager over the issue of racial segregation. He converted to Catholicism at the age of 24 after meeting Catholics and reading the writings of Thomas Merton while he was studying at Auburn University.

The Spanish-speaking bishop helped begin a cross-cultural immersion program for the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s seminarians, and he also served as the chaplain for the archdiocese’s disabilities ministry.

When Bishop Talley's appointment as coadjutor in Alexandria was announced, Archbishop Wilton Gregory commented that he is “a servant minister of our Church, who is graced with extraordinary wisdom, patience, kindness and dedication … he now begins this new appointment with exceptional credentials.”

As for Bishop Herzog, the 74-year-old bishop was born in Akron, Ohio in April 1942. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson in 1968 and named Bishop of Alexandria in 2004. He has served as a consultant for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

He retires a few months before turning 75, the mandatory retirement age for bishops.

According to the U.S. bishops’ conference, the Alexandria diocese has about 36,280 Catholics in a population of 368,000. There are 71 churches and missions in the diocese.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Carlos Barria, Reuters

By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) ? "Spiritual success" is a more accurate measure for the United States than wealth, according to likely billionaire President Donald Trump in remarks Feb. 2 at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

"America is a nation of believers," Trump said. "In towns across the land, we see what we so easily forget: The quality of our lives is not defined by our material success but by our spiritual success. I speak that as someone who has had great material success and who knows many people who have had great material success. ... Some of them are very miserable, miserable people."

Compared to people to have money but no happiness, the people who have no money but happiness "are the successful people, let me tell you," Trump said at the 65th annual breakfast, attended by 3,000 politicians, religious leaders and dignitaries, including King Abdullah of Jordan.

Trump spoke about having gone to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware the previous day for the return of the remains of William "Ryan" Owens, a Navy SEAL killed in a firefight with al-Qaida in Yemen. "Greater love has no man than that a man lay down his life for his friends," the president said. "We will never forget the men and women who wear the uniform, believe me."

Freedom is not "a gift of government" but "a gift of God," Trump added. "It was the great Thomas Jefferson who said that the God who gave us life gave us liberty." But the nation's 45th president question whether "the liberties of the nation will be secure if we remove the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God."

"That is why I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment, and allow our religious representatives to speak freely without fear and without retribution," Trump said. The amendment, attached by then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson to a 1954 bill, bans federally recognized nonprofits from making political endorsements. "Freedom of religion is a sacred right, but it is a right under threat all round us," said the president.

In his speech, Trump alluded to the executive memorandum he issued Jan. 27 that bans refugees hailing from seven majority-Muslim countries -- Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia -- for 90 days. His action suspends the entire U.S. refugee resettlement program for 120 days.

"Our nation has the most generous immigration system in the world. But there are those who would exploit that generosity," he said.

"We want people to come into our nation but we want people to love us and to love our values, not to hate us and hate our values. We will be a safe country, we will be a free country, where people can practice their beliefs without fear of hostility and without fear of violence."

Trump's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast lasted one minute longer than his 18-minute presidential inaugural speech.

"Five words that never fail to touch my heart," Trump said at the breakfast, are "I am praying for you." "I hear it so often" 'I am praying for you, Mr. President.'"

He lauded the keynote address given by the Rev. Barry Black, a Seventh-day Adventist who is chaplain of the Senate. The speech was so good, he told Rev. Black, "I'm going to appoint you for another year, the hell with it." Chaplains are appointed by their respective house of Congress.

Trump also talked about how he "had to leave" his job hosting "The Celebrity Apprentice" after he announced his presidential bid. "They hired a big, big movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger to take my place, and we know how that turned out: The ratings went right down the tubes, it was a disaster. Pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings."

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Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison.

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