'Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.' Sunday Reflections, Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A

St Philip, Giuseppe Mazzuoli [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings and Reflections: 

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A

Canonisations in Fatima

Lucia Santos, left, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto [Wikipedia]

On Saturday 13 May Pope Francis will canonise Blessed Francisco Marto (1908 - 1919) and his sister Jacinta (1910 - 1920) in Fátima, Portugal, on the 100th anniversary of the first apparition of the Blessed Mother there to the three children.

A good friend of mine who is a priest and a Scripture scholar once pointed out to me that in all the places where the Church has affirmed that our Blessed Mother truly appeared it was to poor people. We can see this in such places as Guadalupe (1531) in Mexico, La Salette (1846) and Lourdes (1858) in France, Beauraing (1932-33) and Banneux (1933) in Belgium, Fátima (1917) in Portugal and Knock (1879) in Ireland. I have been blessed by having taken part in pilgrimages to all of these except La Salette and Guadalupe.

You may find this article of interest: The surprising connection between Our Lady of Fatima and Islam.

Ave de Fátima

Sung in Portuguese by the Choir of the Shrine in Fátima

Beatification in Dublin of Blessed John Sullivan SJ

Blessed John Sullivan SJ 

[Facebook. Portrait by Seán O’Sullivan]

Also on 13 May, for the first time in history, a beatification will take place in Ireland, that of Fr John Sullivan SJ (1861 - 1933), by  Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The ceremony will be held in St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner Street, Dublin, a church that is closely associated also with the Venerable Matt Talbot (1856 - 1925). These two men grew up within walking distance of each other, but in totally different circumstances, John Sullivan in prosperity and Matt Talbot in poverty. God called both of them to sanctity, as indeed he calls each of us through our baptism. They responded to this call.

St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner St, Dublin [Wikipedia]

For some reason, Dubliners rarely refer to their churches by their patronal name but rather by the street name. Had this ceremony been held in Dublin 50 or 60 years ago it would not have taken place in this or in any other church but in an open, public space. It will be interesting to see how the Irish media will cover the event.

Please pray this weekend for a renewal  of the Catholic Christian faith in Ireland where to a large extent in recent decades it has been rejected or marginalised as a purely private matter, and despised by some.

World Youth Day begins today

These are the logos being used by the delegates from the Philippines at World Youth Day, which begins today in Madrid. 'Pinoy' is a term that Filipinos use for themselves and has no negative connotations whatever. President Benigno C. Aquino III, whose nickname is 'Noynoy', is universally referred to in the Philippines as 'P-Noy'.



The Conference of Catholic Bishops of the Philippines set up at website for World Youth Day 2011, wydpinoy.com.



Bishop Joel Z. Baylon of Legazpi is Chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Youth. His talk above is almost totally in Tagalog. The promo video below shows the essence of WYD - a pilgrimage of prayer, repentance, celebration of our Catholic faith. It is an occasion when young people can show their pride in their national and cultural identity while discovering their deepest identity as beloved sons and daughters of the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and therefore of one another.



I like this promo video below. It captures something of the hope and optimism of the young. Though it is in Spanish anyone with a smattering of that language should be able to understand the texts or at least get the gist of them.



The song of Jaula Grillos, We Are More, on the video below, which is on the official website of WYD 2011, also captures something of the enthusiasm of the young that the Church needs.

The link to the official Facebook page is here. There are links there to pages in many languages, including English and Tagalog.

The official English Twitter page is here.

You can keep track of some of the delegates from the Philippines on Facebook on Youth Pinoy. There I found this photo of Filipino delegates to WYD in Fatima, Portugal, on 14 August: