Paul Samasumo – Vatican City

Barely, a few hours after Pope Francis’ Saturday tweets, urging prayers for northeast Nigeria, on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a sizeable number of Nigerian military personnel attended Sunday Mass at the Madagali community parish in the Catholic  Diocese of Maiduguri. This is according to information made available to Vatican News’ English Africa Service by Fr. Gideon Obasogie of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri.

The Mass became a thanksgiving event 

It was an emotional Eucharistic celebration as the Madagali community Mass turned into a celebration of thanksgiving. The Nigerian military personnel, in attendance, had literally come from the front line following a week spent repelling a series of Boko Haram attempted attacks on the Madagali community.

Pope Francis is praying with us, says Parish Priest

The Parish Priest, Fr. Innocent Sunu encouraged the Military personnel to remain steadfast in protecting the vulnerable community. He reminded parishioners that they were not alone, but that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and the Universal Church were praying and were united with them in their life of constant insecurity.

We are neglected by politicians

Fr. Sunu, however, said the state of insecurity in Nigeria and particularly in the northern regions was the result of neglect by politicians. With some bridges in the region recently washed away by heavy rains or destroyed by Boko Haram, the area could as well be considered “comfortably cut off from other towns,” said Fr. Sunu.

“The weak but faithful Christians here in the north (of Nigeria) have nothing much to say or do other than seek the intercession of our Mother of Hope -as prayed by the Holy Father. This is the only lifeline left for our people in a country where our political leaders seem to have fallen asleep at the wheel and have taken their eyes off the ball,” lamented the Madagali Parish Priest.

Madagali is near the Sambisa forest

Nigeria’s Madagali community has in the past been vulnerable to Boko Haram attacks because it is situated just a few kilometres from the infamous Sambisa forest that unfortunately has become synonymous with Boko Haram terrorists. Boko Haram has used the forest as its fortress and hiding place.

The insurgents have been waging deadly attacks against the Nigerian State in a bid to impose their brand of a religious government (Caliphate). In the process, Boko Haram has attacked civilians through killings, bombings, forced conscription and abductions of women and girls.

Abducted victims are often spirited away in the dense Sambisa forest. Over the last few years, the Nigerian military has, appeared to have gained a noticeable upper hand over the terrorists. Nonetheless, Boko Haram are relentless fighters who are still a significant menace to Nigerian society.

We thank God for sparing us from COVID-19

Turning to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Madagali Parish Priest, Fr. Sunu, thanked God that, so far, the community had been spared the worst.

“We give thanks to God for His care as we have been protected against the Coronavirus. The world is experiencing a global pandemic, but we have been saved in this our little village. If COVID-19 cases come here, the numbers would hit the roof, and we would all be history because the health care facilities here are as good as non-existent,” said the Parish Priest. 

By Robin Gomes

Pope Francis is urging Brazil’s consecrated men and women to fight worldly tendencies is “to give priority to prayer” beccause the “person who keeps his or her eyes fixed on Jesus learns that to live to serve.”

He makes this exhortation in a message to them as they observe the first Week of Consecrated Religious Life, August 16 to 22.  In the message addressed to Sister  Maria Inês Vieira Ribeiro, the national president of the Conference of the Religious of Brazil (CRB), the Pope expresses his joy at the initiative which “aims to promote and renew the mission” of each consecrated religious in the Land of the Holy Cross, as the first explorers of the unknown territory called it.  

Joy in the gift of self

The Holy Father, himself a Jesuit, reminds them that the vocation of a religious has its origin in the experience of knowing that one is loved by God. Life itself, he explains, is the fruit of the loving call of God, who accompanies us along our journey, and is aware of our anxious longing for love and happiness, He calls us to joy.  This joy, the Pope stresses, is found only in the gift of self to others.

Prayer helps fix gaze on Jesus

In today’s society, which is undergoing epochal changes, the Pope urges the religious to “be vigilant in order to avoid the temptation to have a worldly outlook, which prevents us from seeing God’s grace as the protagonist of life and leads us to go out in search of a substitute”. 

And the best antidote against such a temptation, the Pope says, is to give priority to prayer in the midst of all our activities.  A person who keeps his gaze fixed on Jesus, learns to live and serve, recalling that he or she is loved.

Our first love

Pope Francis thus invites Brazil’s religious men and women to ask themselves: “Is Jesus truly the first and only love, as we proposed when we professed our vows?”  Only this way, the Holy Father says, “will we be able to truly and mercifully love each person we meet on our journey”.  By learning from Jesus what love is will we know how to love, the Pope says.

Ever onward

Consecrated religious present in Rome participated in the recitation of the Angelus with Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square on Sunday. He singled them out, saying:

“In particular, I greet the Brazilian men and women religious present here in Rome – with so many flags – these religious are following spiritually the First National Week of Consecrated Life being celebrated in Brazil. Happy week of consecrated life. Ever onward!”

By Vatican News

Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin has conveyed Pope Francis’s warmest greetings to Bishop Francesco Lambasi of Rimini, on the occasion of the opening of the Meeting for Friendship between Peoples.

“The Holy Father wishes to convey through you his wish for the success of the 41^st Meeting for Friendship amongst Peoples,” reads the letter dated 5 August. “To the organizers and all those who will participate, Pope Francis assures his closeness and his prayer.”

Every year since 1980, the Meeting for Friendship between Peoples takes place in August, in Rimini, Italy.

This year’s meeting is themed: “Devoid of wonder we remain deaf to the sublime” from A.J. Heschel’s book God in Search of Man. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the meeting is taking place online.

All in the same boat

Echoing Pope Francis’s words during the Extraordinary Moment of Prayer on 27 March 2020, Cardinal Parolin said that we all are in the same boat tossed about in a storm that unmasks our vulnerabilities especially since we are all affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The theme of this year’s meeting, therefore, “offers a precious and original contribution at a dizzying moment in history” when we have lost our ability to look in amazement at reality like children. 

Instead, said the Cardinal, “many have focused exclusively on their own strengths, on their ability to produce and earn,” in our search for goods rather than for good.

It is for this reason that Jesus’s invitation to become like children (Mt 18:3) comes to mind as amazement “sets life in motion, allowing it to start again in any circumstance,” said Cardinal Parolin.

The world in the face of Covid

Cardinal Parolin pointed out that in recent months “we have experienced that dimension of amazement that takes the form of compassion in the presence of suffering, fragility and the precariousness of existence.”

This noble human feeling, he explains, has taken many forms including pushing doctors and nurses to face the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic; encouraging teachers to adapt to the difficulties of distance learning to finish the school year, and “allowing many to find in the faces and presence of their families, the strength to face discomfort and difficulties.”

In this sense, the theme of the meeting is a call to “descend into the depths of the human heart by means of amazement.” “Amazement”, he added “is the way to grasp the signs of the sublime, that is, of that mystery that constitutes the root and foundation of all things.”

If this type of vision is not cultivated, the Cardinal warned, “one becomes blind to existence, closed within oneself, attracted by what is fleeting, and stops questioning reality.”

Beauty in art

Cardinal Parolin recalled that Pope Francis recently received a letter from several artists who thanked him for praying for them during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on 7 May. On that occasion, the Pope said: “Artists make us understand what beauty is, and without beauty the Gospel cannot be understood.” 

In that regard, Cardinal Parolin said the Meeting launches a challenge to Christians to witness the profound attraction that faith exercises by virtue of its beauty. This, according to the Servant of God Luigi Giussani is the “attraction of Jesus.” And, as Pope Francis stresses in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (167), “every expression of true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading to an encounter with the Lord Jesus…so a formation in the via pulchritudinis ought to be part of our effort to pass on the faith.”

Pope Francis, therefore, invites the Meeting’s participants to collaborate with him in witnessing to the experience of “the beauty of God who became flesh so that our eyes may marvel at his face and our eyes may find in him, the wonder of living.” This, “is a task from which we cannot refrain,” said the Cardinal, especially in this critical time in history.

Concluding, Cardinal Parolin said the Pope imparts his Apostolic Blessing on the participants of the Meeting, asking them to remember him in their prayers.