Dimanche le 30 novembre 2014 Karol Wojtyla - Let us go with joy to meet the Lord - First Sunday of Advent Homily 1974 Let me first say a few words about the meaning of the Advent season that we are entering this Sunday and that marks the beginning of the liturgical year. In the first place we obviously need to consider its historical (or, if you prefer, chronological) significance. Advent carries our minds back to the first human events, which also marked the starting point of the history of salvation, which led to Christ. Advent is the equivalent of this historico-chronological period of waiting for his coming and also of the unfolding of the mystery of Christ — in the first place of the Incarnation — inasmuch as this season brings us back to his hidden origins. However, we can find other meanings in Advent. In the structure of Christianity it can be taken as indicating the deepest level. Christianity is the religion of the coming of God, of his breaking through into human history and life — an aspect which makes it stand out from other religions. Islam is undoubtedly a religion of God’s presence in the world as Creator; it is a religion of transcendence. The religions of the Far East, which are religions of the absence of God, are also, in quite a different way, affirmations of his absolute transcendence. Maybe we need such affirmations so that awareness of absolute transcendence, which mystics possess in the fuller sense, can be communicated to us who live in faith in the Lord’s coming, in that coming which is a fact. Faith encounters the historical fact. After these introductory remarks, let us give further consideration to two phrases from today’s liturgy, because they can help us to live this Sunday in a more interior way. The first is the invocation, “Let us go with joy to meet the Lord,” which the Church purposely places at the very beginning of the liturgical year. Let us go with joy to meet Christ. This describes the atmosphere of the mystery of the Incarnation and of Christmas, and also that of the period of waiting for him, which the Church enters on the first Sunday of Advent. All this finds its meaning and confirmation in each one of us. We all know that meeting with our Lord is the source of joy in the emotional sense of which Christmas and Advent tradition is full. However, it is chiefly so in its true, existential sense, according to which the greatest joy is everything linked to its end. And for the human person the end is the encounter with God. The person matures, is purified, and reaches self-realization in this encounter. All the uncertainty of our existence, which has its own built-in limits and is also limited by its actual situation, recedes only in the meeting with the Supreme. This is our hope — our eschatological hope. Eschatological hope is verified along the way, so that we can state that the Church’s call to go with joy to meet the Lord hides a deep meaning. A child looking forward to Christmas in his own way can identify with this call, just as an adult who has experienced many things can. The second expression I want to consider from today’s liturgy are the words of the Apostle Paul: “You know what hour it is” (Romans 13:11). When everything seems to be turned to the future, so that we are almost torn from the present, the Church uses the apostle’s words to bring us to a halt, almost as if it were saying: “Advent is the present moment: not tomorrow, but today; not later, but now.” And what deep truth there is in these words! This makes Christianity the religion of the Lord’s coming, inasmuch as, while waiting for the Lord’s coming, we actually experience it. His coming unceasingly fills and satisfies our “now.” Thanks to this factor, we live with the hope of eschatological fullness; we live Advent not only in the perspective of the liturgical year, but also in the perspective of the entire existence of the individual, each nation and all humanity. The moment which we are living and which we must “know” is maybe very similar to the moment described in today’s gospel reading (Luke 21:25-33), so that it too gives rise to much reflection, some of it deeply pessimistic and fearful of catastrophe. We are right to wonder about the forms our civilization or world should take and with it the Church, to which through its past it is so deeply bound and of which it is the expression. However, these reflections would carry us far afield to theories about the world and its evolution, and, even though such matters may be of deep concern to us in a different way, we must leave them in order to return to the simplicity of the word of God which calls us today, just as it has done for centuries, to go with joy to meet the Lord. This is a deep truth, both because of its simplicity and because of its clarity — and maybe not only for the believer but also in a certain sense for each person who seeks it. I would urge you to strive to “know what hour it is,” because this hour is also the time of the Lord’s coming. Indeed, since God came each hour has been full of his coming. My dear brothers and sisters, I should like to take the invocation from today’s liturgy as the key phrase for our gathering, since every meeting is in a certain sense such an “hour.” Let us try to understand its meaning and see how it can be full of God’s coming. I think that if we begin like this we shall be able to receive from this first moment, this first day of Advent, the sanctifying fruits of grace which are destined for each one of us and for us all as a specific community in this specific age. Let us pray for this while participating in the eucharistic liturgy. 30 November 1974 11:26:38 AM

Jeudi le 27 novembre 2014 La vie de sainte Catherine Labouré (1er dim. de l'Avent-B) / Michel-Marie Zanotti-Sorkine 2:45:22 PM Angel of Rio: One Woman Rescues 3,000 Babies From Abortion Former teacher goes into the slums to help pregnant women choose life and build a future. Carrie Gress, Ph.D. While Rio has been at the center of the world stage, hosting World Youth Day, World Cup Soccer, and the Summer Olympics in 2016, one woman has quietly saved over 3,000 children slated for abortion in its poorest slums. It started simply enough. Twenty-three years ago, Doris Hipolito had a comfortable life as a history and geography teacher and counselor teaching second to eighth graders in Rio de Janeiro. The principal of her school asked her to help some of the girls who where suffering from the aftermath of abortion. Hipolito gathered some pro-life materials to help the girls and passed them out among fellow parishioners. She then felt the tug to start praying the rosary in a public square on the 13th of every month while also passing out pro-life pamphlets. With support from Bishop Werner Siebembrok and the Legion of Mary, Hipolito’s small group started assisting women in Rio’s favelas (slums) who felt they had no other alternative than abortion. Although abortion is illegal in most cases in Brazil, there are still “clinics” where they are performed illegally in Baixada Fluminense, a socially abandoned part of Rio with a population of 3 million. Less clinic and more of a “spiritual house” – something akin to voodoo– many of the aborted babies are fed to dogs and snakes. Hipolito stands at the doors of these “clinics” trying to convince these mothers – many of whom have drug addictions and/or intense pressure by others to abort – to keep their babies, while offering support to continue the pregnancy and turn their lives around. Eight years ago, Hipolito took the courageous step with the support of her family, to quit her job and work for these desperate women full time. Then in 2007, she encountered a homeless pregnant woman living under an overpass who was physically and mentally disabled. Hipolito rented a small house to take care of her. Then another pregnant woman in need came. Then another, and another. Hipolito finally established a formal home: Casa de Amparo Pró – Vida or the House of Assistance. In addition to having a safe and nurturing place for these women and their children, Hipolito helped establish pro-life centers at local churches for pregnant women to get assistance. Both through these centers and the House of Protection, a pregnant woman can find professional training, medical care, and a place to work where she can live her life with dignity and meet the needs of her baby. Many of the women Hipolito has helped have become volunteers to her work. The daughter of one woman who she helped twenty years ago now volunteers to help other women. Political pressure is mounting in Brazil for abortion to be legalized. Feminist groups are working to defeat Hipolito’s pro-life work. She has received threatening phone calls and even death threats. One woman, a local prosecutor, came to inspect the House of Assistance, and upon seeing the photos of the children who were saved from abortion, exclaimed, “This House should never have existed!” Today, Hipolito and her family rely upon Providence to provide for their needs and the needs of all who are cared for at the House of Assistance. She hopes to expand the house and land has been donated for her to do so, but the project has been stalled because of a lack of funds. Even in their poverty, Hipolito has already seen the lives of 160 children saved from illegal abortions this year alone. Despite the difficulties, Hipolito stays afloat through the hope she sees in the faces of the children she has pictured on her wall. And when things get very difficult, she recites to herself: “The powerful can give me power, but the babies can give me Paradise.” To learn more about Doris Hipolito or to assist her work, go to: http://www.gofundme.com/hub754. 12:35:53 PM L'humeur en montagnes russes - Bipolaire ou borderline? Un cours de Serge Beaulieu et Suzane Renaud en 2011 Le trouble de la personnalité limite (TPL) est une maladie mentale caractérisée par une instabilité émotionnelle. Les individus aux prises avec ce trouble ont du mal à maîtriser leurs impulsions et à maintenir des relations interpersonnelles. 9:49:23 AM

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