Guns N' Rosaries Mission

Through fellowship, education and charitable acts we seek to reclaim our Christian baptismal inheritance as Priests, Prophets and Kings. Priests are known throughout Scripture for giving sacrifice, so we seek to sacrifice our lives for Christ through donating ourselves to others, particularly our families. Being a Prophet means to speak on God's behalf. Through educating ourselves in Holy Scripture and Catholic Tradition we aim to articulate Truth through the way that we live and speak about the faith to others. Kings have three primary tasks; (1) Lead his people into battle, (2) Look after widows and orphans, (3) Care for the poor. We participate in this kingship by picking up the daily fight against personal sin and in particular by caring for the poor through personal relationships and material help for those in need. In order to achieve this mission we invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph.

Friday, September 11, 2015

Pope’s Morning Homily: 'Accusing Yourself is The First Step in Avoiding Hypocrisy'

Pope’s Morning Homily: 'Accusing Yourself is The First Step in Avoiding Hypocrisy'

Reflects on the Generosity of Forgiveness and Mercy During Mass at Casa Santa Marta

Rome, (ZENIT.org) Junno Arocho Esteves | 290 hits



 
“Saint Paul teaches us to accuse ourselves. And the Lord, with that image of the speck that is in your brother’s eye and the beam in yours, teaches us the same.”
 
These were Pope Francis’ words during his homily this morning at Mass in Casa Santa Marta.
According to Vatican Radio, the Holy Father began by reflecting on today’s first reading from St. Paul’s 1st Letter to Timothy, in which the apostle praises God’s mercy on him despite his sins.
“I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief,” St. Paul says.
 
Commenting on the beauty of Paul’s words, the Holy Father explained that the first step in obtaining such humility is to accuse one’s self.
 
“The courage to accuse yourself, before accusing the others,” he said. “And Paul praises the Lord because He chose him and gives thanks ‘because He considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man’. But there was mercy.”
Accusing Ourselves: The First to Magnanimity
 
Like the first reading, the 78 year old Pontiff noted that today’s Gospel also speaks on the importance of accusing ourselves.
 
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?” Jesus asks his disciples in Luke’s Gospel.
Jesus, the Holy Father explained, uses a specific word to describe those who are “two-faced”: hypocrite.
 
“The man and woman who do not learn to accuse themselves become hypocrites,” he said.
“Everyone, eh? Everyone. Beginning with the Pope all the way down: everyone. If one of us does not have the ability to accuse themselves and then says [...] things about others, they are not Christian, they do not enter into this beautiful work of reconciliation, of peace, of tenderness, of goodness, of forgiveness, of magnanimity, of mercy that Jesus Christ has brought to us.”
 
The Jesuit Pope called on the faithful to pray for the Lord’s grace of conversion and to pause before pointing out another’s defects. Recalling St. Paul’s words, the Pope said that first step to magnanimity is to save those comments about others and instead make comments about ourselves.
 
“The one who only knows how to look at the speck in another’s eye, ends up in pettiness: a petty soul, full of trivialities, full of gossip,” he warned.
Concluding his homily, Pope Francis exhorted the faithful to ask God for the grace to be generous in forgiveness and in mercy.

“To canonize a person,” he said, “there is a whole process, there is a need for a miracle and then the Church declares the person a saint. But, if a person who has never, never spoken ill of another is found, they can be canonized immediately.”

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