Bugnini on Sacred Music and the Liturgy

Archbishop Annibale Bugnini was instrumental in the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council. He is often reviled by traditionalists because of the hand they believe he played in the decimation of Catholic liturgy and particularly Catholic liturgical music. It seems unfortunate to me that the Church, at least in the U.S., often seems resigned to the singing of nice enough hymns, but hymns that seem to me to have little to do with the actual liturgy, and unfortunately replace the antiphons that are actually proper to the Mass. I would love to see a return to the singing of the liturgical antiphons instead of hymns that often, at the very least have no thematic relevance to the liturgy of the day, often are insipid, and at times border on heretical.

Back to Bugnini. As I said, Bugnini is often reviled by traditionalists because of the role he played in Vatican II. It seems that every time a questionable hymn is sung in Mass, a radical traditionalist will say something to the effect of, "Oh, this stinks of Bugnini." Unfortunately traditionalists are missing a great opportunity here. I strongly believe that when it comes to the restoration of the Roman liturgy the only thing we need to do is turn to the actual documents of Vatican II, and to the instructions of the Pauline liturgy, and I think the same can be said of the influence of Bugnini. Bugnini's own words can be a great defense against the trite and banal (and ubiquitous) non-liturgical music used in so many Catholic Masses today. Over at New Liturgical Movement, easily my favorite blog when it comes to things liturgical, they include this prescient quote from Bugnini regarding the use and the quality of vernacular hymns:

That rule [permitting vernacular hymns] has been superseded. What must be sung is the Mass, its ordinary and proper, not "something," no matter how consistent, that is imposed on the Mass. Because the liturgical service is one, it has only one countenance, one motif, one voice, the voice of the church. To continue to replace the texts of the Mass being celebrated with motets that are reverent and devout, yet out of keeping with the Mass of the day amounts to continuing an unacceptable ambiguity: it is to cheat the people. Liturgical song involves not mere melody, but words, text, thought, and the sentiments that the poetry and music contain. Thus texts must be those of the Mass, not others, and singing means singing the Mass not just singing during Mass.

There is indeed a proper place for hymns in our liturgical celebrations, but that place is in the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours. And while Vatican II is clear that hymns may be used in the liturgy, its allowance nonetheless leaves the preference clearly with the singing of the proper antiphons, and certainly a level of quality, solemnity, beauty and liturgical continuity must be maintained in the selection. So many of the hymnals that we find in churches today offer choices of little redeeming value, in my opinion, and I believe we would be much better served with a Roman hymnal that places greater emphasis on proper antiphons and on hymns of sound theology and liturgical form.

Perhaps it is true that many Catholics have gotten comfortable with the hymns we use today. They are easy enough so that if someone cares to sing along they can. They are like an old sock, comfortable and unassuming. They don't stir anything within us, they just simply are there, and we've come to expect their presence. But let's be honest, the vast majority of the hymns we sing in Mass don't reflect the beauty and grandeur of God, they don't reflect the solemnity of the Mass and of the Sacrifice being offered, and they definitely stand no chance of drawing lost and searching souls into the truly transcendent experience that Divine Liturgy is supposed to be.

I believe that as Catholics we do well to follow the lead and pay attention to the example of our Holy Father. The changes he is making in his own personal liturgical celebrations should serve as a guide for how we should model our own. If you are a liturgical director, if you have any influence on the formation of the liturgy in your own parish, pay attention to the papal liturgies, pay attention to the guidance that the Holy Father offers, pay attention to the directives that he offers to this suffering Church, a Church suffering from liturgical ennui. Observe his example, his expressed desires for liturgical reform, and make it happen in your own parish!

On Liturgical Music

Jeffrey Tucker has a wonderful piece about liturgical music over at Dappled Things. Here is an excerpt that really caught my eye:

If I were to pick one word to describe the present state of music in the Catholic world, I would choose tedium. Nothing new ever happens. The repertoire is mostly from the 1970s, with some 1980s elaborations, but in a style that is dreadfully dated by popular standards. It is particularly pathetic that much of this music depends heavily on the sound and feel of people who want to be inspired by the "groove"—yet the music demonstrates a chilling lack of inspiration. Most of this material does not play itself; it sounds unusually boring in the hands of bored musicians.

The hymns are chosen before Mass from the usual standbys, as if there were nothing more to Catholic music than flipping pages and pointing. Why even bother to rehearse? It's no wonder that pastors don't want to spend any more time or resources on the music program than what they currently spend. What do they expect to get that they aren't getting now? Is there anything to be excited about? Anything to learn?

Inspiration is precisely what the discovery of the Gregorian tradition provides. You only need to know one antiphon and feel the way the Latin works so beautifully for the singing voice in order to gain this inspiration. This music touches something deep within all Catholics and all the more so when we come to realize that this is the music that developed alongside the Catholic liturgical structure as an integral part of it.

There is so much of this music—vast quantities for every liturgical purpose—that it overwhelms us with astonishment at what we've been missing and how much we don't know. Even the slightest effort toward learning music pays very high returns. One chant can transform an entire Mass. We aren't just singing tunes; we are singing part of the Mass itself. The style and text fit precisely, and we can know with certainty that we are doing what's right.

Read the entire piece here.

One thing that intrigues me about our selection of liturgical music is that part of the reason for using many of our songs was that we needed music that is contemporary. But the vast majority of the music we use now is anything but contemporary. Folk music from the 1970's does very little, if nothing at all, for people who otherwise have no exposure to this thoroughly outdated style of music. Folk music is not contemporary, and if it still speaks to people today, it speaks to a small minority.

I also think that in the discussion of liturgical music we need to consider not only what the people at Mass want, but perhaps even more importantly what will inspire the people not at Mass. There is no denying a significant drop in Mass attendance since Vatican II. While there are certainly a number of reasons contributing to this, and I have no special knowledge but only speculation, I have to wonder whether part of the reason is that Mass has become such an insipid event in many parishes, with a significantly diminished sense of mystery (sadly very few Catholics even believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist these days), and a significantly diminished sense of beauty, both of which, it seems to me, should be intrinsic to any liturgical celebration. Just a thought. I certainly have much to learn in my liturgical education, so understand these are merely speculations and observations from an everyday Catholic.

On Christian Hope

Recently I posed the question, "What do you believe is the ultimate Christian hope?" I was very interested in the variety of responses (from the various communities where I posted, as well as my own blog), and now would like to share my own thoughts on the subject.

The reason this question is of current importance to me is because of what I believe to be a rather significant distortion of Christian teaching on hope and on life after death that is rather prevalent in all circles of Christian belief today. One of the most common responses to this question is some variation of, "That my soul will be in heaven with Jesus for all eternity." This certainly sounds like a nice enough answer, but unfortunately it has no basis in orthodox Christian teaching, and certainly is far removed from the hope promised us by Christ in the Scriptures. Whether consciously or not, this distorted vision of Christian hope is rooted in the infiltration of Platonic dualism into our religious belief. Plato looks at the soul as being the real thing of the person, the only thing that matters, and the body as but a prison from which the soul is mercifully released at death. Thus death is thought of as a final good, because of the fact that it allows the immortal soul to return to freedom. This understanding of the body/soul relationship has been Christianized so that death is seen as an evil for those who mourn the loss of their loved one, but for the one who dies, it is seen as allowing them to finally achieve their most blessed destiny, which is [they assert] the soul's eternal existence in the presence of God.

This is certainly not a biblical view, however, nor can it be presented as an authentic Christian view, regardless of how many Christians believe it. For Christianity to lose sight of the reality of the resurrection of the body as man's final eschatological destiny would mean for Christianity to cease to be altogether, and some new religion to take its place. The centrality of the Christian faith is and can only ever be the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise that the very same awaits us as our ultimate eschatological hope.

This is a difficult thing for many Christians to accept, because we think so easily of heaven as being where we will finally be perfected, where our journey will finally be complete. To think of heaven as a state of incompletion seems scandalous to many, precisely because of the great abandonment of authentic Christian eschatology. Our life here on earth is perfect ontologically insofar as we exist as body and soul, as God intended. It is imperfect, however, in that our relationship with God and with creation is damaged, and often severely so. When we die, the soul is ripped from the body, as it were, highlighting the true violence of death (see, for example, the stark contrast between the death of Socrates and the death of Jesus. Socrates embraced it as a final freedom and something to be embraced. Jesus grieved over it and experienced true terror at the thought of it, knowing as he did the ultimate violence it would force upon him).

At death all souls are judged. Some souls will be damned, some souls will not, and those not, either immediately or after an intermediate purification will enter into heaven, into the presence of God. This state of heaven, while certainly a joyous state, is also intermediate, and ultimately serves as a mirror image of the life on earth, insofar as in heaven the person enjoys a perfect relationship with God but is nonetheless ontologically incomplete. The soul does not have a body, and it is created for a body, and thus is incomplete in heaven. Certainly it is not a painful incompletion, for it is in heaven, it is with God, and that can only be joy. But the soul nonetheless maintains a continued hopeful expectation while in heaven, the hope of the resurrection, the hope of not only reunion with the body but with the body that is now perfected with incorruptibility and will live in the new earth that is equally incorruptible.

That our hope is rooted in the resurrection does not mean that we live only for the future. In his second encyclical, Spe Salvi, In Hope We are Saved, Pope Benedict XVI, commenting on the relationship between faith and hope, writes, "Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this reality constitutes for us a "proof" of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a "not yet." The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future." A Christian view of hope then is one where hope of future things, of things unseen, namely of the resurrection of the body and the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, breaks into our present and has a profound impact on the praxis of here and now. It is for just this reason that a proper understanding of eschatological hope is so important. Understood properly it will lead the Christian to a building up of God's kingdom here on earth in anticipation of the kingdom being perfectly established at the resurrection; it will also lead towards a healthy understanding of the human body, one that recognizes that the whole person is healthier when the flesh is subjected to the spirit, in terms of a proper ordering of things, but also recognizes that the body is intrinsic to who we are as creations of God, that our ultimate hope is to live in a new earth in glorified bodies, and so even on this earth we treat the body (and all of creation!) with dignity and respect.

Because Christian hope is rooted in the resurrection and the ensuing perfect establishment of God's kingdom, this also says something important about the nature of salvation that is too often greatly misunderstood in some theological circles. Salvation is ultimately to be seen as the perfection of the Church, not the perfection of the individual. As such, salvation is always a corporate event, not an individual one. There is no such thing as "my personal salvation" because salvation is always to be seen as intrinsically connected to the perfection of the Church and the redemption of all of creation. Certainly we are called to have a personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ, but just as a child has a personal relationship with his parents here on earth, that relationship is never isolated from the rest of the family, and the relationship is never in a vacuum that isolates him from his siblings. The family, while consisting of various personal relationships, is ultimately defined by its corporate relationship, and fate is seen not simply as related to an individual but to the family as a whole. So it is with the Church and salvation. We all have our roles and functions to play, and these roles are always geared towards the salvation of the Church, a salvation realized corporately in the general resurrection when the Church – militant, suffering, and triumphant – will together be raised in new glorified bodies and live in perfect fulfillment of God's kingdom in the new earth.

We are created to live on earth, in bodies, and in perfect relationships with both God and creation. Our faith informs us that this design will indeed exist for us in the future. This hope is not only informative but also performative, and so while living here and now we anticipate that future hope by making it a present reality as much as we possibly can. We strive to love God, to love our neighbor, to act with mercy, justice, compassion, holiness, and so forth here and now because we know that to do so is to experience something of the perfection to which we are called. We do not disdain this world or our bodies, but rather we anticipate their perfection, and live in hope that one day, that day when Christ returns, it will be so.

Catholic Relief Services and Haiti

I mentioned before about the efforts of CRS in the relief effort in Haiti. As I said then, CRS is far and away the most qualified to handle the effort effectively because of their already strong presence on the ground in Haiti and their tremendous experience with the Haitian people. To further this demonstration, Pope Benedict XVI has asked Catholic Relief Services to head the Church's international efforts to support the people of Haiti. I just want to appeal once again, if you are considering making a donation, while there are many great organizations out there, in this particular instance I am confident that a donation to CRS will be the most effective at helping the people of Haiti during this terrible time. Once again, here is the secure link where you can donate to CRS' Haitian relief fund.

Finally, here are the words spoken by Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday appealing for support for the people of Haiti:

I now wish to address an appeal for the tragic situation currently being experienced in Haiti. My thoughts go in particular to the population hit just a few hours ago by a devastating earthquake which has caused serious loss of human life, large numbers of homeless and missing people, and vast material damage. I invite everyone to join my prayers to the Lord for the victims of this catastrophe and for those who mourn their loss. I give assurances of my spiritual closeness to people who have lost their homes and to everyone who, in various ways, has been affected by this terrible calamity, imploring God to bring them consolation and relief in their suffering. 

I appeal to the generosity of all people so that these our brothers and sisters who are experiencing a moment of need and suffering may not lack our concrete solidarity and the effective support of the international community. The Catholic Church will not fail to move immediately, through her charitable institutions, to meet the most immediate needs of the population.

UPDATE: I also want to include the following video from the Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. "Haiti is the broken, bloody body of Jesus."

Christian Hope

I'm asking this question mostly for survey purposes, just out of curiosity. What do you believe is the ultimate Christian hope? Be as specific as possible.

The Earthquake in Haiti – How to Help

Here is the Catholic Relief Services blog post about the recent massive and deadly earthquake in Haiti. The scene has been described as utter devastation. Hospitals have been destroyed, probably well over 1,000 are dead, many more without power, communication ability, and on and on. Catholic Relief Services is the largest relief presence already on the ground in Haiti, as they have a permanent presence there, and they are the best equipped to aid in the relief effort. If anyone is thinking of donating money to assist in Haiti, I would recommend you send your donation to them, as it will be the most effective and efficient way of helping out those in need. The blog linked above includes a link for donating money.

Happy Birthday Elvis

Today would be the 75th birthday of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Through my dad's influence I grew up and have remained a huge Elvis fan. His music, his personality, his cool, all remain timeless. For me, he was never better than at his '68 Comeback Special. He was back from the Army, he was confident, in great shape, his voice had reached great maturity. He was just awesome. So in honor of his birthday, here are a few clips from that very special. First, here he is singing the very first song he ever recorded, That's All Right Mama:



Here he is singing one of my favorite songs, If I Can Dream, from the same special. This song really shows the great maturity in his voice at this point in his career:



Finally, not from the special, but for all his greatness as a rock and roll man, in his heart Elvis was always a Gospel singer. I once heard the great CeCe Winans say that you've never heard Gospel until you've heard it sung by Elvis. That's some awesome praise from one of the greatest Gospel singers in her own right. So here is Elvis singing the classic Amazing Grace:



Happy Birthday Elvis!

ETA: Thanks to my friend Jeanette for pointing this out to me. Here is Elvis singing a tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Rosary:

Back at the Friary

I'm back at the friary now after a lovely Christmas break. It really was wonderful. I had the opportunity to spend great time with family and friends, to enjoy the final days of the Advent liturgy and welcome in the Christmas season, to relax, and to recharge my batteries for one more semester. It was great to be home.

Christmas itself was slightly hectic this year. I mean, it's always slightly hectic, but this year was a little different. With my brother-in-law being in the hospital up until just a few days before Christmas, and with the massive and awesome snow that we received, our typical Hallman Christmas Eve ended up being pushed until the Sunday after Christmas. So Christmas Eve proper, I went to Mass with my parents and was joined by my little sister and her kids, which was very nice. The Christmas Eve Mass (not the midnight Mass) at my parish is always very nice, very children oriented. Prior to Mass the kids put on a nativity play, which is cute. I had thought about also attending the midnight Mass, and I wish I had, because liturgically that is one of the two richest Masses of the year, along with the Easter Vigil. But I was feeling a bit lazy, so I just stayed in. We had dinner at my parents' house afterwards, and the night ended very quietly.

Christmas day we went to my sister Tricia's house, her first Christmas in the new house, and it was great. My aunt flew in from Miami on Christmas day and so I picked her up at the airport, and Christmas dinner was fantastic, as always. I'm quite certain that I gained ten pounds just on Christmas!

The Wednesday after Christmas I brought my aunt to a funeral for the brother of one of her IHM sisters, Sr. Marie. It was a beautiful liturgy, and it was so nice seeing so many of the IHM's come together like that. I can't say for sure, but I imagine there were a good 40 sisters there. Sr. Marie's brother was a brigadier general in the U.S. Army, and by all accounts a truly holy, kind, loving man. The presiding priest knew the family well, and his homily was beautiful. One of the things he talked about was that the fact of our mourning the death of someone is also an indication of how greatly we have loved them. The greater our mourning, the greater our love. It is something I have thought about often, especially in those moments when I still fill up thinking about Uncle Bill. St. Augustine said in one of his homilies delivered at a funeral that out of necessity we mourn for the death of our loved ones, but we do not mourn like those who have not hope. During Father's homily I thought of an image that is used by St. John of the Cross, and though he used it in an entirely different context, I think it is appropriate here, as well:

Mourning and love are intimately connected, and because of the powerful bonds of love, the death of those we love naturally does a certain violence to the soul. Love is like a consuming fire, and mourning like a fresh log placed in it. When a fresh log is placed on a fire, in the beginning it crackles and hisses and makes all sorts of violent reactions, so unaccustomed is the fire to this new intruder. After some time, however, as the log is more and more consumed by the fire, eventually the log and fire become as one, so that if the log were to look within itself, it would no longer see log, but only fire, and in that respect, though it is still a log, in every respect it has become entirely indistinguishable from the fire.

When the log of death is cast into the fire of our heart's love, it causes great violence. In time, however, while the mourning itself may never cease, that mourning can be transformed, so that the love which consumes it becomes the only thing identifiable, and when we look within our soul at the mourning, in time all that we will truly see is the love. This is certainly how it is with me and Uncle Bill. Though in the beginning the expulsion of tears from the wood of my mourning was ferocious, and now perhaps there still remains a little yet to be expelled, mostly now when I look inward I see nothing but the love I have for him, so that the mourning and the love have become as one, and the log and the fire are indistinguishable from each other. I pray that in time it will be so for Sr. Marie, and for all those who mourn.

Later on that night I met up with two friends whom I have not seen in some time, Genevieve and PJ. It was really great seeing them, and thus began my week of catching up with friends. On New Years Eve I went down to Sea Isle with my family and had a really nice, low key night, and then New Years Day I came home again and met up with Michelle and her husband Eric. Again, a lovely evening. Then on Sunday I went to watch the (dreadful) Eagles game and got to visit with Joe and Amy, Lance, Dan, Terrance, Jimmy, and a few other friends. There were still a few friends that I really wanted to see that I never got the chance to, especially AJ and Michelle, but there are only so many days in a break. I also had the opportunity to visit with Mrs. Wendler, the mother of my friend Andy who died this past summer. It was great seeing her, and we had a really nice visit. Finally, this past Saturday I went with my brother and his wife and their two friends to see the Mahoney Brothers, a FABULOUS Beatles tribute band. What a great night! They donned all the outfits from the various Beatles eras, they sounded great and they really had the Beatles down. It was awesome.

My original intention was to come back to the friary on January 3, but then I discovered that beginning the 3^rd my home parish was having 40 Hours Devotion, concluding on January 5, the Feast of St. John Neumann and the 150^th anniversary of his death. 40 Hours is one of the many great marks left by St. John on the Church. It began after the Nativist riots in Philadelphia in the 1840's, when two Catholic churches were burnt down by Protestants because St. John, then bishop of Philadelphia, had the audacity to request that the Catholics be allowed to bring Catholic Bibles to school instead of being forced to use the King James. Catholic persecution in the United States was great then, and after the churches were burnt down (including Old St. Augustine's, the first Augustinian parish in the U.S.), St. John's response was to gather in the Church and unceasingly worship Christ in the Eucharist. In the face of great, violent, even deadly persecution, St. John's response was to hold fast to his faith and to lead his people accordingly. What a beautiful witness! Fr. Carbanaro [sic] from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia preached on Monday and Tuesday nights after Vespers, and he was a truly fantastic preacher. I was very edified and very blessed by the experience.

So now here I am, back at the friary, preparing for my final semester at Villanova. This is truly a blessed time in my life, and a spirit of thanksgiving is ever on my heart these days. The night is necessary before the rising of the sun, and after the dark night I experienced a few months ago, I am appreciating this sunlight even more. I hope everyone is doing well.

Pope Benedict XVI's Urbi et Orbi Message

Following is Pope Benedict XVI's Urbi et Orbi message, which was delivered on Christmas Day. The translation come from Zenit.org.

HOLY FATHER'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

"God Still Kindles Fires in the Night of the World"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's Christmas message, which he gave today at noon from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world,
and all men and women, whom the Lord loves!

"Lux fulgebit hodie super nos,
quia natus est nobis Dominus.

A light will shine on us this day,
the Lord is born for us"

(Roman Missal, Christmas, Entrance Antiphon for the Mass at Dawn)

The liturgy of the Mass at Dawn reminded us that the night is now past, the day has begun; the light radiating from the cave of Bethlehem shines upon us.

The Bible and the Liturgy do not, however, speak to us about a natural light, but a different, special light, which is somehow directed to and focused upon "us", the same "us" for whom the Child of Bethlehem "is born". This "us" is the Church, the great universal family of those who believe in Christ, who have awaited in hope the new birth of the Saviour, and who today celebrate in mystery the perennial significance of this event.

At first, beside the manger in Bethlehem, that "us" was almost imperceptible to human eyes. As the Gospel of Saint Luke recounts, it included, in addition to Mary and Joseph, a few lowly shepherds who came to the cave after hearing the message of the Angels. The light of that first Christmas was like a fire kindled in the night. All about there was darkness, while in the cave there shone the true light "that enlightens every man" (Jn 1:9). And yet all this took place in simplicity and hiddenness, in the way that God works in all of salvation history. God loves to light little lights, so as then to illuminate vast spaces. Truth, and Love, which are its content, are kindled wherever the light is welcomed; they then radiate in concentric circles, as if by contact, in the hearts and minds of all those who, by opening themselves freely to its splendour, themselves become sources of light. Such is the history of the Church: she began her journey in the lowly cave of Bethlehem, and down the centuries she has become a People and a source of light for humanity. Today too, in those who encounter that Child, God still kindles fires in the night of the world, calling men and women everywhere to acknowledge in Jesus the "sign" of his saving and liberating presence and to extend the "us" of those who believe in Christ to the whole of mankind.

Wherever there is an "us" which welcomes God's love, there the light of Christ shines forth, even in the most difficult situations. The Church, like the Virgin Mary, offers the world Jesus, the Son, whom she herself has received as a gift, the One who came to set mankind free from the slavery of sin. Like Mary, the Church does not fear, for that Child is her strength. But she does not keep him for herself: she offers him to all those who seek him with a sincere heart, to the earth's lowly and afflicted, to the victims of violence, and to all who yearn for peace. Today too, on behalf of a human family profoundly affected by a grave financial crisis, yet even more by a moral crisis, and by the painful wounds of wars and conflicts, the Church, in faithful solidarity with mankind, repeats with the shepherds: "Let us go to Bethlehem" (Lk 2:15), for there we shall find our hope.

The "us" of the Church is alive in the place where Jesus was born, in the Holy Land, inviting its people to abandon every logic of violence and vengeance, and to engage with renewed vigour and generosity in the process which leads to peaceful coexistence. The "us" of the Church is present in the other countries of the Middle East. How can we forget the troubled situation in Iraq and the "little flock" of Christians which lives in the region? At times it is subject to violence and injustice, but it remains determined to make its own contribution to the building of a society opposed to the logic of conflict and the rejection of one's neighbour. The "us" of the Church is active in Sri Lanka, in the Korean peninsula and in the Philippines, as well as in the other countries of Asia, as a leaven of reconciliation and peace. On the continent of Africa she does not cease to lift her voice to God, imploring an end to every injustice in the Democratic Republic of Congo; she invites the citizens of Guinea and Niger to respect for the rights of every person and to dialogue; she begs those of Madagascar to overcome their internal divisions and to be mutually accepting; and she reminds all men and women that they are called to hope, despite the tragedies, trials and difficulties which still afflict them. In Europe and North America, the "us" of the Church urges people to leave behind the selfish and technicist mentality, to advance the common good and to show respect for the persons who are most defenceless, starting with the unborn. In Honduras she is assisting in process of rebuilding institutions; throughout Latin America, the "us" of the Church is a source of identity, a fullness of truth and of charity which no ideology can replace, a summons to respect for the inalienable rights of each person and his or her integral development, a proclamation of justice and fraternity, a source of unity.

In fidelity to the mandate of her Founder, the Church shows solidarity with the victims of natural disasters and poverty, even within opulent societies. In the face of the exodus of all those who migrate from their homelands and are driven away by hunger, intolerance or environmental degradation, the Church is a presence calling others to an attitude of acceptance and welcome. In a word, the Church everywhere proclaims the Gospel of Christ, despite persecutions, discriminations, attacks and at times hostile indifference. These, in fact, enable her to share the lot of her Master and Lord.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, how great a gift it is to be part of a communion which is open to everyone! It is the communion of the Most Holy Trinity, from whose heart Emmanuel, Jesus, "God with us", came into the world. Like the shepherds of Bethlehem, let us contemplate, filled with wonder and gratitude, this mystery of love and light! Happy Christmas to all!

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