Righteousness = Obedience to God's Will

I'm currently reading Jesus of Nazareth. It's a fantastic book thus far. I'm only a couple chapters in but I keep coming across passages where I think to myself "Wow, that's such a good point!" It's definitely a book worth reading. Obviously. It's written by the Holy Father.

For some reason this line stood out to me and has on my mind all evening:

"In Jesus' world, righteousness is man's answer to the Torah, acceptance of the whole of God's will, the bearing of the "yoke of God's kingdom," as one formulation had it." (p. 17)

This sentence is found in the context of a discussion of Jesus' response to John the Baptist's question in the Gospel of Matthew account of Jesus' baptism. John the baptist asks "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" and Jesus responds "Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." (Mt. 3:14-15)

World Youth Day Mass in Latin?

This past week I've been taking my time reading through Sacramentum Caritatis. I had scanned it when it first came out, however due to my studies, I hadn't had time to read it thoroughly and carefully.

Today I came across the following in paragraph 62.:

"None of the above observations [see paragraph 61.] should cast doubt upon the importance of such large-scale liturgies. I am thinking here particularly of celebrations at international gatherings, which nowadays are held with greater frequency. The most should be made of these occasions. In order to express more clearly the unity and universality of the Church, I wish to endorse the proposal made by the Synod of Bishops, in harmony with the directives of the Second Vatican Council, that, with the exception of the readings, the homily and the prayer of the faithful, such liturgies could be celebrated in Latin. Similarly, the better-known prayers of the Church's tradition should be recited in Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be song."

Based on this paragraph, I'd recommend any young people planning to go to World Youth Day to sign up for Latin for the fall or spring semester this coming year! It's not too late to learn some basic Latin. Priests accompanying pilgrimage groups may also want to brush up on their Latin as well.

True Freedom

"Authentic freedom is experienced as a definitive response to God’s ‘yes’ to humanity, calling us to choose, not indiscriminately but deliberately, all that is good, true and beautiful."
- Pope Benedict XVI

The Holy Father Issues an Invitation

Our beloved Pope Benedict XVI summarizes in his own words the invitation and challenge he issued to the young people he met in Brazil, and indeed, to young Catholics throughout the world:

"I invited the young people to be apostles of their peers; and to therefore take great care of their own human and spiritual formation; to have great esteem for marriage and the way that leads to marriage, in chastity and responsibility; to be open to the call to consecrated life for God's kingdom. . .To summarize, I encouraged them to take advantage of the great 'riches' of their youth, to be the young face of the Church."

Dear Holy Father, we will do our best to respond faithfully, and trusting in Jesus, to this challenge you have set before us.

Prayer

"For a Christian to pray is not to evade reality and the responsibilities it entails, but to assume them to the end, trusting in the faithful and inexhaustible love of the Lord." - Pope Benedict XVI