On vaccination

Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German Bishops’ Conference, said: “We will only defeat this virus if we all pull together. To be vaccinated means more protection and freedom not just for you, but for everyone in society.”

Catholic bishops in France said: “Vaccination is a medical response to cope with an epidemic that risks para­lys­ing economic and social life. By making it compulsory for some and imposing a health pass for certain activities, government is fulfilling its legitimate responsibilities.”

Jesus, bread of life

Pope Francis in his Angelus address last Sunday, said:

“God became man in order to enter our life. He is interested in every aspect of our life. We can tell him what we are feeling, our work, our day, our heartache, our anguish, so many things. Jesus wants this intimacy with us.

What does he not want? To be relegated to being a side dish – he who is bread – to be overlooked, set aside, called on only when we need him.

At least once a day, we find ourselves eating together with our family, after a day of work or study. It would be lovely, before breaking bread, to invite Jesus, the bread of life, to ask him simply to bless what we have done and what we have failed to do. Let us invite him into our home; let us pray in a ‘homey’ style. Jesus will be at the table with us and we will be fed by a greater love.”

On Saint Dominic

In his homily on the feast of St Dominic, Br Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, said: “St Dominic embraced a mission that is timely, because he saw a world in dire need of a new evangelisation. The mission is truly timeless, because every generation is in want of a new evangelisation, namely the preaching of God who is ever ancient, yet ever new. It is timely because he offered a relevant response to the specific situation, but also timeless because it has become an event transcending its occurrence and ever meaningful at every moment of history.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)