The oil inside the lamps

During his Angelus address last Sunday, Pope Francis commented on the parable of the 10 virgins:

“And what is the characteristic of the oil? That it cannot be seen, it is inside the lamps, it is not conspicuous, but without it, the lamps give no light.

“Let us look at ourselves, and we will see that our life runs the same risk: today we are very careful about our appearance, the important thing is to take good care of one’s image and make a good impression in front of others.

“It is the stewardship of the inner life. This means knowing how to stop and listen to one’s heart, to keep watch over one’s own thoughts and feelings. It means knowing how to make room for silence, so as to be capable of listening.”

Archbishop welcomes negotiations

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, welcomed the decision of the EU Commission to recommend the opening of EU membership negotiations with Ukraine. He said he was visiting Brussels to reaffirm Ukraine’s “aspiration in the context of the neocolonial war that Russia is waging against Ukraine. Ukraine is waiting for an invitation to join the EU.”

Christians in the Holy Land

In the November 7 edition of La Croix International, Marie-Armelle Beaulieu wrote about Christians in the Holy Land:

“The Christian community is not uniform. Hebrew-speaking Christians include Israelis. They react like their Jewish compatriots, suffering in their flesh the massacres that could have been theirs. Four Christian migrants died in the villages bordering the Gaza Strip. The native Christians of this land are Palestinians, whatever their nationality, their mother tongue is Arabic and the history of Palestine is their own.

“By invoking Israel’s right to defend itself, the West is giving its people a licence to kill their co-religionists and allowing them to toy with the idea of driving them out of the land where they are the guardians of the Christian faith.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)