Untitled Poem by José Thiesen (in Portuguese)

Ao M. L. de Souza

Haverá sempre risos para quem sorrir
E abraços para quem abraçar.
Haverá sempre canções para o cantor
e trilhas para o viajor.

Para um amigo sempre haverá
um coração ofertado
como o silencioso desabrochar
de uma rosa.

“Sonnet on the Sonnet” by Lord Alfred Douglas (in English)

To see the moment holds a madrigal,

To find some cloistered place, some hermitage

For free devices, some deliberate cage

Wherein to keep wild thoughts like birds in thrall;

To eat sweet honey and to taste black gall,

To fight with form, to wrestle and to rage,

Till at the last upon the conquered page

The shadows of created Beauty fall.

This is the sonnet, this is all delight

Of every flower that blows in every Spring,

And all desire of every desert place;

This is the joy that fills a cloudy night

When bursting from her misty following,

A perfect moon wins to an empty space.

"Book of Nahum", (chapter 1) (in English)

Chapter 1

1 Oracle about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

2 Aleph - A jealous and avenging God is Yahweh,

an avenger is the Yahweh, and angry;

Yahweh brings vengeance on his adversaries,

and lays up wrath for his enemies;

3 Yahweh is slow to anger, yet great in power,

and Yahweh never leaves the guilty unpunished.

    Beth - In hurricane and tempest is his path, and clouds are the dust at his feet;

4 Ghimel - He rebukes the sea and leaves it dry,

and all the rivers he dries up.

   Daleth - Withered are Bashan and Carmel,

and the bloom of Lebanon fades;

5 He - The mountains quake before him,

and the hills dissolve;

   Waw - The earth is laid waste before him,

the world and all who dwell in it.

6 Zain - Before his wrath, who can stand firm,

and who can face his blazing anger?

   Heth - His fury is poured out like fire,

and the rocks are rent asunder before him.

7 Teth - Yahweh is good, a refuge

on the day of distress;

   Yod - He takes care of those who have recourse to him,

8 when the flood rages;

   Kaph - He makes an end of his opponents,

and his enemies he pursues with darkness.

9 to Judah - What are you imputing to Yahweh?

It is he who will make an end!

The enemy shall not rise a second time;

10 As when a tangle of thornbushes is set aflame,

like dry stubble, they shall be utterly consumed.

11 to Assyria – From you has sprung

            One who plots evil against Yahweh,

            A man with the mind of Belial.

12 to Judah - For, says Yahweh,

be they ever so many and so vigorous,

still they shall be mown down and disappear.

Though I have humbled you,

I will humble you no more.

13 Now will I break his yoke from off you,

and burst asunder your bonds.

14 to the King of Nineveh - Yahweh has commanded regarding you:

no descendant shall come to bear your name;

From your temple I will abolish the carved and the molten image;

I will make your grave a mockery.

Untitled Poem by José Thiesen (in Portuguese)

Ao M. L. de Souza

Quem sou para querer que me entendas?
Para pedir-te que me ouças, quem sou?
Jamais te pedirei o que não me podes dar.
Vai embora, pois, meu sol, que chorarei calado;
Vai, enquanto morro um pouco mais.

Homily of Pope John Paul I for the Holy Mass for the Inauguration of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome (in English)

St. Peter's Square, Sunday, 3 September 1978

 Venerable Brothers and dear Sons and Daughters,

            In this sacred celebration inaugurating the ministry of the Supreme Pastor of the Church, which has been placed on our shoulders, we begin by turning our mind in adoration and prayer to the infinite and eternal God, who has raised us to the Chair of blessed Peter by his own design, which human reasoning cannot explain, and by his benign graciousness. The words of Saint Paul the Apostle come spontaneously to our lips: "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Rom 11:33).

            Next we embrace in thought and greet with paternal affection the whole Church of Christ. We greet this assembly, representing as it were the whole Church, which is gathered in this place—a place filled with works of piety, religion, and art, which is the attentive custodian of the tomb of the Chief of the Apostles. We then greet the Church that is watching us and listening to us at this moment through the modern media of social communication.

            We greet all the members of the People of God: the Cardinals, Bishops, priests, men and women religious, missionaries, seminary students, laypeople engaged in the apostolate and in various professions, people involved in the fields of politics, culture, art, and business, fathers and mothers of families, workers, migrants, young people, children, the sick, the suffering, the poor.

            We greet also with reverence and affection all the people in the world. We regard them and love them as our brothers and sisters, since they are children of the same heavenly Father and brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus (cf. Mt 23:8f).

            We have begun this homily in Latin, because, as is well known, it is the official language of the Church and in an evident and effective way expresses its universality and unity.

            The Word of God that we have just been listening to has presented the Church to us as in crescendo, first, as prefigured and glimpsed by the Prophet Isaiah (cf. Is 2:2-5) in the form of the new Temple with the nations streaming towards it from all sides, anxious to know the Law of God and to observe it with docility, while the terrible weapons of war are transformed into instruments of peace. But Saint Peter reminds us that this mysterious new Temple, the pole of attraction for the new humanity, has a cornerstone, a living, chosen and precious cornerstone (cf. 1 Pt 2:4-9), which is Jesus Christ, who founded his Church on the Apostles and built it on blessed Peter, their leader (cf. Lumen Gentium, 19).

            You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Mt 16:18) are the weighty, great and solemn words that Jesus speaks to Simon, son of John, after his profession of faith. This profession of faith was not the product of the Bethsaida fisherman's human logic or the expression of any special insight of his or the effect of some psychological impulse; it was rather the mysterious and singular result of a real revelation of the Father in heaven. Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter, thus signifying the conferring of a special mission. He promises to build on him his Church, which will not be overthrown by the forces of evil or death. He grants him the keys of the kingdom of God, thus appointing him the highest official of his Church, and gives him the power to interpret authentically the law of God. In view of these privileges, or rather these superhuman tasks entrusted to Peter, Saint Augustine points out to us: "Peter was by nature simply a man, by grace a Christian, by still more abundant grace one of the Apostles and at the same time the first of the Apostles" (Saint Augustine, In Ioannis Evang. tract., 124, 5: PL 35, 1973).

            With surprised and understandable trepidation, but also with immense trust in the powerful grace of God and the ardent prayer of the Church, we have agreed to become Peter's Successor in the See of Rome, taking on us the yoke that Christ has wished to place on our fragile shoulders. We seem to hear as addressed to us the words that Saint Ephraem represents Christ as speaking to Peter: "Simon, my apostle, I have made you the foundation of the Holy Church. I have already called you Peter because you will support all the edifices. You are the superintendent of those who will build the Church on earth . . . You are the source of the fountain from which my doctrine is drawn. You are the head of my apostles . . . I have given you the keys of my kingdom" (Saint Ephraem, Sermones in hebdomadam sanctam, 4,1: Lamy T.J., S. Ephraem Syri hymni et sermones, 1,412).

            From the moment we were elected throughout the days that followed, we were deeply struck and encouraged by the warm manifestations of affection given by our sons and daughters in Rome and also by those sending us from all over the world the expression of their irrepressible jubilation at the fact that God has again given the Church her visible Head. Our mind re-echoes spontaneously the emotion-filled words that our great saintly Predecessor, Saint Leo the Great, addressed to the faithful of Rome: "Blessed Peter does not cease to preside over his See. He is bound to the eternal Priest in an unbroken unity . . . Recognize therefore that all the demonstrations of affection that you have given me because of fraternal amiability or filial devotion have with greater devotedness and truth been given by you and me to him whose See we rejoice to serve rather than preside over it" (Saint Leo the Great, Sermo V, 4-5: PL 54, 155-156).

            Yes, our presiding in charity is service. In saying this, we think not only of our Catholic Brothers and Sons and Daughters but also of all those who endeavour to be disciples of Jesus Christ, to honour God, and to work for the good of humanity.

            In this way we greet affectionately and with gratitude the Delegations from other Churches and Ecclesial Communities present here. Brethren not yet in full communion, we turn together to Christ our Saviour, advancing all of us in the holiness in which he wishes us to be and also in the mutual love without which there is no Christianity, preparing the paths of unity in faith, with respect for his Truth and for the Ministry that he entrusted, for his Church's sake, to his Apostles and their Successors.

            Furthermore, we owe a special greeting to the Heads of State and the members of the Extraordinary Missions. We are deeply touched by your presence, you who preside over the high destinies of your countries, or represent your Governments or International Organizations, for which we are most grateful. In your participation we see the esteem and trust that you place in the Holy See and the Church, that humble messenger of the Gospel for all the peoples of the earth, in order to help create a climate of justice, brotherhood, solidarity and hope, without which the world would be unable to live.

            Let all here, great or small, be assured of our readiness to serve them according to the Spirit of the Lord.

            Surrounded by your love and upheld by your prayer, we begin our apostolic service by invoking, as a resplendent star on our way, the Mother of God, Mary, Salus Populi Romani, and Mater Ecclesiae, whom the Liturgy venerates in a special way in this month of September. May Our Lady, who guided with delicate tenderness our life as a boy, as a seminarian, as a priest and as a bishop, continue to enlighten and direct our steps, in order that, as Peter's voice and with our eyes and mind fixed on her Son Jesus, we may proclaim in the world with joyous firmness our profession of faith: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16). Amen.

Sonnet XVIII by William Shakespeare (in English)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

   So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

“Adormecida” by Castro Alves (in Portuguese)

 Ses longs cheveux épars Ia couvrent tout entière.

La croix de son collier repose dans sa main,

Comme pour témoigner qu'elle a fait sa prière,

Et qu'elle va Ia faire en s'éveillant demain.

(A. de Musset)

Uma noite, eu me lembro... Ela dormia

Numa rede encostada molemente...

Quase aberto o roupão... solto o cabelo

E o pé descalço do tapete rente.

'Stava aberta a janela. Um cheiro agreste

Exalavam as silvas da campina...

E ao longe, num pedaço do horizonte,

Via-se a noite plácida e divina.

De um jasmineiro os galhos encurvados,

Indiscretos entravam pela sala,

E de leve oscilando ao tom das auras,

Iam na face trêmulos — beijá-la.

Era um quadro celeste!... A cada afago

Mesmo em sonhos a moça estremecia...

Quando ela serenava... a flor beijava-a...

Quando ela ia beijar-lhe... a flor fugia...

Dir-se-ia que naquele doce instante

Brincavam duas cândidas crianças...

A brisa, que agitava as folhas verdes,

Fazia-lhe ondear as negras tranças!

E o ramo ora chegava ora afastava-se...

Mas quando a via despeitada a meio,

Pra não zangá-la... sacudia alegre

Uma chuva de pétalas no seio...

Eu, fitando esta cena, repetia

Naquela noite lânguida e sentida:

"Ó flor! - tu és a virgem das campinas!

"Virgem! - tu és a flor de minha vida!..."