"The Book of Exodus" - Chapter IV (translated into English)

Chapter 4

1 "But," objected Moses, "suppose they will not believe me, nor listen to my plea? For they may say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'" 2 The LORD therefore asked him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he answered. 3 The LORD then said, "Throw it on the ground." When he threw it on the ground it was changed into a serpent, and Moses shied away from it. 4 "Now, put out your hand," the LORD said to him, "and take hold of its tail." So he put out his hand and laid hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand. 5 "This will take place so that they may believe," he continued, "that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, did appear to you."

6 Again the LORD said to him, "Put your hand in your bosom." He put it in his bosom, and when he withdrew it, to his surprise his hand was leprous, like snow. 7 The LORD then said, "Now, put your hand back in your bosom." Moses put his hand back in his bosom, and when he withdrew it, to his surprise it was again like the rest of his body. 8 "If they will not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, they should believe the message of the second. 9 And if they will not believe even these two signs, nor heed your plea, take some water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water you take from the river will become blood on the dry land."

                10 Moses, however, said to the LORD, "If you please, LORD, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor recently, nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue." 11 The LORD said to him, "Who gives one man speech and makes another deaf and dumb? Or who gives sight to one and makes another blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Go, then! It is I who will assist you in speaking and will teach you what you are to say."

                13 Yet he insisted, "If you please, Lord, send someone else!" 14 Then the LORD became angry with Moses and said, "Have you not your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know that he is an eloquent speaker. Besides, he is now on his way to meet you. 15 When he sees you, his heart will be glad. You are to speak to him, then, and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and will teach the two of you what you are to do. 16 He shall speak to the people for you: he shall be your spokesman, and you shall be as God to him. 17 Take this staff in your hand; with it you are to perform the signs."

                18 After this Moses returned to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Let me go back, please, to my kinsmen in Egypt, to see whether they are still living." Jethro replied, "Go in peace."

19 In Midian the LORD said to Moses, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead." 20 So Moses took his wife and his sons, and started back to the land of Egypt, with them riding the ass. The staff of God he carried with him. 21 The LORD said to him, "On your return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. I will make him obstinate, however, so that he will not let the people go. 22 So you shall say to Pharaoh: Thus says the LORD: Israel is my son, my first-born. 23 Hence I tell you: Let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, I warn you, I will kill your son, your first-born."

                24 On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord came upon Moses and would have killed him. 25 But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son's foreskin and, touching his person, she said, "You are a spouse of blood to me." 26 Then God let Moses go. At that time she said, "A spouse of blood," in regard to the circumcision.

27 The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he went, and when they met at the mountain of God, Aaron kissed him. 28 Moses informed him of all the LORD had said in sending him, and of the various signs he had enjoined upon him. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. 30 Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people. 31 The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their affliction, they bowed down in worship.

Catechesis About the Family (2): "The Mother" by Pope Francis I (translated into English)

General Audience at Paul VI Audience Hall on Wednesday, 7 January 2015

   Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning. Today we continue with catecheses on the Church and we will reflect on Mother Church. The Church is mother. Our Holy Mother Church.

                In these days the Church’s liturgy sets before our eyes the icon of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God. The first day of the year is the Feast of the Mother of God, followed by the Epiphany, commemorating the visit of the Magi. The Evangelist Matthew writes: “going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him” (Mt 2:11). It is the Mother who, after giving birth to him, presents the Son to the world. She gives us Jesus, she shows us Jesus, she lets us see Jesus.

                Let us continue with the catecheses on the family, and in the family there is the mother. Every human person owes his or her life to a mother, and almost always owes much of what follows in life, both human and spiritual formation, to her. Yet, despite being highly lauded from a symbolic point of view — many poems, many beautiful things said poetically of her — the mother is rarely listened to or helped in daily life, rarely considered central to society in her role. Rather, often the readiness of mothers to make sacrifices for their children is taken advantage of so as to “save” on social spending.

                It also happens that in Christian communities the mother is not always held in the right regard, she is barely heard. Yet the centre of the life of the Church is the Mother of Jesus. Perhaps mothers, ready to sacrifice so much for their children and often for others as well, ought to be listened to more. We should understand more about their daily struggle to be efficient at work and attentive and affectionate in the family; we should better grasp what they aspire to in order to express the best and most authentic fruits of their emancipation. A mother with her children always has problems, always work. I remember there were five of us children at home, and while one was doing one thing, the other wanted to do another, and our poor mama went back and forth from one’s side to another, but she was happy. She gave us so much.

                Mothers are the strongest antidote to the spread of self-centred individualism. “Individual” means “what cannot be divided”. Mothers, instead, “divide” themselves, from the moment they bear a child to give him to the world and help him grow. It is they, mothers, who most hate war, which kills their children. Many times I have thought of those mothers who receive the letter: “I inform you that your son has fallen in defense of his homeland...”. The poor women! How a mother suffers! It is they who testify to the beauty of life. Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero said that mothers experience a “martyrdom of motherhood”. In the homily for the funeral of a priest assassinated by death squads, he said, recalling the Second Vatican Council: “We must be ready to die for our faith, even if the Lord does not grant us this honour.... Giving one’s life does not only mean being killed; giving one’s life, having the spirit of a martyr, it is in giving in duty, in silence, in prayer, in honest fulfilment of his duty; in that silence of daily life; giving one’s life little by little. Yes, like it is given by a mother, who without fear and with the simplicity of the martyrdom of motherhood, conceives a child in her womb, gives birth to him, nurses him, helps them grow and cares for them with affection. She gives her life. That’s martyrdom”. End quote. Yes, being a mother doesn’t only mean bringing a child to the world, but it is also a life choice. What does a mother choose, what is the life choice of a mother? The life choice of a mother is the choice to give life. And this is great, this is beautiful.

                A society without mothers would be a dehumanized society, for mothers are always, even in the worst moments, witnesses of tenderness, dedication and moral strength. Mothers often pass on the deepest sense of religious practice: in a human being’s life, the value of faith is inscribed in the first prayers, the first acts of devotion that a child learns. It is a message that believing mothers are able to pass on without much explanation: these come later, but the seed of faith is those early precious moments. Without mothers, not only would there be no new faithful, but the faith would lose a good part of its simple and profound warmth. And the Church is mother, with all of this, she is our mother! We are not orphans, we have a mother! Our Lady, mother Church, is our mom. We are not orphans, we are children of the Church, we are children of Our Lady, and we are children of our mothers.

                Dearest mothers, thank you, thank you for what you are in your family and for what you give to the Church and the world. And to you, beloved Church, thank you, thank you for being mother. And to you, Mary, Mother of God, thank you for letting us see Jesus. And thank you for all the mammas present here: let us salute them with a round of applause!

Greetings:

                I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, including the various groups from Ireland, Finland, Indonesia, Australia and the United States of America. In the joy of this Christmas season, I invoke upon you and your families grace and peace in the Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, our Mother. God bless you all!

                Dear faithful, in this Christmas season, looking to Mary, Mother of God, I would like to address all mothers. Dearest moms, thank you, thank you for what you are in the family and for what you give to the Church and the world. May the blessing of God be with you always. Praised be Jesus Christ.

                First of all, I would like to thank the people from the circus who have come here. Here’s a thought: “Let’s go to the circus, we’ll have a little fun...”. Yes, that’s true, the circus is a spectacle and we have a good time there. We also see men and women perform unusual feats, who have great balance: yes, this is true, we’ve seen it. There they are, let’s all greet them! But they also teach us something more. People who perform in the circus create beauty, they are creators of beauty. And this is good for the soul. How much we need beauty! It’s true, our life is very practical, we make things, we keep working, it has to be done: making, the language of hands, making. But our life is also thinking, reasoning. And this is important because we are animals who think; we don’t think like animals! We are animals who think. Thinking, the language of the mind, is important. We are also people who love, who have the capacity to love: the language of the heart. There is the language of the mind, thinking; the language of the heart, loving; the language of hands, making. And these three languages all join together to create the harmony of the person. And that’s where beauty is; and these people who performed this spectacle today are creators of harmony, creators of beauty, who teach the best way to beauty. God is certainly truth, God is certainly good, God certainly knows how to make things, he created the world. But above all, God is beautiful! The beauty of God. So often we forget about beauty! Mankind thinks, feels, makes, but is in such need today of beauty. Let’s not forget this and thank these people: skilled performers, skilled at balance, skilled showpeople, but most of all skilled at creating beauty. Thank you all so much.

                I extend cordial wishes of hope and peace for the new year to all Italian-speaking pilgrims present at this first General Audience of 2015. I greet the Merciful Sisters and the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family, here for their respective General Chapters, and I exhort them to pass down, through the witness of their life, the joy of faithful correspondence to the divine call. I greet you, members of Liana Orfei’s Golden Circus; and I encourage you to be not only bringers of smiles and messengers of solidarity among peoples and nations, but most of all creators of beauty, we need it!

                I address a special thought to the young people, the sick and the newlyweds. I call the newlyweds courageous because today it takes courage to get married! They are good. After the Solemnity of the Epiphany, let us, too, continue to look to the star that the Magi followed. Dearyoung people, may you be enthusiastic witnesses to the light of Christ for your peers; dear sick people, may you draw courage from this light in your pain; and you, dear newlyweds, may you be signs of the luminous presence of God with your faithful love.

Sonnet XXVI by William Shakespeare (in English)

Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit,
To thee I send this written embassage,
To witness duty, not to show my wit:
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it,
But that I hope some good conceit of thine
In thy soul's thought, all naked, will bestow it:
Till whatsoever star that guides my moving,
Points on me graciously with fair aspect,
And puts apparel on my tottered loving,
To show me worthy of thy sweet respect:
   Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee;
   Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.

"Evangelho Segundo Jadar",Chapter XVI by José Thiesen (in Portuguese)

E continuou Jesus: “Em verdade vos digo que, aquele que não me deseja, não sabe o que deseja e aquele que não me quer, não sabe o que quer!”

            João, então, lhe pediu: “Senhor, não nos deixes!”

           Jesus o beijou na fronte e disse: “Se eu não vos for tirado, não me tereis para sempre. Foi por vós e pelos que virão depois de vós e pelos que vieram antes de vós que desci do Céu e, deixando a glória de meu Pai, me fiz igual aos homens. Por causa de vossos pais estáveis perdidos, como ovelhas sem pastor.

“Eu sou o bom pastor  e vim e vos mostrei o meu Pai e vosso Pai. Se permanecerdes em mim, permanecereis em meu Pai e tereis a vida eterna! Na casa de meu Pai, as crianças brincarão com os leões e a serpente não mais vos matará.

“Louvado sejas, meu Pai! Eles eram teus e os destes a mim e os dou a ti! Lembra-te de mim em meu trono e glorifica-me e lembra-te deles para que não se dispercem. Santificado sejas, meu Pai, hoje e sempre, no céu e na terra, porque agora tudo se irá cumprir. Lembra-te de mim e da glória que tinha ao teu lado e deles, para que não se percam por causa das tentações.”

Tendo dito estas coisas, saiu com os doze e foi com eles a um jardim e lá se pôs a orar.

Logo os doze dormiam, mas Jesus estava tomado de grande pavor e angústia, porque queria fugir dali.

Foi e acordou os doze pedindo-lhes que rezassem com ele, mas logo eles voltaram a dormir.

Jesus orava com grande clamor e lágrimas pedindo que o Pai o liberasse do que estava por vir e, vendo que os doze dormiam, foi e os acordou, mas eles não perseveraram na oração e voltaram a dormir.

Jesus, então, tomado de grande angústia, suou sangue e os discípulos, depois, viram o sangue que escorrera dele, na pedra em que se apoiara para rezar.

Novamente Jesus acordou os doze para orarem com ele, mas então viu Judas, o traidor, aproximar-se com soldados do templo.

Dando um sentido suspiro, Jesus baixou a cabeça e resignou-se à vontade do Pai.

Judas veio e beijando Jesus, disse: “Mestre!”, que este era o sinal combinado para os soldados reconhecerem a Jesus.

Os soldados se achegaram e amarraram as mãos de Jesus.

Rocha, para defender Jesus, avançou com uma espada e cortou a orelha de um dos soldados, o chamado Malco, mas Jesus ordenou-lhe: “Guarda a tua espada! Então não hei de beber do cálice que meu Pai me destinou?”

E recolhendo a orelha caida no chão, recolocou-a em seu lugar e Malco caiu ao chão, assustado.

Jesus continou: “Quem vive pela espada, por ela morrerá!”

Então os soldados levaram Jesus à casa do Sumo Sacerdote que, naquele ano, era Caifás.

“Tarzan of the Apes” by Gaylord Du Bois based on Edgar R. Burrougs' original (in English)

art by Russ Manning and Mike Royer - Tarzan of the Apes #155 - Gold Key, December 1965.