Pope's Intentions
Value of Silence. That people today, often overwhelmed by noise, may rediscover the value of silence and listen to the voice of God and their brothers and sisters.
Persecuted Christians. That Christians suffering persecution in many parts of the world may by their witness be prophets of Christ's love.
Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day
Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552), Jesuit missionary
Letters 4 and 5 to Saint Ignatius Loyola (trans. breviary 03/12)
"Proclaim the kingdom of God"
Since I came here, I have had no rest. I have been from village to village and every child not yet baptized I have baptized... But the children would not let me say my office or eat or rest till I had taught them some prayer. It was then that I really began to feel that of such is the kingdom of heaven (Mk 10,14). I could not reject so religious a request without myself being irreligious. I made a start with the sign of the cross and taught them the Apostles' Creed, the Our Father and the Hail Mary. I saw immediately that they were very intelligent. If only there were someone to train them in the principles of Christianity, I am sure that they would be extremely good Christians.
Very many out here fail to become Christians simply because there is nobody available to make them Christian. I have very often had the notion to go round the universities of Europe, and especially Paris, and to shout aloud everywhere like a madman, and to bludgeon those people who have more learning than love, with these words: “Alas! what an immense number of souls are excluded from heaven through your fault and thrust down to hell!”
If only those people devoted themselves to this care in the way they do to literature. Then they would be able to render God an account of their doctrine and of the talents entrusted to them! Many of them, moved by this thought and helped by meditation on the things of God, would take pains to hear what the Lord is speaking in them and, putting aside their own selfish desires and worldly matters, would put themselves fully at God's beck and call. They would indeed cry from their soul: “Lord, here I am. What would you have me do? Send me wherever you wish, even as far as India.”