Lumen Fidei Reflections - www.LayWhispers.com
www.LayWhispers.com

Pope Francis has come out with his first Encyclical

Lumen Fidei
(Light of Faith)



We will go through this document as a spiritual exercise and meditation.  Please join us in sharing your thoughts and comments
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Light of Faith

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Section: 
Year of Faith
... only 9 minutes and a good overview of
      what you will find inside the Encyclical.
We've gone through the Encyclical and would like to share what struck us.  Below are the words that stood out during our studies.  We hope that they  touch you as they have us...
  • 'Do not turn away from the one who made you, even to turn towards yourself'
  • Once I think that by turning away from God I will find myself, my life begins to fall apart
  • The beginning of salvation is openness to something prior to ourselves
Reflection on Paragraph 19:


Isn't it amazing how today's psychology and teachings tell people to look inwards, to find 'themselves' and here we have Pope Francis telling us something totally different.


To be open to something prior to ourselves.  It is difficult, isn't it...to understand that God is in all time - the past, the present and the future.  All we can do is ponder on these things - as Pope Francis states, we just need to be open to the idea; Grace will do the rest.
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  • 'a love that transforms us from within, acting in us and through us'
Reflection on Paragraph 20:



This statement just struck me as beautiful.
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  • the heart is 'where we become open to truth and love, where we let them touch us and deeply transform us.'
  • 'Faith transforms the whole person precisely to the extent that he or she becomes open to love.'
  • 'Faith knows because it is tied to love, because love itself brings enlightenment.'
  • 'Faith's understanding is born when receive the immense love of God which transforms us inwardly and enables us to see reality with new eyes'.
Reflection on Paragraph 26:





Truth and love are never at odds...if it is, it is only our own limitations hindering our understanding.  


I am struck by how faith, true faith, is a transforming action upon our soul.  It is not superficial where we talk a certain way and act how Christian's are meant to act.


To be open to God's love within our soul does transform us, does make us a new creature, we are 'born again' to a life where we ask for God's help and guidance and trust that He will deliver us to eternal life.
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  • 'a trail away from self-centredness'
  • 'Without love, truth becomes cold, impersonal and oppressive for people's day-to-day lives'

Reflection on Paragraph 27:


Self-centredness - this struck me.  Do you feel that we live in a world where we are bombarded with getting what we want, when we want it and because we want it, we are told it is OK.


Many commercials in the last week have come out with a statement like "because you deserve it".  It makes me think, do I deserve it and what about all the other people who are unable to purchase that item, why do they not deserve it?


Our faith is built on love (take a look at Romans 13).  Love is the fulfillment of the law.  I would also equate our faith with always being a balance...truth and love, mercy and justice...one cannot exist without the other.  If these virtues should become separated  just as Pope Francis reminds us - they would become cold, impersonal and be oppressive.
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  • 'faith is born of an encounter which takes place in history and lights up our journey through time'
  • 'Even our own knowledge and self-awareness are relational; they are linked to others who have gone before us'
  • 'Self-knowledge is only possible when we share in a greater memory'
  • 'faith...brings human understanding to its fullness'
  • 'Faith's past, that act of Jesus' love which brought new life to the world, comes down to us through the memory of others - witnesses - and is kept alive in that one remembering subject which is the Church'
  • 'the Church is a Mother who teaches us to speak the language of faith'
  • 'The love which is the Holy Spirit and which dwells in the Church unites every age and makes us contemporaries of Jesus, thus guiding us along our pilgrimage of faith'
Reflection of Paragraph 38:


Wow...this is a great paragraph!  It is packed with spiritual insight.  Pope Francis makes us aware how our faith is not individual but built upon a relationship.  A relationship with a God who is One in Three (Trinity).  


But it doesn't stop there...our faith continues to be built on community relationships with the Church being the witness throughout each generation.  This really hit a core in my soul. 


The Church teaches us the 'language of faith'.  It is not dependent on one person but the Holy Spirit being present...not just now but in the past and will be there in the future.


We are Catholics - universal...not just in an earthly nature but in a supernatural nature with God and with all those who have gone before us and those who will go ahead of us into the future.  


With this knowledge, we realize that we are contemporaries of Jesus...just as Pope Francis reminds us.  Jesus speaks to us directly through all our senses and through all His creation.


I know I shouldn't be...but I am continually astonished at the depths of our faith.  The more I attempt to learn, the deeper insight and understanding is available.  It is as though there is no limit to the vastness, beauty and love of our Lord.
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  • "It is impossible to believe on our own.  Faith is not simply an individual decision which takes place in the depths of the believer's heart, nor a completely private relationship between the "I" of the believer and the divine "Thou", between an autonomous subject and God."
  • "God's own love...a communion of persons."


Reflections of Paragraph 39:


This paragraph really struck me making me realize that our faith is not a singular "me to God" thing but must encompass everyone around me.


Pointing out that God is a relationship, a communion of three persons and that He calls us to honour him as well as our neighbour makes how we live our faith a challenge. 


It would be easy, but wrong, to ignore people and just concentrate on self...the idea that our salvation is just dependent on "us".
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  • "The Church...passes on...the whole store of her memories...nothing is lost"
  • "a living contact with the foundational memory"
  • "Faith...needs a setting in which it can be witnessed to and communited"
  • "what is handed down in her living Tradition, is the new light born of an encounter with the true God, a light which touchse us at the core of our being and engages our minds, wills and emotions, opening us to relationships lived in communion".
  • "The sacraments communicates an incarnate memory, linked to the times and places of our lives, linked to all our senses"
  • "faith itself possesses a sacramental structure"
  • "The awakening of faith is linked to the dawning of a new sacramental sense in our lives as human beings and as Christian, in which visible and material realities are seen to point beyond themselves to the mystery of the eternal"






Reflections on Paragraph 40:


The Church hands down the living faith to every generation.  This paragraph really made me stop and think what this all means.  Every generation is a new generation having a choice to believe or not in God, in Jesus and in the faith.


When we are baptised, we see that there is more to our being than the material.  A beyond this world is realized and life takes on a new meaning, a new vision is realized.  


What a beautiful faith we have!
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  • "Baptism...is not the achievement of isolated individuals; it is not an act which someone can perform on his own, but rather something which must be received"
  • "No one baptizes himself, just as no one comes into the world by himself"


Reflections on Paragraph 41:

For some unknown reason I chuckled when I read this paragraph. The Pope identifies something so basic but which is lost to most people.  Building upon how our faith requires communion, the Pope brings out the fact that Baptism requires participation in fellowship with the Church and those around us.


We do not stand alone in our faith; we have to be willing to receive blessings, a helping hand and everything that happens with having a relationship.  What a challenge!
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