The new evangelization means teaching the faith, celebrating the faith in the Sacraments and in their extension through prayer and devotion, and living the faith through the practice of the virtues, as if for the first time, that is, with the engagement and energy of the first disciples, of the first apostles to our native place. [...]

In the Catholic tradition, beauty is a metaphysical and ultimately theological notion. The search of beauty has nothing to do with mere aesthetic sensibility or a flight from reason, because, from the divine perspective, beauty, together with truth and goodness, is a manifestation of being. God, the origin and sustainer of all being is truth, beauty and goodness itself. [...]

At the beginning of the Lenten Season, the Church proclaims to us the inspired words of Saint Paul: “Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation.”[1] Saint Paul exhorts us not to render vain the gift of God’s grace given to us through the Sacrament of Baptism, strengthened and increased in us through the Sacrament of Confirmation, nourished by the heavenly food of Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity through the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist, and restored in us through the Sacrament of Penance. [...]

It is a source of deepest joy for me to celebrate the Holy Mass for so many members of the faithful in this important and historic church of the Archdiocese of Sydney. I am deeply grateful to His Eminence Cardinal George Pell for his warm welcome to the Archdiocese and to all who have worked so diligently in making the arrangements for today’s Solemn Pontifical Liturgy. [...]

Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2010 Christmas Address to the College of Cardinals, the Roman Curia and the Governorate of Vatican City State, spoke clearly and strongly about the profoundly disordered moral state in which our world finds itself, today. He spoke about the grave evils of our time, for example, the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, the marketing of child pornography, sexual tourism, and the deadly abuse of drugs. [...]

Today’s readings teach us the great Mystery of Faith, witnessed in the Eucharistic Sacrifice in which we now take part. God the Son has taken our human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God Himself has taken a human heart under Mary’s Immaculate Heart, in order that He might suffer and die for our salvation, in order that He might receive our hearts into His glorious Heart, His Heart which was pierced as He died for us on the Cross. [...]

The theme, Go West Catholic Men, evokes those who braved many hardships and worked hard, over the long haul, to reach this treasured portion of God’s vineyard and to make here a good place in which to live and work. But it also evokes the many challenges which were theirs in living their faith with integrity and thus making this naturally beautiful territory supernaturally beautiful, that is, holy, a land whose inhabitants are devoted to knowing, loving and serving our Lord. [...]