LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS 1ST NOVEMBER 2015

Gordy Afri Sunday, November 08, 2015

ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS

SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS

Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 1st November 2015

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning and Happy Feast Day!

In today’s celebration, the Feast of All Saints, we experience in a special way the reality of the communion of saints, our great family that consists of all members of the Church, both those of us who are still pilgrims on earth, and the immense multitude of those who have already left and gone to Heaven. We are all united, and this is called the “communion of saints”, meaning the community of all baptized people.

In today’s Liturgy, the Book of Revelation refers to an essential characteristic of saints, saying: they are people who belong totally to God. They are presented as an immense multitude of “chosen ones”, dressed in white and marked with the “seal of God” (cf. 7:2-4, 9-14). Through this last detail, with allegorical language, it is emphasized that the saints belong to God fully and exclusively, and that they are his property. What does it means to bear the seal of God in one’s very life and person? The Apostle John again tells us: it means that in Jesus Christ we have truly become children of God (cf. 1 Jn 3:1-3).

Are we conscious of this great gift? We are all children of God! Do we remember that in Baptism we received the “seal” of our Heavenly Father, and that we became his children? To put it simply: we bear God’s surname, our surname is God, because we are the children of God. Here lies the root of the vocation to holiness! The saints whom we remember today are those who lived in the grace of their Baptism, those who kept the “seal” intact, behaving as children of God, seeking to emulate Jesus; and now they have reached the goal, because they finally “see God as he is”.

A second characteristic of the saints is that they are examples to emulate. Let us note: not only those who are canonized, but the saints “next door”, so to speak, those who, by the grace of God, strive to practice the Gospel in their everyday lives. Among these saints we also find ourselves; perhaps someone in our family or among friends and acquaintances. We must be grateful for them, and above all we must be grateful to God who has given them to us, putting them close to us as living and contagious examples of the way to live and die in fidelity to the Lord Jesus and his Gospel. How many good people have we met and do we know, about whom we say: “This person is a saint!”. We say it, it comes to spontaneously. These are the saints next door, those who are not canonized but who live with us.

Imitating their gestures of love and mercy is a bit like perpetuating their presence in this world. These evangelical gestures are indeed the only ones that can withstand the destruction of death: an act of tenderness, generous aid, time spent listening, a visit, a kind word, a smile.... In our eyes these gestures might seem insignificant, but in the eyes of God they are eternal, because love and compassion are stronger than death.

May the Virgin Mary, Queen of All Saints, help us to trust more in the grace of God, and to walk with enthusiasm along the path of holiness. Let us offer our daily efforts to Our Mother, and let us also pray to her for our dear departed, in the intimate hope of finding each other one day, all together, in the glorious communion of heaven.

Appeal for the Central African Republic

Dear brothers and sisters, the painful events in recent days have intensified the delicate situation in the Central African Republic, causing my soul great concern. I appeal to the parties involved to put an end to this cycle of violence. I am spiritually close to the Comboni Missionary Fathers at Our Lady of Fatima parish in Bangui, who are welcoming large numbers of refugees. I express my solidarity with the Church, with other religious denominations and with the entire Central African nation, who are sorely tried while making every effort to overcome divisions and return to a path of peace. To express the prayerful closeness of the entire Church to this nation that is so afflicted and tormented, and to urge all Central Africans to be ever greater witnesses of mercy and reconciliation, I intend to open the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Bangui on on Sunday, 29 November, during the apostolic journey that I hope to be able to make to the nation.

After the Angelus:

Mother Teresa Casini, Foundress of the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was beatified yesterday in Frascati. A contemplative woman and missionary, she made her life an offering of prayer and concrete charity in support of priests. Let us thank the Lord for her witness!

I greet all of you, pilgrims from Italy and many countries; in particular, those from Malaysia and Valencia, Spain.

I greet the participants of the Race of the Saints and the March of the Saints, sponsored, respectively, by the “Don Bosco in the World Foundation” and by the “Famiglia Piccola Chiesa” Association. I appreciate that these events offer a dimension of popular celebration of All Saints Day. I also greet the Choir of San Cataldo, the youth from Ruvo di Puglia and those from Papanice.

This afternoon I will visit the Verano Cemetery, where I will celebrate Mass in suffrage for the souls of the deceased. Visiting the main cemetery of Rome, I join spiritually with those all around the world who go to pray at the graves of their loved ones during these days.

I wish all of you peace and serenity in the spiritual company of the Saints. Happy Sunday and please do not forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch. Arrivederci!

ANGELUS

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GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS 28 OCTOBER 2015

Gordy Afri Sunday, November 01, 2015

POPE FRANCIS

INTERRELIGIOUS GENERAL AUDIENCE ON THE OCCASION OF THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROMULGATION OF THE CONCILIAR DECLARATION

"NOSTRA AETATE"

Saint Peter's Square
Wednesday, 28 October 2015

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

At the General Audiences there are often people or groups who belong to other religions; but today this presence is of particular importance, because we can remember together the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of the Second Vatican Council Nostra Aetate on the Relation of the Catholic Church to Non-Christian Religions. This subject was dear to the heart of Bl. Pope Paul VI, who on the Feast of Pentecost the year before the close of the Council, had established the Secretariat for non-Christians, today called the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. For this reason I express my gratitude and my warm welcome to the people and groups of various religions, who today have wished to attend, especially to those who have come from afar.

The Second Vatican Council was an extraordinary time of reflection, dialogue and prayer which aimed to renew the gaze of the Catholic Church on herself and on the world. A reading of the signs of the times in view of an update oriented by a twofold faithfulness: faithfulness to the ecclesial tradition and faithfulness to the history of the men and women of our time. In fact God, who revealed himself in creation and in history, who spoke through the prophets and comprehensively through his Son made man (cf. Heb 1:1), speaks to the heart and to the spirit of every human being who seeks the truth and how to practice it.

The message of the Declaration Nostra Aetate is always timely. Let us briefly recall a few of its points:

— the growing interdependence of peoples (cf. n. 1);

— the human search for the meaning of life, of suffering, of death, questions which always accompany our journey (cf. n. 1);

— the common origin and the common destiny of humanity (cf. n. 1);

— the uniqueness of the human family (cf. n. 1.);

— religions as the search for God or of the Absolute, within our various ethnicities and cultures (cf. n. 1);

— the benevolent and attentive gaze of the Church on religions: she rejects nothing that is beautiful and true in them (cf. n. 2);

— the Church regards with esteem the believers of all religions, appreciating their spiritual and moral commitment (cf. n. 3);

— the Church, open to dialogue with all, is at the same time faithful to the truths in which she believes, beginning with the truth that the salvation offered to everyone has its origin in Jesus, the One Saviour, and that the Holy Spirit is at work, as a font of peace and love.

There have been so many events, initiatives, institutional or personal relationships with the non-Christian religions in these last 50 years, that it is difficult to recall them all. A particularly meaningful event was the meeting in Assisi on 27 October 1986. It was willed and sponsored by St John Paul II, who the year before, thus 30 years ago, addressing the Muslim youth in Casablanca, hoped that all believers in God would favour friendship and unity between men and peoples (19 August 1985). The flame, lit in Assisi, has spread throughout the world and is a permanent sign of hope. Deserving of special gratitude to God is the veritable transformation of Christian-Jewish relations in these 50 years. Indifference and opposition have changed into cooperation and benevolence. From enemies and strangers we have become friends and brothers. The Council, with the Declaration Nostra Aetate, has indicated the way: “yes” to rediscovering Christianity’s Jewish roots; “no” to every form of anti-Semitism and blame for every wrong, discrimination and persecution deriving from it. Knowledge, respect and esteem for one another are the way. Indeed, if this applies in a particular way to relations with Jews, it likewise applies to relationships with other religions as well. I am thinking in particular of Muslims, who — as the Council recalls — “worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to men” (Nostra Aetate, n. 3). They acknowledge Abraham’s paternity, venerate Jesus as a prophet, honour his virgin Mother, Mary, await the day of judgment, and practice prayer, almsgiving and fasting (cf. ibid.).

The dialogue that we need cannot but be open and respectful, and thus prove fruitful. Mutual respect is the condition and, at the same time, the aim of interreligious dialogue: respecting others’ right to life, to physical integrity, to fundamental freedoms, namely freedom of conscience, of thought, of expression and of religion.

The world, looking to us believers, exhorts us to cooperate amongst ourselves and with the men and women of good will who profess no religion, asking us for effective responses regarding numerous issues: peace, hunger, the poverty that afflicts millions of people, the environmental crisis, violence, especially that committed in the name of religion, corruption, moral decay, the crisis of the family, of the economy, of finance, and especially of hope. We believers have no recipe for these problems, but we have one great resource: prayer. We believers pray. We must pray. Prayer is our treasure, from which we draw according to our respective traditions, to request the gifts that humanity longs for.

Because of violence and terrorism an attitude of suspicion or even condemnation of religions has spread. In reality, although no religion is immune to the risk of deviations of a fundamentalist or extremist nature in individuals or groups (cf. Address to the United States Congress, 24 September 2015), it is necessary to look to the positive values that religions live and propound, and that are sources of hope. It is a matter of raising our gaze in order to go further. Dialogue based on confident respect can bring seeds of good that in their turn may bud into friendship and cooperation in many fields, especially in service to the poor, to the least, to the elderly, through welcoming migrants, and attention to those who are excluded. We can walk together taking care of one another and of creation. All believers of every religion. Together we can praise the Creator for giving us the garden of the world to till and keep as a common good, and we can achieve shared plans to overcome poverty and to ensure to every man and woman the conditions for a dignified life.

The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, which is before us, is a propitious occasion to work together in the field of the works of charity. In this field, where compassion counts above all else, we may be joined by many people who are not believers or who are in search of God and of the Truth, people who place at the centre the face of another person, in particular the face of a needy brother or sister. The mercy to which we are called embraces all of creation, which God entrusted to us so that we keep it, not exploit it or worse still, destroy it. We must always seek to leave the world better than we found it (cf. Encyclical Laudato Si’, n. 194), beginning with the environment in which we live, and the small gestures of our daily life.

Dear brothers and sisters, as for the future of interreligious dialogue, the first thing we have to do is pray, and pray for one another: we are brothers and sisters! Without the Lord, nothing is possible; with Him, everything becomes so! May our prayer — each one according to his or her own tradition — adhere fully to the will of God, who wants all men and women to recognize they are brothers and sisters and live as such, forming the great human family in the harmony of diversity.

Special greetings:

I address a cordial welcome to Italian-speaking pilgrims.

On the Feast Day of Sts Simon and Jude, I hope that the memory of the Apostles, first witnesses of the Gospel, may increase faith and encourage charity.

I offer a special thought to young people, to the sick and to newlyweds. At the end of the month of October let us invoke Mary, Mother of Jesus. Dear young people, learn to pray to her with the simple and effective prayer of the Rosary; dear sick people, may Our Lady be your support in the trial of pain; dear newlyweds, emulate her love for God and for brothers and sisters.

Now, to conclude this Audience, I invite everyone, each one on his or her own, to pray in silence. May each one do so according to his or her own religious tradition. Let us ask the Lord to make us more brotherly and sisterly among ourselves, and more ready to serve our needier brothers and sisters. Let us pray in silence.

[Silent prayer]

And may God bless us, every one!

GENERAL AUDIENCE

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ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS 25 OCTOBER 2015

Gordy Afri Saturday, October 31, 2015

ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS

Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 25 October 2015

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

This morning, with the Holy Mass celebrated in St Peter’s Basilica, the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family has concluded. I invite everyone to give thanks to God for these three weeks of intense work, enlivened by prayer and by a spirit of true communion. It was demanding, but it was a true gift of God, which will surely bear much fruit.

The word “synod” means “walking together”. And what we have experienced was an experience of the Church on a journey, journeying especially with the families of the holy People of God spread throughout the world. For this reason I was struck by the Word of God which comes to us today in the prophecy of Jeremiah. It says: “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and those in labour, together; a great company, they shall return here”. And the Prophet adds: “With weeping they departed, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel” (cf. 31:8-9).

This Word of God tells us that the first to want to walk with us, to be “in synod” with us, is actually He, our Father. His “dream”, for ever and always, is that of forming a people, of gathering it, of guiding it toward the land of liberty and peace. And this people is made up of families: there are “the woman with child and those in labour”; it is a people that while walking, sends life forth, with God’s blessing.

It is a people that does not exclude the poor and underprivileged, but instead, includes them. The Prophet says: “among them the blind and the lame”. It is a family of families, in which one who toils is not marginalized, left behind, but manages to stay in step with the others, because this people walks in step with the least; as is done in families, and as we are taught by the Lord, who made himself poor with the poor, little with the little ones, last with the least. He did not do so in order to exclude the wealthy, the great and first, but because this is the only way to save even them, to save everyone: to go with the least, with the excluded, with the lowliest.

I confess that I compared this prophecy of the people on a journey with refugees trudging the streets of Europe, a tragic reality of our time. To them too the Lord says: “With great weeping they departed, and with consolations I will lead them back”. These greatly suffering families, uprooted from their lands, were also present with us in the Synod, in our prayers and in our work, through the voice of several of their pastors present in the Assembly. These people seeking dignity, these families seeking peace, are still with us, the Church does not abandon them, because they are part of the people that God wants to set free from slavery and guide to freedom.

Thus, both the synodal experience that we lived, and the tragedy of the refugees trudging the streets of Europe are reflected in this Word of God. May the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, help us, too, to put [the Word of God] into practice by way of fraternal communion.

After the Angelus:

Dear brothers and sisters, I greet you all, faithful of Rome and pilgrims from various countries.

In particular I greet the “Hermandad del Señor de los Milagros” of Rome. [In Spanish: there are so many Peruvians in the Square!], who with such devotion have carried in procession the Image venerated in Lima, Peru, and wheresoever Peruvians have emigrated. Thank you for your witness!

I wish everyone a pleasant Sunday, and please, do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch. Arrivederci.

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

HOLY MASS FOR THE CLOSING

OF THE XIV ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS

Vatican Basilica

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 25 October 2015

The three Readings for this Sunday show us God’s compassion, his fatherhood, definitively revealed in Jesus.

In the midst of a national disaster, the people deported by their enemies, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims that “the Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel” (31:7). Why did he save them? Because he is their Father (cf. v. 9); and as a Father, he takes care of his children and accompanies them on the way, sustaining “the blind and the lame, the women with child and those in labour” (31:8). His fatherhood opens up for them a path forward, a way of consolation after so many tears and great sadness. If the people remain faithful, if they persevere in their search for God even in a foreign land, God will change their captivity into freedom, their solitude into communion: what the people sow today in tears, they will reap tomorrow in joy (cf. Ps 125:6).

We too have expressed, with the Psalm, the joy which is the fruit of the Lord’s salvation: “our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongues with shouts of joy” (v. 2). A believer is someone who has experienced God’s salvific action in his life. We pastors have experienced what it means to sow with difficulty, at times in tears, and to rejoice for the grace of a harvest which is beyond our strength and capacity.

The passage from the Letter to the Hebrews shows us Jesus’ compassion. He also “is beset with weakness” (5:2), so that he can feel compassion for those in ignorance and error. Jesus is the great high priest, holy and innocent, but also the high priest who has taken on our weakness and been tempted like us in all things, save sin (cf. 4:15). For this reason he is the mediator of the new and definitive covenant which brings us salvation.

Today’s Gospel is directly linked to the First Reading: as the people of Israel were freed thanks to God’s fatherhood, so too Bartimaeus is freed thanks to Jesus’ compassion. Jesus has just left Jericho. Even though he has only begun his most important journey, which will take him to Jerusalem, he still stops to respond to Bartimaeus’ cry. Jesus is moved by his request and becomes involved in his situation. He is not content to offer him alms, but rather wants to personally encounter him. He does not give him any instruction or response, but asks him: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10:51). It might seem a senseless question: what could a blind man wish for if not his sight? Yet, with this question made face to face, direct but respectful, Jesus shows that he wants to hear our needs. He wants to talk with each of us about our lives, our real situations, so that nothing is kept from him. After Bartimaeus’ healing, the Lord tells him: “Your faith has made you well” (v. 52). It is beautiful to see how Christ admires Bartimaeus’ faith, how he has confidence in him. He believes in us, more than we believe in ourselves.

There is an interesting detail. Jesus asks his disciples to go and call Bartimaeus. They address the blind man with two expressions, which only Jesus uses in the rest of the Gospel. First they say to him: “Take heart!”, which literally means “have faith, strong courage!”. Indeed, only an encounter with Jesus gives a person the strength to face the most difficult situations. The second expression is “Rise!”, as Jesus said to so many of the sick, whom he took by the hand and healed. His disciples do nothing other than repeat Jesus’ encouraging and liberating words, leading him directly to Jesus, without lecturing him. Jesus’ disciples are called to this, even today, especially today: to bring people into contact with the compassionate Mercy that saves. When humanity’s cry, like Bartimaeus’, becomes stronger still, there is no other response than to make Jesus’ words our own and, above all, imitate his heart. Moments of suffering and conflict are for God occasions of mercy. Today is a time of mercy!

There are, however, some temptations for those who follow Jesus. Today’s Gospel shows at least two of them. None of the disciples stopped, as Jesus did. They continued to walk, going on as if nothing were happening. If Bartimaeus was blind, they were deaf: his problem was not their problem. This can be a danger for us: in the face of constant problems, it is better to move on, instead of letting ourselves be bothered. In this way, just like the disciples, we are with Jesus but we do not think like him. We are in his group, but our hearts are not open. We lose wonder, gratitude and enthusiasm, and risk becoming habitually unmoved by grace. We are able to speak about him and work for him, but we live far from his heart, which is reaching out to those who are wounded. This is the temptation: a “spirituality of illusion”: we can walk through the deserts of humanity without seeing what is really there; instead, we see what we want to see. We are capable of developing views of the world, but we do not accept what the Lord places before our eyes. A faith that does not know how to root itself in the life of people remains arid and, rather than oases, creates other deserts.

There is a second temptation, that of falling into a “scheduled faith”. We are able to walk with the People of God, but we already have our schedule for the journey, where everything is listed: we know where to go and how long it will take; everyone must respect our rhythm and every problem is a bother. We run the risk of becoming the “many” of the Gospel who lose patience and rebuke Bartimaeus. Just a short time before, they scolded the children (cf. 10:13), and now the blind beggar: whoever bothers us or is not of our stature is excluded. Jesus, on the other hand, wants to include, above all those kept on the fringes who are crying out to him. They, like Bartimaeus, have faith, because awareness of the need for salvation is the best way of encountering Jesus.

In the end, Bartimaeus follows Jesus on his path (cf. v. 52). He did not only regain his sight, but he joined the community of those who walk with Jesus. Dear Synod Fathers, we have walked together. Thank you for the path we have shared with our eyes fixed on Jesus and our brothers and sisters, in the search for the paths which the Gospel indicates for our times so that we can proclaim the mystery of family love. Let us follow the path that the Lord desires. Let us ask him to turn to us with his healing and saving gaze, which knows how to radiate light, as it recalls the splendour which illuminates it. Never allowing ourselves to be tarnished by pessimism or sin, let us seek and look upon the glory of God, which shines forth in men and women who are fully alive.

ANGELUS

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