At 7:00pm on Saturday evening, June 28, the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with a group of young men from the Diocese of Rome who are discerning a vocation to priesthood. This meeting took place in the Vatican Gardens at the Grotto of Lourdes.
First of all, please excuse my tardiness, but the truth is that I'd lost track of time. I was having such an interesting conversation that I'd lost track of time. Please excuse me! This is not good, punctuality should always be maintained.
I want to thank you for your visit, this visit with Our Lady who is so very important in our lives. She accompanies us, even when we must make definitive choices, including the choice of a vocation, because She accompanied her Son along his vocational path too, a path that was very difficult, even when there was so much suffering. She always accompanies us.
When a Christian says, not that he or she does not love Our Lady, but that he or she does not seek her or ask her to pray for him or her, I am always a bit sad. I remember once, almost 40 years ago, I was in Belgium, at a conference, and there were a couple of catechists there, both university professors, with there sons, a beautiful family, they spoke so well about Jesus Christ. At a certain point, I said: And your devotion to Our Lady? ... But we skipped that step. We know Jesus Christ so well that we don't need Our Lady. And in my mind and in my heart I thought: But ... poor orphans! That's the way it is, no? Because a Christian without Our Lady is an orphan. A Christian without the Church is also an orphan. Christians need these two women, two mothers, two virgins: the Church and the Madonna. If we want to truly test a Christian vocation, we should ask ourselves: How is my relationship with these two mothers that I have?, with mother Church and with mother Mary. This is not a pious kind of thinking, no, it's purely theological. This is theology. How is my relationship with the Church, with my mother the Church, with my holy mother, the hierarchical Church? And how is my relationship with the Madonna, who is my Mommy, my Mother?
It's good for us to ask these questions: never stop asking them and don't try to live this life alone. I wish you a good journey of discernment. For each of us, the Lord has a vocation in mind, a place where He wants us to live our lives. But we have to ask him, in order to discover it; and then to continue, always going forward.
Another thing that I want to add - besides the points about the Church and about the Madonna - is the sense of the definitive. For us, this is important because we live in a culture which is provisional: do this, yes, but only for a while, then for a little while afterward .... Will you get married? Yes, yes, but in order that love may endure, then everyone will go to his home again ...
A young man ... a bishop was telling me ... about a young man, a young professional, who said: I want to become a priest, but only for ten years. That was it, that was his condition. We are afraid of definitive moments. In order to choose a vocation, whatever vocation, even a vocation of being: married life, consecrated life, priesthood, we must choose with decisiveness. Against this choice, there is always the current of a provisory culture. There is a part of the culture which always affects us, tempting us to live only for the moment; we must live in this culture, and we must overcome this temptation.
Great. Even in this aspect of definitiveness, I believe that one who is the least sure of the definitive road ahead is the Pope! Why the Pope ... where will the Pope end up? There, in the tomb, no?
Thank you very much for your visit. I invite you to pray to the Madonna or, I don't know, perhaps to sing ... the Salve Regina ... Do you know how to sing it? Can we sing the Salve Regina together to the Madonna? .... Let's go!
Salve Regina ...
Now, upon you all, and upon all your families, I give my blessing, and I ask you, please, to pray for me.
(Blessing)
Thank you very much! Thank you! May God bless you!
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the gathering with those discerning a
call to priesthood
First of all, please excuse my tardiness, but the truth is that I'd lost track of time. I was having such an interesting conversation that I'd lost track of time. Please excuse me! This is not good, punctuality should always be maintained.
I want to thank you for your visit, this visit with Our Lady who is so very important in our lives. She accompanies us, even when we must make definitive choices, including the choice of a vocation, because She accompanied her Son along his vocational path too, a path that was very difficult, even when there was so much suffering. She always accompanies us.
When a Christian says, not that he or she does not love Our Lady, but that he or she does not seek her or ask her to pray for him or her, I am always a bit sad. I remember once, almost 40 years ago, I was in Belgium, at a conference, and there were a couple of catechists there, both university professors, with there sons, a beautiful family, they spoke so well about Jesus Christ. At a certain point, I said: And your devotion to Our Lady? ... But we skipped that step. We know Jesus Christ so well that we don't need Our Lady. And in my mind and in my heart I thought: But ... poor orphans! That's the way it is, no? Because a Christian without Our Lady is an orphan. A Christian without the Church is also an orphan. Christians need these two women, two mothers, two virgins: the Church and the Madonna. If we want to truly test a Christian vocation, we should ask ourselves: How is my relationship with these two mothers that I have?, with mother Church and with mother Mary. This is not a pious kind of thinking, no, it's purely theological. This is theology. How is my relationship with the Church, with my mother the Church, with my holy mother, the hierarchical Church? And how is my relationship with the Madonna, who is my Mommy, my Mother?
It's good for us to ask these questions: never stop asking them and don't try to live this life alone. I wish you a good journey of discernment. For each of us, the Lord has a vocation in mind, a place where He wants us to live our lives. But we have to ask him, in order to discover it; and then to continue, always going forward.
Another thing that I want to add - besides the points about the Church and about the Madonna - is the sense of the definitive. For us, this is important because we live in a culture which is provisional: do this, yes, but only for a while, then for a little while afterward .... Will you get married? Yes, yes, but in order that love may endure, then everyone will go to his home again ...
A young man ... a bishop was telling me ... about a young man, a young professional, who said: I want to become a priest, but only for ten years. That was it, that was his condition. We are afraid of definitive moments. In order to choose a vocation, whatever vocation, even a vocation of being: married life, consecrated life, priesthood, we must choose with decisiveness. Against this choice, there is always the current of a provisory culture. There is a part of the culture which always affects us, tempting us to live only for the moment; we must live in this culture, and we must overcome this temptation.
Great. Even in this aspect of definitiveness, I believe that one who is the least sure of the definitive road ahead is the Pope! Why the Pope ... where will the Pope end up? There, in the tomb, no?
Thank you very much for your visit. I invite you to pray to the Madonna or, I don't know, perhaps to sing ... the Salve Regina ... Do you know how to sing it? Can we sing the Salve Regina together to the Madonna? .... Let's go!
Salve Regina ...
Now, upon you all, and upon all your families, I give my blessing, and I ask you, please, to pray for me.
(Blessing)
Thank you very much! Thank you! May God bless you!
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