This morning, on the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, the Holy Father, Pope Francis paid a visit to the Sanctuary of Loreto.
On the way to Loreto, while flying over Amendola, one of the places which has been most sorely tried as a result of the 2016 earthquake, the Pope greeted a group of people who were gathered in the sports field to recognize His passage.
Upon his arrival at the John Paul II youth centre located at Montorso, the Pope was welcomed by the Archbishop Prelate of Loreto, His Excellency, Fabio Dal Cin; the President of the Region of Marche, Doctor Luca Ceriscioli; the Prefect of Ancona, Doctor Antonio D'Acunto; and the Mayor of Loreto, Doctor Paolo Niccoletti. He then travelled by car to the Shrine of Loreto.
Upon his arrival at the Shrine of Loreto, the Holy Father was welcomed by the Rector of the Shrine, Father Franco Carollo; the Vicar General of the Pontifical Delegation for the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, Father Andrea Principini; the Vicar General of the Prelature of the Holy House of Loreto, Father Vincenzo Mattia; and the Secretary General of the Pontifical Delegation for the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, Doctor Claudio Quattrini.
At 9:30am, Pope Francis celebrated the Eucharist inside the Holy House and at the conclusion of that celebration, he signed the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation dedicated to youth, entitled: Christus vivit - Christ is alive. Having concluded the Eucharistic Celebration, the Holy Father then greeted the members of the Capuchin Franciscan Brothers and the Cloistered Monks. Then, inside the Shrine, he greeted the sick and a representative group of those involved in the Pastoral Care of the Deaf in the region of Marche and, going out into the courtyard, he met approximately 10,000 faithful and pilgrims who were waiting there.
Following a few words of greeting offered by the Archbishop Prelate of Loreto, His Excellency, Fabio Dal Cin, the Pope shared his speech and afterwards, he led the recitation of the Angelus.
At the conclusion of the recitation of the Angelus, the bells in all the bell towers of Marche were rung. The Holy Father then travelled aboard the popemobile among the faithful and the pilgrims who were gathered, before having lunch with the Bishops.
After lunch, the Pope left the Shrine and travelled to the Montorso heliport where, at 2:00pm local time (9:00am EDT), he departed for the return flight to the Vatican.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
And thank you for your warm welcome! Thank you.
The words of the angel Gabriel to Mary: Rejoice, full of grace (Lk 1:28), resound in a singular way in this Shrine, a privileged place to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. Here, in fact, the walls are kept - walls that, according to tradition, come from Nazareth, where the Holy Virgin pronounced her yes, becoming the mother of Jesus. Since what is called the house of Mary has become a venerated and loved presence on this hill, the Mother of God does not cease to obtain spiritual benefits in those who, with faith and devotion, come here to pause in prayer. Among these, today I also place myself, and I thank God who granted this grace to me precisely on the feast of the Annunciation.
I greet the Authorities, with gratitude for your welcome and collaboration. I greet Archbishop Fabio Dal Cin, who expressed the sentiments of all of you. With him I greet the other prelates, priests and consecrated persons, with a special thought for the Capuchin Fathers, who are entrusted with the custody of this distinguished shrine so dear to the Italian people. These Capuchins are good! They are always in the confessional. This is the reason why many of you enter the sanctuary and there is always at least one of the Friars there, or two or three or four, but always: both during the day and at the end of the day, and this is a difficult job. They are good and I thank them especially for this precious ministry of the confessional, which is continued throughout the day. Thank you! And to all of you, citizens of Loreto and pilgrims gathered here, I extend my cordial greeting.
In this oasis of silence and mercy, there are many, from Italy and from all over the world, who come to draw strength and hope. I am thinking in particular of young people, families and the sick.
The Holy House is the home of the young, because here the Virgin Mary, the young woman full of grace, continues to speak to the new generations, accompanying each of you in the search for your own vocation. This is why I wanted to sign the Apostolic Exhortation, the fruit of the Synod dedicated to young people in this place. It is titled Christus vivit - Christ is alive. In the event of the Annunciation the dynamic of the vocation appears, expressed in the three moments that marked the Synod:
The first moment, that of listening, is manifested by those words of the angel: Do not fear Mary, [...] you will conceive a child, you will give birth to him and you will call him Jesus (Lk 1:30-31). It is always God who takes the initiative to call us to follow him. It is God who takes the initiative, He always precedes us, He precedes us and He leads the way in our life. The call to faith and to a coherent path of Christian life or special consecration is a discreet but strong breaking in of God's presence in the life of a young person, to offer him or her His love as a gift. We need to be ready and willing to listen to and accept the voice of God, who does not recognize himself in the noise and agitation. His plan for our personal and social life is not perceived by merely remaining on the surface, but by descending to a deeper level, where moral and spiritual forces act. It is there that Mary invites the young to come down and to be in tune with God's actions.
The second moment in every vocation is discernment, expressed in Mary's words: How will this be? (Lk 1:34). Mary does not doubt; her question is not a lack of faith; indeed, she expresses her desire to discover God's surprises. In her, there is the attention needed to grasp all the needs of God's plan for her life, to know her in all her facets, to make her collaboration more complete and more responsible. It is the attitude proper to every disciple: every human collaboration with God's gratuitous initiative must be inspired by a deepening of our own abilities and attitudes, in conjunction with the awareness that it is always God who gives, who acts; so too the poverty and the smallness of those who the Lord calls to follow him on the way of the Gospel is transformed into the richness of the Lord's manifestation and into the power of the Almighty.
Decision is the third step that characterizes every Christian vocation, and it is made explicit by Mary's response to the angel: Let it be for me according to your word (Lk 1:38). Her yes to God's plan of salvation, implemented through the Incarnation, is the delivery to Him of her whole life. It is the yes of full trust and total availability to the will of God. Mary is the model of every vocation and the inspirer of every vocation ministry: young people who are in search of or wondering about their future, can find in Mary She who helps them to discern God's plan for themselves and the strength to adhere to it.
I think of Loreto as a privileged place where young people can come in search of their vocation, at Mary's school! A spiritual centre at the service of vocation ministry. I therefore hope that the John Paul II Centre will be relaunched at the service of the Church in Italy and internationally, in continuity with the indications emerging from the Synod. A place where young people and their educators can feel welcomed, accompanied and helped to discern. For this reason I also warmly ask an additional service of the Capuchins: the service of extending the opening hours of the Basilica and of the Holy House during the late evening and also the beginning of the night when there are groups of young people who come to pray and to discern their vocations. The Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, also because of its geographical location at the centre of the Peninsula, lends itself to becoming for the Church in Italy, a place of proposal for a continuation of the global meetings of young people and of families. It is necessary, in fact, that the enthusiasm of the preparation and celebration of these events should correspond to the pastoral realization of this plan, which gives substance to the richness of its content, through proposals for deepening prayer and sharing.
Mary's House is also the home of the family. In the delicate situation that we are experiencing, the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman assumes an essential importance and mission. We need to rediscover the plan created by God for the family, to reaffirm its greatness and irreplaceability in the service of life and society. In the house of Nazareth, Mary experienced the multiplicity of family relationships as a daughter, a girlfriend, a bride and a mother. For this reason, every family, in its different components, finds a welcome here, an inspiration to live its own identity. The Holy Virgin's domestic experience indicates that family and young people cannot be two parallel sectors of the pastoral care of our communities, but they must walk closely together, because very often, young people are what a family has given them in the growing season. This perspective recomposes a vocation ministry that is attentive to expressing the face of Jesus in its many aspects, as a priest, as a groom and as a shepherd.
The House of Mary is the home of the sick. Here they find a welcome for those who suffer in body and spirit, and our Mother brings the mercy of the Lord from generation to generation to all of us. Sickness hurts the family and the sick must be welcomed into the family. Please do not fall into the culture of waste that is proposed by the multiple ideological colonizations that attack us today. The home and the family are the first arenas of care for the sick as we respond by loving them, supporting them, encouraging them and caring for them. This is why the shrine of the Holy House is the symbol of every welcoming home and sanctuary of the sick. From this place I send to them all, all over in the world, an affectionate thought and I tell them: you are at the centre of Christ's work, because you share and carry his cross every day more concretely behind Him. Your suffering can become a decisive collaboration for the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Dear brothers and sisters! To you and to those who are linked to this Shrine, God, through Mary, entrusts a mission to our time: to bring the Gospel of peace and life to our often distracted contemporaries, taken by earthly interests or immersed in a climate of spiritual dryness. There is a need for simple and wise people, humble and courageous, poor and generous. In short, people who, at Mary's school, welcome the Gospel without reserve in their lives. Thus, through the sanctity of the people of God, testimonies of holiness in every state of life will continue to spread throughout Italy, Europe and the world, to renew the Church and animate society with the leaven of the Kingdom of God.
May the Blessed Virgin help everyone, especially the young, to walk the path of peace and fraternity founded on acceptance and forgiveness, on respect for others and on love which is a gift of self. May our Mother, bright star of joy and serenity, be a gift of blessing and the joy of life to families who are sanctuaries of love. May Mary, source of all consolation, bring help and comfort to those who find it difficult to do this.
With these thoughts, now, we unite ourselves in prayer as we recite the Angelus.
Original text in Italian
Texte en français
Texto en español
On the way to Loreto, while flying over Amendola, one of the places which has been most sorely tried as a result of the 2016 earthquake, the Pope greeted a group of people who were gathered in the sports field to recognize His passage.
Upon his arrival at the John Paul II youth centre located at Montorso, the Pope was welcomed by the Archbishop Prelate of Loreto, His Excellency, Fabio Dal Cin; the President of the Region of Marche, Doctor Luca Ceriscioli; the Prefect of Ancona, Doctor Antonio D'Acunto; and the Mayor of Loreto, Doctor Paolo Niccoletti. He then travelled by car to the Shrine of Loreto.
Upon his arrival at the Shrine of Loreto, the Holy Father was welcomed by the Rector of the Shrine, Father Franco Carollo; the Vicar General of the Pontifical Delegation for the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, Father Andrea Principini; the Vicar General of the Prelature of the Holy House of Loreto, Father Vincenzo Mattia; and the Secretary General of the Pontifical Delegation for the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, Doctor Claudio Quattrini.
At 9:30am, Pope Francis celebrated the Eucharist inside the Holy House and at the conclusion of that celebration, he signed the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation dedicated to youth, entitled: Christus vivit - Christ is alive. Having concluded the Eucharistic Celebration, the Holy Father then greeted the members of the Capuchin Franciscan Brothers and the Cloistered Monks. Then, inside the Shrine, he greeted the sick and a representative group of those involved in the Pastoral Care of the Deaf in the region of Marche and, going out into the courtyard, he met approximately 10,000 faithful and pilgrims who were waiting there.
Following a few words of greeting offered by the Archbishop Prelate of Loreto, His Excellency, Fabio Dal Cin, the Pope shared his speech and afterwards, he led the recitation of the Angelus.
At the conclusion of the recitation of the Angelus, the bells in all the bell towers of Marche were rung. The Holy Father then travelled aboard the popemobile among the faithful and the pilgrims who were gathered, before having lunch with the Bishops.
After lunch, the Pope left the Shrine and travelled to the Montorso heliport where, at 2:00pm local time (9:00am EDT), he departed for the return flight to the Vatican.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to the faithful prior to the
recitation of the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
And thank you for your warm welcome! Thank you.
The words of the angel Gabriel to Mary: Rejoice, full of grace (Lk 1:28), resound in a singular way in this Shrine, a privileged place to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. Here, in fact, the walls are kept - walls that, according to tradition, come from Nazareth, where the Holy Virgin pronounced her yes, becoming the mother of Jesus. Since what is called the house of Mary has become a venerated and loved presence on this hill, the Mother of God does not cease to obtain spiritual benefits in those who, with faith and devotion, come here to pause in prayer. Among these, today I also place myself, and I thank God who granted this grace to me precisely on the feast of the Annunciation.
I greet the Authorities, with gratitude for your welcome and collaboration. I greet Archbishop Fabio Dal Cin, who expressed the sentiments of all of you. With him I greet the other prelates, priests and consecrated persons, with a special thought for the Capuchin Fathers, who are entrusted with the custody of this distinguished shrine so dear to the Italian people. These Capuchins are good! They are always in the confessional. This is the reason why many of you enter the sanctuary and there is always at least one of the Friars there, or two or three or four, but always: both during the day and at the end of the day, and this is a difficult job. They are good and I thank them especially for this precious ministry of the confessional, which is continued throughout the day. Thank you! And to all of you, citizens of Loreto and pilgrims gathered here, I extend my cordial greeting.
In this oasis of silence and mercy, there are many, from Italy and from all over the world, who come to draw strength and hope. I am thinking in particular of young people, families and the sick.
The Holy House is the home of the young, because here the Virgin Mary, the young woman full of grace, continues to speak to the new generations, accompanying each of you in the search for your own vocation. This is why I wanted to sign the Apostolic Exhortation, the fruit of the Synod dedicated to young people in this place. It is titled Christus vivit - Christ is alive. In the event of the Annunciation the dynamic of the vocation appears, expressed in the three moments that marked the Synod:
- listening to God's Word-project;
- discernment; and
- decision.
The first moment, that of listening, is manifested by those words of the angel: Do not fear Mary, [...] you will conceive a child, you will give birth to him and you will call him Jesus (Lk 1:30-31). It is always God who takes the initiative to call us to follow him. It is God who takes the initiative, He always precedes us, He precedes us and He leads the way in our life. The call to faith and to a coherent path of Christian life or special consecration is a discreet but strong breaking in of God's presence in the life of a young person, to offer him or her His love as a gift. We need to be ready and willing to listen to and accept the voice of God, who does not recognize himself in the noise and agitation. His plan for our personal and social life is not perceived by merely remaining on the surface, but by descending to a deeper level, where moral and spiritual forces act. It is there that Mary invites the young to come down and to be in tune with God's actions.
The second moment in every vocation is discernment, expressed in Mary's words: How will this be? (Lk 1:34). Mary does not doubt; her question is not a lack of faith; indeed, she expresses her desire to discover God's surprises. In her, there is the attention needed to grasp all the needs of God's plan for her life, to know her in all her facets, to make her collaboration more complete and more responsible. It is the attitude proper to every disciple: every human collaboration with God's gratuitous initiative must be inspired by a deepening of our own abilities and attitudes, in conjunction with the awareness that it is always God who gives, who acts; so too the poverty and the smallness of those who the Lord calls to follow him on the way of the Gospel is transformed into the richness of the Lord's manifestation and into the power of the Almighty.
Decision is the third step that characterizes every Christian vocation, and it is made explicit by Mary's response to the angel: Let it be for me according to your word (Lk 1:38). Her yes to God's plan of salvation, implemented through the Incarnation, is the delivery to Him of her whole life. It is the yes of full trust and total availability to the will of God. Mary is the model of every vocation and the inspirer of every vocation ministry: young people who are in search of or wondering about their future, can find in Mary She who helps them to discern God's plan for themselves and the strength to adhere to it.
I think of Loreto as a privileged place where young people can come in search of their vocation, at Mary's school! A spiritual centre at the service of vocation ministry. I therefore hope that the John Paul II Centre will be relaunched at the service of the Church in Italy and internationally, in continuity with the indications emerging from the Synod. A place where young people and their educators can feel welcomed, accompanied and helped to discern. For this reason I also warmly ask an additional service of the Capuchins: the service of extending the opening hours of the Basilica and of the Holy House during the late evening and also the beginning of the night when there are groups of young people who come to pray and to discern their vocations. The Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, also because of its geographical location at the centre of the Peninsula, lends itself to becoming for the Church in Italy, a place of proposal for a continuation of the global meetings of young people and of families. It is necessary, in fact, that the enthusiasm of the preparation and celebration of these events should correspond to the pastoral realization of this plan, which gives substance to the richness of its content, through proposals for deepening prayer and sharing.
Mary's House is also the home of the family. In the delicate situation that we are experiencing, the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman assumes an essential importance and mission. We need to rediscover the plan created by God for the family, to reaffirm its greatness and irreplaceability in the service of life and society. In the house of Nazareth, Mary experienced the multiplicity of family relationships as a daughter, a girlfriend, a bride and a mother. For this reason, every family, in its different components, finds a welcome here, an inspiration to live its own identity. The Holy Virgin's domestic experience indicates that family and young people cannot be two parallel sectors of the pastoral care of our communities, but they must walk closely together, because very often, young people are what a family has given them in the growing season. This perspective recomposes a vocation ministry that is attentive to expressing the face of Jesus in its many aspects, as a priest, as a groom and as a shepherd.
The House of Mary is the home of the sick. Here they find a welcome for those who suffer in body and spirit, and our Mother brings the mercy of the Lord from generation to generation to all of us. Sickness hurts the family and the sick must be welcomed into the family. Please do not fall into the culture of waste that is proposed by the multiple ideological colonizations that attack us today. The home and the family are the first arenas of care for the sick as we respond by loving them, supporting them, encouraging them and caring for them. This is why the shrine of the Holy House is the symbol of every welcoming home and sanctuary of the sick. From this place I send to them all, all over in the world, an affectionate thought and I tell them: you are at the centre of Christ's work, because you share and carry his cross every day more concretely behind Him. Your suffering can become a decisive collaboration for the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Dear brothers and sisters! To you and to those who are linked to this Shrine, God, through Mary, entrusts a mission to our time: to bring the Gospel of peace and life to our often distracted contemporaries, taken by earthly interests or immersed in a climate of spiritual dryness. There is a need for simple and wise people, humble and courageous, poor and generous. In short, people who, at Mary's school, welcome the Gospel without reserve in their lives. Thus, through the sanctity of the people of God, testimonies of holiness in every state of life will continue to spread throughout Italy, Europe and the world, to renew the Church and animate society with the leaven of the Kingdom of God.
May the Blessed Virgin help everyone, especially the young, to walk the path of peace and fraternity founded on acceptance and forgiveness, on respect for others and on love which is a gift of self. May our Mother, bright star of joy and serenity, be a gift of blessing and the joy of life to families who are sanctuaries of love. May Mary, source of all consolation, bring help and comfort to those who find it difficult to do this.
With these thoughts, now, we unite ourselves in prayer as we recite the Angelus.
Original text in Italian
Texte en français
Texto en español
No comments:
Post a Comment