Having concluded the Mass celebrated in the Vatican Basilica to mark the solemn opening of the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will focus on the theme: The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world, at noon today, the Holy Father, Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study in the Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and with pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter's Square for the usual Sunday appointment.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Inside Saint Peter's Basilica, we have just concluded the eucharistic celebration with which we began the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The Synod Fathers, who come from every corner of the world are gathered around the Successor of Peter. They will reflect for three weeks on the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in society and seek careful spiritual and pastoral discernment. We will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus in order to determine the most appropriate ways for the Church to be adequately committed to families and for families, based on his teachings about truth and mercy, so that the creator's original plan for man and woman can be implemented and can operate in all its beauty and strength in today's world.
This Sunday's liturgy repeats the fundamental text from the Book of Genesis on the complementarity and reciprocity between man and woman (cf Gn 2:18-24). For this reason - the Bible says - man leaves his father and his mother and is united to his wife and the two become one flesh, that is one common life, one common existence (cf v. 24). In such a union, the spouses transmit life to new human beings; they become parents. They participate in the creating power of God himself, but be careful! God is love, and we participate in his work when we love with Him and like Him. For this reason - Saint Paul says - love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (cf Rom 5:5), and this is also the love that is given to spouses in the Sacrament of Matrimony. It is love that fuels their relationship, through joys and sorrows, serene and difficult moments. It is love that awakens the desire to create children, to wait for them, to welcome them, to bring them up, to educate them. This is the same love that, in the gospel today, Jesus shows to the children: Let the little children come to me, do not stop them: for to such as these, the kingdom of heaven belongs (Mk 10:14).
Today, we ask the Lord to make all parents and all teachers throughout the world, and in every society, instruments of welcome and of love through which Jesus embraces even the smallest child. May he look into their hearts with the tenderness and concern of a father and at the same time, that of a mother. I can think of so many children who are hungry, abandoned, exploited, forced into war, rejected. It is painful to see images of unhappy children, looking lost, fleeing from poverty and conflicts, knocking at our doors and at our hearts, calling out for help. May the Lord help us to not to be a fortress-society, but a family-society, capable of welcoming, with adequate rules but welcoming, always welcoming with love!
I invite you to support the work of the Synod with your prayers; may the Holy Spirit render the Synod Fathers entirely docile to his inspiration. Let us invoke the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, uniting ourselves spiritually with all those who at the Shrine of Pompei are reciting the Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary.
At the conclusion of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:
Dear brothers and sisters,
Yesterday in Santander (Spain), Blessed Pius Heredia and seventeen of his companions of the Cistercian Order of Strict Observance and Saint Bernard, were beatified. They were killed for their faith during the Spanish civil war and the religious persecution during the 1930s. Let us praise the Lord for these courageous witnesses and, through their intercession, let us ask Him to liberate the world from the scourge of war.
I want to offer a prayer to the Lord for the victims of a landslide that engulfed an entire village in Guatemala, as well as for those who were caught in the floods in France, on the French Riviera. We are close to those who have been hardest hit by these tragedies, even with concrete gestures of solidarity.
I thank all of you who have come in such great numbers from Rome, from other parts of Italy and from so many places throughout the world. I greet the faithful from the Archdiocese of Paderborn (Gernmany), those from Porto (Portugal), and the group from the Mekhitarista college here in Rome.
On the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron of Italy, I greet with particular affection, all the Italian pilgrims!, especially the faithful from Reggio Calabria, Bollate, Mozzanica, Castano Primo, Nule and Parabita. I also greet the children from Belvedere di Spinello and the Association for the rights of pedestrians in Rome and the Lazio.
I wish you all a good Sunday, and please, don't forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and good bye!
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the recitation of the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Inside Saint Peter's Basilica, we have just concluded the eucharistic celebration with which we began the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The Synod Fathers, who come from every corner of the world are gathered around the Successor of Peter. They will reflect for three weeks on the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in society and seek careful spiritual and pastoral discernment. We will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus in order to determine the most appropriate ways for the Church to be adequately committed to families and for families, based on his teachings about truth and mercy, so that the creator's original plan for man and woman can be implemented and can operate in all its beauty and strength in today's world.
This Sunday's liturgy repeats the fundamental text from the Book of Genesis on the complementarity and reciprocity between man and woman (cf Gn 2:18-24). For this reason - the Bible says - man leaves his father and his mother and is united to his wife and the two become one flesh, that is one common life, one common existence (cf v. 24). In such a union, the spouses transmit life to new human beings; they become parents. They participate in the creating power of God himself, but be careful! God is love, and we participate in his work when we love with Him and like Him. For this reason - Saint Paul says - love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (cf Rom 5:5), and this is also the love that is given to spouses in the Sacrament of Matrimony. It is love that fuels their relationship, through joys and sorrows, serene and difficult moments. It is love that awakens the desire to create children, to wait for them, to welcome them, to bring them up, to educate them. This is the same love that, in the gospel today, Jesus shows to the children: Let the little children come to me, do not stop them: for to such as these, the kingdom of heaven belongs (Mk 10:14).
Today, we ask the Lord to make all parents and all teachers throughout the world, and in every society, instruments of welcome and of love through which Jesus embraces even the smallest child. May he look into their hearts with the tenderness and concern of a father and at the same time, that of a mother. I can think of so many children who are hungry, abandoned, exploited, forced into war, rejected. It is painful to see images of unhappy children, looking lost, fleeing from poverty and conflicts, knocking at our doors and at our hearts, calling out for help. May the Lord help us to not to be a fortress-society, but a family-society, capable of welcoming, with adequate rules but welcoming, always welcoming with love!
I invite you to support the work of the Synod with your prayers; may the Holy Spirit render the Synod Fathers entirely docile to his inspiration. Let us invoke the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, uniting ourselves spiritually with all those who at the Shrine of Pompei are reciting the Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary.
At the conclusion of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:
Dear brothers and sisters,
Yesterday in Santander (Spain), Blessed Pius Heredia and seventeen of his companions of the Cistercian Order of Strict Observance and Saint Bernard, were beatified. They were killed for their faith during the Spanish civil war and the religious persecution during the 1930s. Let us praise the Lord for these courageous witnesses and, through their intercession, let us ask Him to liberate the world from the scourge of war.
I want to offer a prayer to the Lord for the victims of a landslide that engulfed an entire village in Guatemala, as well as for those who were caught in the floods in France, on the French Riviera. We are close to those who have been hardest hit by these tragedies, even with concrete gestures of solidarity.
I thank all of you who have come in such great numbers from Rome, from other parts of Italy and from so many places throughout the world. I greet the faithful from the Archdiocese of Paderborn (Gernmany), those from Porto (Portugal), and the group from the Mekhitarista college here in Rome.
On the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron of Italy, I greet with particular affection, all the Italian pilgrims!, especially the faithful from Reggio Calabria, Bollate, Mozzanica, Castano Primo, Nule and Parabita. I also greet the children from Belvedere di Spinello and the Association for the rights of pedestrians in Rome and the Lazio.
I wish you all a good Sunday, and please, don't forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and good bye!
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