At noon today in Rome (6:00am EST), the Holy Father, Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study inside the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and with pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter's Square.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord: when the newborn Jesus was presented in the temple by the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. This day also marks the Day of Consecrated Life, which recalls the great treasure in the Church of those who closely follow the Lord by professing the evangelical counsels.
Today's gospel (cf Lk 2: 22-40) tells us that, forty days after his birth, Jesus' parents brought the child to Jerusalem to consecrate him to God, as was prescribed by Jewish law. And while describing a ritual that was foreseen by tradition, this episode brings to our attention the example of some characters. They are surprised when they experience the encounter with the Lord in the place where He makes himself present and close to mankind. These are Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna, who represent models of the actions of acceptance and giving of their life to God. These four were not the same, they were all different, but they all sought God and allowed themselves to be guided by the Lord
The evangelist Luke describes all four of them in a two-fold attitude: an attitude of movement and an attitude of amazement.
The first attitude is movement. Mary and Joseph are travelling to Jerusalem; for his part, Simeon, who is moved by the Spirit, makes his way to the Temple, while Anna is serving God day and night without stopping. In this way, the four protagonists of the gospel passage show us that Christian life requires dynamism and an availability to go on, an ability to allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Standing still is not a suitable attitude for Christian witness and for the mission of the Church. The world needs Christians who let themselves be moved, who never tire of walking the streets of life, in order to bring everyone the consoling word of Jesus. Every baptized person has received a vocation to proclaim - to proclaim something, to proclaim Jesus -, the vocation to the evangelizing mission: to announce Jesus! Parishes and the various ecclesial communities are all called to encourage the commitment of young people, families and the elderly, so that everyone can have a Christian experience, living the life and mission of the Church as protagonists.
The second attitude with which Saint Luke presents the four characters of the story is amazement. Mary and Joseph were amazed at the things they said about him (about Jesus) (Lk 2: 33). Amazement is an explicit reaction also from the old Simeon, who in the Child Jesus sees with his own eyes the salvation wrought by God in favour of his people: the salvation that he had been waiting for for years. And the same is true of Anna, who also began to praise God (Lk 2: 38) and to go and show Jesus to people. This was a chatty saint, she chatted well, chatted about good things, not bad things. She spoke, she announced: she was a saint who went from one woman to another making them see Jesus. These figures of believers are enveloped in amazement, because they let themselves be captured and involved in the events that took place before their eyes. The ability to be amazed at the things around us promotes religious experience and makes encounters with the Lord fruitful. On the contrary, the inability to be amazed makes us indifferent and widens the distances between the journey of faith and everyday life. Brothers and sisters, we should always be on the move and leaving ourselves open to amazement!
May the Virgin Mary help us to contemplate in Jesus, the gift of God for us every day, and to allow him to involve us in the movement of the gift, with joyous amazement, so that our entire lives may become a source of praise for God in the service of our brothers and sisters.
Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today, in Italy, we celebrate the Day for Life, which has as its theme: Open the door to life. I join the Message of the Bishops and hope that this Day will be an opportunity to renew our commitment to protect human life from conception until its natural end. It is also necessary to combat any form of violation of dignity, even when technology or the economy is at stake, opening the doors to new forms of fraternal solidarity.
Today, on the Day of Consecrated Life, I wish that all of us, gathered here in the Square, pray for all the consecrated men and women who do so much work, and many times they do this work in hiding.
Let us pray together.
Hail Mary ...
And let us applaud all the consecrated men and women!
I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims. In particular, the students from Badajoz (Spain); the faithful from Cremona, Spoleto, Fano, Palau and Roseto degli Abruzzi. I see that there are some pilgrims here from Poland, many of you! And there are Japanese pilgrims, I also want to greet all of you!
I wish you all a good Sunday. And please, don't forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and good bye!
Testo originale nella lingua italiana
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the recitation of the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord: when the newborn Jesus was presented in the temple by the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. This day also marks the Day of Consecrated Life, which recalls the great treasure in the Church of those who closely follow the Lord by professing the evangelical counsels.
Today's gospel (cf Lk 2: 22-40) tells us that, forty days after his birth, Jesus' parents brought the child to Jerusalem to consecrate him to God, as was prescribed by Jewish law. And while describing a ritual that was foreseen by tradition, this episode brings to our attention the example of some characters. They are surprised when they experience the encounter with the Lord in the place where He makes himself present and close to mankind. These are Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna, who represent models of the actions of acceptance and giving of their life to God. These four were not the same, they were all different, but they all sought God and allowed themselves to be guided by the Lord
The evangelist Luke describes all four of them in a two-fold attitude: an attitude of movement and an attitude of amazement.
The first attitude is movement. Mary and Joseph are travelling to Jerusalem; for his part, Simeon, who is moved by the Spirit, makes his way to the Temple, while Anna is serving God day and night without stopping. In this way, the four protagonists of the gospel passage show us that Christian life requires dynamism and an availability to go on, an ability to allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Standing still is not a suitable attitude for Christian witness and for the mission of the Church. The world needs Christians who let themselves be moved, who never tire of walking the streets of life, in order to bring everyone the consoling word of Jesus. Every baptized person has received a vocation to proclaim - to proclaim something, to proclaim Jesus -, the vocation to the evangelizing mission: to announce Jesus! Parishes and the various ecclesial communities are all called to encourage the commitment of young people, families and the elderly, so that everyone can have a Christian experience, living the life and mission of the Church as protagonists.
The second attitude with which Saint Luke presents the four characters of the story is amazement. Mary and Joseph were amazed at the things they said about him (about Jesus) (Lk 2: 33). Amazement is an explicit reaction also from the old Simeon, who in the Child Jesus sees with his own eyes the salvation wrought by God in favour of his people: the salvation that he had been waiting for for years. And the same is true of Anna, who also began to praise God (Lk 2: 38) and to go and show Jesus to people. This was a chatty saint, she chatted well, chatted about good things, not bad things. She spoke, she announced: she was a saint who went from one woman to another making them see Jesus. These figures of believers are enveloped in amazement, because they let themselves be captured and involved in the events that took place before their eyes. The ability to be amazed at the things around us promotes religious experience and makes encounters with the Lord fruitful. On the contrary, the inability to be amazed makes us indifferent and widens the distances between the journey of faith and everyday life. Brothers and sisters, we should always be on the move and leaving ourselves open to amazement!
May the Virgin Mary help us to contemplate in Jesus, the gift of God for us every day, and to allow him to involve us in the movement of the gift, with joyous amazement, so that our entire lives may become a source of praise for God in the service of our brothers and sisters.
Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today, in Italy, we celebrate the Day for Life, which has as its theme: Open the door to life. I join the Message of the Bishops and hope that this Day will be an opportunity to renew our commitment to protect human life from conception until its natural end. It is also necessary to combat any form of violation of dignity, even when technology or the economy is at stake, opening the doors to new forms of fraternal solidarity.
Today, on the Day of Consecrated Life, I wish that all of us, gathered here in the Square, pray for all the consecrated men and women who do so much work, and many times they do this work in hiding.
Let us pray together.
Hail Mary ...
And let us applaud all the consecrated men and women!
I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims. In particular, the students from Badajoz (Spain); the faithful from Cremona, Spoleto, Fano, Palau and Roseto degli Abruzzi. I see that there are some pilgrims here from Poland, many of you! And there are Japanese pilgrims, I also want to greet all of you!
I wish you all a good Sunday. And please, don't forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and good bye!
Testo originale nella lingua italiana
No comments:
Post a Comment