(Vatican Radio) Sean Patrick Lovett, the Head of the English Programme at Vatican Radio, was at the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre on Tuesday. He filed this report:
Listen to the report by Sean Patrick Lovett:
“Heat and humidity. I fear that my most vivid memories of following the Pope around Cuba will most likely be associated with efforts to keep cool – in every sense.
The penultimate stop on Pope Francis’ Cuban itinerary was back at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre. I say “back” because he’d already paid a private visit to the Shrine the previous evening. This time it was to celebrate Mass – and, unlike his predecessors who celebrated in downtown Santiago, this liturgy took place inside the Sanctuary church, a church that was filled to beyond anything its original architects who built it in 1927 could have possibly imagined. If they had they might have been a little more considerate in providing some sort of ventilation. Instead, the heat was indescribable. Fluttering, makeshift paper fans only shifted the heat around, instead of alleviating it. I envied those who were watching the event from screens outside in the square.
So it came as a shocking realization to note that these unbearable thermal conditions appeared to make no difference whatsoever to the fervent faithful crammed into this increasingly uncomfortable space. They listened with rapt attention as Pope Francis told them how “Our revolution comes about through tenderness”. And when he talked about the soul of the Cuban people being “forged amid suffering and privation which could not suppress the faith”, even the fans stopped fluttering.
The most moving moment of the homily, at least for me, was when he paid homage to the “grandmothers, mothers, and so many others who with tenderness and love…kept open a tiny space…through which the Holy Spirit continued to accompany the heartbeat of this people”.
That was when I felt the lightest breath of fresh air literally skim over the top of my head. Relieved, I looked up…to see a dove fly through the church just above me.
Was it a side effect of getting just four hours sleep a night? Or was it really a case of the heat playing tricks with my imagination?
I don’t know. You tell me.”
With Pope Francis in Cuba – I’m Seán-Patrick Lovett
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On the 22nd of September Pope Francis in his homily at the National Shrine of the ‘Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre’ invited the faithful present at this popular pilgrimage site for all Cubans and not just Catholics, not to dwell in their homes.
L iste n to Veronica Scarisbrick’s report:
On the contrary he stressed how God demands of us that we go out and embrace a culture of encounter. “We are visited so that we can visit others; we are encountered so as to encounter others, we are loved so we can return that love”.
These lands, he continued, as he spoke in the Basilica of this Marian Shrine have been visited by Mary’s maternal presence. Quoting the bishops of Cuba, he said: “In a special and unique way she has molded the Cuban soul, inspiring in the hearts of its people the highest ideals of love of God, within the family and the nation.
Touching on the shrine’s history he mentioned how Pope Benedict XV to declare Our Lady of Charity the Patroness of Cuba. How the Cubans of the time had written that: “neither disgrace nor poverty were ever able to crush the faith and the love which our Catholic people profess for the Virgin of Charity, for whom, in all their trials, when death was imminent or desperation was at the door, there arose, like a light scattering the darkness of every peril, like a comforting dew…, the vision of that Blessed Virgin, utterly Cuban and loved as such..”
Whenever we look to Mary Mother of Charity, Pope Francis said we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. We too are asked to live that revolution of tenderness through the joy which always becomes closeness and compassion, and leads us to get involved in, and to serve, the life of others, share their joys, their hopes and their frustrations, visit the sick, the prisoner and to those who mourn. And on a more joyful note, the Pope added how, by leaving our homes we are also able to laugh with those who laugh, and rejoice with our neighbors who rejoice.
Like Mary, he stressed, we want to be a Church which serves, which goes forth from its chapels, its sacristies, in order to accompany life, to sustain hope, to be a sign of unity, we want to be a Church which goes forth to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation. Like Mary, we want to be a Church which can accompany all those “pregnant” situations of our people, committed to life, to culture, to society.
This Pope Francis concluded, is our most valuable treasure, our greatest wealth and our most precious legacy. We must learn like Mary to leave our homes and set out on the path of ‘visitation’.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has been presiding over Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Tuesday in Santiago. In his Homily, the Holy Father returned to the theme of “serving others” recalling the exemplary model of Our Lady, who the Pope said, “left her house and went out to serve.”
He also underlined how this land of Cuba has been “visited by her maternal presence. The Cuban homeland was born and grew, warmed by devotion to Our Lady of Charity.”
The Pope said the greatest legacy and treasure the Church can give is “to learn like Mary to leave home and set out on the path of visitation.”
Find below Pope the Homily of Pope Francis at Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Santiago.
The Gospel we have just heard tells us about something the Lord does every time he visits us: he calls us out of our house. These are images which we are asked to contemplate over and over again. God’s presence in our lives never leaves us tranquil: it always pushes to do something. When God comes, he always calls us out of our house. We are visited so that we can visit others; we are encountered so as to encounter others; we receive love in order to give love.
In the Gospel we see Mary, the first disciple. A young woman of perhaps between fifteen and seventeen years of age who, in a small village of Palestine, was visited by the Lord, who told her that she was to be the mother of the Savior. Mary was far from “thinking it was all about her”, or thinking that everyone had to come and wait upon her; she left her house and went out to serve. First she goes to help her cousin Elizabeth. The joy which blossoms when we know that God is with us, with our people, gets our heart beating, gets our legs moving and “draws us out of ourselves”. It leads us to take the joy we have received and to share it in service, in those “pregnant” situations which our neighbors or families may be experiencing. The Gospel tells us that Mary went in haste, slowly but surely, with a steady pace, neither too fast nor so slow as never to get there. Neither anxious nor distracted, Mary goes with haste to accompany her cousin who conceived in her old age. Henceforth this was always to be her way. She has always been the woman who visits men and women, children, the elderly and the young. She has visited and accompanied many of our peoples in the drama of their birth; she has watched over the struggles of those who fought to defend the rights of their children. And now, she continues to bring us the Word of Life, her Son, our Lord.
These lands have also been visited by her maternal presence. The Cuban homeland was born and grew, warmed by devotion to Our Lady of Charity. As the bishops of this country have written: “In a special and unique way she has molded the Cuban soul, inspiring the highest ideals of love of God, the family and the nation in the heart of the Cuban people”.
This was what your fellow citizens also stated a hundred years ago, when they asked Pope Benedict XV to declare Our Lady of Charity the Patroness of Cuba. They wrote that “neither disgrace nor poverty were ever able to crush the faith and the love which our Catholic people profess for the Virgin of Charity, for whom, in all their trials, when death was imminent or desperation was at the door, there arose, like a light scattering the darkness of every peril, like a comforting dew…, the vision of that Blessed Virgin, utterly Cuban and loved as such by our cherished mothers, blessed as such by our wives.”
In this shrine, which keeps alive the memory of God’s holy and faithful pilgrim people in Cuba, Mary is venerated as the Mother of Charity. From here she protects our roots, our identity, so that we may never stray to paths of despair. The soul of the Cuban people, as we have just heard, was forged amid suffering and privation which could not suppress the faith, that faith which was kept alive thanks to all those grandmothers who fostered, in the daily life of their homes, the living presence of God, the presence of the Father who liberates, strengthens, heals, grants courage and serves as a sure refuge and the sign of a new resurrection. Grandmothers, mothers, and so many others who with tenderness and love were signs of visitation, valor and faith for their grandchildren, in their families. They kept open a tiny space, small as a mustard seed, through which the Holy Spirit continued to accompany the heartbeat of this people.
“Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness” (Evangelii Gaudium, 288).
Generation after generation, day after day, we are asked to renew our faith. We are asked to live the revolution of tenderness as Mary, our Mother of Charity, did. We are invited to “leave home” and to open our eyes and hearts to others. Our revolution comes about through tenderness, through the joy which always becomes closeness and compassion, and leads us to get involved in, and to serve, the life of others. Our faith makes us leave our homes and go forth to encounter others, to share their joys, their hopes and their frustrations. Our faith, “calls us out of our house”, to visit the sick, the prisoner and to those who mourn. It makes us able to laugh with those who laugh, and rejoice with our neighbors who rejoice. Like Mary, we want to be a Church which serves, which leaves home and goes forth, which goes forth from its chapels, its sacristies, in order to accompany life, to sustain hope, to be a sign of unity. Like Mary, Mother of Charity, we want to be a Church which goes forth to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation. Like Mary, we want to be a Church which can accompany all those “pregnant” situations of our people, committed to life, to culture, to society, not washing our hands but rather walking with our brothers and sisters.
This is our most valuable treasure (cobre), this is our greatest wealth and the best legacy we can give: to learn like Mary to leave home and set out on the path of visitation. And to learn to pray with Mary, for her prayer is one of remembrance and gratitude; it is the canticle of the People of God on their pilgrimage through history. It is the living reminder that God passes through our midst; the perennial memory that God has looked upon the lowliness of his people, he has come the aid of his servant, even as promised to our forebears and their children for ever.
(from Vatican Radio)…
The fourth and final day
of Pope Francis’ visit in Cuba, Tuesday, 22 September, began in the Marian
capital of the country, known for its shrine of the Virgin of Charity of El
Cobre.
In Santiago de Cuba, the Pontiff — who will soon leave the island and
travel to the United States of America — celebrated Mass in the basilica
dedicated to Our Lady. There he recalled how the spirit of the people has been
forged by pain and deprivation, however their faith has not burned out. The
people’s faith, he said, has endured thanks to many women, including mothers
and grandmothers, who continued to keep God’s presence alive. The Holy Father
expressed his desire for a “revolution of tenderness” which always becomes closeness and
compassion. A necessary revolution — he
said on Monday in Holguín — to overcome prejudice and resistance to change. On
the Feast of St Matthew, the Pontiff celebrated Mass with great participation
from the Cuban people.
From Holguín Francis travelled to El Cobre, where he had
a private meeting with the Bishops’ Conference of Cuba and then invited them to
accompany him to the minor basilica dedicated to the Patroness of Cuba.
Renewing the prayer of John Paul II from 1998, he implored the Virgin of
Charity to reunite and reconcile the people of Cuba, making their island into a
home of brothers and sisters.
The Pope’s addresses in Cuba
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday visited a monument to St. John Paul II, which is located in the atrium of the Cathedral of San Isidoro de Holguín.
The statue commemorates the visit St. John Paul II made to Cuba in 1998, the first ever papal visit to the country.
The statue, weighing about three tons, was made by Cuban artists, and it shows the Pope standing, holding his pastoral staff against his chest and with his right arm blessing the people of Cuba.
(from Vatican Radio)…