(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II thanking him for his hospitality and for their “moving meeting and common prayer as brothers in Christ”, during his recent visit to Egypt.
Please find below the Holy Father’s message
To His Holiness Tawadros II
Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark
Dear Brother,
After my visit to Egypt and the blessed encounter with Your Holiness in Cairo, and recalling the fourth anniversary of our fraternal meeting in Rome on 10 May 2013, I take this opportunity to offer my prayerful best wishes for your peace and health, as well as my joy and gratitude for the spiritual bonds uniting the See of Peter and the See of Mark.
I once more express my profound appreciation for your hospitality and for our moving meeting and common prayer as brothers in Christ. I am especially grateful that we have strengthened our baptismal unity in the body of Christ by declaring together “that we, with one mind and heart, will seek sincerely not to repeat the baptism that has been administered in either of our Churches for any person who wishes to join the other”. Our bonds of fraternity “challenge us to intensify our common efforts to persevere in the search for visible unity in diversity, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit”.
Along this path we are sustained by the powerful intercession and example of the martyrs. May we continue to advance together on our journey towards the same Eucharistic table, and grow in love and reconciliation.
I assure Your Holiness of my continued prayers for you, and for peace in Egypt and the Middle East. In this Easter season I pray that the Holy Spirit, the strength and tenderness of God, may fill our hearts with his grace and kindle in them the fire of his love. May the Spirit of peace bestow on us an increase of hope, friendship and harmony.
With these sentiments, on this special occasion which has rightly become known as the day of friendship between the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, I exchange with Your Holiness a fraternal embrace of peace in Christ our Lord.
From the Vatican, 10 May 2017
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis during his Wednesday General Audience continued his catechesis on Christian hope, highlighting Mary the Mother of Hope.
Listen to this report:
On the eve of his Apostolic visit to Fatima , Pope Francis on Wednesday, described Mary as the Mother of Hope adding that she was a woman of courage, perseverance and obedience.
Speaking to the thousands of pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square, the Pope said that, “Our Lady’s experience of motherhood models that of so many mothers in our world.” Mothers who have had to confront the suffering of their children.
He went on to say that she courageously accepted her vocation and welcomed the new life entrusted to her. The Holy Father also noted how despite the trials in her life, she remained always obedient to God.
Mary, Pope Francis commented, is with her son until the very end. Her image, he said “standing at the foot of the cross and grieving the death of her innocent Son has inspired artists of every age to present her as a model of persevering hope in God’s promises.”
The hope that Our Lady had, underlined the Pope, was the fruit of a life of prayer and daily effort to be conformed to God’s will, and was fulfilled in Jesus’ rising to new life. We are not orphans, Pope Francis added, “we have a Mother in heaven who is the Holy Mother of God.”
Following his catechesis, the Holy Father, greeting Portuguese speaking pilgrims asked for prayers for his upcoming visit to Fatima. He also had words of welcome for a delegation of young Russian priests of the Patriarchate of Moscow who are being hosted by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian unity.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, during which he spoke of Mary the Mother of Hope. Below, please find the official English-language summary of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks…
Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis on Christian hope, we now turn to Mary, Mother of Hope. Our Lady’s experience of motherhood models that of so many mothers in our world. Hers is a witness of courage in accepting her vocation and welcoming the new life entrusted to her. It is also a witness of quiet yet trusting obedience to God’s will amid the trials of life. The Gospels speak of a certain “eclipse” of Mary during the public ministry of Jesus. She follows her Son in silence, yet in his passion, when most of the disciples flee, she remains with him to the very end. The image of Mary standing at the foot of the cross and grieving the death of her innocent Son has inspired artists of every age to present her as a model of persevering hope in God’s promises. That hope was the fruit of a life of prayer and daily effort to be conformed to God’s will, and was fulfilled in Jesus’ rising to new life. As Mother of Hope, may Our Lady remain at our side, sustain us by her prayers and guide our steps as we seek to follow her Son every day of our lives.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio)
“Let us receive the Holy Spirit with docility!” This was Pope Francis’ message during his Tuesday morning homily during Mass celebrated in the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence.
Joining the Pope at Mass were the Sisters who work in the Santa Marta residence. They were celebrating the feast day of their founder, Saint Luisa di Marillac.
The Pope, continuing to develop the themes he had used in the previous day’s homily, reflected on the early Christians’ docility and openness to the Holy Spirit against the backdrop of the first persecutions of the Christians.
“In these past days we have talked about resistance to the Holy Spirit, for which Saint Stephen scolded the doctors of the law. Today the readings speak of an attitude which the opposite namely for Christians to have docility towards the Holy Spirit” said Pope Francis.
He described how, after Saint Stephen was killed, a widespread persecution broke out against Christians and many of them fled to places like Cyprus, Phoenicia and Antioch. But this persecution gave new opportunities to the Christians, he added. Noting that until this moment, they had only been preaching to the Jews, the Pope pointed out that some of those Christians who went to Antioch began to preach to the pagans, because they felt that the Holy Spirit was pushing them to do so. This, he said, showed their docility towards the Spirit.
This docility is spoken about in the first letter of Saint James, where he exhorts believers to “Receive the word with docility.” Pope Francis told the congregation that this means needing to have an open attitude that is not rigid.
“The first path in the journey of docility is therefore to receive the Word, which opens the heart. The second path is to know the Word, to know Jesus, who says ‘my sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me’” said the Pope.
“Then there is a third path, familiarity with the Word. To always bring the Word with us. To read it, to open our hearts to the Lord, open our hearts to the Spirit who makes us understand the Word. And the fruit of this, to receive the Word, to understand the Word, to take it with us, to have this familiarity with the Word, is a great fruit! A person who does this displays goodness, kindness, joy, peace, self -control and meekness.”
The Pope went on to explain that this meekness is the attitude that gives us docility towards the Spirit.
“But I have to receive the Spirit which brings me the Word with docility. And this docility, by not resisting the Spirit, brings me this way of living, this way of acting. To receive the Word with docility, to know the Word and call to the Spirit to grant us the grace to understand and then to give space for this seed to sprout and grow into this attitude of goodness, meekness, gentleness , peace, charity and self-control. All this shows a Christian attitude” he said.
The Pope also pointed out that it was not the Apostles who preached to the pagans in Antioch, but others whose names we do not know. And when the Apostle Barnabas arrived in Antioch, he saw there the grace of God, resting in hearts that were faithful to the Lord.
“There is the Spirit that guides us to do no wrong, but to receive with the spirit with docility, to know the Spirit in the Word and to live according to the Spirit. And this is the opposite of the resistance for which Stephen scolded the doctors of the law: ‘You always have resisted the Spirit!’ Do we resist the spirit? Do we create resistance? Or do we receive him? With docility: these are the words of James. ‘To receive with docility.’ Resistance is the opposite of docility. Let us call for this grace.”
The Pope concluding his homily by noting that that it was in Antioch that the community of disciples was first given the name Christians.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis called for Catholics to pray the Rosary for peace on Sunday. In remarks to pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray the Regina coeli with him on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Holy Father said, “[I]n this month of May, let us pray the Rosary in particular for peace.”
“Please!” he said, “let us pray the Rosary for peace, as the Virgin of Fatima asked us to do.”
Pope Francis is scheduled to travel to Fatima, in Portugal, this weekend, to lead celebrations marking the 100 th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Blessed Lady there.
(from Vatican Radio)…