org. We publish sentences of Pope Francis every Monday as the “Door to the Week”, so that they may accompany us every step of our pilgrim way in everyday life. These are statements made in the previous week, they are words that inspire us to increasingly become missionary pilgrims who live in solidarity, as poor, joyful, open and simple Pilgrims – in and with the Church – and ask for renewal in the genuine spirit of the covenant. Without humility there is neither effective service, nor genuine renewal. Actually it is very simple, because Pope Francis speaks about the grace of 2014. Let us pray for this grace.
WEEK 26/2013
Christians are always prepared to proclaim the Gospel, because they cannot keep for themselves the joy of knowing Christ.
Papal Tweet
A revolution, in order to transform history, must profoundly change human hearts. Revolutions that have taken place throughout the centuries have changed political and economic systems, but none of them have truly changed the human heart. Only Jesus Christ accomplished the true revolution, the one that radically transforms life, with his Resurrection that, as Benedict XVI loves to recall, was ‘the greatest “mutation” in the history of humanity’ and it gave birth to a new world. Let us think about this: It is the greatest mutation in the history of humanity, it is a real revolution and we are revolutionaries, and revolutionaries of this revolution, because we are walking this path of the greatest mutation in the history of humanity. A Christian who isn’t a revolutionary in this time is not a Christian! We have to be revolutionaries of grace! More precisely, it is the grace the Father gives us through the crucified Jesus, through the Jesus who died and rose from the dead, that makes us all revolutionaries! (Unofficial translation)
To the Participants at the Annual Convention of the Diocese of Rome, 17 June
Think of how many fathers and mothers practice their faith every day and as a result risk their lives in a very concrete way for the good of the family! Let us think of these people! Think of how many priests and religious offer generous service for the kingdom of God! Think of how many young people give us their own interests in order to care for children, the disabled or the elderly … They are also martyrs, daily martyrs, martyrs in everyday life! In addition there are many people, Christians and non-Christians, who “lose their lives” for the truth. And Christ said, “I am the truth.” So whoever serves the truth, serves Christ! As usual our Mother, Holy Mary, leads the way: Right up to the cross she gave her life for Jesus, and received it in its fullness in the complete light and the complete beauty of the resurrection. May Mary help us to make the logic of the Gospel increasingly our own.
Angelus, 23 June (unofficial translation)
Think of how many people pay a high price for their efforts for the truth! How many upright people prefer to swim against the stream, even if only not to deny the voice of their conscience, the voice of truth. They are upright people who are not afraid to swim against the stream. We may not be afraid! There are many young people among you. To them I say: Do not be afraid to swim against the stream when people try to rob us of hope, when people suggest values to us that are corrupt, like a meal that has gone bad; and when food has gone bad, it makes us ill; these values make us ill. We have to swim against the stream! You young people have to be the first: Swim against the stream and be proud of it! Onwards, be courageous, and proudly swim against the stream!
Angelus, 23 June (unofficial translation)
We have to offer Christian hope with our witness, with our freedom, with our joy. The gift God give us out of grace brings hope. May we who have this joy of knowing that we are not orphans, that we have a Father, be indifferent when faced with this city that perhaps unconsciously and without knowing it asks us for hope that will help it to look into the future with more serenity and trust? We cannot be indifferent. But how are we to do it? How can we go out and offer hope? By going onto the streets with a flyer and saying, “I have hope!”? No! With your witness, with your smile, say, “I believe, I have a Father.” This is how we proclaim the Gospel: With my words, with my witness, say, “I have a Father. We aren’t orphans. We have a Father”. We have to share this childhood before the Father with everyone. “Aha, you say, now I understand: We have to convince others to add to our numbers.” No, nothing like that! The Gospel is like a seed – you sow that see, you sow it with your words and with your witness. And afterwards please don’t draw up statistics on how it worked – God will do that. He allows the seed to grow, but we have to sow with the certainty that he will provide the water, he will provide growth. We don’t reap the harvest. Another priest or layperson will do that, someone else will do that. Yet we rejoice to sow with our witness, because words alone are insufficient, it isn’t enough. Our words without witness are hot air. Words simply aren’t enough.
To the Participants at the Annual Convention of the Diocese of Rome, 17 June (unofficial translation)
This is beautiful: to serve without asking anything in return, as Jesus did. Jesus served us all and did not ask anything in return. That is beautiful: Jesus did things with gratuitousness and you do things with gratuitousness. Your recompense is precisely this: the joy of serving the Lord and of doing it together! Know him always more through prayer, retreat days, meditation on the Word, study of the Catechism, to love him always more and to serve him with a generous heart, to expand the heart, always with patience, to expand, to love everyone, and not that small heart, that pettiness, that pettiness, which does much harm. Magnanimity. Your witness will be more convincing and efficacious, and even your service will be better and more joyful. (Vatican Radio)
To the Association of Sts Peter and Paul, 23 June
To become holey we don’t need to roll our eyes and look upwards, or to put on a holier-than-thou face. No, no, no, that isn’t necessary! Only one thing is necessary in order to become holy: to accept the grace that the Father gives us in Jesus Christ. That is it. This graces transforms our heart. We remain sinners, because we are all weak, but weak with this grace that allows us to feel that the Lord is good, that the Lord is merciful, that the Lord awaits us, that the Lord forgives us – with this great grace that transforms our heart.
To the Participants at the Annual Convention of the Diocese of Rome, 17 June
Sources: hwww.vatican.va, Radio Vaticana, AICA, R; Translation: Mary Cole/schoenstatt.org
See all texts in “Francis for the Pilgrims 2014”
The aim of the pilgrimage
is the renewal of the covenant of love
as a missionary and unifying creative force,
i.e. internally the renewal of the Schoenstatt Family
and externally the shaping of covenant culture.
