FRANCIS IN ROME, HOLY YEAR OF MERCY • “Don’t you have another question?” He also noticed that the goodbye was near and perhaps he wanted to give me the joy of enjoying this meeting to the last moment, because we knew that it would not happen again for some time. I went to interview him, but in the end it was he who gently took care that I could ask all of my questions…Trying to be creative for my last question, I told him somewhat abruptly: “Yes, Your Holiness. There
Read More FRANCIS IN ROME • In the first Angelus of 2016, the Pope extended an invitation to open “the doors of our heart to Christ” and warned against the “evil that lies in wait at our door and our hearts to enter.” In order to prevent it from entering, Francis invited the faithful to always carry a Gospel in their pockets and to read “a passage every day.” Complete text of the Angelus on 3 January 2016 Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday! The liturgy of today, the second Sunday after
Read More PARAGUAY, Rolando José Benítez Velázquez • I lost my mother two years ago; it was a very powerful experience for me as I greatly depended upon her. I believe it is something that I will never overcome. I distanced myself from religion, I distanced myself from God, and I felt empty until a very special person in my life showed me a road that I never thought I would take: she invited me to the missions. With many doubts and not much desire, I accepted that invitation without knowing what
Read More ORIGINAL SHRINE/GERMANY from Maria Fischer • “Schoenstatt, Vallendar on the Rhine, which celebrated its centenary last year, is the centre of a worldwide spiritual movement. Its focal point is a little chapel in the valley where Mary is honoured as “Thrice Admirable Mother”. The picture of grace, which arrived in Schoenstatt from Freiburg a hundred years ago, is well known worldwide, as the members of the cathedral choir experienced last year when they visited South America”. These were the words of the invitation addressed to the members of the Freiburg
Read More Editors of schoenstatt.org • Archbishop Emeritus Robert Zollitsch, during the Freiburg diocesan pilgrimage to Schoenstatt, gave a sermon to the pilgrims picking up central moments of Pope Francis` message to the Schoenstatt Movement at the jubilee pilgrimage to Rome, October 25, 2014. We here publish the English translation of the text the text of the sermon as authorized by Archbishop Zollitsch “Mary, my Mother, let me go with you!” The pilgrims who went to Rome for the centenary celebrations of Schoenstatt’s foundation gladly recall the meeting with Pope Francis on
Read More Sarah-Leah Pimentel, South Africa • A Christian does not have the right to be an orphan…we have a Mother. For me, this is probably the most powerful sentence of the entire message that Pope Francis shared with the Schoenstatt Family last year. We have a Mother Sometimes it is very easy to feel abandoned. When a company closes down and the workers are retrenched. A mother whose child has grown apart from the family circle and never comes home to visit. That same child who turned his or her
Read More By the editor • For a moment during the live transmission, we can see a man with a large picture of our Mother Thrice Admirable in his hands. It is a beautiful illustration of Pope Francis’ message at the Mass in Guayaquil, Ecuador, a message about Mary as mother and about the great hope: “And the best wine is yet to come, in spite of all the variables and statistics which say otherwise…” During the Holy Mass dedicated to the Family at the Los Samanes Park in Guayaquil, Pope Francis
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