Pope Francis emphasizes ‘ecumenical vocation’ of all Christians

Almudena Martínez-Bordiú By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú for CNA

January 21, 2025 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

Pope Francis meets with an ecumenical delegation from Finland on Jan. 20, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 21, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Monday emphasized the ecumenical vocation shared by Christians during an audience held at the Vatican with Finnish representatives of various Christian denominations who have made a pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the feast of St. Henry, celebrated Jan. 19.

The Jan. 20 meeting took place in the Vatican Apostolic Palace and was attended by the head of the Finnish Orthodox Church, Archbishop Elia of Helsinki, as well as Catholic Bishop Raimo Goyarrola of the Diocese of Helsinki and Bishop Matti Salomäki of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Holy Father stressed that bearing witness to the incarnate love of Christ “is our ecumenical vocation, in the communion of all the baptized.”

As part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the 2025 Jubilee Year, the pontiff stressed that St. Henry, the patron saint of Finland, represents an icon of hope “that finds its sure and firm foundation in God.”

As a messenger of peace, he continued, St. Henry “urges us to never cease lifting up our prayers for the precious and fragile gift of peace.”

At the same time, he pointed out that he is “a symbol of the unity given by God,” since his feast day continues to unite “Christians from different churches and ecclesial communities in the common praise of the Lord.”

He also applauded the fact that this pilgrimage is accompanied by the choir of the Sanctae Mariae Chapel, recalling that “whoever sings, prays twice.”

He then referred to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed shared by Christians as an “extraordinary musical score of faith” and a “symphony of truth,” with Jesus Christ at the center.

“Whoever listens to this ‘symphony of truth’ not only with their ears but [also] with their hearts will be touched by the mystery of God, who bends down toward us, full of love, in his Son,” he said.

To express with confidence the “filial vocation” of ecumenism, Pope Francis invited those present to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Pope Francis: At Mass we participate in Calvary

November 22, 2017 CNA Daily News 4

Vatican City, Nov 22, 2017 / 03:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis said that when we attend Mass, it is as if we are approaching Jesus on the Cross at Calvary, and that at every Eucharist we not only experience Christ’s redemption, but we participate in it.

“When we go to Mass, it is as if we go to Calvary, the same,” Pope Francis said Nov. 22. “This is the Mass: to enter into this Passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.”

When we enter the church for Mass, we should think to ourselves: “I enter Calvary, where Jesus gives his life for me,” the Pope continued, saying he is sure we would respond to this “in silence, in weeping,” and also with joy, because we have been saved from death and sin.

At the general audience, Pope Francis continued his new catechesis on the Mass and the Eucharist by reflecting on what he said is the essential element of every Mass – that it is a “memorial of the Paschal Mystery of Christ.”

Imagine that you are actually at Calvary, he continued. In that moment, you would look up and know that the man upon the cross is Jesus. Would you allow yourself to make chit-chat or take pictures? “No, because Jesus (is there)!”

Quoting from Lumen gentium, the Second Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution of the Church, Francis said that “As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ our Passover was sacrificed, is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried on.”

This means, he explained, that Christ’s Passion and death are taking place every time we celebrate Mass, and our participation in the Eucharist, “brings us into the Paschal Mystery of Christ.”

And if we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, “in faith,” he noted, then “we too can truly love God and neighbor, we can love how He loved us, giving life.”

In the Eucharist, the Lord Jesus, “pours upon us all his mercy and love, as he did on the cross, so as to renew our heart, our existence, and our way of communicating with Him and with our brothers.”

Christ’s Passion and death is the ultimate victory over death, Francis emphasized, because he transformed his death “into the supreme act of love.”

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