Speaking to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Sunday Angelus prayer on Sept. 1, 2024, the pope called for peace in the Holy Land, urging the release of the remaining hostages and humanitarian aid for the polio outbreak in Gaza. The… […]
Pope Francis gives a thumbs-up to pilgrims at the Vatican during the Sunday Angelus, August 11, 2024 / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Aug 18, 2024 / 10:20 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Sunday that the Eucharist is a “miracle” in which Jesus nourishe… […]
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Angelus address on Aug. 4, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Aug 11, 2024 / 08:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis urged people to truly listen to God’s voice rather than looking to the Lord for a confirmation of their own ideas in his Angelus address on Sunday.
“Brothers and sisters, when faith and prayer are true, they open the mind and the heart; they do not close them,” Pope Francis said on Aug. 11.
Speaking from the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope asked people to be aware of the temptation of looking to God “for a confirmation of what we think” rather than “truly listening to what the Lord has to say to us.”
“This way of addressing God does not help us to truly encounter him, nor to open ourselves up to the gift of his light and his grace, in order to grow in goodness, to do his will and to overcome failings and difficulties,” he said.
“Let us ask ourselves, then: In my life of faith, am I capable of being truly silent within myself and listening to God? Am I willing to welcome his voice beyond my own mindset and also with his help to overcome my fears?”
Pope Francis asked the Virgin Mary for her intercession to help Christians to listen with faith to the Lord’s voice and “to do his will courageously.”
The pope offered this reflection in his meditation on Sunday’s Gospel, in which the Judeans murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
Francis said: “They are convinced that Jesus cannot have come from heaven, because he is the son of a carpenter and because his mother and his relatives are common people, familiar, normal people, like many others.”
“They are obstructed in their faith by their preconception of his humble origins and the presumption, therefore, that they have nothing to learn from him. … Beware of preconceptions and presumption,” he warned.
After leading the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Angelus prayer in Latin, the pope offered his greetings to a group of students who walked more than 100 miles from the Italian town of Assisi in pilgrimage to the Vatican.
Pope Francis asked people to pray especially for the victims of a plane crash in Brazil on Friday that left 62 people dead.
The pope also marked this week’s 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which killed 70,000 people and 140,000 people respectively and brought an end to World War II.
“As we continue to commend to the Lord the victims of these events and of all wars, we renew our intense prayer for peace, especially for the tormented Ukraine, the Middle East, Palestine, Israel, Sudan, and Myanmar,” Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis addresses pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square for the Sunday Angelus, Sunday, July 28, 2024. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jul 28, 2024 / 08:15 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Sunday noted three gestures from the Bible account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes which he argued are mirrored by Jesus at the Last Supper and by the faithful in each Mass.
The pope pointed out “offering, giving thanks, and sharing” as highlights of the miracle recounted in the Gospel of John, offering his reflection on the Sunday Gospel before praying the midday Angelus with those gathered under the scorching sun in St. Peter’s Square.
The temperature for the noonday prayer was already at 95 degrees as many in the crowds sheltered from the heat under colorful umbrellas.
“The Gospel tells us about a boy who has five loaves and two fish,” the pope noted, saying that the boy’s gesture of offering, as well as our own, is an acknowledgment that “we have something good to give, and we say our ‘yes,’ even if what we have is too little compared to what is needed.”
The pope left his text to insist that Catholics are invited to offer what we have and are, even if the offering seems too insignificant and poor.
This offering is lived out in each Mass, as the priest offers the bread and wine, “and each person offers himself, his own life,” he said. This offering becomes the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
“It is a gesture that may seem small, when we think of the immense needs of humanity,” the pope acknowledged, “…but God makes it the material for the greatest miracle there is: that in which He Himself — Himself! — makes Himself present among us, for the salvation of the world.”
“We can ask ourselves,” the pope suggested: “Do I truly believe that, by the grace of God, I have something unique to give to my brothers and sisters?”
Our offering is intimately linked to the next gesture, that of gratitude, the pope argued.
The pope suggested words we can pray to the Father: “All that I have is your gift, Lord, and to give thanks I can only give you back what you first gave me, together with your Son Jesus Christ, adding to it what I can.”
“Each of us can add a little something,” he insisted, inviting the faithful to reflect: “What can I give to the Lord? What can the little one give? Our poor love. Saying, ‘Lord, I love you.’ We poor people: Our love is so small! But we can give it to the Lord, the Lord welcomes it.”
Fruit of everyone’s gift
These gifts then lead to sharing, the pope explained.
“In the Mass is Communion, when together we approach the altar to receive the Body and Blood of Christ: the fruit of everyone’s gift transformed by the Lord into food for all. It is a beautiful moment, that of Communion, which teaches us to live every gesture of love as a gift of grace, both for the giver and the receiver,” he said.
The pope invited the faithful to receive Our Lady’s help to live each Mass with this attitude of faith, “to recognize and savor every day the ‘miracles’ of God’s grace.”
After praying the Angelus and giving his apostolic blessing, the pope assured his closeness to those who have suffered from landslides in Ethiopia.
Landslides hit the remote mountainous zone of Gofa in southern Ethiopia Sunday night into Monday morning, triggered by heavy rains in the region. Well over 200 people are already confirmed dead, with the United Nations projecting that the death toll could end up closer to 500.
The pope then spoke of the continuing problem of world hunger, calling the international community to take a stand against the “scandal” of “wasting resources to fuel wars large and small.”
“While there are so many people in the world suffering from disasters and hunger, we continue to build and sell weapons,” he lamented. He said this “contradicts the spirit of brotherhood of the Olympic Games that have just begun. Let us not forget, brothers and sisters: War is defeat!”
“I will not forsake you”
The pope also noted that today is the 4th World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, a celebration he initiated in 2020. This year’s theme is drawn from Psalm 71: “Do not cast me off in my old age.”
“Today’s day calls us to listen to the voice of the elderly who say, ‘Do not forsake me!’ and to respond, ‘I will not forsake you!’” the pope said.
“Let us say ‘no’ to the loneliness of the elderly! Our future depends greatly on how grandparents and grandchildren learn to live together. Let’s not forget the elderly!” he said, inviting the faithful to a round of applause for all the grandparents.
The pope concluded his weekly meeting with the faithful with his traditional good wishes for a nice lunch, and the request: “Please don’t forget to pray for me.”
Pope Francis’ brief remarks during the Angelus July 21, 2024, focused on the day’s Gospel passage from Mark, which demonstrates how rest and compassion for others go together. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jul 21, 2024 / 07:30 am (CNA).
Do not be consumed by “the anxiety of doing,” but spend time in rest and silent prayer to receive God’s grace, Pope Francis said on Sunday.
The pontiff told Catholics, especially those in ministry, to beware “the dictatorship of doing” during his weekly reflection and Angelus on July 21.
The Angelus is a Marian prayer traditionally recited at three different hours throughout the day: at 6 a.m., 12 p.m., and 6 p.m.
“It is only possible to have a compassionate gaze, which knows how to respond to the needs of others, if our heart is not consumed by the anxiety of doing, if we know how to stop and how to receive the grace of God, in the silence of adoration,” Pope Francis said on a hot and humid day during the peak of summer in Rome.
Addressing the large crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said we are often “held prisoner by haste.” He called it an important warning, especially for those in engaged in ministry and pastoral service in the Church.
“Am I able to stop during my days? Am I capable of taking a moment to be with myself and with the Lord, or am I always in a hurry for things to do?” he said from a window of the Apostolic Palace.
He added that sometimes families are forced to live a frenetic pace; for example, when a father has to work from dawn until dusk to put food on the table. But this is a social injustice, he said, and we should help families in this situation.
The pope’s brief remarks focused on the day’s Gospel passage, which demonstrates how Jesus is able to combine both rest and compassion for others.
In the Gospel, Jesus invites his apostles to “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while,” but when they get out of the boat, they find the crowd already waiting for them.
Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things,” the Gospel of Mark, chapter six says.
“These may seem like two incompatible things — resting and being compassionate — but they actually go together,” Pope Francis underlined.
Jesus is concerned for his disciples’ tiredness, the pontiff said, because he is aware of the danger of our ministries and lives falling victim to an over concern with “things to do and with results.”
“We become agitated and lose sight of what is essential,” he emphasized.
Francis also explained that the rest proposed by Jesus is not “an escape from the world, a retreat into a merely personal well-being,” but a rest that helps us to have more compassion for others.
“Only if we learn how to rest can we have compassion,” he said.
After leading the Angelus, the pope spoke about the Summer Olympic Games, set to start in Paris on July 26, and the Paralympics, which will follow in August.
Sports, he said, have “a great social force, capable of peacefully uniting people of different cultures.”
“I hope that this event can be a sign of the inclusive world we want to build and that the athletes, with their sporting testimony, will be messengers of peace and good role models for young people,” he added.
Francis also recalled the tradition from Ancient Greece of the “Olympic Truce,” noting that such an initiative would be an opportunity to “demonstrate a sincere desire for peace.”
Pope Francis waves to crowds before his noon Angelus address during a hot day in Rome on July 14, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Jul 14, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).
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A view of the Notre Dame College administration building from the south, including its tower. / Credit: Josephgg216, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, Mar 4, 2024 / 09:15 am (CNA).
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Pope Francis addresses pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during his Sunday Angelus on Feb. 18, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Feb 18, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).
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