Pope Francis’ Address to Faithful at the Prayer Vigil for the Synod

Last updated on: October 3, 2015 at 8:54 pm by Kathy Schiffer

Pope Francis’ Address to Faithful at the Prayer Vigil for the Synod 2015-10-03T20:54:06-05:00 Kathy Schiffer

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On October 3, the evening before the Fourteenth Ordinary Synod of Bishops convenes in Rome, thousands of the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for a Prayer Vigil for the Synod. There was music, and Pope Francis addressed the gathered crowd, as did several families–some with squirmy small children.

Following is the text of the Holy Father’s address to the faithful. You can watch the full Prayer Vigil (1 hour 49 minutes) below.

Dear families, good evening!

What use is it to light a small candle in the darkness that surrounds us? Would not it be something else that is needed to dispel the darkness? But you can overcome the darkness?

In certain seasons of life – this life while charging wonderful resource – similar questions impose themselves forcefully. Faced with the demands of life, the temptation to pull back door, to desert and close, perhaps in the name of prudence and realism, thus escaping the responsibility to do their part to the full.

Remember the experience of Elijah? The human calculation raises the prophet fear that drives him to seek shelter. Fear. “Elijah, frightened, got up and went to save […] he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb. There he entered a cave to spend the night, when suddenly he was the word of the Lord in these terms: “What are you doing here, Elijah? ‘” ( 1 Kings19,3.8-9). Then, at Horeb, he will not answer in the strong wind that shakes the rocks, not in the earthquake, nor in the fire. The grace of God does not raise his voice; is a murmur, reaching those who are willing to listen to the breeze – that thread of silence sound – urges them to leave, to return to the world, witnesses of God’s love for man, so that the world may believe …

With this breath, just a year ago, in this same square , we invoked the Holy Spirit, asking that – in putting themed family – the synod fathers knew how to listen and discuss keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Word of the Father and last criterion interpretation of everything.

Tonight can not be another our prayer. Because, as he remembered the patriarch Athenagoras, without the Holy Spirit, God is remote, Christ remains in the past, the Church becomes a simple organization, authority is transformed into domain, the mission propaganda, cult in evocation, the act Christians in a slave morality.

Let us pray, therefore, for the synod that opens tomorrow knows to bring a complete image of man the experience of marriage and family; recognizes, appreciates and propose what in it is beautiful, good and holy; hugs situations of vulnerability, that they test: poverty, war, sickness, bereavement, relationships wounds and frayed from which flow difficulties, resentments and failures;remember these families, like all families, that the gospel is “good news” which always leave. From the treasury of the living tradition of the Fathers know draw words of consolation and guidance of hope for families called at this time to build the future of the ecclesial community and the city of man.

Each family, in fact, is always a light, however dim in the darkness of the world.

The same story of Jesus among men taking shape in the bosom of a family, in which will remain for decades. A family like many others, his, located in a remote village on the outskirts of the empire.

Charles de Foucauld, maybe like few others, has realized the extent of the spirituality that emanates from Nazareth. This great explorer dropped quickly a military career, fascinated by the mystery of the Holy Family, the daily relationship of Jesus with his parents and neighbors, the quiet work, the humble prayer. Looking at the Family of Nazareth, Brother Charles felt the sterility of the lust for wealth and power; with the apostolate of goodness he became all things to all; him, attracted by the life of a hermit, he realized that you do not grow in the love of God and avoid the bondage of human relations. Why you are loving others that we learn to love God; is bending over the next that one rises to God. Through the fraternal closeness and solidarity to the poor and abandoned, he realized that in the end are the ones who evangelize us, helping us to grow in humanity.

To understand today’s family, we enter – as Charles de Foucauld – in the mystery of the Family of Nazareth, in his hidden life, working and common, as is that of most of our families, with their pains and their simple joys; life interwoven with serene patience in adversity, respect for the status of each, of humility that free and flourishing in the service; fraternity life, which flows from being part of a single body.

It places – the family – of evangelical holiness, realized in the most ordinary. It breathes the memory of generations and their roots that allow you to go away. It is a place of discernment, where people are taught to recognize God’s plan for their lives and to embrace it with confidence. It is a place of gratuity, of discreet, fraternal and friendly, who teaches out of oneself to accept others, to forgive and be forgiven.

***

We leave from Nazareth to a Synod that, rather than talk about family, get to know his school, in the willingness to recognize the dignity, consistency and value, despite many efforts and contradictions that can mark it.

In “Galilee of the Gentiles” of our time we will meet the thickness of a Church that is Mother, capable of generating life and attentive to continually give life, to accompany with dedication, tenderness and moral strength. Because if we can not join the compassion to justice, we end up being unnecessarily strict and deeply unjust.

A Church that is family sets himself with the proximity and the love of a father , who lives the responsibility of the caretaker, which protects without replacing, which corrects without humiliating, that educates by example and patience. Sometimes, just the silence of waiting and praying open.

And above all, a Church of children who identify brothers never comes to consider someone only as a burden, a problem, a cost, a concern or a risk: the other is essentially a gift, it remains so even when you walk through different paths .

It’s open house, the Church, far from external variables, welcoming the simple style of its members and, for this, accessible to the hope of peace that is within every man, including those – tested by life – have hurt the heart and suffering.

This church can really illuminate the night man, indicate to him credibility with the goal and share the steps, because she was the first live the experience of being constantly regenerated in the merciful heart of the Father.

Pope Francis

Synod

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