Pope Francis says "All that is life, all that is beautiful, good and true it comes from there, from God who is love, as human life comes from the heart and womb of a mother, and how Jesus came from the heart and womb of a mother.." FULL TEXT
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ARCHÉ FOUNDATION
Sala Clementina - Thursday, 2 September 2021
________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Thank you for coming to tell me your story, not only with words, but with faces and presence.
I thank Don Giuseppe Bettoni for his introduction, and above all for his work in these thirty years - but did you start working from your First Communion? [laughs, laughs] - since your commitment to welcoming mothers with children began. You called it " Arché ", which recalls the origin, the beginning, and we know that in the beginning there is Love , the love of God. All that is life, all that is beautiful, good and true it comes from there, from God who is love, as human life comes from the heart and womb of a mother, and how Jesus came from the heart and womb of a mother, who is love made flesh, made man.
And so, in this logic, in the beginning there are the faces : for you they are the faces of those mothers and those children whom you have welcomed and helped to free themselves from the bonds of violence, of mistreatment. Even migrant women who carry dramatic experiences in their flesh.
Your welcoming communities are a sign of hope first of all for them, for these women and for their children. But they are also for yourselves who share your life with them; and for the volunteers, the young people, the young couples who in these communities experience service not only for the poor - which is very good - but it is better with the poor.
The Mother with the Child is such a familiar icon for us Christians. For you there is not only a nice picture left: you have translated it into a concrete experience, made up of stories and concrete faces. This certainly means problems, difficulties, hardships… But at the same time it means joy, the joy of seeing that sharing opens up paths of freedom, rebirth, dignity.
For this I thank you, dear brothers and sisters, and I bless you so that you can go on as long as the Lord wills. I am grateful to you, in particular, also on behalf of the Diocese of Rome, because I know that the day after tomorrow you will inaugurate your house here in Rome, a house that will host a new community. May it be a place where the style of God is lived, which is closeness, tenderness and compassion. And that the structure is always at the service of people, not the other way around.
May the Holy Spirit always renew in you the joy of the Gospel, and may Our Lady protect you. Please, pray for me too. Thanks!
FULL TEXT Source: Vatican.va - Image Screen shot same
********************************
Every little bit helps - as a Donor you and your Family will be added to our Church Prayers:
Comments