Pope Francis Message on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes - "...Mother, help us to be a community that reaches out to everyone." FULL TEXT

VIDEO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS

ON THE OCCASION OF THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES

 

You are gathered to prepare and celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and you do so by pilgrimage with your soul and asking the Virgin for a very great grace: Mother, help us to be a community that reaches out to everyone.

 

Being a community that goes out to meet everyone, going out to meet others, but also going out to let oneself be encountered, because the encounter is mutual, the encounter is not alms, it is getting involved for an idea, it is walking together, avoid being alone and isolation to be together with others, with friends, with family, with the People of God, all together in prayer before the Virgin. This is why we ask the Virgin to help us be a community. Mother, help us to be a community! So that we come together as a community. Encounter is always opening up to others, the opposite of meeting is closing one's heart. Mother, let us not have a closed heart, because selfishness is a moth that gnaws at your heart from within.

Dear brothers and sisters, I join in this celebration of the Shrine, I pray for you and, please, I ask you to pray for me. And I send you my Blessing, may Jesus bless you very much, and may the Virgin accompany you holding you by the hand. Good party!