Pope Francis says "I repeat: a sad saint is a sad saint. Holiness is always joyful..." to Religious Sisters
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE PILGRIMAGE PROMOTED BY THE
AUGUSTINIAN MOTHERS OF SAN ILDEFONSO,
OF TALAVERA DE LA REINA (SPAIN)
Clementine Hall
Thursday, 7 November 2024
Pope Francis urges all nuns and priests to appreciate the many graces they enjoy as part of religious communities, as he meets with the Augustinian Sisters of Talavera de la Reina in Spain. By Devin Watkins “Holiness is always joyful… Have the smile that comes from the heart—not fake, but sincere and full.” Pope Francis offered that reminder to women religious as he met on Thursday with the Augustinian Sisters of Talavera de la Reina to celebrate the 450th anniversary of their convent with a pilgrimage to Rome.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Thank you for the welcome with the guitar. Singing and walking.
I am happy to meet you. I am also pleased for the commemoration of the 450th anniversary of the founding of the Convent of Augustinians of Talavera de la Reina, which you celebrated last year and of which this meeting is the epilogue.
Since its founding, this monastery has united contemplative life with the service of Christian education, and probably many of you have come into contact with these nuns from school. In this year dedicated to prayer, it seems to me a significant example of how our service and our apostolate, far from preventing us from meeting the Lord, must be born from Him.
And in this sense, I want you to take my blessing to the Augustinian Mothers, and the request that they not only pray for me, as I always ask of everyone, but that they always be an example of interior life, that they be teachers in the art of prayer, so that, from school, among all the knowledge that they can transmit to children, the ability to speak with God, the ability to listen to Him, to feel Him present in all moments of life and to accept His inspirations with docility, stands out.
And, please, do not lose joy, do not lose your sense of humor. When a Christian, even more so a religious man, woman, loses his sense of humor, he becomes “vinegary,” and it is so sad to see a priest, a religious man, a nun “vinegary.” They are preserved in vinegar. You always have to be smiling and in a good mood. I recommend that you pray a very beautiful prayer by Saint Thomas More every day to ask for a sense of humor. Do you know it? Now I'll go look for it and have it read here to ask for a sense of humor, which is what keeps us "fresh" in the service of God. I repeat: a sad saint is a sad saint.
Holiness is always joyful, from expressions of good humor like Saint Philip Neri, isn't that right?, to expressions of a more reserved good humor, which is the smile. Have the smile that comes from the heart, that is not faked, that is always full. And you come from Spain. These days I am very close to Spain because of the tragedy in Valencia.
Yesterday, in the General Audience we put up the Virgin of the Forsaken. They are suffering so much there, so much. And now it seems that Barcelona is also having a few problems, but because they are already a little experienced in how to handle things, they are doing, they are repressing. And this leads me to give you another piece of advice: to always have the needs of others in your heart. Do you know that there are people who don't have a job? And when someone complains that they have a lot of work, think of those who don't have one. There are people who can't pay their rent and who are going to be evicted, and when they enter the convent, the parish house, they think that "I have it for free." When someone is warm in their parish house, in their convent, on snowy or rainy days, think that there are people who sleep outdoors, under anything.
But don't lose your good humor. And I'm going to read you the prayer of Saint Thomas More, and I would like you to learn to pray it every day. It goes like this:
"Grant me, Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest. Grant me bodily health with the good humor necessary to maintain it. Give me, Lord, a holy soul, that knows how to take advantage of what is good and pure, so that it will not be frightened by sin, but will find the way to put these things back in order. Grant me, Lord, a soul that does not know boredom – it is sad, a boring Christian, a boring priest, a boring nun. Let me not know murmurings, sighs and complaints, and do not let me suffer excessively because of that overbearing thing called ‘I’. Give me, Lord, a sense of humour. Grant me the grace to understand jokes, so that I may know a little joy in life and be able to communicate it to others. So be it.
Thank you. Well, now I give you my blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Thank you for the welcome with the guitar. Singing and walking.
I am happy to meet you. I am also pleased for the commemoration of the 450th anniversary of the founding of the Convent of Augustinians of Talavera de la Reina, which you celebrated last year and of which this meeting is the epilogue.
Since its founding, this monastery has united contemplative life with the service of Christian education, and probably many of you have come into contact with these nuns from school. In this year dedicated to prayer, it seems to me a significant example of how our service and our apostolate, far from preventing us from meeting the Lord, must be born from Him.
And in this sense, I want you to take my blessing to the Augustinian Mothers, and the request that they not only pray for me, as I always ask of everyone, but that they always be an example of interior life, that they be teachers in the art of prayer, so that, from school, among all the knowledge that they can transmit to children, the ability to speak with God, the ability to listen to Him, to feel Him present in all moments of life and to accept His inspirations with docility, stands out.
And, please, do not lose joy, do not lose your sense of humor. When a Christian, even more so a religious man, woman, loses his sense of humor, he becomes “vinegary,” and it is so sad to see a priest, a religious man, a nun “vinegary.” They are preserved in vinegar. You always have to be smiling and in a good mood. I recommend that you pray a very beautiful prayer by Saint Thomas More every day to ask for a sense of humor. Do you know it? Now I'll go look for it and have it read here to ask for a sense of humor, which is what keeps us "fresh" in the service of God. I repeat: a sad saint is a sad saint.
Holiness is always joyful, from expressions of good humor like Saint Philip Neri, isn't that right?, to expressions of a more reserved good humor, which is the smile. Have the smile that comes from the heart, that is not faked, that is always full. And you come from Spain. These days I am very close to Spain because of the tragedy in Valencia.
Yesterday, in the General Audience we put up the Virgin of the Forsaken. They are suffering so much there, so much. And now it seems that Barcelona is also having a few problems, but because they are already a little experienced in how to handle things, they are doing, they are repressing. And this leads me to give you another piece of advice: to always have the needs of others in your heart. Do you know that there are people who don't have a job? And when someone complains that they have a lot of work, think of those who don't have one. There are people who can't pay their rent and who are going to be evicted, and when they enter the convent, the parish house, they think that "I have it for free." When someone is warm in their parish house, in their convent, on snowy or rainy days, think that there are people who sleep outdoors, under anything.
But don't lose your good humor. And I'm going to read you the prayer of Saint Thomas More, and I would like you to learn to pray it every day. It goes like this:
"Grant me, Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest. Grant me bodily health with the good humor necessary to maintain it. Give me, Lord, a holy soul, that knows how to take advantage of what is good and pure, so that it will not be frightened by sin, but will find the way to put these things back in order. Grant me, Lord, a soul that does not know boredom – it is sad, a boring Christian, a boring priest, a boring nun. Let me not know murmurings, sighs and complaints, and do not let me suffer excessively because of that overbearing thing called ‘I’. Give me, Lord, a sense of humour. Grant me the grace to understand jokes, so that I may know a little joy in life and be able to communicate it to others. So be it.
Thank you. Well, now I give you my blessing.
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