Read this!!!!Powerful words from Pope Francis as he spoke off the cuff yesterday in Albania about the suffering of the Church there during the Communist dictatorship- for anyone suffering this will help In the Cathedral of Tirana: “Today we have touched martyrs” Vatican City, 21 September 2014 (VIS) – Following the interreligious meeting at the Catholic University, Pope Francis transferred to the Cathedral of St. Paul in the centre of Tirana to celebrate vespers with priests, religious, seminarians and lay movements. The church, consecrated in 2002, is able to hold up to 700 persons and a large stained glass window depicting the encounter between St. John Paul II and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The Holy Father had prepared a discourse to deliver there, but after hearing the testimony of an 83 year-old priest and an 85 year-old nun who had both survived persecution under the communist regime, he was moved to tears, embraced them, and setting aside the official text which he handed to the Archbishop of Tirana, Rrok Mirdita, he addressed those present with some off-the-cuff comments, published in full below: “I had prepared a few words to say to you, and I will give them to the Archbishop, who will make them available for you later. The translation is already done. He will see that you get them. But right now I would like to tell you something else. In the reading we heard these words: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. This is the text which the Church invites us to reflect upon at this evening’s Vespers. Over the past two months I have been preparing for this Visit by reading the history of the persecution in Albania. For me it was surprising: I did not know that your people had suffered so greatly! Then today, on the road from the airport to the square, there were all those pictures of the martyrs. It is clear that this people today continues to remember their martyrs, those who suffered so dearly! A people of martyrs. And today at the beginning of the celebration, I touched two of them. “What I can say to you is what they themselves have said, by their lives, by their plain words. They told their stories simply, yet they spoke of so much pain. We can ask them: How did you manage to survive such trials?. And they will tell us what we heard in this passage from the Second Letter to the Corinthians: God is the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation. He is the one who consoled us. They have told us so, and in a straightforward way. They suffered greatly. They suffered physically, mentally, with the anguish of uncertainty: they did not know whether they would be shot or not, and so they lived with this anguish. And the Lord consoled them. “I think of Peter, imprisoned and in chains, while the whole Church prayed for him. And the Lord consoled Peter. And the martyrs, including those whom we heard today: the Lord consoled them because there were people in the Church, the People of God – devout and good old women, so many cloistered nuns – who were praying for them. “This is the mystery of the Church: when the Church asks the Lord to console his people, the Lord consoles them, quietly, even secretly. He consoles them in the depths of the heart and he comforts them with strength. I am certain that they [the martyrs] do not boast of what they have experienced, because they know that it was the Lord who sustained them. “But they have something to tell us! They tell us that we, who have been called by the Lord to follow him closely, must find our consolation in him alone. Woe to us if we seek consolation elsewhere! Woe to priests and religious, sisters and novices, consecrated men and women, when they seek consolation far from the Lord! Today I don’t want to be harsh and severe with you, but I want you to realise very clearly that if you look for consolation anywhere else, you will not be happy! Even more, you will be unable to comfort others, for your own heart is closed to the Lord’s consolation. You will end up, as the great Elijah said to the people of Israel, limping with both legs. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. “That is what these two [the martyrs] have done, today. Humbly, without pretence or boasting, they have done a service for us: they have consoled us. They also tell us this: We are sinners, but the Lord was with us. This is the path. Do not be discouraged! Excuse me, if I use you as an example, but all of us have to be examples for one another. Let us go home reflecting on this: today we have touched martyrs”. youtube/watch?v=EGLSk3AVcUU&index=8&list=PLFEE0785B716E0085
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 21:39:38 +0000
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