Pope Francis celebrates mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe: amid the noise of war, faith, charity and divine grace teach us that this is the right time for salvation.
(Vatican News Network)In a time of war, misery and injustice, Pope Francis celebrated Mass on December 12 on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, recalling that five hundred years ago “at a time when the inhabitants of New Il world was in dire straits, the Lord sent the Virgin Mary to transform the shock of the meeting of two different worlds into a restoration of meaning and dignity”. The same is true today: God continues to send his Mother to “comfort the weak, meet their needs and exclude no one”.
After receiving the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary “went into the mountains” to visit her cousin Elizabeth (cf. Lk 1:27-41), where she met the resident Juan Diego (Juan Diego). Today the Virgin Mary also rushes to take care of our wounded world: “She wants to be with us and she wants us to make her our mother so that she can open our lives to her Son, Jesus, to welcome his message and learn to follow him. Love as He.” God guides human history moment by moment.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to the world in the form of a mestizo girl who “came to accompany the peoples of the Americas on their difficult journey”, a journey marked by “poverty, exploitation and socio-economic and cultural colonialism”. “This year we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in a difficult moment for humanity”, said the Pope. “It is a difficult moment, filled with the clamor of wars, growing injustice, famine, poverty and suffering. , devastated, full of destruction, but faith, love and divine grace teach us that this is also the propitious time for salvation”. from selfishness, indifference and hostility; he invites us to “hurry up” to support each other, “to meet those brothers and sisters who have been forgotten and discarded by our society”.
Furthermore, December 12 of this year is also the day when the Americas begin the nine-year international preparation period for the 500th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2031. The Holy Father therefore urges the members of the American Church to take part in this journey to renew the social and ecclesiastical structures of all peoples and communities.
“Please do this in the true spirit of Guadalupe. I am afraid that various ideological and cultural propositions will take advantage of the encounter between people and their mother in an attempt to cloak and glamorize the Virgin. Please, we will not let go” Secular and ideological means taken out of context”.
The Pope concluded: “May Jesus Christ, awaited by all nations, grant us, through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, days of joy and peace. May the peace of the Lord rest in our hearts and in the hearts of all men and women of good will.
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