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Sport; Marriage; World Mission Day

Pope Francis meets tennis player Juan Martin del Potro

Pope Francis meets tennis player Juan Martin del Potro

Pope Francis: sport is an educational path

Vatican City, 8 May 2015 (VIS) - “Sport is an educational path.” said the Holy Father this morning as he received in audience seven thousand members of the Italian Tennis Federation in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. “There are three fundamental pillars for children and young people,” he added: “Education – in school and in the family – sport, and work. When we have all three of these, then there exist the conditions for developing a full and authentic life, thus avoiding those dependencies that poison and ruin existence.”

“The Church is interested in sport because she has man, the full man, at heart, and recognises that sporting activity has an impact on the formation of the person, on relationships, and on spirituality. You athletes have a mission to accomplish: to be, for those who admire you, valid role models. And you too, directors, trainers and sports workers, are called upon to give good witness to human values, as masters of a sporting practice that is always fair and clear.”

The Pope commented that tennis is a very competitive sport, but “the pressure to achieve significant results must never drive you to take short cuts such as in the case of doping. How ugly and sterile a victory is if it is obtained by cheating and deceiving others.”

“The apostle Paul uses the example of the athlete to illustrate an important characteristic of human existence,” said the bishop of Rome. “‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it’. In a certain sense, this is your daily experience in tennis. But St. Paul refers to the challenge of giving an ultimate meaning to life itself. I would therefore exhort each one of you to play the game not only in sport – as you already do, and with excellent results – but also in life, in the search for goodness, true goodness, without fear, with courage and enthusiasm. Play the game with others and with God, giving the best of yourself, spending your life for what is truly valuable and which stands the test of time. Put your talents to the service of the encounter between people, friendship, and inclusion.”

General audience: the beauty of Christian marriage

Vatican City, 6 May 2015 (VIS) – The beauty of Christian marriage, which is not “simply the beauty of the ceremony that takes place in church, but rather the Sacrament made by the Church, giving rise to a new family community,” was the theme chosen by Pope Francis in the catechesis of this Wednesday’s general audience.

“It is what the apostle Paul summarises in his famous expression: ‘This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church’.”

St. Paul, speaking of new life in Christ, says that “all Christians are called to love each other as Christ has loved them, that is ‘submitting to one another’, meaning at each other’s service. Here he introduces the analogy between the husband-wife couple and that of Christ and the Church. It is clear that this is an imperfect analogy, but we must grasp the spiritual meaning, elevated and revolutionary but at the same time very simple, within the reach of every man and woman who trust in God’s grace.”

“‘Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies’, says Paul; ‘as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’. The effect of this radicalism of the devotion required of man, for the love and the dignity of the woman, based on the example of Christ, must have been enormous within the Christian community itself. This seed of evangelical newness, that re-establishes the original reciprocity of devotion and respect, has ripened slowly throughout history, but in the end it has prevailed.”

The sacrament of marriage “is a great act of faith and of love: it bears witness to the courage of believing in God’s creating act and of living that love that drives us always to go onwards, beyond ourselves and even beyond the family itself. The Christian vocation to love without reserve and without measure is such that, with Christ’s grace, it is at the base of the free consensus that constitutes marriage. However we must ask ourselves seriously: do we accept fully, ourselves, as believers and pastors, this indissoluble bond of the history of Christ and the Church with the history of marriage and the human family? Are we willing to take on this responsibility seriously?”

“The decision to ‘marry in the Lord’ also contains a missionary dimension, which means having at heart the willingness to become conduits of God’s blessing and the Lord’s grace for all.” “Yes: St. Paul was right, it is a great mystery,” concluded the Pope. “Men and women, courageous enough to place this treasure in the clay vessels of our humanity, are an essential resource for the Church, and also for all the world. May God bless you a thousand times for this! ”  

Message for  World Missions Day 

“There is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor”

Vatican City, 24 May 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father's message for the 89th World Mission Day was published today. To be held on Sunday 18 October 2015, this year the Day will take place in the context of the Year of Consecrated Life and will therefore highlight the bond between faith and mission.

The following is an edited text of the message:

“The 2015 World Mission Sunday takes place in the context of the Year of Consecrated Life, which provides a further stimulus for prayer and reflection. For if every baptised person is called to bear witness to the Lord Jesus by proclaiming the faith received as a gift, this is especially so for each consecrated man and woman. There is a clear connection between consecrated life and mission. The desire to follow Jesus closely, which led to the emergence of consecrated life in the Church, responds to his call to take up the cross and follow him, to imitate his dedication to the Father and his service and love, to lose our life so as to gain it. Since Christ’s entire existence had a missionary character, so too, all those who follow him closely must possess this missionary quality.

The missionary dimension, which belongs to the very nature of the Church, is also intrinsic to all forms of consecrated life, and cannot be neglected without detracting from and disfiguring its charism. Being a missionary is not about proselytising or mere strategy; mission is part of the 'grammar' of faith, something essential for those who listen to the voice of the Spirit who whispers 'Come' and 'Go forth.’ Those who follow Christ cannot fail to be missionaries, for they know that Jesus 'walks with them, speaks to them, breathes with them. They sense Jesus alive with them in the midst of the missionary enterprise.’

Today, the Church’s mission is faced by the challenge of meeting the needs of all people to return to their roots and to protect the values of their respective cultures. This means knowing and respecting other traditions and philosophical systems, and realising that all peoples and cultures have the right to be helped from within their own traditions to enter into the mystery of God’s wisdom and to accept the Gospel of Jesus, who is light and transforming strength for all cultures.

The Church’s Institutes and Missionary Congregations are completely at the service of those who do not know the Gospel of Jesus. This means that they need to count on the charisms and missionary commitment of their consecrated members. But consecrated men and women also need a structure of service, an expression of the concern of the Bishop of Rome, in order to ensure koinonia, for cooperation and synergy are an integral part of the missionary witness. Jesus made the unity of his disciples a condition so that the world may believe. This convergence is not the same as legalism or institutionalism, much less a stifling of the creativity of the Spirit, who inspires diversity. It is about giving a greater fruitfulness to the Gospel message and promoting that unity of purpose which is also the fruit of the Spirit.

The Missionary Societies of the Successor of Peter have a universal apostolic horizon. This is why they also need the many charisms of consecrated life, to address the vast horizons of evangelisation and to be able to ensure adequate presence in whatever lands they are sent.

“Dear brothers and sisters, a true missionary is passionate for the Gospel. St. Paul said: 'Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!' The Gospel is the source of joy, liberation and salvation for all men and women. The Church is aware of this gift, and therefore she ceaselessly proclaims to everyone 'what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes!’ The mission of the servants of the Word – bishops, priests, religious and laity – is to allow everyone, without exception, to enter into a personal relationship with Christ. In the full range of the Church’s missionary activity, all the faithful are called to live their baptismal commitment to the fullest, in accordance with the personal situation of each. A generous response to this universal vocation can be offered by consecrated men and women through an intense life of prayer and union with the Lord and his redeeming sacrifice.

To Mary, Mother of the Church and model of missionary outreach, I entrust all men and women who, in every state of life work to proclaim the Gospel, ad gentes or in their own lands. To all missionaries of the Gospel I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing.”  


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