Pope praises evangelization through prayer, care for creation, welcome

726 0
Pope Francis speaks during a Sept. 8 meeting with a group of Benedictine sisters at the Vatican. Forming a community of women from different backgrounds and uniting them in prayer, in care for the earth and in hospitality to others is a powerful witness of Gospel values, Pope Francis said. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Forming a community of women from different backgrounds and uniting them in prayer, in care for the earth and in hospitality to others is a powerful witness of Gospel values, Pope Francis told a group of Benedictine sisters.

“Today there are many people in the world who seek to reflect in their lives the tenderness, compassion, mercy and acceptance of Christ,” the pope said Sept. 8. “To them you offer the precious gift of your witness, as you are instruments of God’s tenderness to those who are in need.”

The pope met about 120 Benedictine nuns and sisters from a variety of independent monasteries and congregations participating in a symposium in Rome. The theme was the admonition from the Rule of St. Benedict, “Let all be welcomed as Christ.”

Making a monastery a place of “welcome, prayer and generous hospitality” is an “essential work of evangelization” that always must be expanded and strengthened, the pope told the women.

He also thanked them “for the special care you show toward the environment and for your efforts to protect the gifts of the earth, so that they can be shared by all.”

Many of the Benedictine monasteries are found “in places of great beauty where people go to pray, to find silence and to contemplate the marvels of creation. I encourage you to continue this style and service, so that God’s wonderful works can be admired and speak of him to many persons.”

The life the women live within the monastery walls, lives and relationships that visitors can observe and sense, also is a Gospel witness, the pope said.

“Your life in community bears witness to the importance of mutual love and respect,” he told them. “You come from different places and experiences, and each of you is different, and so the way you accept one another is the first sign you offer in a world that finds it hard to live out this value.

“We are all children of God,” Pope Francis said, “and your prayer, your work, your hospitality, your generosity, all combine to reveal a communion in diversity that expresses God’s hope for our world: a unity made of peace, mutual welcome and fraternal love.”

Related Post

Pope Francis greets a child during an audience with members of the Italian Prison Police in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sept. 14, 2019. The pope told prison guards, chaplains and officials that life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole are not the solution but a problem to be solved. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Life without parole is not a solution to crime, pope says

Posted by - September 22, 2019 0
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Sentencing someone to life in prison without the possibility of parole is “not the solution to…
Students attend a prayer vigil Jan. 23 at a church in Marion, Ky., after a 15-year-old boy opened fire with a handgun that day at Marshall County High School. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called for prayers for the victims killed and injured in a pair of school shootings in Kentucky and Italy High School in Texas Jan. 22. (CNS photo/Harrison McClary, Reuters)

USCCB president calls for prayer after pair of school shootings

Posted by - January 27, 2018 0
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston called for prayers for the victims killed and injured in a…
Pope Francis meets with national directors of the pontifical missionary societies, which include the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Missionary Childhood Association, the Society of St. Peter Apostle and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious at the Vatican June 1. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Missionary work is about sharing God’s love, not raising money, pope says

Posted by - June 8, 2018 0
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Catholic Church does not have “a product to sell, but a life to communicate: God,…