Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
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Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - On the evening of Tuesday, 2nd October, the Feast of the Guardian Angels, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the magazine Ad Gentes and the opening of the Missionary Year in Mexico, His Exc. Mgr. Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, Assistant Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) presided over the Eucharistic concelebration in the Basilica of Santa Maria de Guadalupe (see Fides 1/10/2018).
"We are here to open the Missionary Year - he said in his homily -: the Church is missionary precisely because every man can experience that Christ died and rose for him, to free him from all evil and give him real life. It is in this order that we can also understand the presence of angels: each of us enjoys special help through the angel to walk the paths of good. The angel educates us, advises us, defends us, so that this good can be preserved".
The Archbishop pointed out that "God sends us his angels to follow us, accompany us, guard us. Angels are instruments of God ... God is good with us, He wants our our good". In order to enjoy the protection of the angels "we must be like children", as the Gospel says. "But being a child before God - he explained - does not mean being selfish and throwing a tantrum. Being children means to open ourselves with trust to the action of God in us".
Mgr. Dal Toso’s third consideration concerned the contemplation of God’s face: the angels already contemplate him, man desires him. "God sends us his angels to accompany us on our journey, until we too can contemplate the face of God and be transformed in Him".
The President of the PMS concluded the homily with an invocation to the Virgin Mary: "May the Holy Virgin, who showed her face here, She, Queen of the angels who accepted the angel's announcement, intercede, especially in this Missionary year, so that every man can enjoy the protection of the angels and contemplate one day, forever, the face of God". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 3/10/2018)
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