VATICAN/ANGELUS - All Saints Day: “How much hidden saintliness there is in the Church!”

Friday, 1 November 2024 pope francis saints holiness

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VATICAN/ANGELUS - All Saints Day: “How much hidden saintliness there is in the Church!”
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Beatitudes are “the Christian's identity card” and “the way to holiness”. This was stated by Pope Francis during the Angelus prayer on the Solemnity of All Saints Day.

Referring to the Gospel of the day, the Pope recalled that holiness is both “a gift from God” and “our response to God”.

“It is a gift from God because, as Saint Paul says, it is He who sanctifies. With His grace, He heals us and frees us from all that prevents us from loving as He loves us, as Blessed Carlo Acutis used to say, there may always be ‘less of me to make room for God’”, stressed the Bishop of Rome, adding that God “offers us His holiness, but He does not impose it. He leaves us the freedom to engage in his plans”.

All this, Pope Francis continued, “we see all of this in the life of the saints, even in our time”. In this context, the Pope recalled Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Saint Teresa of Calcutta and Saint Oscar Romero: “We we can make a list of many saints, many of them: those we venerate on the altars and others, that I like to call the saints “next door”, the everyday ones, hidden, who go forward in their daily Christian life”.

“How much hidden saintliness there is in the Church!” said the Pope. “We recognize so many brothers and sisters formed by the Beatitudes: poor, meek, merciful, hungry and thirsty for justice, workers for peace. They are people “filled with God”, incapable of remaining indifferent to the needs of their neighbour; they are witnesses of shining paths, possible for us too”.

After the Angelus, the Pope's thoughts turned to the Holy Land and he warned: "War is always a defeat, always! And it is ignoble, because it is the triumph of the lie, of falsehood." He recalled the suffering of the innocent: "I think of the 153 women and children massacred in Gaza in recent days," said the Pope, who described the war not only as a triumph of lies, but also of falsehood, because "they seek the greatest self-interest and the greatest damage to the enemy, trampling on human lives, the environment, the infrastructure, everything; and all of this is disguised with lies," said the Pope. He again called for prayer: "Let us pray for tormented Ukraine, let us pray for Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, and for all the peoples who are suffering because of war." Pope Francis also expressed his "closeness to the people of Chad, in particular the families of the victims of the grave terrorist attack a few days ago, as well as those who have been affected by floods. And in the face of these environmental disasters, let us pray for the populations of the Iberian Peninsula, especially the Valencian community: for the deceased and their loved ones, and for all the damaged families. May the Lord sustain those who are suffering, and those who are bringing relief".

Finally, thinking of tomorrow, Saturday 2 November, the day on which the deceased are commemorated, Pope Francis recalled: "Those who can, go in these days to pray at the tomb of your own loved ones. Let us not forget: the Eucharist is the greatest and most effective prayer for the soul of the departed". (FB) (Agenzia Fides, 1/11/2024)