Pope Francis arrived in Lisbon (PT) on Wednesday morning, August 2, to participate in World Youth Day (WYD). On the first day of his apostolic trip, the Pope’s official agenda was filled with meetings with civil and religious authorities. Check out the main highlights below.
Prayer of Vespers with religious
The Pope prayed Vespers with bishops, priests, religious and seminarians. In his meditation, the Pontiff drew a parallel with Simon’s vocation and reflected on the weariness that many religious experience.
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“Someone said: “I fear the weariness of the good”. A weariness felt when it seems that we have nothing in our hands but empty nets. It is a feeling that is widespread in countries with an ancient Christian tradition, which are undergoing many social and cultural changes and are increasingly marked by secularism, indifference to God, and a progressive withdrawal from the practice of the faith”.
Francis invited all present to let Jesus renew their readiness for the apostolate.
“The risk, however, when we feel discouraged (each of you think about when you have felt discouraged), is to get off the boat, ending up trapped in the nets of resignation and pessimism. Instead, let us trust that Jesus continues to take his beloved Bride by the hand and lift her up. Let us bring our weariness and our tears to the Lord, so that we can face pastoral and spiritual situations, dialoguing with one another with an open heart to try out new ways forward”.
And he said, “At the moment of discouragement, the moment of “retirement”, let us let Jesus climb back into the boat, with the enthusiasm of the first time, that enthusiasm that must be revived, regained, reissued. He comes to find us in our loneliness, in our crises, to help us start over. The spirituality of starting over. Do not be afraid. Life is like that: falling and starting again, getting bored and regaining joy. Accept this hand that Jesus gives us”.
Cultivate Magnanimity
Francis recalled that Jesus never stops calling and in the face of challenges it is “time to give way to the second call”. To this end, the Pontiff asked: “Cultivate magnanimity”, walk together and proclaim the Gospel.
“Do not be afraid, cast your nets. Do not live accusing ‘this is sin, that is not sin’. Come, all of you… then we will talk. But first, feel Jesus’ invitation, then will come repentance and finally the closeness of Jesus.”
Read the Pope’s full speech here
Lisbon – Capital of the future
At the meeting with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and other civil authorities, Francis said he was very happy to be in Portugal and said that in these days Lisbon “becomes, in a way, the capital of the world, the capital of the future”.
In a beautiful speech, Francis recalled the city’s historic role in sowing unity among nations. “These are not just words, but milestones on the path of the European community, carved in the memory of this city. Here we have the spirit of the whole, animated by the European dream of a multilateralism broader than the mere Western context,” he said.
He added, “I hope that World Youth Day will be for the ‘old continent’ – we could say the ‘old’ continent – an impulse of universal openness, that is, an impulse that will make it younger”.
Courageous routes of peace
Francis invited the authorities present to build “courageous routes of peace”. “I dream of a Europe, the heart of the West, that uses its ingenuity to extinguish the fires of war and to light up the beacons of hope; a Europe that knows how to rediscover its youthful spirit, dreaming of the greatness of the whole and going beyond immediate needs; a Europe that includes peoples and individuals with their own culture, without chasing after ideological theories and colonizations”.
Read the Pope’s full speech here
Service
Halleluya Music Festival
When: August 1st to 4th, 2pm to 11pm
Where: Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques, Lisbon – Portugal
Follow: @halleluyalisboa