All who are called should know that genuine and complete joy does exist in
this world: it is the joy of being taken from the people we love and then
being sent back to them as dispensers of the gifts and counsels of Jesus,
the one Good Shepherd who, with deep compassion for all the little ones and
the outcasts of this earth, wearied and oppressed like sheep without a
shepherd, wants to associate many others to his ministry, so as himself to
remain with us and to work, in the person of his priests, for the good of
his people.
 On this Holy Thursday, I ask the Lord Jesus to enable many young people to
discover that burning zeal which joy kindles in our hearts as soon as we
have the stroke of boldness needed to respond willingly to his call.
 On this Holy Thursday, I ask the Lord Jesus to preserve the joy sparkling
in the eyes of the recently ordained who go forth to devour the world, to
spend themselves fully in the midst of God's faithful people, rejoicing as
they prepare their first homily, their first Mass, their first Baptism,
their first confession... It is the joy of being able to share with wonder,
and for the first time as God’s anointed, the treasure of the Gospel and to
feel the faithful people anointing you again and in yet another way: by
their requests, by bowing their heads for your blessing, by taking your
hands, by bringing you their children, by pleading for their sick...
Preserve, Lord, in your young priests the joy of going forth, of doing
everything as if for the first time, the joy of spending their lives fully
for you.
 On this Thursday of the priesthood, I ask the Lord Jesus to confirm the
priestly joy of those who have already ministered for some years. The joy
which, without leaving their eyes, is also found on the shoulders of those
who bear the burden of the ministry, those priests who, having experienced
the labours of the apostolate, gather their strength and rearm themselves:
'get a second wind', as the athletes say. Lord, preserve the depth, wisdom
and maturity of the joy felt by these older priests. May they be able to
pray with Nehemiah: 'the joy of the Lord is my strength'.
 Finally, on this Thursday of the priesthood, I ask the Lord Jesus to make
better known the joy of elderly priests, whether healthy or infirm. It is
the joy of the Cross, which springs from the knowledge that we possess an
imperishable treasure in perishable earthen vessels. May these priests find
happiness wherever they are; may they experience already, in the passage of
the years, a taste of eternity (Guardini). May they know, Lord, the joy of
handing on the torch, the joy of seeing new generations of their spiritual
children, and of hailing the promises from afar, smiling and at peace, in
that hope which does not disappoint".

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 MASS "IN CENA DOMINI" AT THE DON GNOCCHI CENTRE
 Vatican City, April 2014 (VIS) - At 5 p.m. the Holy Father left the
Vatican for the St. Mary of Providence Centre of the Don Carlo Gnocchi
Foundation, where at 5.30 p.m. he celebrated Holy Mass "in Cena
Domini", with which the Easter Triduum begins. This Maundy Thursday
celebration includes the announcement of the commandment to love and the
ritual washing of the feet, a gesture of love and humility. When the Holy
Father was Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he used to celebrate this
Mass in a hospital, a prison or a reception centre for the poor and
marginalised, and likewise the Don Gnocchi Foundation is an institution
dedicated to the care of people with all types of disabilities, both
physical and mental.
 The celebration took place in the church within the Centre, and the
participants included the guests of the Centre accompanied by their
relatives, as well as staff, volunteers, and directors. During the Mass,
the Pope washed the feet of twelve disabled persons of various ages, ethnic
origins and religious beliefs, representing the patients assisted in the 29
Don Gnocchi Foundation Centres present in Italy, and he briefly explained
the meaning of this gesture.
 "We have heard what Jesus did, at the Last Supper: it was a farewell
gesture. It is the legacy He leaves us. He is God Who made Himself our
servant. And this is the legacy He leaves us: you to must serve one
another. He took this path for love: you too must love one another and be
servants, in love. This is the legacy Jesus leaves us. And washing the feet
is a symbolic gesture: the slaves used to to this, servants used to do this
for those who came to eat, to lunch or to dine, because in those times the
roads were made of earth and, entering the house, it was necessary to wash
one's feet. And Jesus carried out this gesture, the task of a slave or a
servant. He leaves this as an inheritance to us. We must serve one another.
And therefore the Church, which today commemorates the Last Supper when
Jesus instituted the Eucharist, during the ceremony also carries out this
gesture of washing feet, which reminds us that we must serve each other.
Now I too will perform this gesture, but let us all, in our hearts, think
of others and think of the love that Jesus tells us we must have for
others, and let us think of how we can serve them better, because this is
what Jesus wants from us".

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 VIA CRUCIS: A GLORIOUS CROSS LIKE DAWN FOLLOWING A LONG NIGHT
 Vatican City, 18 April 2014 (VIS) - At 9.15 p.m. this evening, Good
Friday, the Bishop of Rome presided at the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross,
service at the Colosseum, where thousands of faithful accompanied Christ's
path to the Cross by the light of candles and torches. From the Palatine
Hill the Holy Father listened to the reflections that accompanied each of
the fourteen stations, dedicated this year to the economic crisis that
afflicts many countries, to immigration, poverty, and the situation of
women and the marginalised in today's world. The cross was carried to the
various stations by a worker and a businessman, two immigrants, two
homeless people, two detainees, two former drug addicts, two patients, two
children, a family, two elderly people, two nuns, the Custodians of the
Holy Land and, in the first and last stations, the Cardinal Archbishop of
Rome, Agostino Vallini.
 At the end the Pope addressed some unscripted remarks to the participants,
affirming that "God placed on Jesus' Cross all the weight of our sins,
all the injustice perpetrated by every Cain against his brother, all the
bitterness of the betrayals of Judas and Peter, all the vanity of tyrants,
all the arrogance of false friends. It was a heavy Cross, like the night of
abandoned people, as heavy as the death of loved ones, heavy because it
carried all the ugliness of evil. However it is also a glorious Cross, like
the dawn after a long night, as it represents all of God's love, which is
greater than our iniquity and our betrayals. In the Cross we see the
monstrosity of man, when we allow ourselves to be guided by evil; but we
also see the immensity of God's mercy; He does not treat us according to
our sins, but according to His mercy".
 He continued, "Before the Cross of Christ, we see, we can almost
touch with our hands how much we are eternally loved; before the Cross, we
feel like 'children' and not 'things ' or objects, as St. Gregory of
Nazianzus affirmed when he turned to Christ with this prayer: 'If it were
not for you, O my Christ, I would feel as a finished creature. ... O, our
Jesus, guide us from the Cross to the Resurrection and teach us that evil
will not have the last word, but rather love, mercy, and forgiveness. O
Christ, teach us to exclaim anew, "Yesterday I was crucified with
Christ; today I am glorified with Him"'.
 "And in the end, all together, let us recall the sick, let us think
of all those people abandoned beneath the weight of the Cross, so that they
might find in the trial of the Cross the strength of hope, of the hope of
the Resurrection and the love of God".

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 HOLY SATURDAY: RETURN TO THE PLACE OF THE FIRST CALL
 Vatican City, 19 April 2014 (VIS) - The solemn Easter Vigil began at 8.30
this evening in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Francis presided over the rites,
which began with the blessing of the with a blessing of the new fire in the
church atrium followed by the procession to the altar with the lit Paschal
candle, the singing of the "Exsultet" and the Liturgy of the
Word. During the ceremony, the Holy Father administered the sacraments of
Christian initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist) to ten
catechumens from Italy, Belarus, Senegal, Lebanon, France and Vietnam.
 The full text of his homily is published below:
 "The Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ begins with the
journey of the women to the tomb at dawn on the day after the Sabbath. They
go to the tomb to honour the body of the Lord, but they find it open and
empty. A mighty angel says to them: 'Do not be afraid!' and orders them to
go and tell the disciples: 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he
is going ahead of you to Galilee'. The women quickly depart and on the way
Jesus himself meets them and says: 'Do not fear; go and tell my brothers to
go to Galilee; there they will see me'. 'Do not be afraid', 'do not fear':
these are words that encourage us to open our hearts to receive the
message.
 After the death of the Master, the disciples had scattered; their faith
had been utterly shaken, everything seemed over, all their certainties had
crumbled and their hopes had died. But now that message of the women,
incredible as it was, came to them like a ray of light in the darkness. The
news spread: Jesus is risen as he said. And then there was his command to
go to Galilee; the women had heard it twice, first from the angel and then
from Jesus himself: 'Let them go to Galilee; there they will see me'. 'Do
not fear' and 'go to Galilee'.
 Galilee is the place where they were first called, where everything began!
To return there, to return to the place where they were originally called.
Jesus had walked along the shores of the lake as the fishermen were casting
their nets. He had called them, and they left everything and followed him.
 To return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis of the cross
and its victory, fearlessly: 'do not be afraid'. To re-read everything -
Jesus’ preaching, his miracles, the new community, the excitement and the
defections, even the betrayal - to re-read everything starting from the
end, which is a new beginning, from this supreme act of love.

--- MPost/386 v1.21