He continued, "We are all called upon to bear witness to and to
proclaim the message that 'God is love', that God is not distant from us or
insensible to our human affairs. He is close to us, He is always by our
side, He walks with us to share our joys and our pains, our hope and our
strife. He loves us so much, to the point of making Himself man; He came
into the world not to guide us but so that the world might be saved through
Jesus. And this is God's love in Jesus, this love that is so difficult to
understand but which we feel when we draw close to Jesus. And He always
forgives us, He always awaits us, He loves us very much. And the love of
Jesus that we feel is God's love".
 He added, "the Holy Spirit communicates the divine life to us and
therefore allows us to enter into the dynamism of the Trinity, which is a
dynamism of love, of communion, of mutual service, of sharing. A person who
loves others for the very joy of loving is a reflection of the Trinity. A
family in which the members love and help each other is a reflection of the
Trinity. A parish in which the members care for each other and share their
spiritual and material assets is a reflection of the Trinity. True love is
without limits but knows how to limit itself, in order to move towards the
other, to respect the freedom of the other. Every Sunday we go to Mass, we
celebrate the Eucharist together and the Eucharist is like the 'burning
bush' in which the Trinity humbly resides and communicates". He
explained that it is for this reason that the Church has placed the Feast
of Corpus Domini after the Feast of the Trinity. Next Thursday, in
accordance with a Roman tradition, Holy Mass will be celebrated at the
Basilica of St. John Lateran, followed by a procession with the Holy
Sacrament. The Pope invited Romans and pilgrims to participate to
"express our wish to be a people united in the unity of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit. I will see you all on Thursday, at 7 p.m., for
the procession of Corpus Domini".

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 FRANCIS PRAYS FOR PEACE AND RECONCILATION IN IRAQ
 Vatican City, 15 June 2014 (VIS) - Following today's Marian Angelus
prayer, the Holy Father expressed his concern at the dramatic events that
are unfolding in Iraq, and conveyed his hope that the future will bring
peace and reconciliation for the people of this country. "I invite you
all to join with me in prayer for the beloved Iraqi nation, especially the
victims and those who suffer most keenly the consequences of the escalation
of violence, and in particular those, including many Christians, who have
had to flee their homes. I wish security and peace upon all the population
and hope for a future of reconciliation and justice, in which all Iraqis,
regardless of their religious beliefs, will be able to build their homeland
together, making it into a model of coexistence".
 The Pope also announced that on Sunday 21 September he will visit the
Albanian city of Tirana. "With this brief trip I wish to confirm in
the faith the Church in Albania, and offer my encouragement and love to a
country that has suffered greatly as a result of the ideologies of the
past".
 Before concluding, Pope Francis offered some words to domestic
collaborators and carers for the elderly, "who come from all over the
world and provide a valuable service to families, especially in their care
for the elderly and for those who are not autonomous". He remarked,
"Very often we do not do justice to the great and good work they
perform in families. Thank you very much!".

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 MESSAGE FOR WORLD MISSION DAY
 Vatican City, 14 June 2014 (VIS) - The following is the full text of the
Holy Father's message for the 188th World Mission Day, to be held on
Sunday, 19 October 2014:
 "Dear Brothers and Sisters,
 Today vast numbers of people still do not know Jesus Christ. For this
reason, the mission ad gentes continues to be most urgent. All the members
of the Church are called to participate in this mission, for the Church is
missionary by her very nature: she was born 'to go forth'. World Mission
Day is a privileged moment when the faithful of various continents engage
in prayer and concrete gestures of solidarity in support of the young
Churches in mission lands. It is a celebration of grace and joy. A
celebration of grace, because the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, offers
wisdom and strength to those who are obedient to his action. A celebration
of joy, because Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, sent to evangelise the
world, supports and accompanies our missionary efforts. This joy of Jesus
and missionary disciples leads me to propose a biblical icon, which we find
in the Gospel of Luke.
 1. The Evangelist tells us that the Lord sent the seventy-two disciples
two by two into cities and villages to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was
near, and to prepare people to meet Jesus. After carrying out this mission
of preaching, the disciples returned full of joy: joy is a dominant theme
of this first and unforgettable missionary experience. Yet the divine
Master told them: 'Do not rejoice because the demons are subject to you;
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. At that very moment
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said: "I give you praise,
Father..." And, turning to the disciples in private he said,
"Blessed are the eyes that see what you see"'.
 Luke presents three scenes. Jesus speaks first to his disciples, then to
the Father, and then again to the disciples. Jesus wanted to let the
disciples share his joy, different and greater than anything they had
previously experienced.
 2. The disciples were filled with joy, excited about their power to set
people free from demons. But Jesus cautioned them to rejoice not so much
for the power they had received, but for the love they had received,
'because your names are written in heaven'. The disciples were given an
experience of God's love, but also the possibility of sharing that love.
And this experience is a cause for gratitude and joy in the heart of Jesus.
Luke saw this jubilation in a perspective of the trinitarian communion:
'Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit', turning to the Father and praising
him. This moment of deep joy springs from Jesus' immense filial love for
his Father, Lord of heaven and earth, who hid these things from the wise
and learned, and revealed them to the childlike. God has both hidden and
revealed, and in this prayer of praise it is his revealing which stands
out. What is it that God has revealed and hidden? The mysteries of his
Kingdom, the manifestation of divine lordship in Jesus and the victory over
Satan.
 God has hidden this from those who are all too full of themselves and who
claim to know everything already. They are blinded by their
presumptuousness and they leave no room for God. One can easily think of
some of Jesus' contemporaries whom he repeatedly admonished, but the danger
is one that always exists and concerns us too. The 'little ones', for their
part, are the humble, the simple, the poor, the marginalised, those without
voice, those weary and burdened, whom Jesus pronounced 'blessed'. We
readily think of Mary, Joseph, the fishermen of Galilee and the disciples
whom Jesus called as he went preaching.
 3. 'Yes, Father, for such has been your gracious will'. These words of
Jesus must be understood as referring to his inner exultation. The word
'gracious' describes the Father's saving and benevolent plan for humanity.
It was this divine graciousness that made Jesus rejoice, for the Father
willed to love people with the same love that he has for his Son. Luke also
alludes to the similar exultation of Mary: 'My soul proclaims the greatness
of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my Saviour'. This is the Good News
that leads to salvation. Mary, bearing in her womb Jesus, the evangeliser
par excellence, met Elizabeth and rejoiced in the Holy Spirit as she sang
her Magnificat. Jesus, seeing the success of his disciples' mission and
their resulting joy, rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and addressed his Father
in prayer. In both cases, it is joy for the working of salvation, for the
love with which the Father loves his Son comes down to us, and through the
Holy Spirit fills us and grants us a share in the trinitarian life.
 The Father is the source of joy. The Son is its manifestation, and the
Holy Spirit its giver. Immediately after praising the Father, so the
evangelist Matthew tells us, Jesus says: 'Come to me, all you who labour
and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for
yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light'. 'The joy of the
Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who
accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner
emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew'.
 The Virgin Mary had a unique experience of this encounter with Jesus, and
thus became 'causa nostrae laetitiae'. The disciples, for their part,
received the call to follow Jesus and to be sent by him to preach the
Gospel, and so they were filled with joy. Why shouldn't we too enter this
flood of joy?
 4. 'The great danger in today's world, pervaded as it is by consumerism,
is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the
feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience'.
Humanity greatly needs to lay hold of the salvation brought by Christ. His
disciples are those who allow themselves to be seized ever more by the love
of Jesus and marked by the fire of passion for the Kingdom of God and the
proclamation of the joy of the Gospel. All the Lord's disciples are called
to nurture the joy of evangelisation. The Bishops, as those primarily
responsible for this proclamation, have the task of promoting the unity of
the local Church in her missionary commitment. They are called to
acknowledge that the joy of communicating Jesus Christ is expressed in a
concern to proclaim him in the most distant places, as well as in a
constant outreach to the peripheries of their own territory, where great
numbers of the poor are waiting for this message.
 Many parts of the world are experiencing a dearth of vocations to the
priesthood and the consecrated life. Often this is due to the absence of
contagious apostolic fervour in communities which lack enthusiasm and thus
fail to attract. The joy of the Gospel is born of the encounter with Christ
and from sharing with the poor. For this reason I encourage parish
communities, associations and groups to live an intense fraternal life,
grounded in love for Jesus and concern for the needs of the most
disadvantaged. Wherever there is joy, enthusiasm and a desire to bring
Christ to others, genuine vocations arise. Among these vocations, we should
not overlook lay vocations to mission. There has been a growing awareness
of the identity and mission of the lay faithful in the Church, as well as a
recognition that they are called to take an increasingly important role in
the spread of the Gospel. Consequently they need to be given a suitable
training for the sake of an effective apostolic activity.
 5. 'God loves a cheerful giver'. World Mission Day is also an occasion to
rekindle the desire and the moral obligation to take joyful part in the
mission ad gentes. A monetary contribution on the part of individuals is
the sign of a self-offering, first to the Lord and then to others; in this
way a material offering can become a means for the evangelisation of
humanity built on love.

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