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Monday, October 14, 2013

POPE'S VIDEO MESSAGE FOR BEATIFICATION OF 522 TWENTIETH-CENTURY SPANISH MARTYRS


Vatican City, 13 October 2013 (VIS) - We publish below the full text of Pope Francis' video message, broadcast at the beginning of the beatification ceremony for 522 twentieth-century Spanish martyrs, which took place in Tarragona, Spain.

I would like to express my heartfelt participation in the celebration taking place in Tarragona in which a great number of pastors, consecrated persons and lay faithful are being proclaimed Blessed martyrs.

Who are the martyrs? They are Christians won over by Christ, disciples who have understood fully the path to that “love to the extreme limit” that led Jesus to the Cross. There is no such thing as love in consignments or in portions. Total love: and when one loves truly, one loves to the very end. On the Cross, Jesus felt the weight of death, the weight of sin, but He entrusted Himself entirely to the Father, and He forgave. He barely uttered a word, but He gave His life. Christ precedes and awaits us in love; the martyrs imitated Him in loving to the very end.

The Holy Fathers say, 'Imitate the martyrs!' It is always necessary to die a little in order to come out of ourselves, to leave behind our selfishness, our comfort, our laziness, our sadness, and to open ourselves to God, and to others, especially those most in need.

We implore the intercession of the martyrs in order to be true Christians, Christians not only in words but in deeds; so as not to be mediocre Christians, Christians painted with a superficial gloss of Christianity but without substance; the martyrs were not glossed and painted Christians, they were were Christians to the very end. Let us ask their help to stay firm in faith, in spite of difficulties, and let us too nurture hope and be architects of brotherhood and solidarity.

And I ask you to pray for me. May Jesus bless them and the Holy Virgin protect them”.


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