Vatican City, 10 November 2014 (VIS) –
In the evening of Saturday 8 November Pope Francis sent a message to
the 750 French seminarians gathered at the Marian shrine at Lourdes,
France from 8 to 10 November, for the autumn Plenary Assembly of the
Episcopal Conference of France. In the text, the Pope urges them to
remember the three key words in their lives as seminarians:
fraternity, prayer and mission.
In relation to fraternity, he
emphasises that “the priestly mission cannot in any case be
individual, and certainly not individualistic”; instead, together
they should “bear witness to the love with which we recognise
Jesus' disciples”. With regard to prayer, he remarks that
“everything that you learn comes to life in prayer”, and recalls
that Jesus Himself retired in silence and solitude to immerse himself
in the mystery of His Father. “May your prayer be an appeal to the
Spirit, Who builds the Church, leads the disciples and infuses with
pastoral charity. … At the foundation of your formation there is
the Word of God, that enters you, nourishes you, and enlightens you”,
he writes, urging the seminarians to dedicate long periods each day
to prayer, since “it is in prayer that you encounter the loving
presence of the Lord and allow yourselves to be transformed by Him”.
Finally, in reference to mission, the
Pope comments that it is “inseparable from prayer, as prayer opens
you to the Spirit, and the Spirit guides you in mission”, and
encourages them to prioritise, in their encounters with others, the
most marginalised. He also urges them to entrust themselves to Mary
and to allow themselves to be guided by her: “Mary accompanied
Jesus in His mission. She was present at the Pentecost when the
disciples received the Holy Spirit, and she maternally accompanied
the first steps of the Church”.
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