After the Regina Caeli, the Holy Father continued:
Dear brothers and sisters! I entrust to all of your prayers the situation in
Colombia, which continues to be worrying. On this solemnity of Pentecost, I pray
that the beloved Colombian people may be able to welcome the gifts of the Holy
Spirit so that, through serious dialogue, they can find just solutions to the many
problems that especially the poorest suffer, due to the pandemic. I exhort
everyone to avoid, for humanitarian reasons, behaviours that are damaging to
the population as they exercise their right to peaceful protest.
Let us also pray for the people of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
forced to flee due to the eruption of the great volcano, Mount Nyiragongo.
Tomorrow the Catholic faithful in China will celebrate the Feast of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Help of Christians and heavenly Patroness of their great country.
The Mother of the Lord and of the Church is venerated with particular devotion in
the Sheshan Shrine in Shanghai, and is invoked assiduously by Christian
families, in the trials and hopes of daily life. How good and how necessary it is
that the members of a family and of a Christian community are ever more united
in love and in faith! In this way, parents and children, grandparents and
grandchildren, pastors and faithful can follow the example of the first disciples
who, on the solemnity of Pentecost, were united in prayer with Mary as they
awaited the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I invite you to accompany with fervid prayer
the Christian faithful in China, our dearest brothers and sisters, whom I carry in
the depth of my heart. May the Holy Spirit, protagonist of the Church’s mission
in the world, guide them and help them to be bearers of the Good News,
witnesses of goodness and charity, and builders of justice and peace in their
country.
And speaking of tomorrow’s celebration, Mary Help of Christians, a thought to
the Salesian men and women, who work so very much in the Church for those
who are farthest away, for the most marginalized, for young people. May the
Lord bless you and lead you forward with many holy vocations! […]
