The life of a bishop is full of surprises, Pope tells prelates
New bishops need to prepare for a life filled with God’s surprises, with daily plans that change at the last minute and, especially, for a life dedicated to spending time with God and with the people, Pope Francis has said.
“God surprises us and often likes to mess up our appointment books: prepare for this without fear,” the Pope told about 130 bishops attending a course for bishops ordained in the past year.
Bishops exist to make tangible God’s love for and closeness to his people, the Pope told them. “But one cannot communicate the closeness of God without experiencing it every day and without letting himself be infected by his tenderness.”
Pope Francis told the new bishops that no matter what else is going on in their lives and ministries, they must spend time in prayer.
“Without this intimacy cultivated daily in prayer, even and especially in times of desolation and dryness, the nucleus of our episcopal ministry splits apart,” he said.
Without a strong relationship to God, the sower of every good seed, a bishop’s own efforts will not seem worth the effort, he said, and it will be difficult to find the patience necessary to wait for the seeds to sprout.
Francis calls for radical meeting to launch ‘global alliance’
Pope Francis has said the challenges facing humanity and the Earth are so urgent and important that he has invited world leaders, educators and young people to come to the Vatican next spring to launch a global alliance for building a new, more humane future.
“Never before has there been such need to unite our efforts in a broad educational alliance, to form mature individuals capable of overcoming division and antagonism, and to restore the fabric of relationships for the sake of a more fraternal humanity,” he said.
The Pope launched the new initiative, called the Global Compact on Education, for the future of new generations with a video and written message released by the Vatican on September 12.
A related website, www.educationglobalcompact.org, went live the same day.
The Pope has invited representatives from the world’s religions, international organisations and humanitarian groups as well as educators, economists, scientists, policymakers, people from the world of art, culture and sports, and young people themselves to the Vatican May 14, 2020.
Catholics and Muslims pray to get her on 9/11 anniversary
Catholics and Muslims prayed in Vatican City last week for the victims of the September 11 attacks and of every act of terrorism.
The prayers were a part of the first meeting of a new committee created by the United Arab Emirates for implementing the goals outlined in Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb’s joint statement on human fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi on February 4.
According to the Holy See Press Office, the committee chose to meet on September 11 as “a sign of the will to build life and fraternity where others sowed death and destruction”.
Pope Francis greeted the committee members in Casa Santa Marta and gave each of them a copy of the ‘Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’.
Often referred to as the Abu Dhabi declaration, it invites “all persons who have faith in God and faith in human fraternity to unite and work together so that it may serve as a guide for future generations to advance a culture of mutual respect in the awareness of the great divine grace that makes all human beings brothers and sisters”.