(-ONLY VIDEO-) After receiving a warm welcome in Manila's Mall of Asia Arena, Pope Francis gave his official speech, but decided to add some impromptu comments in Spanish. He called on husbands to follow the example of St. Joseph and always be their 'wife's boyfriend.'<\/p>\n
READ FULL SPEECH IN ENGLISH:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tDear Families,
\n\tDear Friends in Christ,<\/p>\n
\tI am grateful for your presence here this evening and for the witness of your love for Jesus\u00a0and his Church. I thank Bishop Reyes, Chairman of the Bishops\u00e2?? Commission on Family and\u00a0Life, for his words of welcome on your behalf. And, in a special way, I thank those who have presented testimonies \u00e2?? thank you! \u00e2?? and who have shared their life of faith with us. The Church\u00a0in the Philippines is blessed by the apostolate of numerous family movements and I thank them\u00a0for their witness!<\/p>\n
\tThe Scriptures seldom speak of Saint Joseph, but when they do, we often find him resting,\u00a0as an angel reveals God\u00e2??s will to him in his dreams. In the Gospel passage we have just heard,\u00a0we find Joseph resting not once, but twice. This evening I would like to rest in the Lord with all\u00a0of you. I need to rest in the Lord with families, and to remember my own family: my father, my\u00a0mother, my grandfather, my grandmother\u00e2?\u00a6 Today I am resting with you, and together with you\u00a0I would like to reflect on the gift of the family.<\/p>\n
\tFirst, however, let me say something about dreams. But my English is so poor! If you allow\u00a0me, I will ask Monsignor Miles to translate and I will speak in Spanish.\u00a0I am very fond of dreams in families. For nine months every mother and father dream about\u00a0their baby. Am I right? [Yes!] They dream about what kind of child he or she will be... You\u00a0can\u00e2??t have a family without dreams. Once a family loses the ability to dream, children do not\u00a0grow, love does not grow, life shrivels up and dies. So I ask you each evening, when you make\u00a0your examination of conscience, to also ask yourselves this question: Today did I dream about\u00a0my children\u00e2??s future? Today did I dream about the love of my husband, my wife? Did I dream\u00a0about my parents and grandparents who have gone before me? Dreaming is very important.\u00a0Especially dreaming in families. Do not lose this ability to dream!<\/p>\n
\tHow many difficulties in married life are resolved when we leave room for dreaming, when\u00a0we stop a moment to think of our spouse, and we dream about the goodness present in the good\u00a0things all around us. So it is very important to reclaim love by what we do each day. Do not\u00a0ever stop being newlyweds!<\/p>\n
\tJoseph\u00e2??s rest revealed God\u00e2??s will to him. In this moment of rest in the Lord, as we pause\u00a0from our many daily obligations and activities, God is also speaking to us. He speaks to us in\u00a0the reading we have just heard, in our prayer and witness, and in the quiet of our hearts. Let us\u00a0reflect on what the Lord is saying to us, especially in this evening\u00e2??s Gospel. There are three\u00a0aspects of this passage which I would ask you to consider: First, resting in the Lord. Second,\u00a0rising with Jesus and Mary. Third, being a prophetic voice.<\/p>\n
\tResting in the Lord. Rest is so necessary for the health of our minds and bodies, and often\u00a0so difficult to achieve due to the many demands placed on us. But rest is also essential for our\u00a0spiritual health, so that we can hear God\u00e2??s voice and understand what he asks of us. Joseph was\u00a0chosen by God to be the foster father of Jesus and the husband of Mary. As Christians, you too\u00a0are called, like Joseph, to make a home for Jesus. To make a home for Jesus! You make a home\u00a0for him in your hearts, your families, your parishes and your communities.<\/p>\n
\tTo hear and accept God\u00e2??s call, to make a home for Jesus, you must be able to rest in the\u00a0Lord. You must make time each day to rest in the Lord, to pray. To pray is to rest in the Lord.\u00a0But you may say to me: Holy Father, I know that; I want to pray, but there is so much work to\u00a0do! I must care for my children; I have chores in the home; I am too tired even to sleep well.\u00a0I know. This may be true, but if we do not pray, we will not know the most important thing of\u00a0all: God\u00e2??s will for us. And for all our activity, our busy-ness, without prayer we will accomplish\u00a0very little.<\/p>\n
\tResting in prayer is especially important for families. It is in the family that we first learn\u00a0how to pray. Don\u00e2??t forget: the family that prays together stays together! This is important.\u00a0There we come to know God, to grow into men and women of faith, to see ourselves as members\u00a0of God\u00e2??s greater family, the Church. In the family we learn how to love, to forgive, to be generous and open, not closed and selfish. We learn to move beyond our own needs, to\u00a0encounter others and share our lives with them. That is why it is so important to pray as a\u00a0family! So important! That is why families are so important in God\u00e2??s plan for the Church! To\u00a0rest in the Lord is to pray. To pray together as a family.<\/p>\n
\tI would also like to tell you something very personal. I have great love for Saint Joseph,\u00a0because he is a man of silence and strength. On my table I have an image of Saint Joseph\u00a0sleeping. Even when he is asleep, he is taking care of the Church! Yes! We know that he can\u00a0do that. So when I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little note and I put it underneath Saint\u00a0Joseph, so that he can dream about it! In other words I tell him: pray for this problem!\u00a0Next, rising with Jesus and Mary. Those precious moments of repose, of resting with the\u00a0Lord in prayer, are moments we might wish to prolong. But like Saint Joseph, once we have\u00a0heard God\u00e2??s voice, we must rise from our slumber; we must get up and act (cf. Rom 13:11). In\u00a0our families, we have to get up and act! Faith does not remove us from the world, but draws us\u00a0more deeply into it. This is very important! We have to be deeply engaged with the world, but\u00a0with the power of prayer. Each of us, in fact, has a special role in preparing for the coming of\u00a0God\u00e2??s kingdom in our world.<\/p>\n
\tJust as the gift of the Holy Family was entrusted to Saint Joseph, so the gift of the family and\u00a0its place in God\u00e2??s plan is entrusted to us. Like Saint Joseph. The gift of the Holy Family was\u00a0entrusted to Saint Joseph so that he could care for it. Each of you, each of us \u00e2?? for I too am part\u00a0of a family \u00e2?? is charged with caring for God\u00e2??s plan. The angel of the Lord revealed to Joseph\u00a0the dangers which threatened Jesus and Mary, forcing them to flee to Egypt and then to settle in\u00a0Nazareth. So too, in our time, God calls upon us to recognize the dangers threatening our own\u00a0families and to protect them from harm.<\/p>\n
\tLet us be on guard against colonization by new ideologies. There are forms of ideological\u00a0colonization which are out to destroy the family. They are not born of dreams, of prayers, of\u00a0closeness to God or the mission which God gave us; they come from without, and for that reason\u00a0I am saying that they are forms of colonization. Let\u00e2??s not lose the freedom of the mission which\u00a0God has given us, the mission of the family. Just as our peoples, at a certain moment of their\u00a0history, were mature enough to say 'no\u00e2?\u009d to all forms of political colonization, so too in our\u00a0families we need to be very wise, very shrewd, very strong, in order to say 'no\u00e2?\u009d to all attempts\u00a0at an ideological colonization of our families. We need to ask Saint Joseph, the friend of the\u00a0angel, to send us the inspiration to know when we can say 'yes\u00e2?\u009d and when we have to say 'no\u00e2?\u009d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tThe pressures on family life today are many. Here in the Philippines, countless families are\u00a0still suffering from the effects of natural disasters. The economic situation has caused families\u00a0to be separated by migration and the search for employment, and financial problems strain many\u00a0households. While all too many people live in dire poverty, others are caught up in materialism\u00a0and lifestyles which are destructive of family life and the most basic demands of Christian\u00a0morality. These are forms of ideological colonization. The family is also threatened by growing\u00a0efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the\u00a0culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life.<\/p>\n
\tI think of Blessed Paul VI. At a time when the problem of population growth was being\u00a0raised, he had the courage to defend openness to life in families. He knew the difficulties that\u00a0are there in every family, and so in his Encyclical he was very merciful towards particular cases,\u00a0and he asked confessors to be very merciful and understanding in dealing with particular cases.\u00a0But he also had a broader vision: he looked at the peoples of the earth and he saw this threat of\u00a0families being destroyed for lack of children. Paul VI was courageous; he was a good pastor and\u00a0he warned his flock of the wolves who were coming. From his place in heaven, may he bless\u00a0this evening!<\/p>\n
\tOur world needs good and strong families to overcome these threats! The Philippines needs\u00a0holy and loving families to protect the beauty and truth of the family in God\u00e2??s plan and to be a\u00a0support and example for other families. Every threat to the family is a threat to society itself.<\/p>\n
\tThe future of humanity, as Saint John Paul II often said, passes through the family (cf. Familiaris\u00a0Consortio, 85). The future passes through the family. So protect your families! Protect your\u00a0families! See in them your country\u00e2??s greatest treasure and nourish them always by prayer and\u00a0the grace of the sacraments. Families will always have their trials, but may you never add to\u00a0them! Instead, be living examples of love, forgiveness and care. Be sanctuaries of respect for\u00a0life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death. What a\u00a0gift this would be to society, if every Christian family lived fully its noble vocation! So rise with\u00a0Jesus and Mary, and set out on the path the Lord traces for each of you.<\/p>\n
\tFinally, the Gospel we have heard reminds us of our Christian duty to be prophetic voices\u00a0in the midst of our communities. Joseph listened to the angel of the Lord and responded to\u00a0God\u00e2??s call to care for Jesus and Mary. In this way he played his part in God\u00e2??s plan, and became\u00a0a blessing not only for the Holy Family, but a blessing for all of humanity. With Mary, Joseph\u00a0served as a model for the boy Jesus as he grew in wisdom, age and grace (cf. Lk 2:52). When\u00a0families bring children into the world, train them in faith and sound values, and teach them to\u00a0contribute to society, they become a blessing in our world. Families can become a blessing for\u00a0all of humanity! God\u00e2??s love becomes present and active by the way we love and by the good\u00a0works that we do. We extend Christ\u00e2??s kingdom in this world. And in doing this, we prove\u00a0faithful to the prophetic mission which we have received in baptism.<\/p>\n
\tDuring this year which your bishops have set aside as the Year of the Poor, I would ask you,\u00a0as families, to be especially mindful of our call to be missionary disciples of Jesus. This means\u00a0being ready to go beyond your homes and to care for our brothers and sisters who are most in\u00a0need. I ask you especially to show concern for those who do not have a family of their own, in\u00a0particular those who are elderly and children without parents. Never let them feel isolated, alone\u00a0and abandoned, but help them to know that God has not forgotten them. Today I was very\u00a0moved when, after Mass, I visited a home for children without families. How many people work\u00a0in the Church to make that home a family! This is what it means, in a prophetic sense, to build\u00a0a family.<\/p>\n
\tYou may be poor yourselves in material ways, but you have an abundance of gifts to offer\u00a0when you offer Christ and the community of his Church. Do not hide your faith, do not hide\u00a0Jesus, but carry him into the world and offer the witness of your family life!<\/p>\n
\tDear friends in Christ, know that I pray for you always! I pray for families! I do! I pray\u00a0that the Lord may continue to deepen your love for him, and that this love may manifest itself\u00a0in your love for one another and for the Church. Do not forget Jesus who sleeps! Do not forget\u00a0Saint Joseph who sleeps! Jesus slept with the protection of Joseph. Do not forget: families find\u00a0their rest in prayer. Don not forget to pray for families. Pray often and take the fruits of your\u00a0prayer into the world, that all may know Jesus Christ and his merciful love. Please pray also for\u00a0me, for I truly need your prayers and will depend on them always! Thank you very much!<\/p>\n
MPI\/KLH
\nCTV
\nJM
\n-PR
\nUp: MPI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
January 16, 2015. Thousands of people welcomed the Pope in the packed Mall of Asia Arena. ;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":32422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/3mrD-_nOh_g","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/","international_url":"http:\/\/romereports.com.edgesuite.net\/news\/bncdiscorsomallint.mov","type":"rrp","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52025"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}