After celebrating Pentecost Mass, Pope Francis prayed the Regina Coeli before thousands of pilgrims at St. Peter's Square.
The Pope explained that a fundamental element of the Pentecost is surprise, and that the Church must surprise everyone when announcing that Jesus overcome death.
POPE FRANCIS
'Listen up: if the Church is alive, it must always surprise. An aspect for the living Church is to surprise. A Church that doesn't have the capacity to surprise is a weak, sickened and dying Church. It must be taken to the recovery room, immediately.â?
The Pope explained that the Church of the Pentecost is not resigned to being bland, it doesn't strive to become a decorative element, and it doesn't think twice about going out and encountering people.
POPE FRANCIS
'She is born as one and universal, with a precise identity, but open. A Church that embraces the world, but does not capture it. She leaves it free, but she hugs it the way columns embrace this Square: two arms that open and take in, but do not hold back. We as Christians are free, and the Church wants us to be free!â?
Pope Francis also thanked pilgrims for their prayers of support for his meeting with the presidents of Israel and Palestine and the ecumenical patriarch, to pray for peace.
YJA/RCA
CTV
FA
-BN
Up: MAE
