An estimated over 700,000 people gathered to celebrate an outdoor Mass with Pope Francis on a sprawling esplanade near the Capital City of East Timor.
The music of the Mass was led by a choir of hundreds of singers.
In his homily, the Pope reflected on the birth of the child Jesus and the goodness that newborns bring to the world. He then applauded the culture of youth in East Timor, as it is one of the youngest country's in the world, with a median age of just 20 years old.
POPE FRANCIS
This reality is beautiful in Timor-Leste, because there are so many children. You are a young country where life can be felt pulsating and buzzing in every corner. And the presence of so many young people and so many children is a gift, it is an immense gift.
And he even had some specific advice for the hundreds of thousands of people present, encouraging them to give their life out of love for others.
POPE FRANCIS
Let us not be afraid to make ourselves small before God and before one another; to lose our schedules, to give our time, to change our programs and to resize our projects when necessary. Not to minimize them, but to make them better through the gift of ourselves and the acceptance of others.
The Mass was Pope Francis' final public event of the day. The following day, he meets with youth before departing East Timor for the final leg of his trip in Singapore.
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