For each of us, too, there is a 'Galilee' at the origin of our journey with   
   Jesus. 'To go to Galilee' means something beautiful, it means rediscovering   
   our baptism as a living fountainhead, drawing new energy from the sources of   
   our faith and our Christian experience. To return to Galilee means above all   
   to return to that blazing light with which God’s grace touched me at the start   
   of the journey. From that flame I can light a fire for today and every day,   
   and bring heat and light to my brothers and sisters. That flame ignites a   
   humble joy, a joy which sorrow and distress cannot dismay, a good, gentle joy.   
    In the life of every Christian, after baptism there is also another   
   'Galilee', a more existential 'Galilee': the experience of a personal   
   encounter with Jesus Christ who called me to follow him and to share in his   
   mission. In this sense, returning to Galilee means treasuring in my heart the   
   living memory of that call, when Jesus passed my way, gazed at me with mercy   
   and asked me to follow him. To return there means reviving the memory of that   
   moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realise that he   
   loved me.   
    Today, tonight, each of us can ask: What is my Galilee? I need to remind   
   myself, to go back and remember. Where is my Galilee? Do I remember it? Have I   
   forgotten it? Seek and you will find it! There the Lord is waiting for you.   
   Have I gone off on roads and paths which made me forget it? Lord, help me:   
   tell me what my Galilee is; for you know that I want to return there to   
   encounter you and to let myself be embraced by your mercy. Do not be afraid,   
   do not fear, return to Galilee!   
    The Gospel is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen, and   
   to become witnesses of his resurrection. This is not to go back in time; it is   
   not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love, in order to   
   receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire   
   to all people, to the very ends of the earth. Go back to Galilee, without fear!   
    'Galilee of the Gentiles'! Horizon of the Risen Lord, horizon of the Church;   
   intense desire of encounter... Let us be on our way!".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    EASTER SUNDAY: LOVE LETS HOPE FLOURISH IN THE DESERT   
    Vatican City, 20 April 2014 (VIS) - At 10.15 today, Easter Sunday, the Holy   
   Father Francis celebrated the solemn Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord in   
   St. Peter's Square, which was adorned with 35,000 plants and flowers (tulips,   
   narcissus and hyacinths), offered by Dutch florists. During the celebration,   
   which began with the "Resurrexit" rite - the opening of an icon of the Risen   
   Lord, placed next to the papal altar - was attended by more than 150,000   
   faithful from all around the world. The Pope did not pronounce a homily but   
   following Mass he delivered an Easter message and imparted his "Urbi et Orbi"   
   blessing.   
    At midday, from the central balcony of the Vatican basilica, the Pope   
   addressed the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square and all those following   
   the event on radio or television, and made an appeal for those affected by the   
   Ebola virus outbreak in various African countries, and for peace in Syria,   
   Iraq, Venezuela and Ukraine, for an end to the clashes in the Central African   
   Republic, Nigerian and South Sudan, and for the resumption of negotiations   
   between Israelis and Palestinians. He then imparted his "Urbi et Orbi"   
   blessing, to the city and the world.   
    "A happy and holy Easter!" said the Bishop of Rome. "The Church throughout   
   the world echoes the angel’s message to the women: 'Do not be afraid! I know   
   that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has   
   been raised... Come, see the place where he lay'.   
    This is the culmination of the Gospel, it is the Good News par excellence:   
   Jesus, who was crucified, is risen! This event is the basis of our faith and   
   our hope. If Christ were not raised, Christianity would lose its very meaning;   
   the whole mission of the Church would lose its impulse, for this is the point   
   from which it first set out and continues to set out ever anew. The message   
   which Christians bring to the world is this: Jesus, Love incarnate, died on   
   the cross for our sins, but God the Father raised him and made him the Lord of   
   life and death. In Jesus, love has triumphed over hatred, mercy over   
   sinfulness, goodness over evil, truth over falsehood, life over death.   
    That is why we tell everyone: 'Come and see!' In every human situation,   
   marked by frailty, sin and death, the Good News is no mere matter of words,   
   but a testimony to unconditional and faithful love: it is about leaving   
   ourselves behind and encountering others, being close to those crushed by   
   life’s troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick,   
   elderly and the outcast... 'Come and see!': Love is more powerful, love gives   
   life, love makes hope blossom in the wilderness.   
    With this joyful certainty in our hearts, today we turn to you, risen Lord!   
    Help us to seek you and to find you, to realize that we have a Father and are   
   not orphans; that we can love and adore you.   
    Help us to overcome the scourge of hunger, aggravated by conflicts and by the   
   immense wastefulness for which we are often responsible.   
    Enable us to protect the vulnerable, especially children, women and the   
   elderly, who are at times exploited and abandoned.   
    Enable us to care for our brothers and sisters struck by the Ebola epidemic   
   in Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and to care for those suffering   
   from so many other diseases which are also spread through neglect and dire   
   poverty.   
    Comfort all those who cannot celebrate this Easter with their loved ones   
   because they have been unjustly torn from their affections, like the many   
   persons, priests and laity, who in various parts of the world have been   
   kidnapped.   
    Comfort those who have left their own lands to migrate to places offering   
   hope for a better future and the possibility of living their lives in dignity   
   and, not infrequently, of freely professing their faith.   
    We ask you, Lord Jesus, to put an end to all war and every conflict, whether   
   great or small, ancient or recent.   
    We pray in a particular way for Syria, beloved Syria, that all those   
   suffering the effects of the conflict can receive needed humanitarian aid and   
   that neither side will again use deadly force, especially against the   
   defenceless civil population, but instead boldly negotiate the peace long   
   awaited and long overdue!   
    Jesus, Lord of glory, we ask you to comfort the victims of fratricidal acts   
   of violence in Iraq and to sustain the hopes raised by the resumption of   
   negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.   
    We beg for an end to the conflicts in the Central African Republic and a halt   
   to the brutal terrorist attacks in parts of Nigeria and the acts of violence   
   in South Sudan.   
    We ask that hearts be turned to reconciliation and fraternal concord in   
   Venezuela.   
    By your resurrection, which this year we celebrate together with the Churches   
   that follow the Julian calendar, we ask you to enlighten and inspire the   
   initiatives that promote peace in Ukraine so that all those involved, with the   
   support of the international community, will make every effort to prevent   
   violence and, in a spirit of unity and dialogue, chart a path for the   
   country’s future. On this day, may they be able to proclaim, as brothers and   
   sisters, that Christ is risen, Khrystos voskres!   
    Lord, we pray to you for all the peoples of the earth: you who have conquered   
   death, grant us your life, grant us your peace! 'Christus surrexit, venite et   
   videte!' Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    EASTER MONDAY: MARIA, MOTHER OF HOPE   
    Vatican City, 21 April 2014 (VIS) - At midday today, on "Monday of the   
   Angel", the Pope appeared at the window of his study to pray the Regina Coeli   
   - the prayer that substitutes the Angelus at Easter time - with the thousands   
   of faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.   
    Francis wished all present a happy Easter, commenting that the prevalent   
   sentiment in the Gospel readings of the Resurrection is "joy filled with   
   wonder ... a joy that comes from within", and that through the liturgy we   
   relive the state of mind of the disciples upon receiving the news from the   
   women.   
    "May this experience, imprinted in the Gospel, become imprinted in our hearts   
   and shine through in our lives", he continued. Those who have this experience,   
   he explained, "become witnesses of the Resurrection, because in a sense, he   
   himself is risen, she herself is risen. Thus they are able to bring a 'ray' of   
   light of the Risen Lord to different situations: to happy ones, making them   
   even more beautiful and preserving them from selfishness; and to painful ones,   
   bringing serenity and hope".   
    The Pope advised rereading the chapters of the Gospel that recount the   
   Resurrection and also thinking of "the joy of Mary, the Mother of Jesus".   
   "Mary's heart, after passing through the experience of the death and   
   resurrection of her Son, seen through the eyes of faith as the supreme   
   expression of God's love, became a source of peace, comfort, hope, mercy. All   
   the prerogatives of our Mother come from this: from her participation in the   
   Paschal mystery of Jesus. ... From Friday to Sunday morning, she did not lose   
   hope: we contemplated as a mother both sorrowful and full of hope. She, the   
   Mother of all the disciples, the Mother of the Church, is the Mother of hope.   
   We ask her, the silent witness of Jesus' death and resurrection, to lead us in   
   the joy of Easter", concluded Pope Francis.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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