VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 128   
   DATE 09-07-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - The Pope meets clergy in the shrine of El Quinche and bids farewell to   
   Ecuador   
   - "Jallalla Bolivia!"   
   - The Pope prays at the site of Fr. Luis Espinal's assassination   
   - To the civil authorities of Bolivia: Francis calls for an integral ecology   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope meets clergy in the shrine of El Quinche and bids farewell to Ecuador   
    Vatican City, 9 July 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis visit to Ecuador concluded   
   yesterday with two events. The first was his visit to the Missionaries of   
   Charity rest home for the elderly, located 21 kilometres from the capital   
   Quito,   
   and close to the highway leading to the airport. The Holy Father was received   
   by   
   the Superior, who accompanied him to the chapel in the Centre to pray with the   
   rest of the small community of ten brethren, and subsequently greeted the   
   residents, around seventy people, in the courtyard. He did not pronounce a   
   discourse, but simply expressed his closeness to the elderly present.   
    The Pope then transferred to the National Marian shrine of El Quinche, home of   
   the wooden image of the Virgin of El Quinche, carved at the end of the   
   sixteenth   
   century by the artist Diego de Robles, and which in the second week of November   
   attracts more than 800,000 faithful who depart from the village of Calderon on   
   a   
   nocturnal pilgrimage, reaching the church at dawn.   
    In El Quinche, the last of Pope Francis' visits in Ecuador, he met with   
   clergy,   
   men and women religious, and seminarians. He handed the discourse he had   
   prepared for the occasion (reproduced below) to Bishop Celmo Lazzari C.S.I.,   
   representative for consecrated life in the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference, and   
   made some unscripted comments to those present, highlighting the spiritual   
   richness that he had encountered in Ecuador and asking all to remember the   
   importance of gratuity and service in life.   
    "All this wealth you have - spiritual wealth, piety, depth - comes from having   
   had the courage, as there have been some very difficult moments, to consecrate   
   the nation to the Heart of Christ", said the Pope, "this divine and human Heart   
   that loves us so much. And afterwards, a few years later, the consecration to   
   the Heart of Mary. Do not forget: this consecration is a milestone in the   
   history of the people of Ecuador.   
    "Today I am to speak to the priests, seminarians, women and men religious, and   
   to say something to them. I thought about the Virgin, I thought about Mary ...   
   Mary never took centre stage. She was a disciple all through her life. The   
   first   
   disciple of her Son. And she was aware that everything she had was due to the   
   pure gratuity of God. She was aware of this gratuity. Therefore, men and women   
   religious, priests, seminarians, in all the days to come, take the path back to   
   the gratuitousness with which God chose you. ... We are subject to God's   
   gratuitousness. If we forget this, slowly, we gradually move away from the   
   basis   
   from which Mary never wavered: God's gratuitousness.   
    "A second thing I wanted to say to you is to take care of your health, but   
   most   
   of all take care not to fall into a sort of spiritual Alzheimer's: do not lose   
   your memory, especially the memory of where you are from. St. Paul intuited   
   this   
   danger, and to his dearest son, the bishop Timothy, to whom he gave pastoral   
   counsel, he said: 'Do not forget the faith of your grandmother and your   
   mother'.   
   That is, 'Do not forget where you come from, do not forget your roots, do not   
   feel as if you have been promoted'. Gratuity is a grace that cannot co-exist   
   with promotion and, when a priest, a seminarian, a man or woman religious,   
   embarks upon a career - a human career - he or she begins to sicken with   
   spiritual Alzheimer's and begins to lose the memory of where he or she is   
   from".   
    Francis suggested two basic principles to the priests and consecrated persons.   
   "Every day, renew the feeling that everything is free, the feeling of the   
   gratuity with which each one of you was chosen - none of us deserved this - and   
   ask for the grace of not losing your memory, of not feeling more important. And   
   these two principles will revive two attitudes. First, that of service. God   
   chose me, but why? To serve ... and there is nothing else, to serve when we are   
   tired, when people annoy us. ... An old priest, who was a genius all his life,   
   said to me, 'the holy faithful People of God are essentially Olympian, or   
   rather, they do what they want, and can be ontologically tiresome'. And this   
   contains much wisdom, as taking the path of service means allowing oneself to   
   be   
   troubled without losing patience.   
    "Service, mixed with gratuity and then ... that of Jesus: 'Freely you have   
   received; freely give'. Please, please," he repeated, "do not expect something   
   in return; please, let your ministry be freely given. And the second attitude   
   ...   
   is that of joy and cheer. And it is a gift from Jesus ... that He gives to us   
   if   
   we ask for it and if we do not forget these two pillars of our priestly or   
   religious life: the sense of gratuity and not losing the memory of where we   
   come   
   from. May God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, bless you. And   
   please, please, I ask you to pray for me, as I am very often tempted to forget   
   the gratuity with which God chose me and of forgetting where I come from. Pray   
   for me".   
    The following is the written discourse the Pope gave to the bishop:   
    "I place at the feet of Our Lady of Quinche the vivid experiences of my visit.   
   I entrust to her heart the elderly and the sick whom I visited in the house of   
   the Sisters of Charity, as well as the other meetings I have had. I entrust all   
   of them to Mary's heart; but at the same time I commend them to the hearts of   
   each you, the priests, men and women religious, and seminarians. As those   
   called   
   to labour in the vineyard of the Lord, may you be protectors of all the   
   experiences, the joys and sorrows of the Ecuadorian people. I thank Bishop   
   Lazzari, Father Mina and Sister Sandoval for their words, which lead me to   
   share   
   some thoughts on our common concern for God's People.   
    "In the Gospel, the Lord invites us to accept our mission without placing   
   conditions. It is an important message which we must never forget. Here, in   
   this   
   Sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of the Presentation, it resounds in a special   
   way. Mary is an example of discipleship for us who, like her, have received a   
   vocation. Her trusting response, 'Be it done unto me according to your word',   
   reminds us of her words at the wedding feast of Cana: 'Do whatever he tells   
   you'. Her example is an invitation to serve as she served.   
    "In the Presentation of the Virgin we find some suggestions for our own call.   
   The child Mary was a gift from God to her parents and to all her people who   
   were   
   looking for liberation. This is something we see over and over again in the   
   Scriptures. God responds to the cry of his people, sending a little child to   
   bring salvation and to restore hope to elderly parents. The word of God tells   
   us   
   that, in the history of Israel, judges, prophets and kings are God's gifts to   
   his people, bringing them his tenderness and mercy. They are signs of God's   
   gratuitousness. It is he has chose them, who personally chose them and sent   
   them. Realising this helps us to move beyond our self-centredness and to   
   understand that we no longer belong to ourselves, that our vocation calls us to   
   let go of all selfishness, all seeking of material gain or emotional rewards,   
   as   
   the Gospel has told us. We are not hired workers, but servants. We have not   
   come   
   to be served, but to serve, and we do so with complete detachment, without   
   walking stick or bag.   
    "Some traditions about devotion to Our Lady of Quinche relate that Diego de   
   Robles made the image after being commissioned by the indigenous Lumbici   
   people.   
   Diego did not do this out of piety, but for economic benefit. Since the Lumbici   
   were unable to pay him, he brought the image to Oyacachi and exchanged it for   
   cedar planks. But Diego ignored their earnest plea that he also make an altar   
   for the image, until, after falling from his horse and in danger of death, he   
   felt the protection of the Virgin Mary. So he went back to the town and built   
   the foot of the image. All of us have had the experience of a God who brings us   
   to the cross, who calls us in the midst of our faults and failings. May pride   
   and worldliness not make us forget what God has rescued us from! May the Our   
   Lady of Quinche make us leave behind ambition, selfish interests, and excessive   
   concern about ourselves!   
    "The 'authority' which the Apostles receive from Jesus is not for their own   
   benefit: our gifts are meant to be used to renew and build up the Church. Do   
   not   
   refuse to share, do not hesitate to give, do not be caught up in your own   
   comforts, but be like a spring which spills over and refreshes others,   
   especially those burdened by sin, disappointment and resentment.   
    "Something else that Our Lady's Presentation makes me think of is   
   perseverance.   
   In the evocative iconography associated with this feast, the Child Mary is   
   shown   
   moving away from her parents as she climbs the steps of the Temple. Mary does   
   not look back and, in a clear reference to the evangelical admonition, she   
   moves   
   forward with determination. We, like the disciples in the Gospel, also need to   
   move forward as we bring to all peoples and places the Good News of Jesus.   
   Perseverance in mission is not about going from house to house, looking for a   
   place where we will be more comfortably welcomed. It means casting our lot with   
   Jesus to the end. Some stories of the apparition of Our Lady of Quinche speak   
   of   
   'a woman with a child in her arms' who appeared on several successive evenings   
   to the natives of Oyacachi when they were fleeing from attacks by bears. Mary   
   kept appearing to her children, but they didn't believe her, they didn't trust   
   this woman, even though they admired her perseverance in coming each evening at   
   sunset. To persevere even though we are rejected, despite the darkness and   
   growing uncertainty and dangers - this is what we are called to do, in the   
   knowledge that we are not alone, that God's Holy People walks with us.   
    "In some sense, the image of the child Mary ascending the steps of the Temple   
   reminds us of the Church, which accompanies and supports every missionary   
   disciple. Mary is with her parents, who handed on to her the memory of the   
   faith   
   and now generously offer her to the Lord so that she can follow in his way. She   
   is part of a community, represented by the 'maiden companions' who escort her   
   with lamps alight; in those companions the Fathers of the Church saw a   
   foreshadowing of all those who, in imitation of Mary, seek wholeheartedly to   
   become friends of God. Finally, she is received by the waiting priests, who   
   remind us that the Church's pastors must welcome everyone with tender love and   
   help to discern every spirit and every calling.   
    "So let us walk together, helping one another, as we humbly implore the gift   
   of   
   perseverance in God's service. The apparition of Our Lady of Quinche was a   
   moment of encounter, of communion, so that this place which from Incan times   
   has   
   been a place where people of various ethnicities have settled. How beautiful it   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)