suffer. In concluding this Holy Mass, in which Jesus has once more given   
   Himself   
   to us in His body and blood, let us now lift our gaze to the Virgin Mary, our   
   Mother. We ask her to teach us to stand beside the cross of our brothers and   
   sisters who suffer. To learn to see Jesus in every person bent low on the path   
   of life, in all our brothers and sisters who hunger or thirst, who are naked or   
   in prison or sick. With Mary our Mother, on the cross we can see who is truly   
   "the greatest" and what it means to stand beside the Lord and to share in His   
   glory.   
    "Let us learn from Mary to keep our hearts awake and attentive to the needs of   
   others. As the wedding feast of Cana teaches us, let us be concerned for the   
   little details of life, and let us not tire of praying for one another, so that   
   no one will lack the new wine of love, the joy which Jesus brings us.   
    At this time I feel bound to direct my thoughts to the beloved land of   
   Colombia, 'conscious of the crucial importance of the present moment when, with   
   renewed effort and inspired by hope, its sons and daughters are seeking to   
   build   
   a peaceful society'. May the blood shed by thousands of innocent people during   
   long decades of armed conflict, united to that of the Lord Jesus Christ   
   crucified, sustain all the efforts being made, including those on this   
   beautiful   
   island, to achieve definitive reconciliation. Thus may the long night of pain   
   and violence, with the support of all Colombians, become an unending day of   
   concord, justice, fraternity and love, in respect for institutions and for   
   national and international law, so that there may be lasting peace. Please, we   
   do not have the right to allow ourselves yet another failure on this path of   
   peace and reconciliation. Thank you, Mr. President, for all you have done in   
   this work towards reconciliation".   
    "I ask you now that we join together in praying to Mary, that we may place all   
   our concerns and hopes before the heart of Christ. We pray to her in a special   
   way for those who have lost hope and find no reasons to keep fighting, and for   
   those who suffer from injustice, abandonment and loneliness. We pray for the   
   elderly, the infirm, children and young people, for all families experiencing   
   difficulty, that Mary may dry their tears, comfort them with a mother's love,   
   and restore their hope and joy. Holy Mother, I commend to you these your sons   
   and daughters in Cuba. May you never abandon them!".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Meeting with President Raul Castro and with Commander Fidel in the Palace of   
   the Revolution   
    Vatican City, 20 September 2015 (VIS) - Following Holy Mass, and after lunch   
   in   
   the apostolic nunciature, the Pope transferred by car to the Palace of the   
   Revolution to pay a courtesy visit to the President of the Council of State of   
   Cuba, Raul Castro, elected in 2008 after his brother Fidel Castro stood down   
   for   
   reasons of ill health. Although this did not form part of the official   
   programme   
   for the visit, the Holy Father also met with "Commander" Fidel.   
    "The meeting was foreseeable, although it did not form part of the programme",   
   explained Fr. Lombardi. "We all knew that Commander Fidel wanted to see the   
   Pope, as he did with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit. Commander Fidel, who   
   is   
   an elderly man, is spending this phase of his life in study and reflection: he   
   reads a lot and enjoys conversing with people with great experience. This is   
   explicitly how it was with Pope Benedict XVI, and also with Pope Francis".   
    "Fidel had asked Pope Benedict to send some books that could be useful for his   
   reflections, and Francis followed on from this by taking, on his own   
   initiative,   
   two books by the Italian priest Alessandro Pronzato, known to many as a   
   prolific   
   author of spiritual and catechetic texts. He also took a book and two CDs by   
   Fr.   
   Armando Llorente, a Jesuit priest who died a few years ago, who was close to   
   Castro as a child when he attended the Jesuit school at the Colegio de Belen.   
   The memorial of this relationship with a teacher who profoundly affected his   
   life during his youth was a very meaningful gesture on the part of the Pope".   
    "The Holy Father also took his two great texts, 'Evangelii Gaudium' and   
   'Laudato si''. This latter focuses on themes of interest to Castro also in this   
   stage of his life - the great questions of the current world and its future. It   
   is certainly a document he will find most interesting. Commander Castro gave   
   the   
   Pope a very well-known book, 'Fidel y la Religion' by Frei Betto, which takes   
   the form of a conversation with Frei Betto. It was a very informal encounter, a   
   serene exchange in the presence of various members of his family, and certainly   
   a positive moment".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Vespers in the Cathedral of Havana   
    Vatican City, 21 September 2015 (VIS) - The Immaculate Conception is the   
   patroness of Havana and, in the historic cathedral dedicated to this title and   
   to St. Cristobal, whose baroque facade was designed by Francesco Borromini, the   
   Pope meet with the priests, men and women religious and seminarians of Cuba to   
   for the Vespers prayer. Francis commented on the Gospel account of the rich   
   young man, observant of the law, who is saddened when Jesus tells him that if   
   he   
   wishes to follow Him he must abandon his riches. He made some unscripted   
   comments regarding the value of poverty for all Christians, as well as for   
   consecrated persons. His original prepared discourse is reproduced below.   
    "We are gathered in this historic Cathedral of Havana to sing with psalms the   
   faithfulness of God towards his people, with thanksgiving for his presence and   
   his infinite mercy. A faithfulness and mercy not only commemorated by this   
   building, but also by the living memory of some of the elderly among us, who   
   know from experience that 'his mercy endures forever and his faithfulness   
   throughout the ages'. For this, brothers and sisters, let us together give   
   thanks.   
    "Let us give thanks for the Spirit's presence in the rich and diverse charisms   
   of all those missionaries who came to this land and became Cubans among Cubans,   
   a sign that God's mercy is eternal.   
    "The Gospel presents Jesus in dialogue with His Father. It brings us to the   
   heart of the prayerful intimacy between the Father and the Son. As His hour   
   drew   
   near, Jesus prayed for His disciples, for those with Him and for those who were   
   yet to come. We do well to remember that, in that crucial moment, Jesus made   
   the   
   lives of His disciples, our lives, a part of His prayer. He asked His Father to   
   keep them united and joyful. Jesus knew full well the hearts of His disciples,   
   and He knows full well our own. And so He prays to the Father to save them from   
   a spirit of isolation, of finding refuge in their own certainties and comfort   
   zones, of indifference to others and division into 'cliques' which disfigure   
   the   
   richly diverse face of the Church. These are situations which lead to a kind of   
   isolation and ennui, a sadness that slowly gives rise to resentment, to   
   constant   
   complaint, to boredom; this 'is not God's will for us, nor is it the life in   
   the   
   Spirit' to which He invited them, to which He has invited us. That is why Jesus   
   prays that sadness and isolation will not prevail in our hearts. We want to do   
   the same, we want to join in Jesus' prayer, in His words, so that we can say   
   together: 'Father, keep them in Your name... that they may be one, even as we   
   are   
   one', 'that Your joy may be complete'.   
    "Jesus prays and He invites us to pray, because He knows that some things can   
   only be received as gifts; some things can only be experienced as gifts. Unity   
   is a grace which can be bestowed upon us only by the Holy Spirit; we have to   
   ask   
   for this grace and do our best to be transformed by that gift.   
    "Unity is often confused with uniformity; with actions, feelings and words   
   which are all identical. This is not unity, it is conformity. It kills the life   
   of the Spirit; it kills the charisms which God has bestowed for the good of His   
   people. Unity is threatened whenever we try to turn others into our own image   
   and likeness. Unity is a gift, not something to be imposed by force or by   
   decree. I am delighted to see you here, men and women of different generations,   
   backgrounds and experiences, all united by our common prayer. Let us ask God to   
   increase our desire to be close to one another. To be neighbours, always there   
   for one another, with all our many differences, interests and ways of seeing   
   things. To speak straightforwardly, despite our disagreements and disputes, and   
   not behind each other's backs. May we be shepherds who are close to our people,   
   open to their questions and problems. Conflicts and disagreements in the Church   
   are to be expected and, I would even say, needed. They are a sign that the   
   Church is alive and that the Spirit is still acting, still enlivening her. Woe   
   to those communities without a 'yes' and a 'no'! They are like married couples   
   who no longer argue, because they have lost interest, they have lost their   
   love.   
    "The Lord prays also that we may be filled with His own 'complete joy'. The   
   joy   
   of Christians, and especially of consecrated men and women, is a very clear   
   sign   
   of Christ's presence in their lives. When we see sad faces, it is a warning   
   that   
   something is wrong. Significantly, this is the request which Jesus makes of the   
   Father just before He goes out to the Garden to renew His own 'fiat'. I am   
   certain that all of you have had to bear many sacrifices and, for some of you,   
   for several decades now, these sacrifices have proved difficult. Jesus prays,   
   at   
   the moment of His own sacrifice, that we will never lose the joy of knowing   
   that   
   He overcomes the world. This certainty is what inspires us, morning after   
   morning, to renew our faith. 'With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is   
   always capable of restoring our joy' - by His prayer, and in the faces of our   
   people - Christ 'makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start   
   anew'.   
    "How important, how valuable for the life of the Cuban people, is this witness   
   which always and everywhere radiates such joy, despite our weariness, our   
   misgivings and even our despair, that dangerous temptation which eats away at   
   our soul!   
    "Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus prays that all of us may be one, and that   
   His   
   joy may abide within us. May we do likewise, as we unite ourselves to one   
   another in prayer".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Francis meets with the young, Cuba's hope for the future   
    Vatican City, 21 September 2015 (VIS) - After Vespers, the Pope transferred to   
   the "Centro de Estudio Padre Felix Varela", the Felix Varela Cultural Centre,   
   adjacent to the cathedral, to meet with the young people of Cuba. The Centre is   
   dedicated to the Servant of God Felix Varela (1788-1853), considered to be the   
   "father of Cuban culture". The priest, whose cause for beatification is   
   underway, taught for ten years at the San Carlos college and seminary, making a   
   significant contribution to the progress of sciences and letters on the island.   
   In 1821 he was elected as the representative of Cuba before the Spanish court,   
   where he appealed for the liberation of black slaves. In 1823, following the   
   reestablishment of absolutism in Spain under Ferdinand VII, he transferred to   
   the United States where he proclaimed Cuba's right to independence and   
   exercised   
   his pastoral ministry for thirty years, founding schools, building churches and   
   evangelising among the marginalised.   
    The Centre is a lay institute, in operation since 2011, coordinated by the   
   Pontifical Council for Culture. It comprises a centre for ecclesiastical   
   studies, also offering courses in philosophy, psychology, and a master's degree   
   entitled Cuba-Emprende, aimed at supporting private enterprise initiatives in   
   favour of economic change in the country. It also hosts concerts, conferences   
   and other events, and promotes the Festival of Latin American Cinema.   
    The Pope expressed his joy at being in the company of the young in a centre so   
   important to Cuban history, and after receiving greetings, he set aside his   
   written discourse, and spoke informally with those present. Extensive extracts   
   from the prepared text are published below:   
    " ... When I look at all of you, the first thing that comes into my mind and   
   heart, too, is the word 'hope'. I cannot imagine a young person who is   
   listless,   
   without dreams or ideals, without a longing for something greater.   
    "But what kind of hope does a young Cuban have at this moment of history?   
   Nothing more or less than that of any other young person in any other part of   
   the world. Because hope speaks to us of something deeply rooted in every human   
   heart, independently of our concrete circumstances and historical conditioning.   
   Hope speaks to us of a thirst, an aspiration, a longing for a life of   
   fulfilment, a desire to achieve great things, things which fill our heart and   
   lift our spirit to lofty realities like truth, goodness and beauty, justice and   
   love. But it also involves taking risks. It means being ready not to be seduced   
   by what is fleeting, by false promises of happiness, by immediate and selfish   
   pleasures, by a life of mediocrity and self-centredness, which only fills the   
   heart with sadness and bitterness. No, hope is bold; it can look beyond   
   personal   
   convenience, the petty securities and compensations which limit our horizon,   
   and   
   can open us up to grand ideals which make life more beautiful and worthwhile. I   
   would ask each one of you: What is it that shapes your life? What lies deep in   
   your heart? Where do your hopes and aspirations lie? Are you ready to put   
   yourself on the line for the sake of something even greater?   
    "Perhaps you may say: 'Yes, Father, I am strongly attracted to those ideals. I   
   feel their call, their beauty, their light shining in my heart. But I feel too   
   weak, I am not ready to decide to take the path of hope. The goal is lofty and   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)