A pastor watches over the dreams, the lives and the growth of his flock. This   
   'watchfulness' is not the result of talking but of shepherding. Only one   
   capable   
   of standing 'in the midst of' the flock can be watchful, not someone who is   
   afraid of questions, contact, accompaniment. ... Naturally, experiencing the   
   spirit of this joyful familiarity with God, and spreading its powerful   
   evangelical fruitfulness, has to be the primary feature of our lifestyle as   
   bishops: a lifestyle of prayer and preaching the Gospel. The bishop is charged   
   to be a pastor, but to be a pastor first and foremost by his prayer and   
   preaching, because everything else follows, if there is time".   
    "By our own humble Christian apprenticeship in the familial virtues of God's   
   people, we will become more and more like fathers and mothers ... and less like   
   people who have simply learned to live without a family. Our ideal is not to   
   live without love! A good pastor renounces the love of a family precisely in   
   order to focus all his energies, and the grace of his particular vocation, on   
   the evangelical blessing of the love of men and women who carry forward God's   
   plan of creation, beginning with those who are lost, abandoned, wounded,   
   broken,   
   downtrodden and deprived of their dignity. This total surrender to God's agape   
   is certainly not a vocation lacking in tenderness and affection. We need but   
   look to Jesus to understand this".   
    "For faith, this is a most valuable sign. Our ministry needs to deepen the   
   covenant between the Church and the family. Otherwise it becomes arid, and the   
   human family will grow irremediably distant, by our own fault, from God's   
   joyful   
   good news, and will go to the latest supermarket to buy whatever product suits   
   them then and there".   
    "If we prove capable of the demanding task of reflecting God's love,   
   cultivating infinite patience and serenity as we strive to sow its seeds in the   
   frequently crooked furrows in which we are called to plant, then even a   
   Samaritan woman with five 'non-husbands' will discover that she is capable of   
   giving witness. And for every rich young man who with sadness feels that he has   
   to calmly keep considering the matter, an older publican will come down from   
   the   
   tree and give fourfold to the poor, to whom, before that moment, he had never   
   even given a thought".   
    "My brothers, may God grant us this gift of a renewed closeness between the   
   family and the Church. Families need it, the Church needs it, and we pastors   
   need it".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    It is painful to see prison systems that do not care for wounds, soothe pain   
   or   
   offer new possibilities: the Pope to inmates at Curran-Fromhold penitentiary   
    Vatican City, 28 September 2015 (VIS) - After addressing the visiting bishops,   
   the Pope transferred by helicopter to the Curran-Fromhold Correctional   
   Facility,   
   Philadelphia's largest male prison, which holds 2,800 inmates. Francis met with   
   one hundred of them, along with the directors of the Centre, who awaited him in   
   the gymnasium.   
    After hearing greetings from some of the detainees and receiving a gift that   
   they had made for him, a chair, Francis thanked those present for welcoming him   
   and giving him the opportunity to share this moment in their lives. "It is a   
   difficult time, one full of struggles. I know it is a painful time not only for   
   you, but also for your families and for all of society. Any society, any   
   family,   
   which cannot share or take seriously the pain of its children, and views that   
   pain as something normal or to be expected, is a society 'condemned' to remain   
   a   
   hostage to itself, prey to the very things which cause that pain. I am here as   
   a   
   pastor, but above all as a brother, to share your situation and to make it my   
   own. I have come so that we can pray together and offer our God everything that   
   causes us pain, but also everything that gives us hope, so that we can receive   
   from him the power of the resurrection".   
    The Pope spoke about the Gospel scene where Jesus washes the feet of His   
   disciples at the Last Supper. "This was something his disciples found hard to   
   accept. Even Peter refused, and told him: 'You will never wash my feet'. In   
   those days, it was the custom to wash someone's feet when they came to your   
   home. That was how they welcomed people. The roads were not paved, they were   
   covered with dust, and little stones would get stuck in your sandals. Everyone   
   walked those roads, which left their feet dusty, bruised or cut from those   
   stones. That is why we see Jesus washing feet, our feet, the feet of His   
   disciples, then and now".   
    "We all know that life is a journey, along different roads, different paths,   
   which leave their mark on us", said the Pope. "We also know in faith that Jesus   
   seeks us out. He wants to heal our wounds, to soothe our feet which hurt from   
   travelling alone, to wash each of us clean of the dust from our journey. He   
   doesn't ask us where we have been, He doesn't question us what about we have   
   done. Rather, He tells us: 'Unless I wash your feet, you have no share with   
   me'.   
   Unless I wash your feet, I will not be able to give you the life which the   
   Father always dreamed of, the life for which he created you. Jesus comes to   
   meet   
   us, so that He can restore our dignity as children of God. He wants to help us   
   to set out again, to resume our journey, to recover our hope, to restore our   
   faith and trust. He wants us to keep walking along the paths of life, to   
   realise   
   that we have a mission, and that confinement is never the same thing as   
   exclusion".   
    "Life means 'getting our feet dirty' from the dust-filled roads of life and   
   history", he continued. "All of us need to be cleansed, to be washed. All of   
   us.   
   Myself, first and foremost. All of us are being sought out by the Teacher, Who   
   wants to help us resume our journey. The Lord goes in search of us; to all of   
   us   
   He stretches out a helping hand. It is painful when we see prison systems which   
   are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new   
   possibilities. It is painful when we see people who think that only others need   
   to be cleansed, purified, and do not recognise that their weariness, pain and   
   wounds are also the weariness, pain and wounds of society. The Lord tells us   
   this clearly with a sign: He washes our feet so we can come back to the table.   
   The table from which He wishes no one to be excluded. The table which is spread   
   for all and to which all of us are invited".   
    "This time in your life can only have one purpose: to give you a hand in   
   getting back on the right road, to give you a hand to help you rejoin society.   
   All of us are part of that effort, all of us are invited to encourage, help and   
   enable your rehabilitation. A rehabilitation which everyone seeks and desires:   
   inmates and their families, correctional authorities, social and educational   
   programs. A rehabilitation which benefits and elevates the morale of the entire   
   community and society. I encourage you to have this attitude with one another   
   and with all those who in any way are part of this institution. May you make   
   possible new opportunities; may you blaze new trails, new paths. All of us have   
   something we need to be cleansed of, or purified from. All of us. May the   
   knowledge of this fact inspire us all to live in solidarity, to support one   
   another and seek the best for others".   
    "Let us look to Jesus, Who washes our feet", concluded Francis "He is 'the   
   way,   
   and the truth, and the life'. He comes to save us from the lie that says no one   
   can change, the lie of thinking that no one can change. Jesus helps us to   
   journey along the paths of life and fulfilment. May the power of His love and   
   His resurrection always be a path leading you to new life".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Concluding Mass at the World Meeting of Families: God wants all His children   
   to   
   take part in the feast of the Gospel   
    Vatican City, 28 September 2015 (VIS) - Hundreds of thousands of people   
   attended the concluding Mass of the Eighth World Meeting of Families celebrated   
   by Pope Francis in Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway yesterday at 4 p.m.   
   local time (10 p.m. in Rome). During the event, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia,   
   president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, announced that the next   
   Meeting will be held in Dublin, Ireland in 2018.   
    In his homily, Pope Francis commented on the two readings of the day's   
   liturgy,   
   which present the scandal of the people before the miracles and the unexpected   
   prophecies. In the first reading, Joshua tells Moses that two members of the   
   people are prophesying, speaking God's word, without a mandate. In the Gospel,   
   John tells Jesus that the disciples had stopped someone from casting out evil   
   spirits in the name of Jesus. "Here is the surprise", remarked the Pope. "Moses   
   and Jesus both rebuke those closest to them for being so narrow! Would that all   
   could be prophets of God's word! Would that everyone could work miracles in the   
   Lord's name!"   
    Jesus encountered "hostility from people who did not accept what He said and   
   did. For them, His openness to the honest and sincere faith of many men and   
   women who were not part of God's chosen people seemed intolerable. The   
   disciples, for their part, acted in good faith. But the temptation to be   
   scandalised by the freedom of God, Who sends rain on the righteous and the   
   unrighteous alike, bypassing bureaucracy, officialdom and inner circles,   
   threatens the authenticity of faith. Hence it must be vigorously rejected. Once   
   we realise this, we can understand why Jesus' words about causing 'scandal' are   
   so harsh. For Jesus, the truly 'intolerable' scandal consists in everything   
   that   
   breaks down and destroys our trust in the working of the Spirit".   
    "Our Father will not be outdone in generosity and He continues to scatter   
   seeds. He scatters the seeds of His presence in our world, for 'love consists   
   in   
   this, not that we have loved God but that He loved us' first. That love gives   
   us   
   a profound certainty: we are sought by God; He waits for us. It is this   
   confidence which makes disciples encourage, support and nurture the good things   
   happening all around them. God wants all His children to take part in the feast   
   of the Gospel. Jesus says, 'Do not hold back anything that is good, instead   
   help   
   it to grow!' To raise doubts about the working of the Spirit, to give the   
   impression that it cannot take place in those who are not 'part of our group',   
   who are not 'like us', is a dangerous temptation. Not only does it block   
   conversion to the faith; it is a perversion of faith".   
    "Faith opens a 'window' to the presence and working of the Spirit. It shows us   
   that, like happiness, holiness is always tied to little gestures. 'Whoever   
   gives   
   you a cup of water in my name will not go unrewarded', says Jesus. These little   
   gestures are those we learn at home, in the family; they get lost amid all the   
   other things we do, yet they do make each day different. They are the quiet   
   things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers and grandfathers, by   
   children. They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion. Like   
   the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early lunch awaiting someone   
   who gets up early to go to work. Homely gestures. Like a blessing before we go   
   to bed, or a hug after we return from a hard day's work. Love is shown by   
   little   
   things, by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith   
   grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes,   
   are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith to become life,   
   and life to become faith".   
    "Jesus tells us not to hold back these little miracles. Instead, He wants us   
   to   
   encourage them, to spread them. He asks us to go through life, our everyday   
   life, encouraging all these little signs of love as signs of His own living and   
   active presence in our world. So we might ask ourselves: How are we trying to   
   live this way in our homes, in our societies? What kind of world do we want to   
   leave to our children? We cannot answer these questions alone, by ourselves. It   
   is the Spirit who challenges us to respond as part of the great human family.   
   Our common house can no longer tolerate sterile divisions. The urgent challenge   
   of protecting our home includes the effort to bring the entire human family   
   together in the pursuit of a sustainable and integral development, for we know   
   that things can change. May our children find in us models and incentives to   
   communion! May our children find in us men and women capable of joining others   
   in bringing to full flower all the good seeds which the Father has sown".   
    "We Christians, the Lord's disciples, ask the families of the world to help   
   us!" exclaimed Francis. "How many of us are here at this celebration. This is   
   itself something prophetic, a kind of miracle in today's world. Would that we   
   could all be prophets. Would that all of us could be open to miracles of love   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)