Pope Francis has sent messages of love and peace ahead of his visit to Cyprus and Greece on 2-6 December.
In a message circulated by the Vatican, the Pope noted that he is preparing to come as a pilgrim to the magnificent lands, blessed by history, by culture and by the Gospel, in the footsteps of the first great missionaries, especially the Apostles Paul and Barnabas.
“It is good to come back to the origins, and it is important for the Church in order to rediscover the joy of the Gospel. In this spirit I am waiting for this pilgrimage “to the springs”, and I ask everyone to help me to get ready with his prayers. By meeting you I will quench my thirst at the springs of fraternity, which are so precious now, when we have just begun a universal synodal journey”, the Pontifex said.
Addressing the Heads of the Orthodox Churches in Cyprus and Greece, the Pope said that as a brother in faith, he will have the grace to be received by them in the name of the Lord of Peace.
The Pope noted that the forthcoming visit will give him the opportunity to drink as well from the ancient springs of Europe: Cyprus, the offshoot of the Holy Land on the continent; Greece, the home of classical culture.
“But even today Europe cannot ignore the Mediterranean, the sea that hosted the spread of the Gospel and the development of great civilisations. The mare nostrum, which connects so many lands, urges us to sail together, and not to split up by going our separate ways, especially in this time when the fight against the pandemic is still demanding a shared commitment and the climate crisis is impending heavily over all us”, he said.
The Pope noted that the sea which embraces many peoples, reminds us with its open ports that the sources of living together lie in mutual acceptance.
“Even now I feel welcomed by your affection and I thank those who have been preparing my visit for a long time. But I am also thinking of those who, in recent years and still today, have been fleeing from war and poverty, landing on the shores of the continent or elsewhere, and finding not hospitality, but hostility and even exploitation. They are our brothers and sisters. How many have lost their lives at sea! Today “our sea”, the Mediterranean, is a great cemetery. As a pilgrim to the wellsprings of humanity, I will go to Lesbos again, in the conviction that the sources of common life will only flourish again in fraternity and integration: together. There is no other way, and with this hope (“ilusión”) I come to you”, the Pope noted.
In his message to his brothers and sisters the Pope said that with these feelings he ardently longs to meet them all, not only Catholics, but all of them, adding that “on all of you I invoke the blessing of the Most High, bringing even now before Him your faces and your expectations, your worries and your hopes”.
Source: Cyprus News Agency