Pope in Bulgaria: Catholics, see with the eyes of faith and love
In his meeting with the Catholic community in the church of St. Michael the Archangel in Rakovsky, Pope Francis urges them to live as builders of hope. "He who loves does not waste time crying on himself, but he always sees something concrete that he can do". To love others without paying attention to the "adjectives", but to the "nouns": "this is a person, in the image of God". Find ways to "translate the love God has for us in a concrete and understandable way".
Rakovsky (AsiaNews) - To help "see with eyes of faith and love" and "try to translate God's love in every moment of history": these are the two poles that Pope Francis offered to strengthen the faith of Bulgarian Catholics during his meeting with the Catholic community, which took place in the church of San Michele Arcangelo in Rakovsky. This is a predominantly Catholic town, but throughout the country this community does not exceed 70 thousand faithful, being the third religious community in Bulgaria after the Orthodox and Muslims.
The Pope spoke of the great love for this land and the Orthodox brothers expressed by John XXIII, when he was apostolic delegate in Bulgaria (1925-1934), and recalled the great tradition of Cyril and Methodius, who knew how to "translate" the Gospel into the local language .
At the entrance of the church, the pontiff was greeted by some members of the community. He then stopped in silence before a relic and a bas-relief of the "good pope". A small choir of young people sang the hymns of the World Youth Days. There was also a group of boys and girls who performed some traditional dances.
After a brief greeting from the bishop of Sofia and Plovdiv, Msgr. Gheorghi Ivanov Jovčev, the Pope listened to some testimonies: from a Sister of the Eucharist, Sister Maria Evrozia Gudzerova; from a married couple with their child, Mikto Mihaylovi and Miroslava Mihaylovi and Bilyana; from a priest, Don Boris Stoykov.
Sister Maria Evrozia, spoke of how she is one of five vocations who entered the convent after a break of more than 20 years, welcomed by the elderly nuns "survivors of the atheist regime". The priest spoke of his joy in living his vocation and concluded with a prayer: "Lord, make that even today many young people discover this treasure of vocation, because "the harvest is great, but the workers are few! ".
The Mihaylovi couple spoke about daily life made up of love and mutual forgiveness, supported by the testimony of other families in their parish.
Taking the floor, Francis asked all of them to be people who let themselves be "guided by the power of the resurrection", who while acknowledging that there are "there will always be painful times and unjust situations, yet they do not wring their hands, shrink back in fear or, even worse, create a climate of scepticism, discomfort or disruption, since this does nothing but harm the soul, causing hope to flag and hindering every possible solution". "He who loves - he adds - does not waste time crying on himself, but always sees something concrete that he can do". And he remembered his experience at the Vrazhedebna refugee camp earlier in the morning, where the Caritas volunteers dedicate themselves to the people present there attentive not to the "adjectives", but to the "nouns": "this is a person, in image of God".
Then the Pope emphasized the value of the parish, "a home in the midst of all the homes ... It manages to make the Lord present there, where every family, every person tries to earn their daily bread."
The community is united: "Never separated, but united, where everyone learns to be a sign and blessing of God for others. The priest without identity loses his identity and the people can fragment without their pastors ".
In a long interlude, Francis underlines the value of the Church as a mother, as an open community, always ready to welcome, making its own "nodes" from the existence of its children.
Finally, "following in the footsteps of Cyril and Methodius," Francis asked the faithful to find ways to "translate the love God has for us in a concrete and understandable way to young people".
The young, he explained, "Our young people, when they feel called to express all the potential they possess, often give up half-way because of the frustrations or disappointments they experience, since they have no roots to rely on as they look to the future (cf. ibid. 179-186). How much more so, when they are forced to leave behind their homes, their country and their family.”. This is why it is important to bring together young and old, the two groups of people who suffer most in our society and "the elderly are the roots". Young people "can reach for the future" only if they "have the roots of the old".
He concluded: "Never tire of being a Church that continues to give birth, amid the contradictions, sorrows and also much poverty, the Church-who-is-a-mother that continually has children, that gives life to the sons and daughters that this land needs today, at the start of this twenty-first century. Always listen with one ear to the Gospel and the other to the heart of your people.”
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