"We have a Mother. Cling to her." - Pope Francis

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

This morning, Pope Francis reminded half a million pilgrims that we all have a Mother, Mary, and we ought to cling to her.

The Holy Father gave this message in his homily during the Canonization Mass for Jacinta and Francesco Marto, the two young visionaries of Fatima. Pope Francis just concluded his May 12-13 Apostolic Pilgrimage to Fatima.

In the Gospel, the Jesuit Pontiff recalled in his homily, we hear Jesus say to his disciple, “Here is your mother” (Jn 19:27).

“We have a Mother!” Pope Francis exclaimed, continuing, ‘So beautiful a Lady,’ as the seers of Fatima said to one another as they returned home on that blessed day of May 13, 100 years ago. That evening, Jacinta could not restrain herself and told the secret to her mother: ‘Today I saw Our Lady.’”

They had seen the Mother of Heaven, the Pope stressed.

Our Lady foretold, and warned us about, the Pope warned, a way of life that is godless and indeed profanes God in his creatures. “Such a life – frequently proposed and imposed – risks leading to hell.”

Mary, he pointed out, came to remind us that God’s light dwells within us and protects us, recalling that in Lucia’s account, the three chosen children found themselves surrounded by God’s light as it radiated from Our Lady.

“She enveloped them in the mantle of Light that God had given her.”

Full homily can be read HERE