Pope Francis Visit to the Philippines

Source: Abs-Cbn News

   The Philippines is very Blessed to be visited by Pope Francis, During his 5 day stay last January 15 to 19, we experienced his Holiness and "Malasakit" to us especially to the Taclobanons/Yolanda Survivors, I was Impressed how the Filipinos showed a Disciplined behavior and Care for the Pope, As we have seen a Huge amount of People who gathered and Waited at the Streets in Manila during his Motorcade just to have a short glance to the Pope (how lucky they are!) I think it was the same scenery when Pope John Paul II Visited the Philippines Last 1995, the Historic mass held at the Quirino Grandstand on Sunday, January 18, the MMDA claimed that the gathered crowd peaked at 6 million people! (that's how Filipinos show their Strong Faith to God!) and it surpassed the 4 Million record that Pope John Paul II attended at the same place during World Youth Day in 1995. But the most Important factor is the Pope's Message to us and Here are some of his Unforgettable Quotes:

1. “Essential to the attainment of these national goals is the moral imperative of ensuring social justice and respect for human dignity. The great biblical tradition enjoins on all peoples the duty to hear the voice of the poor. It bids us to break the bonds of injustice and oppression which give rise to glaring, and indeed,scandalous social inequalities. Reforming the social structures which perpetuate poverty and the exclusion of the poor first requires a conversion of mind and heart.”

2.“I hope that this prophetic summons will challenge everyone at all levels of society to reject every form of corruption which diverts resources from the poor,and to make concerted efforts to ensure the inclusion of every man and woman and child in the life of the community.”
 

3.“Families have an indispensable mission in society. It is in the family that children are trained in sound values, high ideals, and genuine concern for others. But like all God’s gifts, the family can also be disfigured and destroyed. It needs our support. We know how difficult it is for our democracies today to preserve and defend such basic human values as respect for the inviolable dignity of each human person, respect for the rights of conscience and religious freedom, and respect for the inalienable right to life, beginning with that of the unborn and extending to that of the elderly and infirm. For this reason, families and local communities must be encouraged and assisted in their efforts to transmit to our young the values and the vision which can help bring about a culture of integrity—one which honors goodness, truthfulness, fidelity, and solidarity as the firm foundation and the moral glue that holds society together.”

4.“We too need to protect, guide, and encourage our young people, helping them to build a society worthy of their great spiritual and cultural heritage. Specifically, we need to see each child as a gift to be welcomed, cherished, and protected.  And we need to care for our young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemned to life on the streets.” 

5. “The Santo Niño also reminds us that this identity must be protected.The Christ Child is the protector of this great country.  When he came into the world,his very life was threatened by a corrupt king.  Jesus himself needed to beprotected.  He had an earthly protector: Saint Joseph.  He had an earthly family,the Holy Family of Nazareth. So he reminds us of the importance of protecting our families, and those larger families which are the Church, God’s family, and the world, our human family.  Sadly, in our day, the family all too often needs to be protected against insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred, all that is most beautiful and noble in our culture.”

6. “Be attentive. There is an ideological colonization that we have to be careful of, that tries to destroy families. It is not born of the dream that we have with God from prayer and from the mission that God gives us. It comes from outside and that’s why I say its colonization. Let us not lose the freedom that the mission—to take the mission forward that God has given us. And just as our people were able to say ‘no’ to colonization, as families, we have to be very wise and very strong, with fortitude, to say ‘no’ to these initiatives of colonization that could destroy the family.”

7. “It is important to dream in the family. All mothers and fathers dream of their sons and daughters in the womb for nine months. They dream of how they will be. It isn’t possible to have a family without such dreams. When you lose this capacity to dream you lose the capacity to love, the capacity to love is lost. I recommend that
at night when you examine your consciences, ask yourself if you dreamed of the future of your sons and daughters. Did you dream of your husband or wife? Did you dream today of your parents, your grandparents who carried forward the family to me? It is so important to dream and especially to dream in the family. Please don’t lose the ability to dream in this way. How many solutions are found to family problems if we take time to reflect, if we think of a husband or wife, and we dream about the good qualities they have. Don’t ever lose the memory of when you were boyfriend or girlfriend. That is very important.”

8. “Only by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters.  We will see things in a new light and thus respond with honesty and integrity to the challenge of proclaiming the radicalism of the Gospel in a society which has grown comfortable with social exclusion, polarization and scandalous inequality.”

9. “Together with many people throughout the world, I have admired the heroic strength, faith, and resilience demonstrated by so many Filipinos in the face of this natural disaster, and so many others. Those virtues, rooted not least in the hope and solidarity instilled by Christian faith, gave rise to an outpouring of goodness and generosity, especially on the part of so many of the young.”

10. “When I saw from Rome that catastrophe I had to be here. And on those very days I decided to come here. I am here to be with you—a little bit late, but I’m here. I have come to tell you that Jesus is Lord. And he never lets us down. Father, you might say to me, I was let down because I have lost so many things, my house, my livelihood. It’s true if you say that and I respect those sentiments. But Jesus is there, nailed to the cross, and from there he does not let us down. He was consecrated as Lord on that throne and there he experienced all the calamities that we experience. Jesus is Lord. And the Lord from the cross is there for you. In
everything the same as us. That is why we have a Lord who cries with us and walks with us in the most difficult moments of life.” (his Message to the Yolanda Survivors)

11. “Every threat to the family is a threat to society itself…So Protect your families. See in them your country’s greatest treasure and nourish them always by prayer and the grace of the sacraments.”

12.“You still lack one thing. Become a beggar. This is what you still lack. Learn how to beg. This isn’t easy to understand. To learn how to beg. To learn how to receive with humility. To learn to be evangelized by the poor, by those we help, the sick, orphans, they have so much to give us. Have I learned how to beg? Or am
self-sufficient? Do I think I need nothing? Do you know you too are poor? Do you know your own poverty and your need to receive? Do you let yourselves be evangelized by those you serve? This is what helps you mature in your commitment to give to others. Learn how to open your hand from your very own poverty.”

13.”Sometimes, when we see the troubles, difficulties and wrongs all around us, we are tempted to give up.  It seems that the promises of the Gospel do not apply; they are unreal.  But the Bible tells us that the great threat to God’s plan for us is, and always has been, the lie. The devil is the father of lies. Often he hides his snares behind the appearance of sophistication, the allure of being ‘modern,’ ‘like everyone else.’ He distracts us with the promise of ephemeral pleasures, superficial pastimes. And so we squander our God-given gifts by tinkering with gadgets; we squander our money on gambling and drink; we turn in on ourselves.  We forget to remain focused on the things that really matter. We forget to remain, at heart, children of God. That is sin: [to] forget at heart that we are children of God.  For children, as the Lord tells us, have their own wisdom, which is not the wisdom of the world.”

14.“Sorry if I haven’t read what I prepared for you but there is a phrase that consoles me: that reality is superior to ideas. The reality that you have is superior to the paper I have in front of me.”

15.“As ambassadors for Christ, we, bishops, priests and religious, ought to be the first to welcome his reconciling grace into our hearts.  Saint Paul makes clear what this means. It means rejecting worldly perspectives and seeing all things anew in the light of Christ. It means being the first to examine our consciences, to
acknowledge our failings and sins, and to embrace the path of constant conversion. Constant conversion, everyday conversion. How can we proclaim the newness and liberating power of the Cross to others, if we ourselves refuse to allow the word of God to shake our complacency, our fear of change, our petty compromises with the ways of this world, our ‘spiritual worldliness.’”

  I did not include his other Quotes as it will make my post very Long, but Truly, His words are Compelling, the Holy Mass that was Held in Tacloban Despite the Rains and Strong Wind strucked me most. I almost Cried while listening to his Homily for the Taclobanons, I've seen Them Crying and sobbing as we know how Horrible and Devastating the Typhoon Yolanda Impacted their Lives and he even Prayed for the Young Pilgrim who died before the mass at Tacloban during his encounter with the youth at the University of Sto. Tomas in Manila. In General This is How God Reach us thru the Pope's Message to Help us Guide and Reflect for our Everyday Living. the Pope's Petition to Live Simple and Help the Needy and Poor People has encourage me to live by to it.

So What Message of Pope Francis Inspired you Most? Please Do share in My comments page below!