On the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pope Francis renewed his invitation to pray the Rosary every day and recite the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel "to repel the attacks of the devil who wants to divide the Church". In marriage, Jesus "does not accept repudiation". The Church confirms "the beauty of the family" but tries to accompany "those who live the experience of broken relationships or carry on in a painful and tiring way". For the pontiff, "wounded love can be healed by God through mercy and forgiveness."
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis addressed "a special greeting to the faithful gathered at the Shrine of Pompeii for the traditional supplication, led on this occasion by Cardinal Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio to Syria."
The supplication is a traditional prayer that calls on the Mother of God to help the faithful and the Church, for the salvation of the world. The icon that is venerated at the Shrine of Pompeii is that of Our Lady of the Rosary, which is celebrated today.
The Pontiff renewed his invitation, made public at the end of September, to all the faithful to recite the rosary during the month of October, together with the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel against the devil and the Marian antiphon Sub tuum praesidium.
Addressing the faithful gathered in St Peter's Square, after the Angelus prayer, the pontiff said: "I renew the invitation to pray the Rosary every day of October, ending it with the antiphon ‘Beneath Thy Protection’ and [recite] the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel, to repel the attacks of the devil who wants to divide the Church."
Earlier, the Holy Father commented the Gospel of today's Mass (27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, Mk 10:2-16), which deals with Jesus' thoughts about marriage.
Jesus, said Francis, "defends the dignity of marriage as a union of love that implies fidelity. What allows married couples to remain united in marriage is a love of mutual self-giving sustained by the grace of Christ. If, on the other hand, individual interest and satisfaction prevail in the spouses, then their union cannot resist."
"Jesus does not accept repudiation and all that can lead to the wrecking of a relationship. He does this to confirm God’s plan, in which the strength and beauty of human relationships stand out. The Church, mother and teacher who shares the joys and labours of people, on the one hand, does not tire of confirming the beauty of the family as given to us by Scripture and Tradition; at the same time, she strives to make her maternal closeness to be concretely felt by those who live the experience of broken relationships or carry on in a painful and tiring manner."
"God's way of behaving with his unfaithful people – that is, us – teaches us that wounded love can be healed by God through mercy and forgiveness. Therefore, in such situations, the Church is not asked to impose immediately and only condemnation. On the contrary, faced with so many painful marital failures, she feels called to live her presence of charity and mercy, to bring back to God the wounded and lost hearts."