Before Angelus:
At the end of this celebration, our thoughts turn to the Virgin Mary, loving mother and caring towards all her children whom Jesus entrusted to Her on the Cross, while He offered Himself in the act of greatest love. The icon of this love is the Shroud, which also, this time, has attracted so many people here to Turin. The Shroud draws [one’s attention] towards the face and the broken body of Jesus and at the same time, it pushes toward the face of every suffering and unjustly persecuted person. It pushes in the direction of the gift of Jesus’ love. “The love of Christ impels us”: these words of St. Paul served as the motto of St Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo.
Recalling the apostolic zeal of many holy priests of this land, starting from Don Bosco, of whom, we recall the bicentennial of his birth, I greet you priests and religious with gratitude. You strongly commit yourselves to your pastoral work and are close to the people and their problems. I encourage you to pursue your ministry with joy, always focusing on what is essential in proclaiming the Gospel. And as I thank you, Brother Bishops of Piedmont, for your presence, I urge you to be close to your priests with fatherly affection.
To the Holy Virgin, I entrust this city and its territory and those who live there, so they can live in justice, peace and fraternity. In particular, I entrust families, the young, the elderly, prisoners and all the suffering, with a special thought for leukemia patients in today’s National Day Against Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma. May Mary Consolata, queen of Turin and Piedmont, make your faith and your hope firm and your charity fruitful and certain, to be “salt and light” of this blessed land, of which I am a grandson.
After Angelus:
And please do not forget to pray for me.
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