PHONE CALL BY HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE ANNUAL WALKING PILGRIMAGE FROM MACERATA TO LORETO

Saturday, 11 June 2016

Good evening, dear friends.

The Bishop tells me that it is raining there. But even rain is a grace. Because it is ugly, but it is also beautiful! It has two sides. It is ugly because it annoys us, but it is beautiful because it is like the figure of God’s grace coming down upon us. You now begin to make the journey, a journey that will last all night. But life too is a journey. None of us knows how long our own life will last, but it is a journey.

When we believe we live our life without walking.... We cannot live our life standing still. Life is for walking, for doing something, for going forward, for building a social friendship, a just society, for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus.

I am close to you this evening, you are close in my prayers, I accompany you and I wish you a night of prayer and of joy. Surely there will also be a bit of suffering, but this is overcome, with the joy of the encounter, tomorrow with Jesus in the Eucharist.

I bless you! Always walk in life; never, never stand still, always walk. Life is for this.

Pray for me too, that I do not stop but continue to go on walking: a journey on which the Lord will be my guide.

I give you my blessing, dear friends, and I wish you a night of walking, of prayer, of joy, of brotherhood and with your gaze toward Our Lady and toward the Eucharist that you will receive tomorrow.

Now let us all pray together to Our Lady: Hail Mary.... I give you my blessing. May Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, bless you. And please, do not forget to pray for me.

I embrace everyone. Embrace and pray for me. Good night.