jan 2015 popes visit

1. Pope Francis started with a prayer for a girl who accidentally died during the preparations for the mass.
She is as young as 27, an only child, and according to those who knew her, she is a very good woman. People
sympathized for her and for her parents. God, indeed, has unique plans for everyone. Maybe this accident is
making us realize, “life is something that we only borrowed from God, so we should live our lives to serve him
well, do good to everyone for his greater glory and live life to the fullest.” Maybe, these things are something
what Kristel did. She died in the service to God.
Most who attended the mass are young people or youth because the mass was held in a university.
Pope’s speech mostly, is intended for them. After the solemn prayer for Kristel, the pope started his speech by
expressing his happiness and said. “I greet each of you from the heart.” This simple and brief greeting already
touched most of us. He made us feel that we are special to him. Afterwards, he gave inspirational words for
every young people in the Philippines, gave thanks to certain youths that he met and shared their realizations
during their meetings.
First, he gave thanks to Jun. Jun asked the pope “why do children suffer so much?” The pope replied
that the question has no reply, only when we cried with them we tend to be closer to answering that question.
Here, I realized that there are really situations where silence and understanding are the only ones needed, where
these are much appreciated than any material things that often, most of us overlook. The pope is inviting us to
learn how to sincerely weep. I believe that this genuine sympathy will lead us to the right thing to do for every
difficult situation that we, as a group, will encounter.
Secondly, Leandro Santos II posed a question about a world full of information. The pope said, “We
don’t need young museums but we do need holy young people” museums are places that stocks in a lot of
information but will not reach us to be informed. What the pope means of not being a museum is, by not being a
person who only accumulates knowledge, who only observes who only learns information but also who imparts
the knowledge to others, who solve problems, and who helps others by doing well with the information they
learned. According to the pope, love is the best thing that we all need to learn and be shared, because through
that love the information will bear fruit. He is right; through love we will sincerely do actions with our
knowledge for the benefit of others and even for self. To summarize this all, the pope said, “What you think,
you must feel and put into effect. Feel what you think and feel what you do. Do what you think and what you
feel. To think. To feel. To do. And all in harmony...”
Lastly, the pope expressed his gratitude to Rikki and his friends for doing good things, but the pope
asked them “you and your friends help others but do you allow yourselves to receive?” What the pope points
out here is that most people these days are already becoming arrogant. They give a lot, yes it is a good thing to
do but they are already doing it in vain. They feel that as if they are self-sufficient, that as if they don’t need
God anymore. I think what the pope wants us to realize is to find humility. To acknowledge that we are lacking
something and that we need help from others.
Pope’s messages are really striking. His message, just like in his greetings is from the heart. He prepared
a script for his speech that day, but he chose not to read it. He chose to speak about what he is really feeling that
moment. This is exactly what he said, “reality is superior to ideas. The reality that you have is superior to the
paper i have in front of me. Thank you very much. Pray for me!”