Pope Francis in Madagascar visited the Carmelite Monastery at the closing of the nuns

Pope Francis visited a barefoot Carmelite monastery in Madagascar on Saturday, September 7th, as part of his apostolic trip to Africa.

After his courtesy visit to the President of the Republic, his meeting with the civil authorities and the diplomatic corps of Madagascar, the Holy Father went to the monastery of the Naked Feet Carmelites of Antananarivo where they were 39 received. close to 100 contemplative nuns from different monasteries in the country and, outside the chapel, about 70 novices.

Upon his arrival, the pontiff was received by the prioress of the monastery, Sister Maria Magdalena de la Anunciación, who said a few words of welcome in French.

Later, Pope Francis prayed half an hour with them and preached a brief spontaneous homily in Italian, which was translated by a priest from Madagascar. He delivered the prepared speech in front of the people present so that they could reflect.

Then, the homily of Pope Francis who had been prepared for the visit of this barefoot Carmelite monastery and who gave to the nuns:

Dear Mother Madeleine of the Annunciation, dear sisters,

I appreciate the warm welcome as well as your words, dear Mother, who are like the echo of all the contemplative nuns from several monasteries in this country. I thank you, dear sisters, for having left the enclosure for a moment to manifest your communion with me as well as with the life and mission of the whole church, especially that of Madagascar.

I thank you for your presence, for your faithfulness, for the luminous testimony of Jesus Christ that you offer to the community. In this country, there is poverty, it is true, but there is also a lot of wealth! Rich in natural beauties, human and spiritual. Sisters, you also participate in this beauty of Madagascar, its people and the Church, because it is the beauty of Christ shining on their faces and in their lives. Yes, thanks to you, the Church of Madagascar is even more beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and the whole world.

The three psalms of the present liturgy express the anguish of the psalmist at a time of trial and danger. Let me stop at the first, that is to say Psalm 119, the longest of the psalter, consisting of eight verses for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. No doubt its author is a man of contemplation, someone who knows how to devote long and beautiful moments to prayer. In today 's pbadage, the word that appears several times and gives a whole hue is "consume", used primarily in two ways.

Prayer is consumed by the desire to meet God. You are a living witness of this unquenchable desire in the hearts of all men. In the midst of the many offerings that they claim – but can not – extinguish their hearts, the contemplative life is the torch that leads to the only perpetual fire, "the flame of living love that hurts tenderly" (Saint John of the Cross). You represent "visibly the goal pursued by the entire ecclesial community:" advance in the path of time, with their eyes fixed on the future recapitulation of all that is in Christ, thus announcing the heavenly glory "(Const Ap. Vultum dei quaerere, 2).

We are always tempted to satisfy the desire of the eternal with ephemeral things. We are exposed to raging seas that drown our lives and our minds: "The seafarer needs the lighthouse that indicates the way to reach the port, so the world needs you. Be lighthouses, for the near and especially for the distant. Be torches that accompany the path of men and women in the dark night of time. Be sentinels of dawn (cf. is 21, 11-12) announcing the sunrise (cf. Lk 1.78). With your transfigured life and with simple words, brooding in silence, indicate the One who is the way, the truth and the life (cf. Jn 14: 6), to the only Lord who offers fullness to our existence and gives life in abundance (cf. Jn 10.10). Like Andrew to Simon, shout: "We have found the Lord" (cf. Jn 1.40); Like Mary of Magdala on the morning of the resurrection, announce: "I have seen the Lord" (Jn 20.18) "(ibid, 6).

But also the psalm speaks of another consumer: one who refers to the intention of the wicked, of those who want to end the righteous; they pursue him, install him and want him to fall. A monastery is always a space where the pains of the world arrive, those of his people. May their monasteries respect their contemplative charism and constitutions be places of reception and listening, especially the most unfortunate.

Today, we are accompanied by two mothers who have lost their children and represent all the pain of their brothers on the island. Be attentive to the cries and miseries of the men and women around you who come to you, consumed by suffering, exploitation and discouragement. Do not be part of those who listen only to ease your boredom, quench your curiosity or broach topics for future conversations.

In this sense, they have a fundamental mission to fulfill. Closing places them in the heart of God and therefore where he has his heart. Listen to the Lord's heart to hear it also in your brothers and sisters. The people around them are often very poor, weak, attacked, and wounded in a thousand ways; but he is full of faith and instinctively recognizes in you witnesses of the presence of God, precious references to meet him and get your help.

Faced with so much suffering that she consumes them inside, that she steals their joy and their hope and makes them feel the strangers, you can be a path to this rock that we evoke in another of the psalms: "Listen, oh my God, my cry, listen to my call. I invoked from the end of the earth, the beaten heart: take me to an inaccessible rock "(Go out 60, 2.3).

Faith is the greatest good of the poor! It is of the utmost importance that this faith be announced, strengthened in them, that it really helps it to live and to wait. And that the contemplation of the mysteries of God expressed in their liturgy and their times of prayer enables them to better discover their active presence in all human realities, even the most painful ones, and to give thanks because in contemplation, God gives you the gift of intercession

With your prayer, you love those mothers who carry your children on your shoulders and lead you to the promised land. "The prayer will be more pleasing to God and more sanctifying if, through intercession, we try to live the double command that Jesus has left us. Intercession expresses the fraternal commitment to others when we can integrate the lives of others, their most troubling anxieties and their most beautiful dreams. One who gives himself generously to intercede can be said with the biblical words: "He is the one who loves his brothers, who pray a lot for the people" (2m 15:14) "(Exhort Ap. Gaudete and exultate154).

Dear contemplative sisters, Without you, what would be the Church and those who live in the human peripheries? from Madagascar? What will happen to all those who work at the forefront of evangelism, and here especially in the most precarious, most difficult and sometimes most dangerous conditions? They all trust your prayer and the ever-renewed offering of your life, a very precious offering in the sight of God that allows you to share in the mystery of the redemption of this earth and the dear people who are there. lives.

"I am like a skin smoking," says the Psalm (119.83), referring to the long time spent living this dual way of burning: by God and the difficulties of the world. Sometimes, almost involuntarily, we move away and fall into "apathy, routine, demotivation, paralyzing laziness" (Const Ap. Vultum Dei quaerere, 11).

Regardless, they make fun of their age or difficulty walking or arriving at the time For trades. We are not sunsets placed next to the smoke, but logs that burn until they are consumed by the fire that is Jesus who never disappoints us and all the debt pays.

Thank you for this shared moment. I trust your prayers. I entrust all the intentions that I carry with me during this trip to Madagascar; Let us pray together that the Spirit of the Gospel will germinate in the hearts of all our people.