About 17 thousand children from various dioceses participated on Saturday, June 10, in the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Fatima. This year, the little ones offered their prayers, especially for the “rapid improvement of Pope Francis.”
The Holy Father was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Wednesday, June 7, where he underwent surgery for an intestinal obstruction. Reports provided by the Holy See Press Office indicate that the Pope’s recovery is proceeding according to plan.
Bishop Rui Valério of Portugal led the pilgrimage under the motto “Like Mary, sharing joy.”
During the event, the prelate invited the children to look at the Virgin Mary who, “with an open heart, welcomed the angel’s announcement, ‘rose and went in haste’ to meet her cousin Elizabeth, to bring her the light of true joy: the presence of Jesus.”
For Bishop Valério, “to say that someone is happy is the same as saying that this person loves and is loved.”
“If you ask your parents what was the happiest day of their lives, they will probably tell you that it was the day they received the news that their child was on the way because a child is a blessing and an enormous joy.” “Then they told everyone about it because they were filled with love and joy,” she added.
Bishop Valério affirmed that “this is what Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto felt when the Mother of Heaven visited them and told them that Jesus loved them and that they should be happy children. This is also the message she leaves us today: where there is love, there is joy.” And “When joy is in our hearts, we do not want to keep it to ourselves; we feel the need to bring it to everyone else.”
For this reason, he invited the children to transmit that joy to the whole world. “Let us tell those people who think that happiness is to have so many things that the joy of being loved and loving is enough for them,” he stressed.
Bishop Rui Valério also spoke about the situation in Ukraine, “a country that is at war, where there are people who harm others.” And he asked the children to “try to make their voice heard in Ukraine” so that “they hear our message: love and you will be happy.”
This article was originally published on ACI Prensa.
