The "meekness" of the Word, that of God which "gives life" but which unfortunately so many times "goes in one ear and out the other”, and not the "violence" of words, the many words that follow one another and are wasted in society (both real and virtual), on which instead we feed every day. Pope Francis presided yesterday morning at the Mass in the Vatican Basilica on the Fifth Sunday of the Word of God, and to all believers he addressed the invitation that underlies the very institution of this feast day: to place Scripture at the center of personal and community life. "Let us return to the springs to offer the world the living water it cannot find," said the Pontiff, "And while society and social media accentuate the violence of words, let us cling to the meekness of the Word that saves”. In the Basilica, where copies of the Gospel according to Mark are distributed, there are 5,000 people participating in the liturgy that the Pope in 2019, with the apostolic letter Aperuit illis, has established to be celebrated every third Sunday of Ordinary Time. This year the theme is "Abide in my Word (Jn. 8:31)”. During the Mass, two women receive from the Pope the ministry of Reader and nine that of Catechist. They are lay faithful from Brazil, Bolivia, Korea, Chad, Germany, and the West Indies: in their hands the Pontiff consigns a Bible and a Cross, symbols of the mandate to proclaim and proclaim that Word which, as he emphasizes in the homily, "draws to God and sends to others”.
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