Pope Francis leads the Angelus on Sunday | Vatican Media
By Devin Watkins | Vatican News
June 28 2020
Ahead of the Angelus prayer on Sunday, Pope Francis urges Christians to carry our cross in Jesus’ footsteps with generosity and grateful hearts.
Pope Francis prayed the traditional Marian prayer of the Angelus on Sunday, and reflected on Jesus’ invitation for Christians to follow Him in the midst of sacrifice and trials.
In the day’s Gospel (Mt 10, 37-42), Jesus clearly lays out the demands involved in being His disciple.
Love for Jesus leads to love for family
“The first demanding request that He addresses to those who follow Him,” said Pope Francis, “is that of putting love for Him above family affection.”
The Pope added that Jesus is not seeking to undervalue love for parents and children.
Rather, he said, Jesus “knows that family bonds, if put in first place, can deviate from the true good.”
We all experience this, said the Pope, for example when family affections lead us to make choices that are contrary to the Gospel.
“When, instead, love toward parents and children is inspired and purified by love for the Lord,” he said, “it then becomes totally fruitful and produces fruit for the good of the family itself as well as beyond it.”
He said that truly loving Jesus requires us to truly love our parents and children. However, if we put family interests first, “this always carries us along the wrong path.”
Pope Francis prayed the traditional Marian prayer of the Angelus on Sunday, and reflected on Jesus’ invitation for Christians to follow Him in the midst of sacrifice and trials.
In the day’s Gospel (Mt 10, 37-42), Jesus clearly lays out the demands involved in being His disciple.
Love for Jesus leads to love for family
“The first demanding request that He addresses to those who follow Him,” said Pope Francis, “is that of putting love for Him above family affection.”
The Pope added that Jesus is not seeking to undervalue love for parents and children.
Rather, he said, Jesus “knows that family bonds, if put in first place, can deviate from the true good.”
We all experience this, said the Pope, for example when family affections lead us to make choices that are contrary to the Gospel.
“When, instead, love toward parents and children is inspired and purified by love for the Lord,” he said, “it then becomes totally fruitful and produces fruit for the good of the family itself as well as beyond it.”
He said that truly loving Jesus requires us to truly love our parents and children. However, if we put family interests first, “this always carries us along the wrong path.”
