Pope's general audience of May 21. Recalls upcoming Holy Land visit

May 21, 2014 – Pope Francis on Wednesday held his weekly general audience in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square. The public meeting is an opportunity for pilgrims and tourists visiting ‎Rome to see and hear the Pope, and also receive his blessing. The general audience of May 21st in ‎Rome’s St. Peter’s Square was on the Holy Spirit’s Gift of Knowledge. It ‎began with aides reading a ‎passage from the Book of Psalms.
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Pope Francis then delivered his main discourse in Italian - summaries of which were read out by aides ‎in various languages, including in English. But first, the aide greeted the Pope on behalf of the English-‎speaking pilgrims.‎
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… Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, we ‎now ‎consider the gift of knowledge. Through this spiritual gift, we are enabled to see every person, ‎and the ‎world around us, in the light of God’s loving plan. In a sense, we see the beauty, harmony ‎and goodness ‎of all creation with the eyes of God its maker. As is clear from the lives of Saint ‎Francis of Assisi and so ‎many other saints, the gift of knowledge gives rise to grateful ‎contemplation of the world of nature and ‎joyful praise of the Creator. The perspective given by this ‎spiritual gift leads us to respect God’s gift of ‎creation and to exercise wise stewardship of its ‎resources for the benefit of the whole human family. It ‎also prevents us from restricting our vision ‎to the persons and things of this world alone, forgetting that ‎in their order, value and beauty they ‎point beyond themselves to God, their source and ultimate end. Let ‎us ask the Holy Spirit to help ‎us grow in the knowledge which enables us to perceive the love with which ‎God guides the world, ‎to respond with gratitude and to praise him for his infinite goodness and love.‎

Pope Francis then greeted the English-speaking pilgrims in Italian.‎
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… I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims taking part in today’s Audience, including those ‎from ‎England and Wales, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, ‎Japan, ‎South Africa, Canada and the United States. Upon all of you, and upon your families, I invoke ‎the ‎joy and peace of the Risen Lord. God bless you all!‎

Before his final blessing at the end of Wednesday’s general audience, Pope Francis reminded those ‎present that on Saturday, he was embarking upon a visit to the Holy Land, the land of Jesus. “It will ‎be a strictly religious visit,” he explained, speaking in Italian. His foremost motive, he explained, was ‎to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual head of Orthodox ‎Christians worldwide, whom he regards a brother. The occasion is the 50th anniversary of the historic ‎encounter between Pope Paul VI and then Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople on Jan. 5, 1964. ‎‎“Peter and Andrew will once again meet each other and this is very beautiful,” Pope Francis said, ‎referring to the two disciples as the patrons of the Churches of Rome and Constantinople. The second ‎motive he explained, is to pray for peace in that land that suffers much. Even though, the Pope's May ‎‎24-26 visit to Jordan, Bethlehem and Jerusalem is primarily ecumenical, in a region so rich in history ‎and so ‎fraught with conflict, the Argentine Pope has in his schedule meetings with political leaders of ‎Jordan, the Palestine state and Israel, as well as religious leaders, including Christians, Jews and ‎Muslims. However, Pope Francis does not want that the strictly ecumenical visit be coloured by ‎political and sectarian motives. ‎
The Pope’s general audience concluded with his blessing.
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