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December 4, 2023CHARIS - Final Greetings
Your Excellency, Archbishop Francis Kalist, Dear Fr Michael, Fr Lennie, the Parish Priest, all the priests, religious, leaders of CHARIS and my dear people of Faith.
We are at the end of this conference, full of enriching spiritual experiences. First of all, I would like to thank the Lord for these days. We have rediscovered the beauty of our fundamental vocation, the vocation to Holiness, which is a vocation to love: to love and be loved. This is the vocation to be children of God.
Be holy because I am holy: it is an expression from the Old Testament that Saint Peter relaunches in the light of the Christian faith for the holy people of God. Becoming saints is not our project. It is a vocation; it is a call that comes from God. God has chosen us from all eternity to be saints.
The last three days have helped us not to take our vocation to holiness for granted. We must rediscover it every day, and every day, we must decide to welcome this call. It is the call to be children of God, to move from being slaves to being children, and to recognize that we are in the world because we were wanted and loved by the Father. Never forget it: each of you is the result of a thought of God; each of you is a desire of God that has come true.
His Holiness Pope Francis, in the apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exultate, forcefully states: The saints are distinguished by a spirit of prayer and a need for communion with God. They find an exclusive concern with this world to be narrow and stirring, and amid their concerns and commitments, they long for God, losing themselves in praise and contemplation of the Lord.
Dear people, to be saints, we must continually rediscover the desire for God every day and always search for that God who made himself encountered in Jesus Christ. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can renew the decision to follow Jesus and bear witness to him in our daily lives. The world needs to encounter credible witnesses of the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete who transforms and renews us. The Spirit conforms us more and more to Christ Jesus every day. The Spirit is always the Spirit that the Father and the Son have in common. For this reason, the Holy Spirit introduces us into the life of the Holy Trinity. The Spirit makes us participate mysteriously in the relationship of love between the Father and the Son. We thank the Lord for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is given to us without measure.
Our God is a God of Surprises, he always surprises us. Today God surprised us with the visit of the Secretary of State, His Eminence, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Cardinal Parolin is close to the Holy Father, and therefore, his visit reflects the closeness of Holy Father Pope Francis to our Church in the Gulf. we continue to pray for our beloved Pope Francis. We also pray for the Success of COP 28.
I also thank everyone who organized this event. God will reward you for your good work. I also thank all the illustrious guests who gave their precious contribution to the success of this meeting. I thank all of you who come from the different parts of the Gulf region. Rejoice in the Lord. Bring the joy of the Lord to everyone and be holy because God is holy.
May the blessing of the Holy Trinity descend upon you, your families, and the entire reality of CHARIS. May Mary, Mother of God and the Church, docile to the Holy Spirit, always protect you and always bring you to Jesus, and you bring Jesus to the whole world. May the inspiration and intercession of the Arabian Martyrs, St Arethas and companions accompany you every day.
Thank you and God Bless you all.