Pope Francis, during his general audiences on Wednesdays, is carrying on his catechesis about HOPE. As WUCWO women we are all committed to sow hope, especially in the family, among youth and suffering people, with a specific attention to women.

If we consider the destruction, conflicts, wars, persecutions, acts of terrorism all over the world, it is quite hard to cultivate hope, to have an open heart towards the future. Yet, this is our task, we cannot give up, we can’t be overcome by despair and depression. As Pope Francis stated during August 23rd general Audience, “We believe and we know that death and hate are not the final words pronounced on the parabola of human existence. Being Christians entails a new perspective: a gaze full of hope. Some believe that life retains all its happiness in youth and in the past, and that living is a slow deterioration. Still others hold that our joys are only fleeting episodes, and that the life of mankind is bound in meaninglessness. Those who, in the face of many calamities, say: “Life has no meaning. Our path is meaningless”. But we Christians do not think this. Rather, we believe that on mankind’s horizon there is a sun that shines forever. We believe that our most beautiful days are yet to come. We are more people of the Spring than of Autumn. I would like to ask, now — each one answer in your heart, in silence, but respond: “Am I a man, a woman, a boy, a girl of the Springtime or of Autumn? Is my spirit in the Spring or in Autumn? Each one answer silently. Let us view the buds of a new world rather than the yellowed leaves on its branches. Let us not cultivate nostalgia, regret and sorrow: we know that God wants us to be heirs of a promise and tireless growers of dreams.”

This is an extraordinary encouragement for WUCWO women who are willing to sow and spread hope in every reality.

This month we celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary: May She, Queen of Peace and Queen of WUCWO, hearten us to fulfill our task.

COLLECT PRAYER from the Holy Mass of September 8th

Impart to your servants, we pray, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace,

that the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin may bring deeper peace to those for whom the birth of her Son was the dawning of salvation.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Further reading:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2017/documents/papa-francesco_20170823_udienza-generale.html

Evangelii Gaudium 76-77; 84-86.