3 pieces of advice from Pope Francis to pilgrims

Pope Francis offered three pieces of advice to a group of Italian pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago (Spain) with whom he met in audience this morning in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

At the beginning of his speech, the Holy Father welcomed the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Mons. Francisco Prieto Fernández, and the members of the Guanellian Family, made up of lay people, religious of the Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence and priests and seminarians of the Servants of Charity, who offer spiritual welcome to pilgrims in Galicia (Spain).

After expressing his joy at the increase in pilgrims to this Shrine of “relevance in the Christian history of Europe,” Pope Francis asked them a question for reflection:

“Do people who walk the Camino de Santiago make a true pilgrimage? Or is it something else?” In this context, he offered them three pieces of advice or “signs” to live the Camino as an authentic pilgrimage:

First of all, the silence stood out. “The path lived in silence allows us to listen, listen with the heart and thus find, while walking, through effort, the answers that the heart seeks.” “God speaks in silence, like a light breeze,” he added.

The Pontiff also encouraged them to always carry the Gospel in their pockets. “The pilgrimage is carried out by rereading the path that Jesus took, to the extreme gift of Himself,” he added.

“It’s a nice way to pray. A pocket Gospel costs nothing, but if someone can’t pay for it, I’ll pay for it, let them ask me… (laughs) But it’s important to carry the Gospel in your pocket,” Pope Francis joked.

He stressed that the Way “is all the more authentic, all the more Christian, the more it leads us to leave ourselves and give ourselves freely, in the service of our neighbor. And the Holy Spirit does this when we read the Gospel every day,” he stressed.

The Holy Father called the third piece of advice the “protocol of Matthew 25”: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).

Along the way, the Holy Father asked them to “be attentive to others, especially those who have more difficulties, those who have fallen, those who need help.”

“Los I encourage you in your apostolate of evangelization and care. The ancient pilgrims teach us that from Christian pilgrimages we return as apostles,” Pope Francis concluded.