Pope speaks with seminarians about the tabernacle, wearing oneself out in service

December 13, 2016

The Holy See Press Office has released a transcript of Pope Francis’s impromptu December 10 remarks to seminarians from the Pius XI Pontifical Regional Seminary of Puglia.

The press office previously released the Pope’s prepared address, in which he emphasized belonging to Christ, relationships with others, and reaching out to the excluded.

In his extemporaneous remarks, Pope Francis spoke on a variety of topics, including spiritual fatherhood, the importance of poverty, the tabernacle, and wearing oneself in service to others.

“To be close like Jesus, it is necessary to know Jesus,” he said. “But I would ask: how much time do you stay seated before the tabernacle each day? At least spend a moment by the tabernacle.”

The Pope recalled a priest whom “I saw as a boy very often: the telephone, because there was no answering machine, there were no cellphones, just the telephone on the priest’s bedside table. These good priests, who get up at any hour of the night to go to a sick person, to give the sacraments … This [willingness] is apostolic zeal, this is what it means to spend your life in the service of others. And at the end, what remains to you? The joy of service to the Lord!”

 

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Further information:

• The four pillars of life in the seminary: the Pope’s impromptu address to the community of the Pius XI regional seminary, 12.12.2016 (Holy See Press Office)
• Pope addresses seminarians, discusses belonging, relationships, exclusion (CWN, 12/12)