A video message has been released ahead of the Pope’s visit to Armenia from Friday and Sunday: “We must not let painful memories take control of our hearts, nor must we tire of sending out a dove as Noah did”
“Your history and the events lived by your beloved people inspire admiration and pain in me,” the Pope said in a video message that was released this afternoon, addressed to the Armenian people ahead of his visit to their country, from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 June. “We must not let painful memories take control of our hearts,” says Francis, inviting his audience to follow Noah’s example: “after the flood he continued to gaze up at the sky, releasing the dove against and again, until it came back to him carrying a freshly plucked olive leaf.”
“Dear brothers and sisters,” Francis says, “in a few days time I will have the pleasure of being with you in Armenia. I invite you to start praying for this apostolic visit. As the motto of the visit to Armenia says, I some among you, with the help of God, to pay a visit to ‘the first Christian country’. I come as a pilgrim, in this Jubilee Year, to draw on the wisdom of your people and drink from the springs of your faith, which is solid like those famous crosses you carve into the rock.”
“I come to Armenia’s mystical high grounds, like a brother, moved by the desire to see your faces, pray with you and share the gift of friendship. Your history and the events your beloved people have experience,” the Pope stresses, “inspire admiration and pan in me: admiration because you have found in Jesus’ cross and in your minds, the strength to always pick yourselves up, even from the most terrible sufferings in human memory; pain, because of the tragedies your fathers experienced in the flesh. We must not let painful memories take control of our hearts; even when evil strikes again and again, we must not give in. Instead, let us follow Noah’s example, after the flood he continued to gaze up at the sky, releasing the dove against and again, until it came back to him carrying a freshly plucked olive leaf: this was the sign that life could resume and hope needed to be revived.”
“I come among you as a servant of the Gospel and a messenger of peace, to support every effort on the path towards peace and to join you on the journey of reconciliation, which generates hope,” Jorge Mario Bergoglio states. “May the great saints of your people, especially the Doctor of the Church, Gregory of Narek, bless our meetings which I eagerly look forward to. I especially look forward to embracing my brother Karekin once again and to give renewed impulse to our path towards full unity. Last year, you came from different countries to Rome and we prayed together at the tomb of St. Peter. Now,” the Pope ends by saying, “I come to your blessed land to reinforce our communion, advance along the path reconciliation and let hope enliven us.”
