Concert with the Poor: Francis’ Message of Working Together

2023-12-17 03:39:34

The shift from working for the poor to working with the poor is an important step. Francis addressed these words of praise this Friday followingnoon to the participants in the Concert for the Poor, which will be performed this Friday followingnoon in the Vatican.

Mario Galgano – Vatikanstadt

Francis told the guests in the Vatican that he was looking forward to meeting the musicians and concert organizers who were involved “in different ways” in making the concert with the poor a reality. There were regarding a hundred guests in the Clementina Hall. The Pope said to them:

To listen to – what the Pope said at the audience

“I’m happy because I want to thank you. Each of you has made your contribution, and Monsignor Marco Frisina (choir director and composer of film music, editor’s note) has once once more managed to bring the whole thing together. It’s easier to harmonize with notes than with people… but that’s not the case with you! You managed to harmonize with each other, thank you!”

The audience in the Vatican

Free concert

He was also grateful because the guests had managed to offer a free concert to thousands of needy people and, with the music, enabled a moment of encounter, exchange, food and blankets; In one word: fraternity, this is how Francis summed up his thanks. This is entirely in the spirit of the Christmas message. And then added:

“Your concert is a concert with the poor. This is crucial, this ‘with’ is the key. We all need to move from the ‘for’ to the ‘with’. From ‘For’ the poor to ‘With’ the poor. You start with the ‘For’, but if you want you can switch to the ‘With’. And that is Christian. God came for us, but how? In which way? By living with us, or rather, by becoming like us. This mystery always leaves us speechless. It’s too big, it’s beyond our thoughts. But we can experience it in the encounter with the other who is different from me: when my giving for him or her becomes a receiving, a sharing, a friendship.”

The audience in the Vatican

He asked to pray for this: music alone was not enough, lights and decorations were also not enough. “No, prayer is necessary. “We entrust you to the intercession of Mary,” the Pope concluded his speech before the musicians returned to the audience hall to carry out the final rehearsals. The concert starts at 5:30 p.m.

(vatican news)

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