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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a videomessage to the Bishop of Gozo in Malta, Mario Grech, on the occasion of the inauguration of the mosaics of the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Ta 'Pinu. There are three mosaics and depict the Virgin and Child; St. John the Baptist and St. Paul. The three works were installed on the central port of the Sanctuary and were made by the Aletti Center.

Please find an English translation of the videomessage below.

Dear pilgrims,

I accept with joy the invitation to greet all of you who are today assembled at the Shrine of the Virgin of Ta 'Pinu, where a great embrace of mosaics awaits Jesus and his Mother.

The image of the churchyard, which today is inaugurated, lays before our eyes the beauty of a simple contemplative prayer, accessible to all, great and small: the prayer of the holy Rosary. I too often used the Rosary in front of a mosaic: a small mosaic of Our Lady with the Child, where Mary appears in the centre, while in reality, using her hands, she becomes a kind of ladder through which Jesus can descend in the midst of us. The centre is always Jesus, who lowers himself to walk with us men so that we can ascend into Heaven with Him.

In the Rosary prayer we turn to the Virgin Mary to bring us closer to her Son Jesus, to know him and to love him more and more. And while we repeat "Hail Mary," we meditate on the mysteries, the Joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious stages of Christ's life, but also of our lives: for we walk with the Lord. This simple prayer, in fact, helps us to contemplate all that God has done for us and for our salvation in his love, and makes us understand that our life is united to that of Christ. In prayer, we are giving everything to God: fatigue, hurt, fears, but also joys, gifts, people ... all to God. By praying, we allow God to enter into our time, to accept and transfigure all that we live. This powerful prayer of the Holy Rosary serves us often because it brings peace to hearts, to families, to the Church, and to the world.

And, please do not forget to pray for me. May the Lord bless you and the Virgin Mother protect you.

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(Vatican Radio) Raging forest fires in central Portugal have killed at least 62 people, many of them trapped in their cars as flames swept over a road.

Portugal has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the blaze.

A lightning strike is believed to have sparked the fire in the Pedrogao Grande area 150 kilometers northeast of Lisbon.

The prime minister Antonio Costa today called the fires ``the biggest tragedy'' the country has experienced in years.

Listen: 

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(Vatican Radio) Voters in France have been casting ballots in the final round of parliamentary elections that could clinch President Emmanuel Macron's hold on power. Sunday's vote was overshadowed by low voter turnout and widespread disillusionment with politics. 

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

Macron, who last month became the youngest President in France's history, appeared confident as he cast his ballot in a polling station crowded with reporters and other onlookers.

Outside curious crowds gathered in this northern seaside town of Le Touquet where the 39-year-old Macron voted Sunday
in the second round of elections for the 577-seat National Assembly.

French voters were expected to hand his year-old Republic on the Move party an overwhelming majority. Polls suggested that his party could even win up to 80 percent, more than 400 seats, in the lower house of Parliament.

Commentators have warned that such an outcome would send shockwaves through the more established political
order with their unity and even their survival at stake.

REPUBLICANS DOMINATE OPPOSITION 

The conservative Republicans were likely to form the bulk of the opposition, but the Socialists faced a humiliating defeat.

The far-right National Front of former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was also expected to have only a minor presence in Parliament, despite their strong showing in the presidential contest.

Yet, there were indications that far less than half of France's 47.5 million voters bothered to cast their ballots.

Analysts linked the record low turnout to voter fatigue after seven months of roller-coaster campaigning and voting. France has also seen widespread disillusionment and anger with politics that could eventually complicate Macron’s reform efforts.

Rivals of President Macron's dominant new party tried to urge more voters to cast ballots. But that was not expected
to prevent him and his allies from having a crushing parliamentary majority.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday celebrated Mass at the Roman Basilica of St John Lateran which was to be followed by a procession to the Basilica of St Mary Major to mark the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.

In his homily for the feast of Corpus Christi, Pope Francis chose to reflect on one word, “Memory”. The Pope said that “remembering all that the Lord has done for us is the foundation of our own personal history of salvation.” 

Memory, the Holy Father went on to say is important, “because it allows us to dwell in love, to be mind-ful, “never forgetting who it is who loves us and whom we are called to love in return.” 

This Solemnity, Pope Francis underlined, reminds us that in our fragmented lives, the Lord comes to meet us with a loving “fragility”, which is the Eucharist.  

Below find the English language translation of the Pope's Homily

On this Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the idea of memory comes up again and again.  Moses says to the people: “You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you….  Lest… you forget the Lord your God, who fed you in the wilderness with manna” (Dt 8:2, 14, 16).  Jesus will tell us: “Do this in memory of me” (1 Cor 11:24).  The “living bread, come down from heaven” (Jn 6:51) is the sacrament of memory, reminding us, in a real and tangible way, of the story of God’s love for us. 

Today, to each of us, the word of God says, Remember!  Remembrance of the Lord’s deeds guided and strengthened his people’s journey through the desert; remembering all that the Lord has done for us is the foundation of our own personal history of salvation.  Remembrance is essential for faith, as water is for a plant.  A plant without water cannot stay alive and bear fruit.  Nor can faith, unless it drinks deeply of the memory of all that the Lord has done for us. 

Remember.  Memory is important, because it allows us to dwell in love, to be mind-ful, never forgetting who it is who loves us and whom we are called to love in return.  Yet nowadays, this singular ability that the Lord has given us is considerably weakened.  Amid so much frantic activity, many people and events seem to pass in a whirl.  We quickly turn the page, looking for novelty while unable to retain memories.  Leaving our memories behind and living only for the moment, we risk remaining ever on the surface of things, constantly in flux, without going deeper, without the broader vision that reminds us who we are and where we are going.  In this way, our life grows fragmented, and dulled within. 

Yet today’s Solemnity reminds us that in our fragmented lives, the Lord comes to meet us with a loving “fragility”, which is the Eucharist.  In the Bread of Life, the Lord comes to us, making himself a humble meal that lovingly heals our memory, wounded by life’s frantic pace of life.  The Eucharist is the memorial of God’s love.  There, “[Christ’s] sufferings are remembered” (II Vespers, antiphon for the Magnificat) and we recall God’s love for us, which gives us strength and support on our journey.  This is why the Eucharistic commemoration does us so much good: it is not an abstract, cold and superficial memory, but a living remembrance that comforts us with God’s love.  The Eucharist is flavoured with Jesus’ words and deeds, the taste of his Passion, the fragrance of his Spirit.  When we receive it, our hearts are overcome with the certainty of Jesus’ love.  In saying this, I think in particular of you boys and girls, who recently received First Holy Communion, and are here today in great numbers. 

The Eucharist gives us a grateful memory, because it makes us see that we are the Father’s children, whom he loves and nourishes.  It gives us a free memory, because Jesus’ love and forgiveness heal the wounds of the past, soothe our remembrance of wrongs experienced and inflicted.  It gives us a patient memory, because amid all our troubles we know that the Spirit of Jesus remains in us.  The Eucharist encourages us: even on the roughest road, we are not alone; the Lord does not forget us and whenever we turn to him, he restores us with his love.

The Eucharist also reminds us that we are not isolated individuals, but one body.  As the people in the desert gathered the manna that fell from heaven and shared it in their families (cf. Ex 16), so Jesus, the Bread come down from Heaven, calls us together to receive him and to share him with one another.  The Eucharist is not a sacrament “for me”; it is the sacrament of the many, who form one body.  Saint Paul reminded us of this: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:17).  The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity.  Whoever receives it cannot fail to be a builder of unity, because building unity has become part of his or her “spiritual DNA”.  May this Bread of unity heal our ambition to lord it over others, to greedily hoard things for ourselves, to foment discord and criticism.  May it awaken in us the joy of living in love, without rivalry, jealousy or mean-spirited gossip.

Now, in experiencing this Eucharist, let us adore and thank the Lord for this greatest of gifts: the living memorial of his love, that makes us one body and leads us to unity.  

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Rome, Italy, Jun 18, 2017 / 01:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For the observance of the feast of Corpus Christi on Sunday, Pope Francis said the Eucharist helps us to remember everything that Christ has done for us, in particular his great love for us.

Corpus Christi reminds us that in the midst of our lives the Lord comes to meet us “with a loving 'fragility,' which is the Eucharist,” the Pope said June 18.

“In the Bread of Life, the Lord comes to us, making himself a humble meal that lovingly heals our memory, wounded by life’s frantic pace of life. The Eucharist is the memorial of God’s love.”

The Pope gave his homily at a Mass held at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. Following the Mass, he led a Eucharistic procession across Rome to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, ending with solemn Benediction with the Holy Eucharist.

Today, the word of God says to each one of us: “Remember!” Francis proclaimed.

In this way we can be strengthened, just as the memory of the Lord’s deeds guided and strengthened God’s people when they were in the desert. Remembering everything that the Lord has done for us is the foundation of our own “personal history of salvation,” he said.

“Remembrance is essential for faith, as water is for a plant. A plant without water cannot stay alive and bear fruit. Nor can faith, unless it drinks deeply of the memory of all that the Lord has done for us.”

“Memory is important,” he went on, “because it allows us to dwell in love, to be mindful, never forgetting who it is who loves us and whom we are called to love in return.”

But today, our memories are weakened by our constant activity and business, the Pope pointed out.

Our lives are such a whirl of people and events that we no longer retain memories. But this leaves us at risk of only living on the surface of things and never going deeper, he said, “without the broader vision that reminds us who we are and where we are going.”

“This is why the Eucharistic commemoration does us so much good: it is not an abstract, cold and superficial memory, but a living remembrance that comforts us with God’s love.”

Francis explained that when we receive the Eucharist, our hearts have the opportunity to become overwhelmed with the certainty of Christ's love for us, the Eucharist giving us a memory that is grateful, free, and patient.

It’s a grateful memory, he said, because it reminds us that we are children of the Father, who loves and nourishes us. And it gives us a patient memory, because even in the midst of trial we know that Christ remains in us.

It’s free memory, because Christ's love and forgiveness can heal the wounds in our past, freeing us from the remembrance of past wrongs.

Additionally, he said how the Eucharist encourages us – that “even on the roughest road, we are not alone; the Lord does not forget us and whenever we turn to him, he restores us with his love.”

The Pope concluded by drawing on St. Paul’s words in the day’s first reading, which says: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

Thus, the Eucharist also reminds us that we are all one body; it isn’t a sacrament just “for me.” It is for many, all the faithful, he said, who together form one body. “The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity,” he stated.

“Now, in experiencing this Eucharist, let us adore and thank the Lord for this greatest of gifts: the living memorial of his love, that makes us one body and leads us to unity.”

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