He who asks, receives...

Holy Father, dear Pope Francis, it really is true: he who asks, receives, who seeks, finds, and to the one who knocks, it is opened.

We Capuchins asked that you celebrate this Holy Mass with us and you granted it immediately, and I think not only because we are accompanied by two saints, St. Leopold and Padre Pio, whom you wished to come here to Rome as icons and model servants of Mercy, but because you wanted to say something important also to the whole Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.

With the two saints that came to Rome you said to us that holiness is the first task of every consecrated person, and Saints Leopold and Pio show clearly that the one who gives himself unconditionally to the Lord will be exalted.

In these days there have been many surprises, but the greatest was seeing the long, very long, line of people, waiting even for hours to approach the relics of the two saints. This faith of simple people awes us and at the same time invites us to look to their needs, to see to respond as St. Pio responded, reconciling the sinner and giving a place to heal the body, offering himself at the same time to the Christ of the Cross.

Holy Father, it was a still greater surprise when on February 5 it was announced that you will meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. We wonder if our little Leopold, a man of prayer, of offering, of courtesy, of such sensitive soul as to wait even hours for 'his' penitent, a living offering for the unity of Christians, does not have his part in making this meeting possible.

Holy Father, with equal wonder you surprised us in pointing out to the Church St. Leopold and St. Pio, in calling them to Rome in order to say to the world that the Mercy of God is great and never stops making all things new.

Aware of what St. Francis of Assisi writes in one of his Admonitions, it is a great shame for us, the servants of God, that the saints have accomplished great things and we want only to receive glory and honor by recounting them, we ask you to strengthen us with your word on the journey of holiness.

Holy Father, the Capuchin friars here present, from all over the world, but also those who were not able to come, especially our sick and elderly who have dedicated their lives with joy in the confessional, in preaching, in education, in hospitals, in prisons, in giving each day a plate of food in our countless soup kitchens, say to you with simplicity that we love you and that they pray for you as you ask us to do each Sunday.

We will keep praying for you and above all with you, now that we have looked each other in the eyes and prayed together. Now Holy Father, at the end of this moment, before making the pilgrimage through the Holy Door, I ask you, we ask you to support us and to never stop blessing us as Father, that each of us, each Capuchin friar may live poverty in joy, serving in purity of heart and loving obedience to the Church, ready to go where nobody wants to go!

Bless us once again, dear Pope Francis!
Thank you, Holy Father!