Today, on Day 4, we reflect on Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis’s vision for universal brotherhood. His call to see all people as brothers and sisters challenged us to cross borders—both literal and spiritual—with love. As we contemplate his words and wisdom, may our hearts open wider to unity, solidarity, and the work of peace.
Day 4
Fratelli Tutti: A Vision for Universal Brotherhood In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis called for a global fraternity rooted in love, solidarity, and respect for all people. He urged societies to move beyond divisions and work together to build a more just and compassionate world.
Prayer:Father of all, help us to live the unity Pope Francis envisioned. Heal our divisions, and make us brothers and sisters who strive together for peace and justice.
Anyone who has worked in loneliness, with great adaptation required and with little apparent success, will find a kindred spirit in Peter Chanel.
Born in France, Peter’s interest in the missions began in school, when he read letters missionaries to America sent back home. As a young priest, Peter revived a parish in a “bad” district by the simple method of showing great devotion to the sick. Wanting to be a missionary, he joined the Society of Mary, the Marists, at 28. Obediently, he taught in the seminary for five years. Then, as superior of seven Marists, he traveled to Western Oceania. The bishop accompanying the missionaries left Peter and a brother on Futuna Island northeast of Fiji, promising to return in six months. He was gone five years.
Meanwhile, Peter struggled with this new language and mastered it, making the difficult adjustment to life with whalers, traders, and warring natives. Despite little apparent success and severe want, he maintained a serene and gentle spirit, plus endless patience and courage. A few natives had been baptized, a few more were being instructed. When the chieftain’s son asked to be baptized, persecution by the chieftain reached a climax. Father Chanel was clubbed to death.
Within two years after his death, the whole island became Catholic and has remained so. He was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954. Peter Chanel is the first martyr of Oceania and its patron.
Reflection
Suffering for Christ means suffering because we are like Christ. Very often the opposition we meet is the result of our own selfishness or imprudence. We are not martyrs when we are “persecuted” by those who merely treat us as we treat them. A Christian martyr is one who, like Christ, is simply a witness to God’s love, and brings out of human hearts the good or evil that is already there.
The Church would be wise to remember that divorced Catholics have voices worth listening to. Couples who struggle with infertility are every bit as relevant as those with many mouths to feed. And children of “broken homes,” no strangers to conflict resolution, can help fix what’s broken in the Church. We are, after all, one big Church family. And like all families, we have disenfranchised members. But they still have a place at the table. The Church’s doors must close to nobody.
Those of us who are childless, divorced, or unmarried are, like everybody else, imperfect children of a perfect God. Our lives may not mirror what is culturally defined as “normal,” but we, too, know struggle. We experience joy and grief, we sin, we are forgiven, and we walk among you.
—from St. Anthony Messenger‘s “Family, Redefined“ by Christopher Heffron
As Catholics we believe the veil between this world and the next is as nothing in the mind of God. We pray for our dead, as we believe the saints pray for us. Let us be mindful of that today.
Pray
Father, you are the God of the living. No one born of the spirit shall know death, for your love is everlasting. I pray now for the souls of those who have died, that they may be as gold in the furnace of your grace. Welcome them home as saints, resplendent in your light. Amen.
Act
Think of someone who has died and offer this prayer for them. If you cannot think of anyone, then pray for those unknown to you who have no one else to pray for them.
Today's Pause+Pray was written by Clifford Hennings, OFM. Learn more here!
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