Pope proposes ‘Our Father’ as route to Christian unity, shared action

Speaking to a crowd of an estimated 40,000 Swiss Catholics on Thursday, Pope Francis used the “Our Father” as a tool for reclaiming Christian roots and values.

During a Mass marking the end of his daylong ecumenical pilgrimage to Geneva, Francis preached a homily that stressed practical ways in which Christians can live in unity together.

He went on to add that the “Our Father” is a means by which Christians are reminded of their roots so that they may be of help to those who are rootless and in need of support — including, he said, “the unborn, the older person who can no longer speak, the person we find hard to forgive, the poor and the outcast.”

In a homily chock full of colloquial phrases centered around today’s Gospel passage which includes one of the most famous prayers in Christendom, the “Our Father,” Francis urged those in attendance not to treat Jesus “as a side dish,” but rather as sustenance for survival, along with advising Christians to “take a good x-ray of our heart” in order to more readily forgive.