Pope Francis' meditation on the Mount of Olives

During his trip to the Holy Land Pope Francis meditated on the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday during a meeting with priests, religious and seminarians in the Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives. In what is becoming a characteristic style, the Pope asked those present to reflect on which characters from the Gospel they represented from the time of Christ’s prayer, arrest and Crucifixion. The full address is below: “He came out and went… to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him” (Lk 22:39). At the hour which God had appointed to save humanity from its enslavement to sin, Jesus came here, to Gethsemane, to the foot of the Mount of Olives. We now find ourselves in this holy place, a place sanctified by the pray