VATICAN CITY (CNS) --The church is like a bicycle -- it stays upright as long as it keeps moving, Pope Francis said.

The first disciples "were not a closed group of the elect, but a missionary church," boldly undertaking new initiatives prompted by the Holy Spirit, the pope said April 24 during his early morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

"In fact, the equilibrium of the church, so to speak, is found precisely in its mobility, in fidelity to the Holy Spirit," the pope said.