“Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems.”
― Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium
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December 2, 2021
December 1, 2021
December 1, 2021
December 1, 2021
December 1, 2021
November 30, 2021
November 30, 2021
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November 29, 2021
Tomorrow I will go to Cyprus and Greece to visit the dear populations of these countries rich in history, spirituality and civilization. It will be a journey to the sources of apostolic faith and fraternity among Christians of various confessions. Accompany me with your prayer!
Today is World #AIDS day. Let us #PrayTogether for the many people who are affected by this syndrome. In some areas of the world, access to the necessary treatment is not available for many of them. Let us commit ourselves to guarantee fair and effective health care.
It’s often difficult to move from the logic of falling in love to the logic of mature love. To love is not the pretension that life should correspond to our imagination. Rather, it means to choose in complete freedom to take responsibility for life as it comes.
Let us #PrayTogether for catechists, called to announce the Word of God: that they may be courageous and creative witnesses through the power of the Holy Spirit. #PrayerIntention pic.twitter.com/2lnD…
Service makes our talents bear fruit and gives meaning to our lives. Those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life.
I thank all those who are committed to alleviating their suffering. Let us remember migrants, their suffering and #PrayTogether.
I feel sorrow thinking about those who died crossing the English Channel, those on the borders of Belarus, many of whom are children, those who drown in the Mediterranean, those who are repatriated to North Africa and forced into servitude.
Even during these days so many migrants are exposed to very serious dangers, and so many lose their lives at our borders!
In the #GospelOfTheDay, Jesus exhorts us to be vigilant: not to allow our hearts to become lazy. We cannot be "sleepy Christians" without spiritual fervor, withour intensity in prayer, without passion for the Gospel.
Our life becomes beautiful when we wait for a dear one or someone important. May this #Advent help us transform our hope into the certainty that He whom we await loves us and will never abandon us.
Let us be fearless amid the messy situations all around us, because that is where the Lord is, in our midst; God continues to perform his miracle of bringing forth good fruit (Jn 15:5). Christian joy is born precisely of this certainty.
The prayer of adoration is the prayer that makes us recognize God as the beginning and the end of all of History. And this prayer is the living flame of the Spirit that gives strength to witness and to mission.
Let us not to forget to thank God. If we are bearers of gratitude, the world itself will become better, even if only a little bit, but that is enough to transmit a bit of hope. Everything is united and connected, and each one can do their part wherever they are. #Thanksgiving
The various forms of ill-treatment that many women suffer are acts of cowardice and a degradation of all humanity. We must not look the other away. Women who are victims of violence must be protected by society.
The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept His offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and isolation. #EvangeliiGaudium vatican.va/content/f…
The Lord puts people who suffer on our path, people who feel alone or have lost their strength and courage. We must know how to recognize them and, with Saint Joseph's help, become their friends and their support on the journey of life. #GeneralAudience
Love rejoices in seeing others grow and suffers when others are anguished, lonely, sick, homeless, despised or in need. Love makes the heart leap; it brings us out of ourselves and creates bonds of sharing and communion.
If we put the #Gospel at the centre and bear witness to it with fraternal love, we will be able to look to the future with hope, whatever the tempests, great or small, we may experience today.
It is my hope and prayer that each of you can joyfully say: “With Jesus, I too am a king”. I too reign: as a living sign of the love of God, of his compassion and his tenderness. #ChristTheKing vatican.va/content/f…
Dear young friends! Be free and authentic, be the critical conscience of society. Be passionate about truth, so that, with your dreams, you can say: “My life is not captive to the mindset of the world: I am free, because I reign with Jesus for justice, love and peace!” #WYD
The kingship of Jesus is completely different than that of the world: He did not come to dominate but to serve. He did not come amid signs of power, but with the power of signs. He is not like other kings, but he is King for the others. #ChristTheKing
Today Christ's invitation to Paul is directed to every one of you young people: Get up! Do not remain on the ground "feeling sorry for yourself". There's a mission waiting for you! You too can testify to what Jesus has begun to accomplish in you.
The way we relate to children, the extent to which we respect their innate human dignity and fundamental rights, expresses what kind of adults we are and want to be, and what kind of society we want to build. #WorldChildrensDay
Child labor is the exploitation of children. It is the denial of their rights to health, education, harmonious growth, to play, to dream. It means robbing children of their future, and therefore, humanity itself.
Dear young people, if our world is to arise, it needs your strength, your enthusiasm, your passion! vatican.va/content/f…
#Prayer is primarily listening and encountering God. The problems of everyday life, then, do not become obstacles, but appeals from God himself to listen to and encounter those who are in front of us. The trials of life thus change into opportunities to grow in faith and charity.
Saint Joseph, you who came from the periphery, help us change our vision and to take care of those persons who are discarded or are on the margins of society. #GeneralAudience
Dialogue between members of different religions does not take place simply for diplomacy, courtesy or tolerance. The goal of dialogue is to establish friendship, peace and harmony, to share spiritual and moral values and experiences in a spirit of truth and love. #DayForTolerance
I am grateful for all the initiatives of solidarity on the occasion of the #WorldDayOfThePoor. I also invite you to repeat the strong moment of witness and prayer that we lived last Friday in Assisi. youtu.be/D6dTr8lwtLk
That is the word that makes hope blossom in the world and relieves the suffering of the poor: tenderness. We need to overcome the temptation to be concerned only about our own problems; we need to grow tender before the tragedies of our world, to share its pain.
Let us bring an outlook of hope to our world. Let us bring it with tenderness to the poor, without judging them. For there, with them, is Jesus; because there, in them, is Jesus, who awaits us. #WorldDayOfThePoor vatican.va/content/f…
A person who is generous, helpful, meek, patient, not envious, does not gossip, brag, or lack respect (cf. 1 Cor 13:4-7), this is a person who builds Heaven on earth. That person may not be noticed, and yet, what he or she does will not be lost because good lasts forever.
What is it that gives solidity to life, and will never end? Saint Paul tells us: “Love never ends” (1 Cor 13:8).
We are called to discover Christ in the poor, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to understand them and to welcome the mysterious wisdom that God wants to communicate to us through them. vatican.va/content/f…
It is time that the circle of indifference be broken so as to discover once again the beauty of encounter and dialogue.
It is time that violence against women cease and that they be respected and not treated like bargaining chips.
It is time to be scandalised once again before the reality of children who are starving, reduced to slavery, tossed about in the water in the aftermath of a shipwreck, innocent victims of every sort of violence.
It is time for sleeves to be rolled up so dignity can be restored by creating jobs.
It is time that eyes be opened to see the state of inequality in which many families live.
It is time that the poor be given back their voice, because for too long their requests have remained unheard.
Here at the Portiuncula, Saint Francis welcomed Saint Clare, the first brothers, and many poor people who came to him. Hospitality means to open the door, the door of our house and the door of our heart, and to allow the person who knocks to come in.
There cannot be a cooperation that generates peace without concrete collective dedication that promotes integral disarmament. #ParisPeaceForum2021
It is time to develop a new form of universal solidarity that is grounded in fraternity, love, and mutual understanding: one that values people over profit, one that seeks new ways to understand development and progress. #COP26
If we do not want to live life poorly, let us ask for the grace to see Jesus in the poor, to serve Jesus in the poor. #SaintMartinOfTours
"Faith in Christ in your heart is like Christ in the boat" (Saint Augustine). We wake Christ up in our hearts and then we can contemplate things with his vision because He sees beyond the storm. #GeneralAudience
Let us commit ourselves to fostering an education in fraternity, so that the outbursts of hatred that would destroy that fraternity will not prevail. The threat of antisemitism still lurking in Europe and elsewhere is a threat that must be defused.
The world needs Christians who know how to demonstrate the beauty of the Gospel by the way they live; who are weavers of dialogue, models of fraternal life; who bring the sweet fragrance of hospitality and solidarity, who protect and safeguard life.
Let us #PrayTogether for the people of #Ethiopia, so sorely tried by the conflict that has lasted more than a year and has caused numerous victims and a serious humanitarian crisis. I renew my appeal for fraternal harmony on the peaceful path of dialogue.
In the #GospelOfTheDay (Mk 12:38-44), Jesus proposes the poor wideo as a teacher of faith: the sound of her few coins is more beautiful than the grandiose offerings of the rich, since they express a life sincerely dedicated to God with unconditional trust.
Let us care for our common home, and also for ourselves, trying to eliminate the seeds of conflict: greed, indifference, ignorance, fear, injustice, insecurity and violence. Humanity has never before had at its disposal so many means for achieving this goal #COP26 #EnvConflictDay
Consolation is a strength that does not come from ourselves, but from the One who is with us: Jesus, the God-with-us. Let us encourage ourselves with this certainty, with God's consolation. And let us as the Sacred Heart for the grace of being able to console when it is our turn.
Passion. The Heart of Christ is an impassioned heart, wounded by love, torn open for us on the cross. That tenderness and suffering, that Heart reveals what God's passion is: man.
Memory. To remember means "to return with the heart". It is good for us to nurture our memory with those who have loved us, taken care of us, lifted us up. The Heard of Jesus reminds us that whatever happens to us in life, we are loved.
Contemplating the Heart of Christ, we can allow ourselves to be guided by three words: memory, passion and comfort.
Being a member of the people of God is a gift, a responsibility: the responsibility of witnessing by our deeds, not just our words, to God’s wonderful works, which, once known, help people to acknowledge his existence and to receive his salvation. #Synod
May the protection of minors be more and more a concrete, ordinary priority within the Church's educational works. May it be the promotion of an open, trustworthy and reliable service, in strict contrast to every form of domination, betrayal of intimacy or silent complicity.
Today, before the mystery of death that has been redeemed, let us ask for the grace of perceiving adversity with new eyes. Let us ask for the strength to know how to live in humble and confident silence that awaits the Lord's salvation, without complaining and without grumbling.
Let us #PrayTogether that people who suffer from depression or burn-out will find support and a light that opens them up to life. #PrayerIntention pic.twitter.com/8EXv…
When we are tempted to judge others badly, we must rather reflect on our own weakness. It is good to ask ourselves what drives us to correct a brother or a sister, and if we are not in some way co-responsible for their mistake. #GeneralAudience
Love is the supreme rule for following the path of Christ, it makes us aware of our weakness, and merciful and in solidarity with the difficulties and weaknesses of others. #GeneralAudience
