How can I be a good confessor?
A priest needs to think of his own sins, to listen with tenderness, to pray to the Lord for a heart as merciful as his, and not to cast the first stone because he, too, is a sinner who needs to be forgiven. He needs to try to resemble God in all his mercy.
â Pope Francis, The Name of God Is Mercy
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April 16, 2021
April 14, 2021
April 14, 2021
April 13, 2021
April 13, 2021
April 11, 2021
April 11, 2021
Sadly, in this world, with all its highly developed technology, great numbers of children continue to live in inhuman situations, exploited, maltreated, enslaved, refugees. Today, in acknowledging this, we feel shame before God, before God who became a child. #EndChildSlavery
Even death trembles when a Christian prays, because it knows that everyone who prays has an ally who is stronger than it: the Risen Lord. #Prayer #Easter
The breath of faith is #prayer: we grow in faith inasmuch as we learn to pray. #GeneralAudience vatican.va/content/f…
In the midst of the contradictions and perplexities we must confront each day, the din of so many words and opinions, there is the quiet voice of the Risen Lord who keeps saying to us: âPeace be with you!â
Jesus is the Risen One, the Lord who passed through death in order to lead us to safety. Even before we begin to seek Him, He is present beside us. He lifts us back up after our falls. He helps us grow in faith. #Easter
Mercy is made tangible, it becomes closeness, service, care for those in difficulty. I hope you will always feel you have been granted mercy, so as to be merciful to others in turn.
So let us be renewed by the peace, forgiveness and wounds of the merciful Jesus. Only in this way will our faith be alive. Only in this way will we proclaim the Gospel of God, which is the Gospel of mercy. vatican.va/content/f…
Today is the day to ask, âAm I, who have so often received Godâs mercy, merciful to others?â Let us not live a one-way faith, a faith that receives but does not give. Having received mercy, let us now become merciful. #DivineMercy
The wounds of Jesus are open channels between him and us, shedding mercy upon our misery. They are pathways that God has opened up for us to enter into his tender love and actually âtouchâ who he is. Let us never again doubt his mercy. #DivineMercy
The Lord does not want us to keep thinking about our failings. He wants us to look to Him. In our failings He sees children to help up; in our misery He sees children in need of His merciful love. #DivineMercy
The Lord calls us to cooperate in the construction of history, becoming, together with Him, peacemakers and witnesses of hope in a future of salvation and resurrection.
#Easter is the most important feast of our faith because it is the feast of our salvation, the feast of God's love for us.
The first way to pray for someone is to speak to God about him or her. If we do this frequently, each day, our hearts are not closed, but open to our brothers and sisters. To pray for others is the first way to love them and it moves us toward concretely drawing near. #Prayer
Everyone needs assistance, especially the most vulnerable. Only together can we build a more just and health world. All of us are called to combat the pandemic and vaccines are an essential tool in this fight. #worldhealthday
In these dark months of the #pandemic, let us listen to the Risen Lord as he invites us to begin anew and never lose hope. #Easter
Let us never tire of seeking the risen Christ who gives life in abundance to those who meet him. To find Christ means to discover peace in our hearts. #Easter #ReginaCoeli
There are still too many wars and too much violence in the world! May the Lord, who is our peace, help us to overcome the mindset of war. vatican.va/content/f…
Amid the many hardships we are enduring, let us never forget that we have been healed by the wounds of Christ. In the light of the Risen Lord, our sufferings are now transfigured. Where there was death, now there is life. Where there was mourning, now there is consolation.
Dear brother, dear sister: if on this night you are experiencing an hour of darkness, a day that has not yet dawned, a light dimmed or a dream shattered, open your heart with amazement to the message of #Easter: âDo not be afraid, he has risen!â
This is the third message of #Easter: Jesus, the Risen Lord, loves us without limits and is there at every moment of our lives. He invites us to overcome barriers, banish prejudices and draw near to those around us every day in order to rediscover the grace of everyday life.
This is the second message of #Easter: faith is not an album of past memories; Jesus is not outdated. He is alive here and now. He walks beside you each day, in every situation you are experiencing, in every trial you have to endure, in your deepest hopes and dreams.
This is the first #Easter message that I would offer you: it is always possible to begin anew, because there is a new life that God can awaken in us in spite of all our failures. From the rubble of our hearts, God can create a work of art.
From the cross God reigns with the disarmed and disarming power of love. He continues to amaze our minds and hearts. Let us allow ourselves to be filled with that amazement. Let us gaze upon the Crucified One and say: âTruly, You are the Son of God." You are my God. #GoodFriday
Jesus's cross is God's silent throne. Let us daily contemplate his wounds. In those gashes, we recognize our emptiness, our shortcomings, the wounds of our sin. His wounds were inflicted for our sake, and by those wounds we have been healed. #GoodFriday
The cross expresses love, service, unreserved self-giving: it truly is the âtree of lifeâ, of overabundant life. #GoodFriday
The Eucharist is Jesus himself who gives himself entirely to us. Nourishing ourselves of Him and abiding in Him through Eucharistic Communion, if we do so with faith, transforms our life, transforms it into a gift to God and to our brothers and sisters. #HolyThursday
The preaching of the Gospel is effective not because of our eloquent words but because of the power of the cross (cf. 1 Cor 1:17). #ChrismMass vatican.va/content/f…
The process of conversion always entails the cross. There is no holiness without sacrifice and without a spiritual battle. #HolyWeek
Christâs Cross is like a beacon that indicates the port to ships that are still afloat on stormy seas. It is the sign of the hope that does not disappoint. And it tells us that not even one tear, not one sigh is lost in Godâs saving plan. #Holy Week
Along the daily way of the cross, we meet the faces of so many brothers and sisters in difficulty: let us not pass by, let us allow our hearts to be moved with compassion, and let us draw near.
Jesus was lifted up on the cross to descend into our suffering, to plumb the depths of our human experience, to draw near to us and not abandon us in our suffering and our death. To redeem us, to save us. #HolyWeek
During these days, the Church enters into the great meditation of the Lord's Passion. The suffering Christ is present in the person of the poor, the excluded, the sick, the hungry, those who bear the mystery of the cross with Him. #HolyWeek
What is most amazing about the Lord and his Passover? It is the fact that he achieves glory through humiliation. He triumphs by accepting suffering and death, things that we, in our quest for admiration and success, would rather avoid. #PalmSunday
God is at our side in every affliction, in every fear; no evil, no sin will ever have the final word. God triumphs, but the palm of victory passes through the wood of the cross. For the palm and the cross are inseparable. #PalmSunday vatican.va/content/f…
We are called to recognize that other living beings have a value of their own in Godâs eyes: by their mere existence they bless him and give him glory, and indeed, the Lord rejoices in all his works (Ps 104:31). #EarthHour #LaudatoSiâ
âWhy are you afraid? Have you no faith?â (Mk 4:35-41). We have realized we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together. #PrayTogether #Covid-19 e.va/statioorbisen
Those who fast make themselves poor with the poor and "accumulate" the treasure of a love received and shared. Understood and practiced thus, fasting helps us love God and our neighbour, because love focuses our attention on others and considers them as one with ourselves. #Lent
I would like once more to invite everyone to witness to the âGospel of Lifeâ, to promote and defend life in all its dimensions and at every stage. The Christian is the person who says âyesâ to life, who says âyesâ to God, the Living One. #EvangeliumVitae
At this particular moment in history, characterized by many shadows, the figure of Dante, prophet of hope, can help us to advance with serenity and courage on the pilgrimage of life that each of us is called to make. vatican.va/content/f…
Mary is not only the bridge joining us to God; she is more. She is the road that God travelled to reach us, and the road that we must travel in order to reach him. #AnnunciationOfTheLord
#Praytogether for the victims and those reported missing because of the terrible fire that broke out in a #Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, which generously welcomed thousands of people. Let us pray for the twenty thousand brothers and sisters, who lost the little they had.
Mary was and is present in these days of the pandemic, near to the people who, unfortunately, have concluded their earthly journey all alone, without the comfort of or the closeness of their loved ones. Mary is always there next to us, with her maternal tenderness.
I learned with sorrow the news of the recent terrorist attacks in #Niger, which caused the deaths of 137 people. Let us #PrayTogether for the victims, for their families and for the entire population.
I am near the people and the families affected by the major floods that have caused serious damage in New South Wales in Australia, especially those who saw their houses destroyed. #PrayTogether
Today is World #Tuberculosis Day. May this annual event foster a renewed interest in the treatment of this disease and increased solidarity toward those who suffer from it.
May we not let this time of grace pass in vain, in the foolish illusion that we can control the times and means of our conversion to the Lord! #Lent
How many times have we told the Lord: âLord, I will come to you later... I canât come today. Tomorrow I will begin to pray and do something for othersâ. In this life, we will always have things to do and excuses to offer, but right now is the time to return to God. #Lent
For us believers, âsister waterâ is not merchandise: it is a universal symbol and is the source of life and health. Many brothers and sisters have access to too little and perhaps polluted water. It is necessary to assure potable water and hygienic services to all. #WorldWaterDay
âUnless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruitâ (Jn 12:23-24). Precisely then, in trials and in solitude while the seed is dying, that is the moment in which life blossoms, to bear ripe fruit in due time
Every child who a woman expects in her womb is a gift that changes a familyâs history: the life of fathers and mothers, grandparents and of brothers and sisters. That child needs to be welcomed, loved and nurtured. Always! #WorldDownSyndromeDay
Racism is a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting. Instances of racism continue to shame us, for they show that our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive as we think. #FightRacism #FratelliTutti
Each day that begins, if welcomed in #prayer, is accompanied by courage, so that the problems we have to face no longer seem to be obstacles to our #happiness, but rather appeals from God, opportunities for our encounter with him. #WorldHappinessDay
To be a good father means to offer everything, holding nothing back; to protect without suffocating; to pardon without asking anything in return; to wait patiently and trustingly. It means following the example of the "Good Father" who is in heaven. May God bless all fathers!
Saint Joseph is an outstanding example of acceptance of Godâs plans. May he help everyone, especially young people who are discerning, to make Godâs dreams for them come true. #Vocations vatican.va/content/f…
I pray that every family may feel the living presence of the Holy Family of Nazareth in their own home, that they may fill our small domestic communities with sincere and generous love, a source of joy even in trials and difficulties. #AmorisLaetitia pic.twitter.com/ku78…
To experience #Lent in hope means receiving the hope of Christ, who gave his life on the cross and was raised by God on the third day, and always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls us to account for our hope (1 Pt 3,15).
With great sorrow, I must recall the dramatic situation in #Myanmar, where many people, especially young people, are losing their lives to offer hope to their country. I too kneel in the streets of Myanmar and say: End the violence! May dialogue prevail!
The Holy Spirit writes the history of the Church and of the world. We are open books, willing to receive his handwriting. And in each of us the Spirit composes original works, because there is never one Christian who is completely identical to another. #GeneralAudience
In these days of uncertainty about our future, in our charity may we speak works of reassurance and help others to realise that God loves them as sons and daughters. #Lent
