Pope Francis  November 2019

Dialogue and reconciliation in the Middle East

Let us pray that a spirit of dialogue, encounter, and reconciliation emerge in the Middle East, where diverse religious communities share their lives together.  

In the Middle East, concord and dialogue among the three monotheistic religions is based on spiritual and historic bonds. The Good News of Jesus, risen out of love, came to us from these lands. Today, many Christian communities, together with Jewish and Muslim communities, work here for peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Let us pray that a spirit of dialogue, encounter, and reconciliation emerge in the Middle East.  

Pope Francis Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica  09.11.19

There is no human heart in which Christ does not want to be and cannot be reborn. In our lives as sinners, we often turn away from the Lord and extinguish the Spirit. We destroy the temple of God that is in each of us. Yet this is never a definitive situation: it takes the Lord three days to rebuild his temple within us! 

No one, no matter how wounded by evil, is condemned to be separated from God on this earth forever.

Pope Francis  Angelus 10.11.19

This earthly dimension in which we live now is not the only dimension, but that there is another dimension, no longer subject to death, in which it will be fully manifested that we are children of God. It gives great consolation and hope to listen to this simple and clear word of Jesus about life beyond death; we need it so much especially in our time, so rich in knowledge about the universe but so poor in wisdom about eternal life.

After this earthly pilgrimage, what will become of our lives? Will it belong to nothing, to death?

There is no life where one has the pretension of belonging only to oneself and of living as an island: in these attitudes death prevails. It's selfishness. If I live for myself, I am sowing death in my heart. Eternal life is our destiny. It is this life that we are called to prepare through evangelical choices.   

Pope Francis - World Day of Care for Creation  01.09.19

Tragically, the human response to this gift has been marked by sin, selfishness and a greedy desire to possess and exploit..
The environment itself is endangered: something good in God’s eyes has become something to be exploited in human hands. Deterioration has increased in recent decades: constant pollution, the continued use of fossil fuels, intensive agricultural exploitation and deforestation are causing global temperatures to rise above safe levels. The increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather phenomena and the desertification of the soil are causing immense hardship for the most vulnerable among us. Melting of glaciers, scarcity of water, neglect of water basins and the considerable presence of plastic and microplastics in the oceans are equally troubling, and testify to the urgent need for interventions that can no longer be postponed.

We have caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself, including our own...

I strongly encourage the faithful to pray in these days...

It is also a season to reflect on our lifestyles, and how our daily decisions about food, consumption, transportation, use of water, energy and many other material goods, can often be thoughtless and harmful...
Now is the time to abandon our dependence on fossil fuels and move, quickly and decisively, towards forms of clean energy and a sustainable and circular economy...

This too is a season for undertaking prophetic actions.

Many young people all over the world are making their voices heard and calling for courageous decisions. They feel let down by too many unfulfilled promises, by commitments made and then ignored for selfish interests or out of expediency. The young remind us that the earth is not a possession to be squandered, but an inheritance to be handed down. They remind us that hope for tomorrow is not a noble sentiment, but a task calling for concrete actions here and now. We owe them real answers, not empty words, actions not illusions...

The forthcoming United Nations Climate Action Summit is of particular importance. There, governments will have the responsibility of showing the political will to take drastic measures to achieve as quickly as possible zero net greenhouse gas emissions and to limit the average increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius with respect to pre-industrial levels...

May God, “the lover of life” (Wis 11:26), grant us the courage to do good without waiting for someone else to begin, or until it is too late.

 

Pope Francis General Audience 13.11.19

Through the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, we continue to follow a journey: the journey of the Gospel in the world.

Paul with Priscilla and Aquila - a couple in the service of the Gospel - Acts 18: 1-26

Pope Francis Requiem Mass for Cardinals and Bishops who died in the last year 04.11.19

Today did I do everything while thinking only of my concerns, rejoicing only in things that went well for me and complaining about those that didn’t? In a word, did I live my day coming to the Lord, or was I simply orbiting around myself? And where am I headed? Do I seek only to make a good impression, to protect my role, my schedule and my free time?

The Saints are not simply symbols, or distant and unreachable people. On the contrary, they are people who have lived with their feet on the ground; they have experienced the daily toil of existence with its successes and failures, finding in the Lord the strength to always rise up and continue the journey. 

The Saints leads us to raise our eyes to Heaven: not to forget the realities of the earth, but to face them with more courage, and with more hope. 

Pope Francis Holy Mass World Day for Migrants and Refugees 29.09.19

We must pay special attention to the strangers in our midst as well as to widows, orphans and all the outcasts of our time.

The Lord calls us to practise charity towards all those in existential peripheries who, together with migrants and refugees, are victims of the throwaway culture. He calls us to restore their humanity, as well as our own, and to leave no one behind.

As Christians, we cannot be indifferent to the tragedy of old and new forms of poverty, to the bleak isolation, contempt and discrimination experienced by those who do not belong to “our” group.
We must not fail to weep. We must not fail to respond.

The Gospel in your pocket 

"How do we receive the Word of God?”. The response is clear: “As one receives Jesus Christ. The Church tells us that Jesus is present in the Scripture, in His Word”.

"Always carry a small Gospel with you in your purse, in your pocket, and read a passage from the Gospel during the day. Not so much “to learn” something, but mostly “to find Jesus, because Jesus actually is in His Word, in His Gospel”.  “Every time I read the Gospel, I find Jesus”.  - Pope Francis 01.09.14

 

Daily Readings - read the entire New Testament over a 2 year period (reading plan courtesy of Gideon International)

Pope Francis - Holy Mass, Santa Marta ( Domus Sanctae Marthae) 05.11.19

We will be faced with this choice, this option, many times along the journey of life: either the lavishness of the Lord, going to visit the Lord, encountering the Lord, or closing myself in on my own affairs, my own interests.

The Lord's reaction to our refusal is firm: he wants all sorts of people called to the feast, brought there, even forced to come, good people and bad. Everyone is invited. Everyone. No one can say, 'I am bad, I can’t ...'. No. The Lord is waiting for you in a special way because you are bad.

Pope Francis - Holy Mass, Santa Marta ( Domus Sanctae Marthae) 31.10.19

Paul was sure that the Lord would never abandon him. He understood the love of Christ in his own life. This is the path that Paul shows us: the path of love at all times, through thick and thin, at every moment.

Christ’s love, cannot be described. It is immeasurable.

Pope Francis - Holy Mass, Santa Marta ( Domus Sanctae Marthae) 29.10.19

Hope is in fact like throwing an anchor to the other shore and clinging to the rope.
Hope is this living in tension, always; knowing that we cannot make a nest here: the life of the Christian is in ongoing tension.

Pope Francis
Sunday of the Word of God
Aperuit Illis 30.09.19

"He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Lk 24:45).  

A Sunday given over entirely to the word of God, so as to appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and his people - the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world, and everything he touches becomes young, new, full of life. The very first words, then, that I would like to say to every young Christian are these: Christ is alive and he wants you to be alive!