Faith is born of the compassionate gaze with which God looks upon us. It softens the hardness of our hearts, heals our wounds, and gives us new eyes to gaze upon ourselves, others, and every situation we experience, even the most painful.
Let us never lose sight of the Father's saving embrace. It is the paradigm of life, the heart of the Gospel, our model of radical love. May we allow Him to embrace us as children, so that we may embrace our brothers and sisters with the same charity.
Let us
#PrayTogether
for martyred Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, and for so many other countries that are at war. War is always a defeat, and those who profit from it most are arms manufacturers. Please, let us pray for peace!
If we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, He will revive the theological virtues within us. If we have lost trust, God will reopen us to faith. If we are discouraged, God will reawaken hope within us. If our heart is hardened, God will soften it with His love.
#GeneralAudience
Pride is a potent poison: a single drop is enough to spoil an entire life filled with goodness. A person may have performed a mountain of good deeds, but if we did them only to exalt ourselves, then we cannot call ourselves virtuous.
The love we receive from the Lord is the force that transforms our lives and enables us to love. We are able to love only because He has loved us, because He pours His own Spirit of holiness into our hearts. His Love heals and transforms us.
Our generation has bequeathed many riches, but we have failed to protect the planet and we are not safeguarding peace. We are called to become artisans and caretakers of our common home, the Earth which is "falling into ruin."
#EarthDay
I pray every day for peace in Palestine and Israel, and hope that these two populations can soon stop suffering. And let us not forget martyred Ukraine, which suffers greatly because of the war.
I continue to follow the situation in the Middle East with concern and sorrow. I renew my appeal not to succumb to the logic of retribution and war. May the path of dialogue and diplomacy prevail, which can achieve so much.
Jesus, the
#GoodShepherd
, knows us and calls us by name. When we are lost, He seeks us until He finds us (Lk 15:4-5). Jesus not only shares the life of the flock, He is the Good Shepherd, who sacrificed His life for us and, having risen, has given us His Spirit.
#ReginaCoeli
The World Day of
#PrayerForVocations
invites us to reflect on the precious gift of the call that the Lord extends to each of us. May we participate in His loving plan and incarnate the beauty of the Gospel in all states of life.
Let us awake, set aside our indifference, and open the bars of the prisons in which we have sometimes shut ourselves. May each of us discover our
#Vocation
in the Church and in the world, becoming pilgrims of hope and artisans of peace!
Let us travel as pilgrims of hope towards the Holy Year. As we rediscover our
#Vocation
and share the various gifts of the Spirit, may we bear witness to Jesus’ dream: that we may be a single family, united in the love of God.
God is peace and He desires
#Peace
. Those who believe in Him should reject war, which only worsens conflicts. War is always and only a defeat. It is a road leading nowhere; it opens no horizons but extinguishes all hope.
May we learn to cultivate the virtue of temperance. By controlling our words and actions we can avoid useless conflicts and promote
#Peace
in our society.
#GeneralAudience
Let us
#PrayTogether
for millions of children who live in conditions bordering on slavery. Every child who has been abandoned, marginalized, or left without healthcare or schooling is a cry that rises up to God!
Jesus has triumphed over evil. He turned His cross into the bridge to the resurrection. Raise your hands to Him daily to praise and bless Him. Tell Him the hopes of your heart and share with Him your deepest secrets. God loves this kind of living, concrete, and heartfelt
#Prayer
.
The
#GospelOfTheDay
(Lk 24:35-48) invites us to share the moments when we perceived the Lord living and close, kindling joy in our hearts or drying our tears, transmitting trust and consolation, or forgiveness, tenderness, and peace.
Jesus knows us and loves us. If we remain in Him, we should not fear because every cross will be transformed into resurrection, every sadness into hope, and all mourning into dancing.
#EasterSeason