Bishops from Europe and North America will visit East Jerusalem, Ramallah and the Gaza Strip on 11-16 January. Their schedule includes official meetings as well as visits with seniors, the sick and the disabled, focused on prayer, pilgrimage, persuasion and presence.
“Jesus teaches us a simple thing when he goes to the essentials. The essential is health, overall [health]: that of the body and that of the soul. Let us protect that of the body, but also that of the soul. And let's go to that Doctor who can heal us, who can forgive sins. Jesus came for this, [and] gave his life for it.”
Receiving an ecumenical delegation from the Lutheran Church of Finland, Francis said that "hospitality is likewise part of our shared witness of faith in daily life". The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which begins tomorrow, "shows us this ecumenical virtue, and above all recommends it to us".
"His compassion, He will take upon Himself our problems, our sins, our inner diseases, everything". " “Compassion gets involved, it comes from the heart and gets involved, and it leads you to do something. Compassion is “suffering with”, taking the suffering of the other person upon yourself in order to resolve it, to heal it."
The Church "although persecuted, misunderstood and chained, never tires of welcoming every man and woman with a motherly heart to announce to them the love of the Father who made himself visible in Jesus".
"Inconsistent" Christians and "schizophrenic" pastors who say one thing and do another harm the community. "Those who have responsibility for the people - in this case pastoral responsibility - but are not consistent are guilty of hypocrisy, they are not gentlemen, they have no authority".
Jesus teaches us "the attitude of simplicity, respect, moderation and concealment, required even today of the Lord's disciples".
Francis baptizes 32 babies, 17 boys and 15 girls. “This is the message that I would like to give you today. You bring your children today, [so they may have] the Holy Spirit within them. Now you must take care that they grow with light, with the power of the Holy Spirit within them, through catechesis, helping, teaching, the examples you will be for them in your homes ... This is the message ".
"We love God because He loved us first." The beginning of love comes from Him. "I begin to love, or I can begin to love, because I know that He loved me first". "Being a liar is the devil's way to behave: he is the Great Liar."
The "peace amongst the nations" or in a country "is sown in the heart". For the pontiff, “if we do not have peace in the heart, how can we imagine peace in the world?” Yet “normally” we don't think about it. “Usually our way of doing things in the family, in the neighbourhood, at work is a way of making war", it “is the devil’s temptation to make war.”
More shadows than lights in Pope’s New Year’s speech to the diplomatic corps. The situations in Libya, Yemen and Syria of concern, but also terrorism in Africa. The "great cemetery" of the Mediterranean and human trafficking. The "serious injuries" of sexual abuse. Young people’s sensitivity towards the ecology. The Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together signed with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar.
"Being sensitive to the many shipwrecked people of history who arrive exhausted on our shores, so that we too know how to welcome them with that brotherly love that comes from our encounter with Jesus".
The Holy Spirit "is the guarantee that God remains in us", whilst worldliness makes us thoughtless, to the point of not distinguishing good from evil. It is "even worse than sinning.” For the pontiff, the faithful should not trust every spirit, trust what they feel, but put it to a test instead. Thus “we will know what happens in our heart” because "many Christians have hearts like a road and do not know who is going and who is returning; they come and go because they do not know how to see what happens inside.”
"We are the ones who have to change, to transform our way of life even in the usual environment, to change the criteria for judging the reality that surrounds us. Here is the difference between the true God and the treacherous idols, such as money, power, success ...; between God and those who promise to give you these idols, like magicians, fortune tellers, sorcerers."
Rediscovering adoration as a "requirement" of faith, because "once we lose the sense of worship, we lose our direction in the Christian life, which is a journey towards the Lord, not towards ourselves". "Theology and pastoral effectiveness mean little or nothing unless we bend the knee; unless we kneel down like the Magi, who were not only knowledgeable about planning a journey, but also capable of setting out and bowing down in worship".
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