“The Love that moves the sun and the other stars” still impels us to hope. Love moves us, urges us onward, awakens us from lethargy, inspires new vocations, and calls us to take risks. In love, there is never coercion or indoctrination; never seduction, deception, or recruitment. Love exists only in freedom, genuine encounter, and the generous gift of self. #PastoralVisit #Rimini https://t.co/q7Kyt8JLjt
Evil cannot be overcome with evil. On earth as in heaven, love is the law of life and the way of redemption, the way of the crucified Messiah. In opposition to the false realism that rearms minds, words, and nations, Catholic culture must today offer the realism of mercy, according to which there can be no enemies. Everyone, even our adversaries, is a brother or sister to be looked in the eye and encountered in truth. #PastoralVisit #Rimini
Music fosters communion. It helps unite our hearts to overcome differences between people and bring everyone together in praise of God through a symphony of voices. #GeneralAudience
From the Canaanite woman we learn humility and determination. Thanks to her faith, we learn that God’s table is set for everyone and that no one is left merely with crumbs, because each person has his or her own place with the Father. In the light of this faith, inequalities, discrimination and barriers that trample on the dignity of too many of God’s sons and daughters become unbearable. #GospelOfToday (Mt 15: 21-28)
The Blessed Virgin Mary, assumed into the glory of heaven, is a sign of hope and consolation for the entire People of God. For this reason, I wish to invoke her maternal intercession today on behalf of those communities that are in particular need of consolation and of renewed hope. My thoughts go out to our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land, which is also, par excellence, the Land of Mary. My thoughts also go out to the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, both of whom are united by their filial devotion to the Holy Mother of God, and to Christians who suffer discrimination or even persecution.
Jesus’ action in the #GospelOfTheDay (Mt 14:13-21) teaches us that nothing is discarded when it is shared. Hoarding and waste, however, are two sides of the same evil: greed. So, in the face of an opulence that reeks of decay, we find the outstretched hands of those who have no nourishment, the burned homes of those who have no peace.