Pope calls all Catholics to be missionaries of God’s mercy

By Cindy Wooden • Catholic News Service • Posted April 12, 2021

Pope Francis celebrates Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday at the Church of the Holy Spirit near the Vatican in Rome April 11, 2021. Also pictured is Msgr. Jozef Bart, right, rector of the church. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

ROME (CNS) — Like the disciples, who experienced Jesus’ divine mercy after the resurrection, all Christians are called to become missionaries, sharing the Gospel of God’s love and mercy with others, Pope Francis said.

“Today Jesus tells us, too, ‘Peace be with you! You are precious in my eyes. Peace be with you! You are important for me. Peace be with you! You have a mission. No one can take your place. You are irreplaceable. And I believe in you,'” the pope said April 11.

Pope Francis celebrated the Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday at the Rome Church of the Holy Spirit, just a block away from St. Peter’s Square. The church is the Rome Shrine of Divine Mercy, a devotion begun by St. Faustina Kowalska and promoted by St. John Paul II.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, fewer than 100 people were present for the Mass, wearing masks and seated only two people to a pew, except if they were members of the same family.

At the end of the Mass, Pope Francis thanked those invited: nurses and doctors from the hospital next door, refugees, people with disabilities, priests serving as “missionaries of mercy,” inmates from several correctional institutes and representatives of Italy’s civil protection service. The pope told them they represent “realities where mercy becomes concrete, draws close and serves those in difficulty.”

After reciting the “Regina Coeli” prayer with those present, the pope greeted each individual personally, shaking hands, blessing them and even posing for a few selfies.

In his homily at the Mass, Pope Francis focused on how, prior to the resurrection, the disciples misunderstood so much of what Jesus said and how they abandoned or even denied him at the hour of his passion and death.

But when the disciples are hovering in fear in the closed room, he noted, the Risen Lord appears to them and “raises them up with his mercy.”

“Having received that mercy, they become merciful in turn,” the pope said. “It’s very difficult to be merciful if you have not been shown mercy.”

Saying, “Peace be with you,” Jesus sets their troubled hearts at ease and forgives their failings, he said, lifting them up and filling them with the courage they need to be his witnesses.

“The disciples were guilty; they had run away, they had abandoned the master,” the pope said. “Sin brings torment; evil has its price. Our sin, as the psalmist says, is always before us.”

“Like those disciples, we need to let ourselves be forgiven,” the pope said. “Let us ask for the grace to accept that gift, to embrace the sacrament of forgiveness. And to understand that confession is not about ourselves and our sins, but about God and his mercy.”

“We do not confess to abase ourselves, but to be raised up,” he said, and “we — all of us — need this badly.”

Speaking to priests, Pope Francis said that anytime they hear someone’s confession, they “ought to convey the sweetness of mercy … the sweetness of Jesus, who forgives everything. God forgives everything.”

When Jesus showed the disciples the wounds of his crucifixion, the pope said, he was not simply proving he had risen, but also made it possible for them to see and touch “the fact that God has loved us to the end. He has made our wounds his own and borne our weaknesses in his own body.”

The day’s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, recounted how the early Christian community shared everything they had in common. “This is not communism, but pure Christianity,” the pope said.

The disciples “discovered that they shared the mission, the forgiveness and the body of Jesus, and so it seemed natural to share their earthly possessions,” he said. “Their fears had been dispelled by touching the Lord’s wounds, and now they are unafraid to heal the wounds of those in need, because there they see Jesus. Because Jesus is there in the wounds of the needy.”

Catholics today, he said, need to ask themselves if they show others the mercy they have been shown by God and if they feed the hungry like Jesus feeds them in the Eucharist.

“Let us not remain indifferent,” Pope Francis said. “Let us not live a one-way faith, a faith that receives but does not give, a faith that accepts the gift but does not give it in return.”

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Faith is bolstered by prayer, not money, power, media, pope says

Pope Francis leads his general audience in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican April 14, 2021. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By: Carol Glatz

Date: April 14, 2021

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  Pope Francis leads his general audience in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican April 14, 2021. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Without prayer, everything crumbles and any initiatives for church reform will just be proposals by some group and not the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis said.

“Everything in the church originates in prayer and everything grows thanks to prayer,” the pope said April 14 during his weekly general audience.

If there is no prayer, the church becomes “like an empty shell” that has lost its bearings and “no longer possesses its source of warmth and love,” he said, and it ends up being made up of groups of “entrepreneurs of faith” that are well organized and busy with charitable activities but lack faith.

Continuing his series of talks on prayer, the pope reflected on the role of the church as a school of faith and prayer.

“The breath of faith is prayer,” the pope said. “We grow in faith inasmuch as we learn to pray,” and over time, especially after crises or difficult periods in life, “we become aware that without faith, we could not have made it through and that our strength was prayer.”

That is why groups or communities that are dedicated to prayer “flourish in the church” and can become “centers of spiritual light, small oases in which intense prayer is shared and fraternal communion is constructed day by day,” breathing life into the church and society itself, he said.

“Praying and working in community keeps the world going,” Pope Francis said.

When the devil wants to attack the church, he starts with sapping its strength by hindering prayer, he said.

For example, he said, “we see this in certain groups who agree to promote church reforms, changes in the life of the church” and they may be very well organized and have wide media outreach, “but you don’t see any prayer.”

The groups may have interesting ideas and proposals, but these only emerged from talking and through the media, not prayer, the pope said.

“Prayer is what opens the door to the Holy Spirit,” who inspires the path forward, he said. “Changes in the church without prayer are not changes made by the church, they are changes made by groups.”

Prayer gives people strength, he said, leading one’s life “securely forward” no matter how lowly, imperfect or weak one’s life may be.

“Holy women and men do not have easier lives than other people” since they have problems, too, and face opposition, he said. But with prayer, the saints “nourish the flame of their faith” and even though they often “count for little in the eyes of the world, they are in reality the ones who sustain it, not with the weapons of money and power, of the communications media and so on, but with the weapon of prayer.”

Christians, he said, should ask themselves whether they pray and reflect on how they pray, for example, “like parrots or do I pray with my heart?”

Do people pray with the church or “do I pray a bit according to my ideas and then make my ideas become prayer? This is a pagan prayer, not Christian,” he added.

The essential task of the church, the pope said, is to pray and to teach people how to pray and to hand down the “lamp of faith and the oil of prayer from generation to generation.”

“Without faith everything collapses; and without prayer faith is extinguished,” he said. But as long as “there is the oil of prayer,” the lamp of faith will always be lit on earth.

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Pope Francis: Youth are lost in a 'virtual world', instead of reality.

Rome, Italy, May 14, 2018 / 03:07 pm 

(CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis said Monday he is worried that youth are too enmeshed in a virtual world of cell phones and other technology, separated, in particular, from the real human contact experienced by performing works of mercy.

Answering a question about youth during a visit with the people of the Diocese of Rome May 14, the pope said that the works of mercy “help young people so much,” because they them to be grounded in “concreteness” and to “enter into a social relationship.”

“It worries me that they communicate and live in the virtual world,” he said, noting that on a recent visit with youth, instead of extending their hands when they saw him, they “greeted” him with their phones held up, taking photos and selfies.

“Their reality is that… not human contact. This is serious,” he continued. “We have to make young people ‘land’ in the real world. Touch reality. Without destroying the good things the virtual world can have,” because some things are needed, he acknowledged.

Pope Francis spoke during a visit to the cathedral of Rome, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, for a moment of prayer and to hear about the activities of the diocese. The encounter included Rome’s bishops, priests, religious, and members of the laity, among them representatives of the Catholic schools and various groups.

During the visit, the pope answered four questions, among them a question about young people and what he thought about the pre-synod meeting of over 300 young adults which took place in Rome in March ahead of the Synod of Bishops on young people and discernment.

He said that he had a good impression of the pre-synodal meeting and noted the participants’ hard work during the week to create the pre-synod document, which he said was “very beautiful… strong.”

The young people present “had courage to speak” and “really wanted to speak seriously,” he said.

Immediately following the Q&A, the pope gave a prepared speech, in which he spoke about what Catholics can learn from the Israelite’s exodus from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.

“The story of Exodus speaks of slavery, of an exit, of a passage, of an alliance, of a temptation and an entrance. But it is a journey,” he said.

The pope’s meeting with the Diocese of Rome concluded a period of reflection by the parishes and prefectures of Rome on “spiritual diseases,” which was begun during Lent.

“As you will have understood, I am inviting you to undertake another stage of the journey of the Church of Rome,” he said. “In a certain sense a new exodus, a new departure, which renews our identity as God’s people, without regrets for what we must leave.”

his period of self-reflection should lead to discernment of where God is present, even “in very ordinary forms of holiness,” he said, such as those people who are already living the Gospel in friendship with the Lord.

It will also be necessary, he continued, to listen to the cry of the people, as Moses was urged to do, “knowing how to interpret, in the light of the Word of God, the social and cultural phenomena in which you are immersed.”

Reflecting on weaknesses and sharing those with others may take time, Francis said, but having done it, Catholic communities and individuals are better prepared to serve others because they have felt and experienced the “gift of mercy and fullness of life for us and for all.”

The pope explained that Christ has loved everyone and continues to love everyone, demonstrating his care for people’s lives, that they are not “creatures abandoned to their destiny and their slavery. That everything is for our conversion and for our good.”

He also stated that Catholics should understand the truth that God did not make any mistake in putting him or her in this place at this time and with these challenges, and that if they find themselves “in a condition of slavery,” it was brought about by a dependence on created things.

The journey to the Promised Land was long for the Israelites – “40 years, eh?” – but they did not get tired, he said, inviting the Catholics of Rome to “spend some time” preparing to “reach the new land that the column of cloud and fire” will reveal.

“New conditions of life and pastoral action... To no longer be afraid of what we are and of the gift we have, but to make it fruitful,” he urged.

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On Easter, Pope asks: How will you respond to the resurrection?

Pope Francis celebrates Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square April 1, 2018

On Easter morning Pope Francis said God's announcement to his people always comes as a surprise, like the shock of the disciples who found Jesus' tomb empty after his resurrection, and told Christians not to waste time responding to the good news they've been given.

“The announcements of God are always a surprise, because ours is a God of surprises,” the Pope said April 1, on Easter morning. “From the beginning of the history of salvation, from Abraham, who God tells to 'go, get up and go to the land I send you to,' there's always one surprise after another.”

“God doesn't know how to make an announcement, a proclamation without surprising us,” he said, “and that surprise moves your heart, it touches you. It happens when you don't expect it.” 

Francis also spoke of the haste with which the women and the disciples in John's Gospel responded when they heard news of the empty tomb and Jesus' resurrection, and he posed a question to those present for the Mass, asking “what about you?”

“What about me? Is my heart open to God's surprises?” he said, urging Christians to ask themselves: “Am I able to go with great haste, or do I stay back and say, 'I'll go tomorrow'?”

Pope Francis celebrated Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square after presiding over the Easter Vigil inside the basilica the night before, bringing a close to the Easter Triduum and the events of Holy Week.

The altar during Mass was bedecked with some 50,000 flowers of different varieties, which were a gift from florists in Holland.

Though he usually sticks to his text during formal liturgies, Francis did not prepare a homily for Easter morning, and spoke to pilgrims in brief, off-the-cuff remarks. He did the same thing last year, meaning a spontaneous reflection Easter morning could be a new trend for the Argentine pope.

In his short homily, the pope focused on three aspects of the day's Gospel passage from John, in which Peter and John run to the tomb after Mary Magdalene tells them she found it empty earlier that morning.

The three aspects Pope Francis focused on are the surprise of the announcement, the haste with which the women and the disciples ran to the tomb, and the personal response of each

Please see below for the full text of Pope Francis' homily:

After having listened to the word of God, this passage from the Gospel, I want to say three things. First, the announcement: the Lord is Risen. That proclamation, that from the tine of the early Christians they would greet each other this way: the Lord is risen! And the women that were there to anoint the Lord's body, they found themselves in front of a surprise. The surprise. The announcements of God are always a surprise, because ours is a God of surprises. So from the beginning of the history of salvation, from Abraham, who God tells to 'go, get up and go to the land I send you to,' there's always one surprise after another. God doesn't know how to make an announcement, a proclamation without surprising us. And that surprise moves you heart, it touches you. It happens when you don't expect it. It's a surprise from 'down low', it takes you off guard. God's announcement was a surprise.

The rush, the women ran, they went in a hurry to get to the tomb, to say 'we found this!' The surprises of God put us on the path, on the journey right away, without waiting. So they run to see, and Peter and John, they run. The shepherds, the night of Christmas when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, ran...the Samaritan woman runs to tell her people, 'this is new, I met a man who told me everything I have ever done!' These people run, they leave what they're doing. The housewife leaves the potatoes in the pot, and they'll be burned, but it's important to run, to see that surprise that announcement. Today this also happens to us in our neighborhoods, when something happens and people go to see it. People go with great haste. Andrew didn't waste time and he went to Peter to say: 'we found the Messiah!' The surprises, the good news, are always given like this, with great haste. But in the Gospel there is a person who takes their time, who doesn't want to take a risk, but the Lord is good, and he waits for him with great love. This is Thomas, who said 'I'll believe when I see his wounds.' The Lord is patient with those people who do not get up and leave with great haste.

Thirdly, is a question: and me, what? What about me? Is my heart open to God's surprises? Am I able to go with great haste, or with that chant, do I stay back and say 'I'll go tomorrow'? What is the surprise saying to me? John and Peter, they ran to the tomb. John in his Gospel, tells us to believe. Even Peter, believed, but in his own way, with that faith that is a bit mixed with remorse for having denied the Lord. The announcement that has made a surprise, to run and go with great haste, and the question: what about me, today, in this Easter in 2018? What about me? What about you?

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