Dear Young People, do not be mediocre; the Christian life challenges us with great ideals!
Pope FrancisWhat is most important subject you have to learn in life? To learn how to love. This is the challenge that life offers you: to learn bow to love. Not just to accumulate information without knowing what to do with it. But through that love, let that information bear fruit.
Pope FrancisNeeding to talk badly about others indicates low self esteem. That means, 'I feel so low that instead of picking myself up, I have to cut others down.' Letting go of negative things quickly is healthy.
Pope FrancisThis visit is meant to express my closeness to our brothers and sisters who endured the suffering, loss and devastation caused by Typhoon Yolanda. Together with many people throughout the world, I have admired the heroic strength, faith and resilience demonstrated by so many Filipinos in the face of this natural disaster, and so many others.
Pope FrancisLet us not grow tired of knocking at God's door. Let us go to the heart of God through Mary, our whole life, every day, knocking at the door of God's heart! Mary prays - prays together with the community of disciples, and teaches us to have full faith in God, in his mercy. This is the power of prayer!
Pope FrancisAt times we can be self-absorbed. Lord, help us to open our hearts to others and to serve those who are most vulnerable.
Pope FrancisPutin has big plans for Russia...Hats off to the Russians. I think I would just get along very well with Vladimir Putin.
Pope FrancisThe whole of salvation history is the story of God looking for us: he offers us love and welcomes us with tenderness.
Pope FrancisThere are the saints of every day, the 'hidden' saints, a sort of 'middle class of holiness'... to which we can all belong.
Pope FrancisThe Roman Curia has its defects, but it seems to me that people often overemphasize its defects and talk too little about the health of the many religious and laypeople who work there.
Pope FrancisThe world is polarized. The middle class becomes smaller. The polarization makes the difference between rich and the poor big. This is true.
Pope FrancisAdvent increases our hope, a hope which does not disappoint. The Lord never lets us down.
Pope FrancisLet us keep the flame of faith alive through prayer and the sacraments: let us make sure we do not forget God.
Pope FrancisMany of you have asked the Lord, looking at Him: Why, Lord? And the Lord answers to each one of you, to your heart, Christ responds with His heart. It's the only thing I can tell you. Let us look to Christ, He is the Lord and He understands us because He underwent all the trials that we go through.
Pope FrancisBefore all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others.
Pope FrancisReligious life ought to promote growth in the Church by way of attraction. The Church must be attractive. Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world.
Pope FrancisBreathing is made up of two stages: inhaling, the intake of air, and exhaling, the letting out of air. The spiritual life is fed, nourished, by prayer and is expressed outwardly through mission: inhaling and exhaling. When we inhale, by prayer, we receive the fresh air of the Holy Spirit.
Pope FrancisThe pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet's capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world ... we need to reflect on our accountability before those who will have to endure the dire consequences.
Pope FrancisIt is important to integrate immigrants into society and to welcome them in the church community
Pope FrancisWe need to build up society in the light of the Beatitudes, walking towards the Kingdom with the least among us.
Pope FrancisThe imbalance results from ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and thus deny the right of control to States, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good.
Pope FrancisWe cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel!
Pope FrancisEven today we raise our hand against our brother... We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves as if it were normal we continue to sow destruction, pain, death. Violence and war lead only to death.
Pope FrancisHuman trafficking is a crime against humanity. We must unite our efforts to free the victims and stop this increasingly aggressive crime which threatens not only individuals but the basic values of society.
Pope FrancisSome people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.
Pope FrancisThe proclamation of Jesus is not a veneer: the proclamation of Jesus goes straight to the bones, heart, goes deep within and change us. And the spirit of the world does not tolerate it, will not tolerate it, and therefore, there is persecution.
Pope FrancisWe must not reduce the bosom of the universal church to a nest protecting our mediocrity.
Pope FrancisThe one thing that the Catholic Church desires, and that I seek as Bishop of Rome, “the Church which presides in charity”, is communion with the Orthodox Churches.
Pope FrancisWhen we are generous in welcoming people and sharing something with them-some food, a place in our homes, our time-not only do we no longer remain poor: we are enriched. I am well aware that when someone needing food knocks at your door, you always find a way of sharing food; as the proverb says, one can always 'add more water to the beans'! Is it possible to add more water to the beans?...Always?...And you do so with love, demonstrating that true riches consist not in materials things, but in the heart!
Pope FrancisIt is important to have friends we can trust. But it is essential to trust the Lord, who never lets us down.
Pope FrancisOurs is not a joy born of having many possessions, but of having encountered a person: Jesus in our midst.
Pope FrancisTo imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place.
Pope FrancisIn this work (peace building), the role of religion is fundamental. It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God, ... But the converse is also true: it is not possible to establish true links with God while ignoring other people. Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam.
Pope FrancisWe face so many challenges in life: poverty, distress, humiliation, the struggle for justice, persecutions, the difficulty of daily conversion, the effort to remain faithful to our call to holiness, and many others. But if we open the door to Jesus and allow him to be part of our lives, if we share our joys and sorrows with him, then we will experience the peace and joy that only God, who is infinite love, can give.
Pope Francis