Pope Francis

March 13, 2013 – Present

MAY 19, 2019

Love with Jesus’ Love

JThis love makes us capable of loving our enemies and forgiving those who have offended us.

The love that was manifested in Christ’s Cross and that he calls us to live is the only force that transforms our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh; the only force capable of transforming our heart is Jesus’ love, if we too love with this love. And this love makes us capable of loving our enemies and forgiving those who have offended us. I will ask you a question; each of you can respond in your heart. Am I capable of loving my enemies? We all have people — whether ‘enemies’ I do not know — but who do not get along with us, who are on “the other side”; or some have people who have hurt them…. Am I capable of loving those people, that man, that woman who hurt me, who offended me? Am I capable of forgiving them? Each of you can respond in your heart. Jesus’ love shows us the other as a present or future member of the community of Jesus’ friends. It spurs us to dialogue and helps us to listen to one another and to mutually get to know each other. Love opens up toward the other, becoming the foundation of human relationships. It renders us capable of overcoming the barriers of our own weaknesses and prejudices. Jesus’ love within us creates bridges, teaches new paths, triggers the dynamism of fraternity. With her maternal intercession, may the Virgin Mary help us to receive from her son Jesus the gift of his commandment, and from the Holy Spirit, the strength to put it into practice in everyday life.

APRIL 24, 2016

Pray for Abductees in the World

Fr Valentín Palencia Marquina and his four companion martyrs were declared Blessed.

At the end of this Jubilee celebration, my thought goes in a special way to you, dear boys and girls. You have come to Italy from different parts of the world to live a moment of faith and fraternal conviviality. Thank you for your joyful and enthusiastic witness. Go forth with courage!

Yesterday in Burgos, Spain, Fr Valentín Palencia Marquina and his four companion martyrs were declared Blessed. They were killed for their faith during the Spanish Civil War. Let us praise the Lord for their courageous witness, and let us pray for their intercession to free the world from all violence.

I am always deeply concerned for the brother bishops, priests and religious, both Catholic and Orthodox, who have long been sequestered in Syria. May Merciful God touch the hearts of their abductors and allow our brothers and sisters to be set free and to return to their communities as soon as possible. For this I invite you all to pray, without forgetting other abductees in the world.

April 28, 2013

Spiritual Presence of Mary

May Mary help you to be attentive to what the Lord asks of you.

Mary invoked the Holy Spirit with the Apostles in the Upper Room: we too, every time that we come together in prayer, are sustained by the spiritual presence of the Mother of Jesus, in order to receive the gift of the Spirit and to have the strength to witness to Jesus Risen. I say this in a special way to you who have received Confirmation today: may Mary help you to be attentive to what the Lord asks of you, and to live and walk forever with the Holy Spirit!

Pope Benedict XVI

April 19, 2005 – February 28, 2013

MAY 2, 2010

Our Lady Consolata

Watch over those who have lost their faith and hope.

As we are about to conclude this solemn celebration, let us turn in prayer to Mary Most Holy, who is venerated in Turin as the principal Patron Saint, with the title of Our Lady Consolata. To her I entrust this city and all who live in it. O Mary, watch over the families and over the world of work. Watch over those who have lost their faith and hope. Comfort the sick, the prisoners and all the suffering. O Help of Christians, sustain the young, the elderly and people in difficulty. O Mother of the Church, watch over the Pastors and over the entire community of believers so that they may be “salt and light” in society.

The Virgin Mary is the one who, more than any other, contemplated God in the human face of Jesus. She saw him newborn, when she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger; she saw him just after he died, when, having been taken down from the Cross, he was wrapped in a shroud and carried to the tomb. Impressed within her was the image of her tortured Son, but this image was subsequently transfigured by the light of the Resurrection. Thus, in Mary’s heart the mystery of the Face of Christ was preserved a mystery of death and of glory. From her, we can always learn to look at Jesus with love and faith, and to see in that human face the Face of God.

MAY 6, 2007

Month of Mary

An occasion for preaching, catechesis and community prayer.

A few days ago the month of May began, which for many Christian communities is the Marian month par excellence. As such, down the centuries it has become one of the best-loved popular devotions and has been increasingly appreciated by Pastors as a favourable occasion for preaching, catechesis and community prayer.

After the Second Vatican Council, which emphasized the role of Mary Most Holy in the Church and in the history of salvation, Marian devotion underwent a profound renewal. And the month of May, coinciding at least in part with the Easter Season, is a most favourable time for explaining the figure of Mary as a Mother who accompanies the community of disciples united in prayer in expectation of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1: 12-14).

This month can thus be an opportunity to return to the faith of the primitive Church and, in union with Mary, to understand that our mission also today is to proclaim and witness with courage and joy to the Crucified and Risen Christ, the hope of humanity.

Pope Saint John Paul II

October 16, 1978 – April 2, 2005

MAY 13, 2001

In the Footsteps of St. Paul

The mission of the Apostle of the Gentiles

Today, with you, I would like to thank God and the Blessed Virgin for the Pilgrimage in the footsteps of St Paul which I recently had the joy of making. Athens, Damascus, Malta: impressed on my heart are the places which the mission of the Apostle of the Gentiles indissolubly linked to the history of Christianity. Next Wednesday at the General Audience, I will reflect at length on such an unforgettable trip, which was important from the ecumenical and interreligious standpoint.

Unfortunately it was marred by the sad news that continues to arrive from the Holy Land. In fact, we are facing a spiral of absurd violence! Sowing death every day only exasperates hearts and delays the blessed day when we will all be able to look one another in the face and walk together as brothers and sisters! It is the duty of all, and especially the leaders of the international community, to help the parties in conflict to break this immoral chain of provocation and reprisal. It should also be recalled, as I have so many times repeated, that the language and culture of peace must prevail over the incitement to hatred and exclusion.

RELATED WEBSITES

The Homilies of Pope Francis (The Catholic Register)

Pope Francis Homilies

Actus Essendi