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From 2023 Christmas Midnight Mass Homily of Pope Francis Let the seed of the Incarnation bloom within us Brothers and sisters, tonight we might ask ourselves: Which God do we believe in? In the God of incarnation or the god of achievement? Because there is always a risk that we can celebrate Christmas while thinking of God in pagan terms, as a powerful potentate in the sky; a god linked to power, worldly success, and the idolatry of consumerism. With the false image of a distant and petulant deity who treats the good well and the bad poorly; a deity made in our own image and likeness, handy for resolving our problems and removing our ills. God, on the other hand, waves no magic wand; he is no god of commerce who promises “everything all at once”. He does not save us by pushing a button, but draws near us, in order to change our world from within.... Dear brother, dear sister, to God, who changed history in the course of a census, you are not a number, but a face. Your name is written o...

  From 2-2-2022 General Audience [D]eepen our understanding of the figure of Saint Joseph. Sometimes even Christianity can fall into forms of devotion that seem to reflect a mentality that is more pagan than Christian. . . . Even when we rely fully on the intercession of a saint, or even more so that of the Virgin Mary, our trust only has value in relation to Christ. As if the path toward this saint or toward Our Lady does not end there, no. Not there, but in relationship with Christ. He is the bond, Christ is the bond that unites us to him and to each other, and which has a specific name: this bond that unites us all, between ourselves and us with Christ, it is the “communion of saints”. . . . What, then, is the “communion of saints”? The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: “The communion of saints is the Church” (no. 946). See what a beautiful definition this is! “The communion of saints is the Church.” What does this mean? That the Church is reserved for the perfect? No. I...

From the 2021 Pentecost homily Dear sister, dear brother, if you feel the darkness of solitude, if you feel that an obstacle within you blocks the way to hope, if your heart has a festering wound, if you can see no way out, then open your heart to the Holy Spirit. The first advice offered by the Holy Spirit is, “Live in the present”. The present, not the past or the future. The Paraclete affirms the primacy of today , against the temptation to let ourselves be paralyzed by rancour or memories of the past, or by uncertainty or fear about the future. The Spirit reminds us of the grace of the present moment. There is no better time for us: now, here and now, is the one and only time to do good, to make our life a gift. Let us live in the present!  [full text]

  From the general audience Taking care of those who are sick, of those who are in need, of those who are cast aside: this is a human, and also Christian, wealth. To emerge from a pandemic. . . Contemplation, which leads us to an attitude of care, is not a question of looking at nature from the outside, as if we were not immersed in it. But we are inside nature, we are part of nature. Rather, it is done from within, recognizing us as part of creation, making us protagonists and not mere spectators of an amorphous reality that is only to be exploited. Those who contemplate in this way experience wonder not only at what they see but also because they feel they are an integral part of this beauty; and they also feel called to guard it and to protect it. And there is one thing we must not forget: those who cannot contemplate nature and creation, cannot contemplate people in their true wealth. And those who live to exploit nature end up exploiting people and treating them like slaves. T...

From the homily Let us never forget: the Mass is the Memorial that heals memory, the memory of the heart. The Mass is the treasure that should be foremost both in the Church and in our lives. Through the Eucharist, the Lord also heals our negative memory , that negativity which seeps so often into our hearts. The Lord heals this negative memory, which drags to the surface things that have gone wrong and leaves us with the sorry notion that we are useless, that we only make mistakes, that we are ourselves a mistake. Jesus comes to tell us that this is not so. He wants to be close to us. Every time we receive him, he reminds us that we are precious, that we are guests he has invited to his banquet, friends with whom he wants to dine. And not only because he is generous, but because he is truly in love with us. He sees and loves the beauty and goodness that we are. The Lord knows that evil and sins do not define us; they are diseases, infections. And he comes to heal them wi...

continue reading:  http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2020/documents/papa-francesco_20200327_omelia-epidemia.html

From the audience “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5) There is no land more beautiful than the heart of others; there is not territory more beautiful to gain than peace found again with a brother. Meekness is manifested in moments of conflict, seen is how one reacts to a hostile situation. Anyone can sow meekness when all is calm, but how does one react “under pressure,” if attacked, offended, assaulted? In Scripture the word “meek” also indicates one who does not have earthly property; therefore, we are struck by the fact that the third Beatitude says, in fact, that the meek “shall inherit the earth.” So, the meek is he who “inherits” the most sublime of territories. He isn’t a coward, a “weak” person who finds an expedient morality to remain outside of problems. Quite the contrary!  Here we must make reference to the sin of anger, a violent motion, whose impulse we all know. Who hasn’t been angry sometime? All. We must reverse the...

From the homily At Christmas, the question is this: “Do I allow myself to be loved by God? Do I abandon myself to his love that comes to save me?” The grace of God has appeared. Tonight we realize that, when we failed to measure up, God became small for our sake; while we were going about our own business, he came into our midst. Christmas reminds us that God continues to love us all, even the worst of us. To me, to you, to each of us, he says today: “I love you and I will always love you, for you are precious in my eyes”. God does not love you because you think and act the right way. He loves you, plain and simple. His love is unconditional; it does not depend on you. You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you. How often do we think that God is good if we are good and punishes us if we are bad. Yet that is not how he is. For all our sins, he continues to love us. His love does not change. It is not fickle; i...

From the homily Each of us is called tonight to rediscover in the Risen Christ the one who rolls back from our heart the heaviest of stones. Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Lk 24:5). Why do you think that everything is hopeless, that no one can take away your own tombstones? Why do you give into resignation and failure? . . . What is the stone that I need to remove, what is its name? . . .  Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why not make up your mind to abandon that sin which, like a stone before the entrance to your heart, keeps God’s light from entering in? Why not prefer Jesus, the true light (cf. Jn 1:9), to the glitter of wealth, career, pride and pleasure? Why not tell the empty things of this world that you no longer live for them, but for the Lord of life? . . . Let us ask ourselves: In my life, where am I looking? Am I gazing at graveyards, or looking for the Living One? . . . Let us ask ourselves: In my life, where am I going? So...

From the Angelus Mary shows us that if we want our life to be happy, God must be placed first, because He alone is great. How many times, instead, we live pursuing things of little importance: prejudices, rancor, rivalry, envy, illusions, superfluous material goods … How much pettiness in life! We know this is the case. Maria today invites us to look up to the “great things” that the Lord has done in her. In us too, in each of us, the Lord does many great things. We must recognize and rejoice, proclaiming God, for these great things. . . . The feast of the Assumption of Mary is a call for all of us, especially for those who are afflicted by doubts and sadness, and live with their eyes looking down and cannot look up. Let’s look up, the sky is open; it does not arouse fear, it is no longer distant, because on the threshold of Heaven there is a mother who awaits us and is our mother. She loves us, smiles and helps us with care. As every mother wants the best for her children, s...

From the Angelus “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself” [I]t’s not we that, on the basis of our criteria, define who is and who is not our neighbour, but it’s the person in a situation of need who must be able to recognize who is his neighbour, namely, “the one who showed mercy on him” (v. 37). This conclusion indicates that mercy, in confronting a human life in a state of necessity, is the true face of love. It is thus that we become true disciples of Jesus and that the face of the Father is manifested: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).   [full text]

From the homily Never give in to “failure”. It is the “perfect terrain for the devil to sow his seeds” and leads to live like professional mourners, amid complaints and dissatisfactions . “The spirit of fatigue takes away our hope...tiredness is selective: it always causes us to see the negative in the moment we are living, and forget the good things we have received”. It also happens to us “When we feel desolated and cannot bear the journey, we seek refuge either in idols or in complaint... (…) This spirit of fatigue leads us Christians to be dissatisfied (…) and everything goes wrong… Jesus himself taught us this when he said we are like children playing games when we are overcome by this spirit of dissatisfaction.”. . . We must reverse the course, especially in this time that is preparing for Easter: “Brothers and sisters, we only remember this phrase: “The people of God could not bear the journey “, Francis concludes. “Christians do not bear hope. Christians do not endure...

From the Angelus address Jesus is left alone with the woman, there, in the midst: “misery and mercy,” says Saint Augustine ( In Joh 33:5 ). Jesus is the only one without fault, the only one who could throw a stone against her, but He doesn’t do it, because God has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Cf. 33:11). “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). So Jesus appeals to the conscience of those men: they felt themselves “champions of justice,” but He recalls them to the awareness of their condition of sinful men so that they cannot arrogate to themselves the right of life or death over one of their fellow beings. At that point, one after the other, beginning with the eldest — namely those more expert in their miseries — went away, giving up stoning the woman. This scene also invites each one of us to become conscious that we are sinners and to let the stone fall from our hands of ...

From the homily P ray face-to-face to the Lord, bringing all our lives to Him with courage. Jesus prays for us, in this moment. And when I pray – whether I am convinced or pray like a mercantilist or stutter or struggle with the Lord – it is He who takes my prayer and presents it to the Lord. Jesus has no need of speaking before the Father: He shows Him His wounds. The Father sees His wounds and extends His grace. When we pray, let us recall that we do so with Jesus. Jesus is our courage. Jesus is our security, who in this moment intercedes for us.   [link]

From the general audience Christian prayer begins from this level. It’s not an exercise for ascetics; it starts from reality, from the heart and from the flesh of people that live in need, or who share the condition of those that don’t have what is necessary to live. Not even the highest Christian mystics can do without the simplicity of this request. Jesus’ prayer begins with a pressing demand, which is very similar to the entreaty of a beggar: “Give us our daily bread!” This prayer comes from evidence that we often forget, that is, that we aren’t self-sufficient creatures, and that every day we need to eat. The Scriptures show us that for many people the encounter with Jesus began from a question. Jesus doesn’t ask for refine invocations, rather, the whole of human existence, with its most concrete and daily problems, can become a prayer. . . .   Therefore, Jesus teaches us to ask the Father for daily bread. He teaches us to do so united to so many men and women fo...

From a homily Pope Francis described hatred as “Satan’s breath”, saying it is very powerful, capable of doing everything excepting loving. “Life,” the Pope explained, “has value only in giving it, in giving it in love, in truth, in giving it to others, in daily life, in the family.” If someone preserves life for himself, guards it like the king in his corruption or the woman with her hatred, or the daughter with her vanity, a little like an adolescent, unknowingly, life dies and withers, becoming useless. The Pope concluded urging all to think about the 4 characters in the Gospel and to open our hearts so that the Lord may speak to us about this.   [link]

From a homily This then is the consecrated life: praise which gives joy to God’s people, a prophetic vision that reveals what counts. When it is like this, then it flowers and becomes a summons for all of us to counter mediocrity: to counter a devaluation of our spiritual life, to counter the temptation to reduce God’s importance, to counter an accommodation to a comfortable and worldly life, to counter complaints, dissatisfaction and self-pity, to counter a mentality of resignation and “we have always done it this way”. Consecrated life is not about survival, but new life. Everything, therefore, meets as Jesus arrives. What does this mean for us? Above all, that we too are called to welcome Jesus who comes to meet us. To encounter him: the God of life is to be encountered every day of our lives; not now and then, but every day. To follow Jesus is not a decision taken once and for all, it is a daily choice. And we do not meet the Lord virtually, but directly, we encounter hi...

From a homily You, dear young people, are not the future. We like to say, “you are the future”. No, you are the present. You are not the future of God, you young people are the now of God . In Jesus, the promised future begins and becomes life. When? Now. Yet not everyone who was listening felt invited or called. Not all the residents of Nazareth were prepared to believe in someone they knew and had seen grow up, and who was now inviting them to realize a long-awaited dream. Not only that, but they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” ( Lk 4:22 ). The same thing can also happen with us. We do not always believe that God can be that concrete and commonplace, that close and real, and much less that he can become so present and work through somebody like a neighbour, a friend, a relative. We do not always believe that the Lord can invite us to work and soil our hands with him in his Kingdom in that simple and blunt a way. It is hard to accept that “God’s love can become concrete ...

From the homily Mary is a cure for solitude and dispersion. She is the Mother of consolation: she stands “with” those who are “alone”. She knows that words are not enough to console; presence is needed, and she is present as a mother. Let us allow her to embrace our lives. “All who heard were amazed at what the shepherds told them” (Lk 2:18). To be amazed: this is what is asked of us today, at the conclusion of the Octave of Christmas, as we continue to contemplate the Child born for us, lacking everything yet abounding in love. Amazement is what we should feel at the beginning of each year, for life is a gift that constantly gives us a chance to make a new start. Today is also a day to be amazed by the Mother of God. [link]

From the Angelus Christmas is to celebrate the unheard-of God , or better, it is to celebrate an unprecedented God , who overturns our logic and our expectations. . . . Please, let us not make Christmas worldly! Let us not put the One celebrated aside . In six days, it will be Christmas. The trees, the decorations and the lights everywhere recall that this year also there will be a celebration. Advertising invites to keep exchanging newer and newer gifts to have surprises. However, is this the celebration that pleases God? What Christmas would He want, what presents and surprises? We look at the first Christmas of history to discover God’s tastes. That Christmas was full of surprises . It begins with Mary, who was Joseph’s promised bride: the Angel arrives and changes her life. From being a virgin, she will be a mother. It continues with Joseph, called to be the father of a son without generating Him . . . . However, it’s on Christmas Eve that the greatest surprise arrives...