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The Easter Triduum is the memorial of a drama of love that gives us the certainty that we will never be abandoned in life’s trials. From the general audience Our reflection on God’s mercy introduces us today to the Easter Triduum . We will live Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday as intense moments, which enable us to enter increasingly in the great mystery of our faith: the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in these three days speaks of mercy, because it renders visible the point that God’s love can reach. [...]  On Holy Thursday Jesus institutes the Eucharist , anticipating in the paschal banquet His sacrifice on Golgotha. [...]  Holy Friday is the culminating moment of love. ...A love that intends to embrace all , no one excluded. [...]  And, finally, Holy Saturday is the day of God’s silence. It must be a day of silence . We must do everything possible so that it is a day of silence, as that Day, which was the day of God’s silence. Jesus pla...

Let us walk this path, pausing in these days to gaze upon the Crucifix; it is the “royal seat of God”.  I invite you during this week to gaze often upon this “royal  seat of God”, to learn about the humble love which saves and gives life. From the Palm Sunday 2016 homily [W]e cannot love without letting ourselves be loved by him first, without experiencing his surprising tenderness and without accepting that true love consists in  concrete service. [...]  Even as every form of justice is denied to him, Jesus also experiences in his own flesh indifference, since no one wishes to take responsibility for his fate.  And I  think of the many people, so many outcasts, so many asylum seekers, so many refugees, all of those for whose fate no one wishes to take responsibility. [...]  Jesus, however, even here at the height of his annihilation, reveals the true face of God, which is mercy.  He forgives those who are crucifying him, he opens the...

From the homily The serpent, the Pontiff clarified, is a “symbol of sin, the serpent that kills. But the serpent that saves: this is the mystery of Christ”. St Paul, the Pope  recalled, also spoke of this mystery. “He said that Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself, annihilated himself in order to save us”. Moreover, the Apostle offers an  even stronger expression: “he became sin”. Thus, using the biblical symbol, we could say: “he became serpent”. This, Francis said, is “the prophetic message of  today’s readings. The Son of man, who like a serpent ‘became sin’, is lifted up in order to save us”. [...]  This, the Pope concluded, is “the history of our redemption”, this is “the history of God’s love”. This is why, “if we want to know the love of God, we look at the  Crucifix”. There we meet “a man who is tortured, died, who is God, ‘emptied of divinity’, tarnished, who ‘became sin’”. Then came the final prayer: “May the Lord  grant us the grace to ...

A Spiritual Friendship Anonymous Christians in the Face of Injustice by Ricardo Antoncich  The Book of Miracles by Zsolt Aradi  A Doctor at Calvary by Pierre Barbet  The Noonday Devil by Bernard Basset  Frequent Confession by Benedict Baur  The Gospel and Epistle of John by Raymond Brown  The Community of the Beloved Disciple by Raymond Brown  The Churches the Apostles Left Behind by Raymond Brown  The Way to Freedom by Nicolas Caballero