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Mother Teresa’s canonisation and Pope Francis’s mission Bernardo Cervellera The saint of Kolkata is a Jubilee icon, and can help promote corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The pope is praised but not understood. For Mother Teresa, as for Francis, the Church "is not an NGO". The Mother is also an example of how to reconcile contemplation and action, sacrament and mission, witness and commitment in the world, rectifying the discrepancies of those who are traditionalist and inward looking as well those who hold shapeless liberal views. Mother Teresa’s canonisation in the Jubilee year helps to make mercy effective and efficient in society. So far, the pope’s messages and gestures during this year to prisoners, the poor, and refugees have found little fulfilment. Very often, Christians see the Jubilee as an opportunity for personal spiritual renewal, but one that does not translate immediately ("quickly", Mother Teresa would say) in acts and deeds that also...

From the message to young people You are preparing to be Christians capable of making courageous choices and decisions, in order to build daily, even through little things, a world of peace. [...]  Yours is a time of life which is full of amazing changes. Everything seems possible and impossible all at once. I repeat what I said to some of your friends: “Remain steadfast in the journey of faith, with firm hope in the Lord. This is the secret of our journey! He gives us the courage to swim against the tide. Pay attention, my young friends: to go against the current; this is good for the heart, but we need courage to swim against the tide. Jesus gives us this courage! … With him we can do great things; he will give us the joy of being his disciples, his witnesses. Commit yourselves to great ideals, to the most important things. We Christians were not chosen by the Lord for little things; push onwards toward the highest principles. Stake your lives on noble ideals” ( Homily at the C...

From the Audience Why a Jubilee of Mercy? What does this mean? The Church is in need of this extraordinary moment. I do not say: this extraordinary moment is good for the Church. I  say: the Church is in need of this extraordinary moment. In our age of profound changes, the Church is called to offer her particular contribution, rendering visible  the signs of the presence and closeness of God. [...] Therefore, this Jubilee is a privileged moment for the Church to learn to choose only “what pleases God most.” And, what is it that ‘pleases God most”? To forgive His  children, to have mercy on them. [...] To turn one’s look to God, our Merciful Father, and to brothers in need of mercy, means to focus our attention on the essential content of the Gospel: Jesus, Mercy  made flesh, which renders visible to our eyes the great mystery of the Trinitarian Love of God. To celebrate a Jubilee of Mercy means to put again at the center of  our personal life and of that o...

From a letter on the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy  Misericordiae Vultus Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. [...]  We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness. [...]  I have proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy as a special time for the Church, a time when the witness of believers might grow stronger and more effective. The Holy Year will open on 8 December 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This liturgical feast day recalls God’s action from the...

From the General Audience With this reflection we have arrived at the threshold of the Jubilee, it is close. Before us is the door, but not only the Holy Door, the other – the great door of God’s Mercy, and it is a beautiful door! – which receives our repentance, offering the grace of His forgiveness. The door is generously open; a bit of courage is needed on our part to cross the threshold. Each one of us has within himself things that burden him. All of us. We are all sinners! […] The Jubilee signifies the great door of God’s mercy but also the small doors of our churches open to let the Lord come in – or many times to let the Lord go out – prisoner of our structures, of our egoism and of so many things… [B]ut there are so many where armour-plated doors have become normal. We must not yield to the idea of having to apply this system to our whole life, to the life of the family, of the city, of the society, and even less so to the life of the Church. It would be terrible! An in...