POPE FRANCIS, Journey to Mongolia • As usual, in his catechesis at the Wednesday general audience following his return from an apostolic journey, Pope Francis retraced the most significant stages of the country he visited: Mongolia, with barely 2,000 Catholics. He stressed the need to widen the limits of our gaze, to widen our heart in order to understand each person, each culture. — “Thinking of the boundless and silent expanses of Mongolia, let us be stirred by the need to extend the confines of our gaze, please: broaden the
Read More POPE FRANCIS, EASTER 2023 • “To rise again, to begin again, to resume the journey, we always need to return to Galilee; not to the encounter with an abstract, ideal Jesus, but to the living, concrete and throbbing memory of the first encounter with Him. Yes, brothers and sisters, to walk we must remember, to have hope we must nourish the memory. This is the invitation: remember and walk! If you recover the first love, the wonder and joy of the encounter with God, you will go forward. Remember and
Read More POPE FRANCISCO ON APOSTOLIC ZEAL • “Passion for the Gospel is not a question of understanding or study, which are also necessary, but do not generate it; it means rather to go through that same experience of “fall and resurrection” that Saul/Paul lived and that is at the origin of the transfiguration of his apostolic impulse. You can study all the theology you want, you can study the Bible and all that and become an atheist or a worldly person, it is not a question of studies; in history there
Read More POPE FRANCIS ON APOSTOLIC ZEAL • “It is not to transmit an ideology or a doctrine – in quotation marks – about God, no. It is to transmit God who becomes life in me,” Pope Francis said in his catechesis on evangelization. It is to transmit God who becomes life in me,” said Pope Francis in his catechesis on evangelization on Wednesday, March 22. Without fear of searching, without fear of new words, without fear of dialogue with the real world, always go beyond: “Beyond our confines, beyond our barriers,
Read More WORLD DAY OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS 2023, mf • “Communicating in a cordial manner means that those who read or listen to us are led to welcome our participation in the joys, fears, hopes and suffering of the women and men of our time. “, one of the key phrases in Pope Francis’ message for World Communications Day 2023. In the workshops on “Communication according to the MTA model” of Fr. Joseph Kentenich we usually say that what we relate has to pass through our own heart. To let ourselves be
Read More FRANCIS ON THE APOSTOLATE • On January 25, Pope Francis delivered his third Catechesis on the very Schoenstatt theme: “Passion for evangelization: the apostolic zeal of the believer” and presented Jesus as “master of proclamation”. For this, he reflected concretely on “the first proclamation of Jesus” when he preached in the synagogue of his town, Nazareth, and read a passage from the prophet Isaiah. Pope Francis identified the five elements that he considers essential: joy, liberation, light, healing and the ability to marvel at the works that God does. —
Read More FRANCIS ON APOSTOLATE • “In order to summarize in one word the action of the Church, the term “pastoral” is often used. And to evaluate our pastoral, we must compare ourselves with the model, with Jesus, Jesus the Good Shepherd,” said Pope Francis in his second catechesis on the apostolate. “He is the Good Shepherd who is not content with caring for the sheep who are in the flock, but who, without measuring the sacrifices, goes in search of those who are far away and lost. We too are called
Read More POPE FRANCES, cycle of catechesis dedicated to the “passion for evangelization” • The Pope speaks about Schoenstatt! How many times it has been the reason for thousands of messages on social networks and great enthusiasm to hear the Holy Father say the word “Schoenstatt”, “Kentenich”, “covenant” … Meanwhile, Pope Francis has also spoken several times to Schoenstatt, the milestone being what he said at the Jubilee audience in 2014. And now he has done it again. He speaks about Schoenstatt and will speak for several weeks about Schoenstatt, that is,
Read More POPE FRANCIS, Urbi et Orbi • “If we want it to be Christmas, the Christmas of Jesus and of peace, let us contemplate Bethlehem and fix our gaze on the face of the Child born to us. And in that little innocent countenance let us recognize that of the children who in every corner of the world yearn for peace,” Pope Francis insisted in his message before the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing on December 25. — He gives us a text to meditate on in front of the crib, a
Read More POPE FRANCISCO • At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 11, the memorial of St. John XXIII, the Holy Father Francis presided at the Eucharistic Celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. — Pope John XXIII officially opened the Second Vatican Council on October 11, 1962 during a solemn ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica, setting in motion a four-year event that would see the Church open its doors to the world in a process of “updating” (in
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