By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – No physical limitation or setback can diminish the value of any human being because each person is a unique and beloved child of God, Pope Francis said.

“We are not anonymous, we are not photocopies, we are all originals! And this is how we should be: originals, not photocopies,” he said during an audience at the Vatican Jan. 14 with members of the Pope John XXIII Community association.

“God knows us one by one, with our name and our face, which is unique,” he said.

“Certainly, we also have our limitations; some of us unfortunately have heavy limitations to bear,” the pope said. “But this detracts nothing from the value of a person: each one is unique, a son or daughter of God, each one is a brother or sister of Jesus.”

“A Christian community that welcomes the person as he or she is thus helps to see them as God does,” which is with a look of love, he said.

“God also sees our limitations, it is true, and helps us to bear them,” the pope said. “But God looks above all at the heart and sees every person in his or her entirety. God sees us as an image of Jesus, his only begotten son, and with his love he helps us to become more and more like him.”

The pope thanked the many families at the audience who offer foster care, emphasizing the importance of welcoming children and others into a loving home so they may be “regenerated by Christian love.”

These are men and women “who open the doors of their home to give a family to those who do not have one. A real family; not a job, but a life choice. In it there is room for everyone: minors, people with disabilities, the elderly, Italians or foreigners, and anyone who is looking for a fixed point from which to start again or a family in which to find themselves,” he said.

Pope Francis also thanked those who were unable to be at the day’s audience and had sent him their stories and questions.

“I would like to address some of you personally,” he said, such as Sara, 13, who fled Iraq and carries in her heart “the holy desire that children not be robbed of their childhood: May God help you achieve this!”

The people offered guidance to others without naming them, urging one child who “would like to see your grandmother who has gone to heaven,” to “speak with her in your heart and follow her good example, and one day you will see her again.”

Another young person, the pope said, “like many teenagers,” wrote about the “struggle to perceive the beauty of Mass.” But the pope responded, “Do not fear; at the right moment, the living Jesus will let you feel his presence.”

Pope Francis also thanked a “little friend, who remembers the innocents who are killed in the womb.”
Noting that many members of the community meet online to pray the rosary for peace every Sunday, the pope told them, “God listens to your prayer for peace, even if he does not seem to. God listens to it, and we believe that God gives us peace, immediately, today!”

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The theological writings and papal teaching of the late Pope Benedict XVI were and will continue to be a blessing to the Catholic Church, Pope Francis wrote.

“Benedict XVI’s thought and magisterium are and always will remain fruitful because he knew how to focus on the fundamental references of our Christian life: first of all, the person and the word of Jesus Christ, as well as the theological virtues, namely charity, hope and faith,” the pope wrote in the introduction to a new book.

The Vatican publishing house described the book “Dio è Sempre Nuovo,” (“God is Ever-New”), as a collection of the “spiritual thoughts” of the late pope, “an anthology of the principal themes of the Christian faith in the words of Pope Benedict XVI.”

The book was edited by Luca Caruso, communications officer for the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, and was scheduled for release Jan. 14. The Vatican published Pope Francis’ introduction Jan. 4.

Pope Francis’ highest praise for theologians always has been that they “do theology on their knees” in prayer and with love for the church.

“Benedict XVI did theology on his knees,” the pope wrote in the book’s introduction. “His explanation of the faith was carried out with the devotion of a man who has surrendered all of himself to God and who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, sought an ever-greater participation in the mystery of that Jesus who had fascinated him from his youth.”

The new book’s title, Pope Francis said, “expresses one of the most characteristic aspects of my predecessor’s magisterium and vision of faith: yes, God is always new because he is the source and reason for beauty, grace and truth.”

“God is never repetitive, God surprises us, God brings newness,” the pope wrote, and the “spiritual freshness” of the late pope’s writings confirms those affirmations “with intensity.”

Pope Benedict, he said, offered all Christians a model showing how “heart and reason, thought and affection, rationality and emotion interact” in both living and explaining the power of the Gospel.

The selected quotations, Pope Francis said, offer “a sort of ‘spiritual synthesis’ of Benedict XVI’s writings,” and demonstrates “his ability to show the depth of the Christian faith ever anew.”

Quoting just six words of the late pope – “God is an event of love” – is enough to do “full justice to a theology that always shows the harmony between reason and affection,” the pope said.

Another book about the late pope also was scheduled for release in January.

The Italian publisher Piemme announced it would publish Jan. 12 a book, “Nient’altro che la Verità” (“Nothing but the Truth”) by the late pope’s longtime personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein.
Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said Jan. 4 he had not spoken to the archbishop about the book so could not say if the publisher’s description was hype or reflected the contents of the book.

Piemme had said that with the death of Pope Benedict, “the time has come” for the archbishop “to tell the truth about the blatant calumnies and dark maneuvers that tried in vain to cast shadows on the German pontiff’s magisterium and actions.”

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Even the most fervent believers go through moments of doubt and questioning about God, and it is a good thing, Pope Francis said, because it helps one see that God does not fit into the little box people make for him.

Doubt “helps us understand that God is always greater than we imagine him to be. His works are surprising compared to our calculations; his actions are different, always, they exceed our needs and expectations; and therefore, we must never stop seeking him,” the pope told people joining him for the Angelus prayer Dec. 11.

People face a constant “temptation: to make ourselves a God to our measure, a God to use,” the pope said. But “God is something else.”

Pope Francis spoke about the day’s Gospel reading about how John the Baptist, while in prison, sent followers to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah even though John had earlier baptized Jesus in the Jordan.

With an estimated 25,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the midday prayer, the pope said sometimes people find themselves in an “inner jail,” unable to recognize the Lord or even trying to hold him “captive” to preconceived ideas about who God must be.

“Dear brothers and sisters, one never knows everything about God, never!” he said. “Perhaps we have in mind a powerful God who does what he wants, instead of the God of humble meekness, the God of mercy and love, who always intervenes respecting our freedom and our choices.”

And, he said, it is a temptation to think one knows everything about other people, too, using one’s prejudices “to attach rigid labels to others, especially those we feel are different from us.”
Advent, he said, is a time to let go and allow oneself to be surprised by God.

Especially as families prepare a Nativity scene or one goes to look at one set up somewhere, he said, it is an occasion to think about who the Lord really is and how to imitate him in daily life.

“Advent is a time in which, instead of thinking about gifts for ourselves, we can give words and gestures of consolation to those who are wounded, as Jesus did with the blind, the deaf and the lame,” the pope said.

After reciting the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis blessed figurines of the baby Jesus that hundreds of children had brought to the square in preparation to place them in Nativity scenes at home or at school.

He asked children “to pray before the creche that the nativity of the Lord will bring a ray of peace to children all over the world, especially those forced to live the terrible and dark days of war, this war in Ukraine that destroys many lives, so many lives, and many children.”

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A daily examination of conscience is an important tool for recognizing where God is at work in one’s life and where “the evil spirit” tries to lead one astray, Pope Francis said.

“Learn to read in the book of our hearts what has happened during the day. Do it. Just two minutes, but it will do you good, I promise,” the pope told visitors at his weekly general audience Nov. 30.

Continuing his series of audience talks about discernment, the pope spoke again about “spiritual consolation” and about using a daily examination of conscience to distinguish between what just feels good and “genuine consolation,” which, he said, “is a sort of confirmation that we are doing what God wants of us, that we are walking on his paths, that is, on the paths of life, joy and peace.”

Relying on the teaching of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, the pope explained that consolation comes from knowing that a thought or impulse is good at its beginning, middle and end, because it inclines one to do something good, is motivated by love for God and others and leads to a sense of peace.

On the other hand, the pope explained, “the evil spirit” can sneak in and distract one from doing good or sow anger toward others or pride.

Pope Francis used the example of the thought or urge to pray, accompanied by “affection for the Lord and my neighbor, it invites gestures of generosity, of charity: it is a good beginning.”

But, he said, if “every time I have to wash the dishes or clean the house, I have a strong urge to pray – this happens in convents” – then the impulse is not all good.

“Go wash the dishes, then go pray,” he said, because “prayer is not an escape from one’s tasks.”
And, the pope said, “if I begin to pray and, like the Pharisee in the parable, I tend to be self-satisfied and to disdain others, perhaps with a resentful and sour spirit, then these are signs that the evil spirit has used that thought as a key to enter into my heart and to transmit his feelings to me.”

Then, Pope Francis said, one should ask, “Where does that thought take me? For example, it can happen that I work hard for a good and worthy task, but this pushes me to stop praying; I find I am increasingly aggressive and angry, I feel that everything depends on me, to the point of losing confidence in God. Here, evidently, there is the action of the evil spirit.”

The devil’s style is “devious, masked,” the pope said, and he usually starts with something important to the person and then twists it.

“The more we know ourselves, the more we sense where the evil spirit enters, his ‘passwords,’ the entrance to our heart,” Pope Francis said.

“Before ending your day, stop a bit and ask what has happened (that day) – not in the newspapers,” he said, but in one’s heart.

“Noticing what happens is important,” he said. “It is a sign that God’s grace is working in us, helping us to grow in freedom and awareness. We are not alone; the Holy Spirit is with us. Let’s see how things are going.”

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Treating everyone as a brother or sister is the clearest, most simple way to live the Gospel each day, Pope Francis said.

“It is an invitation without exclusion: brothers and sisters all in humanity and love,” the pope wrote in a message to members of FOCSIV, a federation of mostly Italy-based Catholic volunteer organizations that work internationally.

Representatives of the federation met the pope at the Vatican Nov. 14 as part of their celebration of the organization’s 50th anniversary. Twenty organizations founded the group in 1972; today it includes 94 organizations working in 80 countries.

Ivana Borsotto, the group’s president, told Pope Francis, “We seek to be a neighbor in the most abandoned peripheries, in the most remote villages, in the most inhumane prisons, along the cruelest migratory routes, in the most crowded refugee camps and in war-torn countries.”

In his prepared text, Pope Francis said development work, like what FOCSIV members promote in many of the world’s poorest countries, is the only real response to concerns about migration.

“Think of how many young people today are forced to leave their land in search of a dignified existence; how many men, women and children face inhumane journeys and violence of all kinds in order to seek a better tomorrow; how many continue to die on the routes of despair, while their fate is discussed or we turn away,” the pope wrote.

“Forced migration – to escape war, hunger, persecution or climate change – is one of the great evils of this age,” he wrote, and “we will only be able to address at its root by ensuring real development in every country.”

At the audience, Pope Francis asked Borsotto to deliver his prepared text to the members, but said he wanted to speak more about what was in his heart.

Volunteering is a characteristic of Italians and something not as common elsewhere, he told them. “It is one of the most beautiful things” because it involves making a free choice to go out and personally help someone in need.

“One has to take action. I can stay at home sitting quietly, watching TV or doing other things – no, I make this effort to go out,” he said. “Volunteering involves effort to go out to help others, that’s how it is. There is no desk volunteering and there is no television volunteering, no. Volunteering is always going out with an open heart, an outstretched hand, the legs ready to go.”

But it also involves meeting someone, listening to them and sharing with them, he said.

“We are living in a civilization of confrontation,” he said, and wars are just one sign of it.

“One clash after another and we never learn – not on a world level and not on a personal level,” Pope Francis said.

People even seem to define themselves by their opposition to someone or some idea, he said. It’s like they say, “’I don’t know who I am, but I am against this and against that.’ Their identity is being-against, clashing.”

But, he said, volunteering is “an ode to fraternity” and to recognizing that no matter the differences of culture or opinion, all people are brothers and sisters.

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The COVID-19 pandemic has weakened many parishes, but that community “in the midst of homes, in the midst of people,” is still an essential place for nourishing and sharing faith, Pope Francis told Italian young adults.

The parish is “the normal environment where we learned to hear the Gospel, to know the Lord Jesus, to serve with gratuitousness, to pray in community, to share projects and initiatives, to feel part of God’s holy people,” the pope told leaders of the young adult section of Italian Catholic Action, a parish-based program of faith building and social outreach.

Meeting thousands of young adults Oct. 29, Pope Francis said he knows that in most cities and towns the parish church is not the center of religious and social life like it was when he was growing up, but “for our journey of faith and growth, the parish experience was and is important, irreplaceable.”

With its mix of members, the pope said, the parish is the place to experience how “in the church we are all brothers and sisters through baptism; that we are all protagonists and responsible; that we have different gifts that are all for the good of the community; that life is vocation, following Jesus; and that faith is a gift to be given, a gift to witness.”

Part of that witness, he said, is to show concretely how faith leads to charity and a desire for justice.
In the neighborhood, town and region, “our motto is not ‘I don’t care,’ but ‘I care!’” the pope said.

The “disease of not caring” can be “more dangerous than a cancer,” he told the young people. “Human misery is not a fate that befalls some unfortunate people, but almost always the result of injustices that must be eradicated.”

Pope Francis urged the young people not to be frustrated or put off by the fact that in their parishes “the community dimension is a bit weak,” something “which has been aggravated by the pandemic.”

Learning to see each other as brothers and sisters, he said, does not begin with some parish meeting or activity, but with each person through prayer and, especially, through the Eucharist celebrated and shared in the parish.

“Fraternity in the church is founded on Christ, on his presence in us and among us,” the pope said. “Thanks to him we welcome each other, bear with each other – Christian love is built on bearing with each other – and forgive each other.”

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Prayer is medicine for one’s faith and it reinvigorates the soul, Pope Francis said.
“We need the daily water of prayer, we need time dedicated to God, so that he can enter into our time, into our lives,” the pope said Oct. 16 during his Sunday Angelus address.

“We need consistent moments in which we open our hearts to him so that he can daily pour out on us love, peace, joy, strength, hope, thus nourishing our faith,” he said.

So often, people spend their day focused on many “urgent, but unnecessary things,” neglecting what counts the most in life, he said. “We allow our love for God to grow cold” bit by bit.

Prayer, he said, is the remedy to rekindle this “tepid faith.”

“Prayer is the medicine for faith; it is the restorative of the soul,” he said.

Just as a patient must “faithfully and regularly” take his or her medication, Pope Francis said, prayer, too, needs to be consistent and constant, not practiced in fits and starts.

In the Gospel of Luke’s parable of the persistent widow, Jesus is showing people that they must “pray always without becoming weary,” he said.

When finding the time to pray is a real difficulty, he said, busy people should turn to an old but “wise spiritual practice” called “aspirations.” These are very short prayers in which the mind is directed to God and “that can be repeated often throughout the day, in the course of various activities, to remain ‘in tune’ with the Lord” so that “our hearts remain connected to him.”

For example, he said, as soon as people wake up, “we can say, ‘Lord, I thank you and I offer this day to you,’” or before beginning an activity, “we can repeat, ‘Come, Holy Spirit,’” and throughout the day, people can pray, “Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I love you.”

“And let’s not forget to read his responses” in the Gospel, the pope said.

“The Lord always responds,” he said, so people should open the Gospel “several times every day, to receive a word of life directed to us.”