Pope Francis' Daily Homilies

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2013-06-15 Pope: The Christian life proclaims the road to reconcilation with God (VR)*"But philosophers say that peace is a certain ordered tranquility: everything is tidy and quiet … That is not the Christian peace! Christian peace is an uneasy peace, not a quiet peace: it is an uneasy peace, which goes on to carry this message of reconciliation. The Christian Peace pushes us to move forward. This is the beginning, the root of apostolic zeal. Apostolic zeal is not to go forward to persuade and make statistics: this year Christians in this country have grown, in this movement … Statistics are good, they help, but that is not what God wants from us ,is to persuade… What the Lord wants from us is to announce this reconciliation, which is his own core message . "

(snip)

"We ask the Lord to give us this concern to proclaim Jesus, to give us a bit of 'that Christian wisdom that was born from His pierced side of love. Just a little to convince us that the Christian life is not a spa therapy: to be at peace until Heaven … No, the Christian life is the road in life with this concern of Paul. The love of Christ urges us on, it pushes us on, with this emotion that one feels when one sees that God loves us. We ask this grace. "*Christian life is not a spa therapy – gotta love it!
 
I love this Pope. (loved the previous ones also). He speaks to everyman. He directly challenges we who are already Christians to convert in our daily lives.
 
So I guess this emotion that always seems to push me forward to be more patient, loving, and understanding no matter how much turmoil it puts me through is not a bad thing after all?

I beleive he also explained something else. it seems to me that no matter how much pain and turmoil I am going through I still have this calm serenity deep inside of me that is why I find the strength to push through the pain and turmoil…it really is like being pushed. It’s like it just wants to push through everything…it is the Rock I cling to as I go through the turmoil…is this what he is saying is the Peace of Jesus…or am I miss understanding?

It reminds me of something the Priest at our parish told me.
He said God is not found in some goal some place that we need to reach. He is found in the struggle. It made so much sense when he told me and know it makes even more sense for some reason.
 
2013-06-17 Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) For a Christian, Jesus is “all”, and this is the source of his or her benevolence.
This was the focus of Pope Francis’s message during Mass on Monday morning at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The Pope also affirmed that the righteousness of Jesus exceeds the righteousness of the scribes, that it is superior to the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” kind of justice
The righteousness that He brings – the Pope affirmed – is another kind of justice that is totally different from “eye for eye, tooth for tooth”. It’s another justice. This is clear when St. Paul speaks of Christians as “people who have nothing in themselves but possess all things in Christ”. So, Christian security is exactly this “all” that is in Christ. “All” - he added – is Jesus Christ. Other things are “nothing” for a Christian. Instead, the Pope warned, “for the spirit of the world “all” means things: riches, vanities”, it means “to be well placed in society” where “Jesus is nothing”. Thus, if a Christian can walk 100 kilometres when he is asked to walk 10, “it’s because for him or for her this is “nothing”. And with serenity, “he or she can give his or her coat when asked for his or her tunic”. This is the secret of Christian benevolence that always goes together with meekness”: it is “all”, it is Jesus Christ:
news.va/en/news/pope-francis-jesus-is-the-secret-of-a-christians-b
 
2013-06-18 Pope at Mass: The hard lesson of loving our enemies (VR)

“Pray! This is what Jesus advises us:’ Pray for your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Pray! '. And say to God: 'Change their hearts. They have a heart of stone, but change it, give them a heart of flesh, so that they may feel relief and love '. Let me just ask this question and let each of us answer it in our own heart: ‘Do I pray for my enemies? Do I pray for those who do not love me? ‘If we say’ yes’, I will say, ‘Go on, pray more, you are on the right path! If the answer is’ no ‘, the Lord says:’ Poor thing. You too are an enemy of others! '. Pray that the Lord may change the hearts of those. We could say: ‘But this person really wronged me’, or they have done bad things and this impoverishes people, impoverishes humanity. And following this libe of thought we want to take revenge or that eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”.
Easy lesson in theory. Tough lesson to master in practice.
 
2013-06-18 Pope at Mass: The hard lesson of loving our enemies (VR)

"Pray! This is what Jesus advises us:’ Pray for your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Pray! '. And say to God: 'Change their hearts. They have a heart of stone, but change it, give them a heart of flesh, so that they may feel relief and love '. Let me just ask this question and let each of us answer it in our own heart: ‘Do I pray for my enemies? Do I pray for those who do not love me? ‘If we say’ yes’, I will say, ‘Go on, pray more, you are on the right path! If the answer is’ no ‘, the Lord says:’ Poor thing. You too are an enemy of others! '. Pray that the Lord may change the hearts of those. We could say: ‘But this person really wronged me’, or they have done bad things and this impoverishes people, impoverishes humanity. And following this libe of thought we want to take revenge or that eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".
Easy lesson in theory. Tough lesson to master in practice.
Yes indeed.
The difficult thing is, even though we may have been wronged, his message is for us, for me, to change my heart -first-.
It’s like someone (I forget who) once said: “If you want a situation to change, change you. And trust the rest to God”. The mirror is usually the last place we look when we desire change in the world.
 
So I guess this emotion that always seems to push me forward to be more patient, loving, and understanding no matter how much turmoil it puts me through is not a bad thing after all?

I beleive he also explained something else. it seems to me that no matter how much pain and turmoil I am going through I still have this calm serenity deep inside of me that is why I find the strength to push through the pain and turmoil…it really is like being pushed. It’s like it just wants to push through everything…it is the Rock I cling to as I go through the turmoil…is this what he is saying is the Peace of Jesus…or am I miss understanding?

It reminds me of something the Priest at our parish told me.
He said God is not found in some goal some place that we need to reach. He is found in the struggle. It made so much sense when he told me and know it makes even more sense for some reason.
My prayers are with you,Simple Soul.
Thanks for sharing.
May the Lord carry you in His arms through turmoil and pain.
 
From this week’s general audience.

2013-06-19 Audience: Unity in the Body of Christ (VR)

The Church is not an charitable, cultural or political association, but a living body, that walks and acts in history. And this body has a head, Jesus, who guides, feeds and supports it. This is a point I want to emphasize: if the head is separated from the rest of the body, the whole person cannot survive. So it is in the Church, we must remain bound ever more deeply to Jesus. But not only that: just as the body needs the lifeblood to keep it alive, so we must allow Jesus to work in us, that His Word guide us, that His presence in the Eucharist nourish us, animate us, that His love gives strength to our love of neighbor. And this always!


Let us remember this well: being part of the Church means being united to Christ and receiving from Him the divine life that makes us live as Christians; it means remaining united to the Pope and the Bishops who are instruments of unity and communion, and also means overcoming personal interests and divisions, in order to understand each other better, to harmonize the variety and richness of each member; in a word, to love God and the people who are next to us more, in the family, in the parish, in the associations. In order to live a Body and its limbs must be united! Unity is beyond all conflict. Always! Conflicts, when they don’t end well, separate us from each other, they separate us from God. Conflict can help us to grow but can also divide us.
 
2013-06-19 Pope Francis condemns hypocrisy (VR) (Daily Mass)

Pope Francis continued. “In today’s Gospel, the Lord speaks about another class of hypocrites, ‘holy rollers’ [It: quelli che vanno sul sacro]:

“The Lord speaks about fasting, about prayer, about almsgiving: the three pillars of Christian piety, of interior conversion, that the Church proposes to us all in Lent. There are even hypocrites along this path, who make a show of fasting, of giving alms, of praying. I think that when hypocrisy reaches this point in the relation with God, we are coming very close to the sin against the Holy Spirit. These do not know beauty, they do not know love, these do not know the truth: they are small, cowardly.”

“We think about the hypocrisy in the Church: how bad it makes all of us,” Pope Francis said candidly. Instead he pointed out another “icon” for imitation, a person described in another passage of the Gospel: the publican who prayed with humble simplicity, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, a sinner.” This, the Pope said, “is the prayer we should say every day, knowing that we are sinners” but “with concrete sins, not theoretical [sin].” And this prayer, he concluded, “will help us to take the opposite road,” the road opposed to the hypocrisy that we are all tempted to:

“But all of us also have grace, the grace that comes from Jesus Christ: the grace of joy; the grace of magnanimity, of largesse. Hypocrites do not know what joy is, what largesse is, what magnanimity is.”
Yet another challenging homily. Do we have this Pelagian trait of thinking our prayers, our liturgy, our devotions save us? Or do we do those as a reflection and a response to God’s grace?
 
From this week’s general audience.

2013-06-19 Audience: Unity in the Body of Christ (VR)

Let us remember this well: being part of the Church means being **united to Christ **and receiving from Him the divine life that makes us live as Christians; it means remaining united to the Pope and the Bishops who are instruments of unity and communion, and also means overcoming personal interests and divisions, in order to understand each other better, to harmonize the variety and richness of each member; in a word, to love God and the people who are next to us more, in the family, in the parish, in the associations. In order to live a Body and its limbs must be united! Unity is beyond all conflict. Always! Conflicts, when they don’t end well, separate us from each other, they separate us from God. Conflict can help us to grow but can also divide us.
[/INDENT]
Recognizing that we have differences, but emphasizing the primacy of unity, sacrificial love, and trust in one’s pastors acting as a whole in the Church.
 
2013-06-20 Vatican Radio
To pray the Our Father we have to have a heart at peace with our brothers. We don’t pray “my Father,” but “our Father,” because "we are not an only child, none of us are”. This was the focus of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass Thursday morning in Casa Santa Marta. The Pope emphasized that we believe in a God who is a Father, who is “very close” to us, who is not anonymous, not “a cosmic God.”
Prayer is not magic, rather it is entrusting ourselves to the Father’s embrace.
news.va/en/news/pope-at-mass-how-to-pray-the-our-father
 
**“We have a Father. Very close to us, eh! Who embraces us … All these worries, concerns that we have, let’s leave them to the Father, He knows what we need. But, Father, what? My father? No: Our Father! Because I am not an only child, none of us are, and if I cannot be a brother, I can hardly become a child of the Father, because He is a Father to all. Mine, sure, but also of others, of my brothers. And if I am not at peace with my brothers, I cannot say ‘Father’ to Him.” **
This, he added, explains the fact that Jesus, after having taught us the Our Father, stresses that if we do not forgive others, neither will the Father forgive us our sins. “It’s so hard to forgive others – said the Pope - it is really difficult, because we always have that regret inside.” We think, "You did this to me, you wait '… and I’ll repay him the favour ":
**"No, you cannot pray with enemies in your heart, with brothers and enemies in your heart, you cannot pray. This is difficult, yes, it is difficult, not easy. ‘Father, I cannot say Father, I cannot’. It’s true, I understand. ‘I cannot say our, because he did this to me and this …’ I cannot! ‘They must go to hell, right? I will have nothing to do with them’. It’s true, it is not easy. But Jesus has promised us the Holy Spirit: it is He who teaches us, from within, from the heart, how to say ‘Father’ and how to say ‘our’. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to say ‘Father’ and to be able to say ‘our’, and thus make peace with all our enemies. " **
What a beautiful reflection on the “Our Father”
 
Yes indeed.
The difficult thing is, even though we may have been wronged, his message is for us, for me, to change my heart -first-.
It’s like someone (I forget who) once said: “If you want a situation to change, change you. And trust the rest to God”. The mirror is usually the last place we look when we desire change in the world.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
Indian political and spiritual leader
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

this comes to mind, too.
 
news.va/en/news/pope-francis-weekly-general-audience-full-text-2

Pope Francis: weekly General Audience (full text)93 308 Print 2013-06-26 Vatican Radio

Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received pilgrims and visitors in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday morning for his weekly General Audience. In his catechetical remarks, the Holy Father concentrated on the image of the Church as living temple and People of God.
The Church is not a weave of things and interests, it is rather the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Temple in which God works, the Temple in which each of us with the gift of Baptism is living stone. This tells us that no one is useless in the Church – no on is useless in the Church! – and should anyone chance to say, some one of you, “Get home with you, you’re useless!” that is not true. No one is useless in the Church. We are all needed in order to build this temple. No one is secondary: “Ah, I am the most important one in the Church!” No! We are all equal in the eyes of God. But, one of you might say, “Mr. Pope, sir, you are not equal to us.” But I am just like each of you. We are all equal. We are all brothers and sisters. No one is anonymous: all form and build the Church
A Christian has to be lively, joyous, he has to live this beautiful thing that is the People of God, the Church. Do we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, so as to be an active part of our communities, or do we close in on ourselves, saying, “I have so many things to do, that’s not my job.”?
May the Lord grant us His grace, His strength, so that we can be deeply united to Christ, the cornerstone, stone of support for all of our lives and the life of the Church.
 
2013-06-27 Pope at Mass: Resting our faith on the rock of Christ (VR)
"And this temptation exists today.** Superficial Christians who believe, yes, God, yes Christ, but not ‘everywhere’: Jesus Christ is not the one who gives them their foundation. They are the modern gnostics. The temptation of gnosticism.** A ‘liquid’ Christianity. On the other hand, there are those who believe that the Christian life should be taken so seriously that they end up confusing solidity, firmness, with rigidity. They are rigid! This think that being Christian means being in perpetual mourning. "

"The former have a ‘superficial’ happiness. The others live in perpetual state of mourning, but do not know what Christian joy is. They do not know how to enjoy the life that Jesus gives us, for they know not to talk to Jesus. They do not feel that they rest on Jesus, with that firmness which the presence of Jesus gives. And they not only have no joy, they have no freedom either. They are the slaves of superficiality, of this life widespread, and the slaves of rigidity, they are not free. The Holy Spirit has no place in their lives,. It is the Spirit who gives us the freedom! Today, the Lord calls us to build our Christian life on Him, the rock, the One who gives us freedom, the One who sends us the Spirit, that keeps us going with joy, on His journey, following His proposals. "
A very timely exhortation…
 
Friday June 28.2013
Pope at Mass: The Mystery of God’s patience

(Vatican Radio) The Lord asks us to be patient, after all He is always patient with us. Moreover there is no “set protocol” for how God intervenes in our lives; sometimes it’s immediate, sometimes we just have to have a little patience. This was the lesson drawn by Pope Francis from the daily readings at Mass Friday morning in Casa Santa Marta.
The Pope turned his thoughts to “the mystery of God’s patience, who in walking, walks at our pace.” Sometimes in life, he noted, “things become so dark, there is so much darkness, that we want - if we are in trouble - to come down from the cross.” This, he said, "is the precise moment: the night is at its darkest, when dawn is about to break. And when we come down from the Cross, we always do so just five minutes before our liberation comes, at the very moment when our impatience is greatest ".
"Jesus on the Cross, heard them challenging him: 'Come down, come down! Come ‘. Patience until the end, because He has patience with us. He always enters, He is involved with us, but He does so in His own way and when He thinks it’s best. He tells us exactly what He told Abraham: Walk in my presence and be blameless’, be above reproach, this is exactly the right word.
en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/06/28/pope_at_mass:_the_mystery_of_god%E2%80%99s_patience/en1-705591
 
2013-07-01 Pope Francis: prayer requires courage, tenacity

(Vatican Radio) We must pray with courage to the Lord, and with tenacity just as Abraham did. That’s what Pope Francis said to the faithful gathered for early morning Mass in the chapel of the Vatican guest house Santa Marta Monday. The Pope reiterated that praying is also “negotiating with the Lord,” even coming “out of left field” as Jesus teaches us.
Sometimes, the Pope said, one goes to the Lord “to ask something for someone;” one asks for a favor and then goes away. “But that,” he warned, “is not prayer,” because if “you want the Lord to bestow a grace, you have to go with courage and do what Abraham did, with that sort of tenacity.” The Pope recalled that Jesus himself tells us that we must pray as the widow with the judge, like the man who goes in the middle of the night to knock on his friend’s door. With tenacity.
In fact, he observed, Jesus himself praised the woman who tenaciously begged for the healing of her daughter. Tenacity, said the Pope, even though it’s tiring, is really “tiresome.” But this, he added, “is the attitude of prayer.” Saint Teresa, he recalled, “speaks of prayer as negotiating with the Lord” and this “is possible only when there’s familiarity with the Lord.” It is tiring, it’s true, he repeated, but “this is prayer, this is receiving a grace from God.” The Pope stressed here the same sort of reasoning that Abraham uses in his prayer: “take up the arguments, the motivations of Jesus’ own heart.
news.va/en/news/pope-francis-prayer-requires-courage-tenacity
 
Homily 07/02/20013
"It’s so hard to cut ties with a sinful situation. It is hard! Even in a temptation, it’s hard! But the voice of God tells us this word: ‘Escape! You cannot fight there, because the fire, the sulfur will kill you. Escape!’ St. Therese of the Child Jesus taught us that sometimes, in some temptations, the only solution is to escape and not be ashamed to escape; to recognize that we are weak and we have to escape. And our popular wisdom, in its simplicity, says as much, somewhat ironically: ‘he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.’ Escaping to go forward along the path of Jesus."
The Pope continued that the angel then says “do not look back,” to escape and keep your eyes faced forward. Here, he said, is some advice on how to overcome our nostalgia of sin. Think of the People of God in the desert, he stressed: “They had everything, promises, everything.” And yet “they were nostalgic for the onions of Egypt” and this “longing made them forget that they ate those onions on the table of slavery.” There was the “longing to go back, to return.” And the advice of the angel, the Pope observed, “is wise: Do not look back! Move ahead!” We must not do as Lot’s wife, we must “leave behind all nostalgia, because there is also the temptation of curiosity.”
"Faced with sin, we must escape without any nostalgia. Curiosity does not help, it hurts! 'But, in this sinful world, what can we do? What is this sin like? I would like to know . . . ’ No, do not! This curiosity will hurt you! Run away and do not look back! We are weak, all of us, and we must defend ourselves. The third situation is on the boat: it is fear. When there is great upheaval at sea, the boat was covered with the waves. ‘Save us, Lord, we are lost!’ they say. Fear! Even that is a temptation of the devil: to be afraid to move forward on the path of the Lord.”
 
Here is the link for a site which is archiving Pope Francis’ homilies and audiences. The homily that Taking Risks did on 4/22/2013 was the one Pope Francis gave on April 20, 2013.
Thank you so much.

I really like this one, because it speaks to the heart of those who struggle with accepting the Holy Eucharist.

Do you know where I can find the one that was linked earlier, with the several references to John 6?

Thanks again

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
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