Pope Francis has reminded the faithful of God’s goodness and blessing that he said is “the root of Christian meekness”
In his weekly general audience, the pontiff told the people that if only the world would have the ability of feeling blessed and the ability to bless “wars would surely not exist.”
“This world needs blessings, and we can give blessings and receive blessings,” the pope said Dec. 2.
In his message, the leader of the Catholic Church also warned people of the habit of cursing.
“Each one of us can think:Do I have this habit of cursing like this? And ask the Lord the grace to change this habit because we have a blessed heart and curses cannot come out of a heart that has been blessed,” he said.
“May the Lord teach us never to curse, but to bless,” added the pope.
Continuing his cycle of catechesis on prayer, Pope Francis focused his reflections this week on blessing.
He said that “blessing possesses a special power that accompanies the person who receives it throughout his or her entire life.”
The pope then said that “God’s greatest blessing is Jesus Christ.”
“There is no sin that can completely erase the image of Christ present in each one of us. No sin can cancel that image that God has given us: The image of Christ,” he said.
The pope recalled his experience as a priest when he witnessed mothers queuing up in front of prisons to visit their children behind bars.
He said the women did not stop loving their children despite their mistakes. “These mothers are not ashamed and go on because their children are more important than the shame they face,” said the pope.
“We are more important to God than all the sins we can commit because He is father, He is mother, He is pure love, He has blessed us forever, and He will never stop blessing us.”
Pope Francis said that reading the Bible with prisoners or a rehabilitation group can be a powerful experience.
“To allow these people to hear that they are still blessed, notwithstanding their grave errors, that the heavenly Father continues to desire their good and to hope that they will open themselves in the end to the good. Even if their closest relatives have abandoned them … they are always children to God,” he said.
“At times miracles happen: Men and women are reborn. … For God’s grace changes lives: He takes us as we are, but He never leaves us as we are. … God did not wait for us to convert ourselves before beginning to love us, but He loved us a long time before, when we were still in sin.”
“The hope of the world lies entirely in God’s blessing: He continues to desire our good, He is the first, as the poet Péguy said, to continue to hope for our good,” he said, referencing the 19th-century French poet Charles Péguy.
Source: Licas Philippines
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