Pope Audience: Lent a time for penance and charity
(Vatican Radio) In his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke about the
importance of Lent as a time for each of us “to promote change and conversion” in
our lives. Lent, the Pope said, should help us to get out of “the tired habits and
lazy addictions to evil that deceive us.”
During this season, we are invited
us to be more keenly aware “of the redemptive work of Christ,” and “to live out our
Baptism with greater commitment.”
It was a theme taken up in the English-language
summary of the Pope’s remarks:
“In these days the Church asks us to ponder
with joy and gratitude God’s immense love revealed in the paschal mystery and to live
ever more fully the new life we have received in Baptism. This journey of spiritual
renewal in the footsteps of Christ also calls us to acknowledge and respond to the
growing spiritual and material poverty in our midst.”
“Specifically, it means
consciously resisting the pressure of a culture which thinks it can do without God,
where parents no longer teach their children to pray, where violence, poverty and
social decay are taken for granted.”
Pope Francis concluded his remarks by
re-iterating the “essential elements” of Lent: “giving thanks to God for the mystery
of his crucified love” along with “true faith, conversion, and an opening of the heart”
to our brothers.
Listen to Christopher Wells report:
Below,
please find the English language summary of Pope Francis’ catechesis at his weekly
General Audience, with the Holy Father’s greetings for English-speaking pilgrims:
Today, Ash Wednesday, begins our Lenten journey of penance, prayer
and conversion in preparation for the Church’s annual celebration of the saving mysteries
of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. In these days the Church asks us to ponder
with joy and gratitude God’s immense love revealed in the paschal mystery and to live
ever more fully the new life we have received in Baptism. This journey of spiritual
renewal in the footsteps of Christ also calls us to acknowledge and respond to the
growing spiritual and material poverty in our midst. Specifically, it means consciously
resisting the pressure of a culture which thinks it can do without God, where parents
no longer teach their children to pray, where violence, poverty and social decay are
taken for granted. May this Lent, then, be a time when, as individuals and communities,
we heed the words of the Gospel, reflect on the mysteries of our faith, practice acts
of penance and charity, and open our hearts ever more fully to God’s grace and to
the needs of our brothers and sisters.
Pope Francis: Saluto
tutti i pellegrini di lingua inglese presenti a questa Udienza, specialmente quelli
provenienti da Malta, Danimarca, Svezia, Indonesia, Canada e Stati Uniti. A tutti
auguro che il cammino quaresimale che oggi iniziamo ci porti alla gioia della Pasqua
con cuori purificati e rinnovati dalla grazia dello Spirito Santo. Su voi e sulle
vostre famiglie invoco la gioia e la pace in Cristo nostro Redentore!
Speaker:
I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, including
those from Malta, Denmark, Sweden, Indonesia, Canada and the United States. May the
Lenten journey we begin today bring us to Easter with hearts purified and renewed
by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Upon you and your families I invoke joy and peace
in Christ our Redeemer! (Vatican Radio) In his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope
Francis spoke about the importance of Lent as a time for each of us “to promote change
and conversion” in our lives. Lent, the Pope said, should help us to get out of “the
tired habits and lazy addictions to evil that deceive us.”
During this season,
we are invited us to be more keenly aware “of the redemptive work of Christ,” and
“to live out our Baptism with greater commitment.”
It was a theme taken up
in the English-language summary of the Pope’s remarks:
“In these days the
Church asks us to ponder with joy and gratitude God’s immense love revealed in the
paschal mystery and to live ever more fully the new life we have received in Baptism.
This journey of spiritual renewal in the footsteps of Christ also calls us to acknowledge
and respond to the growing spiritual and material poverty in our midst.”
“Specifically,
it means consciously resisting the pressure of a culture which thinks it can do without
God, where parents no longer teach their children to pray, where violence, poverty
and social decay are taken for granted.”
Pope Francis concluded his remarks
by re-iterating the “essential elements” of Lent: “giving thanks to God for the mystery
of his crucified love” along with “true faith, conversion, and an opening of the heart”
to our brothers.
Listen to Christopher Wells report:
Below,
please find the English language summary of Pope Francis’ catechesis at his weekly
General Audience, with the Holy Father’s greetings for English-speaking pilgrims:
Today, Ash Wednesday, begins our Lenten journey of penance, prayer
and conversion in preparation for the Church’s annual celebration of the saving mysteries
of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. In these days the Church asks us to ponder
with joy and gratitude God’s immense love revealed in the paschal mystery and to live
ever more fully the new life we have received in Baptism. This journey of spiritual
renewal in the footsteps of Christ also calls us to acknowledge and respond to the
growing spiritual and material poverty in our midst. Specifically, it means consciously
resisting the pressure of a culture which thinks it can do without God, where parents
no longer teach their children to pray, where violence, poverty and social decay are
taken for granted. May this Lent, then, be a time when, as individuals and communities,
we heed the words of the Gospel, reflect on the mysteries of our faith, practice acts
of penance and charity, and open our hearts ever more fully to God’s grace and to
the needs of our brothers and sisters.
Pope Francis: Saluto
tutti i pellegrini di lingua inglese presenti a questa Udienza, specialmente quelli
provenienti da Malta, Danimarca, Svezia, Indonesia, Canada e Stati Uniti. A tutti
auguro che il cammino quaresimale che oggi iniziamo ci porti alla gioia della Pasqua
con cuori purificati e rinnovati dalla grazia dello Spirito Santo. Su voi e sulle
vostre famiglie invoco la gioia e la pace in Cristo nostro Redentore!
Speaker:
I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, including
those from Malta, Denmark, Sweden, Indonesia, Canada and the United States. May the
Lenten journey we begin today bring us to Easter with hearts purified and renewed
by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Upon you and your families I invoke joy and peace
in Christ our Redeemer!