Pope Francis: Announce the Gospel with Sweetness




Preaching the Good News with “with sweetness, fraternity and love” and refusing the temptation to “connect the proclamation of the Gospel with inquisitorial beatings of condemnation”. Pope Francis addressed this invitation to the Jesuits and the faithful present at a Mass of thanksgiving for the canonization of Peter Faber, celebrated on Friday, 3 January in the Church of the Gesù in Rome.

Once again drawing on the spiritual message of the Jesuit from Savoy — declared a saint on 17 December — the Pontiff remembered him as a “man of great desires” and a “restless spirit” who, in the school of St Ignatius, “learned to combine his restless but sweet spirit with the ability to make decisions”.

The Pope urged those present to fly high and pursue their dreams without settling for mediocrity. The strength of the Church “does not lie within herself but in her ability to organize, it is hidden in the deep waters of God”. And each of us, especially those of the Society of Jesus, must be willing to empty themselves. “Only if you are centered in God, can you go to the outskirts of the world,” Pope Francis also said, referring to themes of formation and of the mission of religious, to which he had also dedicated his meeting with the Union of Superiors General on 29 November in the Vatican. The text of the Pope's conversation with the 120 participants of the General Assembly of the Union is – starting today - available on the website of La Civiltà Cattolica in Italian, Spanish and English.

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