Pope Francis moves financial records office under Secretariat for Economy

Vatican City, Apr 19, 2019 / 10:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis’ prayer at Good Friday’s Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum included a plea for abused youth and for the Church, whom he said is continually under attack.

 “Lord Jes… […]

Pope Francis at the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on April 24, 2022. / Vatican Media

Denver Newsroom, Apr 24, 2022 / 06:14 am (CNA).

Pope Francis in his homily for Divine Mercy Sunday encouraged everyone, especially priests, to remember the moments in their lives when they have experienced God’s forgiveness, and the joy and peace that God’s forgiveness brings.

“The joy God gives is indeed born of forgiveness. It bestows peace. It is a joy that raises us up without humiliating us,” Pope Francis said during his homily at the Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Brothers and sisters, let us think of all those times when we received the pardon and peace of Jesus. Each one of us has received them; each one of us has had that experience. It is good for us to remember those moments. Let us put the memory of God’s warm embrace before the memory of our own mistakes and failings. In this way, we will grow in joy.”

The pope urged meditation on the three times in the Gospels when Jesus uses the greeting: “Peace be with you,” the first of which being Jesus’ first encounter with his disciples following his resurrection.

When Jesus’ disciples first encounter the risen Jesus, they react joyfully, despite having abandoned their master during his Passion and death. Despite courageously following Jesus in the past, “They had good reason to feel not only afraid, but useless; they had failed,” the pope said.

“In this climate, they hear for the first time, ‘Peace be with you!’ The disciples ought to have felt shame, yet they rejoice. Why? Because seeing his face and hearing his greeting turned their attention away from themselves and towards Jesus,” Pope Francis said.

“They were distracted from themselves and their failures and attracted by his gaze, that brimmed not with severity but with mercy. Christ did not reproach them for what they had done, but showed them his usual kindness. And this revives them, fills their hearts with the peace they had lost and makes them new persons, purified by a forgiveness that is utterly unmerited.”

The forgiveness that Jesus shows to his disciples in the Gospels is the same forgiveness He extends through the sacrament of Confession, the pope said.

The second time Jesus says “Peace be with you” is when he gives his disciples the Holy Spirit, giving them the ability to forgive sins and thus making them “dispensers of the mercy that they themselves received.”

Speaking to priests, the pope told them to they must first accept God’s forgiveness if they are to extend that forgiveness to others.

“I am now speaking to you, missionaries of mercy: if you do not feel forgiven, do not carry out your service as a missionary of mercy until you feel that forgiveness,” the pope said.

“The mercy that we have received enables us to dispense a great deal of mercy and forgiveness. Today and every day, in the Church forgiveness must be received in this same way, through the humble goodness of a merciful confessor who sees himself not as the holder of some power but as a channel of mercy, who pours out upon others the forgiveness that he himself first received. From this arises the ability to forgive everything because God always forgives everything.”

There is no need to “torment” the faithful when they come to Confession, the pope said.

“It is necessary to understand their situation, to listen, to forgive and to offer good counsel so that they can move forward. God forgives everything and we must not close that door to people,” he said.

Finally, the pope noted, Jesus says “Peace be with you” to the Apostle Thomas, who doubted the Lord’s resurrection until he was able to put his hand in Jesus’ wounds.

“There are times of difficulty when life seems to belie faith, moments of crisis when we need to touch and see. Like Thomas, it is precisely in those moments that we rediscover the heart of Christ, the Lord’s mercy,” Pope Francis said.

“In those situations, Jesus does not approach us in triumph and with overwhelming proofs. He does not perform earth-shattering miracles, but instead offers us heartwarming signs of his mercy. He comforts us in the same way he did in today’s Gospel: he offers us his wounds. We must not forget this fact. In response to our sin, the Lord is always present offering us his wounds.”

God’s mercy often makes us more aware of our neighbors’ wounds, the pope said, encouraging everyone to seek to help those suffering in mind or body, to bring peace to those suffering spiritually or physically, and to listen and bring comfort to another person. For in doing such things we “encounter Jesus,” the pope said.

“We think that we are experiencing unbearable pain and situations of suffering, and we suddenly discover that others around us are silently enduring even worse things. If we care for the wounds of our neighbour and pour upon them the balm of mercy, we find being reborn within us a hope that comforts us in our weariness,” the pope said.

Divine Mercy Sunday, celebrated the Sunday after Easter each year, was instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000.

St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a 20th-century Polish nun who received prophetic messages from Christ, received revelations about the infinite mercy of God – coined the “Divine Mercy” – and her obligation to spread the message to the world, as recorded in her diary, “Divine Mercy in my soul.”

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Vatican City, Apr 8, 2018 / 04:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the Second Sunday of Easter, also known as Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis said that our relationship with God is a personal one, filled with his love and mercy, where we proclaim like St. Thomas: “My Lord and my God!”

“To enter into Jesus’ wounds is to contemplate the boundless love flowing from his heart. It is to realize that his heart beats for me, for you, for each one of us,” the pope said April 8.

“Just like in a love story, we say to God: ‘You became man for me, you died and rose for me and thus you are not only God; you are my God, you are my life. In you I have found the love that I was looking for, and much more than I could ever have imagined.’”

Francis reflected on St. Thomas’ exclamation in the Gospel of John during his homily for Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday in St. Peter’s Square. He pointed out that it may feel strange at first to say “my Lord and my God.”

But he noted how God himself said, at the beginning of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God” showing that he desires a personal relationship with each one of us, to be possessed by us, just like a jealous lover.

The Mass also marked the start of an April 8-11 meeting in Rome of some-600 Missionaries of Mercy, who were first commissioned on Ash Wednesday 2016 during the jubilee. Their mandate was extended by Pope Francis at the close of the holy year and the meeting is focused on spiritual formation and fellowship-building.

“As today we enter, through Christ’s wounds, into the mystery of God, we come to realize that mercy is not simply one of his qualities among others, but the very beating of his heart,” Francis said.

“Then, like Thomas, we no longer live as disciples, uncertain, devout but wavering. We too fall in love with the Lord! Don’t be afraid of this word, in love with the Lord!”

How can we savor this love that Jesus bestows on us? How can we touch his mercy with our own hand? the pope asked. First, he said, is through the Sacrament of Confession, where we let ourselves be forgiven by God.

Francis outlined three roadblocks we put up in our hearts about confession: shame, discouragement, and believing we are unforgiveable.

“Before God we are tempted to do what the disciples did in the Gospel: to barricade ourselves behind closed doors,” he said. “They did it out of fear, yet we too can be afraid, ashamed to open our hearts and confess our sins.”

When we feel ashamed of our sins, this can be a gift, the pope said, because it is an invitation to our soul to let God overcome the evil in our lives, and we should not be afraid to experience shame, he said, but instead, “pass from shame to forgiveness!”

Another struggle we might face, he said, is one of resignation or discouragement, letting ourselves think: “I’ve been a Christian for all this time, but nothing has changed; I keep committing the same sins.”

“Then, in discouragement, we give up on mercy,” he continued. “But the Lord challenges us: ‘Don’t you believe that my mercy is greater than your misery? Are you a backslider? Then be a backslider in asking for mercy, and we will see who comes out on top.’”

When we fall into the same sin again and again, we may experience great sorrow, but even this sorrow is beneficial, because it “slowly detaches us from sin,” he said.

Thirdly, another “closed door” we may put up to keep ourselves from confession is not wanting to forgive ourselves, the pope said. Someone who has committed a grave sin may think that if they cannot, or do not want to, forgive themselves, how could God want to forgive them?

“This door, however, is only closed on one side, our own; but for God, no door is ever completely closed,” he said.

“As the Gospel tells us, he loves to enter precisely ‘through closed doors,’ when every entrance seems barred. There God works his wonders. He never chooses to abandon us; we are the ones who keep him out.”

“Let us today, like Thomas, implore the grace to acknowledge our God: to find in his forgiveness our joy, and in his mercy our hope,” he said.

Following the Mass, Pope Francis led faithful in praying the customary Regina Coeli prayer. In his brief message before the prayer, the pope thanked all the Missionaries of Mercy gathered in Rome for their meetings.

He also wished a happy Easter to those who are members of the Orthodox Church and are thus celebrating Easter today. “May the Risen Lord fill them with light and peace, and comfort the communities that live in particularly difficult situations,” he said.

Francis also denounced the use of chemical bombs, following an attack in Douma, Syria that killed over 40 men, women, and children, saying, “there is no such thing as a good war or a bad war. Nothing justifies the use of such bombs.”

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