Pope Francis
Pope Francis
Pope Francisis the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and Sovereign of the Vatican City. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European pope since the Syrian Gregory III, who died in 741...
NationalityArgentinian
ProfessionReligious Leader
Date of Birth17 December 1936
CityBuenos Aires, Argentina
The Church needs you, your enthusiasm, your creativity and the joy that is so characteristic of you.
Christianity spreads through the joy of disciples who know that they are loved and saved.
The cross of Christ, embraced with love, never brings sadness with it, but joy, the joy of being saved and of doing a little of what he did on the day of his death.
The Saints were not superhuman. They were people who loved God in their hearts, and who shared this joy with others.
The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.
The Holy Spirit transforms and renews us, creates harmony and unity, and gives us courage and joy for mission.
Dear young people, Jesus wants to be your friend, and wants you to spread the joy of this friendship everywhere.
If we wish to follow Christ closely, we cannot choose an easy, quiet life. It will be a demanding life, but full of joy.
If we are truly in love with Christ and if we sense how much he loves us, our heart will 'light up' with a joy that spreads to everyone around us.
Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.
We are a church of sinners but we must not be afraid of holiness. Do not be afraid to aim for holiness and turn yourselves over to the love of God. Holiness does not mean performing extraordinary things but carrying out daily things in an extraordinary way that is with love, joy and faith.
Accompanying the people in their growth through good times and also through their difficulties, accompanying people in their joy and in their bad moments, in their difficulties when there is no work, ill health and the challenge of the Church.
It makes me sad when I find sisters who aren't joyful. They might smile, but with just a smile they could be flight attendants!
Without prolonged moments of adoration, of prayerful encounter with the word, of sincere conversation with the Lord, our work easily becomes meaningless; we lose energy as a result of weariness and difficulties, and our fervor dies out. The Church urgently needs the deep breath of prayer, and to my great joy groups devoted to prayer and intercession, the prayerful reading of God's word and the perpetual adoration of the Eucharist are growing at every level of ecclesial life.