The Church is called to draw near to every person, beginning with the poorest and those who suffer.
Interpretation
The Church should serve all individuals, especially the marginalized and suffering.
In this quote, Pope Francis emphasizes the Church's mission to reach out to every person, prioritizing the poorest and those who endure hardship. This call serves as a reminder of the Church's role in promoting compassion, inclusivity, and social justice, urging its members to actively engage with and support the most vulnerable in society.
In practice
During a sermon, a pastor could use this quote to highlight the Church's mission.
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.
I join the March for Life in Washington with my prayers. May God help us respect all life, especially the most vulnerable.
No one must say that they cannot be close to the poor because their own lifestyle demands more attention to other areas. This is an excuse commonly heard in academic, business or professional, and even ecclesial circles. While it is quite true that the essential vocation and mission of the lay faithful is to strive that earthly realities and all human activity may be transformed by the Gospel, none of us can think we are exempt from concern for the poor and for social justice
We face so many challenges in life: poverty, distress, humiliation, the struggle for justice, persecutions, the difficulty of daily conversion, the effort to remain faithful to our call to holiness, and many others. But if we open the door to Jesus and allow him to be part of our lives, if we share our joys and sorrows with him, then we will experience the peace and joy that only God, who is infinite love, can give.
More and more people work on Sundays as a consequence of the competitiveness imposed by a consumer society.
This Christmas may we be consistent in living the Gospel, welcoming Jesus into the centre of our lives.
Time, Baby - so much, so much time left until the end of my life - sometimes I go crazy at how slowly time passes yet how quickly my body ages. But I shouldn't allow myself to think like this. I have to remind myself that time only frightens me when I think of having to spend it alone. Sometimes I scare myself with how many of my thoughts revolve around making me feel better about sleeping alone in a room.
Apart from the mercy of God, there is no other source of hope for mankind.
The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.
I always think that Iβm still this 13-year old boy that doesnβt really know how to be an adult, pretending to live my life, taking notes for when Iβll really have to do it.
Once we ask why it should be that all human beings - including infants, the intellectually disabled, criminal psychopaths, Hitler, Stalin, and the rest - have some kind of dignity or worth that no elephant, pig, or chimpanzee can ever achieve, we see that this question is as difficult to answer as our original request for some relevant fact that justifies the inequality of humans and other animals.
His face is livid, gaunt his whole body, his breath is green with gall; his tongue drips poison.
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