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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021
"Hope as “living water” enabling us to continue our journey… Hoping with Him and because of Him means believing that history does not end with our mistakes, our violence and injustice, or the sin that crucifies Love. It means receiving from His open heart the Father’s forgiveness."
Pope Francis WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2021
"Faith calls us to accept the truth and testify to it before God and all our brothers and sisters… Christ Himself is this truth.  By taking on our humanity, even to its very limits, He has made Himself the way – demanding, yet open to all – that leads to the fullness of life."
Pope Francis

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2021
"Fasting, prayer and almsgiving, as preached by Jesus (cf. Mt 6:1-18), enable and express our conversion. The path of poverty and self-denial (fasting), concern and loving care for the poor (almsgiving), and childlike dialogue with the Father (prayer) make it possible for us to live lives of sincere faith, living hope and effective charity."
Pope Francis

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2021
"Open your heart, forgive, give others the benefit of the doubt, understand, you, too, be close to others, be compassionate, be tender, like Jesus. We have to love each and every one, remembering in prayer that we are all sinners and at the same time loved individually by God. Loving the world in this way, loving it with tenderness, we will discover that each day and everything bears within it a fragment of God’s mystery."
Pope Francis

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021
"In our Lenten journey towards Easter, let us remember the One who “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). During this season of conversion, let us renew our faith, draw from the “living water” of hope, and receive with open hearts the love of God, who makes us brothers and sisters in Christ."
Pope Francis
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2021
"Let us always pray for everything and for everyone, even for our enemies… Let us pray for our dear ones, but also for those we do not know… Let us pray above all for unhappy people, for those who weep in solitude and give up hope that there might still be someone who loves them…The Lord is — let us not forget — the Lord of compassion, of nearness, of tenderness: three words never to be forgotten.  Because this is the Lord’s style: compassion, nearness, tenderness."
Pope Francis
 

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2021
"Knowledge of Christ makes us confident that whatever our eyes and our minds’ eyes cannot see, rather than nothing being there, there is someone who is waiting for us… Whatever experience may touch us on our journey, God’s love can turn it into good."
Pope Francis

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021
"Prayer is always alive in our lives, like embers, even when the mouth does not speak, but the heart speaks.  Every thought, even apparently “profane” ones, can be permeated by prayer.  There is even a prayerful aspect in human intelligence; it is, in fact, a window peering into the mystery: it illuminates the few steps in front of us and then opens up to the entire reality, this reality that precedes it and surpasses it."
Pope Francis

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2021
"There is no day more wonderful day than the one we are living.  Those who live always thinking about the future: “But the future will be better...”, but do not take each day as it comes are people who live in their fantasy, they do not know how to deal with concrete reality.  And today is real, today is concrete.  And prayer takes place today. Jesus comes to meet us today, the day we are living.  And it is prayer that transforms this day into grace, or better, that transforms us: it quells anger, sustains love, multiplies joy, instils the strength to forgive."
Pope Francis
 

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TUESDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2021
"Mass cannot simply be “listened to”: it is also an incorrect expression,
“I am going to listen to Mass”. Mass cannot merely be listened to, as if we were just spectators of something that slips away without our involvement. Mass is always celebrated , and not only by the priest who presides it, but by all Christians who experience it. And the centre is Christ! All of us, in the diversity of gifts and ministries, join in His action, because He, Christ, is the Protagonist of the liturgy."
Pope Francis
 

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MONDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2021
"A Christianity without a liturgy, I dare say, is perhaps a Christianity without Christ. Without the Total Christ Even in the barest of rites, such as the one some Christians have celebrated and continue to celebrate in places of incarceration, or in the hiddenness of a house in times of persecution, Christ is truly present and gives Himself to his faithful."
Pope Francis

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SUNDAY FEBRUARY 14, 2021
"Dear brothers and sisters, the commandment of love that Jesus left to his disciples is also kept in our relationship with the sick. A society is all the more human to the degree that it cares effectively for its most frail and suffering members, in a spirit of fraternal love. Let us strive to achieve this goal, so that no one will feel alone, excluded or abandoned."
Pope Francis
 

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SATURDAY FEBRUARY 13, 2021
"What kills community life is gossip. Do not speak ill of others. “It is not easy, Father, because sometimes it comes from the heart!” Yes, it comes from the heart, it comes from envy, it comes from many capital sins that we have within. To flee. “But tell me Father, is there not some medicine? Prayer, kindness…?”  Yes, there is a medicine which is very “homemade”: bite your tongue. Before speaking ill of others, bite your tongue so that it will swell and fill up your mouth and you will be unable to speak badly. Please, flee from gossip which destroys a community!"
Pope Francis
 

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 12, 2021
"When our faith is reduced to empty words, unconcerned with the lives and needs of others, the creed we profess proves inconsistent with the life we lead. The danger is real. That is why Jesus uses strong language about the peril of falling into self-idolatry… He asks us to stop and listen, to establish a direct and personal relationship with others, to feel empathy and compassion, and to let their suffering become our own as we seek to serve them."
Pope Francis
 

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THURSDAY FEBRUARY 11, 2021
"Do we listen to Jesus’ words, which are authoritative? Always, do not forget, carry a small copy of the Gospel in your pocket or in your bag, to read throughout the day, to listen to that authoritative word of Jesus. And then, we all have problems, we all have our sins, we all have spiritual afflictions; let us ask Jesus: “Jesus, you are the prophet, the Son of God, the one who was promised to us to heal us. Heal me!” Asking Jesus to heal our sins, our ills"
Pope Francis
 

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WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 10, 2021
"Through prayer, the Word of God comes to abide in us and we abide in it. The Word inspires good intentions and sustains action; it gives us strength and serenity, and even when it challenges us, it gives us peace. On “bad” and confusing days, it guarantees to the heart a core of confidence and of love that protects it from the attacks of the evil one.  Christian life is at the same time a work of obedience and of creativity. Good Christians must be obedient, but they must be creative. Obedient, because they listen to the Word of God; creative, because they have the Holy Spirit within who drives them to be so, to lead them forward."
Pope Francis
 

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TUESDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2021
"The believer does not turn to the Holy Scriptures to support his or her own philosophical and moral view, but because he or she hopes for an encounter; the believer knows that those words were written in the Holy Spirit, and that therefore they should be welcomed and understood in that same Spirit, so that the encounter can occur.  It bothers me a little when I hear Christians who recite verses from the Bible like parrots. “Oh, yes… Oh, the Lord says… He wants this….” But did you encounter the Lord, with that verse? It is not only a question of memory: it is a question of the memory of the heart, which opens you to the encounter with the Lord. And that word, that verse, leads you to the encounter with the Lord."
Pope Francis
 

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MONDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2021
"The Bible was not written for a generic humanity, but for us, for me, for you, for men and women in flesh and blood, men and women who have a name and a surname, like me, like you. And when the Word of God, infused with the Holy Spirit, is received with an open heart, it does not leave things as they were before: never. Something changes. And this is the grace and the power of the Word of God."
Pope Francis
 
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 7, 2021
"For each one of us the time in which we are able to receive redemption is brief: it is the duration of our life in this world.  It is brief.  Perhaps it seems long... I remember that I went to administer the Sacraments, the Anointing of the Sick, to a very good elderly man, very good, and in that moment, before receiving the Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick, he said this phrase to me: “My life flew by”.  This is how we, the elderly, feel, that life has passed away.  It passes away.  And life is a gift of God’s infinite love, but it is also the time to prove our love for Him.  For this reason every moment, every instant of our existence is precious time to love God and to love our neighbour, and thereby enter into eternal life."
Pope Francis
 
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2021
"The words of Sacred Scripture were not written to remain imprisoned on papyrus, parchment or paper, but to be received by a person who prays, making them blossom in his or her heart. The Word of God goes to the heart… This experience happens to all believers: a passage from Scripture, heard many times already, unexpectedly speaks to me one day, and enlightens a situation that I am living. But it is necessary that I be present on that day for that appointment with the Word. That I be there, listening to the Word. Every day God passes and sows a seed in the soil of our lives."
Pope Francis
  FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021
"May the Virgin Mary help us live each day, each moment as the time of salvation, when the Lord passes and calls us to follow him, each according to his or her life.  And may she help us to convert from the mentality of the world, that of worldly reveries that are fireworks, to that of love and service."
Pope Francis
 

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THURSDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2021
"The history of our life has two rhythms: one, measurable, made of hours, days, years; the other, composed of the seasons of our development: birth, childhood, adolescence, maturity, old age, death.  Every period, every phase has its own value, and can be a privileged moment of encounter with the Lord.  Faith helps us to discover the spiritual significance of these periods: each one of them contains a particular call of the Lord, to which we can give a positive or negative response."
Pope Francis

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WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3, 2021
"Sin — above all the sin of worldliness which is like air, it permeates everything — brought about a mentality that tends toward the affirmation of oneself against others and against God… What is your identity? And so often we hear that one’s identity is expressed in terms of “opposition”. It is difficult to express one’s identity in the worldly spirit, in positive terms and in those of salvation: it is against oneself, against others and against God… This is the mentality of deceit that definitely has its origins in the father of deceit, the great pretender, the devil. He is the father of lies, as Jesus defines him."
Pope Francis
 

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TUESDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2021
"Salvation is not automatic; salvation is a gift of love and as such, it is offered to human freedom. Always, when we speak of love, we speak of freedom: love without freedom is not love; it may be interest, it may be fear, many things, but love is always free, and being free it calls for a freely given response: it calls for our conversion. Thus, it means changing mentality — this is conversion, changing mentality — and changing life: no longer following the examples of the world but those of God, who is Jesus; following Jesus; “doing” as Jesus had done, and as Jesus taught us. It is a decisive change of view and attitude."
Pope Francis
 

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MONDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2021
"There is the question of vaccines, and medical care in general, which risks excluding the poorer peoples.  Who would keep us informed about the long wait for treatment in the poverty-stricken villages of Asia, Latin America and Africa?  Social and economic differences on the global level risk dictating the order of distribution of anti-Covid vaccines, with the poor always at the end of the line and the right to universal health care affirmed in principle, but stripped of real effect.  Yet even in the world of the more fortunate, the social tragedy of families rapidly slipping into poverty remains largely hidden; people who are no longer ashamed to wait in line before charitable organizations in order to receive a package of provisions do not tend to make news… Digital technology gives us the possibility of timely first-hand information that is often quite useful… It is a powerful tool, which demands that all of us be responsible as users and consumers."
Pope Francis
SUNDAY JANUARY 31, 2021
"“We have books in our hands, but the facts before our eyes”, said Saint Augustine in speaking of fulfilment of the prophecies found in sacred Scripture. So too, the Gospel comes alive in our own day, whenever we accept the compelling witness of people whose lives have been changed by their encounter with Jesus. For two millennia, a chain of such encounters has communicated the attractiveness of the Christian adventure. The challenge that awaits us, then, is to communicate by encountering people, where they are and as they are."
Pope Francis

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SATURDAY JANUARY 30, 2021
"It is necessary to move beyond the complacent attitude that we “already know” certain things. Instead, we need to go and see them for ourselves, to spend time with people, to listen to their stories and to confront reality, which always in some way surprises us…“Come and see!”  This has always been the way that the Christian faith has been communicated, from the time of those first encounters on the banks of the River Jordan and on the Sea of Galilee."
Pope Francis
 

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FRIDAY JANUARY 29, 2021
"The root of communion is love of Christ who makes us overcome our prejudices to see in others a brother or sister to be loved always. Then we will discover that the Christians of other confessions — with their traditions, with their history — are gifts from God, they are gifts present within the territories of our diocesan and parish communities. Let us begin to pray for them and, when possible, with them."
Pope Francis
 
THURSDAY JANUARY 28, 2021
"The devil always divides.  He always divides because it is convenient for him to divide. He fosters division everywhere, and in any way... In general, the devil does not tempt us with high theology, but with the weaknesses of our brothers and sisters.  He is astute: he magnifies others’ mistakes and defects, sows discord, provokes criticism and creates factions.  God has another way: He takes us as we are, he loves us so much, but he loves us as we are and takes us as we are; he takes those of us who are different, he takes sinners, and he always spurs us towards unity."
Pope Francis
 

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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 27, 2021
"The world will not believe because we will convince it with good arguments, but rather if we will have borne witness to the love that unites us and draws all of us near.  During this time of serious hardship, the prayer that unity may prevail over conflict is even more necessary.  It is urgent that we set aside particularism in order to promote the common good, and our good example is fundamental to this: it is essential that Christians pursue the path toward full visible unity.  In the last decades, thanks be to God, there have been many steps forward, but we need to persevere in love and in prayer, without lacking trust nor tiring. It is a path that the Holy Spirit gave rise to in the Church, in Christians and in us all, from which there is no turning back. Ever onward!"
Pope Francis

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TUESDAY JANUARY 26, 2021
"May the Virgin Mary help us make of our lives a hymn of praise to God in response to His call and in the humble and joyful fulfilment of His will. But let us remember this: there was a moment in each of our lives, in which God made Himself present more strongly, with a call.  Let us remember that.  Let us go back to that moment so that the memory of that moment might always renew that encounter with Jesus for us."
Pope Francis
 
MONDAY JANUARY 25, 2021
"Each one of God’s calls is an initiative of His love… God’s first call is to life, through which He makes us persons; it is an individual call because God does not make things in series.  Then God calls us to faith and to become part of His family as children of God.  Lastly, God calls us to a particular state in life: to give of ourselves on the path of matrimony, or that of the priesthood or consecrated life.  They are different ways of realizing God’s design, the one He has for each of us that is always a design of love.  God always calls.  And the greatest joy for every believer is to respond to this call, offering one’s entire being to the service of God and our brothers and sisters."
Pope Francis
 

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SUNDAY JANUARY 24, 2021
"Unity is above all a gift, it is a grace to be requested through prayer.  Each one of us needs it.  In fact, we know that we are incapable of preserving unity even within ourselves… The root of so many divisions that surround us — between people, in families, in society, between nations and even between believers — it is inside us… Therefore, the solution to these divisions is not to oppose someone, because discord generates more discord.  The true remedy begins by asking God for peace, reconciliation, unity."
Pope Francis

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SATURDAY JANUARY 23, 2021
"The prayer of praise is helpful to us… It must be practiced not only when life fills us with happiness, but above all in difficult moments, in moments of darkness when the path becomes an uphill climb… Giving praise is like breathing pure oxygen: it purifies the soul, it makes you look far ahead, it does not leave you imprisoned in the difficult and dark moment of hardship."
Pope Francis

Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time       
Psalm 47
God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
For king of all the earth is God:
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

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FRIDAY JANUARY 22, 2021
"Let us not tire of invoking the light and strength of the Holy Spirit, so that he may help us to experience ordinary things with love and thereby render them extraordinary.  It is love that transforms: ordinary things seem to continue being ordinary, but when they are done with love they become extraordinary.  If we remain open, docile, to the Spirit, he inspires our daily thoughts and actions."
Pope Francis

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THURSDAY JANUARY 21, 2021
"In that moment of apparent failure, where everything is dark, Jesus prays, praising the Father.  And his prayer also leads us, readers of the Gospel, to judge our personal defeats in a different way, to judge differently the situations in which we do not see clearly the presence and action of God, when it seems that evil prevails and there is no way to stop it.  Jesus, who highly recommended the prayer of asking, at the very moment when he would have had reason to ask the Father for explanations, instead begins to praise him.  It seems to be a contradiction, but therein lies the truth."
Pope Francis
 

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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 20, 2021
"In the future of the world and in the hopes of the Church there are always the “little ones”: those who do not consider themselves better than others, who are aware of their own limitations and their sins, who do not want to lord it over others, who, in God the Father, recognize that we are all brothers and sisters."
Pope Francis

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TUESDAY JANUARY 19, 2021
"God manifests Himself when mercy appears, because that is His face. Jesus becomes the servant of sinners and is proclaimed the Son; He lowers himself upon us and the Spirit descends upon Him.  Love calls upon love.  It also applies to us: in each act of service, in every work of mercy we perform, God manifests Himself; God sets His gaze upon the world.  This applies to us."
Pope Francis
 

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MONDAY JANUARY 18, 2021
"The Lord is in humility, He is like that humble child, who shuns that ostentation which is precisely the product of worldliness.  A way of “seeing” that transcends the visible and makes it possible for us to worship the Lord who is often hidden in everyday situations, in the poor and those on the fringes.  A way of seeing things that is not impressed by sound and fury, but seeks in every situation the things that truly matter, and that seeks the Lord… May the Lord Jesus make us true worshipers, capable of showing by our lives His loving plan for all humanity.  Let us ask for the grace for each of us and for the whole Church, to learn to worship, to continue to worship, to exercise this prayer of adoration often, because only God is to be adored."
Pope Francis

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SUNDAY JANUARY 17, 2021
"We cannot let our weariness, our falls and our failings discourage us. Instead, by humbly acknowledging them, we should make them opportunities to progress towards the Lord Jesus.  Life is not about showing off our abilities, but a journey towards the One who loves us. We are not to show off our virtues in every step of our life; rather, with humility we should journey towards the Lord.  By keeping our gaze fixed on the Lord, we will find the strength needed to persevere with renewed joy."
Pope Francis SATURDAY JANUARY 16, 2021
"We become worshipers of the Lord through a gradual process. Experience teaches us, for example, that at fifty we worship differently than we did at thirty. Those who let themselves be shaped by grace usually improve with time: on the outside, we grow older – so Saint Paul tells us – while our inner nature is being renewed each day, as we grow in our understanding of how best to worship the Lord. From this point of view, our failures, crises and mistakes can become learning experiences: often they can help us to be more aware that the Lord alone is worthy of our worship, for only He can satisfy our innermost desire for life and eternity."
Pope Francis
 

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FRIDAY JANUARY 15, 2021
"With the passage of time, life’s trials and difficulties – experienced in faith – help to purify our hearts, making them humbler and thus more and more open to God. Even our sins, the awareness of being sinners, of experiencing such bad things.  “But I did this... I did...”: if you approach it with faith and repentance, with contrition, it will help you to grow."
Pope Francis
 

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THURSDAY JANUARY 14, 2021
"A journey always involves a transformation, a change.  After a journey, we are no longer the same.  There is always something new about those who have made a journey: they have learned new things, encountered new people and situations, and found inner strength amid the hardships and risks they met along the way.  No one worships the Lord without first experiencing the interior growth that comes from embarking on a journey."
Pope Francis

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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 13, 2021
"To worship the Lord, we first have to “lift up our eyes”.  In other words, not to let ourselves be imprisoned by those imaginary spectres that stifle hope, not to make our problems and difficulties the centre of our lives.  This does not mean denying reality, or deluding ourselves into thinking that all is well.  On the contrary, it is a matter of viewing problems and anxieties in a new way, knowing that the Lord is aware of our troubles, attentive to our prayers and not indifferent to the tears we shed… When we lift up our eyes to God, life’s problems do not go away, no; instead we feel certain that the Lord grants us the strength to deal with them."
Pope Francis
 

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TUESDAY JANUARY 12, 2021
"Let us invoke the protection of Mary over the universal Church, so that the Gospel of Christ, the light of all peoples, the light of all communities, may spread throughout the entire world."
Pope Francis
 

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MONDAY JANUARY 11, 2021
"Worshiping the Lord is not easy; it does not just happen.  It requires a certain spiritual maturity and is the fruit of an at times lengthy interior journey.  Worshiping God is not something we do spontaneously… In our day, it is particularly necessary for us, both as individuals and as communities, to devote more time to worship we need to learn ever better how to contemplate the Lord.  We have somewhat lost the meaning of the prayer of adoration, so we must take it up again, both in our communities and in our own spiritual life."
Pope Francis
 

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SUNDAY JANUARY 10, 2021
"The salvation wrought by Christ knows no boundaries; it is for everyone… Viewed, however, from the dimension of light: the light that illumines every man and woman, the light to be welcomed in faith and the light to be brought to others in charity, through witness, in the proclamation of the Gospel."
Pope Francis
 
SATURDAY JANUARY 9, 2021
"I like to think that when the Lord prays to the Father for us, He does not merely speak: He shows him the wounds of the flesh, He shows him the wounds He suffered for us.  This is Jesus: with His flesh He is the intercessor… Indeed, the Gospel says that He came to dwell among us . He did not come to visit us, and then leave; He came to dwell with us, to stay with us.  What, then, does He desire from us?  He desires a great intimacy.  He wants us to share with Him our joys and sufferings, desires and fears, hopes and sorrows, people and situations.  Let us do this, with confidence: let us open our hearts to Him, let us tell Him everything… And without fear, let us invite Him among us, into our homes, into our families... Let us invite Him, so that he may see our wounds.  He will come and life will change."
Pope Francis
 

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FRIDAY JANUARY 8, 2021
"Dear brother, dear sister, God became flesh to tell us, to tell you that He loves us like that, in our frailty, in your frailty; right there, where we are most ashamed, where you are most ashamed. This is bold, God’s decision is bold: He took on flesh precisely where very often we are ashamed; He enters into our shame, to become our brother, to share the path of life."
Pope Francis
 

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THURSDAY JANUARY 7, 2021
"Those who do not give thanks and those who do; those who take everything as if it is owed them, and those who welcome everything as a gift, as grace.  The Catechism says: “every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving”.  The prayer of thanksgiving always begins here: to recognize that grace precedes us.  We were thought of before we learned how to think; we were loved before we learned how to love; we were desired before our hearts conceived a desire.  If we view life like this, then “thank you” becomes the driving force of our day.  And how often we even forget to say “thank you”."
Pope Francis

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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 6, 2021
"The word is used to communicate: people do not speak alone, people speak with someone.  One always speaks with someone.  When we are in the street and we see people who talk to themselves, we say, “This person, something has happened to them…” No, we always speak to someone.  Now, the fact that Jesus was the Word from the very beginning means that from the beginning God wants to communicate with us, He wants to talk to us.  The only-begotten Son of the Father wants to tell us about the beauty of being children of God; He is “the true light” and wants to remove the darkness of evil from us; He is “the life”, who knows our lives and wants to tell us that He has always loved them.  He loves us all. Here is today’s wondrous message: Jesus is God’s Word, the eternal Word of God, who has always thought of us and wanted to communicate with us."
Pope Francis
  TUESDAY JANUARY 5, 2021
"Brothers and sisters, let us seek to remain always in the joy of encountering Jesus. Let us cultivate joyfulness The devil, instead, after having deluded us – with whatever temptation – always leaves us sad and alone. If we are in Christ, there is no sin and no threat that can ever prevent us from continuing joyfully on our way, together with many other companions on the road."
Pope Francis
 

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MONDAY JANUARY 4, 2021
"Above all, let us not forget to thank: if we are bearers of gratitude, the world itself will become better, even if only a little bit, but that is enough to transmit a bit of hope.  The world needs hope.  And with gratitude, with this habit of saying thank you, we transmit a bit of hope.  Everything is united and everything is connected, and everyone needs to do his or her part wherever we are.  The path to happiness is the one Saint Paul described at the end of one of his letters: “Pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thes 5:17-19).  Do not quench the Spirit, what a beautiful project of life!  Do not quench the Spirit that we have within leads us to gratitude. Thank you."
Pope Francis
 

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SUNDAY JANUARY 3, 2021
"The Lord wants us to make our lives masterpieces through the ordinary things, the everyday things we do.  We are called to bear witness to Jesus right where we live, in our families, at work, everywhere, even just by giving the light of a smile, a light that is not our own – it comes from Jesus – and even just by fleeing the shadow of gossip and tattle-taling. And then, when we see something that is wrong, instead of criticizing, badmouthing and complaining, let us pray for the one who made a mistake and for the difficult situation.  And when an argument starts at home, instead of trying to win it, let us try to diffuse it; and start over again each time, forgiving the one who offended.  Small things, but they change history, because they open the door, they open the window to Jesus’ light… We too can change evil into good each time just as a beautiful proverb proposes which says: “Be like the palm tree: they throw stones at it and it drops down dates.”"
Pope Francis
 

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 SATURDAY JANUARY 2, 2021
"It is true, in every family there are problems, and at times arguments… I would like to say something to you: if you quarrel within the family, do not end the day without making peace… Because cold war, day after day, is extremely dangerous. It does not help. And then, in the family there are three words, three phrases that must always be held dear: “Please”, “Thank you”, and “I am sorry”. “Please”, so as not to be intrusive in the life of others. Please: may I do something? Is it alright with you if I do this?... “Thank you”…Gratitude is the lifeblood of the noble soul. And then, the hardest to say: “I am sorry”. Because we always do bad things and very often someone is offended… Do not forget the three worlds: “please”, “thank you”, and “I am sorry” If in a family, in the family environment there are these three words, the family is fine."
Pope Francis
 
FRIDAY JANUARY 1, 2021
"Today, let us pray for those suffering persecution because of the name of Jesus. They are many unfortunately.  There are more than in the beginning of the Church.  Let us entrust these brothers and sisters to the Madonna, that they might respond with meekness to oppression and that, as true witnesses to Jesus, they might conquer evil with good."
Pope Francis
 

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