Faith challenges us to open our hearts.


Wednesday, 11/12/14

In eating alone two nights ago, and looking through things I had forgotten about after copying them onto my Kindle, I came upon a sermon of Pope Francis. It was one he gave two years ago at the beginning of an official Year of Faith. In it he urged  us to open our doors to faith, he made the following comments.

Among the most striking experiences of the past few decades is that of encountering locked doors. Little by little, increasing insecurity has driven us to bolt our doors.

The bolted door of my house, which is the setting of my intimate life, of my dreams, hopes, and moments of happiness, is now locked against others. And it is not only a matter of my physical house, it is also my whole life, my heart. These locked doors guard the insecurity of life that is becoming more fragile, less open. But faith challenges us to open those doors.

Faith challenges us to discover that the sad reality around us can change.

Faith challenges us to have the hearts of children.

Faith challenges us to trust in the power of the Holy Spirit who is present in the Church and visible in the signs of the times.

Faith challenged us to join the constant movement of life, and of history; without falling into the paralyzing defeatism of believing everything in the past was better.

Faith is an urgency to think in new ways, to offer new suggestions and express a new creativity. It is urging us toward, kneading our lives with the new leaven of sincerity and truth.

Faith challenges us to forgive and to know how to bring out a smile.

Fsoith challenges us to approach every person who lives on the margin of existence and calling him or her by name.

Faith means being a church of open doors.

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