Notices

Reflection

Over the past few years our reflections have been drawn from the Sunday Website of St. Louis University in the US. Each week they have chosen something that Pope Francis had said in his reflections on the Gospel read three years previously – as the Scripture readings follow a three-year cycle. And so, here is his reflection given three years ago on this week’s Gospel.
Where do you think we can find wounded people today? How does Pope Francis say we become witnesses of mercy?
The peace of Jesus made them pass from remorse to mission. The peace of Jesus awakens mission. It entails not ease and comfort, but the challenge to break out of ourselves. The peace of Jesus frees from the self-absorption that paralyzes; it shatters the bonds that keep the heart imprisoned. …
Dear sister, dear brother, do you want proof that God has touched your life? See if you can stoop to bind the wounds of others. Today is the day to ask, “am I, who so often have received God’s peace, his mercy, merciful to others? Do I, who have so often been fed by the Body of Jesus, make any effort to relieve the hunger of the poor?” … Having received mercy, let us now become merciful. For if love is only about us, faith becomes arid, barren and sentimental. Without others, faith becomes disembodied. Without works of mercy, it dies (cf. Jas 2:17).
Feast of Divine Mercy
Pope Francis, April 11, 2021