Pope: Sad Christians can't transmit the Gospel
During his daily Mass at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, the Pope invited Christians to embrace happiness and to not live life with a ‘funeral face.’ The Pope explained that the Holy Spirit brings Christians a special joy that should lead them to praise God.
He echoes the question of Johannes Hofinger, influential Jesuit catechist of the 1950’s who asked why Christians who were supposed to be preaching good news looked like they need aspirins.
POPE FRANCIS
“It is precisely the Holy Spirit who guides us: He is the author of joy. And it’s this joy in the Spirit that gives us true Christian freedom. Without joy, Christians can’t be free. We become slaves of our sadness. The great Paul VI said that you can’t transmit the Gospel, with sad, distrustful, or pessimistic Christians. You cannot! You can’t have that type of attitude. Sometimes it seems like Christians are going to a funeral procession instead praising God. This joy comes from praise, a praise of Mary, that praise that Zephaniah spoke of. That same praise of Simon and of Ana: Praise God!
During his daily Mass at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, the Pope invited Christians to embrace happiness and to not live life with a ‘funeral face.’ The Pope explained that the Holy Spirit brings Christians a special joy that should lead them to praise God.
He went on to explain that to truly find meaning in prayer, one must be willing to invest one’s time praying and praising God, even if it seems like one’s wasting time.
POPE FRANCIS
“Here at Mass, I ask you: do you praise God or do you simply ask of Him and give thanks. Do you truly praise God? This is something new, it’s new to our spiritual life. It’s about praising God, about going out of ourselves and getting lost in time praising God. Some will say ‘but Mass is so long.’ If you don’t praise God, you don’t understand the joyful attitude that comes with praise, even if you’re wasting time, praising Him in that long Mass. But if you welcome the attitude of praise, it’s beautiful! Eternity will be about Praising God! It won’t be boring, it will be beautiful! This joy makes us free.”
The Mass was attended by a group of employees from the Vatican’s economic department and from the Swiss Guard.
Text courtesy of http://en.romereports.com
For more images of the laughing Jesus visit http://www.jesuslaughing.com/
Tags: Joy, Pope, Pope Francis