Pope on Ash Wednesday: charity’s not to please ourselves

When the letters come in, they frequently contain “a little bit of money: something small or not so small, which is part of a person’s salary to help others”, the Pope said, explaining that “it’s beautiful” to help others, whether it be people, charitable institutions, hospitals, retirement homes or foreigners.

The pope said he realised some women felt they had no choice but to make the “agonising and painful decision” to have an abortion.

They play important roles in the Holy Year of Mercy, an initiative of Francis to encourage a more forgiving mentality in the Catholic church, often seen as harsh and judgmental toward those who stray from its teachings.

In the confessional, the Pope said, they must remember that it is Christ who welcomes, listens, forgives and grants peace. The Pope’s Tuesday morning Mass marked these special events.

In his homily before commissioning the priests at the end of Mass, the pope said their mandate is to be “signs and instruments of God’s pardon”.

The Pope told the missionaries, when they feel burdened by the weight of the sins confessed to them as well as their own personal limitations and lack of words, to put their trust “in the strength of mercy, which goes out to everyone as a love which knows no bounds”. But he wants to rely upon human cooperation, and so he asks the servants to fill them with water.

It’s an extra special lenten season for one local priest. Others who wrongly feel themselves pure “only know how to condemn”.

With the Holy Land hosting the celebration, Pope Francis chose the Gospel account of the wedding feast at Cana as the biblical inspiration for his message, which looked at Mary’s concern for the wedding guests, the servants’ willingness to fill jars of water and Jesus’ turning the water into wine. “I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico, and I think Mexico got him to do it. Because Mexico wants to keep the border just the way it is because they are making a fortune and we are losing”, Trump said. “Maybe they don’t know how to say it, but the gesture is there”.

He called on confessors to have “an attitude of respect and encouragement” when encountering a person’s shame. He noted that the Bible depicts Satan as “the great accuser”.

“The Church is a Mother because she always creates new children in faith; the Church is a Mother because she nourishes this faith; and the Church is a Mother because she offers the forgiveness of God, regenerating to a new life, the fruit of conversion”, he continued.

Because the land originally belonged to God, who then entrusted it to man, no one can claim exclusive possession of it or use ownership to create situations of inequality, he said.