The Pope’s “Fit For Mission” Lenten messages

“Indifference to our neighbour and to God represents a real temptation to us as Christians.
Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.”
Are we indifferent to our neighbour’s trials & tribulations?
Do we even know who our neighbour is?
Do we just concentrate on our own selves, our own lives, our own wellbeing?

• The Church is missionary by her very nature: she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.
• In each of our neighbours we must see a brother or sister for whom
Christ died and rose again
• Who in our neighbourhood is in need of our love?

Make your hearts Firm!
We often feel caught up in a spiral of distress and powerlessness when we are flooded with news reports of human suffering
Pope Francis calls us to
• Pray in communion with the Church on earth, (especially March 13/14)
• Help by acts of charity, through the Church’s many charitable organisations
• Convert our own minds, accept our own limitations, and engage in a formation of the heart
A merciful heart is not a weak heart.

Every Christian community is called to go out of itself and be united in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially with the poor and those who are far away.
What is going on in our suburb, our wider community that we need to be part of?

How greatly I desire that our parishes and communities may become islands of mercy in the midst of a sea of indifference!
Pope Francis
In what ways is our parish or community an island of mercy?”

Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters
Ask for a heart which is merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalisation of indifference.”