"True power is in serving others"
"Real power is service. As He did, He who came not to be served but to serve, and His service was the service of the Cross. He humbled Himself unto death, even death on a cross for us, to serve us, to save us. And there is no other way in the Church to move forward. For the Christian, getting ahead, progress, means humbling oneself. If we do not learn this Christian rule, we will never, ever be able to understand Jesus’ true message on power. " (Pope Francis, May 21, 2013)
"Without prayer our actions become empty"
"...a Church that evangelizes must always start from prayer... Without prayer our actions become empty and our proclamation soulless, it is not animated by the Spirit." (Pope Francis, May 22, 2013, en.radiovaticana.va)
"Avoid the temptation to interfere"
"We all chat in Church! As Christians we chat! The chatter is hurtful? We hurt one another. It is as if we want to put each other down.: instead of growing one makes the other feel small while I feel great. That will not do! It seems nice to chat ...
"We become Christians of good manners and bad habits."
"We do three things:
"We supply misinformation: we tell only half that suits us and not the other half, the other half we do not say because it is not convenient for us.
"The second is defamation: When a person truly has a flaw, it is big, they tell it, 'like a journalist' ... And the character of this person is ruined.
"And the third is the slander of saying things that are not true. It is like killing ones brother!
"All three - disinformation, defamation and slander - are sins!
"Today we ask the Lord Jesus to give us this grace not to ever get involved in the lives of others, not to become Christians of good manners and bad habits, it is to follow Jesus, to walk behind Jesus on his way. And this is enough."
(Pope Francis, May 18, 2013) See also...
"We become Christians of good manners and bad habits."
"We do three things:
"We supply misinformation: we tell only half that suits us and not the other half, the other half we do not say because it is not convenient for us.
"The second is defamation: When a person truly has a flaw, it is big, they tell it, 'like a journalist' ... And the character of this person is ruined.
"And the third is the slander of saying things that are not true. It is like killing ones brother!
"All three - disinformation, defamation and slander - are sins!
"Today we ask the Lord Jesus to give us this grace not to ever get involved in the lives of others, not to become Christians of good manners and bad habits, it is to follow Jesus, to walk behind Jesus on his way. And this is enough."
(Pope Francis, May 18, 2013) See also...
"Lukewarm Christians hurt the Church"
"When the Church loses courage, the Church enters into a ‘lukewarm’ atmosphere. The lukewarm, lukewarm Christians, without courage...
"That hurts the Church so much, because this tepid atmosphere draws you inside, and problems arise among us; we no longer have the horizon, or courage to pray towards heaven, or the courage to proclaim the Gospel. We are lukewarm...
"We have the courage to get involved in our small things in our jealousies, our envy, our careerism, in selfishly going forward... In all these things, but this is not good for the Church: the Church must be courageous!
(Pope Francis, May 3, 2013)
"That hurts the Church so much, because this tepid atmosphere draws you inside, and problems arise among us; we no longer have the horizon, or courage to pray towards heaven, or the courage to proclaim the Gospel. We are lukewarm...
"We have the courage to get involved in our small things in our jealousies, our envy, our careerism, in selfishly going forward... In all these things, but this is not good for the Church: the Church must be courageous!
(Pope Francis, May 3, 2013)