(...) “All of you in the square shouted out 'Francis, Francis, Pope Francis,'
but where was Jesus?” he admonished them. “I want to hear you shout out
'Jesus, Jesus is Lord, and he is in our midst.'”“I received my first Christian proclamation right from this woman, from my grandmother. That is something beautiful,” he exclaimed.
He told mothers to conscientiously transmit faith to their children, because “God puts people alongside us who help our journey of faith.”
He also told how, at the age of 16, he felt a sudden urge to go to confession one day. It was there that he heard the call to priesthood.
“After the confession I felt that something had changed, I was not the same. I felt a voice call me, and I was convinced that I had to become a priest.”
“This experience of faith is important,” he added. “We say that we must seek God, go to him to ask for forgiveness but when we go, he is waiting for us, he is the first one there.”
(...)
“If we push ahead with planning and organization – beautiful things indeed – but without Jesus, then we are on the wrong road. Jesus is the most important thing,” emphasized Pope Francis.
The pontiff underscored the importance of prayer and “letting God gaze at you.”
He said that he prays the rosary daily, but often “nods off” in front of the tabernacle. “But he understands me. I feel so much comfort when I think that he is looking at me.”
The Bishop of Rome underscored the need for letting one’s self be guided by God.
“When the Church becomes closed in on itself, it gets sick,” Pope Francis said, appealing to people to “not close in on themselves, on their own friends and movements.”
“We cannot become starched Christians, too polite, who speak of theology calmly over tea, we have to become courageous Christians,” he said.
He also emphasized the danger of letting worldliness creep into the Church. “There is a problem that is not good for Christians: the spirit of the world, the worldly spirit, the spiritual worldliness.”