A Message To Pope Francis + Epic Quotes

Dear Pope Francis,

If for some miracle you get to read my blog, first of all, MABUHAY! Welcome to the Philippines! Filipinos love you!

Please excuse those who are capitalizing on your visit to our country. The humongous commercial billboards and merchandize being sold with your photo plastered on them are not a reflection of how beautiful my countrymen are inside and out. Please forgive them. Let’s pray they dedicate their earnings to those in need.

Know that your visit is touching many lives and one of them is mine. I know it’s not good to play favorites but you are my favorite Pope. I love that you are radical, realistic and you have a happy and caring heart. You have inspired me to become a better Christian and less judge-y (Oh, God! I’m still working on this. Sorry I said “Oh, God!”)

I pray you continue God’s work. We love you!

My favorite Pope Francis quotes:

“The Lord never tires of forgiving. It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness.”

“This is precisely the reason for the dissatisfaction of some, who end up sad — sad priests — in some sense becoming collectors of antiques or novelties, instead of being shepherds living with ‘the odor of the sheep.’ This I ask you: Be shepherds, with the ‘odor of the sheep,’ make it real, as shepherds among your flock, fishers of men.”

“When I hear the confession of young couples and they start talking about their children, I always ask them the same question: do you make time to play with your children? The fathers usually say: ‘But Father, when I go to work in the morning they are sleeping, and when I’m back home they’re also in bed.’ This is no way to live.”

“Men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption: it is the ‘culture of waste.’ If a computer breaks it is a tragedy, but poverty, the needs and dramas of so many people end up being considered normal. … When the stock market drops 10 points in some cities, it constitutes a tragedy. Someone who dies is not news, but lowering income by 10 points is a tragedy! In this way people are thrown aside as if they were trash.”

“Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey. To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, his response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light.”

“If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him? … The problem is not having this tendency, no, we must be brothers and sisters to one another. The problem is in making a lobby of this tendency: a lobby of misers, a lobby of politicians, a lobby of masons, so many lobbies.”

“An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral.”

“The perfect family doesn’t exist, nor is there a perfect husband or a perfect wife, and let’s not talk about the perfect mother-in-law! It’s just us sinners.” A healthy family life requires frequent use of three phrases: “May I? Thank you, and I’m sorry” and “never, never, never end the day without making peace.”

“The only way to escape corruption, the only way to overcome the temptation to – the sin of – corruption, is service. Corruption is pride, arrogance – and service humiliates you.”

“Gossip can also kill, because it kills the reputation of the person! It is so terrible to gossip! At first it may seem like a nice thing, even amusing, like enjoying a candy. But in the end, it fills the heart with bitterness, and even poisons us.”

In a nutshell, be generous with time and money, do not judge people and no matter how you try to justify gossip, the bottom line is: it’s evil. According to the Pope, it’s the most evil of activities and denounces gossip as “murder.”

From here on, hug your loved ones a little longer, tell them how much you love them, be extra nice to everyone and practice to be good and helpful everyday.

Have a happy and insightful long weekend!