by Telly G. Ocampo
POPE FRANCIS RETIREMENT SPEECH THAT SHOCKS THE WORLD
I have heard vividly the reading of the retirement speech of Pope Francis. One comment said that it was a speech that shocks the world.
Indeed, it shocks the world as the speech reveals what and who a true Christian should be – contrary, maybe, to how most of us perceive true Christianity.
Allow me to share with you the piece of Pope Francis and see for yourself how Divine Mercy is related to it.
Regardless of religion, see how Pope Francis has beautifully written about the family.
FAMILY, PLACE OF FORGIVENESS …
There is no perfect family.
We do not have perfect parents, – you are not perfect yourself. We do not marry a perfect person or we do not have perfect children.
We have complaints from each other. We cannot live together without offending one another.
We are constantly disappointed. Yes for so many reasons at different times we are disappointed by one another.
There is no healthy marriage or healthy family without the exercise of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the medicine of family joy and happiness.
Forgiveness is vital to our emotional health and spiritual survival. No matter the offence or who is the offender. Without forgiveness, the family becomes an arena of conflict and a fortress of evil.
Without forgiveness, the family becomes sick and unhealthy.
Forgiveness is the asepsis of the soul, the purification of the spirit and the liberation of the heart. No sin is too big to be forgiven.
He who does not forgive does not have peace in his soul and cannot have communion with God.
Unforgiving is Evil and a poison that intoxicates and kills the one who refuses to forgive.
Keeping heartache of unforgiving in your heart is a self-destructive gesture. It’s autophagy.
Those who do not forgive are physically, emotionally and spiritually ill. And they will suffer in two ways.
For this reason, the family must be a place of life and not a place of death; a place of forgiveness, a place of paradise and not a place of hell; A healing territory and not a disease; an internship of forgiveness and not guilt.
Forgiveness brings joy where sorrow has brought sadness; of Healing where sorrow has caused disease.
A family is a place of support and not of gossip and slander of one another. It must be at of welcome not a place of rejection. Shame to those who plant evil about others. We are family and not enemies.
When anyone is going through a challenge all they need is support.
By Pope Francisco