Pope Francis' Little Book of Compassion: The Essential Teachings

by Andrea Kirk Assaf (Editor)

Overview

Pope Francis is a pope of the people, and his teachings have been praised and shared by the faithful and nonreligious alike. Exploring themes universal to all people, Pope Francis' Little Book of Compassion offers inspiration and hope from one of the world's great spiritual leaders. In it, the Holy Father explores how living a life of compassion can be practiced in five areas of life: prayer, mercy, forgiveness, solidarity, and charity.

Pope Francis appears to be changing the face of Roman Catholicism. He has infused the fusty institution with openness and optimism, faced off against established power interests within the Vatican, reformed the Church's finances, and, most importantly, asked that Catholics approach one another and non-Catholics with candor, humility, and love. He has made the papacy and the Church relevant once again.

Words from Pope Francis:
"A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just."
"There is so much indifference in the face of suffering. May we overcome indifference with concrete acts of charity."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571747785
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	03/01/2017
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	4.30(w) x 5.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Andrea Kirk Assaf is an editor, journalist, and translator who divides her time between Rome and Michigan.

Read an Excerpt

Pope Francis' Little Book of Compassion

The Essential Teachings

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By Andrea Kirk Assaf, Tony Assaf

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Copyright © 2017 HarperCollinsPublishers
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-57174-778-5

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CHAPTER 1

Compassion through Mercy

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'He had compassion,' that is, His heart, His emotions, were moved! ... 'Compassion' is an essential characteristic of God's mercy. God has compassion on us. What does this mean? He suffers with us, He feels our suffering. Compassion means 'suffer with.' The verb indicates that the physique is moved and trembles at the sight of the evil of man.

* * *

Mercy does not just imply being a 'good person' nor is it mere sentimentality. It is the measure of our authenticity as disciples of Jesus, and of our credibility as Christians in today's world.

* * *

We must ask the Lord to give us the grace to be merciful to those who do us wrong.

* * *

Jesus on the cross prayed for those who had crucified Him: 'Father, forgive them, they know not what they do' (Lk 23:34). Mercy is the only way to overcome evil. Justice is necessary, very much so, but by itself it is not enough. Justice and mercy must go together. How I wish that we could join together in a chorus of prayer, from the depths of our hearts, to implore the Lord to have mercy on us and on the whole world!

* * *

Whoever welcomes Jesus, learns to love as Jesus does. So He asks us if we want a full life: Do you want a complete life? Start by letting yourself be open and attentive! Because happiness is sown and blossoms in mercy. That is His answer, His offer, His challenge, His adventure: mercy.

* * *

God's mercy transforms human hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become merciful in turn. In an ever new miracle, divine mercy shines forth in our lives, inspiring each of us to love our neighbor and to devote ourselves to what the Church's tradition calls the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. These works remind us that faith finds expression in concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbors in body and spirit: by feeding, visiting, comforting, and instructing them. On such things will we be judged. For this reason, I expressed my hope that the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; this will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of poverty, and to enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God's mercy.

* * *

Let us all ask the Lord: Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum': Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent, or prey to the globalization of indifference.

* * *

It might be said that the Gospel, the living book of God's mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left. It remains an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practice.

* * *

Launch us on the adventure of mercy! Launch us on the adventure of building bridges and tearing down walls, barriers and barbed wire. Launch us on the adventure of helping the poor, those who feel lonely and abandoned, or no longer find meaning in their lives. Send us, like Mary of Bethany, to listen attentively to those we do not understand, those of other cultures and peoples, even those we are afraid of because we consider them a threat. Make us attentive to our elders, as Mary of Nazareth was to Elizabeth, in order to learn from their wisdom.

* * *

People may laugh at you because you believe in the gentle and unassuming power of mercy. But do not be afraid. Think of the motto of these days: 'Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy' (Mt 5:7).

* * *

Knowing your enthusiasm for mission, I repeat: mercy always has a youthful face! Because a merciful heart is motivated to move beyond its comfort zone. A merciful heart can go out and meet others; it is ready to embrace everyone. A merciful heart is able to be a place of refuge for those who are without a home or have lost their home; it is able to build a home and a family for those forced to emigrate; it knows the meaning of tenderness and compassion. A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants. To say the word 'mercy' along with you is to speak of opportunity, future, commitment, trust, openness, hospitality, compassion, and dreams.

* * *

Mercy, which always rejects wickedness, takes the human person in great earnest. Mercy always appeals to the goodness of each person, even though it be dormant and numbed. Far from bringing destruction, as we so often desire or want to bring about ourselves, mercy seeks to transform each situation from within. Herein lies the mystery of divine mercy. It seeks and invites us to conversion, it invites us to repentance; it invites us to see the damage being done at every level. Mercy always pierces evil in order to transform it. It is the mystery of God our Father: He sends His Son who pierced into what was evil, He took on sin in order to transform evil. This is His mercy.

* * *

The mystery of divine mercy is revealed in the history of the covenant between God and His people Israel. God shows Himself ever rich in mercy, ever ready to treat His people with deep tenderness and compassion, especially at those tragic moments when infidelity ruptures the bond of the covenant, which then needs to be ratified more firmly in justice and truth. Here is a true love story, in which God plays the role of the betrayed father and husband, while Israel plays the unfaithful child and bride. These domestic images — as in the case of Hosea (cf. Hos 12) — show to what extent God wishes to bind Himself to His people.

* * *

Mercy is the heart of God. It must also be the heart of the members of the one great family of His children: a heart which beats all the more strongly wherever human dignity — as a reflection of the face of God in His creatures — is in play.

* * *

The love of God breaks through that fatal withdrawal into ourselves which is indifference. The Church offers us this love of God by her teaching and especially by her witness. But we can only bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced. Christians are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like Christ, servants of God and others.

* * *

With the present Jubilee of Mercy I want to invite the Church to pray and work so that every Christian will have a humble and compassionate heart, one capable of proclaiming and witnessing to mercy. It is my hope that all of us will learn to 'forgive and give,' to become more open 'to those living on the outermost fringes of society, fringes which modern society itself creates,' and to refuse to fall into 'a humiliating indifference or a monotonous routine which prevents us from discovering what is new!'

* * *

God's justice is His mercy given to everyone as a grace that flows from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus the Cross of Christ is God's judgement on all of us and on the whole world, because through it He offers us the certitude of love and new life.

* * *

The Jubilee challenges us to ... openness, and demands that we not neglect the spirit which emerged from Vatican II, the spirit of the Samaritan, as Blessed Paul VI expressed it at the conclusion of the Council. May our passing through the Holy Door today commit us to making our own the mercy of the Good Samaritan.

* * *

May the Blessed Virgin, first fruit of the saved, model of the Church, Holy and Immaculate Spouse, loved by the Lord, help us to ever increasingly rediscover divine mercy as the distinguishing mark of Christians. One cannot understand a true Christian who is not merciful, just as one cannot comprehend God without His mercy. This is the epitomizing word of the Gospel: mercy. It is the fundamental feature of the face of Christ: that face that we recognize in the various aspects of His existence: when He goes to meet everyone, when He heals the sick, when He sits at the table with sinners, and above all when, nailed to the cross, He forgives there we see the face of divine mercy.

* * *

In the present day, as the Church is charged with the task of the new evangelization, the theme of mercy needs to be proposed again and again with new enthusiasm and renewed pastoral action. It is absolutely essential for the Church and for the credibility of her message that she herself live and testify to mercy.

* * *

In short, we are called to show mercy because mercy has first been shown to us. Pardoning offences becomes the clearest expression of merciful love, and for us Christians it is an imperative from which we cannot excuse ourselves.

* * *

God's mercy has entered the heart, revealing and showing wherein our certainty and hope lie: there is always the possibility of change, we still have time to transform what is destroying us as a people, what is demeaning our humanity.

* * *

Mercy encourages us to look to the present, and to trust what is healthy and good beating in every heart. God's mercy is our shield and our strength.

* * *

The Old Testament uses various terms when it speaks about mercy. The most meaningful of these are hesed and rahamim. The first, when applied to God, expresses God's unfailing fidelity to the Covenant with His people whom He loves and forgives for ever. The second, rahamim ... can be translated as 'heartfelt mercy.' This particularly brings to mind the maternal womb and helps us understand that God's love for His people is like that of a mother for her child ... Love of this kind involves making space for others within ourselves and being able to sympathize, suffer and rejoice with our neighbors.

* * *

Mercy means carrying the burden of a brother or sister and helping them walk. Do not say 'ah, no, go on, go!,' nor be rigid. This is very important. And who can do this? The confessor who prays, the confessor who weeps, the confessor who knows that he is more a sinner than the penitent, and if he himself has never done the bad thing that the penitent speaks of, it is but for the grace of God. Merciful is being close and accompanying the process of conversion.

* * *

Mercy is that love which embraces the misery of the human person.

* * *

We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of His brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.

* * *

A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.

* * *

The mercy of God is His loving concern for each one of us. He feels responsible; that is, He desires our well-being and He wants to see us happy, full of joy, and peaceful. This is the path which the merciful love of Christians must also travel. As the Father loves, so do His children. Just as He is merciful, so we are called to be merciful to each other.

* * *

Today, more than in the past, the Gospel of mercy troubles our consciences, prevents us from taking the suffering of others for granted, and points out ways of responding which, grounded in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, find practical expression in works of spiritual and corporal mercy.

* * *

People will try to block you, to make you think that God is distant, rigid, and insensitive, good to the good and bad to the bad. Instead, our heavenly Father 'makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good' (Mt 5:45).

* * *

To repeat continually 'for His mercy endures forever,' as the psalm does, seems to break through the dimensions of space and time, inserting everything into the eternal mystery of love. It is as if to say that not only in history, but for all eternity man will always be under the merciful gaze of the Father.

* * *

When we judge we put ourselves in God's place. This is true, but our judgment is a poor judgment: it can never, never be a true judgment because true judgment is what God gives. Why can't our judgment be like that of God? Is it because God is omnipotent and we are not? No, because our judgement lacks mercy. And when God judges, He judges with mercy.

* * *

Mercy overcomes every wall, every barrier, and leads you to always seek the face of the man, of the person. And it is mercy which changes the heart and the life, which can regenerate a person and allow him or her to integrate into society in a new way. But we know one thing: nothing is impossible for God's mercy! Even the most tangled knots are loosened by grace.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord never tires of having mercy on us, and wants to offer us His forgiveness once again — we all need it — inviting us to return to Him with a new heart, purified of evil, purified by tears, to take part in His joy.

* * *

In the first place, mercy is a gift of God the Father who is revealed in the Son. God's mercy gives rise to joyful gratitude for the hope which opens up before us in the mystery of our redemption by Christ's blood. Mercy nourishes and strengthens solidarity toward others as a necessary response to God's gracious love, 'which has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit' (Rom 5:5).

* * *

With our eyes fixed on Jesus and His merciful gaze, we experience the love of the Most Holy Trinity ... His person is nothing but love, a love given gratuitously. The relationships He forms with the people who approach Him manifest something entirely unique and unrepeatable. The signs He works, especially in favor of sinners, the poor, the marginalized, the sick, and the suffering, are all meant to teach mercy. Everything in Him speaks of mercy. Nothing in Him is devoid of compassion.

* * *

We need to go forth from our own communities and be bold enough to go to the existential outskirts that need to feel the closeness of God. He abandons no one, and He always shows His unfailing tenderness and mercy, this, therefore, is what we need to take to all people.

* * *

Mercy is the true power that can save humanity and the world from sin and evil. In the Cross we see the monstrosity of man, when he allows evil to guide him but we also see the immensity of the mercy of God, who does not treat us according to our sins but according to His mercy.

* * *

The salvation which God offers us is the work of His mercy. No human efforts, however good they may be, can enable us to merit so great a gift. God, by His sheer grace, draws us to Himself and makes us one with Him. He sends His Spirit into our hearts to make us His children, transforming us and enabling us to respond to His love by our lives.

* * *

As Jesus told Saint Faustina, He is happy when we tell Him everything: He is not bored with our lives, which He already knows, He waits for us to tell Him even about the events of our day (cf. Diary, 6 September 1937). That is the way to seek God: through prayer that is transparent and unafraid to hand over to Him our troubles, our struggles and our resistance. Jesus' heart is won over by sincere openness, by hearts capable of acknowledging and grieving over their weakness, yet trusting that precisely there God's mercy will be active.

* * *

In the corporal works of mercy we touch the flesh of Christ in our brothers and sisters who need to be fed, clothed, sheltered, visited in the spiritual works of mercy — counsel, instruction, forgiveness, admonishment, and prayer — we touch more directly our own sinfulness. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy must never be separated. By touching the flesh of the crucified Jesus in the suffering, sinners can receive the gift of realizing that they too are poor and in need. By taking this path, the 'proud,' the 'powerful,' and the 'wealthy' spoken of in the Magnificat can also be embraced and undeservedly loved by the crucified Lord who died and rose for them. This love alone is the answer to that yearning for infinite happiness and love that we think we can satisfy with the idols of knowledge, power, and riches.

CHAPTER 2

Compassion through Prayer

* * *

A prayer that does not lead you to practical action for your brother — the poor, the sick, those in need of help, a brother in difficulty — is a sterile and incomplete prayer. But, in the same way ... When time is not set aside for dialogue with Him in prayer, we risk serving ourselves and not God present in our needy brother and sister.

* * *

The prayers of the Church on earth establish a communion of mutual service and goodness which reaches up into the sight of God. Together with the saints who have found their fulfilment in God, we form part of that communion in which indifference is conquered by love. The Church in heaven is not triumphant because she has turned her back on the sufferings of the world and rejoices in splendid isolation. Rather, the saints already joyfully contemplate the fact that, through Jesus' death and resurrection, they have triumphed once and for all over indifference, hardness of heart, and hatred. Until this victory of love penetrates the whole world, the saints continue to accompany us on our pilgrim way. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, expressed her conviction that the joy in heaven for the victory of crucified love remains incomplete as long as there is still a single man or woman on earth who suffers and cries out in pain: 'I trust fully that I shall not remain idle in heaven, my desire is to continue to work for the Church and for souls' (Letter 254, July 14, 1897).

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Pope Francis' Little Book of Compassion by Andrea Kirk Assaf, Tony Assaf. Copyright © 2017 HarperCollinsPublishers. Excerpted by permission of Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

A Note from the Editor,
PART ONE: Compassion through Mercy,
PART TWO: Compassion through Prayer,
PART THREE: Compassion through Forgiveness,
PART FOUR: Compassion through Solidarity,
PART FIVE: Compassion through Charity and Service,
PART SIX: Compassion through Hospitality,
PART SEVEN: Compassion through Jesus,
PART EIGHT: Pope Francis on Compassion,
PART NINE: Reader's Journal,
About the Editors,