A quote from Pope Francis:
“The awareness of the wonders that the Lord carried out for our salvation should lead our minds and hearts to gratitude to God. Fully living out our Baptism … means not becoming inured to the situations of degradation and poverty that we encounter when walking the streets of our cities and towns. There is the risk of passively accepting certain types of behavior and of not marveling at the sad realities that surround us. We grow accustomed to violence, as if it were a normal part of our daily news; we get used to seeing our brothers and sisters sleeping in the streets, as they have no roof to shelter them. We are used to refugees who search of freedom and dignity, but are not received as they should be. We get used to living in a society that claims to be able to do without God, in which parents do not teach their children how to pray or how to make the sign of the Cross. This inurement to forms of behavior that are not Christian, that are the easy way, anesthetize the heart!”
-- Ash Wednesday audience, March 5, 2014
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