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121 " Concerning my continent of origin, I wish to denounce vehemently an attempt to impose false values while using political and financial arguments. In some African countries, ministries dedicated to gender theory have been created in exchange for economic aid! A few African governments, fortunately in the minority, have already given in to pressures in favor of universal access to sexual and reproductive rights. "
― Robert Sarah , God or Nothing
122 " What have been the Church’s defeats? If you are referring to the Church as a society and not to her essential reality as the Mystical Body of Christ, one fatal error would be to emphasize social, economic, or, worse, political work to the detriment of evangelization. "
123 " Quite often, it is a particularly heavy barda that the bishop must carry each day on his shoulders, and it gradually becomes heavier and heavier as his ministry meets with obstacles—especially if they come from within the Church and from his closest collaborators. I "
124 " God’s beauty, which is reflected in creation but can be destroyed by man, can always be reborn thanks to forgiveness. If man rejects forgiveness, he detaches himself from God and falls into a subhuman life dominated by ugliness, lying, and evil. If he accepts forgiveness, good is reborn. How "
125 " very painful for us to note that reproductive health has become a worldwide political “norm”, containing the most perverse things that the West has to offer to the rest of the world, which is seeking comprehensive development. How can Western heads of state exert such pressure on their counterparts in countries that are often fragile? Gender ideology has become the perverse condition for cooperation and development. "
126 " I too have learned to say, in poverty: My God, I am glad about all the trials I have experienced, and I thank you in advance for all the ones yet to come. I hope they will help to bandage the wounds of the world. I "
127 " I think that prayer calls somehow for an absence of words, because the only language that God really hears is the silence of love. "
128 " The priest who neglects his Mass can no longer see how much God loves us, to the point of giving us his life. During "
129 " Karol Wojtyła was always on his knees before God, still, motionless, and as though dead in his silence before the majesty of his Father. In thinking of that saintly successor of Peter, I often recall this remark by John of the Cross in the Ascent of Mount Carmel: “All objects living in the soul—whether they be many or few, large or small—must die in order that the soul enter divine union.”3 God "
130 " Worldwide, in 2014, around one pregnancy out of four was voluntarily interrupted. That means a little more than forty million abortions in just one year. What makes this figure even more ghastly is that the “right to abortion”, that is, legal permission to kill an innocent baby, fortunately remains very limited in three-quarters of the countries "
131 " There is never any more authentic relation with God than in an encounter with the poor. For this is the source of life in God: poverty. Our Father is poor. This is perhaps an image of God that eludes us and repels us, because we have not really met “the Son of man [who] has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20). "
132 " Many of the faithful rejoice to hear talk about divine mercy, and they hope that the radical demands of the Gospel can be relaxed even for the benefit of those who by their lives have chosen to break away from the crucified love of Jesus. They do not appreciate the price paid by him on the Cross, which delivered every one of us from the yoke of sin and death. They think that because of the Lord’s infinite goodness everything is possible, while at the same time deciding to change nothing in their lives. Many expect, as something normal, that God should pour out his mercy on them while they remain in sin. . . . But sin destroys me: How can the energies of divine life be grafted onto nothingness? Despite the repeated appeals of Saint Paul, they cannot imagine why light and darkness cannot coexist: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?. . . What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Rom 6:1-3, 15). This "
133 " In Africa, when I see the astronomical sums that are promised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which aims to increase exponentially access to contraception for unmarried girls and women, thus opening up the way for abortion, I can only protest against such a lethal project. "
134 " no longer a sort of decadence but, rather, a dictatorship of horror, a programmed genocide of which the Western powers are guilty. This relentless campaign against life is a new, definitive stage in the relentless campaign against God’s plan. "
135 " A life can seem to be a tragedy, but God knows the exact meaning of everything. Our Father is carrying out a plan for each of us. He simply asks man to be docile and attentive to the messages that he ceaselessly sends us. He may subject us to insults or overwhelming slander in order to teach us gentleness and humility. Along "
136 " There is great sadness in claiming to want to indulge in limitless pleasures, whereas the most beautiful joy is to remain simply with God, allowing him to clothe us in light and purity. In "
137 " Without truth, a country walks in darkness and causes the worst of misfortunes to befall its people. The Church must be involved in the daily life of people. No Christian can be cut off from the human condition or from the history of his contemporaries. "
138 " The second type of superstition is connected with the abandonment of God. When man turns away from his fundamental roots, it is necessary for him to commend himself to other forces. Paradoxically, modern materialistic societies are based on magical beliefs. Men make false gods for themselves. "
139 " At Mass we are present first and foremost to God. If we do not turn our attention radically toward God, our faith becomes lukewarm, distracted, and uncertain. "
140 " I was also able to understand the importance of moments of silence during the liturgy. A priest ought to make a great deal of room for silence in his life, because that is fundamental if he is to remain attentive to God and to the souls that are entrusted to him. For a priest it is terribly important to learn, from the example of the monks, never to speak without reason. Because preaching involves silence. In noise, the priest wastes his time; chatter is an acid rain that can ruin our meditation. The silence of God should teach us when to speak and when to remain silent. This silence that ushers us into the real liturgy is a moment in which to praise God, to confess him before others, and to proclaim his glory. I remember that on Sundays all the villagers were very fond of spending a long time in personal prayer. We were in the presence of the Presence. Finally, "