Spiritual practices are for “recharging your batteries,” not “health vacations.”

Vatican media broadcast the introduction written by Pope Francisco For him Journalist’s last book Austin Ivereagh, ‘First Belongs to God: In Retreat with Pope Francis’, published by Messenger Publications and Loyola Press. In his text, the Pontiff condemned “the decline of.” our common house And mass movements of people are symptoms of ‘man’s crisis of not belonging to God’.

facing self-reliance

“When we make space God who saves us from our self-reliance, we open ourselves to all creation and every being, and we become channels of the Father’s life and love. Only then do we realize the true nature of life: a gift from father “Who loves us deeply and wants us to belong to him and to others,” the Pope explains, drawing on the experience of St. Ignatius of Loyola. For Francis, despite this conviction of faith “we continue to be tempted to keep ourselves close to that grace, to live a worldly lifeUnder the illusion of being sovereign and self-reliant.”

For Bergoglio, “all the deadly crises in the world surround us, from the ecological crisis to wars, injustices against the poor and the fragile.” They are rooted in our rejection of God And for others.” In view of this, the Pope called the Church’s teachings as a “means of grace” to receive “the gifts that the Father wishes to pour out on us” such as the spiritual exercises promoted by Saint Loyola to “recharge our batteries.” “As a way of.”

“A Christian retreat This is very different from ‘wellness’ holidays., The center of attention is not us, but God, the Good Shepherd, who, instead of treating us like machines, responds to our deepest needs as his children, with whom he is in love,” the Pontiff claims. . ,Love and service: these are the two axes of spiritual practice, He explains, “Jesus comes out to meet us, breaking our chains so that we can walk with him, as his disciples and companions.” “This is not the time to become quiet and close down. I see clearly that the Lord calls us to get out of ourselves, get up and walk. He asks us not to distance ourselves from the pain and screams of our time, but to enter into them, opening the channels of His grace,” the Pope encouraged.