The Pope invited to live Christmas with greater sobriety and asked to send to Ukraine what is saved because it is a country that «is suffering and needs medicine and shelter».
«Christmas is beautiful, but let’s lower the level of Christmas spending a little. Let’s have a more humble Christmas, with more humble gifts, let’s send what we save to the Ukrainian people who are suffering so much,» the pontiff said during Wednesday’s general audience.
«Christmas with the Child God, yes, but with Ukraine in the heart,» he added in this regard.
Francis has dedicated this Wednesday’s traditional General Audience to discernment. After reflecting last week on «the confirmation of the choice made,» the Holy Father considered it necessary to analyze an essential attitude «so that all the work done to discern the best and make the right decision is not lost: the attitude of vigilance.»
«We all need this attitude so that the process of discernment comes to a successful conclusion,» he added.
For the Pope, vigilance is «the disposition of soul of Christians who await the final coming of the Lord,» but it can also be understood as «the ordinary attitude to have in the conduct of life, so that our good choices, made at times after arduous discernment, can continue in a persevering and coherent way and bear fruit.»
Francis stressed that the «evil spirit (…) awaits precisely the moment when we are too sure of ourselves, when everything is going well, when things are on the upswing.» «When we trust too much in ourselves and not in the grace of God, then the Evil One finds an open door,» he warned.
