Andrea Kirk Assaf - Pope Francis Little Book of Wisdom: The Essential Teachings

First published in 2015 by

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Charlottesville, VA 22906

Distributed by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

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Published by arrangement with HarperCollinsPubiishers Ltd

Copyright 2015 HarperCollinsPubiishers

Copyright 2015 by Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Compiled by Andrea Kirk Assaf

Edited by Tony Assaf

Cover design by e-Digital Design

Cover photo credit: Pope Francis addresses the crowd on Easter Sunday, 2013 Alamy.

Text design by e-Digital Design

ISBN: 978-1-57174-738-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

Printed in the United Kingdom

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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T ake this Gospel and carry it with you, to read it often, every day. Carry it in your purse, in your pocket, read from it often, a passage every day. The word of God is a light for our path! It will do you well. Do it.

Pope Francis addressing the crowds after the Angelus prayer in St. Peter Square, March 22, 2015, after which homeless men and women distributed pocket-sized Gospels, a new Lenten tradition he began in 2014 to demonstrate that the ones most in need are the ones who give us the Word of God.

On Palm Sunday this year I happened to mention to an Italian friend that I was compiling quotes of Pope Francis for a small book. Without missing a beat, he recited one of his favorites to me, confiding that he often reads just a sentence or two from one of the Holy father's writings or speeches so that he can reflect on it for the rest of the day. He had been wishing for a small volume of selected inspiring quotes by Pope Francis that he could easily carry along with him as he goes about his commute and workday or during moments of leisure.

Sandro, this little book is for you, and for me, and for all who have found something beautiful, inspirational, and wise in the words of Pope Francis. May he continue to teach us and charm us with his surprises, wit, and wisdom for as long as the Lord chooses to bless us with his pontificate. May this little book allow Pope Francis to come along with us on our daily journeys as our confidant, fellow traveler, and guide.

Andrea Kirk Assaf
Easter Sunday 2015
Rome, Italy

D aily contemplation of the Gospel helps us to have true hope. Keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus is the core of hope.

T o protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope; it is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds; it is to bring the warmth of hope!

T his is Christian hope: that the future is God's hands.

[Y] ou have in your heart a promise of hope. You are bearers of hope. You, in fact, live in the present, but are looking at the future. You are the protagonists of the future, artisans of the future.

[F] reedom and hope go hand in hand ... wherever there is no hope, there can be no freedom.

D o not allow yourselves to be robbed of hope, and carry on! On the contrary, sow hope.

C hrist is the one who renews every wonderful thing of creation; He's the reason of our hope. And this hope does not delude because He is faithful. He can't renounce Himself. This is the virtue of Hope.

H ope is the most humble of the three theological virtues, for it hides itself in this life.

I t's best to not confuse optimism with hope. Optimism is a psychological attitude toward life. Hope goes further.

H ope is having our hearts anchored to our loved ones, our ancestors, to where the saints are, where Christ is, where God is.

[H] ope is not for one person alone, hope is something we do together! We must keep hope alive together, all of you, and all of us, who are so far away.

T here are difficult moments in life, but with hope the soul goes forward and looks ahead to what awaits us.

A nyone exercising a role of leadershipallow me to say, anyone whom life has anointed as a leaderneeds to have practical goals and to seek specific means to attain them. At the same time, there is always the risk of disappointment, resentment, and indifference, if our plans and goals do not materialize. Here I would appeal to the dynamic of hope that inspires us to keep pressing on, to employ all our energies and abilities on behalf of those for whom we work, accepting results, making it possible to strike out on new paths, being generous even without apparent results, yet keeping hope alive, with the constancy and courage that comes from accepting a vocation as leader and guide.

W e are all called to rekindle in our hearts an impulse of hope, that should result in concrete works of peace, reconciliation, and fraternity.

T here is never a reason to lose hope. Jesus says: I am with you until the end of the world.

E very period of history is marked by the presence of human weakness, self-absorption, complacency, and selfishness, to say nothing of the concupiscence which preys upon us all. These things are ever present under one guise or another; they are due to our human limits rather than particular situations. Let us not say, then, that things are harder today; they are simply different. But let us learn also from the saints who have gone before us, who confronted the difficulties of their own day. So I propose that we pause to rediscover some of the reasons which can help us to imitate them today.