Pope Francis, leading Catholics into the season of Lent, urged people on Wednesday to slow down amid the noise, haste and desire for instant gratification in a high-tech world to rediscover the power of silence.
Opening Lent, pope urges people to slow down, rediscover power of silence
STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 15, ARTSAKHPRESS:On Ash Wednesday devout Christians in churches around the world have ashes rubbed onto their heads in a ritual reminding them of their mortality as a priest recites the biblically inspired phrase, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
On Wednesday, a cardinal rubbed ashes on the pope’s forehead and then Francis did the same to other members of the congregation at a Mass in the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill.
“Pause a little, leave behind the unrest and commotion that fill the soul with bitter feelings which never get us anywhere,” he said in his homily.
”Pause from this compulsion to a fast-paced life that scatters, divides and ultimately destroys time with family, with friends, with children, with grandparents, and time as
a gift...time with God,” he said.
