Monday Thoughts from Pope Francis...

 ​“Many times in the Gospels we encounter the spontaneous cry to Jesus of the sick, the possessed, the poor and the afflicted: 'Have mercy on me'. Jesus responds to them all with a gaze of mercy and the comfort of His presence. In such invocations of help and requests for pity, each person also expresses his or her faith in Jesus, calling him 'Teacher', 'Son of David' and 'Lord'. They intuited that in Him there was something extraordinary, that was able to help them to emerge from the sad situation in which they found themselves. They perceived in Him the love of God Himself. And even though the crowd jostled around Him, Jesus was aware of these invocations of mercy and took pity, especially when He saw those who suffered and were wounded in their dignity, as in the case of the bleeding woman. He calls upon them to trust in Him and in His Word. For Jesus, to feel pity was equivalent to sharing the sadness of those He met, but at the same time of working in first person to transform it into joy." (Pope Francis)