Tell me, when you give alms do you look into the eyes of the man or woman to whom you give alms? . . . And when you give alms, do you touch the hand of the one to whom you give alms, or do you toss the coin?

The love of God is not generic. God looks with love upon every man and woman, calling them by name.

May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman.

God chooses the Pope and God also made men and women different.

They (the consecrated) are men and woman who can awaken the world. Consecrated life is prophecy. God asks us to fly the nest and to be sent to the frontiers of the world, avoiding the temptation to 'domesticate' them. This is the most concrete way of imitating the Lord.

Terrorism grows when there are no other options, and when the center of the global economy is the god of money and not the person - men and women - this is already the first terrorism!

Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem. May we let ourselves be drawn by the light of God made man.

We have to avoid the spiritual sickness of a self-referentia l church. It's true that when you get out into the street, as happens to every man and woman, there can be accidents. However, if the church remains closed in on itself, self-referentia l, it gets old. Between a church that suffers accidents in the street, and a church that's sick because it's self-referentia l, I have no doubts about preferring the former.

The alliance of love between a man and a woman, an alliance for life, cannot be improvised, and is not made in a day.