FrancisWHAT IS HE SAYING ABOUT

HAPPINESS?

LIFE IS FLEETING: 10 tips for happiness1. “Campa e lascia campa” – Live and let live!

2. Be available to your children and family – “Consumerism has led to the anxiety of losing”

3. Spend Sunday (or a rest day) with your family

4. Move on. The key is forgiveness.

5. Give yourself tirelessly to others. “If one gets tired, one runs the risk of being egoistic, and stagnant water is the first to be corrupted.”

Five more tips…6. Walk softly. “The ability to move with kindness and humility, calmness of life.”

7. Work toward empowering young people.

8. Care for the environment. Aim to leave “this beautiful planet” in better shape than when we found it.

9. Respect others’ opinions.

10. Actively strive for peace. “War destroys. And we must cry out for peace. Peace sometimes gives the idea of stillness, but it is never stillness. It is always an active peace….We must speak the language of peace.”

Francis

WHAT IS HE SAYING TO

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS?

To students

HAVING A BIG HEART“[School means] having a big heart, having a greatness of soul. It means having grand ideals, the desire to achieve great things in response to what God asks of us…”

Freedom“Being free to always choose the good is challenging, but it will make you persons with backbone, who know how to face life, courageous and patient persons.”

Service“In your schools you participate in

activities that prepare you not to

be wrapped up in yourselves…but

to open yourselves to others,

especially the poorest and those

most in need…”

Don’t let yourselves be robbed of Hope

“Our lives are a response to his call and you will be happy and build your lives well if you know how to answer that call…”

“No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by boundless and unfailing love.”

For teachers…“Educating isn’t a profession but an

attitude…”

“But above all, witness with your

lives what you are communicating.”

Community“Walking in community, with friends, with those who love us, that helps us.”

“An evangelising [good news] community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, and is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others.”

“If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach out to others and seek their good.”

Who gives Francis the heart to speak like this?

To the students of England and Wales

“The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.”

(Twickenham, 17th September, 2010)

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.Pope Paul VI

John 23rd (Good Pope John)Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.