Rather than let down our guard, Pope Francis suggests that we need to practice discernment:
We must remember that prayerful discernment must be born of a readiness to listen: to the Lord and to others, and to reality itself, which always challenges us in new ways. (Gaudete et Exsultate, 172)
This, too, is good advice, but once again we need to ask if Francis is following it. Does he manifest a “readiness to listen”? It’s becoming obvious that Francis does not listen to his critics. He ignores them, fails to respond to their sincere concerns, demotes them, and, in some cases, criticizes them harshly. Does he listen to “reality itself”?
Ping
“Pope Francis and the Devil”
First of all, how do we know which is which? Asking for a friend.
The good news is that PF believes in devils. The bad news is that he thinks that the devils are rosary-saying, Latin Mass-attending, rule-following Catholics.
My friend who follows psychics say they all agree Pope Francis will not be pope next year. I don’t know whether he’ll quit or be “fired.”
Pope is insane. Driven to harm the Church.
Oh. The devil made him do it. How convenient.
“We must remember that prayerful discernment must be born of a readiness to listen: to the Lord and to others, and to reality itself, which always challenges us in new ways. (Gaudete et Exsultate, 172)”
This is where there’s a real distinct difference between Catholic and Bible-believing Christian thinking. While I can’t say for sure that it wasn’t taken out of context in this case, it does represent the sort of comments that I’ve come across many times from Catholics. According to what the Bible teaches, we should be listening to other people and reality itself in addition to listening to the Lord. Yet, also according to God’s Word, there shouldn’t be a laundry list like this of “listen to the Lord, other people and reality,” as though we can choose to listen to one sometimes, and another at another time, and the third on other occasions, and on and on — and every choice dependent upon what strikes us as being true. So while we are to listen to others and to “reality,” we’re ultimately to listen to what God says about what we’ve heard from others and on what we take to be reality, and follow His voice.