The website of Sacred Space, a work of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, offers the following reflection on the Holy Father’s General Intention, which was noted in our previous post:

Reflection for the month -Open to God's love

We invite you to join the Pope and Christians throughout the world in reflecting on his prayer intentions for this month:

Fundamentalism and extremism have always existed as the dark side of religion. Today, we hear a lot about Muslim fundamentalists, but all religions have their own forms of it. Fundamentalists are frightened people. They rely on literal interpretations of texts, such as the Bible and the Koran.

Fundamentalists feel themselves to be religiously superior to everybody else, including those whom they see as less devoted followers of their own faiths. They want every aspect of public life to be directed according to their own religious views. They are terrified of change and many of them are uneasy in the modern world, so they yearn for an imaginary golden age in the past, when everybody was strictly religious. Fundamentalists do not like the world in which God has placed us and want to reshape it according to their own views.

We Catholic Christians are asked to admit our limitations, to realise that we do not know everything and to leave room in our daily lives for the working of the Holy Spirit. This keeps us open to God's love in our lives and helps us to share it with others.

Fergus O'Donoghue, S.J.

You might enjoy visiting this special place on the web, here.