Religious quotes and news – August 31, 2025

The narrow gate

In his Angelus address last Sunday, Pope Leo explained Jesus’s reference to the narrow gate:

“Jesus tells us it is not enough to profess the faith with words, to eat and drink with Him by celebrating the Eucharist or to have a good knowledge of Christian doctrine. Our faith is authentic when it embraces our whole life, when it becomes a criterion for our decisions, when it makes us women and men committed to doing what is right and who take risks out of love, even as Jesus did.

“There are times when this involves making difficult and unpopular decisions, resisting our selfish inclinations, placing ourselves at the service of others, and persevering in doing what is right when the logic of evil seems to prevail, and so on.”

L’Osservatore Romano’s 164th birthday

L’Osservatore Romano recently celebrated its 164th birthday when it published its 50,000th edition.

Andrea Monda, the 12th director in the newspaper’s history, wrote that the first edition of the newspaper was published on July 1, 1861. He wrote that originally the paper bore the subheading “Political-moral newspaper”. This was later replaced by the current “Political-religious daily newspaper”. He added that the paper is “a political and religious newspaper, aiming to narrate simultaneously the city of God and the city of man”.

Prayer and freedom

Fr Jeffrey F. Kirby, a senior contributor to the Catholic news website Crux Now, wrote about the relationship of prayer, faith and freedom:

“With faith, we can humble ourselves, acknowledge that we do not know how to pray, declare our trust in God, and commend ourselves and our petitions to Him. We can honestly say to Him, ‘Lord, you know all things. You know what is good. I place my petitions before you. Please do with them whatever is the most good. I trust in you. Help me.’

“By praying in such a way, we show our confidence in God. We also see the freedom that His love has given to us.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)