Pope Francis on ways to fast

Fast from hurting words and say kind words. Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude. Fast from anger and be filled with patience. Fast from pessimism and be filled with love. Fast from worries and have trust in God. Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity. Fast from pressure and be prayerful. Fast from bitterness and fill your hearts with joy. Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others. Fast from grudges and be reconciled. Fast from words and be silent as you listen.

Attributed to Pope Francis

Some places (including the USCCB website) say that this is from Pope Francis. Others, more cautiously, say it’s attributed to him. Is he in fact responsible for it?

  1. It is All. Over. The. Internet. attributed to him. I looked at the first few pages of Google hits. None of them said when or where he said or wrote this. The earliest sighting was written 2016; I also found a site that claimed it was from Pope Francis’ 2020 Lenten message, which it obviously can’t be.
  2. A search on the Vatican website shows nothing.
  3. I started searching for key words: sadness gratitude anger patience pessimism love worries trust complaints simplicity. At this point I discovered that there’s a variant form that has “hope” in place of “love.” I looked at the first eight pages of Google hits. None gave a source.

I am fairly confident that, if this were legitimately said or written by Pope Francis, I wouldn’t have to wade through nine pages of Google search results to find it, and that it would be on the Vatican website. I would be happier if I could find an earlier identifiable source, but since no one can say when the pope said it, I’m going to say that he didn’t. If I’m wrong, give me a primary source.

3 thoughts on “Pope Francis on ways to fast

Comments are closed.