Vatican City, Mar 30, 2018 / 13:38 pm
During his annual Good Friday Via Crucis at the Colosseum, Pope Francis made a heartfelt prayer asking God to give Christians the grace to be ashamed of their sins, to repent and beg for mercy, and to have hope that his love is stronger than death.
"Before your supreme love, shame pervades us for having left you alone to suffer for our sins...shame for having chosen Barabbas and not you, power and not you, appearance and not you, the god of money and not you, worldliness and not eternity," the Pope said in his March 30 prayer.
Christians also feel shame for all the people, including some clergy, who "allowed themselves be deceived by ambition and vainglory, losing sight of their dignity and first love," and those who have left future generations a world "fractured by divisions and wars" and "consumed by selfishness."
Above all, Christians are ashamed "for having lost a sense of shame," he said, and asked the Lord to "always grant us the grace of holy shame!"