Pope: the desert is a place of solitude in which the heart opens to God

2021-02-21T21:48:11.911Z

"The desert is the place of solitude, where the heart is detached from other things, and only in that solitude does it open to the word of God". Pope Francis said this during the Angelus. "But it is also the place of trial and temptation - he said - where the tempter, taking advantage of fragility, insinuates his false voice, which is an alternative to the voice of God, a voice that shows another path, of deception". "During the forty days lived by Jesus in the desert, Jesus' duel against the evil one begins, against his manifestations - he added - it seems that Satan prevails when the son of God is rejected, abandoned and, finally, captured and condemned to death". "But death - he concluded - is the last desert to cross to defeat Satan and free us from his power".