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In what way are you your own prisoner?

We have to realize that we must break out of our own prisons. For this to happen there is only one thing: a surrender to God, entrusting to Him all our problems, all our difficulties. Only He can carry them. He is the sole judge of what we are.

Yes, we have seen the prisoners and we were able to gather through the order and cleanliness of each courtyard, of each building, through the number of men sitting on the ground, that there was agreement of respect between them, between the guards and the men, and with the director, Jules, in the way he spoke to them. We saw all that. And we saw a lot more than that when I invited them to pray together. All these men, criminals, thieves, have been judged by laws of men, but God Himself sees them. When we started the prayer, some had hats or caps under a blazing sun. With immense love and respect, they were more than kneeling before God. They had their heads bent to the ground because they were aware of their actions. And all these men were looking for one thing: simply that we respect and love them. Without mutual trust between the prisoner and his guard, or the between the Director and all these men that he leads: if there is no love, it is impossible. Because it would take only a spark for a terrible revolution to break out. I think it is because they knew that we were praying for them that they were waiting for us with such dignity.

Each of us must know that we are also prisoners. We do not, of course, have guards in our prisons. We do not see the guards, but we are prisoners of ourselves: first of all, prisoners of our pride, prisoners of our will, of our power, of our authoritarianism. And if we have an important position in society, we want those who are under our orders to be dominated. We crush men with words. You do not need a whip to kill someone. There are words that kill. We have to realize that we must break out of our own prisons. For this to happen, there is only one thing: a surrender to God, entrusting to Him all our problems, all our difficulties. Only He can carry them. He is the sole judge of what we are.

I told the prisoners: "There is within you a freedom that no one can take. Nobody can take away the freedom of man: It is your freedom to think. They can torture your body but they cannot torture the power of thought."

I think of those seven missionaries who were butchered in Algeria for having loved God and for having wanted to make peace. They are martyrs of modern society where we want to make people pay by taking hostages and cutting their throats. Is that love? Is that a love for God?

I believe that we need to reflect on this. Yes, love is giving your life for another, to save him. But God does not ask us to be martyrs. As for you, He wants you to be respected and to respect others, in each of your families. And He wants neighbours and friends to respect each other.

That is why we must open our hearts and our minds to those who are different from us, even if they do not have the same political views, even if they do not think quite the same way we do, they have the right to exist.

You see, put this trust in your relationship, put it in your children. Why does jealousy destroy so many people?