VATICAN CITY — The Eight Beatitudes describe the path to holiness, but the call to meekness seems particularly challenging today, Pope Francis said. “The meek are those who know how to control themselves, who leave space for the other; they listen to the other, respect the other’s way of living, his or her needs and requests. They do not intend to overwhelm or diminish the other, they do not want to loom over or dominate everything, nor do they impose their ideas or their own interests to the detriment of others,” the pope said Nov. 1. Marking the day’s feast of All Saints and commenting on the Gospel reading, which was the Gospel of Matthew’s version of the beatitudes, Pope Francis told people gathered to pray the Angelus with him that the saints and blesseds recognized by the church walked the path of the beatitudes, each in his or her own way. “They all have their own personality and developed their own life of holiness according to that personality,” the pope said, “and each one of us can do it, taking this path: meekness, meekness, please, and we will head toward holiness.”
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