Avoid verbal violence says pope

(ANSA) - Vatican City, February 25 - Pope Francis urged the faithful in his weekly general audience marking the start of Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Easter, to avoid "verbal violence".
    Speaking on Ash Wednesday, Francis remarked on the fact that, for many of us, it is not easy to be in silence as we live in an environment that is "polluted by too much verbal violence," by so many "offensive and harmful words" which are amplified by the internet.
    "Lent is a time to disconnect from cell phones and connect to the Gospel," he said, recalling that when he was a child there was no television, but his family would make a point of not listening to the radio.
    "It is the time to give up useless words, chatter, rumors, gossip, and talk and to speak directly to the Lord," he said, it is a time in which to dedicated ourselves to an ecology of the heart.
    In a world in which we often struggle to distinguish the voice of the Lord, Jesus calls us into the desert and invites us to listen to what matters, Pope Francis explained. And he recalled that when the devil tempted Him, Jesus replied "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." Thus the desert, represented by the journey of Lent, he continued, is a place of life, a place in which to dialogue in silence with the Lord who gives us life.
    The Pope also reflected on how an important part of our Lenten desert experience is the practice of fasting, which trains us to recognize, in simplicity of heart, how often our lives are spent in empty and superficial pursuits.