Vatican City

Courses in yoga, Zen meditation, even extensive studies in church teaching and spirituality can never free people enough to open their hearts to God and his love, Pope Francis said in a morning homily.

Only the Holy Spirit can "move the heart" and make it "docile to the Lord, docile to the freedom of love," the pope said Friday at Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

The pope looked at how Jesus' disciples could fail to recognize and be open to the Lord's miracles, like his walking on water, the multiplication of the loaves and encountering him on the road to Emmaus.

"They were the apostles, those closest to Jesus. But they didn't understand," he said, according to the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"It was because their hearts had been hardened," he said.

"But how does a heart harden? How is it possible with these people who were always with Jesus, every day, who listened to him, saw him ... and their heart was hardened."

The pope said he had asked his secretary why he thought people's hearts become so closed and cold. Together they came up with a number of reasons that often affect many people in life, he said.

Painful and difficult experiences can cause people to harden their hearts because they do not want to be vulnerable to "another ordeal" or be disillusioned once again, the pope said.

He said the saying in Argentina, "If a person gets burned by milk, then he will cry when he sees a cow," expresses this idea of becoming fearful after a painful experience.

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Catechism, yoga, Zen cannot open people's hearts to God, pope says