During this week let us welcome the certainty that God can forgive every sin, every distance; the certainty that with Jesus there is always a place for everyone; that with Jesus, it is never over, never too late. With God, we can always come back to life.
#Lent is the time granted us by the Lord to be renewed, to nurture our interior life and to journey towards Easter, towards the things that do not pass away, towards the reward we are to receive from the Father.
I invite everyone to make this coming 2nd March, Ash Wednesday, a Day of Fasting for Peace: let believers dedicate themselves intensively to prayer and fasting. May the Queen of Peace preserve the world from the madness of war.
The Church is a family of brothers and sisters with one Father, who gave us Jesus as our brother, to help us understand how much He loves fraternity. In fact, he wants all humanity to become one universal family. #FrattelliTutti
Our love for God and neighbor is our passport to heaven. Our earthly possessions are dust that scatters, but the love we share – in our families, at work, in the Church, and in the world – will save us, for it will endure forever.
I encourage you to ask for the intercession of Saint Joseph precisely at the most difficult times in your life. Where our mistakes become a scandal, let us ask Saint Joseph to give us the courage to speak the truth, ask for forgiveness, and humbly begin again. #GeneralAudience
Closeness is a precious balm that provides support and consolation to the sick in their suffering. As Christians, we experience that closeness as a sign of the love of Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan, who draws near with compassion to every man and woman.
To caress an elderly person expresses the same hope as caressing a child, because the beginning of life and the end are always a mystery, a mystery that should be respected, accompanied, cared for, loved.
Today, Feast of Saint Bakhita, #LetsPrayTogether for the victims of human trafficking, a crime that primarily affects women and girls. Let’s work together for an economy of care and to eliminate all inequalities. #PrayAgainstTrafficking
The crisis of faith, in our lives and in our societies, has to do with the eclipse of desire for God, with the habit of being content to live from day to day, without ever asking what God really wants from us. We have forgotten to lift our eyes to heaven.
I thank all those who act in the conviction that we can live in harmony and peace, conscious of the need for a more fraternal world, inasmuch as all of us are creatures of God: brothers and sisters. #HumanFraternityDay
The saints are friends with whom we can grow in friendship. We all need friends who can help us deal with life. This is the trust which enlivens us when we turn to the saints in the decisive moments of our lives. #GeneralAudience
We at times risk seeing our consecration only in terms of results, goals and success. The Spirit, on the other hand, asks for none of this. He wants us to cultivate daily fidelity, attentive to the little things entrusted to our care. #ConsecratedLife
Let us #PrayTogether for religious sisters and consecrated women, thanking them for their mission and their courage; may they continue to find new responses to the challenges of our times. #PrayerIntention
Saint John Bosco, father and teacher of the young, did not shut himself up in the sacristy. He went out into the streets to look for young people, with the creativity that was his hallmark.
Faith is not water that extinguishes flames, it is fire that burns; it is not a tranquilizer for people under stress, it is a love story for people in love! That is why Jesus above all else detests lukewarmness (cf. Rev 3:16).