God does not give up. You are close to His heart, you who do not yet know the beauty of His love, you who have not yet welcomed Jesus as the center of your life, you who cannot overcome your sin.

The breath of faith is #prayer: we grow in faith inasmuch as we learn to pray. #GeneralAudience vatican.va/content/francesco…

Jesus was lifted up on the cross to descend into our suffering, to plumb the depths of our human experience, to draw near to us and not abandon us in our suffering and our death. To redeem us, to save us. #HolyWeek

I come as a penitent, asking forgiveness from Heaven and our brothers for so much destruction and cruelty; a pilgrim of peace, in the name of Christ, Prince of Peace. How we have prayed, in these years, for peace in #Iraq! God always listens. It is up to us to walk His paths.

Lord, Our God, grant that we Christians may live the Gospel, and recognize Christ in each human being, so as to see him crucified in the sufferings of the abandoned and forgotten of our world, and risen in each brother or sister who makes a new start. #WorldDayOfSocialJustice

#Lent is precisely the season of hope when we turn our gaze back to the God who is patient. Saint Paul passionately urges us to place our hope in reconciliation: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20).

Today we bow our heads to receive #ashes. #Lent is a humble descent both inwards and towards others. It is about realizing that salvation is not an ascent to glory, but a descent in love. It is about becoming little. vatican.va/content/francesco…

We are now embarking on our #LentenJourney, which opens with the words of the prophet Joel. They point out the path we are to follow. We hear an invitation that arises from God: “Return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). Lent is a journey of return to God.

This haste, this everything right now, does not come from God. If we get worked up about the right now, we forget what remains forever: we follow the passing clouds and lose sight of the sky.

To understand God's plan for our lives better, let us seek to strengthen our relationship with Him through #Prayer. Thus we will discover that God is a compassionate Father who always takes care of us.

Each of us might experience wounds, failure, suffering, selfishness that make us close ourselves off from God and others. In the face of all this, Jesus draws near with compassion and touches our life to heal it. #GospelOfTheDay

We are created to love and through the conjugal union of a man and a woman, this vocation is lived reciprocally and in complete and definitive communion of life. On this memorial of St Valentine, I accompany engaged and married couples with my prayer.

On the #WorldDayOfTheSick special attention goes toward those who are ill and to those who assist them. I think especially of those who suffer the consequences of the #coronavirus pandemic. I express my nearness to everyone, especially to the poorest.

Through the intercession of #OurLadyOfLourdes, patroness of the sick, let us ask the Lord to grant health of soul and body to all those who suffer due to illness and the current pandemic. May He give strength to those who assist them in this time of trial.

I express my closeness to the victims of the calamity that happened in #India where part of a glacier separated itself provoking violent flooding that devastated two power plants. I pray for the workers who died, for their families and for all those who were wounded.

All of us are responsible for the communications we make, for the information we share, for the control that we can exert over fake news by exposing it. All of us are to be witnesses of the truth. #SaferInternetDay