Dear brothers and sisters,

At the beginning of each liturgical season, we joyfully rediscover the grace of being Church, namely a community gathered to listen to the word of God. The voice of the Prophet Joel speaks to us, bringing each of us out of our isolation and showing us the urgent need for conversion, which is always both personal and public: “Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast” (2:16). He mentions the most fragile and least suited to large gatherings, those whose absence would be easy to justify. The prophet goes on to refer to husband and wife: he seems to call them from the privacy of their marital life, so that they will feel part of a larger community. Then he turns to priests, who already find themselves — almost by duty — “between the vestibule and the altar” (v. 17). They are invited to weep and to express these fitting words on behalf of all: “Spare your people, O Lord!” (ibid).

Even today, Lent remains a powerful time for community: “Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation” (Joel 2:16). We know that it has become increasingly difficult to gather people together and make them feel like a community — not in a nationalistic and aggressive way, but in a communion where each of us finds our place. Indeed, during Lent, a people is formed that recognises its sins. These sins are evils that have not come from supposed enemies, but afflicts our hearts, and exist within us. We need to respond by courageously accepting responsibility for them. Moreover, we must accept that while this attitude is countercultural, it constitutes an authentic, honest and attractive option, especially in our times, when it is so easy to feel powerless in the face of a world that is in flames. Truly, the Church exists as a community of witnesses that recognise their sins.

Naturally, sin is personal, but it takes shape in the real and virtual contexts of life, in the attitudes we adopt towards each other that mutually impact us, and often within real economic, cultural, political and even religious “structures of sin.” Scripture teaches us that opposing idolatry with worship of the living God means daring to be free, and rediscovering freedom through an exodus, a journey, where we are no longer paralyzed, rigid or complacent in our positions, but gathered together to move and change. How rare it is to find adults who repent — individuals, businesses and institutions that admit they have done wrong!

Today, we are reflecting precisely on this possibility of repentance. Indeed, it is no coincidence that, even in secularised contexts, many young people, more than in the past, are open to the invitation of Ash Wednesday. Young people especially understand clearly that it is possible to live a just lifestyle, and that there should be accountability for wrongdoings in the Church and in the world. We must therefore start where we can, with those who are around us. “Now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor 6:2). Let us therefore embrace the missionary significance of Lent, not in a way that distracts us from our individual efforts, but in a way that introduces this season to the many restless people of good will who are seeking authentic ways to renew their lives, within the context of the Kingdom of God and his justice.

“Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17). The prophet’s question is a warning. It also reminds us of what others think about us, especially those who observe the people of God from the outside. Lent urges us towards a change of direction — conversion — that makes our proclamation more credible.

Sixty years ago, a few weeks after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, Saint Paul VI decided to celebrate the Rite of Ashes publicly during a General Audience in Saint Peter’s Basilica, so that the gesture that we are about to perform today would be visible to all. He spoke of it as a “severe and striking penitential ceremony” (Paul VI, General Audience, 23 February 1966) that defies common sense and at the same time responds to the demands of our culture. He said: “In our own day we may ask ourselves whether this pedagogy is still understandable. We answer in the affirmative, because it is a realistic pedagogy. It is a severe reminder of the truth. It brings us to an accurate perception of our existence and our destiny.”

Paul VI said that this “penitential pedagogy surprises modern man in two ways”: the first is in “his tremendous capacity for delusion, self-suggestion and systematic self-deception about the reality of life and its values.” The second aspect is “the fundamental pessimism” that Paul VI discovered everywhere: “Most of the material offered to us today by philosophy, literature and entertainment,” he said, “concludes by proclaiming the inevitable vanity of everything, the immense sadness of life, the metaphysics of the absurd and of nothingness. This material is a vindication of the use of ashes.”

Today, we can recognise that his words were prophetic as we perceive in the ashes imposed on us the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war. This is also reflected in the ashes of international law and justice among peoples, the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples, the ashes of critical thinking and ancient local wisdom, the ashes of that sense of the sacred that dwells in every creature.

“Where is their God?” the peoples ask themselves. Yes, dear friends, history, and even more, our own conscience, asks us to call death for what it is, and to carry its marks within us while also bearing witness to the resurrection. We recognise our sins so that we can be converted; this is itself a sign and testimony of Resurrection. Indeed, it means that we will not remain among the ashes, but will rise up and rebuild. Then the Easter Triduum, which we will celebrate as the summit of the Lenten journey, will unleash all its beauty and meaning. This will take place if we participate, through penance, in the passage from death to life, from powerlessness to the possibilities of God.

The ancient and contemporary martyrs shine as pioneers on our journey towards Easter. The ancient Roman tradition of the Lenten stations — which begins today with the first station — is instructive: it refers both to moving, as pilgrims, and to stopping, statio, at the “memories” of the Martyrs, on which stand the basilicas of Rome. Is this not perhaps an invitation to follow in the footsteps of the admirable witnesses to the faith, who can now be found throughout the world? Let us remember the places, stories and names of those who have chosen the way of the Beatitudes and lived them out to the end. Their lives are countless seeds that, even when they seemed to be scattered, were buried in the earth and prepared the abundant harvest that we are called to gather. Lent, as we have seen in the Gospel reading, frees us from wanting to be seen at all costs (cf. Mt 6:2, 5, 16), and teaches us instead to see what is being born, what is growing, and urges us to serve it. It is the profound harmony that is established with the God of life, our Father and the Father of all, in the secret of those who fast, pray and love. Let us redirect, with sobriety and joy, our entire lives and hearts towards God.

18.02.26 m

Pope Leo General Audience 18.02.26

Excerpt below for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

When the Second Vatican Council, to whose documents we are dedicating the catecheses, wanted to describe the Church, it was concerned first and foremost with explaining where its origins lie. In order to do so, in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, approved on 21 November 1964, it drew the term “mystery” from the Letters of Saint Paul. By choosing this word, he did not mean to say that the Church is something obscure or incomprehensible, as is commonly thought when the word “mystery” is heard. It is exactly the opposite: indeed, when Saint Paul uses the word, especially in the Letter to the Ephesians, he wishes to indicate a reality that was previously hidden and is now revealed.

It refers to God’s plan, which has a purpose: to unify all creatures thanks to the reconciliatory action of Jesus Christ, an action that was accomplished in his death on the cross. This is experienced first of all in the assembly gathered for the liturgical celebration: there, differences are relativised, and what counts is being together because we are drawn by the Love of Christ, who broke down the wall of separation between people and social groups (cf. Eph 2:14). For Saint Paul, mystery is the manifestation of what God wanted to achieve for the whole of humanity, and is made known in local experiences, which gradually widen to include all human beings and even the cosmos.

My blessing to everyone!

18.02.26 ga

Pope Leo General Audience 18.02.26  

FAMINE

Pope Francis

Hunger

Hunger is an injustice that destroys men and women because they have nothing to eat, even if there is a lot food available in the world. Human exploitation; different forms of slavery; recently I saw a film shot inside a prison where migrants are locked up and tortured to turn them into slaves. This is still happening 70 years after the Declaration of Human Rights. Cultural colonization. This is exactly what the Devil wants, to destroy human dignity – and that is why the Devil is behind all forms of persecution.

01.06.18

Pope Leo

Message for Lent 2026

Excerpt below for the full transcript click on the link above

Listening and Fasting:

Lent as a Time of Conversion

 Dear brothers and sisters,

Lent is a time in which the Church, guided by a sense of maternal care, invites us to place the mystery of God back in the centre of our lives, in order to find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life.

Every path towards conversion begins by allowing the word of God to touch our hearts and welcoming it with a docile spirit. There is a relationship between the word, our acceptance of it and the transformation it brings about.  For this reason, the Lenten journey is a welcome opportunity to heed the voice of the Lord and renew our commitment to following Christ, accompanying him on the road to Jerusalem, where the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection will be fulfilled.

13.02.26

Pope Leo Holy Mass 15.02.26 

Excerpt below for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Dear brothers and sisters,

It is a source of great joy for me to be here and to experience with your community the gesture from which “Sunday” takes its name. It is “the Lord's Day” because the Risen Jesus comes among us, listens to us and speaks to us, nourishes us and sends us forth. Thus, in today’s Gospel, Jesus announces his “new law”: not only a teaching, but the strength to put it into practice. It is the grace of the Holy Spirit that writes indelibly in our hearts and brings to fulfilment the commandments of the old covenant (cf. Mt 5:17-37).

Through the Decalogue, after the exodus from Egypt, God had established a covenant with his people, offering them a plan for life and a path to salvation. The “Ten Words” are thus to be understood within the context of the journey of liberation, thanks to which a group of divided and oppressed tribes was transformed into a united and free people. Those commandments thus appear, in the long journey through the desert, as the light that shows the way; and their observance is understood and fulfilled not so much as a formal fulfilment of precepts, but as an act of love, of grateful and trusting correspondence to the Lord of the covenant. Therefore, the law given by God to his people is not in contrast with their freedom, but on the contrary is the condition for its flourishing.

Thus, the first Reading, taken from the book of Sirach (cf. 15, 16-21), and Psalm 118, with which we sang our response, invite us to see in the Lord’s commandments not an oppressive law, but his pedagogy for humanity seeking fullness of life and freedom.

In this regard, at the beginning of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, we find one of the most beautiful expressions of the Second Vatican Council, in which we can almost the beating of God’s heart through the heart of the Church. The Council says: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts” (Vatican Ecumenical Council II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, 1).

This prophecy of salvation is found in abundance in the preaching of Jesus, which begins on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, with the proclamation of the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:1-12), and continues by demonstrating the authentic and full sense of God’s law. The Lord says: “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire” (Mt 5:21-22). In this way, he indicates fidelity to God based on respect and on care for others in their inviolable sacredness as the way to human fulfilment, to be cultivated first and foremost in the heart, even before in deeds and words. Indeed, it is there that the most noble sentiments are born, but also the most painful profanations: closed-mindedness, envy, jealousy, so that those who think badly of their brother, harbouring evil feelings towards him, are as if they were already killing him in their hearts. It is no coincidence that Saint John says: “Any one who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 Jn 3:15).

How true are these words! And when we too happen to judge others and regard them with contempt, let us remember that the evil we see in the world has its roots right there, where the heart becomes cold, hard and lacking in mercy.

We experience this here too, in Ostia where, unfortunately, violence exists and causes harm, sometimes taking hold among young people and adolescents, perhaps fuelled by substance abuse; or perpetrated by criminal organisations, which exploit people by involving them in their crimes and pursue unjust interests through illegal and immoral means.

In the face of these phenomena, I invite you all, as a parish community, together with other virtuous organisations working in these neighbourhoods, to continue to give yourselves generously and courageously to spread the good seed of the Gospel in your streets and homes. Do not resign yourselves to the culture of abuse and injustice. On the contrary, spread respect and harmony, beginning with the disarming of language, and then investing energy and resources in education, especially for children and young people. 

15.02.26 m

Pope Leo Angelus 15.02.26

Excerpt below for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!

Today we hear a part of the Gospel passage of the “Sermon on the Mount” (cf. Mt 5:17-37).  After having proclaimed the Beatitudes, Jesus invites us to enter into the newness of the Kingdom of God.  In order to guide us on this journey, he reveals the true meaning of the precepts of the Law of Moses.  They are not meant to satisfy an external religious need of feeling “righteous” before God, but to bring us into a relationship of love with God and with our brothers and sisters.  For this reason, Jesus says that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to bring it to fulfilment.

I wish all of you a happy Sunday.

15.02.26 a

Pope Leo Angelus 15.02.26  

How do we receive the Word of God? The response is clear: As one receives Jesus Christ. The Church tells us that Jesus is present in the Scripture, in His Word.

Always carry a small Gospel with you in your purse, in your pocket, and read a passage from the Gospel during the day. Not so much to learn something, but mostly to find Jesus, because Jesus actually is in His Word, in His Gospel.  Every time I read the Gospel, I find Jesus.  - Pope Francis 01.09.14

Daily Readings - read the entire New Testament over a 2 year period (reading plan courtesy of Gideon International)

The Bible Online

Thank you, Francis

Every month, you have invited us to pray with you for the challenges of humanity and the mission of the Church, teaching us to learn compassion for others from the heart of Christ. Thank you, Francis, for your life and your witness.

Your Worldwide Prayer Network.

Pope Francis Easter Message and Urbi et Orbi Blessing   20.04.25

Easter Sunday

for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Pope Francis

Care for Our Common Home - Laudato Si'

Pope Francis 

Refugees and Migrants

Pope Francis

 Marriage

Pope Francis - The ‘foreverness’ and beauty of Love 

Pope Francis - The Family in the Light of the Word of God

Pope Francis 

Fraternity

Pope Francis

Compassion

Pope Francis

Happiness

Pope Leo Holy Mass 11.01.26 

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord  

Pope Francis Message for the 58th World Day of Peace 01.01.25