Pope Francis

If evil is contagious, so is good:therefore, we must allow good to abound in us, more and more;let us be infected by goodness, and let us spread the good contagion.

We need courage if we are to be faithful to the Gospel.

Lent is a favorable time for letting Christ serve us so that we in turn may become more like Him.

The challenge of life is to learn how to love

Saints are people who belong fully to God. They are not afraid of being mocked, misunderstood or marginalized.

Let us ask Mary to help us fix our eyes intently on Jesus, to follow him always, even when this is demanding.

We are called to live our baptism every day, as new creatures, clothed in Christ.

I want the Church to go out onto the streets, I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable...eve rything that might make us closed in on ourselves.

Be dispensers of God's grace, not controllers. Don't be the Holy Spirit's customs agents.

Jesus did not say: 'One of you go', but 'All of you go': we are sent together.

I make a forceful and urgent call to the entire Catholic Church, and also to every Christian of other confessions, as well as to followers of every religion and to those brothers and sisters who do not believe: peace is a good which overcomes every barrier, because it belongs to all of humanity!

The life of a family is filled with beautiful moments: rest, meals together, walks in the park or the countryside, visits to grandparents or to a sick person... But if love is missing, joy is missing, nothing is fun. Jesus gives always gives us that love: he is its endless source. In the sacrament he gives us his word and he gives us the bread of life, so that our joy may be complete.

Become the Word in body as well as spirit.

Love makes us similar, it creates equality, it breaks down walls and eliminates distances. God did this with us.

Holy Week challenges us to step outside ourselves so as to attend to the needs of others: those who long for a sympathetic ear, those in need of comfort or help. We should not simply remain in our own secure world, that of the ninety-nine sheep who never strayed from the fold, but we should go out, with Christ, in search of the one lost sheep, however far it may have wandered.

Jesus is not a figure from the past: He continues now and always to light the way for us.

Let Christ turn your natural optimism into Christian hope, your energy into moral virtue, your good will into genuine self-sacrificin g love! This is the path you are called to take. This is the path to overcoming all that threatens hope, virtue and love in your lives and in your culture. In this way your youth will be a gift to Jesus and to the world.

Do not be content to live a mediocre Christian life: walk with determination along the path of holiness.

Whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.

I entrust this Twenty-second World Day of the Sick to the intercession of Mary. I ask her to help the sick to bear their sufferings in fellowship with Jesus Christ and to support all those who care for them. To all the ill, and to all the health-care workers and volunteers who assist them, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing.

If, in your relationship with the Lord, you do not feel that He loves you tenderly, you are missing something, you still have not understood what grace is, you have not yet received grace which is this closeness.