This is what the Pasch of the Lord accomplishes: it motivates us to move forward, to leave behind our sense of defeat, to roll away the stone of the tombs in which we often imprison our hope, and to look with confidence to the future.

“Look at the closet of your soul—how many useless things you have, how many stupid illusions,” the pope said. “Let us return to simplicity, to things that are true, that don’t need to be made-up.”

“Christ, in his abandonment, stirs us to seek him and to love him and those who are themselves abandoned. For in them we see not only people in need, but Jesus himself, abandoned.”

In his weekly general audience, Pope Francis reveals how Paul of Tarsus was the exemplary witness to what passion for the Gospel means, and he has the zeal to preach about Jesus and help others.

Pope Francis: We must be aware that the people to whom evangelization is addressed are not only others, those who profess other faiths or who profess none, but also ourselves, believers in Christ.

So, what does it mean to be apostles? It means being sent for a mission.

Pope Francis continues his audiences on evangelization: It is always an "ecclesial service, never solitary, never isolated, never individualistic."

“The rite of the imposition of ashes serves as the beginning of this return journey. It exhorts us to do two things: to return to the truth about ourselves and to return to God and to our brothers and sisters.”

“If you take refuge in an idea, in an ideology, whether right or left or center, you are making the Gospel a political party, an ideology, a club of people,” Pope Francis said during his general audience on Feb. 22.

In his Lenten message for 2023, Pope Francis compares the ongoing synodal process to the strenuous mountain trek embarked in the Gospel of Transfiguration, with what awaits us at the end better revealing God's will and our mission to the church.