‘If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever!’

"At times, in our spiritual lives and our pastoral activity, we risk focusing on what is incidental and forgetting what is essential."

In a letter on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks in the Middle East, Pope Francis calls for an end to conflict and a dialogue of peace.

In his General Audience address on Aug. 28 centered on the plight of migrants, Pope Francis said, “The Lord is with our migrants...not with those who repel them.“

In his general audience, Pope Francis marked the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking by reflecting on the responsibility of Christians to pray for those who traffic illegal drugs and to aid those afflicted with drug addiction.

“Can we laugh at God?’ Pope Francis asked a group of comedians invited for an audience at the Vatican. “Of course, we can, just as we play and joke with the people we love.“

In his general audience, Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to keep reading to Bible, which reveals God’s love. He also directed a message to preachers to keep homilies to no more than eight minutes.

"Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be 'brother,' and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!" he said.

In his general audience, Pope Francis reflected on the Holy Spirit’s name, “Ruach,” meaning breath or wind. And wind, he said, “is the only thing that absolutely cannot be bridled, cannot be bottled up or put in a box.”

Father James Martin deserves our gratitude for this new text devoted to what he calls “Jesus’s greatest miracle”: the resurrection of Lazarus, Pope Francis writes in a new preface to the Italian-language translation of ‘Come Forth.’