Wine is a sign of happiness, love and plenty, how many of our adolescents and young people sense that these are no longer found in their homes? How many women, sad and lonely, wonder when love left, when it slipped away from their lives? How many elderly people feel left out of family celebrations, cast aside and longing each day for a little love?

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.

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 sadness comes to you one day with an invitation, tell it you are committed to joy and will be faithful to it your whole life long.

Wars shatter so many lives. I think especially of children robbed of their childhood.

Our Lady is always close to us, especially when we feel the weight of life with all its problems

Human self-understanding changes with time, and so also human consciousness deepens.