Dear young people, put your talents at the service of the Gospel, with creativity and boundless charity.

At times we can be self-absorbed. Lord, help us to open our hearts to others and to serve those who are most vulnerable.

Among us, who is above must be in service of the others. This doesn't mean we have to wash each other's feet every day, but we must help one another.

Let us learn to live with kindness, to love everyone, even when they do not love us.

It is God who gives life. Let us respect and love human life, especially vulnerable life in a mother's womb.

Every economic...acti on must set about providing each inhabitant of the planet with the minimum wherewithal to live in dignity and freedom, with the possibility of supporting a family, educating children, praising God and developing one's own human potential.

Fasting makes sense if it really chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else, if it helps us cultivate the style of the good Samaritan, who bent down to his brother in need and took care of him.