Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.

We are all sinners. But God heals us with an abundance of grace, mercy and tenderness

The process of healing also needs to include the pursuit of truth, not for the sake of opening old wounds, but rather as a necessary means of promoting justice, healing and unity.

I do not know what might be the most fitting description.... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff: I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.

Today, we need a Church capable of walking at people's side, of doing more than simply listening to them.... At times we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people.... We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel.

Help one another: this is what Jesus teaches us and this what I am doing, and doing with all my heart.

Let us all remember this: one cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of one's life.