NATION/WORLD

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Every important journey should be preceded by adequate preparation, and the run-up to the Holy Year 2025 is no exception. Pope Francis asked Catholics to get ready for the jubilee journey with a Year of Prayer and now, a few months after the year was officially announced, a kind of prayer prep-school is in session. Every jubilee asks pilgrims to come to Rome ready, not just with lodging and logistics, but, most of all, with the right spiritual disposition, which is a heart ready to welcome the gifts of grace and forgiveness the jubilee offers.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Be loving and compassionate fathers to the marginalized, Pope Francis told members of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, commonly known as the La Mennais Brothers. "Your vocation impels you to go where others do not go, to the periphery, to the people who belong to the ranks of the rejected, those wounded by life and victims," he told the group during an audience at the Vatican April 22.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians must share their faith in the risen Jesus, Pope Francis said. They also should "talk about the good inspirations that have guided us in life, the good thoughts and feelings that help us so much to go forward, and also about our efforts and labors to understand and to progress in the life of faith, perhaps even to repent and retrace our steps," the pope said April 14 before leading the midday recitation of the "Regina Coeli" prayer. Greeting visitors in St. Peter's Square, the pope said it is good and important to share one's faith in Jesus.

ROME (CNS) -- The success of the Synod of Bishops on synodality will much depend on also including parish priests in the process, said Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington. Of the more than 360 bishops, religious and laypeople who participated in the first assembly at the Vatican last October, the small number who were ordained priests "were scholars, missionaries (or) they were engaged in leadership in religious communities," he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Weeping Madonna of Syracuse is a sign that Mary not only cries because of people's pain, but she also cries to soften the hearts of other believers so that they will help, Pope Francis said. "Through the tears of the Blessed Virgin, the Lord wants to soften our hearts, which at times have dried up in indifference and hardened in selfishness," the pope said April 6 during a meeting with members of the St. Angela Merici Foundation in Syracuse, Italy.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Like the women disciples who discovered Jesus had risen from the dead and ran to tell the others, Christians should be filled with such joy at Easter that they cannot help sharing it with others, Pope Francis said. "The resurrection of Jesus is not just wonderful news or the happy ending of a story, but something that changes our lives completely and forever," the pope said April 1 as he led the midday recitation of the "Regina Coeli" prayer.

ROME (CNS) -- As Pope Francis poured water over their feet, dried them with a towel and kissed their feet, 12 women inmates at Rome's Rebibbia prison wept. The pope celebrated the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper March 28 at the women's prison under a tent set up outside. The 12 women whose feet were washed by Pope Francis during the liturgy sat on stools on a raised platform so the pope, who has difficulty walking, could wash their feet while seated in his wheelchair.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Young people need to understand how much Christ loves them unconditionally and how much the church needs their voices and presence, Pope Francis said. "Dear young people, you are the living hope of a Church on the move! For this reason, I thank you for your presence and for your contribution to the life of the Body of Christ," the pope told the world's young people in a written message. The pope's message was released by the Vatican March 25 to mark the fifth anniversary of his apostolic exhortation "Christus Vivit" ("Christ is Alive"), published in 2019 and reflecting on the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Holy Spirit is like a line prompter at a theater, behind the scenes and constantly whispering to Christians the words of Jesus, said the preacher of the papal household. "However, he does not mechanically suggest the words of the Gospel, like from a script, but explains them, adapts them and applies them to specific situations," Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa told Pope Francis, cardinals and members of the Roman Curia. Concluding his series of Friday Lenten meditations March 22, Cardinal Cantalamessa insisted that listening to the Holy Spirit and discerning what the Spirit is saying to individuals and to the church at large is an exercise essential to following Jesus.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Faced with decades of rising secularism, the Catholic Church must invest in families and in strengthening other forms of community to transmit the faith, Pope Francis said. "The big issue before us is to understand how to overcome the rupture that has been established in the transmission of faith," the pope told members of the Dicastery for Evangelization's section for new evangelization March 15. "To that end there is an urgent need to recover an effective relationship with families and formation centers