Pope Francis

I pray for the victims of the horrible attack against two mosques in #Christchurch, New Zealand. I renew my invitation for prayer and gestures of peace to combat hatred and violence.

I ask everyone to remember in prayer both myself and my collaborators in the Roman Curia, who this evening will be beginning the week of Spiritual Exercises.

Let us pray that Christian communities, especially those who are persecuted, feel that they are close to Christ and have their rights respected.

Lord, focus our gaze on what is essential, make us strip ourselves of everything that does not help to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ transparent.

Lord, deliver us from the temptation to want to save ourselves, and our reputations; help us to acknowledge our guilt and to seek humble and concrete answers together, and in communion with all the People of God.

We are celebrating the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle. Pray for me and for my ministry--also for Pope Benedict--that I always and everywhere confirm my brothers and sisters in the faith.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to sustain us during these days and to help us transform this evil into an opportunity for awareness and purification.

I invite you to pray during these days for the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, an event that I want to be a powerful gesture of pastoral responsibility in the face of an urgent challenge of our time.

Let us pray for a generous welcome of the victims of human trafficking, of enforced prostitution, and of violence.

I invite everyone to pray for the people of Yemen. Let us pray hard because there are children who are hungry, who are thirsty, who do not have medicine and are in danger of dying.