“We have 82 volunteers and we are open all week long,” said Cardinal Krajewski, the pope’s charity point man, adding that each doctor has one or two on-calls in the clinic, and that the Lenten initiative was an extra activity for them.

Pope Francis is back home in the Vatican after spending 38 days in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital where was treated for double pneumonia and survived two crises where his life was in danger.

Pope Francis will be discharged from the hospital on Sunday, but he must continue the therapies and observe “a period of rest and convalescence for at least two months,” his doctors said.

Supporters will see Pope Francis for the first time since Feb. 14 as he intends to appear at the window of his suite at Gemelli Hospital.

“I can say that it has certainly been a very hard time for him, this month, for him who loves to give himself entirely, to be there in the hospital bed without being able to help others,” Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández said.

A Reflection for Monday of the Third Week of Lent, by Michael J. O’Loughlin