“I am ready to do everything to stop the war,” the pope said in an interview with La Nación. “Everything!”

“Let us allow the peace of Christ to enter our lives, our homes, our countries!” Pope Francis pleaded.

On the way back to Kyiv from Borodyanka, a town that had been under control of Russian forces, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski prayed amid the ruins and bodies of those killed, including by an unmarked mass grave, he told Vatican News on April 15.

On this night, brothers and sisters, let us allow the women of the Gospel to lead us by the hand, so that, with them, we may glimpse the first rays of the dawn of God’s life rising in the darkness of our world.

The new meditation read April 15 called for a moment of silence: “In the face of death, silence is more eloquent than words. Let us pause in prayerful silence and each person pray in their hearts for peace in the world.”

Jesus’ peace “is not an armed peace, never!” Pope Francis said in his general audience. “The weapons of the Gospel are prayer, tenderness, forgiveness and freely-given love for one’s neighbor.”