We can easily be discouraged during these difficult times in our world. Yet, Saint Paul reminds us that in God’s plan, we are compelled to express the joy of the Gospel in our daily lives.

“We cannot say that we are privileged compared to others—no,” Pope Francis said at today’s general audience. “The calling is for a service. And God chooses one in order to love everyone, to reach everyone.”

“Either we proclaim Jesus with joy, or we do not proclaim him, because another way of proclaiming him is not capable of bringing the true reality of Jesus,” Pope Francis said in his weekly audience.

In his weekly audience, Pope Francis highlighted the witness of the venerable servant of God Madeleine Delbrêl, who calls us to a faith that is maintained in movement.

In his homily closing the first session of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis reflected on two verbs: “to adore and to serve. We love God through adoration and service.”

“Let us ask Saints Cyril and Methodius, apostles of the Slavs, that we may be instruments of ‘freedom in charity’ for others,” Pope Francis said at today’s general audience.

St. Bakhita was able to experience service not as slavery, but as an expression of the free gift of self.

At the opening of the General Assembly of the Synod, Pope Francis warned against a vision made up of “human strategies, political calculations or ideological battles.”

In his weekly audience, Pope Francis recalled that “the Mediterranean is the cradle of civilization and a cradle is for life! It is not tolerable that it become a tomb, neither should it be a place of conflict.”

In his weekly audience, Pope Francis highlights the apostolic zeal of St. Daniel Comboni, who sought to engage and empower Africans as “subjects” of mission.