Uzbekistan

The pilots are Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Picard. The plane, which uses only solar batteries, is designed to promote clean energy and reduce global warming. The longest stage: from Nanjing to Hawaii. The flight can be followed live on solarimpulse.com.

"In Lent, it does us good to think about how the Lord helped us in our lives, how the Lord made us move forward, and we will find that He always did so with simple things."

At the Angelus, Pope Francis asks us to make of our lives "a sign of His love for our brothers and sisters, especially the weakest and the poorest." Cleansing ourselves of the "attitudes of greed, jealousy, worldliness, envy, hatred, that habit of gossiping and speaking badly of others." Thanks to women: where they are marginalized, "the world is sterile." Being close to people living difficult moments.

In the meeting with 120 thousand members of the Italian ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation, Francis invites them to keep Jesus, "not the charisma" at "the center" to "be the arms, hands, feet, mind and heart of an outward bound Church” rejecting “self-complacency "."The reference to the legacy that Don Giussani left us must not be reduced to a museum of memories, decisions, rules of conduct. Rather fidelity to tradition, but fidelity to tradition – as Mahler said - 'means keeping the fire alive, not worshiping the ashes'. "

Francis expresses appreciation and encouragement for the Neocatechumenal Way. "Even before words, your witness of life manifests the heart of Christ’s revelation”. "How much loneliness, how much suffering, how much distance from God in many suburbs of Europe and America, and in many cities of Asia."

Focus on the importance of negotiations in conflict resolution and education to promote the conditions for a peaceful coexistence between peoples and the different religious groups

"With a worldly heart you can go to church, you can pray, you can do so many things. But Jesus, at the Last Supper, in the prayer to the Father, what did He pray? 'But please, Father, keep these disciples from falling into the world".

When life becomes very fragile and is approaching its earthly end, "we feel the responsibility to assist and accompany the person in the best way" to relieve the suffering. This is what families and palliative care provide. For the pontiff, "all medical knowledge is truly science, in its most noble sense, only if it finds its place as a help in view of the good of man, a good that is never achieved by going 'against' his life and dignity."

"A culture of profit insists on painting the elderly as a burden, a 'dead weight'. It thinks that the elderly don’t produce anything and therefore are a burden". "There is something vile in this addiction we have to this throw away culture. We have become used to discarding people." "The Church cannot and does not want to comply with a mentality of impatience, and even less that of indifference and contempt towards old age".

"In the second week of Lent we have these three words to think about, to ponder: the invitation to conversion; the gift that the Lord will give us, which is great forgiveness, a great forgiveness; and the trap, that is, pretending to convert, while choosing the path of hypocrisy. "

At Mass in Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis emphasizes that judging ourselves is the first step of Christian wisdom. Recognizing the envy that leads us to "speak ill of others", that we are capable of doing worse things than which we judge others for. "Who am I to judge?" obeys the exhortation of Jesus: Judge not lest you be judged.

Francis comments the Gospel of the Transfiguration of Christ. "Jesus reveals himself as the perfect icon of the Father, the irradiation of his glory. It is the fulfilment of revelation. [. . .] Jesus' journey always leads us to happiness [. . .]. Love transfigures everything." The task he leaves for the disciples and the faithful is simple: "Listen to and follow the Saviour." After the Marian prayer, the Holy Father issued an appeal to the peoples of the Middle East, noting that "We are praying insistently for an end to the intolerable brutality of which they are victims."