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Pope at Ash Wednesday Mass: ‘focus on what is essential’


Pope Francis is urging Christians to slow down, focus on what is essential: “wake up to the message of the Lord”.

By Linda Bordoni

Pope Francis summoned Christians to slow down in a fast-paced and often directionless life and fast from the unnecessary things that distract us, to heed Lent that he described as “a wake-up call for the soul”.

The Pope’s words came during the homily at Holy Mass on Ash Wednesday with the blessing and imposition of the ashes that took place, as per tradition, in the Basilica of Saint Sabina on the Aventine Hill.

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