VATICAN CITY - In societies increasingly made up of people of different cultures and religions, people must learn the art of dialogue and reach out to others with respect and friendship, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY - The best present in life is encountering Jesus -- an encounter that will last a lifetime, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY - During a three-hour meeting with 120 superiors general of men's religious orders, Pope Francis said the church would make consecrated life its focus in 2015.

KINGSTON, ONT. - There’s a lesson to be learned in the basement of St. Paul the Apostle parish, where artist Tony Vella has assembled a collection that teaches the story of God made human, shown through the lens of cultures from around the world.

The synopsis below has been prepared by the Holy See Press Office and Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, who has served as an English language corresponding assistant to Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., since the papal transition.

Do you ever get that empty feeling? For me, it often happens in grocery stores — nowadays so big you could easily get your day’s exercise there — crammed with foods, tastes, colours.

Faith is not something you achieve. If you try to nail it down, it gets up and walks away with the nail.

Second Sunday of Advent (Year A) Dec. 8 (Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72; Romans 15:4-9; Matthew 3:1-9)

When things get really tough and out of control, most people look for a superhero or saviour. Human efforts can seem futile and doomed to failure; sometimes the mess is so great that it calls for help from an outside super-human source. This intervention comes in many guises: political, economic or religious ideologies are near the top of the list. Most of them also fall far short and many demand too great a price — usually freedom and human dignity.

VATICAN CITY - In his first extensive piece of writing as Pope, Pope Francis lays out a vision of the Catholic Church dedicated to evangelization in a positive key, with a focus on society's poorest and most vulnerable, including the aged and unborn.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on sharing the joy of the Gospel is a call to faith-filled optimism, recognizing challenges but knowing that God's love and lordship will prevail, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, introducing the text to the media.