Pope Francis
Pope Francis gestures as he speaks to journalists on his flight back to Rome following a visit in Georgia and Azerbaijan, Oct. 2, 2016. REUTERS/Luca Zennaro/Pool

Wednesday marks the first day of the Lenten season. It is best known as Ash Wednesday, or the “Day of Ashes.” During this time, people in the Christian religion “give up” something for 40 days and 40 nights. The sacrifice ends on Easter, which is the Holiest day in the religion. In honor of penance, 12 inspirational quotes from Pope Francis have been shared below, courtesy of Brainy Quote:

1. “Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good... Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”

2. “Life is a journey. When we stop, things don't go right.”

3. “Fasting makes sense if it really chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else, if it helps us cultivate the style of the good Samaritan, who bent down to his brother in need and took care of him.”

4. “We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.”

5. “A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.”

6. “Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.”

7. “We all have the duty to do good.”

8. “Wretched are those who are vindictive and spiteful.”

9. “I believe in God - not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.”

10. “Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.”

11. “The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord's mercy motivates us to do better.”

12. “We must always walk in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, always trying to live in an irreprehensible way.”

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