Faith is a gift of God, but it is also a profoundly free and human act.

- General Audience Address, 24 October 2012

The faith handed down from the Apostles leads to complete freedom and joy...

- Meeting with Young People, 15 September 2012

True faith in God, then, is inseparable from personal holiness, just as it is from the search for justice.

- Homily, 25 January 2013

Faith needs to be strengthened through teaching, so that it can enlighten the minds and hearts of believers.

- Fides per Doctrinam, 16 January 2013

Indeed, if faith is always born from listening to the word of God — a form of listening, naturally, not only of the senses but that also passes from the senses to the mind and heart — there is no doubt that music, and especially song, can give the recitation of the Psalms and Canticles of the Bible greater communicative force.

- Address, 10 November 2012

Many people today have a limited idea of the Christian faith, because they identify it with a mere system of beliefs and values rather than with the truth of a God who revealed himself in history, anxious to communicate with human beings in a tête-à-tête, in a relationship of love with them. In fact, at the root of every doctrine or value is the event of the encounter between man and God in Jesus Christ. Christianity, before being a moral or an ethic, is the event of love, it is the acceptance of the Person of Jesus.

- General Audience Address, 14 November 2012

Christians often do not even know the central core of their own Catholic faith, the Creed, so that they leave room for a certain syncretism and religious relativism, blurring the truths to believe in as well as the salvific uniqueness of Christianity. The risk of fabricating, as it were, a “do-it-yourself” religion is not so far off today. Instead we must return to God, to the God of Jesus Christ, we must rediscover the Gospel message and make it enter our consciences and our daily life more deeply.

- General Audience Address, 17 October 2012

...one of the most serious problems of our time is ignorance of religious practice in which many men and women live, including some Catholic faithful (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles laici, Chapter V).

For this reason the new evangelization, to which the Church has been resolutely committed since the Second Vatican Council and of which the Motu Proprio Ubicumque et Semper outlined the central modalities, is particularly urgent as underlined by the Fathers of the Synod which ended recently. The new evangelization calls all Christians to account for the hope that is in them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15), aware that one of the worst obstacles for our pastoral mission is ignorance of the content of the faith. In fact it is a dual ignorance: a lack of knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ and ignorance of the sublimity of his teachings, of their universal and perpetual value in the search for the meaning of life and happiness. Moreover this lack of knowledge results in an inability in the new generations to understand history and to feel that they are heirs to this tradition which has shaped the life, society, art and culture of Europe.

- Address, 30 November 2012

Saying “I believe in God” means founding my life on him, letting his Word guide it every day, in practical decisions, without fear of losing some part of myself.

- General Audience Address, 23 January 2013

Believing means entrusting one’s life to the One who alone can give it fullness in time and open it to a hope beyond time.

- Homily, 1 December 2012

Believing means entrusting one’s life to the One who alone can give it fullness in time and open it to a hope beyond time.

- Homily, 1 December 2012

There is a clear link between the crisis in faith and the crisis in marriage.

- Homily, 7 October 2012

For faith is nothing less than being interiorly seized by God, something which guides us along the pathways of life.  Faith draws us into a state of being and it makes us pilgrims who are on an inner journey towards the true King of the world and his promise of justice, truth and love.

- Homily, 6 January 2013

Faith starts with God, who opens his heart to us and invites us to share in his own divine life.  Faith does not simply provide information about who Christ is; rather, it entails a personal relationship with Christ, a surrender of our whole person, with all our understanding, will and feelings, to God's self-revelation.

- Homily, 21 August 2011

Faith is nourished by the discovery and memory of the ever faithful God who guides history and constitutes the sound and permanent foundation on which to build our life.

- General Wednesday Audience, 12 December 2012

In the faith we open the doors of our existence so that God may enter us, so that God can be the power that gives life and a path to our existence. In us there is room, let us open ourselves like Mary opened herself, saying: “Let your will be done, I am the servant of the Lord”. By opening ourselves to God, we lose nothing. On the contrary, our life becomes rich and great.

- Homily, 15 August 2012

It is not a matter here of following an idea or a project, but of encountering Jesus as a living Person, of letting ourselves be totally involved by him and by his Gospel.

- Angelus Address, 5 August 2012

The centre of existence - which is what gives meaning and certain hope in the all too often difficult journey of life - is faith in Jesus, it is the encounter with Christ.

- Angelus Address, 5 August 2012

Faith is a gift of God but demands of us a response, a decision to follow Christ, not only when he heals and alleviates but also when he speaks of love even to the point of self-gift.

- Homily, 11 December 2011

Indeed it is clear that prayer must be an expression of faith, otherwise it is not true prayer. If one does not believe in God's goodness, one cannot pray in a truly appropriate manner. Faith is essential as the basis of a prayerful attitude.

- Homily, 17 October 2010