https://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewArticle/466745

For the third week in a row, Pope Francis has been unable to deliver his traditional Angelus prayer in person, with the Vatican publishing his written comments instead.

The Vatican said the text, sent from his hospital room in Rome, had been written "in the past few days". In it, the Pope thanked people for their prayers and thanked his medical team for their care.

"I feel in my heart the 'blessing' that is hidden within frailty, because it is precisely in these moments that we learn even more to trust in the Lord," he wrote.

"At the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share in body and spirit the condition of so many sick and suffering people."

The Pope told Catholics around the world that he felt their "affection and closeness".

"I feel as if I am 'carried' and supported by all God's people. Thank you all!" the text reads.

In the latest update from the Vatican, Pope Francis was said to be resting after a "peaceful" night.

On Sunday morning, according to the Vatican, "the Pope woke, had breakfast with coffee, continued his therapy and read the newspapers as he usually does".

The Pope received two visitors in Gemelli hospital on Sunday – the first outside visitors the Vatican has mentioned since last Monday.

Once again, it was Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin and his deputy, Monsignor Pena Parra, who saw Pope Francis in his 10th-floor hospital room. There are no details about the length of time they spent with him or what was discussed.

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New leasehold flats in England and Wales are set to be banned under the latest government plans to reform home ownership.

Under the current leasehold system, third-party landlords known as freeholders own the building and a leaseholder buys the right to occupy a flat within it for a fixed time period.

The government says it wants to move to a system of home ownership that is more in line with the rest of the world, known as commonhold, where homeowners own a share of and have control over buildings they live in.

Freeholders say leasehold is the "most effective way of managing large complex apartment buildings".

The government has yet to set out specific plans for the conversion of current leasehold properties to commonhold, but says it is "determined" to make this easier.

A white paper published on Monday stated the sale of new leasehold flats would be banned and commonhold "reinvigorated" with a new legal framework.

A draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill - including the detail of how the new system would work - will be published later this year, the government has said.

The new legislation would apply in England and Wales. There are an estimated five million leasehold properties in England, 70% of which are flats.

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said the reforms would put an end to "unfair practices and unreasonable costs at the hands of landlords".

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Kony2012

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Miners mark 40th anniversary of year-long strike

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9de5w9e7qzo

Shrove Tuesday (2025)

Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day) is the final day of Shrovetide, which marks the end of the pre-Lenten season. Lent begins the following day with Ash Wednesday. Shrove Tuesday is observed in many Christian countries through participating in confession, the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms, finalizing one's Lenten sacrifice, as well as eating pancakes and other sweets.

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Shrove Tuesday is observed by many Christians, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Western-rite Orthodox Christians, and Roman Catholics, who "make a special point of self-examination, of considering what wrongs they need to repent, and what amendments of life or areas of spiritual growth they especially need to ask God's help in dealing with." This moveable feast is determined by the date of Easter. The expression "Shrove Tuesday" comes from the word shrive, meaning absolution following confession. Christians traditionally visit their church on Shrove Tuesday to confess their sins and clean their soul, thus being shriven (absolved) before the start of Lent.

As this is the last day of the Christian liturgical season historically known as Carnival or Shrovetide, before the penitential season of Lent, related popular practices, such as indulging in food that one might give up as their Lenten sacrifice for the upcoming forty days, are associated with Shrove Tuesday celebrations. The term Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday. Many Christian congregations thus observe the day through eating pancakes or, more specifically, the holding of pancake breakfasts, as well as the ringing of church bells to remind people to repent of their sins before the start of Lent. On Shrove Tuesday, churches also burn the palms distributed during the previous year's Palm Sunday liturgies to make the ashes used during the services held on the very next day, Ash Wednesday.

In some Christian countries, especially those where the day is called Mardi Gras or a translation thereof, it is a carnival day, the last day of "fat eating" or "gorging" before the fasting period of Lent. Additionally, since 1958, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus on Shrove Tuesday.

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Ash Wednesday (Western Christianity, 2025)

Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and marks the first day of Lent, the six weeks of penitence before Easter.

Ash Wednesday is observed by Catholics, Lutherans, Moravians, Anglicans, and United Protestants, as well as by some churches in the Reformed, (including certain Congregationalist, Continental Reformed, and Presbyterian churches), Baptist, Methodist and Nazarene traditions

Ash Wednesday is traditionally observed with fasting and abstinence from meat in several Christian denominations. As it is the first day of Lent, many Christians begin Ash Wednesday by marking a Lenten calendar, praying a Lenten daily devotional, and making a Lenten sacrifice that they will not partake of until the arrival of Eastertide.

Many Christians attend special Ash Wednesday church services at which churchgoers receive ash on their foreheads or the top of their heads, as the wearing of ashes was a sign of repentance in biblical times. Ash Wednesday derives its name from this practice, in which the placement of ashes is accompanied by the words, "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or the dictum "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations.

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James 4:8

New International Version

8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.