Couples who are seeking to marry, even those who have lived together, should value their engagement period as a time to grow in mature love and in profound knowledge of each other, said Pope Francis. The pope urged couples not to rush into marriage. Maturation in love before marriage is a slow process, in which none of the steps should be skipped, Pope Francis told people at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. "The covenant of love between a man and a woman, a covenant for life, cannot be improvised; it cannot be done from one day to the next," he said. There is no such thing as "an express marriage," he added. While it is "beautiful" that people today can choose whom to marry, the "freedom of this bond" cannot be based simply on physical attraction or feelings, he said. Engagement allows a couple to do the profound and "beautiful work of love" -- work that involves a profound "learning" of the other. "Love requires" this work, he said. "The love between a man and a woman is learned and is refined," he said, adding that married love must be understood more as something couples need to work on. Turning two lives into one is also almost a miracle, a miracle of the freedom of the heart, given in faith," he said.

When the church has a problem to solve or a big decision to make, the Holy Spirit works by helping people discuss the issues openly and frankly, not by fomenting gossip and backroom deals, Pope Francis said. "In a church where people always argue and there are factions, and brothers and sisters betray each other, the Spirit is not there," he said in his homily May 8. The pope dedicated his morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae to Our Lady of Lujan, patroness of his native Argentina, whose feast was celebrated that day. "The Spirit is the one who brings something new, who moves the situation forward, who creates new areas, who creates the wisdom that Jesus promised" and who creates "harmonious unity among everyone," he said, according to Vatican Radio. The pope talked about the day's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles in which the First Council of Jerusalem met to solve a dispute concerning whether Gentiles converting to Christianity had to observe all the laws of Moses as the Jewish Christians did. "How do they solve the problem?" the pope asked.

Struggling with alcoholism, Regina knew she had to get "re-centered" with God to help with her addiction. A Catholic from Atlanta, Regina had been convicted of her second driving under the influence offense and the court ordered her to enter rehabilitation as part of her sentence. So she turned to GraceWay, a faith-based addiction recovery program started 29 years ago by Debbie and Tim Mazur, parishioners of St. Teresa Church in Albany. It was the faith component of GraceWay that attracted Regina, a mother of two sons. She was admitted to the program in October 2013 and stayed 31 days. For Regina, who asked only that her first name be used, the program was a "steppingstone" in recovery. She was craving a lot of quiet time for prayer but also found a lot of work at GraceWay, where part of recovery for some residents is bread-making in its bakery. "You do a lot of cleaning and cooking and a lot of meetings," she said. During less-structured time, she would pray the rosary. Instead of the Serenity Prayer, the women would pray the Hail Mary each evening. At the time, Regina was the only Catholic at the residence. Regina's stay at GraceWay was not a cure-all. "It was the first step," she said. "I'm in recovery," said Regina, now back in Atlanta. GraceWay's clients are women 18 and older. Some stay for a month of initial treatment, but they can stay up to 18 months. Sober living apartments, The Way, are next door to the residence for long-term recovery.

As Catholics and non-Catholics alike prepare for Pope Francis' visit to the United States in September, the pontiff's message of greater solidarity with poor people is resonating with a wide-ranging group of faith-based social justice advocates. Almost 300 representatives of parishes and organizations from 50 dioceses across the United States aligned with the PICO National Network gathered at St. Joseph's University April 30 and May 1 to launch a yearlong effort of faith formation and social action on poverty to take advantage of the momentum building around the papal trip. The Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States is partnering with the PICO National Network, a coalition of faith-based advocacy organizations, in the effort. Event organizers cited the pope's apostolic exhortation "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel") and its searing critique of social and economic injustices as motivation for the initiative. Joseph Fleming, executive director of PICO New Jersey, said the yearlong faith formation project was developed because "Catholic parishioners are hungering to connect peace and justice." Catholic organizations make up one-third of PICO's 1.2 million members nationally, making them a prime audience for the effort, he added. While specific programs will be developed locally, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, president of Caritas Internationalis and one of the pope's advisers on Council of Cardinals, provided those gathered with a Gospel-based explanation of why it is important to engage with and advocate on behalf of poor people.

A Christian marriage isn't just a big ceremony held in a church with nice flowers and everyone wearing fancy clothes and taking lots of pictures, Pope Francis said. Marriage is an act of faith between a man and woman who are both fragile and limited, but courageous enough to follow Christ and seek to love each other as he loves them, the pope said during his general audience in St. Peter's Square. "Men and women, courageous enough to carry this treasure in the 'earthen vessels' of our humanity, are an essential resource for the church and for the whole world," he said. "May God bless them a thousand times for this!" The pope continued a series of talks about the family by focusing on the beauty of Christian marriage as a sacrament that builds up the church and the world. A Christian marriage "is not simply a ceremony that you have in church with flowers, the dress, photos. Christian marriage is a sacrament that takes place in the church and is also something the church does, ushering in a new domestic community," he said. All Christians "are called to love each other like Christ loves them," and to be at the service of each other, he said. But the love between husband and wife is given greater, even "unthinkable," dignity when St. Paul says the love between a husband and wife reflects the love between Christ and his church, the pope said.

God's plan for fruitful, everlasting unions between a man and woman has been lost in a world filled with skepticism, distrust and hostility, Pope Francis said. A culture that does not value "the stable and life-giving covenant between a man and woman is certainly a loss for everyone. We must bring honor back to marriage and the family," he said April 22 during his general audience in St. Peter's Square. But much also must be done to return respect and dignity to women, who are often exploited, objectified and understandably skeptical of the possibility of harmony between men and women, he said. The pope continued his catechesis about the family with the second of two talks on the complementary nature of men and women. The Book of Genesis shows how God created the heavens and earth, and then a special creature made in his likeness to care and watch over the earth. Even though man was "the culmination" of God's creation, still "something was missing," the pope said. In the Garden of Eden, Adam "is free, is master, but he is alone and God sees that this 'is not good.' It's like a lack of communion, a communion is lacking, a lack of fullness," he said.

The poor, migrants in search of a better life and the unemployed want what all human beings want: life, dignity and a chance to earn a decent living, Pope Francis said in several speeches urging compassion and assistance by both governments and individuals. Reciting the "Regina Coeli" prayer April 19, just hours after reports surfaced that perhaps more than 700 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe, Pope Francis asked the thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for a moment of silence and then to join him reciting a Hail Mary for the victims and survivors. The Italian coast guard reported that as of late April 19, 28 survivors had been rescued and 24 bodies had been recovered; one of the survivors, a Bangladeshi, told authorities the smugglers had locked hundreds of people in the hold, so there may have been as many as 950 people on board. Pope Francis called on the international community to act decisively and quickly to prevent the deaths of more migrants. "They are men and women like us, our brothers and sisters who seek a better life; hungry, persecuted, injured, exploited, victims of war -- they seek a better life. They were seeking happiness."