We are saddened this Easter Monday to learn of the passing of Pope Francis, who has been called home to the Father’s house.

This ecclesial moment of-fers us the opportunity to consider the work of God in and through those He has called to serve Him and His people. Over the past few weeks, I have been reflecting upon the life and ministry of our Holy Father, Pope Francis.

From the first moments of his papacy, he sought to utilize prophetic gestures as a principal means of his universal pastoral ministry. Pope Francis was a shepherd for whom the Church’s witness to the world was at the forefront of his mind. His special pastoral concern for the marginalized, the disenfranchised and the excluded in society was always first and foremost when proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world.

He charted the course of his papacy with the publication of his 2013 post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation called the “Joy of the Gospel” (Evangelii Gaudium). He wrote about the need for a renewed proclamation of the Good News of Jesus’ incarnation, passion, death and resurrection. He called for this Kerygma to be at the center of the life and the witness of the Church.

There is a certain fittingness — and poetic beauty — that the Lord called his servant home during the Easter octave and Jubilee of hope. In a certain sense, Pope Francis began and ended his service of the Petrine Ministry with the theme of hope.

We give thanks to almighty God for the gift of Pope Francis. We pray for the repose of his soul, and we pray for the universal Church in this time of transition.

With gratitude for his ministry, we bid our prayerful farewell to Pope Francis and commend him to the Lord. We now turn with great confidence to the Father and pray for the one whom He will choose to shepherd the Church as our next pope, the Vicar of Christ and Bishop of Rome.

Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.