Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to switch off their smartphones during Lent to create room for silence and prayer, while also calling Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine as the war nears its fourth year.

“Let us switch off the televisions, the radio, and the smartphones a little,” the Pope said during his Angelus address. “Let us meditate on the Word of God, draw near to the sacraments; listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to our hearts, and listen to one another.”

The Pope’s appeal came as he marked the First Sunday of Lent by inviting the faithful to live the season as a “journey of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving,” encouraging them to simplify daily life and make space for an encounter with God.

In the same address, Leo called for an end to the fighting in Ukraine “without delay,” saying peace “cannot be postponed” and must be expressed in responsible decisions.

“In my heart there is still the dramatic situation that is before everyone’s eyes. How many victims, how many lives and families broken, how much destruction, how many indescribable sufferings!” he said.

He renewed his appeal: “May the weapons fall silent, may the bombings end, may a ceasefire be reached without delay, and may dialogue be strengthened to open the path to peace.”

Leo also asked people to devote time “to those who are alone, especially the elderly, the poor, and the sick,” adding: “Let us renounce what is superfluous and share what we save with those who lack what is necessary.”

The Pope appeared at the window of his private study in the Apostolic Palace for the Angelus after celebrating Mass at the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus near Rome’s Termini station — a modest neighborhood where longtime Romans live alongside immigrants from around the world.

Reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel account of Jesus being led by the Spirit into the desert, Leo said Christ “feels the weight of his humanity,” both physical hunger and “the devil’s temptations on a moral level.” He warned that people today can be tempted to discouragement or “seduced by less demanding paths of satisfaction,” such as “wealth, fame, and power.”

Those temptations, he said, are “poor substitutes for the joy for which we were created,” and in the end leave people “inevitably and forever dissatisfied, restless, and empty.”

Quoting Pope St. Paul VI, Leo recalled that penance does not diminish a person, but instead “enriches our humanity, purifying and strengthening it” toward a horizon “whose end is love and abandonment in the Lord.”

He concluded by entrusting the Lenten journey of the faithful to Mary: “To the Virgin Mary, a Mother who always assists her children in trial, we entrust our Lenten journey.”

This story was first published in two parts by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.