Easter is a feast of hope, a celebration of God’s mercy and a call to pray for and assist all who suffer, Pope Francis said on Easter Sunday, before giving his solemn blessing Urbi et Orbi (“To the city and the world”). The risen Jesus “makes us sharers of his immortal life and enables us to see with his eyes of love and compassion those who hunger and thirst, strangers and prisoners, the marginalised and the outcast, the victims of oppression and violence”, the Pope said. Easter in Rome dawned bright and sunny. In St Peter’s Square, the steps leading up to the basilica were turned into an abundant garden with thousands of tulips, daffodils and flowering bushes. On Easter morning, the Pope does not give a homily. Instead, with hands clasped in prayer and head bowed, he led the tens of thousands of people in the square in silent reflection. After Mass, before giving his solemn blessing, Pope Francis said Easter should give people the courage to “blaze trails of reconciliation with God and with all our brothers and sisters”. Speaking about Christ’s power over death and sin, the Pope prayed that the Lord would touch places in the globe scarred by war, terrorism, poverty and environmental destruction. “The risen Christ points out paths of hope to beloved Syria, a country torn by a lengthy conflict, with its sad wake of destruction, death, contempt for humanitarian law and the breakdown of civil concord,” the Pope said. “To the power of the risen Lord we entrust the talks now in course.” He prayed that the power of the Resurrection would “overcome hardened hearts and promote a fruitful encounter of peoples”.