Pope Francis recently addressed the topic World Day of the Sick, although it’s still about a month away.

“Sick people are at the center of God’s people, and the Church advances together with them as a sign of a humanity in which everyone is precious and no one should be discarded or left behind,” the pope said in a recent tweet.

World Day of the Sick is celebrated on Feb. 11, and this will be the 31st annual recognition of the day. Pope John Paul II, soon after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, instituted the day in 1992. It was intended as a way to encourage believers to pray for those suffering from illnesses, and their caretakers, according to National Today.

"When we go on a journey with others, it is not unusual for someone to feel sick, to have to stop because of fatigue or of some mishap along the way,” Pope Francis said in his recognition of World Day of the Sick. “It is precisely in such moments that we see how we are walking together: whether we are truly companions on the journey, or merely individuals on the same path, looking after our own interests and leaving others to ‘make do.’”

The Catholic Health Association of BC explains that it was purposefully determined that World Day of the Sick would be on the same day as the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. On Feb. 11, 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, a young girl, is said to have started seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary around Lourdes, France. Many pilgrims and visitors have since said they have experienced healing at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Catholic Church designated Bernadette a saint a few years after the reports circulated.

As the Church journeys on the synodal path, “I invite all of us to reflect on the fact that it is especially through the experience of vulnerability and illness that we can learn to walk together according to the style of God, which is closeness, compassion, and tenderness,” the pope said.

He called on people to turn their thoughts to the Shrine of Lourdes, since the two celebrations are related.

“It is not only what functions well or those who are productive that matter,” Pope Francis said.