Looking healthy, Pope Francis begins busy schedule for Easter

Pope Francis looked good as he began four intense days of events leading up to Easter on Thursday and renewed his own ordination vow on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks Jesus' founding of the priesthood the night before his crucifixion.

Francis, who recently scaled back his speaking engagements due to fatigue related to bouts of bronchitis and flu, read a long homily during the Maundy Thursday “Chrismation Mass” in St. Peter's Basilica.

Francis asked priests to be compassionate, admit when they “deviate from the path of holiness” and avoid duplicity, dishonesty and hypocrisy.

During the mass, the 87-year-old pope renewed his vows along with thousands of priests in the basilica and blessed the oils that will be used in the Church's sacraments.

Maundy Thursday celebrates the day of Jesus' Last Supper with his apostles on the night before his death.

Later this Thursday, Francisco would preside over a traditional foot-washing ritual in the women's section of a prison in Rome.

Francis is the first pope to perform the foot washing ceremony outside churches, usually in prisons, nursing homes or hospices, continuing a practice he began when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.

He is also the first pope to include women and non-Christians in the event. The ceremony echoes Jesus' gesture of humility toward his apostles the night before his death.

On Good Friday, the day Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus, Francis will lead the Mass of the “Passion of the Lord” in St. Peter's Basilica and then participate in the traditional night procession of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum in Rome.

He will preside over an Easter Vigil ceremony on Saturday, and on Sunday he will read his twice-a-year “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message and blessing from St. Peter’s central balcony to tens of thousands of people in the square. .