Former Pope Benedict XVI, who will celebrate his 91st birthday in April, revealed in a letter to "Corriere della Sera" that he is preparing for his last trip.
"As I slowly run out of physical strength, inside I am on a pilgrimage to the house of the Lord," Jozef Ratzinger wrote to the paper, which informed him that many readers were concerned about his health.
The retired pope said he was touched that "so many readers want to know how he spends the last days of his life."
"It is a great mercy for me that I am surrounded, on that last part of the road which is sometimes a bit tiring, by love and kindness that I could not even imagine," he added.
Since his resignation in February 2013, the former pope has been living in a small convent in the Vatican, in the company of several nuns and personal secretary Georg Ganswein. Two years ago, he announced that the Pope "goes out like a candle, slowly and calmly".
The retired pope celebrates mass every day, prays a lot, receives few visitors and answers mail, Hina agency reports.
In the evening, he listens to the news, follows several Catholic dailies and theological writings.
"He can no longer use his hands, he can no longer play the piano, he has poor vision, but he is perfectly lucid and remembers everything," a senior Vatican official described him last year.
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