Benedict XVI Has Left The Building

As I've mentioned, one of the tasks I've been charged with recently is the setting of the tables for the friars' meals. In the refectory, como Dios manda, are displayed four images: a crucifix, an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a portrait each of the Pope and the Minister General of the Order.

Back on February 28, I wondered if I ought to take Pope Benedict XVI down when I prepared the refectory for supper. After all, by the time the food was blessed and the brethren were getting their soup, his pontificate would be over.

Pope Francis

What a striking thing it was in the intercessions of Eucharistic Prayer II this morning:

Ricordati, Padre, della tua Chiesa diffusa su tutta la terra:
rendila perfetta nell’amore
in unione con il nostro Papa e vescovo Francesco, 
e tutto l’ordine sacerdotale.

Qui sibi nomen imposuit Franciscum. In Italy, of course, 'Francis' can only mean one thing: Francis of Assisi. But--I thought right away--for a Jesuit, 'Francis' could just as easily mean St. Francis Xavier. But today I've read that at supper last night Pope Francis let everyone know that he was thinking of the former.

And what a first impression Pope Francis made by asking the 'favor' of the prayer of the people--and bowing profoundly to receive it--before himself giving the blessing urbi et orbi. It was also striking, to me at least, how he only wanted the stole for the blessing itself.

After all the clamor--around here at least--for the Franciscan Cardinal to be elected pope, we have been given a Pope Francis (who happens to be a Jesuit). Anyone accustomed to discerning the answers to prayer and the work of grace in his or her life will, perhaps, therein recognize a classic example of the Holy Spirit's characteristic behavior.

May the Lord bless his servant Pope Francis as he begins his service to the Churches of God and to the world in which the Church finds herself in pilgrimage.

Cardinal Collins on the Conclave

This little moment with Cardinal Collins, which I saw this morning on Whispers, is too wonderful--on various levels--not to repost.

Black Smoke Rant

Maybe it's a random thing to rant about, but I was disappointed with the first black smoke of the Conclave last night. Not that I expected it to be anything but black, but it just seemed to be a little over the top in its volume and blackness, billowing away long after everyone had gotten the point.

Liberal Length

The Pope spoke sweetly at his last Wednesday Audience this morning. Of course we all watched and listened attentively. At lunch all the brothers remarked on how beautiful and personal were his words and on the humility he radiated in various ways.

What Things?

Before I came here to Rome, a friar reported to me a comment about my assignment that another friar had made. The latter friar said that perhaps I was suited to a Roman assignment because I didn't seem 'easily impressed.' When I heard this, I didn't agree. I'm often impressed, I objected. I'm just not easily seduced, I remember saying.