Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

The Great Silence and Stillness of Holy Saturday… from the Catechism

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Christ Descended into Hell 632 The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was “raised from the dead” presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell:…

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This makes me think… entering into the place where Jesus is…

Not to know Scripture is not to know Jesus, Saint Jerome tells us. And we know Christ only if we are conversant with the words that are the words of God. Scripture tells us how such a oneness with Christ, such a penetration to the center, is to be achieved in practice. It tells us…

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This makes me think… about what it takes to follow Jesus… I gotta quit my grasping…

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Mt 5:8)” The organ for seeing God is the heart. The intellect alone is not enough. … The ascent to God occurs precisely in the descent of humble service, in the descent of love, for love is God’s essence, and is thus the power…

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This makes me think… God is restless for us

Praying without ceasing means: never losing contact with God, letting ourselves be constantly touched by him in the depths of our hearts and, in this way, being penetrated by his light. Only someone who actually knows God can lead others to God. Only someone who leads people to God leads them along the path of…

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St Augustine and me, 18 years cancer-free.

My buddy Augustine. St Augustine and I became buddies 18 years ago. I was vaguely aware of him growing up, save the oft-quoted lines from his Confessions. Maybe you know a few of them? This is perhaps his most famous, the first non-scripture saint quote found in the Catechism. (See CCC, 30.) You are great,…

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This makes me think… about the buying more Youcats for my young friends

You need to know what you believe. You need to know your faith with that same precision with which an IT specialist knows the inner workings of a computer. You need to understand it like a good musician knows the piece he is playing. Yes, you need to be more deeply rooted in the faith…

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This makes me think… to live well, is to live the truth of the resurrection

St Augustine recalled incisively:  “Let us consider, dear friends, the Resurrection of Christ:  indeed, just as his Passion stood for our old life, his Resurrection is a sacrament of new life…. You have believed, you have been baptized; the old life is dead, killed on the Cross, buried in Baptism. The old life in which…

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Holy Saturday: “We need the silence of God to experience again the abyss of his greatness…”

The death of God in Jesus Christ is at the same time the expression of his radical solidarity with us. The most obscure mystery of the faith is at the same time the clearest sign of a hope without end. And what is more: only through the failure of Holy Friday, only through the silence…

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This makes me think… about presence

Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us. Pope Benedict XVI Homily at…

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My Top Three Take-Aways from the Year of Faith… where did you find meaning this year?

1. Never Forget: The Holy Spirit guides the Church, and the Papacy Wow! Who could have predicted this? The Catholic news story of the year was not only the Year of Faith but the resignation of the reigning pontiff, and the conclave to elect a new pope! We also had the first encyclical that was…

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