September 18, 2016, Sunday -- The Face of Christ and Unity "Seeking the Face of Jesus must be the longing of all of us Christians... If we persevere in our quest for the Face of the Lord, at the end of our earthly pilgrimage, he, Jesus, will be our eternal joy, our reward and glory for [...]
September 17, 2016, Saturday -- The Bells of Rome, Last Conversations #4 "Peter Seewald: When you left the Vatican in a helicopter, this also was part in some way of the entire screenplay, as it were, at least as seen from the outside. One could say that up until that moment no Pope had ascended into [...]
September 16, 2016, Friday -- Adieu, Padre Amorth "I, afraid of that beast? It is he who should be afraid of me: I work in the name of the Lord of the world. He is just the monkey of God." —Father Gabriele Amorth, the famous Italian exorcist who was the exorcist for the diocese of Rome [...]
September 15, 2016, Thursday -- Dark Night, Last Conversations with Pope Benedict, Letter #3 "Peter Seewald: Have you also experienced any of those 'dark nights' of which many saints speak? Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI: Such powerful experiences, no. Perhaps I am not holy enough to have plumbed the depths of that obscurity. However sometimes, things happen [...]
September 14, 2016, Wednesday -- "Seek His Face Always," Last Conversations with Pope Benedict, Letter #2 "Peter Seewald: When you find yourself before the Almighty, what will you say to Him? Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI: I will ask Him to be indulgent with my wretchedness." —Passage in the first chapter of Ultime Conversazioni ("Last Conversations"), by [...]
September 11, 2016, Sunday -- Last Conversations with Pope Benedict "Peter Seewald: The last question of these last conversations: love is one of your central themes. You dealt with the question of love as a student, as a professor, as a Pope. Where was love in your life? What was your experience: did you feel it, [...]
August 29, 2016, Monday -- Rome-Moscow Exchange Intensifies "May the Holy Mother of God, our common heavenly Mother, keep all of us and cover us from all evil.'" —Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, head of the Department of External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, speaking to a dozen visitors from Rome, his guests for two [...]
August 26, 2016, Friday -- Emeritus Pope Benedict Lives "At the Still Point of the Turning World" "Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith... and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord showed in [...]
August 25, 2016, Thursday -- Two Monks Remain... "There is an incident in the anonymous Life of Ceolfrith which may refer to the young Bede. A plague swept through Ceolfrith's monastery in 686, taking most of the monks who sang in the choir... Only the abbot and a young boy raised and educated by him remained...Ceolfrith [...]
August 14, 2016, Friday - More, Newman and Now From Oxford to Canterbury.... “Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages... And specially from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.” —Geoffrey Chaucer, late 1300s, The Canterbury Tales, General [...]