SUMMER, in Europe, is taken seriously by everyone. Long before it arrives, families already make elaborate plans, making the necessary budget and itinerary. When it finally comes, cities slow down as people trek to beaches or mountain resorts.
The Pope is no exception to this annual phenomenon. From the Vatican he
goes to a town by the lake southeast of Rome. It’s called Castel Gandolfo.
But vacationing for him actually means a change of place more than a change of work pace, because he continues to work vigorously. Very little is spent
for excursions or things like that.
In his last summer vacation, for example, he managed to have a meeting with some priests where he answered questions reflecting the priests’ grave concerns. And what a fascinating encounter between the Pope and the priests it was!
As we already said many times before, this Pope can talk a lot. But that’s the least of the marvels. His words come out spontaneously and easily, covering a large range of considerations, and wonderfully making disparate pieces of information and data fit.
He seems to have gathered a good number of trends and mentalities, ideas
and attitudes all over the world, and to have thought them through to their last consequences. He has a powerful mind, thanks be to God!
He knows how to attune his thoughts and words to the level of his audience. Of course, with priests he knew he had a crowd tough to please, but he
managed to impress them all with his responses full of substance and affection.
The style certainly drips of high scholarship, but without being cut and dry. There is a certain warmth and charm to it, a touch of immediacy and relevance to it. It’s a truly disarming experience to listen to him.
Or to read him. His voluminous words on paper should not bewilder us. Once we start reading, we can readily detect a quality that is, yes, deep and broad but at the same time homey and fatherly. His words flow from his prayer
Yes, there may be some difficult moments. But he always manages to clarify himself further, making things, especially new and unfamiliar to most of us, easier for us to understand. I hope we can take the habit of reading him. We stand to benefit a lot.
In that meeting with the priests, the Pope had to confront several difficult questions. One priest asked about how to form people’s conscience, especially the youth’s, in an environment increasingly confusing and hostile to religion.
That in itself requires a lot of considerations, and the Pope gave them in a well synthesized and breezy way.
An elderly priest spoke of his slipping sense of serenity and a crawling sense of loneliness when many of his dreams he shared with those of his generation failed.
This was where the Holy Father showed more of his heart, but at the same time the firmness of faith and hope as he reassured the priest that Christ always triumphs in spite of apparent failures.
There were other questions about how to handle the increasing influx of migrants with different cultures, how to blend the priest’s human needs with his supernatural vocation, etc.
The one question that struck me most was about how a priest should prioritize his activities since he often finds himself with many things to do.
Here the Pope focused on the advice given by our Lord himself to his 72 disciples whom he just sent. That is: to pray, to tend to the needy, then to preach.
The Holy Father encouraged everyone to find a way to blend all these three
responsibilities, giving first priority to prayer, because as he said:
“Without a personal relationship with God nothing else can function, for we
cannot truly bring God, the divine reality or true human life to people unless we ourselves live them in a deep, true relationship of friendship with God in Jesus Christ.”
He recommended that priests take care of their daily celebration of the Mass, the prayer of the Hours, and personal prayer.
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