I have been in Rome for nearly a month now, working on the details of my studies. Nothing definite to report there.

On Sunday a group of us were privileged to attend the Holy Father’s Mass for the Feast of the Presentation, which was also the 18th World Day for Consecrated Life.  You can read his homily here.

I found Pope Francis’ simple and yet significant notice of the Presentation as a meeting between the young and the old—between the Holy Family and the Simeon and Anna—to be remarkably astute, as it is a revealing and accurate exegesis of St. Luke’s gospel reading. The youth are  in the Temple to observe the Law.  The old are there under the spirit of Prophecy.  The Holy Father goes on to reiterate what he has said before, religious must preserve their traditions in the fervor of youth and at the same time be open to the wisdom of prophetic grace:

And in the consecrated life we live the encounter between the young and the old, between [observance] and prophecy. Let’s not see these as two opposing realities! Let us rather allow the Holy Spirit to animate both of them, and a sign of this is joy: the joy of observing, of walking within a rule of life; the joy of being led by the Spirit, never unyielding, never closed, always open to voice of God that speaks, that opens, that leads us and invites us to go towards the horizon.

It’s good for the elderly to communicate their wisdom to the young; and is good for the young people to gather this wealth of experience and wisdom, and to carry it forward, not so as to store it in a museum, but to bring it forward addressing the challenges of life, to carry it forward for the sake of respective religious orders and of the whole Church.

Here are some recent photos:

The Battle of Lepanto from the map section of the Vatican Museum

From my cell at Via Boccea

Not a great shot but gives an idea of where we were for the Mass.

L-R: Fr. Gennaro, Fra Faustino, Fra John Girard, Fra Fiacre

Vatican Museum with St. Peter’s in background