CBB Review – Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday

Each morning at 6:45 something special occurs in the chapel at Saint Martha’s House in Rome. Located at the Vatican, this chapel is privy to the daily seven AM morning Mass of Pope Francis. The attendees of this Mass are recipients of some of the most intense homilies they have likely ever heard. As the Holy Father guides the attendees in catechesis he do so entirely unscripted. There is no prepared homily he brings with him. These morning homilies are given entirely as the Holy Spirit moves him each day. Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday is a collection of those morning homilies and it’s a book that is well worth spending some time with.

The book is edited by Father Antonio Spadaro and contains the morning homilies beginning with March 25, 2013 and ending with March 20, 2014. In total you get 186 homilies of Pope Francis. A couple things to bear in mind here. These are not verbatim transcriptions of the homilies. The reason is given by Father Spadaro. “Many have asked for a complete version of the texts, which is not provided. Why not? In order to answer this question it is necessary to understand the significance of what happens at seven o’clock in the morning at Saint Martha’s. For the pope, this Mass has a “family” character. As Father Lombardi always says, it is not a celebration to be “broadcast” but one to be “shared” in a direct physical manner, not mediated by communications technologies, like many other more official celebrations.”

The homilies themselves are based upon the daily readings which are conveniently list at the bottom of the homily. Though given some time ago you can easily look up the readings and know exactly what the Pope was referring to any given day. One thing I found interesting was reading in the introduction how the Pope formulates these homilies.

“The pope’s day begins before five o’clock in the morning. His prayer time opens and closes the day. The readings for the Mass of the day nourish this, and it is this time of prayer that permits a direct and personal relationship with the text. There are a few specific guidelines in Evangelii Gaudium that we would imagine Francis personally follows day after day. These are, in the first place, questions: “Lord, what does this text say to me? What is it about my life that you want to change by this text? What troubles me about this text? Or perhaps: What do I find pleasant in this text? What is it about this word that moves me? What attracts me? Why does it attract me? (EG 153)”

“It is clear, therefore, that personal prayer on the readings of the day are fundamental for the pope. Preparation for the morning homily becomes an exercise of evangelical discernment, in which Francis seeks to recognize – in the light of the Spirit – the appeal that God is making in the historical context, at the moment. It therefore has a strong relationship with his action and the development of his ministry. It is like the explicit presentation of a method of action that absolutely cannot do without a daily, living, natural pastoral relationship with the People of God, albeit to a small extent. This is also the reason why since January 2014 the parishes of his diocese, the diocese of Rome, have been invited to participate in this celebration with a group faithful.”

I encourage you to get a copy of this book. Many of the themes laid out in this morning homilies have worked their way into more major addresses by Pope Francis. To gain a better understanding of our current pontiff his own homilies would be a great place to start. The morning homilies in this volume are bite sized sources of catechesis that are easily digestible. Father Antonio Spadaro and Image Books both deserve a big thanks for bringing this work to print so we may join the universal catholic church and learn from the preaching of Pope Francis. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________