Through the Year With Pope Francis

Dear reader: With all the so-called shocking quotations from the pope, which have been making a mad circulation through the blogs of gleeful liberals and panicked conservatives, would it not be nice to have access to a collection of the Holy Father’s words that the front pages and headline news have ignored?

Just this weekend, I received in the mail a wonderful little volume that does just that. Published by Our Sunday Visitor, Through the Year With Pope Francis is a daily devotional of 365 quotations, mainly from his homilies and General Audiences. If you like devotionals, this is the one for you. Or, if you just want to counter silly claims about the pope’s radical views, this is a resource you will want to have.

If you like to have meditations to take with you to Eucharistic Adoration, why not pick up a copy of this book? What better way to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament than to meditate upon the Holy Father’s words and pray for his intentions? (There’s a plenary indulgence for that, under the normal conditions.)

Here is a typical meditation, for January 20:

Letting Christ make us his own always means straining forward to what lies ahead, to the goal of Christ (cf. Philippians 3:14), and it also means asking oneself with truth and sincerity: What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What must I do for Christ?

Each day’s meditation always ends with a subject for reflection, provided by the book’s editor. Today’s is, “In the silence of your heart, think about the questions Pope Francis has asked.”

They are good and wise questions, and have the virtue of getting one away from all the nonsense about the pope that we read on the blogs. They recall our mind and heart to Christ, who is at the center of our faith.

Whatever the controversy that has arisen about his papacy, at the center of the pope’s message is the desire to recall us to Christ, and the joy of Christ, and the demands of Christ.

This valuable book is a great way to do that. It will challenge you. Get it now before we are too far into the new year. Your prayer life will greatly improve because of it, and you will grow closer to the Lord and richer in the Catholic faith.

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