Certain perks

I am lucky. My job has quite a few "perks".

A really big one being that I work in Jesus' house. I can go visit Him at any time during the day. (I should do that more often now that I think about it.)

But another one is: When the "big boss" is in the country I can bring out the TV and plug in the cable and watch his words and movements.

The more I hear and read Pope Benedict the more I love him. I loved John Paul II but this one is different in some way that I can't seem to put into words.

Last night as I watched the Vesper Service at the Basillica I was struck very much by Benedict's demeaner. Yesterday morning at the White House as he arrived he seemed a bit "out of place". He seemed sure of himself but you could get the feeling that he wasn't very comfortable.

Watching him last night with his bishops in prayer, he was a changed man. THAT is where he belongs. That is where he feels most comfortable. In prayer; as a priest. This man is above all a PRIEST and a SHEPHERD. When he speaks I feel compelled to listened. And to PRAY. He makes me want to pray. In a different way. In a way I haven't prayed before. To widen my "prayer horizons". He is a teacher and it is evident. A teacher of the Gospel. And my soul can feel that he will lead all of us towards Christ our Hope.

America needs him. I am so thankful to the Holy Spirit for sending him to us this week. The message he has brought is one that we all need to read over and over and to pray with again and again.

Immaculate Heart of Mary's Hermitage Report has been posting the texts of the Pope's addresses. I plan to print them out and read them in full in the next few days as he gives them. And to pray with them. To take notes with them. To see what the Holy Spirit wants me to learn from Pope Benedict.

Watching the Pope these past few days also has made me want to pick up and finish reading his Jesus of Nazareth. I want to read his words. So hopefully in the next few weeks I'll finally open up some of the books of his I have that he wrote when he was Cardinal Ratzinger.