Cardinal blogs greetings from Rome saying he wants to go home

Greetings again from Rome, the Eternal City, the See of Saints Peter and Paul!

I miss you! It’s been ten days since I left the archdiocese, and as the old song goes, “I wanna go home!” Especially will I miss you all on Saint Patrick’s Day, the Feast of the patron of our great archdiocese and our renowned cathedral. So far, I’ve been unable to find any Irish brown bread, corned-beef, or whiskey. (Don’t get me wrong; I love the food and wine here in Rome!)

Heartfelt thanks for your prayers! We need them! We feel them! Keep them up! An old-timer told me that the days between the passing of one Pontiff and the election of a new one are like the days in Jerusalem after Our Lord’s Ascension to heaven. The whole Church prayed, prayed hard, prayed long, united with the apostles and the Mother of Jesus, who were locked-up in the Cenacle, awaiting the supreme gift of the Holy Spirit! That’s happening now, if your abundant and gracious notes and messages are any indication.

And we cardinals sure are praying a lot. Every day we each begin with the most effective prayer of all, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In our sessions we pray from the Divine Office, begin each meeting with the ancient prayer to the third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Veni Sancte Spiritus, and we break at lunch with the beautiful words of the Angelus. Wednesday, we cardinals made a Holy Hour of adoration before Jesus, really and truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, at the Altar of the Chair in Saint Peter’s Basilica.

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