Sunday, February 18, 2018

Spiritual Exercises this week

This evening in Rome, the Holy Father and other members of the Roman Curia will begin the annual week-long Lenten retreat which is referred to as the Spiritual Exercises.

Again this year, the Exercises will take place at the Casa Divin Maestro (Home of the Divine Master) in Ariccia.


Pope Francis has chosen a Portuguese priest, Father José Tolentino Mendonça, to lead his 2018 Lenten Retreat for the Roman Curia which will take place this week at the retreat house in Ariccia, outside of Rome.  The overall theme of Father Mendonça’s meditations will be In Praise of Thirst.  The Portuguese-born priest will give 10 talks during the retreat, beginning with a meditation titled Apprentices of Awe. The other presentations include examining the experience of thirst, the thirst for nothingthe thirst for Jesustears and thirst, desire, and the beatitude of thirst.

Father Mendonça is a prolific and bestselling author and poet in Europe. His books available worldwide in English and published by Paulist Press include:

Our Father, Who Art on Earth (Paulist Press 2013)
Reflects on the relationship between faith and culture using cultural, poetic, and biblical reflections on every line of the Lord's Prayer. It will change the way readers see and say this beloved prayer.

No Journey Will Be Too Long (Paulist Press 2014)
Friendship is a universal experience and represents for everyone an irreplaceable process of humanization and hope. Friends bear witness to our heart that there is always a journey to be undertaken and no journey will be too long.

Jesus and the Woman (Paulist Press 2017)
A story of unconditional mercy. This book reveals the layers of meaning in the story of the sinful woman who inserts herself uninvited into a dinner party at a Pharisee’s home. Jesus's reaction to her reveals much about his relationship to us and the mercy of God.

Father José Tolentino Mendonça is also a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Culture.

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