I wonder what effect the Pope’s departure into a quasi-monastic life will have on the world of vocations: i.e., on the aspirations of Catholics seeking the Lord in consecrated life. By making prayer and seeking the face of God the center of day-to-day life, he is giving a profound witness. By disappearing from the stage of the world, he is declaring the primacy of the spiritual. He is reminding us of the precious value of the contemplative life, the life of prayer, and in particular of the sacred

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