"Pope Benedict XVI preaches like a monk!" Father Mark Kirby on Vultus Christi today.

PLEASE READ FATHER MARK'S POST 'THE WORD HAS A FACE' ON VULTUS CHRISTI, BEFORE YOU GO TO BED TONIGHT.

A Cistercian monk himself, Father is not exaclty in the first years of his holy Profession, and therefore folks I promise you great benefit from what he has to say.

The Pro Papa Leauge is blessed in having Fr. Mark as its honorary Chaplain. Not a day goes by when he does not keep our hands, hearts and minds steady and focussed on the things that truly matter. In respect of his post today, I cannot recommend it highly enough. In the midst of all this pother about possible 'Green Sundays' in England and Wales on the Feast of Christ the King, and what we will have to do tomorrow to fight that particular battle, Father's post will give you true calm and send you to bed in peace and with a fervent prayer of thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity for having given us Pope Benedict XVI, as our earthly spiritual father, now gloriously and spiritually reigning.

Please, I beg you, go there and read Fr. Mark's explication and the text of our Holy Father's homily/meditation delivered on the morning of October 6th just passed.

Father introduces His Holiness' text thus:
"....readers of Vultus Christi will rejoice to discover Pope Benedict XVI's allusions to the Face and Heart of the Word."

Please go to Vultus Christi now and you won't need to read the comment I made on Fr. Mark's post. I reproduce it here only for the sake of my own records. One can never quite catch these moments accurately after the heat of battle which must resume on the morrow. And yet they are without price and give us courage and strength to go on:

"Dear Fr. Mark,

Thank you once again for drawing attention to the Centrality in our beloved Holy Father's faith, teaching and preaching and how it comes to be... I suspected something of the sort when he announced he would be Benedict. Oh how rich has been the almost daily proof since then.

Like many others, I had been alienated from him by the false picture that had been persistently peddled by the media before he was elected. But as a 'Benedictine soul', from day one I began to read his earlier works, began to watch and listen to him. Truly the revelation began just before the Election, but a great flame of hope began to enkindle in my heart during those days in spring 2005. Within months, I had fully recognised him for what he is, and that is the person you have described in this post.

There is also the remark on the commentary of 'The Papacy of Reason' that this monk-theologian quality, upon which you here elaborate, is what impresses the Orthodox and which could by implication lead to a healing of the Great Schism.

Thank you for publishing this homily of his, one which I have not seen before and which I will use in Meditation tomorrow."

In Christo pro Papa