A Place of Springs

I've been lately fascinated by the life of John Paul I, by how strong he seemed prior to the papacy and how he seems to have become so anxious during those 33 days. Anxious not on his own behalf but the Church; it was because he took the papacy so seriously that it had such an impact. I tend to think that Christianity is an antidote to fear and distress but it's more subtle. The saints have the most fear and distress because they are living, by faith, out on that dividing line where the natural no longer avails. They are, that is, flying without a net. And there is no courage without fear.

The beautiful thing about the saints, about Pope John Paul I, was how they were able to serve God despite obstacles. I tend to see self-help books as something of a scam given their typical lack of effectiveness, but they are always encouraging and in that they are not to be scorned. We need encouragement and inspiration - that's what much of the Bible is.

"A new theme now inspires their praise of God; they belong to the Lamb." That's the set-up before Psalm 96 in the Liturgy of the Hours; my eyes soaked it in. That is an easy reason I can praise God although I sometimes think about the generations before Christ and how it doesn't seem fair that we have knowledge of Him and they don't. And yet the Psalms speak of Christ such that it's as if He's already with them: "As they go through the Bitter valley, they make it a place of springs..."