Waiting periods―who can stand them? We are used to having everything instantly. We make decisions according to our own personal interests. We try to manage everything―and sometimes, everyone.

The wait for a new Pope is not a game of chess. It’s not a political strategy. It is a gift from the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Spirit does not judge according to our standards: education, nationality, color, etc., but by the standards of God, who looks deep into our hearts. Let us learn to wait for God’s gifts with outstretched hands; yes, with some healthy impatience, for the pleasant surprise and joy we know will come, aware that Someone, who loves us and desires only our good, wants to grant us this gift.
Newspapers, radio, social media, AI―everyone is making predictions as if it were a weather forecast, but what is this based upon? The Holy Spirit, instead, reminds us and calls us to patiently wait for Him to come upon us; to keep asking for His presence, always mindful that He is the Light, the Wisdom of God, the Comforter and the Guide of Our Hearts. He wants to reawaken the Church, to renew our strength, and to inspire a clear and radical witness of God’s love for humanity. He wants to keep the light of our faith burning and to be a light to the world. We need a leader after God’s own heart. It is the divine Spirit who leads the Church, transforming hearts and guiding them toward holiness! Let us always ask the Lord for His light, especially now, as we await a new Pope, so that we may discern the signs of the times in His light, so that we may understand the historical moment in which we are living through His perspective, and discover what God expects of us, how He wants us to live and express our faith in a world that we have not always shaped according to His inspiration.
Let us learn to wait as Mary did, confident that nothing is impossible for God, that everything is in His hands, and that our “fiat voluntas tua”―which we say with our lips―may translate our trust into obedience and our faith into active charity.

O God,
renew your Church,
our Order
and the entire world.
Give us a leader who will be a “bridge”
between the human and the divine.

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