Pope Francis Concludes the Customary Spiritual Exercises of Lent at the Vatican

Pope Francis concludes the customary Spiritual Exercises for Lent. This year, the Roman Curia stayed at the Vatican possibly due to the pope's knee problems. The retreat occurred from the first Sunday, February 26, after Ash Wednesday to the March 3rd. 

Pope Francis is scheduled for his regular activities beginning on Sunday, March 5th with the Angelus. The pope will travel to Hungary on April 28 through 30. 

The papal preacher, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa gave his first Lenten sermon on the theme "Ipsa novitas innovanda est: Renewing the new", on Friday 3 March, in the Paul VI Hall.

If the life of the Church were to stop, observed the preacher of the Pontifical Household, "it would happen like a river that reaches a barrier: it inevitably turns into a quagmire or a swamp". In this regard, the Capuchin cardinal recalled the thought of Origen who, in the third century, observed that it is not enough «to be renewed only once; we need to renew the same novelty». The new Doctor of the Church, Saint Irenaeus, also followed the same line, who wrote: the revealed truth is like «a precious liqueur contained in a valuable vase. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, it continually rejuvenates and also makes the vessel that contains it rejuvenate". The "vessel" that contains the revealed truth, the cardinal explained, "is the living tradition of the Church". The "precious liquor" is "first of all Scripture, but Scripture read in the Church, which is the most correct definition of tradition". Indeed, the Spirit is "new by its nature".

Edited from Vatican News