My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins.

And the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful, my Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord,

my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Many of us remember the days after Pope Benedict XVIth had announced to his resignation in February of 2013.

It was really quite sad to see the helicopter taking away.

The very security guards wept openly when they helped him aboard.

And then the cameras showed these last images of the Pope waving from the helicopter window.

There was lift off and the cameras picked up the silhouette of the

helicopter flying against the sun as he was flying over Rome. Then, as you know,

came the conclave of the Cardinals to elect a new Pope. Perhaps you remember the address that the then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergollio made

to the Cardinals that were there present. Because in that pre-conclave series of talks,

when all the Cardinals were getting to know each other, kind of warming things up. Cardinal Bergoleo

ended up quoting from that passage from the book of Revelation. It says chapter three,

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and I will

dine with him and he with me. That's the voice of Jesus that St. John writes down there.

And well, this is what the Pope commented.

He was then cardinal, but he said that we often think that he, the Lord, wants to enter into our lives.

But he doesn't knock just to enter, he said.

He knocks so that he can be let out into the world.

He does not want the church to be closed in on itself, to be, he said, excessively self-referential.

And so the Pope dreamt of a church looking outwards, going out in a mission.

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