Vatican City, Mar 10, 2017 / 05:15 am
After spending a week in Ariccia with members of the Curia for their annual Lenten spiritual exercises, Pope Francis returned to the Vatican Friday with words of gratitude and his own brief reflection.
Shortly before leaving the Casa Divin Maestro retreat house in Ariccia, the Pope voiced his gratitude to Franciscan priest Giulio Michelini, who led the meditations for the week, saying, "I want to thank you for the good you have wished us to have and for the good you have done us."
He thanked the friar first of all for his openness and for being "natural" during the preaching, sharing himself "without artifice."
Francis also gave thanks for all of the work Michelini put into preparing the meditations. "It's true, there is a mountain of things to meditate on," he said, but noted that as St. Ignatius says in the Exercises, when one encounters feelings of consolation or desolation, you must "stop there" to meditate on it.