God is at work. Sometimes this it is clearer than at other times. These weeks of the Easter Season, within the Jubilee Year of Hope, he has been working through an incredibly rare event in the life of the Church: the death of a pope and the election of his successor. Living and working in Rome, very close to the action, has been the experience of a lifetime and a testimony of grace, which is always difficult to describe. But it’s worth trying.

Jesus promised the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to continue to lead and guide the Church.  The early Church invoked the Holy Spirit to help them make important decisions.  The College of Cardinals, successors to the apostles, continues to work under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church with the recent election of Pope Leo XIV.

COLORADO SPRINGS. At 2 a.m. on April 21, Stacy Paris — hours away from leaving for Italy with 24 teens and 16 other adults to witness the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis scheduled for April 27 — received a phone call from her daughter letting her know that Pope Francis had died. Although the news came as a surprise, it quickly became clear to Paris that the group should follow through on their original travel plans, she said.