download Jesus

This is pretty fabulous.

How would you like to listen to a dramatization of the entire New Testament, read by a cast of international actors? Well, you guessed it, there’s an app for that.

Just go to Truth & Life: dramatized audio Bible, choose your format or platform (Apple, google play, PC, nook, Kindle Fire)—and download. 

The free app, endorsed by the Vatican, includes a foreword by Pope Benedict XVI as well as an official Church imprimatur. At some point you may even recognize the voice that was once Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings. Yes, Sean Astin. 

Enhanced by sound effects and original music, the app allows you to follow the text as it is being read, to take notes, and search for words.

As the promo describes: 

“over 70 actors, 20 audio engineers in10 studios over 3 continents contributed to the creation of this unique audioNew Testament. More than 100 media development experts and 10,000production hours were needed to complete this ambitious project.” 

The free app provides the entire New Testament text and the audio of the Gospel of St. Mark. The remaining audio books can be purchased and downloaded through the app, or are available for purchase in a CD format.

I credit my friend Judy’s passion for Scripture with inspiring me to experience the Word in a very personal way. I am specially connected to the Psalms, for example, where I often go looking for--and find--a voice who conveys my barrage of conflicted feelings.

I love when technology seeks to enhance our ability to hear and experience the Word in a new way. 

Here's how the Catholic News Service Blog introduced this new project, 

“Embracing Blessed John Paul II’s call to “employ the communications media (to achieve) the full impact of the Gospel message,” executive producer Mike Stark and his partner, producer Carl Amari, set out to produce a quality audio recording of the Bible… “We’ve got great support from all the people in the Catholic Church,” said Stark, “people are on fire about it.”  

Click here to read their full story.

in sede vacante

The Chair of Peter, 

the Holy See of Rome, 

is vacant 

upon the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI

"the ombrellino (the "little umbrella"), which will again replace the papal tiara over the crossed keys of the Vatican's "logo" during the interregnum between B16's resignation and the emergence of his successor to symbolize the lack of a Pope."

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Pope Benedict to the college of Cardinals:  

"Among Us Is the New Pope... To Whom I Pledge My Obedience"

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Let us commit to dedicated prayer: 

+  for the Cardinals preparing to begin their deliberation for a new Pope,
+  for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,
+ for the Catholic Church universal,
+ May we be renewed through fasting, prayer and almsgiving during this joyful season of Lent.

Thanks for your faithful example, @pontifex

Pope Benedict XVI retires today, 

Thursday, February 28, 

at 8 pm Rome time, 1 pm Central time

I had the opportunity to reflect publicly on Pope Benedict’s gifts to the Church in this collection of reflections by various authors published in the national newsweekly Our Sunday Visitor.

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves his final general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Feb. 27. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Here’s what I wrote:

While much can be said about Pope Benedict XVI’s prolific and exceptional writing, I want to thank the 265th Pope for the 27 words he wrote on Dec. 12, 2012 — adding “@pontifex”to his numerous titles. 

Pope Benedict’s eight-year-reign may be deemed the blink of an eye in the Church’s existence. But he bequeaths the next pope a number of impressive digital initiatives, not the least of which are 2.5 million Twitter followers. All this, from an 85-year-old pontiff who was born the year that the first transatlantic telephone call was made via radio from New York City to London.  

Consider this. YouTube launched its first video just four days after Pope Benedict’s 2005 election. At the time, Facebook was a mere 1-year-old toddler. And Twitter was not born for another year. To these improbable inventions Pope Benedict responded with impressive enthusiasm, noting that the endless conversation online “demonstrates the restlessness of human beings, ceaselessly searching for truths, of greater or lesser import that can offer meaning and hope to their lives.”  

Yet what is most impressive about Pope Benedict’s engaging response to social media networks is not just his vision and insight into their significance. After all, the man who made his episcopal motto Cooperatores veritatis — “co-operators of the truth” — recognized straightway their opportunity as powerful mediums for truth.  

No, what’s most remarkable of all is that he faced these cultural encounters with the same openness, honesty, and humility that he displayed on becoming pope in 2005, and resigning in 2013. Like his compatriot Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Pope Benedict reminds me with his life that everything, down to the smallest detail, has coherent meaning in God’s all-seeing eyes.  

Regardless the source of encounter, or the unlikeliest situation, or even acknowledging unimaginable technology, Pope Benedict XVI opened himself completely to possibility, knowing with his whole heart that God would be found there. 

Thank you for your faithful example, @pontifex.

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     In his last General Audience yesterday, February 27, Pope Benedict XVI’s spoke with tenderness and intimacy to his brothers and sisters around the world—his last public words as pope:

I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children to God's arms, certain that those arms always hold us up and are what allow us to walk forward each day, even when it is a struggle. I would like everyone to feel beloved of that God who gave His Son for us and who has shown us His boundless love. I would like everyone to feel the joy of being Christian… 

Dear friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.

To read the entire General Audience text, go here

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Mis amigos, let’s continue to pray for Pope Benedict, for the Cardinals who will gather to elect our new Pope—and always, for our Church Universal!