Concerned with essential things

Anyway, now that the Pope’s extended interview Light of the World has arrived in the shops, we can move on to other topics. I only got my copy yesterday, and already I’ve nearly finished it – the book is a gripping read. Pope Benedict’s agile mind is perfectly suited to the dialogue form and he is a gifted teacher.
The interview is full of fascinating details, such as why he doesn’t use his exercise bike and how he spends his evenings with “the papal family” (meals, watching the news, occasional DVDs). But above all what comes through is the Pope’s trust in God.
“I am no mystic,” he says. “But it is correct that as Pope one has even more cause to pray and to entrust oneself entirely to God… I entrust myself to the Lord and notice, yes, there is help there, something is being done that is not my own doing.”
And he describes the “urgent challenge” for the West: “We have to show – and also live this accordingly – that the eternity man needs can come only from God. That God is the first thing necessary in order to be able to withstand the afflictions of this time.” Evil is real, he says, and Man is in danger, but he can be saved “when moral energies gather in his heart; energies that can come only from the encounter with God; energies of resistance”. Truly this is a Pope who is concerned with essential things. The book is uplifting to read. But don’t take my word for it: buy a copy for Christmas.

(Andrew M. Brown in The Telegraph)