Crowds spilling out of St. Peter’s Square, and a grateful Pope who didn’t do much different for his last public Angelus prayer. Speaking about today’s Gospel reading about the Lord’s Transfiguration on the mountain, he briefly spoke about his own future, which he clearly considers a new calling:
“Dear brothers and sisters, I feel that this Word of God is particularly directed at me, at this point in my life. The Lord is calling me to “climb the mountain”, to devote myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church, indeed, if God is asking me to do this it is so that I can continue to serve the Church with the same dedication and the same love with which I have done thus far, but in a way that is better suited to my age and my strength. Let us invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary: may she always help us all to follow the Lord Jesus in prayer and works of charity.”
In Caelo et in Terra 