Hi Reader,

This past Saturday I was all set to start recording the first few episodes of season 9 of my You Were Made for This podcast. But I got derailed when I read Peggy Noonan’s column in The Wall Street Journal. I couldn’t think of much else the rest of the day because of her inspiring words.

You may recall that Saturday was the day of Pope Francis' funeral, and her timely article was entitled “What We Need in Pope Francis’ Successor.”

It wasn’t just what the Catholic church needed. It was about what we all need.

Noonan’s article had three distinct elements that flowed together well, like the Tiber River through the heart of Rome. The first section was about Pope Francis himself, his papacy—the good and the questionable—and his impact on the Catholic church. Interesting stuff.

But what captured my heart was the second part of the article. It starts with this:

“More and more I think people know that no one will get through the future without deep faith in God.
“The church should go back to the beginning, shift from modernity to eternity, ask the world to train its eye on Christ. Tell it what his mother said at the wedding at Cana: ‘Do whatever he tells you.’
“This is a time for a great teaching pope whose mission is telling the world the meaning of the faith, its history, how it came to its dogmas, what it believes and why. How personal faith can come and be won, and what you do to hold onto it. The church must speak to the human heart, which is always hungry.
“It would be good if the soon-to-be-chosen could be summed up, 40 years from now, on his passing, with these words: ‘The man who was in love with Jesus.’
“Connected to which: When you’re in love, you are happy. Your happiness shows. It is important that the pope radiate something like joy – joy is knowing there is a God and he is good and he is always with us. Let the world look and think, ‘He seems happy. He must know something.’”

This is all still sinking in with me.

I’d love to hear any response you may have.

John Certalic

P.S. There is a third section to Peggy Noonan’s article that I’ll write about next week. Episode 220 of the podcast is also coming soon.

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