"And I'm so glad you made it, so glad you made it "

... to Friday, that is.

It's weird to wake up thinking that it is Friday and time for another traditio and having my thoughts go right to the Blues Brothers Gimme Some Lovin'. I decided to go with Stevie Winwood and Eric Clapton covering The Spencer Davis Group's classic.

"Been a hard day nothing went too good/Now we're gonna relax just like everybody should."

As if we needed more proof of the The Holy Father's astounding ability to communicate the truth clearly, he does it yet again in his opening message at WYD in Madrid, even as I posted this week on theosis and how it is incomprehensible when divorced from the truth about the human person, when it is not rooted in a solid theological anthropology. The Holy Father, speaking to Catholic youth from throughout world, had this to say:

Indeed, there are many who, creating their own gods, believe they need no roots or foundations other than themselves. They take it upon themselves to decide what is true or not, what is good and evil, what is just and unjust; who should live and who can be sacrificed in the interests of other preferences; leaving each step to chance, with no clear path, letting themselves be led by the whim of each moment. These temptations are always lying in wait. It is important not to give in to them because, in reality, they lead to something so evanescent, like an existence with no horizons

Looking back at the U.K. riots, I believe in them we see the results of too many living lives with no horizons. Living my whole life in the American West, I am used to seeing the horizon, to having an unobstructed and grand view of it all the time. From the time I can remember I have been very conscious of this. As much as I love visiting different places, it always bothers me when such a grand vista is not available. It doesn't take me too long to start feeling suffocated. Feeling suffocated, or turned in, is a bad enough reaction to geographic conditions, I am past the point where I can even fathom how it must be to experience this as an existential condition. Anyway, we all need some lovin', making me all the more grateful that, as Pope Benedict reminded us at the beginning of exhilarating pontificate, Deus caritas est.

For those left scratching their heads, "evanescent" means "vanishing, fading away, fleeting."

A deep diaconal bow to my friend Suzanne for bringing the Holy Father's statement to my attention this morning.