Dancing with the saints: Retreat master says that's the key to Lent

Lord have Mercy , Christ have Mercy !
I just wonder how far Vatican II can go ..

Carmelite Father Francois-Marie Lethel gives one of 17 talks during a March 13-19 Lenten retreat for Pope Benedict XVI and his top aides in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel at the Vatican. The theme of the retreat was: "The Light of Christ in the Heart of the Church: John Paul II and the Theology of Saints." (CNS/L'Osservatore Romano)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The saints aren't just people to turn to when something is lost or a situation seems hopeless; they are examples to follow in prayer and in efforts to reform and renew the church, said the priest who was preaching Pope Benedict XVI's Lenten retreat.

Carmelite Father Francois-Marie Lethel, secretary of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, led the pope and his top aides in their Lenten reflections March 13-19.

He said his 17 talks during the week would focus on the saints and Pope John Paul II.

In addition to helping Pope Benedict and Vatican officials prepare for Easter, Father Lethel said he wanted to help them prepare for the beatification May 1 of Pope John Paul.

"This beatification, which will be an event of immense importance for the church and the entire world, requires deep spiritual preparation involving the entire people of God and, in a particular way, the Holy Father and his closest collaborators," Father Lethel wrote in the introduction to the retreat program handed out to participants.

The tradition of having weeklong, preached "spiritual exercises" for the pope and members of the papal household began with Pope Pius XI in 1925. But for more than 35 years it was an Advent, not a Lenten retreat.

Pope John XXIII broke the Advent tradition in 1962 when he spent a week in September on retreat to prepare for the Second Vatican Council. His successor, Pope Paul VI, made the retreats a Lenten staple in 1964 and hugely broadened the list of preachers, who almost always had been Jesuits.

Father Lethel is the first Carmelite to be chosen to preach the pope's retreat, and three famous Carmelites figured prominently in his meditations: Sts. Therese of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.

The three were chosen, though, not because they were Carmelites, but because of their influence on Pope John Paul, Father Lethel said in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

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