{"id":3343,"date":"2007-11-30T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-30T08:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/the-thing-with-feathers-2.html"},"modified":"2007-11-30T08:45:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-30T08:45:00","slug":"the-thing-with-feathers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/the-thing-with-feathers-2.html","title":{"rendered":"The thing with feathers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ink is still damp, but here’s Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, Saved By Hope<\/a>. <\/p>\n

John Allen’s report is right here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Snip: <\/p>\n

We need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day,” Benedict writes in Spe Salvi, released today by the Vatican. “But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God.”<\/p>\n

That point leads Benedict to accent what has emerged as the core concern of his papacy: a determination to focus on the heart of Catholic identity, and on the distinctive spiritual message the church has to offer the world.<\/p>\n

“Self-criticism of the modern age in dialogue with Christianity and its awareness of hope is necessary,” Benedict writes. “In such a dialogue, Christians too, in the context of their awareness and their experiences, must learn anew what their hope truly consists of, what they have to offer the world and what, instead, they cannot offer.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or, in the words of Emily Dickinson: <\/p>\n

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

H\/T to Amy at Charlotte Was Both<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ink is still damp, but here’s Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, Saved By Hope. John Allen’s report is right here. Snip: We need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day,” Benedict writes in Spe Salvi, released today by the Vatican. “But these are not enough without the great hope, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\nThe thing with feathers - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/the-thing-with-feathers-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The thing with feathers - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ink is still damp, but here’s Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, Saved By Hope. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}