Before concluding this week of spiritual exercises and retreat – a moment of blessing – I have the pleasure of being able to say thank you above all to our preacher who has accompanied and helped us during these days to have a profound spiritual experience, very important in our Lenten journey, starting on Sunday with “The temptations” and reflecting on the example, the witness of Saint Bernard, monastic life and many other elements of life in the Church.

I must acknowledge that personally I found myself particularly invited to reflect in some moments. For example, this morning, when we spoke about the election of Pope Eugene III and Saint Bernard said: “What have you done? God have mercy on you”.

Then this chapel – let me tell you – on 8 May, when we were gathered here for the Eucharistic celebration. Above it is the inscription from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, which says these words: “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. So, in this context and in this spirit of communion, we are all gathered here working together, though sometimes very separately, and I think that being together in prayer is also a very important moment in our lives, reflecting on many issues that are important for our lives and for the Church.

I do not intend to review the whole week, but rather to share a few elements. For example, the reference to the Doctor of the Church John Henry Newman and the poem “The Dream of Gerontius”, where Newman uses the death and judgement of Gerontius as a prism through which the reader is led to contemplate his own fear of death and his own sense of unworthiness before God.

There are other elements such as freedom and truth, which are so important in our lives. And in all this, this evening, with my reflection on hope and on the true source of hope, which is Christ, I returned to reread the Letter to the Philippians. In the continuation of the text, written above, where Paul says: “If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labour to me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith”. And then he says, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ”.

Here is the invitation at the end of these days of prayer and reflection, which the very Word of God addresses to all of us: “Let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ”.

On behalf of everyone present, then, thank you, Monsignor Varden, for all that you have offered us in these days. Your wisdom, your witness and that of the monastic life of Saint Bernard, the richness of your reflections, will continue for a long time to be for us a source of blessing, of grace, of encounter with Jesus Christ.

I would also like, at this time, to thank the collaborators of the Office of Liturgical Celebrations who prepared all the material for our prayer, as well as the choir, who I believe are still present. Thank you for helping us with the music, which is so important in our prayer. Music – I believe Monsignor Varden said this at some point – helps us in a way that words cannot, lifting our spirits to the Lord.

So thank you, thank you all very much for your presence and participation during these days. We can conclude with the blessing.

Blessing

Good evening, and thank you all.

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Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 27 February 2026