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You might feel like the upcoming conclave is something happening very far away… or, on the other hand, like it’s going to change everything. But the Holy Spirit is always guiding the Church, and we’re all part of the Church.

If you’re not in the conclave yourself (and we really doubt that anyone there is reading this!), now is a time to renew your commitment to the Church and the world.

The quotes from Saint Josemaría below can help each of us pray and reflect on our place in the history of the Church, which is still being written. How do you want to approach the conclave?

Prayer for the future Pope

“The Catholic Church is roman. I savour that word, roman! I feel completely roman, since roman means universal, catholic. For it leads me to love tenderly the Pope, il dolce Cristo in terra, as Saint Catherine of Siena, whom I count as a most beloved friend, liked to repeat” (In Love with the Church, no. 11).

“Continue praying very much for the Pope! Love the Church and the Pope with all your soul. Be ever more firmly united to the intentions of my Mass, so that all of us, in union with Mary, and under the paternal patronage of Saint Joseph, may offer a continuous act of thanksgiving the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (In Dialogue with the Lord, no. 179).

“Your deepest love, your greatest esteem, your most heartfelt veneration, your most complete obedience and your warmest affection have also to be shown towards the Vicar of Christ on earth, towards the Pope. We Catholics should consider that after God and the most Blessed Virgin, our Mother, the Holy Father comes next in the hierarchy of love and authority” (The Forge, no. 135).

Loyalty to the Church

“Every day you must grow in loyalty towards the Church, the Pope and the Holy See… with a love that should be always more theological” (Furrow, no. 353).

“We will never be sufficiently satisfied with our work, no matter how much service we render, by God’s grace, to the Church and the Pope; for love will demand more of us every day, and our works will always seem modest to us, since the time that we have is short: tempus breve est (1 Cor 7:29)” (Collected Letters II, Letter 8, no. 53).

Trust in the Holy Spirit

“What is most important in the Church is not how we humans react but how God acts. This is what the Church is: Christ present in our midst, God coming toward men in order to save them, calling us with his revelation, sanctifying us with his grace, maintaining us with his constant help, in the great and small battles of our daily life” (Christ is Passing By, no. 131).

“Let us strengthen our faith in the supernatural character of the Church. Let us profess it with shouts, if necessary, for there are many, physically within the Church and even in high places, who have forgotten these capital truths. … Let me say once again that I am not a pessimist by habit or by temperament. How can we be pessimistic if Our Lord has promised that he will be with us until the end of the world?” (In Love with the Church, no. 18).

Desire to serve souls

“Our Holy Mother the Church, in a magnificent extension of love, is scattering the seed of the Gospel throughout the world; from Rome to the outposts of the earth. As you help in this work of expansion throughout the whole world, bring those in the outposts to the Pope, so that the earth may be one flock and one Shepherd: one apostolate!” (The Forge, no. 638).

“Mary continually builds the Church and keeps it together. It is difficult to have devotion to our Lady and not feel closer to the other members of the mystical body and more united to its visible head, the pope. That's why I like to repeat: All with Peter to Jesus through Mary! By seeing ourselves as part of the Church and united to our brothers in the faith, we understand more deeply that we are brothers of all mankind, for the Church has been sent to all the peoples of the earth” (Christ is Passing By, no. 139).