Dear Pope,

I've carried this newspaper clipping around in my Bible since Pope John Paul II visited St. Louis in 1999. Apparently, people were asked to send in a message to the Pope, and the only name attributed to this one is "Henlin." I thought it relevant with the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI and befitting for today, so thought I'd share.

For those in personal pain, will you remind them that Jesus never gave himself for our righteousness, but He gave himself for our sins. The first link between my soul and Jesus is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit, but my misery, not my standing, but my failings, not my riches, but my need. He came to visit His people not to admire their beauties, but to remove their deformities, not to reward their virtues, but to forgive their sins.