That’s the heartfelt and hopeful message buried deep inside today’s latest (last??!!) posting at Whispers in the Loggia. I, for one, find it hard to believe Rocco might be signing off from the spot that has become required reading across so much of the Catholic world. (If you doubt it, just try to find anyone in a rectory, chancery, seminary, convent or even cloistered hermitage — from Rome to Rangoon — who doesn’t log on every morning, for a dose of diocesan dish, in between lauds and that second cup of coffee…) A few months ago, I asked an old friend who works at the USCCB in Washington if she reads “Whispers” and she replied, “Are you kidding? Everyone here reads it. It’s the first thing we check every morning. It’s the only way we know what’s really going on!”

Anyway, that young whipper snapper behind Whispers seems to have come to that place Robert Frost wrote about, where two roads diverge. He’s at a point of choosing. But before continuing, he offers these words of wisdom:

There’s one thing this experience has taught me better than anything else, it’s this: never underestimate the power of “yes.” It’ll get you very far… farther than you might’ve wished, wanted, expected or thought yourself worthy of. And no matter how weak, inadequate or powerless you might think yourself to be, when you get one of those blessed chances to say it, just go for it, and the rest will just fall into place. That’s the only way to explain in a nutshell how all this, how every gift of my life, has come to pass.

I love that word. I’ve said it too many times to count (and have failed to live up to each one hundreds of times more). Whatever this one might bring, forgive me for mustering it again for this work, maybe for the last time… but with no less than the usual dose of feeling, of hope and, as ever, world of thanks.

As always, I can never thank all of you enough for keeping me company along the way and, in the process, making these pages your own.

Pray for me. All of you have been in mine everyday from the start, and know that each of you, your loved ones and intentions will remain always at the top of my morning list, whatever lies ahead.

Traveling mercies, friend, traveling mercies.

As always, visit Whispers today to get the whole story, as only Rocco can tell it.