Spe Salvi in hope we were saved are the opening words of the new Encyclical Letter from Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict asserts that in today s society the crisis of faith is in fact a crisis of hope. He says that what is needed is a self-critique of modern society, along with the rediscovery and living of Christian hope. Pope Benedict encourages us to foster hope through prayer and to rediscover the practice of offering up our sufferings to give them significance. Finally Pope Benedict invites all to see the hope that there is in the judgement of God, in praying for the dead and in the purification of purgatory.
