Mood:
blueNow Playing: Ken Burns Jazz Collection
Topic: Death of the Pope
042221APR05
The King Passes
On Friday, April 1, 2005, Pope John Paul II passed away after serving 24 years as the Vicar of Christ, marking his as the second longest pontificate in history. He will be missed. May a flight of angels sing him to his well-deserved glory at the right hand of Christ.
Born Karol Jozef Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II was a truly remarkable man. Not only did he ably serve as shepherd to the Catholic Church?s estimated 1.6 billion faithful, a number unmatched by any other religious denomination in the world, but he also served a pivotal role, along with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (the so-called ?Holy Trinity? of the Cold War) in bringing down the Soviet Union (a.k.a., the Evil Empire). In fact, I would argue that it is proof of the efficacious intersession of the Holy Spirit that the College of Cardinals broke with an hundred-plus year old tradition of appointing Italian popes and instead appointed a little-known Polish bishop who would literally change the history of the world.
That is the power of Christ in our world.
I will greatly miss this pope partly because I have no recollection of any other, a plight common for Gen Xers. However, I will also greatly miss his concerted effort to speak to the youths of the world, to encourage them to pursue a Holy Orders vocation, a message completely non-existent from any other source. Finally, he will be grieved because of his firm defense of traditional Catholic values. He was and is a bedrock of morality that all the principalities of this world could never shake. In short, he was the living embodiment of 2000 years of little-changing Roman Catholic Tradition.
Pope John Paul II: proof of the power of God at work in the world.
Please pray a Rosary for the quick ascent of his soul. Not sure how? Check out:
Virtual Rosary
Also, pray thusly:
Father, eternal shepherd, hear the prayers of your people for your servant John Paul II, who governed your Church with love. In your mercy bring him with the flock entrusted to his care to the reward you have promised your faithful servants. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Source: Roman Missal
