Love, Faith, Service
In lieu with my previous post about the Holy Father, I wanted to mention a reflection of mine.
I was struck by how lightharted and simple our Pope Francis seems to be. It really spoke to me that he had such great humility to ask the people to pray for him before he have his first blessing and that he called the chuch to be a church for the poor. He has thus far been a great witness to the true humility present within the outward richness and splendor of the church. That is the jewel in the haystack, not the other more literal 'riches', which is only the hay.
I was also struck by a sense of continuity between the popes I have seen in my lifetime with Bl.Pope John Paul 's message of love, Pope Benedict's message of faith and now Pope Francis' message of service. I feel this is a beautiful thing to reflect on in our daily lives and follow through in deeds. To me, it is proof that the Holy Spirit does work in these matters because you can see in the long scheme of things how beautifully things are working out.
The church was slowly brought through to a time of apologizing and repentace for past mistakes and a call to continue and be better through love and explore new horizons by Pope John Paul. Following that when the church went through a difficult period of scandal and crisis, Pope Benedict called us to stand strong in our faith and not be deterred, as we should. Furthermore in his resignation, he reminded us of the humility we are called to in life and an acceptance of things we cannot change and letting others who may be better adept, to step in. He demonstrated the importance of being introspective and retreating to silence to move further in faith. He also showed us great courage in doing something that was unheard of in the church for centuries, probably with strength and prompting from the Spirit , thus teaching us to listen and have courage to do what we feel is necessary. After this, we have Pope Francis who makes me reflect on all these virtues of love, humility, courage and along with the seed of faith that had been planted and stand strong and put them into action through service to the poor and to the church.
What a beautiful time we live in to be blessed with such circumstances! Addtionaly, how many other generations can say we have a man who held the authority of Peter, ie Pope Benedict, praying for us constantly? We live in blessed times.
I was struck by how lightharted and simple our Pope Francis seems to be. It really spoke to me that he had such great humility to ask the people to pray for him before he have his first blessing and that he called the chuch to be a church for the poor. He has thus far been a great witness to the true humility present within the outward richness and splendor of the church. That is the jewel in the haystack, not the other more literal 'riches', which is only the hay.
I was also struck by a sense of continuity between the popes I have seen in my lifetime with Bl.Pope John Paul 's message of love, Pope Benedict's message of faith and now Pope Francis' message of service. I feel this is a beautiful thing to reflect on in our daily lives and follow through in deeds. To me, it is proof that the Holy Spirit does work in these matters because you can see in the long scheme of things how beautifully things are working out.
The church was slowly brought through to a time of apologizing and repentace for past mistakes and a call to continue and be better through love and explore new horizons by Pope John Paul. Following that when the church went through a difficult period of scandal and crisis, Pope Benedict called us to stand strong in our faith and not be deterred, as we should. Furthermore in his resignation, he reminded us of the humility we are called to in life and an acceptance of things we cannot change and letting others who may be better adept, to step in. He demonstrated the importance of being introspective and retreating to silence to move further in faith. He also showed us great courage in doing something that was unheard of in the church for centuries, probably with strength and prompting from the Spirit , thus teaching us to listen and have courage to do what we feel is necessary. After this, we have Pope Francis who makes me reflect on all these virtues of love, humility, courage and along with the seed of faith that had been planted and stand strong and put them into action through service to the poor and to the church.
What a beautiful time we live in to be blessed with such circumstances! Addtionaly, how many other generations can say we have a man who held the authority of Peter, ie Pope Benedict, praying for us constantly? We live in blessed times.
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