Death of the Holy Father
As readers are probably aware, our Holy Father John Paul II passed on to his richly deserved reward at approximately 2:37 EST. I am a bit late in entering this into the blog because it took a while to confirm the information and a bit longer to get over the initial shock. Nicole and I also attended Mass at 4:00pm because we felt a need to go to church immediately and pray for the soul of the Holy Father. As much as we like to tell ourselves that this moment is going to come, it is never something that is easy to deal with. As a Catholic I know and I fully understand that the process of the death of a Pope and mourning his loss, as well as the election of his successor, is a normal process in the life of the Church. Its consistant repetition through the centuries is a sign of the Church's continued renewal and vitality. That knowledge, however, doesn't make up for the fact that God's Church has lost a Pope, the world has lost a leader, and Christians everywhere have lost a dear friend.In addition, we can only pray that the next successor of Peter will be as much a champion of the unborn, the elderly, the defenseless, and the powerless as this Pope has been. I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit will continue to provide for the Church no matter what the future might hold. I realize that this is a difficult concept for our Protestant brothers and sisters to grasp. However, the Holy Spirit has shown throughout history that He will continue to provide for the Catholic Church, just as Jesus promised 2,000 years ago. [Matthew 16:13-19] After all, no one thought that a compromise candidate for the papacy from Poland would ever become so great as John Paul II became. If the Lord can give us John Paul II, He can give us someone just as good, maybe even better, if that is at all possible.
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 5:28 PM
2 Comments:
David,
Very well said. Your comments (and entire blog, for that matter), show the depth of your love for our Church and our Pope.
I encourage you to visit my blog when you have a moment to read the comments that I have left, if you have not done so already.
Matt
David,
I'm a Protestant as you know and I've posted comments on my blog as well. He was such a great Christian man and we are poorer for his death.
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