I started the day off (really with lots of 6.30 AM snooze buttons, but not really the main focus) with Eucharistic Adoration and Morning Prayer. I've never been to Adoration except catching the tail end before Latin Mass. There were small booklets with highlights of Pope Benedict (excerpts of different addresses), hymns and scripture. About half through, one of the Salesian sisters gave a testimony on her experiences with Bl. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Basically, I was four seconds from crying for the majority of the hour.
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| Since I don't have orange fanta, orange juice. |
However, after all the prayers were over and everyone was sitting with the Eucharist, I began to feel better. I felt some peace about Benedict's resignation and hope for the future Pope. I was joking around with my boyfriend last night saying how sad I was and how I don't even know if the new Pope will be a cute old man again. Obviously, that doesn't matter, and I remembered that Christ is ultimately in charge. He will not forget his faithful here. He will bring us a new, strong Vicar. Of course I'm still sad about His Holiness, but I also feel an optimism which I didn't before.
From Pope Benedict XVI's final general audience 27 February 2013:
"I would like to invite everyone to renew firm trust in the Lord. I would like that we all, entrust ourselves as children to the arms of God, and rest assured that those arms support us and us to walk every day, even in times of struggle. I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who gave His Son for us and showed us His boundless love. I want everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer to be recited daily in the morning says, “I adore you, my God, I love you with all my heart. I thank You for having created me, for having made me a Christian.” Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith: it is the most precious good, that no one can take from us! Let us thank God for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but He also expects that we love Him!"
And now I'm teary again. We love you, Papa!
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