This momentous day in the history of our Church cannot go by without a brief reflection on and much promise of prayer for Pope Benedict XVI, the Cardinals and the next successor of St. Peter, by the U.S. Visitandines.
We share in the prayer of our British Sisters in Waldron:
Almighty & everlasting God,
who has given your faithful servant Benedict
grace to maintain his faith & hope in you
amid the labours of his apostolic ministry;
graciously bestow upon him, we pray,
the consolations of your Holy Spirit
and uphold him in serenity of life.
Through Christ Our Lord.’
Amen
Prayer for Pope Benedict XVI at the conclusion of
his ministry as Bishop of Rome & Supreme Pontiff.
In April 2008, Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States. In his stop in New York City, he celebrated Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the priests, brothers and religious women of the region. The Superior of one of the Visitation Monasteries was privileged to attend this Liturgy. She remembers, and will not forget, the awesome experience that she can only call the “deep holiness” of the Holy Father.
For as he proceeded down the main aisle of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, this Superior felt a chunk, or block, of pure peace, preceed him as he slowly made his way down the aisles of the Cathedral. That peace, she feels, was the peace of Christ.