The Day of Four Popes

We're still riding the high of all the excitement of yesterday - Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, and the Canonization of Saints John XXIII and John Paul the Great. Though I didn't get up at 3 in the morning to watch the canonization Mass (offered by two popes!), we did enjoy some programming on EWTN that included interviews that Raymond Arroyo did with Jon Voight and Cary Elwes about their roles in the Pope John Paul II movie. In the afternoon, we helped with the music for our parish's Divine Mercy Services and in the evening, we had some friends over to watch the above mentioned movie as a way of celebrating the canonization (I really had forgotten great the movie was - it's been a few years since I've seen it).

A few thoughts are swirling around in my head that I'd like to tack down here...

First, our pastor's reflection given during our Divine Mercy services was quite interesting. I knew that Saint John Paul II was heavily involved in promoting devotion to Divine Mercy, but I really had no sense of how far that went. Apparently St. Faustina's diary was kind of messy to begin with, because she did not have a high level of education, and the translation that was originally submitted to Rome had a lot of problems with it - so much so that the devotion was initially condemned. Saint John Paul II, apparently, had the diaries re-translated and re-submitted to Rome (I believe) even before he became pope. Would love to see an exposition of this whole story.

Regarding the canonizations that took place yesterday, I was fascinated/captivated by the fact John XXIII and John Paul II were canonized together. For me it held special value because, while I've long been an admirer of Pope John Paul II, I really don't know very much about Pope John XXIII. But, John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum (which you can find in the front of the Catechism of the Catholic Church) really rocked my world when I first read it. I had a strong sense of love and trust towards Pope John Paul II, but had a more vague and slightly wary sense of Vatican II, growing up. So you  can, perhaps imagine my surprise, when I read this in the above-mentioned document:

"Vatican II has always been, and especially during these years of my Pontificate, the constant reference point of my every pastoral action, in the conscious commitment to implement its directives concretely and faithfully at the level of each Church and the whole Church."

You can read the whole thing here: Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum

That was a bit of a game-changer for me!

I think the quote also highlights how silly such media quotes as this one really are:

"By canonising both John XXIII - the pope who set off the reform movement - and John Paul II - the pope who applied the brakes - Francis has skilfully deflected any possible criticism that he could be taking sides." 

(Source: BBC News |Vatican declares Popes John Paul II and John XXIII saints).

More Papal Coolness...

In honor of the historic meeting today between Pope Francis and our Pope Emeritus...

Thus, the dialogue had already started, even though the the personal, physical meeting had not yet taken place. Let us also remember that the retired Pope had already expressed his unconditional reverence and obedience to his successor at his farewell meeting with the Cardinals, February 28, and certainly in this [morning’s] meeting - which was a moment of profound and elevated communion –will have had the opportunity to renew this act of reverence and obedience to his successor, and certainly Pope Francis renewed his gratitude and that of the whole Church for Pope Benedict’s ministry during his pontificate”.

 Read the whole article on the Vatican News Website. 

Photo from The Youth Evangelization

Intellectual Formation

I found this tidbit, from Pope John Paul II's Gift and Mystery quite interesting. The book is an autobiographical reflection on his years as a priest as well as the nature of the priesthood. Here he's talking about the need for solid intellectual formation for priests (though I think it applies in a general way to those interested in engaging the culture):

The priest must 'live by the word.' But at the same time, he will try to be intellectually prepared to know the word in depth and to proclaim it effectively. In our day, marked as it is by a high degree of specialization in almost all areas of life, intellectual formation is extremely important. Such formation makes it possible to engage in a serious and creative dialogue with contemporary thought. Study of the humanities and of philosophy and a knowledge of theology are the paths to this intellectual formation, which then needs to be continued for the rest of one's life. In order to be authentically formative, study needs to be constantly accompanied by prayer, meditation, and the invocation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains how, with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a person's whole spiritual being becomes responsive to God's light, not only the light of knowledge but also the inspiration of love.

Nourishing Culture...

I believe that in these multiple forms of popular piety lies hidden the answer to a question that is sometimes raised concerning the significance of such manifestations of local tradition. The answer is simple: when hearts are united, the result is a great force for good. To be rooted in what is ancient, strong, profound, and, at the same time, dear to the heart, gives an extraordinary interior energy. If this rootedness is then joined by a bold and strong intellectual dimension, there is no need to fear for the future of the faith or the prospect for human relationships within the nation. Amid the rich humus of tradition, in fact, culture is nourished and this unites the citizens, enabling them to live together as a great family, sustaining and strengthening their convictions. Our great task, especially today, in the age of so-called globalization, is to cultivate sound traditions so as to promote a bold consensus in thought and imagination, an openness toward the future and at the same time an affectionate respect for the past. It is a past that endures in human hearts in the form of ancient words, ancient signs, memories, and customs inherited from previous generations.

Pope John Paul II, Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way

Love and Think...

Today much imagination is needed if we are to learn how to speak about the faith and about life's most important questions. It requires people who know how to love and how to think, because the imagination lives on love and on thought, as well as nourishing our thinking and enkindling our love.

Pope John Paul II, Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way

This is the first full-length audio book I'm listening to on my iPod and it's really great! Unfortunately the book's predecessor , Gift and Mystery, (which I haven't read yet) doesn't seem to be available from audible.com.

The Necessity of a Selfless Existence

I'm almost finished with Pope John Paul II's Crossing the Threshold of Hope. It's really a lovely book and has given me a much fuller understanding of Vatican II and the papacies of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Here's one particularly lovely piece in answer to a question about human rights...

Therefore, these two aspects - the affirmation of the person as a person and the sincere gift of self - not only do not exclude each other, they mutually confirm and complete each other. Man affirms himself most completely by giving of himself. This is the fulfillment of the commandment of love. This is also the full truth about man, a truth that Christ taught us by His life, and that the tradition of Christian morality, no less than the tradition of saints and of the many heroes of love of neighbor, took up and lived out in the course of history.

If we deprive human freedom of this possibility, if man does not commit himself to becoming a gift for others, then this freedom can become dangerous. It will become freedom to do what I myself consider as good, what brings me a profit or pleasure, even a sublimated pleasure. If we cannot accept the prospect of giving ourselves as a gift, then the danger of a selfish freedom will always be present.... a complete expression of all this is already found in the Gospel. For this very reason, we can find in the Gospel a consistent declaration of all human rights, even those that for various reasons can make us feel uneasy.

Neither a Naive Joy nor a Vain Hope

Reading Jesus of Nazareth (which I just finished today!) and re-reading Spe Salvi recently have caused me to delve into some long neglected works of Pope John Paul II. I just started reading Crossing the Threshold of Hope and particularly enjoyed this succinct passage:

Because the Pope is a witness of Christ and a minister of the Good News, he is a man of joy and a man of hope, a man of the fundamental affirmation of the value of existence, the value of creation and of hope in the future life. Naturally, this is neither a naive joy, nor a vain hope. The joy of victory over evil does not obfuscate - it actually intensifies - the realistic awareness of the existence of evil in the world and in every man. The Gospel teaches us to call good and evil by name, but it also teaches: "Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good."

What we were doing two years ago...

My Children and the Papal Conclave

These events were so memorable that they still come up in conversation rather frequently. It doesn't hurt that we met some friends (who participate in our weekly catechism discussions now) at that Mass. The part I didn't get around to writing in that old post is that there was another family standing in that nook when we first arrived. I vaguely recognized the mom as someone I had met at the homeschool conference that weekend. I signaled to them that they could come to the oratory with us and they were very grateful (they also had a little one in tow as well as some older children - though the whole family wasn't there). We chatted a little after Mass and realized they had some children with similar ages and interests (they had just moved to the area from Arizona). There was something about sharing that day and that Mass with them that was very special and moving. Like there was some definitely some providential power at work in our lives - more clearly present than usual? We went home with huge smiles on our faces and filled with gratitude - for everything.

Viva il Papa!

John Paul 2 We Love You! (and miss you)

I still have a rather childish affection for Pope John Paul II. I'm proud to consider myself a JP2 Catholic insofar as he had a huge influence on my faith and formation. It's exciting and comforting to see this same enthusiasm in my children.

I was eight years old when he was elected and I learned soon afterwards that I was born on the Holy Father's 50th birthday.

I was seventeen when he came to California and my family saw him at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterrey (along with 50,000 other people!). It was so very moving to be there, even though we saw him from a great distance. I'm sure the Holy Spirit moved us in that place (as Minnesota Mom so ably described her experience at World Youth Day in 1993). I do remember that I had a hard time understanding the homily (I've always been rather poor at auditory processing - the crowd, the distance, the sound system, etc. didn't help), and hoped to read it later. Now I can! When he departed in an army helicopter, everyone was waving and crying and I was compelled to climb a bit of scaffolding nearby - to be closer, to express my enthusiasm, I don't know what, but it was a very memorable experience.

The rest of the connection to me is more wrapped up in his presence of faith, hope and optimism that carried through my awareness of Communism and his involvement in its collapse. Such a witness to the power of faith and hope! Such a powerful testimony to the reality that God raises up saints to change the world with him! When I am overwhelmed with the evil that goes on in this world; when I am frightened for my children and the harm that might come to them; it is his "Be Not Afraid!" that puts me back on the right track. His words were brought to life for me and so many others by his witness and by his actions during his lifetime - particularly as he continued to work and witness even in his suffering and illness.

Here's one of my very favorite articles published around the time of his death which tells an important piece of this story so very beautifully...

Why, the pope asked, had God lifted a Pole to the papacy? Perhaps it was because of how Poland had suffered for centuries, and through the 20th century had become "the land of a particularly responsible witness" to God. The people of Poland, he suggested, had been chosen for a great role, to understand, humbly but surely, that they were the repository of a special "witness of His cross and His resurrection." He asked then if the people of Poland accepted the obligations of such a role in history.

The crowd responded with thunder.

"We want God!" they shouted, together. "We want God!"

What a moment in modern history: We want God. From the mouths of modern men and women living in a modern atheistic dictatorship.

Read the whole article here.

I gathered a bunch of goodies (as well as the ever-present book reviews) at the time of his death on this love2learn page (I didn't start blogging until later that month, otherwise I probably would have posted the links here).

Look for a whole "fair" remembering Pope John Paul II here later today.

Also see "Pope John Paul II: One Step Closer to Beatification"

Secret Papal Outings

I love this story about Pope John Paul II taking "secret" outings to the mountains to go skiing with his aides.

The cardinal, who was Pope John Paul's personal secretary for 38 years, wrote that the pope, an avid skier and hiker in his youth, often felt pent up inside the Vatican.

In the winter of 1981, the pope, his secretary and two of his Polish aides decided to make a "getaway" to the mountains from the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo.

They packed into a car owned by one of the priests, in order not to raise suspicions, and when they passed the Swiss Guard post one prelate opened wide a newspaper to hide the pontiff in the back seat.

Read the whole thing here

hat-tip Ignatius Insight

Thanks for Thursdays

Continuing with the weekly carnival, hosted this week at The Journey of a Mother's Heart.

I heard Dawn Eden was working on a list of a thousand things she's grateful for. Wow! I'll just stick with ten more to share here this week. :)

I'm grateful for...

1. For the IHM nuns (of the Philadelphia variety) who taught me in grade school.

2. For my own homeschool years and for my family, friends and mentors who had such an impact on my high school years.

3. For my husband's employer (going on 10 years now) who have been mostly steady and solid (except for that one time after 9/11 when he got laid off with his whole department - for a day - and then rehired to work in a different department - still thankful for that especially since I was 7 months pregnant with Kate at the time) and who have been very good about his migraines, his need to call in to conference calls from home on occasion, etc. etc.

4. For great publishers like Bethlehem Books whose books have made an enormous impact on our family.

5. For wonderful authors like G.K. Chesterton, Hilda Van Stockum, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Constance Savery, Carol Ryrie Brink, Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope John Paul II, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Rumer Godden, Regina Doman, Danielle Bean, Melissa Wiley and so many, many, many others.

6. For all the other Catholic homeschool moms who blog and share their ideas, resources, joys and sorrows with others. Yes, blogging has its ups and downs, but I think there is a lot of good going on.

7. For those who comment on my blog and my children's blogs. You don't know how much you are appreciated.

8. For Pope John Paul the Great and Mother Teresa who were beacons of faith, hope and charity during my formative years.

9. For living in a country where we are able to freely live our faith and raise and educate our children according to our beliefs.

10. For all those people whose sacrifices and hard work have made #9 true.

And while we're on the topic of thankfulness, The Headmistress/Zookeeper found what experts have to say about making lists of things you're thankful for.

10 Random Facts Meme

I didn't really get tagged, but I felt like memeing (I've really enjoyed reading others' responses) and Amy gave me a perfect excuse. :)

1. I am totally, brings tears-to-my-eyes, crazy about babies, especially newborns.

2. A wonderful lady gave me three years of piano lessons for free when I was in grade school.

3. In high school I took second place in a VFW speech contest on "The Challenge of American Citizenship."

4. I share(d) a birthday with Pope John Paul II. My fondness for him goes way beyond that, of course. He was such a witness of hope and truth - especially in my formative years. I remember in particular going to see him in Monterrey, California in 1987 (I was 17 at the time). When he left in a helicopter everyone was waving and cheering and I felt compelled to climb some sort of scaffolding thing nearby to wave from there. We love the John Paul II movie that was just released by Ignatius Press, by the way. I need to review it soon.

5. "Pocahontas" was my dad's nickname for me when I was little.

6. My parents "found" my name from Donald O'Connor's daughter, Alicia, who was friends with my big sister when my family lived in Los Angeles a few years before I was born.

7. I love organizing things but I am definitely NOT a neat freak.

8. I've never been out of the country before, though I had a passport for many years because I *almost* went with my Mom to Europe just before college. There were two very inexpensive tickets made available to us, but one of them, alas, fell through.

9. My godfather was an Air Force chaplain before he retired to take over a tough parish in the Boston Archdiocese. I've never met him (even when I was a baby), but I hope to some day.

10. I have a quirky sense of humor that sometimes seems to confuse people.

I tag Ria, Suzanne, Nutmeg, Molly, and any of the "love2learn" ladies who happen to see the post.

Terri & Bernie's Favorite "School" Movies

David Macaulay Building Big Series

Rick Steves' Best of Europe (the ones they've seen - not by any means all)

Nature (the ones they've seen)

Pope John Paul II (the "new" one with Cary Elwes - i.e. Westley from The Princess Bride - Bernie says... "I LOVE the Pope movie!")

Jesus of Nazareth

Microcosmos (Terri qualifies - "except for some gross parts")

Amazing Caves (IMAX)

This is America Charlie Brown (Bernie is enthusiastic here, but Terri says "sort of")

March of the Penguins

Song of Bernadette

Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

Letter to Families from Pope John Paul II

(Written in 1994 for the Year of the Family)

Selections on the topic of education:

What is involved in raising children? In answering this question two fundamental truths should be kept in mind: first, that man is called to live in truth and love; and second, that everyone finds fulfillment through the sincere gift of self. This is true both for the educator and for the one being educated. Education is thus a unique process for which the mutual communion of persons has immense importance. The educator is a person who "begets" in a spiritual sense. From this point of view, raising children can be considered a genuine apostolate. (pg. 54)

Education then is before all else a reciprocal "offering" on the part of both parents: together they communicate their own mature humanity to the newborn child, who gives them in turn the newness and freshness of the humanity which it has brought into the world. (pg. 55)

Every individual born and raised in a family constitutes a potential treasure which must be responsibly accepted, so that it will not be diminished or lost, but will rather come to an ever more mature humanity. This too is a process of exchange in which the parents-educators are in turn to a certain degree educated themselves. While they are teachers in humanity for their own children, they learn humanity from them. (pg. 55)

Through Christ all education, within the family and outside of it, becomes part of God's own saving pedagogy, which is addressed to individuals and families and culminates in the paschal mystery of the Lord's death and resurrection. The "heart" of our redemption is the starting point of every process of Christian education, which is likewise always an education to a full humanity.

Parents are the first and most important educators of their own children, and they also possess a fundamental competence in this area: they are educators because they are parents. They share their educational mission with other individuals or institutions, such as the Church and the state. But the mission of education must always be carried out in accordance with a proper application of the principle of subsidiarity. This implies the legitimacy and indeed the need of giving assistance to the parents, but finds its intrinsic and absolute limit in their prevailing right and their actual capabilities. The principle of subsidiarity is thus at the service of parental love, meeting the good of the family unit. For parents by themselves are not capable of satisfying every requirement of the whole process of raising children, especially in matters concerning their schooling and the entire gamut of socialization. Subsidiarity thus complements paternal and maternal love and confirms its fundamental nature, inasmuch as all other participants in the process of education are only able to carry out their responsibilities in the name of the parents, with their consent and, to a certain degree, with their authorization.

The process of education ultimately leads to the phrase of self-education, which occurs when the individual, after attaining an appropriate level of psycho-physical maturity, begins to "educate himself on his own." (pgs. 56-57)

The commandment of the Decalogue calls for a child to honor its father and mother. But, as we saw above, that same commandment enjoins upon parents a kind of corresponding or "symmetrical" duty. Parents are also called to "honor" their children whether they are young or old. This attitude is needed throughout the process of their education, including the time of their schooling. The "principle of giving honor," the recognition and respect due to man precisely because he is man, is the basic condition for every authentic education process.

In the sphere of education the Church has a specific role to play. In the light of tradition and the teaching of the Council, it can be said that it is not only a matter of entrusting the Church with the person's religious and moral education, but of promoting the entire process of the person's education "together with" the Church. The family is called to carry out its task of education in the Church, thus sharing in her life and mission. The Church wishes to carry out her educational mission above all through families who are made capable of undertaking this task by the sacrament of matrimony, through the "grace of state" which follows from it and the specific "charism" proper to the entire family community.(pg. 58)

There's more good stuff too, but I don't want to copy the whole thing here. This entire letter can be read online by clicking here.

John Paul II, We Love You!

Catholic Thought on Education

I have some favorite quotes on children and education here. Now I'm collecting quotes and thoughts on education - its definition, purpose, etc.- especially from Catholic tradition. These are presently in no particular order and I'll be adding more over time. Please share your own suggestions.

"In the broadest sense, education includes all those experiences by which intelligence is developed, knowledge acquired, and character formed. In a narrower sense, it is the work done by certain agencies and institutions, the home and the school, for the express purpose of training immature minds. The child is born with latent capacities which must be developed so as to fit him for the activities and duties of life. The meaning of life, therefore, of its purposes and values as understood by the educator, primarily determines the nature of his work. Education aims at an ideal, and this in turn depends on the view that is taken of man and his destiny, of his relations to God, to his fellowmen, and to the physical world. The content of education is furnished by the previous acquisition of mankind in literature, art, and science, in moral, social, and religious principles. The inheritance, however, contains elements that differ greatly in value, both as mental possessions and as means of culture; hence a selection is necessary, and this must be guided largely by the educational ideal. It will also be influenced by the consideration of the educative process. Teaching must be adapted to the needs of the developing mind, and the endeavour to make the adaption more thorough results in theories and methods which are, or should be, based on the findings of biology, physiology, and psychology." (1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, article on Education)

"On her part, the Church cannot but set great value upon reason's drive to attain goals which render people's lives ever more worthy. She sees in philosophy the way to come to know fundamental truths about human life. At the same time, the Church considers philosophy an indispensable help for a deeper understanding of faith and for communicating the truth of the Gospel to those who do not yet know it.

...at the present time in particular, the search for ultimate truth seems often to be neglected...Yet the positive results achieved must not obscure the fact that reason, in its one-sided concern to investigate human subjectivity, seems to have forgotten that men and women are always called to direct their steps toward a truth which transcends them. Sundered from that truth, individuals are at the mercy of caprice, and their state as person ends up being judged by pragmatic criteria based essentially upon experimental data, in the mistaken belief that technology must dominate all. It has happened therefore that reason, rather than voicing the human orientation toward truth, has wilted under the weight of so much knowledge and little by little has lost the capacity to lift its gaze to the heights, not daring to rise to the truth of being. Abandoning the investigation of being, modern philosophical research has concentrated instead upon human knowing. Rather than make use of the human capcity to know the truth, modern philosophy has preferred to accentuate the ways in which the capacity is limited and conditioned.

This has given rise to different forms of agnosticism and relativism which have led philosophical research to lose its way in the shifting sands of widespread skepticism. Recent times have seen the rise to prominence of various doctrines which tend to devalue even the truths which had been judged certain. A legitimate plurality of positions has yielded to an undifferentiated pluralism, based upon the assumption that all positions are equally valid, which is one of today's most widespread symptoms of the lack of confidence in truth...On this understanding, everything is reduced to opinion, and there is a sense of being adrift." (Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio from the Introduction, part 5)

"Moral education - the training of heart and mind toward the good - involves many things. It involves rules and precepts - the dos and don'ts of life with others - as well as explicit instruction, exhortation, and training. Moral education must provide training in good habits. Aristotle wrote that good habits formed at youth make all the difference. And moral education must affirm the central importance of moral example. It has been said that there is nothing more influential, more determinant, in a child's life than the moral power of quiet example. For children to take morality seriously they must be in the presence of adults who take morality seriously. And with their own eyes they must see adults take morality seriously.

Along with precept, habit, and example, there is also the need for what we might call moral literacy....to show parents, teachers, students, and children what the virtues look like, what they are in practice, how to recognize them, and how they work....If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits. They must achieve at least a minimal level of moral literacy that will enable them to make sense of what they see in life and, we may hope, help them live it well."
William Bennett, introduction The Book of Virtues

Remembering Pope John Paul the Great

He died a year ago today.

Here is a great place to read his writings and talks.

This was around the time last year when I first started nosing around the blogosphere - following the story of Terri Schiavo and people's reminiscences about Pope John Paul II. I just looked today and my first post here was April 30th, so Studeo is fast-approaching its first birthday.

My Children and the Papal Conclave

I barely remember the election of Pope John Paul II. I was eight years old, but don't remember watching the news coverage or anything. The thing I remember most clearly was my oldest sister writing to me from France (where she was living for a few years) to tell me that the Pope had the same birthday as me.

It was easy for Catholics of my generation (Generation X) to take Pope John Paul II for granted, yet we loved him a lot. He was a major shaping influence on the way we saw the world - even if not all of us accepted his message fully. If you consider two of the most prominent role models we had as children and teenagers - Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II - it's no wonder that we turned out more optimistic and pro-family-values than anyone expected.

It was just more of a shock to me than I expected when the Holy Father died. Peaceful, sad and at the same time joyful, but still a huge loss.

I really wanted my children to experience and remember the whole Papal Conclave and the announcement of the new pope. We took the whole day off on Monday, April 18 (first day of the Conclave) from "regular" schooling.

The big event was a special Mass at our local Marian Shrine celebrated by Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan. We had been talking about going to this Mass for at least a week, but I admit that I almost bugged out because we had a particularly tiring weekend (I spoke at our local Catholic homeschool conference and manned a table there all day Saturday) and a slow start to our morning. Well, we did make it, but with only ten minutes to spare. To our dismay, only the most distant parking lots had space (a walk up the hill with kids) but the weather was nice, they were enthusiastic and it wasn't a big problem at all.

We made it to the upper church with just a few minutes to spare and it was packed. I shuffled the kids into a little nook toward the back on one side of the church. Just then, all of the priests walked right past us to line up for the procession. They were followed by the Archbishop who stopped to put his hand on the children's heads and thank them for coming.

My father-in-law showed up during the processional song to direct us all the way around the Church to a little chapel (they call it the oratory) that faces the altar on one side where there were still some open seats. This was nice because the little ones (especially the 1 and 3 year olds) had a little breathing space and it was carpeted, so the noises weren't so sensitive. The older kids sat in front with their grandparents and were able to see the altar pretty well.

It was a beautiful Mass, filled with hope and faith. The Archbishop gave a wonderful homily and the children were "glowing". The Holy Spirit seemed especially present. The sheer number of people there (it is a very large church and there were people lined up all along the back and sides) was very moving. I just love Church singing when the Church is REALLY packed. :)

This was already a very special day for us, but lo-and-behold, the Archbishop looked over at all of us through the little "windows" between the oratory and the altar and decided to distribute communion to (50 or 60 of) us personally. I received communion with a toddler on each arm (receiving on the tongue is such a convenient, as well as beautiful thing sometimes!).

The children were walking on clouds all day. What a beautiful and memorable way to celebrate (and even participate in by prayer) the Papal Conclave. The oldest ones, at least, will never forget that.

Now, we heard that we should look for the white or black smoke from the Vatican at about 4 am and 11 am our time. We heard by the time we got home from Mass that there was no decision that day. That night my 9 year old son asked permission, if he was awake at 4 am the next morning to turn on EWTN (we watch it on the Internet) to check for the smoke himself. He was and he did, but the smoke was still black.

Later that morning (when I was awake, hehe), I remembered to turn on EWTN - I think it was about 10:15, but I didn't want to forget. I called the children over because smoke was already pouring out, although it looked black again. We all watched as the announcers (Arroyo and Neuhaus) concluded that there was still no decision. The smoke continued to pour out though and there was some noise and anticipation in the crowd. The camera panned back to the smoke and it looked white. As the announcers discussed in wonder that the smoke looked white, our excitement at home grew. It was many moments before there was certainty - some bells turned out to be only the Angelus bells. The crowd was getting more and more excited too, when finally the Vatican bells, followed by bells from all over Rome pealed out in joy. Habemus Papam!

We were literally jumping up and down. (And God Bless EWTN for offering this excellent coverage for free on the Internet!) Now all we could do was wait and wonder who the new pope was. We had heard that the announcement would be made in Latin. Apparently there is sometimes confusion about the name of the new pope because of the "translation" of the name into Latin. I figured we'd have to listen pretty carefully and maybe be able to figure it out. As we got closer to the announcement, the signal became a little choppy. I imagine there was a surge of Internet activity from all the interest in the announcement. Finally, some movement at the window and Pope John Paul II's coat of arms draped from the balcony. The picture and especially the audio are cutting in and out.

Finally Cardinal Estevez is on the balcony (remember the picture is pausing and jumping on us). We hear "Habemus Papam!" We're cheering right along with the crowd in Rome. We're straining to hear and understand. The audio is still jumping on us, but we hear, clear as a bell Ratzinger. How great is that? [grin - I worked for Ignatius Press in high school, so I've known about Cardinal Ratzinger for a LONG time!] He comes out on the balcony looking dignified but a little bewildered.

He gives an awesome opening :

"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me — a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.

"The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.

"In the joy of the risen Lord, trusting in his permanent help, we go forward. The Lord will help us and Mary his very holy mother stands by us."

and his blessing of course.

What a memorable two days for us - and especially my school age children. It is such an amazing time to be a Catholic (and the homeschooling doesn't hurt!). Viva il Papa and God Bless Pope John Paul the Great as well!