Scott Hahn's Thoughts on the Pope's Abdication

Benedict XVI at the tomb of Pope Celestine V

Scott Hahn has posted the following on the pope's resignation. This is fascinating...

Back on April 29, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI did something rather striking, but which went largely unnoticed. 

He stopped off in Aquila, Italy, and visited the tomb of an obscure medieval Pope named St. Celestine V (1215-1296). After a brief prayer, he left his pallium, the symbol of his own episcopal authority as Bishop of Rome, on top of Celestine's tomb! 

Benedict places his pallium on the tomb of Pope Celestine V

Fifteen months later, on July 4, 2010, Benedict went out of his way again, this time to visit and pray in the cathedral of Sulmona, near Rome, before the relics of this same saint, Celestine V. 

Few people, however, noticed at the time. 

Only now, we may be gaining a better understanding of what it meant. These actions were probably more than pious acts. More likely, they were profound and symbolic gestures of a very personal nature, which conveyed a message that a Pope can hardly deliver any other way. 

Benedict XVI leaves his pallium

In the year 1294, this man (Fr. Pietro Angelerio), known by all as a devout and holy priest, was elected Pope, somewhat against his will, shortly before his 80th birthday (Ratzinger was 78 when he was elected Pope in 2005). Just five months later, after issuing a formal decree allowing popes to resign (or abdicate, like other rulers), Pope Celestine V exercised that right. And now Pope Benedict XVI has chosen to follow in the footsteps of this venerable model.

Check This Out: Are We Catholics Willing to Die for the Sake of Modesty?

This here is an excellent blog post of 1.)What is wrong with our world and 2.)What is right with our world, that is, how we can make it right. If I had a daughter to take to mass I would!

Dr. Taylor Marshall's Blog Posts: Are We Catholics Willing to Die for the Sake of Vi...: I didn't watch the Superbowl, but I heard that half time show was not wholesome.  Let me be completely honest. Many of you may disa...

Another Miracle Needed

Things aren't looking great right now so please keep praying. We need a miracle. And while I believe it could happen I can't seem to bring myself to expect, or even really hope, that it will happen because of the hurt I would feel if it doesn't. So please, pray hard and hope for a miracle for me.

To All The Prayer Warriors...

UPDATE: We have already passed 10,000 memorares pledged/prayed for our dear child (and that isn't even counting the ones Megan and I have been praying and I'm sure there are others who are praying that might not have sent me an email). We are touched and overwhelmed by everyone's prayers. Thank you so much! We would gladly take more prayers from anyone else wanting to pray. If you want to email me my address is kkramer15@gmail.com. Our kid can use all the intercession it can get! And if you are the type who likes to pray with music, meditate on the memorare here, a beautiful version by Danielle Rose.

I sent this email out to family and friends this morning and I wanted to let anyone else who might read this blog, and didn't get the email, to know that I am asking for prayers:

Dear Family, 
Friends and Prayer Warriors,Megan and I have some news to share...and great news at that! We are pregnant! Believe me when I tell you this is not the way I would want to tell all of you but we need your prayers right now.  As many of you know this is our third pregnancy. Our first two we miscarried at 8 weeks (God Bless you Cecelia and Peter) so we really need prayers early on in the pregnancy, that's right now!

So I bet you're wondering what to pray for or how to pray. Well when Mother Teresa needed a new school for their ministry she had her order pray the Memorare. They prayed over 85,000 memorares to ask Mother Mary to provide for their needs. Well this is what Megan and I would like to do too. We want you to pray the memorare and ask Our Blessed Mother to help protect our baby. While 85,000 might be a lot to ask to pray for our little one, we'd like to be able to offer up 5,000 memorares between now and 12 weeks (March 22). That's 84 memorares a day. We need to storm heaven and let our intentions be known. Knock and the door will be open...ask and it shall be given. Please help us!

If you will pray for Megan and our child please email Megan or myself with how many memorares you did prayer, are going to pray or are praying. You can put it in an email today or send me one on March 22nd or send me an email every day saying how many you prayed. I will keep tally here and we'll see how many prayers we can storm the gates of heaven with our intention! Please pass this on to anyone that might be able to pray for our child. Thank you so much for your love and support. We really do appreciate it.The prayer is below. Please pray, and pray, and pray some more.

Memorare
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, we fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, our Mother; to thee do we come; before thee we stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not our petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer us. Amen.

Peace,
Kevin & Megan

If you can please say a prayer or two that would be wonderful! You can leave a comment with how many you've prayed and I'll update the number of prayers for our little one here. I really feel all we can do is pray, everything else is up to God. So let him hear our desires through the intercession of His Mother!

Here's to 2013

1. Happy New Year! May 2013 be better than 2012 with more ups than downs, blessings than curses, joys than sorrows and smiles than tears.
2. Be sure to check out the new "My Top 13" page.
3. Also, men. Do this for your wife or girlfriend. I challenge you. If you are a real man you will try it and stick with it. I just finished and I tell you true, she will love it and you will see how beautiful a person she is.

God Bless!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Happy Incarnation! A Joy-filled Birth of The Redeemer!
However you want to say it what a great and beautiful day we have today, that our god would send us his son today.
Megan and I went to midnight mass today and it was such a beautiful experience. This was the first midnight mass on Christmas for Megan and she had such a good time! After communion I was reflecting on the paradox of such a Christmas mass where we celebrate both the birth of our Savior and the death of our Savior. What a perfect gift! That we can rejoice in the birth of Christ, receive his body, blood, soul and divinity and celebrate the re-presentation of his death.
Finally, I want to share with you a beautiful reflection on Christmas that was in the Magnificat today from Pope Bendedict XVI, "God's sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Exactly the same sign has been given to us...God's sign is simplicity...God's sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendor. He comes as a baby - defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts, and his will - we learn to live with him and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him...Christmas has become the Feast of gifts in imitation of God who has given himself to us. Let us allow our hear, our soul, and our mind to be touched by this fact!"

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Adventus - Advent - Coming

It's been entirely too long. I have a bad habit of leaving this blog dormant. Well it's time to get back at it. I was going to work the other morning and didn't want to listen to music, sports radio didn't appeal nor any other type of talk radio and I already had some time of silence with Jesus in adoration so I decided to listen to a talk. I flipped on my smartphone (yup, I'm one of the 1 billion people in the world to have a smartphone. I got it back in Sept) and found a beautiful homily from Fr. Tom Halloway. He gave this to us students at UofI during advent of 2006. It's called Already And Not-Yet. Enjoy and continue to wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior!