We started our prayer chain on the first Sunday of Advent. We cut several strips out of construction paper and each of the children wrote the names of people they wanted to pray for. We left a few of them blank and every now and then, when we say a special prayer for a mom in labor or someone in trouble, we write the name on the link and add it to our chain which is the gift we give the Savior on His birthday.
We've prayed for the pope and added his name during the course of this Advent season. I'm sure we all agree he is always in need of our prayers and support. I especially like to ask the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary to remind him of our love for him.
Then yesterday I saw this letter from a Catholic Exchange reader. It's a long letter in which the author responds to a very thoughtful article (there's a link in the letter) about the United States' mission and our patroness, the Virgin conceived without sin, titled the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. The writer (of the letter to the editor) is an American living in Europe. From her vantage point she made several observations about the state of post-Christian Europe and it's effects on the papacy. In the middle of the letter she quotes from an Italian news magazine:
I would like to speak to you about a person whom I care very much about. I am writing this in the pages of Tempi because I know you, the reader, will understand me better than most [Tempi is conservative and Catholic]. I am afraid that they will try to eliminate this person.
And I think not just morally but also physically. No one has ever dared to say the things that he has said. And not only are the wicked against him but now even [...] those who are considered good and decent are against him.
This man's name is Joseph Ratzinger. [...] I invite you to consider him for a moment devoid of his white vestment, of his pontifical authority and of the solemn air of the Vatican. Today he is defenseless and abandoned by everyone. They are counting his bones. He is truly the 'Alter Christus', the [poor] servant about whom the Gospel speaks, the one prophesized by Isaiah.
Even if you don't have time to read her letter and the accompanying article, this excerpt is a powerful reminder of how crucial our prayers and support of the Holy Father are and how he suffers in the place of our Savior, even as we await the Holy Infant's birth.
So I'm encouraging you to start a prayer chain. If you already keep this devotion, just add extra links. Do you have any spare wrapping paper (yes, I'm only kidding) you can pull out today? Or construction paper? Gather your family and talk in terms of the ages and temperaments of your family members and then begin to pray for Pope Benedict XVI. Add your links hour by hour, day by day and when Christmas comes keep going. John Paul II would be an excellent intercessor for our dear pope. By the end of the Christmas season you will have a beautiful gift for the Savior indeed and one for his Vicar as well.
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