WE HAVE A POPE!!!

So on March 13th, my little Leila's 1st birthday, the Cardinals elected a Pope who chose the name Francis.  He was a surprise to all of us, this Cardinal from Argentina.  My sister, Sybil, and I spent time on the phone between the announcement that a pope was elected and the time he came out on the balcony. I had remembered how i felt when i first saw Pope Benedict and how the tears began to flow as i saw his smiling face.  I felt my heart fill with love.  He just reminded me of a dear grandfather. I was so anxious to see our new Pope's face.  We waited and waited what seemed forever.  Since the media knew in minutes how long it took from the time the smoke left the chimney until the time the pope came to the balcony, we anticipated any moment but then the time lapsed and no pope.  We kept calling each other back and forth until we saw the curtain move and then we hung up.  Bless his heart, when he finally came out I didn't know what to think.  He looked like a deer caught in the headlights.  I waited for a smile but it took time in coming, but then it did and he waved and began to speak and then he asked for prayers for himself and my heart melted.  Viva il PaPa!!!!!!

What a job!  What a man! What a humble, peaceful man! Pope Francis from Argentina

They say he didn't want the job.......that's a sign that he's the right man for the job.

I thank the workings of the Holy Spirit for giving us Pope Francis.  There is so much to fix in the church brought on for so many years and so many problems and scandals and factions. Human beings are never perfect and certainly there have been imperfection in the Church because of their failings, but never will the Catholic Church be crushed by Satan. Jesus promised that and I believe it!  

I'm sure we are all praying for this new Pope to clean house, just as Jesus did in the temple with the whip. 

In 1969, Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, spoke about the future of the Church.  He prophesied," It will become small and will have to start pretty much all over again. It will no longer have use of the structures it built in its years of prosperity.  The reduction in the number of faithful will lead to it losing an important part of its social privileges.  It will be a more spiritual Church, and will not claim a political mandate flirting with the Right one minute and the Left the next. It will be poor and will become the Church of the destitute.  He prophesied that "when all the suffering is past, a great power will emerge from a more spiritual and simple Church and that this renewed Church will be a sign of hope for those who have not come to know the love of God. "
Did he believe in the "end times" leading to the "era of peace"? Wow 44 years ago.

Pope Paul VI spoke of "the smoke of Satan entering the Vatican". This was in the '60s. They said Pope John Paul I was interested in doing something with the "bank" of the Vatican, but, bless his heart, he didn't live very long as Pope. I think maybe 85 days.  There was John Paul II who worked tirelessly in service to the Church and so did Benedict.  I believe that what needs to be done will take two mighty powerful and spiritually filled men to accomplish the task at hand.  One in constant prayer and one in a constant battle. 

So Francis has his work cut out for him and it seems he's the man to do it and he needs all prayer warriors.  I believe he needs to change the attitudes of certain religious...Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Nuns and also the laity who seem to have forgotten why Jesus came to earth.  From Mark Mallet's  blog....."Jesus did not say "blessed are the politically correct" but "blessed are the peacemakers".  And yet, perhaps no other age has confused the two as much as ours.  Christians all around the world have been duped by the spirit of this age into believing that compromise, accommodation, tolerance and "keeping the peace" is our role in the modern world.  This, of course, is false.  Our role, our mission, is to assist Christ in saving souls; Jesus did not enter the world to make people feel nice, but to save them from the fires of Hell, which is a real and everlasting state of eternal separation from God."

When Jesus came to earth curing the sick and healing the lame and sinners, people ran to seek him out but soon there came a time when he began to set things right and promote truth and offered the Eucharist and as it got what seemed difficult to accept He was abandoned, and finally put to death and so it is with the Church today.  What she speaks is difficult to hear, but it is TRUTH.  It goes against the modern world's thinking and many in the Church say they are Catholic but walk and talk a different "truth".  So I believe, as many, that it is time to clean out what is not of God so that a new evangelization may come upon the Church, the world, and the people and we will be a smaller Church but a church filled with true believers.

I believe this is the role of Francis.  Now i can understand his look on the balcony. How long will this take? I don't know, but look around for the signs.  They are there if you want to see. 

God bless Pope Francis