Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury gave a sermon yesterday at a Mass in Thanksgiving for the Pontificate of Benedict XVI.
In the sermon he asked, about Pope Benedict’s time:
Tonight we might each examine our consciences and ask: did we live up to the gift of such leadership in our time?
You can listen to the whole sermon HERE.
Another excerpt, to put us wonks and pundits into perspective:
During my visits to primary schools children often ask me as their bishop such questions: how old are you? which football team do you support? what is your favourite food? Perhaps with a little more adult sophistication we might have the same curiosity about our next Pope. In the days ahead we will hear many apparent experts urging the merits of one candidate or another. I ask you to avoid taking any part in this: the days before us surely demand of Catholics not punditry, but prayer! This night, when the Chair of St. Peter stands empty, invites us to renew our loyalty to the Pope whoever he will be. The continent he comes from, his race, his temperament, his age and even his football allegiance matters little. All that matters is that our new Pope will be faithful to the task entrusted to him and that he truly be a Holy Father for us. This is what continues unchanged as one Pope goes and another Pope comes to take the place of Peter in the life of the Church.
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Well said, Your Excellency. There are only 115 people who really need to worry about this. Prayer is the job for the rest of us.
Bishop Davies for Pope! Well, that may be premature, but I thought this was a wonderful homily and possibly the best one I’ve heard on the subject, since my local clergy has not even deigned to mention it. On the other hand, they removed the papal coat of arms even before BXVI was gone (we’re a basilica so we have the privilege of displaying it).
There’s nothing any of us laity or non-cardinal-level clergy can do now but pray and know that Our Lord will support us even on the storm tossed sea.
I do wax sentimental whenever I hear of Shrewsbury ,having read so many of the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. They were filled with so much good Catholic “stuff”, like Latin and Church history and benedictin thought . If I ever make it to England, Shrewsbury is the first place I will go. One of the Cadfael movies had the most beautiful Sanctus ad benedictus’s You will ever hear .It can’t be found on the web but it is in the soundtrack.I wonder if Bp. Davies has ever had it in his masses?
I’ve listened to this sermon several times the past few days. I read the text of the homily and there are some differences from what was said, the most interesting one for me being when Bishop Davies added:
I ask myself, “have *I* lived up to that example?”