Please, during the day today, say prayers for His Holiness Benedict XVI, who turns 87 today.
Thank you, Your Holiness, for all that you did for us and Christ’s Church.
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Dear Holy Father Emeritus:
Each one of your birthdays had been a good one for the Catholic Church. I have read many of your books and your written teachings will stay with the Church forever.
Vielen Dank für Summorum Pontificum. We will work hard to bring reverence back into the liturgy. I think your strategy is working and the Novus Ordo is improving.
Please keep praying for the Church in those beautiful Vatican Gardens. Your just being there is a guarantee of good functioning of the Church. Centanni!
Amen
What a great man. It breaks my heart that he isn’t as beloved by Catholics as he should be. He will likely be a Doctor of the Church one day!
Really, really miss him!
Thank you and happy birthday, beloved Benedict!
@rosaryarmy,
I know! But every time I see the hateful things said about him online, I comfort myself by thinking of what Jesus promised; “Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.” That’s even better than being named a Doctor of the Church! I have even been known to thank people for their nasty words against him and even say, “More please!” , then post that promise. It usually shuts them up.
Thank you, God, for this wonderful gift to Your Church. God bless him, and keep him and give him peace to the end of his days. Please, my Jesus, You, Yourself, defend him from the snares of Satan, as You did Saint Peter. And when his time comes, may his reward be great indeed.
Easily the greatest Pope in my lifetime. God protect him.
Legisperitus ….and in mine Also….Pius XII is the First Pope I can remember!
Pope Benedict is so persecuted because he did what was right and was very quiet about it….
I believe like S.P.P.II, he to will be raised to the alters of Sainthood.
Bouno Camploanno Santita, we Love you very very much and miss you beyond words!
Receive his prayers, fulfill his hopes,
And grant him “length of days.”
Receive his prayers, fulfill his hopes,
And grant him “length of days.”
Such a gentle shepherd! It hurts to see his reputation slandered in the press, but I am sure he lives in peace in the shadow of St. Peter’s, praying for the whole Church.
God bless him!!
rosaryarmy, imho you’ve made several interesting comments lately….wondering whence spring these good insights!
Very much miss him. Prayers for him and for Pope Francis, too.
Surely our beloved Pope Benedict is still doing great things for the Church; although hidden, he is all the more fruitful. Those who think they can praise Pope Francis by insulting Pope Benedict are only revealing their own superficiality. Ad multos annos!
Happy Birthday to him! I miss him but glad he is still with us so we might have more of his work!
His birthday cake.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=741241162587142&set=a.376591982385397.91769.375882539123008&type=1&theater
Yes, that is George Bush in the background at the Pope’s birthday party.
Tcreek, when was that picture taken?
The photo was posted on Mons. Guido Marini Facebook page 2 hours ago but now I think it was probably a past birthday photo. All the comments are in Italian.
” for all that you did for us and Christ’s Church” – and for all that he is still doing by just being there, his gentle presence calling vividly to mind his words and actions as the very great Pope that he undoubtedly was, and reminding us soberly (as Christ reminded Martha) that “one thing only is necessary”.
A great Pope. Near and dear to my heart.
Happy Birthday Papa Beni
Since I don’t think the Pope Emeritus is currently in the American Embassy or in DC, I’m pretty sure it must be an old photo. :)
I join others when I say I miss him as Pope. I often wonder how things might look had he been elected a decade earlier.
He may be quiet. So are the Carthusians, but I don’t doubt that they sustain much.
Grandpapa Benedetto, I do love you. God bless you and keep you, now and forever. Ad multos annos!
@MaryMargaret…what you said! Though, I wouldn’t call him “Grandpapa”. He is His Holiness. He shares a birthday of two of my favorite saints.
Oh, well, he is the Papa emeritus, no? So I call him Grandpapa..Francis is Papa..and, so..Benedict XVI is Grandpapa? I certainly don’t call him that from any disrespect.
He was a humble, patient, and respectful pope – a man of true class, self dignity, and honor.
May Benedict XVI have a long and happy retirement, and may his piety and wisdom continue to influence the Church. When he became Pope, and especially when he visited Great Britain, I couldn’t believe that he had ever been described as “God’s Rottweiler”: I thought he was more like “God’s Golden Labrador” – delightfully good-natured and a bringer of joy.
Robbie: I often wonder how things might look had he been elected a decade earlier. I too wonder that Robbie, he sure seemed robust for a 78 yrs old Pontiff.
One has to remember that glorious day 19/4/2005, when he stepped out on that balcony and gave his first talk …”after the great John Paul II, the Lord Cardinals elected me a humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.”
As a Catholic we know we should never put anyone above Christ, and we don’t but there was something SPECIAL about this Pontiff…..after all the news coverage on J.PII pontificate….it was nice to see a quiet pope.
I detest when the media “rails” him and even inside the Church he gets no credit…..BUT GOD KNOWS and that is all that matters.
As much as one tries that ache just doesn’t go away….Pope Francis is doing a wonderful job in full filling the Petrine Ministry…..but for some of us it just isn’t there…..NO CONDEMNATION of Pope Francis, we realize they are two different men…..One would have hoped the reform of the reform would have gotten farther under Benedict, but God knows what he is doing.
Pope Benedict you will always be our Pope……and LOVED beyond words.
Viva Santita!
aviva meriam: That photo was taken on his birthday in 2008 at the White House and the arrival/welcoming ceremony had just ended.
Ad multos annos!
Here are some more photos.