God bless our Pope!

Sorry to be offline over the weekend. The backlog of comments is posted now - apologies for the delay. Saturday was a good day: Missa Cantata in the morning in honour of St Romuald. It was something of a challenge to work Pope Benedict's message for World Communications Day into a sermon about the 10th century founder of the Camaldolese but, as Basil Fawlty would say "I think I got away with it."

As you can see from the photo of some of the gathering, there were plenty of children and young people there. during an excellent lunch provided by Trisha and the Lunch Club team, we toasted the Holy Father and they learned how to shout "Viva il Papa!" As you can see, the Ferraiuola has now arrived from Barbiconi's so it got worn for the occasion.

We concluded the afternoon with Solemn first Vespers of Septuagesima followed by Benediction. To finish with, we had the prayer for the Holy Father and the hymn "God bless our Pope!" We sang all five verses, including the often omitted fifth verse:
For like the sparks of unseen fire
That spark along the magic wire,
From home to home, from heart to heart,
These words of countless children dart:

God bless our Pope!
God bless our Pope!
God bless our Pope!
The great, the good!
We decided that the "magic wire" was now not the telegraph of Blessed Pio Nono's time, but the internet whose use in the service of the gospel Pope Benedict encouraged in his message.

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